AN: O HAI, I UPDATED, Y/Y?? '3' Sorry for the overall shorness w/e. Don't really care, actually. Not even sure which chapter this is(two, right? DB;;)
LOLOLOLLLLLLLL I FAIL UTTERLY AT ANYTHING REMOTELY ACTION-Y.
Itachi wandered through the halls of his and Kisame's latest hideout, examining it. It was, to be honest, fairly impressive, as secret hideouts went. Gold-leafed fireplace in the main room, silver trim on the doorframes, mahogany bookshelves, leather-bound books, marble sinks and tiles in the bathrooms and kitchen, silken bed sheets, Persian rugs, and, interestingly, three floors. No basement. Perfect for carrying out all kinds of tests.
This pink-haired girl's first test had begun the moment Kisame reported back to him on her reactions. The first part of this test would be to figure out boundaries—where she could go, what she could touch, bedtime, wake-up time, all of those sorts of things.
If she would simply get up the gall to do the obvious...then the test would be passed, and a new one would take its place.
He had visited her twice now, and all he had learned was her name.
Haruno...Sakura.
-.-.-
Sakura hadn't really left her room, except for scheduled bathroom breaks and bath times, and once for a meal with the blue man and Itachi. And the blue man was fairly polite, although with a bloodthirsty streak. He kept mentioning that Itachi might let him kill her, and that was frightening.
And, while, in most cases, the sensible thing to do would be to ask about her boundaries and rules and where she was, there was the whole matter of stopping that stammering and blushing every time Itachi came by her room, asking her the oddest questions, expecting the oddest answers, and always asking if she had any questions.
She always said no.
It wasn't that she wanted to come off as stupid or dumb or any of those awful things, but that she was afraid she would ask the wrong questions and get punished as an answer. She had experimented with this concept of 'punishment' and concluded two things:
One; trying to remove the chakra suppressors would result in either a nasty electrical shock, or Itachi gliding serenely into the room and staring at her intently as she went about her usual business of sitting around and doing nothing, occasionally practicing taijutsu on a part of the wall or a bookshelf. She honestly preferred the electrical shock.
Two; trying to escape through the fireplace would result in, indefinitely, the chance to have a go at Itachi...and being thrown against the wall, along with nearly being choked to death by his manicured hand holding her there. Luckily, she had only done this once. And that was because Itachi warned that if she tried it again, she would be killed.
How the shark-man phrased it: "If you try it again, girl, to hell with the Kyuubi business, you're going to die. "
-.-
Itachi sighed as his fingers threaded along the spines of several old, dry books that lined a wall-length bookshelf. A slim pair of reading glasses dangled loosely from his other hand. He enjoyed reading, but it was making his eyesight worse. Soon he would need to get stronger glasses. Possibly prescription lenses.
It didn't help that Sharingan as well seemed to deteriorate his eyesight. Even deactivating them on the occasion that he wasn't in anything resembling combat wasn't aiding anymore.
He skimmed over a few titles before one caught his interest. The spine appeared to be newer than the books surrounding it, and looked to have been made within the last half-century or so. Itachi pulled it from its place, sat down in a chair, put on the glasses, and began to read.
-.-
Another meal.
Another meal.
And, still, another meal.
That was how Sakura had begun to keep track of the time. She figured she had been here, wherever that was, perhaps two weeks. Because fourteen multiplied by three was...forty-two. That was excluding the time before she begun to count the days.
She wondered what Naruto and Sasuke were doing...
The door silently swung open, and Itachi glided(that was really the only way she could describe his walk) in, serene as ever. That is, until his face was within viewing pleasure. There was the slightest narrowing of eyes, the slightest furrow of his brow.
'Oh, he's pissed, alright,' Inner Sakura muttered.
Pissed didn't even seem to describe the sudden emotion twisting his face, as Sakura was literally slammed into the nearest wall. Her vision erupted into stars and was edged with black. A sharp pain erupted along her spine, and exploded in her head. There was the taste of blood in her mouth.
"...You have failed the test," he said, the barely contained rage obvious. "Why did you fail the test?"
"I..." Sakura couldn't breathe. Itachi's hand was clamped around her neck. "I..."
Itachi's grip changed. Suddenly, Sakura's lungs were filled with air.
"I...Ididn'tknowhowtoaskwhatitwasyouwantedfrommesoIkindasortamaybetriedtostallfortimetoworkitout?!" All in one breath, too. Inner Sakura briefly applauded her for this feat.
--
When Sakura came to, she was neatly tucked in bed. Her clothes felt different (Inner Sakura: Holy shit, he wouldn't DARE to take advantage of me!!), her head throbbed, and her back would coalesce into needlepoints at every move. There was a short note near her.
"I will give you another test. This will be less about your intellect and more an assessment of your abilities. When you are healed, Sakura-san, the test shall begin."