A/N:

Situation: A chess game brings two children together, and later...two adults. ;) Stupidly fluffy and cute, and will hopefully make you awwwww.


Ding Dong.

Itachi looked up at his mother's confused expression. They weren't expecting anyone this morning.

"Keep working," his mother said with a pat on his head as she stood up and walked out of the kitchen towards the front entrance of their house.

She had been working with her son on his math homework, he was having some issues with his pre-calculus homework….which she wasn't surprised at – the boy was only 10 years old.

She looked out the peephole, only to find no one there, she opened the door and looked down to see little Sakura standing there, shifting her weight from side to side. The child was never any good at standing still.

"Good morning Miss. Uchiha!" The pink haired girl smiled, showing a missing tooth.

"Sakura, darling, come in," she quickly welcomed the girl in the adorable red dress.

Sakura used to live across the street from them up till two months ago when her father got transferred into the main branch of his firm in the city – which meant their family had to move. Still, Mikoto saw the little girl at least once every two weeks for a play date with Sasuke and Naruto; those three seemed almost inseparable sometimes.

"Mummy said I could play with Sasuke and Naruto today," Sakura as she bent over to undo the buckles of her shoes.

Sakura's mother hadn't called to schedule anything…but last she heard the woman was working two jobs just to make ends meat. Apparently their city apartment was double the amount they had paid for their house here, plus Sakura was still being sent to an elite private school. Mikoto assumed that Sakura's mother had forgotten to call ahead of time, again.

Last time wasn't a problem, but this time – Naruto and Sasuke were away.

"Oh, honey," Mikoto said squatting down, "Naruto, Sasuke, and Fugaku went on a school camping trip."

"Oh," the little girl's face fell slightly. She obviously hated being separated from her friends….Mikoto heard that she wasn't transitioning that well in her new school.

The female Uchiha brought her hand up to Sakura's head and ruffled her short pink locks a bit, "come on beautiful, you can play with me and Itachi today."

"Okay…" She obviously wasn't as excited about that, but still followed the older woman into the kitchen where she was greeted by Sasuke's mysterious older brother. Mysterious in the sense that she never spoke to him before.

"Hello, Sakura," he greeted her warmly as he shut his books.

"Hi."

"Why don't you two go upstairs and play a bit, I'll bake you guys some cookies. How does chocolate chip sound, Sakura?"

"Good," the girl said with a large smile. No child could resist Mikoto's baking.

"Alright, mother," Itachi nodded and grabbed his notebook and textbook, "come, Sakura," and led the pink haired girl upstairs. Inwardly, he really didn't want to entertain the guest – because of her visit, it meant he wouldn't be able to finish his homework till Sunday. He hated leaving homework off to the last day.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, somehow sensing his thoughts.

Itachi looked over his shoulder at the little girl who was marching behind him. "Its fine," he was careful to make sure his voice sounded sincere.

He opened the door of his simple and very neat room and waited for her to walk in. After she did he settled his books down on his desk and rubbed the back of his head gently – he wasn't sure what a five year old would like. Well…he could always get Sasuke's PlayStation from his room, but Itachi hated video games.

"Sakura, do you know how to play chess?"

"Chess? What's that?"

.

.

2 years later.

Sakura was dropped off again at the Uchiha's – the family's car's tires screeched as her father sped away – attempting to make it to work in under an hour.

The young girl went on her tippy toes to ring the doorbell.

Ding Dong

Mikoto greeted her at the door and after a hug led her to the kitchen. Sakura had called ahead of time to ask if she could come over, her mother had become unreliable at keeping track of things like that. Work wasn't getting any easier on her parents, city life was so stressful. Sakura hated it.

Unfortunately, Sasuke and Naruto were doing extra credit detention for some prank they had pulled, but Mikoto still insisted that Sakura come over and promised Itachi would keep her company.

Sakura agreed. Itachi was more fun than Saturday afternoon T.V., nothing good was ever on. And she still wasn't able to make friends at her elementary school.

"Hello, Itachi" she greeted the older Uchiha boy.

"Hello, Sakura," he smiled back, "want to play some chess?"

"Sure," she nodded. She had found a computer version of the game and played it when she was bored at home. It was a lot of fun – and she even won sometimes.

Against Itachi, though, she didn't stand a chance.

But Sakura was persistent; she demanded to play over and over again, and Itachi was patient; he let her play him over and over again.

.

.

Sakura's mother was making dinner one evening in one of her rare nights off. Sakura was happily sitting in the kitchen, smelling the fresh cooked soup being stirred. She had missed home cooked meals so much.

"Sakura, dear?"

The young girl looked up from her science textbook, she felt like she was drowning in homework and even if she had friends, she'd have to ditch them for the school assignments. How could they give so much work to a fourth grader was beyond her rationalization skills.

"Yea, mum?" She asked with a smile.

"You're birthday is coming up. You're dad just got the day off – is there anything you really want?"

"Hmmm," the pink haired girl brought the pencil eraser to her lips while she thought deeply on the question….so many things she could ask for, she really really really really wanted that bag she saw in the boutique, but it was so expensive….but it was her birthday….but her parents were working so hard just to make sure she could stay in one of the top rated schools…but it WAS her birthday…. "I want a chess strategy book," she replied instead.

"Oh?"

"Mmmm hmmm!" Sakura said enthusiastically to reassure her mother that it was what she really wanted.

.

.

"HAH!" A thirteen year old Sakura squealed as she jumped of the bed and did a silly dance as she pumped her fists in the air.

"You stole my queen…not my king," Itachi reminded her as a little smile escaped his lips. She was so ridiculous sometimes.

"Hey!" Sakura warned, wagging her finger at him, "do not ruin my thunder. It took me eight years to get to this point. Besides…you only have a pawn and knight left….I am kicking your ass."

"Hardly," Itachi replied, moving his knight, "your turn."

"Hehehe," Sakura smiled as she jumped back on the bed and looked over the board.

The Uchiha looked at her, his calm expression remained, she was one of the few people Itachi didn't mind being bothered with. Plus, he loved playing chess and she was always enthusiastic about the games. Especially right now…though he did feel bad, she didn't stand a chance this game, and he felt bad for drawing it out to its inevitable conclusion.

"I…don't stand a chance," she muttered, her face fell at the same time.

Itachi raised his eyebrow; he hadn't expected her to catch that so soon. She was getting better.

"Damn, and I was so happy too…"

"We can play again," Itachi offered, glancing at the clock on his wall – her father would pick her up around eight, and they would be having dinner at six…if anything they could pause the game for a meal.

"Alright," she replied with a smile and they both began to place the pieces back on the board for the new game.

"So, Sasuke told me that you got into….Harvard right?"

"Yes," Itachi answered as he grabbed the queen piece from her stack.

"That's pretty far."

"It is," he agreed.

She pouted a bit, he was so oblivious! She wore her new sweater too….it was so cute….he hadn't even complimented her. She even wore a special bra her mother bought her! It had padding in it and everything!

"I'll," she began, and with the thought of what she was about to say – her face flushed bright red, "miss you."

"Huh?" Itachi looked up at her, and after a slight pause, he offered her a friendly smile and said, "I'll miss you too Sakura. You've become like my little sister."

His attention returned to the board between them, missing how Sakura's face fell from embarrassed to horrified. That was not cool. At all.

How could he say that! She was wearing a real woman's bra! She was no one's sister!

"Ready?" he asked.

"Y-y-yeah," she stuttered slightly.

Itachi beat her in fifteen minutes. Normally their games lasted a good two hours.

"Is everything okay?" Itachi asked, Sakura was rarely so silent during their games. She could talk his head off sometimes.

"I'm just…not feeling too well," she half lied. She'd be feeling just fine if he hadn't told her she was like his little sister.

.

.

5 years later:

"Ugh," Itachi groaned, having to put aside his intense desire to punch his roommate a few times across the face. A couple of hook punches would make them even. He hated dealing with freshmen; he was a graduate student for crying out loud. August orientation tours were supposed to be done by all those goody-two-shoes students in undergrad looking to pump up their grad school applications.

So he was cramped in one of the courtyards with almost a hundred freshmen looking for their Orientation leader. He hated his roommate. Next time Itachi was going to need a ride; he was going to take the bus. He did not like owing favors.

He looked down at the attendance sheet and looked back at the group of almost-innocent faces. He had no desire to go down the list to make sure everyone was there. Statistically speaking, a fourth of them probably didn't belong in Harvard, a fourth of them were going to drop out by next semester, and half of them were probably too excited about getting away from their parents that they wouldn't give a rat's ass what would come out of his mouth.

"Group A-2 follow me!" He half yelled, half growled. Hopefully most of them wouldn't hear him and he'd have an excuse he needed to avoid giving this damn tour.

He turned around, a group of fifteen or so students were following him. Great.

"You have already picked up your I.D.'s, these are your lifelines on campus. You use it as a credit card, dining card, library card, and everything else you need to ensure your survival here. Up here to my right you have one of the dining halls; this place serves the best breakfast and worst dinners."

He hated this.

His roommate was going to have a black eye, flu be damned, that was no excuse to make Itachi do this.

"Up here is the statue of…." When he turned to look at the students, everyone whose faces were visible looked in complete awe. It was like he was directing them around heaven. It was ridiculous – he didn't even attend his own orientation, he just memorized the map on the school site and never had a problem.

After fifteen minutes a soft spoken voice interrupted him in the middle of explaining the pros and cons of renting textbooks against buying them and selling them back.

"Excuse me, I have a question."

"Yes?" He turned around to meet bright green familiar eyes. His breath was caught in his throat. What he saw was completely against what he remembered. The pink hair – that was the same, the slightly large forehead remained, she never grew into that. But the plump cheeks were gone, her face had narrowed down and she was two feet taller than he remembered her last being. Her body…once a straight plank, was filled with amazing curves; small waste, round hips, full breasts. This couldn't be…her. The way she wore her plaid mini skirt with leggings and a white blouse with a plaid tie...she filled it out perfectly. She was always cute, but this was...a completely new level for her.

"Do people play chess here?" She asked, biting her bottom lip as she looked up at him through her long thick lashes. That was too seductive.

But Itachi was the master of composition and so he only grinned, no evidence of surprise could be seen, and replied, "Only those who are good at it."

"I'm pretty good," she said, shifting her weight to her other leg and crossed her arms across her chest. She exuberated confidence from every pour…it made her a dozen times more shockingly beautiful.

"We'll see," Itachi replied.

He no longer wanted to kill his roommate.

Maybe a thank you was in order.


A/N: Thank you for reading, please don't forget to review. :D