S T A N D A R D D I S C L A I M E R A P P L I E D !

chapter 1; an out of the blue confession

8 years ago…

Haruno Sakura sighed for the umpteenth time. A dreamy look was present on her face while her head was comfortably supported by her palms. Across from where she sat both of her childhood friends were giving her strange looks but she ignored them. The object of her desire, affection and attention was just two tables away from them and she would very well grab the opportunity to memorize every single detail of his sinfully handsome face.

Seriously, how could a man possess such a beautiful face? It was appalling and astonishing at the same time.

His long raven hair which was in its usual low ponytail looked so soft that she was having this urge to just go to where he was and entangle her fingers in it. His perfectly shaped pointed nose, his prominent cheekbones, his remarkably strong looking jaws, his reddish sensual lips, his long lashes—she paused for a moment to touch her own lashes, yep, definitely longer than hers—and those alluring onyx eyes… Everything about his face was just so—

"Sakura, stop staring at my brother."

The awfully blunt comment came from the person directly in front of her and apparently woke her up from her careful observation. They were seated in one of the stone tables scattered around the courtyard. The only place where Konoha Academy and Konoha University intersect as well as the only place where students from both levels could freely interact. With her eyebrows knitted together, she forcibly turned to look at the rude person who could very well rival the object of her affection in the looks department. But I think the older brother is still much more handsome.

"What?" Oops, must've said that out loud.

"Sasuke-kun, you don't have to be jealous just because Itachi's fan club has more members than yours do." The aforementioned just rolled his eyes.

"You are embarrassing us. Wipe that drool off of your face."

She exaggeratedly gasped while her right hand touched the sides of her mouth. She was so not drooling! Sasuke was just toying with her. The handsome blonde beside him was trying to contain his laughter but was failing miserably. She frowned and glared at them both.

"Sakura-chan! You're just so easy to trick!" The blonde guffawed some more and finished off snickering to himself.

She controlled the urge to stand up and hit them hard on the back of their heads. After all, Itachi was just a few tables away and her sweet girl image should remain intact. She took a deep breath and smiled at her idiotic friends.

"Naruto, Sasuke-kun, you still remember what happened during Ino's party right?" The blonde and the raven haired Alpha males suddenly became quiet and uneasy. "Apparently, Ino has a copy of that 'kiss' incident and I know exactly where she kept it. So…" she trailed off. That shut them up.

"Mou, Sakura-chan, that's not fair! It was an accident and well, shit. And what the hell did you see in that Uchiha, anyway? He's an Uchiha! Uchiha's are known to be rude jerks!" Naruto flailed.

She just shrugged while Sasuke hit Naruto for it while commenting something along the lines of 'stop insulting my family, dobe'. She didn't quite catch it for her mind was going over the qualities that made Uchiha Itachi very desirable in her eyes. She knew that no one was taking her seriously. They're all convinced that it was just another one of her phase, a silly crush, and that it will eventually disappear one of these days. But they're all wrong because to her, it wasn't just a crush or a phase; it was something different. She couldn't understand it and they wouldn't be able to understand either but to her, he was someone special.

She knew almost everything about him—from his favorite everything to his hobbies to minor details like his idiosyncrasies. Uchiha Mikoto, the Uchiha matriarch, loved narrating all the stories about her only boys from when they were younger. The first time she met her was when she was still in middle school. Her father, Haruno Seiichi, brought her along with him due to certain circumstances. She was wandering the halls of the Uchiha's estate until she came upon Mikoto and ever since the first meeting, she kept on coming back to hear more stories from her. She's been admiring him from a distance ever since she was a little girl. She could only smile fondly at those memories.

The Haruno's, the Uchiha's, and the Namikaze's are some of the most prominent names in the business, political, and entertainment world. Their fathers were colleagues and very good friends during their college years. Due to their very close ties, they became very good business partners as well and would often tie up in different business ventures.

She met Sasuke and Naruto often during gatherings when business collaborations have been very successful. At first she was wary of Sasuke since he was such a spoiled brat with a prince complex when he was a kid but Naruto was an adorable blob of sunshine and everything else was a blur after that and they've become inseparable through the years.

"He's every girl's dream guy," she stated then continued, "aside from you two of course. But he is my dream guy. He's like, the perfect prince."

"You are delusional, Sakura. My brother is only focused on himself and the company."

"Prince? Pft! Sakura-chan, he may pass being the dark prince of the underworld!"

"Mmhmm."

"Are you even listening? I said he won't even take a look at you twice."

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! You're just wasting your time."

"Mmhmm. Ne, Itachi and his friends, how could a group be so perfect and beautiful. It's like the ones you read in romance stories or the ones behind the movie screen."

"Take this seriously, Sakura. I've known my brother all my life. I'm just giving you a warning. He's not the guy who you think he is."

"And when that time comes that you've come to realize this, we'll definitely tell you 'we told you so'."

She scowled at them. They were being so negative and unsupportive! And with a roll of her eyes, she once again glanced at the direction of Uchiha Itachi and he looked at her straight in the eyes! For five seconds! She gasped. She felt her breathing stop for a moment while her heartbeat became erratic. Right there and then, she knew that she would become Mrs. Uchiha Itachi. She suddenly made a loud noise with her hands and with a wide smile, she declared to her bewildered friends,

"I have decided. I'm going to marry your brother, Sasuke-kun!"

Uchiha Itachi is the perfect heir. At the tender age of 5, he was already accustomed to the fact that he will succeed his father as the CEO of Uchiha Industries and has already began his training to be the rightful successor when he comes of age. His priority is the company. His actions must always be to the satisfaction of the clan elders and his father. Failure is not and will never be an option.

He was seated comfortably on the stone table his friends were currently occupying. He noticed Deidara and Hidan began arguing about something irrelevant. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered being friends with them in the first place. Each of them had their eccentricity and at first, he disliked their presence, deemed them uncouth and ill-mannered, and he believed it was mutual hatred for each of them. But a certain incident happened that forced them to work with each other and then they just stuck, for the lack of a better term, after that and thus becoming the next members of the infamous Akatsuki that serves as the student council for the whole school. But the past doesn't matter anymore, Itachi deemed to himself.

He sighed. Deidara and Hidan's argument have become utterly childish and pointless. And with the both of them speaking loudly plus the latter's excessive use of profane words they are getting quite a number of audience and unwanted stares. Zetsu and Kakuzu could hardly care and focused on their own business. Kisame was watching with mild amusement. Sasori was with Yahiko working on some business regarding the students of the College of Medicine's request for a lower tuition fee next school year as instructed by the president, Uzumaki Nagato.

He glanced to the direction of his little brother and his friends. He felt someone staring at him for quite a while and it's becoming bothersome. He looked directly into the Haruno heiress' sparkling emerald orbs.

"Itachi?" He looked away and focused on the woman speaking to him. It was Miyamoto Konan. Behind her the rest of the Akatsuki were walking ahead.

"Hn."

"Nagato's calling us already. The meeting is about to begin."

And without another word he stood up and headed towards the student council room.

It was a Friday and it was already 4 in the afternoon. High school classes would only be until 2:30 pm but Sakura had to visit the dean of Konoha University's College of Medicine to hand in her admission papers. It was already too late actually but since she got a recommendation from Senju Tsunade herself, they allowed her late entry. She was scheduled to take the entrance examination by the end of the month.

It was unheard of to take an entrance exam for Konoha University since she's attending Konoha Academy and the latter was one of those rare escalator schools in Japan but Konoha University's College of Medicine prided itself for its outstanding medical staff especially the professors who are some of the most notable doctors in the world not to mention its first class facilities provided by the Senju clan who are known to be the best in the field of medicine.

She was walking aimlessly whilst deep in thought. She didn't plan to be a doctor someday. It never even crossed her mind until she had that conversation with Tsunade during the annual Charity Ball held last month hosted by the Yamanaka zaibatsu. She realized a lot of things that night. Maybe it was her calling, and maybe she would be the one to discover the cure for a certain illness that took her mother's life. She smiled solemnly while she remembered her mother. After a whole lot of thinking she decided that she'd give it a try.

A small drop of water fell on her arm followed by another which woke her up from her reverie. It started to rain and she was getting soaked when she realized that she didn't know where exactly in the university she was. She was in the middle of what seemed to be an abandoned road in between two old buildings with nowhere to seek shelter from. She looked ahead and spotted a tree which didn't look like it will actually keep her dry but she gambled on her luck. She ran towards it. At this point it seemed hopeless for she was already dripping wet. When she turned to her right, she saw an abandoned waiting shed and headed towards it.

She was cursing her damned luck in her mind while gathering her wet pink hair to one side. She was cold and hungry and not to mention, lost. She was just about to scream her frustrations away when she noticed that she wasn't alone. She turned to look at the stranger and her eyes widened with disbelief and shock. She felt her heart beat increase and she couldn't help the force that was tugging at the corners of her mouth. The stranger was Uchiha Itachi and he was looking at her. Hah! Stupid, Sasuke-kun. Your brother just looked at me twice now!

"Hi!" Sakura cheerfully greeted him, her frustrations already long forgotten. He nodded to her direction but said nothing else.

"How are you, Uchiha-san?" She was still smiling widely while the Uchiha remained nonchalant.

"I am fine. And you, Haruno-san?" He replied curtly.

"Sakura. Call me Sakura." Was her reply, to which he responded with a blank stare. She only smiled at him and said nothing else.

The rain relentlessly went on and it was starting to get dark and for a while now he was just silently observing her while she hummed an unknown tune. He often saw her together with his little brother and Naruto during parties or gatherings. Her pink hair and green eyes were hard to miss after all. Now that she was just a few meters away he noticed that her hair actually reached her waist and that her eyes were the brightest shade of emerald up close. He could see her pale pink lips tremble slightly from the cold. And she was… petite. She looked like an overgrown fairy to him.

It may possibly be due to her impetuous nature or just her sheer stupidity when she suddenly stepped forward towards him—too close for comfort—and just blurted out, "I like you, Uchiha Itachi," to his face. Very handsome and flawless face. But Sakura was adamant to herself that it was because of the rain and the cold and that maybe her brain just started malfunctioning because she was cold and hungry. She could just imagine Sasuke and Naruto's face while berating her for her actions. But then again, she did caught him off guard, shocked him even and she just found his expression so funny that she began giggling softly which turned into full blown laughter. When it died down, the elder Uchiha had an unreadable expression again.

"I'm serious about what I just said."

"Whatever it is that you are feeling towards me, Haruno-san, is best be forgotten. I have no plans of reciprocating those feelings."

Well, ouch! Way to be turned down. No subtlety at all. She ran a few meters away from him, far enough that she was now under the pouring rain but close enough for him to still see and hear. So with a false bravado, she turned around to face him with a smile on her face.

"Call me Sakura! And I don't care! I still like you anyway!" she shouted at him and then continued running to where she came from earlier leaving a yet again stunned Uchiha in her wake.

Itachi was quite confused with the Haruno heiress' behavior. He had never met someone that could throw him off guard and then shock him the next in just a span of 5 minutes. But he had to admit that she was highly amusing.

A sweet scent lingered for a while, a mixture of wild berries, vanilla and sandalwood and he couldn't help the smirk forming on his face.

TBC.

Long rant. Skip ahead if you don't want to bother. I'm sorry you guys had to wait for such a short chapter and utterly long rant.

This chapter is a mess! Totally boring and bland and just blegh. I'm so awkward with introductions and stuff and I don't know how to write them properly! I had to rewrite it a couple of times, wait no, actually, I had to stare at it for quite a while hence the very very late update. It took me months to figure out what I wanted to write and how I wanted to write it! And I'm still disappointed with how it turned out to be but I didn't want you guys to wait for a few more months and I'm getting impatient with myself. And I wrote everything here with a purpose in mind so if anyone got annoyed that I'm being cliche with all the perfect-ness of each character, then I'm sorry. But really, everything will be revealed in later chapters. Plus, I just couldn't figure out how to write each character properly. I couldn't quite describe in words how I visualize their personalities in this story.

The Haruno Sakura I want to be in this story is quite playful and cheeky and fun loving. Much like a free spirit. Acts like a fan girl most of the time. Seriously childish and tends to be reckless. And she doesn't take things seriously hence the people around her often thinks that she's just undergoing a phase. She's naïve and clueless but she's headstrong. And she's quite forceful and stubborn. But she's a very intelligent girl who can still be dependable when the need calls for so her behavior is probably just her way of protecting herself from being hurt.

The Uchiha Sasuke I often visualize when it's nonmass is someone with a prince-complex. Totally narcissistic and rude and proud. But since he's still an Uchiha, he creates this exterior or outer persona of being cool, calm and collected like his older brother but his real self would usually resurface when he is with close friends and family (brother and mother). He doesn't have a bad relationship with his father although it can't be described as a good one either, just okay. He is someone who values his freedom therefore he could really careless with the heir issue. But he does care for his friends and family deeply.

I don't have anything to say about Uzumaki Naruto, really. He's that sunny and fun loving guy whom everyone loves. You all know that already. Totally loyal. A true friend. The perfect person ever. Something like that. But then again, the Uzumaki Naruto I visualize is like Sasuke, he also created this outer persona of being an idiot but truth is, he's quite the intelligent little creature. And when it comes to the people he loves, he will move mountains for them.

And then there's Uchiha Itachi. He's that cool, calm and collected type of character who thinks that without him the world will collapse. No, he's not narcissistic. That's just Sasuke. He thinks that it's his duty to be the perfect heir when in fact, he's not being forced to do it. Although he did undergo training when he was still five but he made it a point to perfect everything therefore making the clan elders and his father think that he is this super Uchiha prodigy who will follow their every command. He dislikes it when his calculations go wrong or when something does not go according to plan. Yes, he is most likely well-mannered than Sasuke (I see nonmass Sasuke as someone like this, 'Fuck you all, I'm doing what I want whether you like it or not!') but he is also brutally frank (so, no, he is not such a bastard with how he handled Sakura's equally blunt confession, like how I just failed to write him properly, huhuhuhu). He usually goes straight to the point. I suddenly came up with a nice catch phrase for him: Uchiha Itachi, the handsome elusive and brutally frank bachelor. Hehehehe. PLUS, past Itachi is different from present Itachi! Because yeah.

And then I might confuse you with Akatsuki's appearance especially Konan's. So why the hell are they so formal with each other in the prologue? Something like that. Well, Itachi was raised like that (being around the clan elders and his father). And even when he's around his friends, he never loosens up aside from the people who know him well like Shisui, his mother and at times Sasuke. Plus the fact that it's been years since he actually saw Konan since it is an arranged marriage. Plus other facts that I will reveal later on.

Now that I think about it… I see them all hiding behind a façade. But hey, aren't we all?

So that's how I want them to be in this story… BUT I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE IT. So frustrating. Or maybe because it's just the first chapter and I'm terrible with first chapters. I tend to rewrite a hundred times. But just ugh. And then there's a missing element here regarding how Akatsuki was formed. Maybe if I get to have free time (which would probably be not soon) I'd write about it as a side story. But I'm not promising anything though I have quite an idea in mind but I'm still not quite happy with it. IDEAS KEEP POPPING UP. and it's seriously quite annoying at times because when I like it, then I'd have to accommodate it and so rewriting begins.

And lastly, well hello there. And uhm. Sorry (that this chapter is so annoying, yes, we can rant together because it's annoying me too. How this chapter looks so pointless to me or I can just excuse it as a kind of 'the calm before the storm' thing)? Hihi. But I can't really promise a fast update so… see you guys in a few months? *hides under a rock*

I promise that the next chapter will be something worth the read! I swear! Heart, heart !