This chapter has been edited

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Cherry Blossom's Eyes

Ch.2

About one year later.

Sakura was skipping down the road as happy as she could possibly be. For today was her birthday! That's right Sakura Haruno is turning 7 today and is on her way to meet Itachi at the park.

'Hurray today is my birthday!' Sakura thought to herself 'I wonder if Itachi-kun knows it's my birthday? Well I'll just have to tell him the good news!' She thought to herself practically shaking with excitement. As she rounded the corner she saw the playground in the park but then saw Ami and her gang there also, with no one to protect her. She thought about just going back around the corner and wait for Itachi to show up before going up there. But luck wasn't on her side as Ami had seen Sakura.

Lately she had been avoiding the pink haired girl because last time she had 'picked', more like pulverized, on Sakura Itachi had told her parents and got her in trouble with her mom. Ami was jealous that one of the best shinobi in the village was protecting Sakura and wanted to get revenge on Sakura for getting her in trouble.

"Hey! Ugly girl with the huge forehead and stupid pink hair" Sakura heard Ami call out to her. She turned and faced Ami, her big doe like eyes staring up at her with dread. "You're going to pay for what you did to me!" Now she was confused. What did she ever do to her? All she ever did was get punched by her and that never caused her any harm.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked innocently. Having absolutely no clue of what she might be referring to.

Ami scoffed at her stupidity, or at least that's what she guessed, and continued "Your going to pay for all the trouble you got me in when we gave you your little punishment" She finished smiling evilly at the memory.

Sakura's jaw dropped at what she was saying, that she had to get revenge. Needless to say it made Sakura mad. "Listen here Ami." She began catching the gang's attention "I don't know what sort of weirdness is going on in your little brain," Ami glared at her "But that is a reallybad reason for wanting to get revenge on someone when you were the one doing wrong!" She stared at her like she was some sort of foreign animal; she had obviously never seen Sakura get mad. "I mean what did I do! I got beaten up for looking 'weird'! As if I can help looking 'weird'! It's who I am! And I don't mind being that way because it's what separates me from you pack of Meany heads!" Sakura was breathing deeply by now, all of her anger had been let out and left her exhausted.

The gang all just stood there dumbstruck, they weren't used to this kind of Sakura. They were used to the pathetic crying Sakura who never stood a chance at beating them at anything. But here she was beating them with her words, never laying a finger on them. To her it felt great!

But emotions come in waves. First it was dread, then anger, then happiness, and now, unfortunately, guilt. Yes Sakura felt guilty for yelling at them, no matter how much they deserved it. She was too nice for her own good and she knew it. Sakura bowed her head "Gomen. I didn't mean to yell." Then she raised her head to look back at them.

After the shock of Sakura's rant wore off they all left in a big group whispering about Sakura's outburst. She watched them go then she approached the playground to wait for Itachi. She didn't have to wait long; soon she heard clapping from behind her. Spinning around quickly she saw Itachi leaning against part of the swing set. Sakura smiled brightly at Itachi and waved. "Hi, Itachi-kun!"

"Hello Sakura." Itachi replied emotionlessly, but Sakura could tell that he was just as happy to see her, as she was to see him. "That was a very nice display you put on the people of the park." He said coolly smirking down at Sakura who was blushing.

"You saw that?" Sakura asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes I did. That was very brave of you Sakura," he praised. Immediately she beamed at receiving a complement from Itachi.

"Thank you Itachi-kun!" Then Sakura sat on the swing and Itachi came up behind her to push her. She yelled at Itachi to push her higher, and higher she went. She went up so high that she swore that she saw all of Konoha, of course she didn't but kids can dream, right? Then Sakura remembered something very important that she wanted to tell Itachi.

"Hey Itachi-kun! Guess what?" Sakura said smiling even bigger than she had been.

Itachi decided to humor her and say "what" being the great friend that he is.

"Today is my Birthday!!" Sakura almost screamed since she was so happy, but she restrained herself.

Sakura had been talking about it all week.

'Good thing I got her a present.' Itachi thought remembering Sakura's gift sitting on the top of his dresser. He snapped out of his thoughts when she started saying his name.

"Itachi-kun? Itachi-kun? Did you hear what I said?" She asked with her bright emerald eyes shimmering in the sunlight.

Itachi realized he had stopped pushing Sakura and that she was sitting in the swing looking at him expecting him to answer. "No" He replied simply, typical. Sakura sighed and repeated her question.

"My mom and dad are taking me to Ichiraku for lunch along with my brothers. Do you want to come?" Sakura said looking at him, eagerness showing in her eyes. Itachi thought about it and came to the realization that he was slightly hungry.

"Hn" he replied and her eyes lit up understanding that his one syllable word meant 'yes', this time.

"Yay!" Sakura cheered "then we should go, my parents are expecting me soon." She got off the swing and she and Itachi walked to Ichiraku. On the way to the Ramen restaurant Sakura was constantly talking about one thing or another. Surprisingly Itachi didn't mind after a year of knowing Sakura he got used to her constant babbling, he actually learned to enjoy it.

Once they arrived a round of hugs came from Sakura's mother and father, and a ruffle of her hair from her older brother. Sakura's parents nodded their head as a greeting to Itachi, and then they all entered the ramen stand. All of them sat down on a stool and ordered their various flavors of Ramen. Itachi ordered beef along with Sakura and her brother, Sakura's parents both ordered pork. While the ramen was being made Sakura opened her presents. Her parents gave her a diary, which was black with light blue cherry blossoms on it that looked like they were flowing across the book on the wind, along with the word diary on the front. Her brother gave her a stuffed bear, which Sakura didn't let go of for the rest of the meal. She also got some small things like candy; it was apparently a small gift from her little brother. It wasn't much but it made Sakura glow with happiness.

'I guess I'll just give her my gift later, then' Itachi thought as their Ramen arrived. After they ate it was dark outside and Sakura's parents reluctantly took her presents home after Itachi persuaded them to let Sakura go to the park with him just for a little while longer and promised that he would bring her home safely.

Sakura ran to the park as fast as she could, determined to beat Itachi there. Sakura had wanted to race him; they had been racing everywhere now a day because Sakura wanted to beat him at something. So she figured that eventually she would beat him at running. Unfortunately for Sakura as she rounded the corner she saw Itachi leaning against a pole on the playground. Disappointed Sakura ran till she was a few feet away from Itachi then stopped with her hands on her knees, breathing deeply. Sakura plopped on the ground in a sloppy cross-legged position on the woodchips of the playground in attempt to catch her breath.

"You...beat me…again…Itachi-kun…" Sakura said in between breaths then she looked up at him "Your not…Even…Tired!?" She said in dismay while Itachi just smirked down at her.

"No I'm not tired." Itachi said confirming what Sakura just said while Sakura just looked up at him with a disbelieving look on her face, but said nothing more about it.

"So Itachi-kun, why did you want me to go to the park with you?" Sakura asked since her breath was back.

"I just thought that you would like your gift," he said as he watched Sakura stand up and brush her self off. Sakura's eyes lit up in wonderment as she practically bounced with excitement. Itachi pulled his hand out of his pocked and in his hand dangled a necklace. It was made out of red gems, not rubies in case she were to lose it, and was in the shape of a cherry blossom. In the center of the flower there was a small shiny white gem, not a diamond, and it hung on a regular silver chain.

"Th-this is for me?" Sakura asked thoroughly amazed, even if it didn't have the expensive gems on it. Of course since she was 7 she didn't know the difference and probably wouldn't even care if they were expensive. The necklace now had sentimental value, and that's all she needed.

Itachi walked behind her and clipped the necklace around her neck. It was a little long around Sakura's small neck but that way she could wear it when she was older too.

Sakura took the small cherry blossom into her hands to look at it better with a big silly grin on her face. Itachi just watched her as she moved the charm around in her small hands, watching the way the moonlight bounced off of it and made it sparkle. Itachi was surprised when he suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist squeezing him as hard as they could, which wasn't very hard to Itachi but he didn't say anything.

Itachi gently put his hand on top of her head gazing at the long pink strands of hair as he heard a muffled sound come from the 7-year-old hugging him.

"Hm?" Itachi asked. Sakura moved her head to the side so that he could see part of her face.

"I said thank you so much Itachi-kun. This was my best birthday ever!" Sakura said with a biggest smile on her face that Itachi had ever seen before.

"I'm glad Sakura, I'm glad"

About a week later

It was late at night and Sakura was asleep in her warm bed with her necklace that she got from Itachi clipped securely around her neck. She never took it off, she had worn it everyday for every hour since Itachi gave it to her. Tonight was no exception even as she was shaken awake by a most unexpected person. Sakura's eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the darkness of the room that was only slightly light from the moonlight. She sat up still loosely clutching her Teddy bear that her older brother had given her while rubbing her eyes so she could focus on the person in front of her.

"Itachi-kun? what are you doing in my room at night?" Sakura asked Itachi groggily who was sitting on her bed in front of her, looking away. Itachi looked at Sakura who looked slightly surprised. "Why do you have your char-in-gan on?" Itachi smirked slightly at Sakura's pronunciation of 'sharingan' but answered her anyway.

"Because I had to use it." Sakura frowned at his answer, slightly confused.

"Why? For a mission?"

"Kind of...Sakura I need to tell you something."

"...ok, what is it Itachi-kun?"

"I killed my clan." Sakura sat rooted to her spot on the bed. To say that Sakura was surprised would be an understatement. She was completely and utterly stunned. So many questions filled her head at one time that she thought that it would burst! But after all the thoughts were sorted and as her brain began to relax she could still only utter one word.

"Why?" Sakura asked as tears filled her large doe like eyes as she looked up at her best friend.

"Thats what I came here to tell you. But I have to be quick because soon ANBU will be after me." Sakura nodded, which caused some tears to run down her cheeks. Itachi wipped them off with his thumb then began.

About half an hour later Itachi finished and if Sakura thought she was surprised when Itachi told her that he had killed his clan, then she was proven wrong because now she was so surprised that she couldn't even move or even cry. All this time Sakura had thought that the village that she lived in was perfect and nice. Well that theory was proven wrong just by Itachi's story. How could they do that to him! Sakura was so mad that after she unfroze from shock she began to cry. She cried so hard that she began to sob. Itachi pulled her into his lap and put her face into his chest to try and muffle the sound, while at the same time comforting her. Eventually she stopped crying, and luckly without her parents hearing her.

Now Sakura was exausted. It had been too early for her to have woken up when Itachi got there and now with the emotional stress of haveing her best friend thought of as a murderer her little 7 year old body couldn't handle it. So Sakura slowly began drifting into lala land, and the depths of sleep. But before she was officially asleep she heard Itachi, her best and only friend, whisper

"Don't forget what I told you, because you are the only one besides me who knows the truth." Then Sakura was out. She wouldn't see him, as her best friend, for many more years to come.

ok! Chapter dos is complete!

hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did, or didn't doesn't really matter, PLEASE REVIEW!!!!

thanks!

-DeceptionGirl