LOL! THIS CHAPTER TOOK SO LONG XD And I rushed the ending because I couldn't take it anymore x_x Im sorry for the crap ending of this chapter XD

Sorry for the late update, I've had family troubles and pet deaths and school stuff and hugeeee writers block for the past few weeks. I did start the chapter as soon as I uploaded the previous one, but I could only manage to add bit by bit. The reason why? This chapter is supposed to be a bridge between the Sakura hating Itachi's guts to the Sakura slightly likes Itachi now xD because whenever I read an ItaSaku, or a anythingSaku, one second they're either friends or enemies, then suddenly they are in love. To me, expressing the characters feelings and knowledge is an important part (of the 5 a day, lols) of a story, and especially explaining WHY Sakura suddenly doesn't hate Itachi. I'm going on here but this is why it took so long to update, it was really hard to bring Ino in x_x (Don't ask why but I'm weak when people have to talk. I always get this ghost image of my year 6 teacher telling me, IF IT DOESN'T PROGRESS THE STORY THEN DON'T WRITE THE NARRATION FOR IT')

Please review people xD If its positive then I'll be overjoyed xD If it's negative then I'll still be overjoyed xD It shows me where and how I can improve, and also shows me you actually read my story :)

I don't own Naruto ;D

Hope you enjoy the chapter 3 The updates should be much faster after this xD

Returning Favours

Chapter 4

Familiarity

Written by eifi

She watched him wake up and held her breath unconsciously from suspense. Her hands making a small trail in the crumbling earth as she eased herself upwards, she walked a few metres away from him before kneeling down again in front of her backpack, getting a canteen of water out of it and unfastening the cap. Hearing a deep groan erupt from the throat of her company, she held the canteen in front of him as if offering it to him. His eyes not open yet, when they did open she held back a silent gasp as his eyes were almost exactly like his. Burying her disappointment, she offered the canteen again, but the man ignored her and instead distanced himself away from her.

She recognised his caution within a second, and knew that it was perfectly acceptable. This man probably had his village destroyed by ninja like her, and he probably hated her more than anything. She knew this, but she still didn't care. She wasn't those ninja, and she would never be one of those ninja either. Her cause was to help those who needed help regardless of the situation she was in. She was one of those who would gladly give her life for someone else who had hopes and dreams like she had, because they and herself were the same.

So when he tried crawling weakly away, she got up and walked towards him until his back was against a tree trunk, and offered once again the canteen of water.

She could hear him sigh through his nose as he looked down at his lap, before slowly taking the canteen from her and putting it to his mouth. After taking 2 big gulps, he took it away from his mouth and stared at it blankly, before looking at her with the same amount of interest.

"What are you doing here?" He said, his voice croaky but still deep and calm. His words resounded in her head and echoed, filling her with dread as she remembered back to his words swiftly, the buried memories finally resubmerging.

When she didn't reply, he asked again in a more serious tone; which, if she didn't see the totally calm face that came along with his words, she would have had almost thought that he was angry.

As he said it, she looked at him tiredly, and stated that she really didn't know. Letting her knees slump down to the floor, she decided to sit in front of the man, and told him that she really really didn't know. She expected him to look at her weirdly, but somehow she knew by the way those onyx eyes looked at her that he had understood what she had meant.

"Is your home being destroyed by the war too?" She asked quietly, looking tiredly at the gravelly floor next to her. He stared at her at that, noting the way she used the word 'too'. After a while of thinking, he guessed she didn't recognise him at all, and that if he took the initiative he could attack her and silence her before she made a commotion or become aware of who he actually was. But something in him made him shake away that idea, and to instead play the part of a lost villager, struggling in the war, though it could have been because of the fact that he was tired and fed up with fighting.

"Yes. And yours?" He replied slowly, watching her reactions carefully. He could never be too cautious. But instead of a straightforward answer, she laughed a bitter laugh. Even though it was bubbly, part of it made him cringe with empathy, knowing that there was obviously nothing funny to laugh about.

"It is. Kind of. In a way, it was already being ruined before the war. Now it's in the process of being turned into rubble." She said it as if it were a joke, as if it didn't matter to her at all, as if it was something to laugh about. He understood her distress, having been put through it many a time, but said nothing about it.

"You're kind of lucky… You're not a ninja, so you don't have to be put through this, but you kind of have to since you're a guy and all…" Sakura knew she was speaking nonsense, to a complete stranger too. But she didn't care, she believed that she had a right to become mad and crazy in this war. With all her friends gone and dead, there was hardly anything to care about in the world, her home being the last thing on that list. Home wasn't home without them.

"Put through what?" His tone was sincere. He was now interested in this young kunoichi's view on things, he now wanted to know how close her view would be to his.

"All this senseless fighting… Fighting for a cause that you don't believe in, accept or support. Fighting against enemies who used to be your friends, all because of a few individuals who are scared of losing their power, and another set of individuals who want to gain power. To me, it's stupid. People are dying every day because of this war and they could care less. In the end, all they are thinking about are themselves, and technically so am I." She sighed after she confessed the hypocrisy of her words, before looking back at the man in front of her.

"That's true. But war is inevitable in this world. The walls that people built around their villages were meant to protect them, but from what? The walls hide their secrets, their families and their lovers. But that in turn creates paranoia and hysteria, and other countries and villages start building walls and separate themselves from each other. They stop being friends and instead start attacking each other from the fear that they will attack them first. Slowly and slowly, allies will get involved and wars will start. The borders that separate countries, the walls that separate villages, the languages and codes that people make to hide things from people. All of this was originally to protect people, but instead it causes war. And as long as this continues, the concept of war will never end in the ninja world." He said carefully, taking another gulp from her canteen. He knew that she was perfectly right, but he wanted to see her whole view on this, it wasn't every day that he met someone intelligent enough to be able to understand that this war was unnecessary.

"That's right but… Don't you just wish for somewhere where you can feel safe for once? Somewhere where there aren't any major battles, no threats, no worries. Just somewhere where you can feel at peace." She asked him, her eyes tired and her heart heavy.

"Isn't that called heaven?" He joked back. She glared at him and he apologised.

"I'm sorry, but on a more serious note. What makes you so sure that letting the enemy reign control won't make your peaceful ideal come true? They may seem like bad guys to you, but it's the same for them. To them, you're probably the bad guys." He said, watching her soak up his words like a sponge.

It took her a while to answer, but she did. "I can't disobey my orders, and neither can I betray the object that my friends died trying to protect. If we do lose, but it ends up okay, then that would be wonderful, but the chances are that won't happen." She said, her eyes lowering to the floor again.

"Well… How about this then…"

Her vision clouded with pain, she moaned painfully as her legs, her arms, her everything hurt. She instantly regretted it when she opened her mouth though, her lips dry and hence letting parts of her lips crack open painfully, leaving her whimpering helplessly. Her eyes readjusting to the sharp sunlight as she cursed the sun, she failed to notice the approaching pitter patter of footsteps, though soft. Her body unable to move, her thoughts felt sluggish and murky, adding in confusion as she felt her body being lifted up into something warmer, and hell of a lot more comfortable than what she was just resting on. Her eyes closing sleepily, she leant into whatever was holding her, and gave in to the temptation to just rest there. Her captor didn't seem to have any problems with that, and instead brought his arms around her, his touch warm but gentle as he seemed afraid to hurt her. When he received no sign of pain or disdain for his contact, he tightened his hold on her ever so gently, resting his cheek on the top of her head. Totally at peace, she found she didn't want to open her eyes again as the warmth was just too comfortable, and she felt so safe and content in this person's arms. It was quiet, but it was calming, both completely content with their calm and silent tacit understanding.

Hearing him sigh, she wondered why he did but left that thought to drift off, her senses and logic flying away as her mind floated off into space, only realising a little later when he distanced himself away from her that this was actually real.

To her dismay, her source of warmth softly lay her onto the bed, chuckling slightly as she pouted childishly and gripped a part of his shirt when he tried to escape free. Her head still cloudy, it took her a while to properly understand that she was now pulling, and clinging onto, Uchiha Itachi, said evil person and her own self proclaimed ruiner of her life. Sighing as he felt her push him away as hard as she could, which to be honest wasn't at all that hard since her body was currently in an extremely weakened state, he wiped away all previous smiles from his face and braced himself for the moments to come, hoping that his own emotions wouldn't be shown through his face.

Her arms wearing various expertly wrapped up bandages, and her legs wearing the same fashion, her face seemed to be the only odd one out, wearing a heavy red blush on her cheeks. She looked at him confusedly, searching for any hint of emotion in his face but to no avail, and all of a sudden she coveted Ino's skill to act casually in the most awkward situations, even if it did mean making a total fool of herself. Hesitating before she looked away, she just prayed that he didn't notice the evidence of her embarrassment. Looking down and letting her coral hair fall in front of her face, she noticed that he had effectively placed her onto the bed just now. Judging from how the duvet was half spread across the floor, she had guessed that she had had an adventure in her sleep that had led her violently to the floor.

His previous actions confusing her and pretty much distracting her, it took her a while to distinguish the sharp pain that ran through from her gut to the back of her neck. Her hand darting to the top of her spine, she whimpered in agony as the pain wouldn't stop, her knuckles turning white as she tightened them as hard as she could manage. The pain was agonizing, almost forcing tears to form in her eyes. Thankfully, Itachi formed a few seals and placed his palm on her spine, releasing his chakra into her and stopping the pain. It wouldn't be as good as her own medical jutsu, but it was enough to block out some of the pain from her body for the meantime, at least until her wounds had healed.

"Are you okay?" He asked innocently, once again the thought of him actually caring for her drilling dangerously into her head. Denying that mentally, she nodded weakly at him, though it wasn't so convincing when her knuckles were gripped so tightly that they were almost snow white. Her breath hitching slightly, whether it was because of the overwhelming pain in her spine or if it was because Itachi reached out for her, we would never know. But when he brought her closer to him, holding her against his chest and again and pouring chakra into her spine, unknowingly she exhaled, the pain subsiding.

"Sakura. Can you heal your injuries?" He asked quietly, not letting the chakra stop flowing into her. She nodded timidly and he let herself pull back slightly. Watching her peel away the layers of cloth from around her body, he managed to realise what her intentions were just before she showed anything too revealing. Coughing slightly, he looked away and told her hurriedly that he'd leave her to it, and that he would come back in a few hours.

Finally alone, she allowed herself a rushed sigh of relief before getting on to work.

Forming hand seals, she knew she should start with her spine first, knowing that she could become permanently paralyzed if she didn't heal it quickly. Her eyebrows furrowing as she placed her hand over her bare skin, slightly surprised about how much damage they had done to her. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, she could have been mentally scarred by a genjutsu user or two, or even had every bone broken in her body simultaneously by some other random missing nin, but it wasn't good either.

Several vertebrae had been dislodged, some broken and some nerves damaged. Immediately starting to heal them and set the vertebrae back into place, she mentally made a note in her head to heal her ribs and legs too, some of her ribs were broken and part of her leg bone cracked. When she had ran towards Itachi previously (she says previously as she had no idea how long she had slept for), she had probably increased the overall damage of her right leg.

Not before long, her spine and ribs were okay, but her leg was still pretty fucked up. But unfortunately, time had flown away and 2 hours of her freedom was already up, as was the same case with her chakra. Not wanting to move her leg much, as it still hurt like hell, she lay down onto the bed tiredly, shutting her eyes as she felt the side effects of having used so much chakra at once which she hadn't used in so long.

Shivering slightly, she had forgotten to put on the extra clothes that had magically been put on her before she had woken up earlier, and got to work piling up the layers. Satisfied with herself decently covered, even if she didn't dress herself properly like she had been before, she lay back on the bed on her left side, making sure her damaged right leg was on top.

Attempting to drift off to sleep, she found she couldn't as lingering thoughts slowly and repeatedly drew her away from her dreams. Her eyes shut but her eyebrows crease, she eventually gave up on her endeavours, accepting the fact that she wouldn't get to sleep without driving those thoughts away. So she sat up slowly, opened her eyes and looked to her side. To the right of her there was a set of drawers, a slashed out konohagakure hitai-ate there on top and a few letters of which she had guessed were from his organization. Her eyes drooping slightly, the tiredness still evident in her lengthy yawn, her thoughts traced back to her husband, and the actions that made her so confused.

Why was he acting this way towards her, why was he acting as if he cared, as if he had a heart and was actually human? Why did he even bother to save her, knowing full well that she had ran away from him and pretty much treated him as dirt? Why didn't he seem to care when he acted so coldly to her, yet looked pretty much heartbroken whenever she pushed him away? These were the things that she just couldn't understand; her husband was just way too cryptic. She would never understand what he was thinking, and a part of her didn't want to understand either. A part of her just wished that when she married him, when she was forced to live with him, when he asked her to marry him, that he was exactly the monster that his past and her friends claimed him to be. At least that way she would have no guilt from hating him, she would have no worry that that what she was actually hurting and wanted to hurt was a human being, not a monster, and above all else, she wouldn't have the chance or temptation to replace Sasuke with Itachi.

Saying that, she prayed deep in her heart that she would never be retarded enough to replace Sasuke for Itachi, no matter how alike they may seem. Sasuke was the one that she had loved those many years ago, not Itachi, and she hoped that her mind wasn't so weak as to replace and forget about him as soon as the chance came by. Her fingers gathering pools of silken blankets in her hands, she absentmindedly clenched it as she wondered where he was right now. Itachi had mentioned it during a row a few days ago, but she could never tell whether or not he was lying. Pushing that matter aside, she made a mental note to somehow find out later.

Her hands bored with playing with the duvet, she covered her face with her palms and took a deep breath. It tormented her to even think about these things, a part of her even afraid that Itachi could even read her mind and later on torment her further at her thoughts relating to him. As silly as her paranoia sounded, sometimes Itachi really did manage to make it seem as though he were reading her mind, handing her things just before she reached out for them, explaining things before she asked what they were or why they were there and many more things.

Even so, there was still a more sane and realistic part of her that knew that she had been giving obvious signs of what she was about to do. For example, once Itachi had forced them into eating dinner together, something of which she had always wondered why would he had even wanted to dine with her anyway. He had ended up cooking for the both of them, Sakura was still too scared of him to do anything, (not as if anything had changed from then though). In the end, it resulted in them both arguing with each other, Sakura then refusing to eat with him. This then ended up with a scared and hungry Sakura, and a pretty pissed off Itachi who then worked on getting revenge by eating his delicious looking sue york faun in front of her (A/N Chinese roast pork with rice, much yummier than plain old british ones xD). By the time the aroma hit her, the urge to relinquish her pride and to apologise for her various doubts about his cooking increased. She didn't know what type of face she had put on, but it ended up with a delicious plate of food in front of her as a reward. Unconsciously smiling, she guessed as she recalled back the memory that that night hadn't been too bad, even if she wasn't there in her own free will.

Shaking her head again, she took a deep breath before telling herself that her husband was a monster. He was not nice, he was not human, because a man who murdered his own clan in cold blood for the reasons that he did, couldn't be nice, and couldn't be human. She kept telling herself that, that there was no way that any of this was genuine, and that this was probably just an act or scheme to gain her trust. Itachi couldn't be a normal, sane and gentlemanly human being like he had acted towards her oh so many hours ago. He couldn't…

Her thoughts were interrupted though by a series of knocks on the door, followed by a simple, "Sakura? Are you decent?" from the main subject of her previous thoughts. A bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as her heart stopped, she gulped as a part of her actually believed the fact that he was reading her mind. Her blood leaving her face, she stayed silent until the voice enquired again, "Sakura? Are you in there?"

"Uh… Yes." She murmured, quickly fastening any loose bits of cloths to make sure she really was decent. Luckily, she found she was safe, and soon entered Itachi with his normal calm look on his face. He looked at her puzzledly as he noticed her guilty looking face, her eyes looking away with him and her eyebrows slightly lifted. Opening his mouth to interrogate her, he paused and instead shut it, smirking slightly at her to get a rise from her. It definitely worked too, a guilty blush raging across her cheeks. Now infinitely more curious than suspicious, he decided to prompt a clarification from her.

"Sakura… What did you do?" He asked, making the most educated and likely guess that she had done something. But as he said it, he noticed a huge relaxation of her muscles, and also a breathy sigh of relief.

"Nothing…" She replied, much calmer and relieved that her guess was wrong. Inwardly, she prayed that he would drop the subject, she didn't want to let him know about her own slight suspicion, even if it was right. Her husband didn't quite believe her though, so he prompted her even more.

"Then why do you look as guilty as a kid who just stole sweets from a sweet shop?" He asked, smirking as he spoke, the words flowing out of his mouth like smooth honey.

"Uh…" She trailed, now knowing that he wouldn't drop it. She considered lying, but she knew that she would be digging her own grave. Sighing, she murmured under her breath, "Do you so happen to be able to read minds?"

His reaction? A deep chuckle that resonated across the room, followed by a simple shaking of his head. "Not quite, unfortunately. But maybe she can." He added, his eyes moving from Sakura to another part of the room, as if to emphasize his point.

Sakura looked in confusion at him, looking around in case there was a random person also in the room that she hadn't noticed before. Upon finding nothing, she gave up and asked, "She?"

His reply was merely an amused grunted 'Ah,' of which he looked to his side to something that wasn't visible behind the doorway and walls, and inclined his head towards the room where Sakura was in.

When Sakura saw what appeared in the doorway, she shouldn't believe her eyes. Her shocked face was immediately replaced by a huge happy smile, one that Itachi noted was quite charming, and her eyes seemed to shine as she saw her dear beloved friend ran towards her, returning the same old smile that she remembered the blonde to always wear before the war.

The fact that this was real hit her only when her friend rugby tackled her into a hug, thankfully dodging her broken leg, hugging her so tightly she was almost worried that she would suffocate. Screaming in joy as she hugged her friend back with twice as much force as her friend used on her, she failed to notice her smirking husband close the door quietly and left them to do something else.

After tons of screaming, they finally settled down and sat opposite each other on the bed, gasping for air as they recovered from their supreme laughing session. Neither of them spoke, neither of them knowing what to say. Ino seemed to be worried about that, but Sakura couldn't care less. Her friend was alive! Not even just that, she was here. She wasn't alone anymore, at least not for the short while that Ino could stay there with her. Hugging her once more, she decided that maybe there really was a kind spirit in this world.

"Sakura…" It was Ino who started, hugging Sakura tightly back though not as hard as before, "Are you alright?" Sakura looked up at her when she asked that, slightly distancing herself from her, and noticed that her friend's gaze was upon her leg. After knowing her friend for such a long time, she could tell straight away what she was thinking. But she didn't want to guess in advance just in case.

"Yeah of course… Why?" She asked, smiling at Ino as she said it as an extra attempt to show that she was A-Okay. But her friend's gaze didn't falter, and Sakura's attempt to try to reassure her didn't work, her broken leg lying limply across the bedsheets and her tattered body told their own story.

"Sakura… Tell me the truth… He hurt you didn't he?" She said sadly, her gaze lifting from her bruised and broken leg to her bruised cheeks and slightly slumped shoulders. Sakura however, could only stop the rolling of her eyes when she told herself that she was only saying such things because she cared for her.

"He didn't… I tried to escape to the village for a bit of freedom… And I got attacked by some people… He… He saved me." She said, part of her realising that he had saved her and that she was as surprised as Ino was as she reassured her. She even grabbed her friend's hands and squeezed them slightly to reassure her even more. It wasn't until then until she saw her friend's appearance. Ino looked terrible. She had dark rings under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept much, and her usual sparkling and glowing blue eyes were now dull and bloodshot. Her hair wasn't shining either, just dull like the rest of her. She looked even worse than Sakura in some ways, and her face filled with worry as she realised this.

"Ino… What happened to you?" She asked concernedly, and that was when Ino couldn't take it anymore.

Her blond friend hugged her and let her face rest at her shoulder, crying her eyes out. She was crying so much, and between waves of her cries, Sakura could just about make out that she was begging for forgiveness. Sakura held her, and told her that it was alright. She tried her best to reassure her, but Ino couldn't stop. Sakura's eyes softened, and her heart sank as she witnessed her best friend crying in her arms from the guilt of allowing her to marry for their freedom. She tried to tell her that it was ok, but she stopped after she realised that she would probably feel the same way if it had happened to her.

Moments later, after Ino had calmed down, Sakura brought out a tissue box from inside a drawer next to the bed. Ino pulled out a bunch and blew her nose thankfully, getting more to wipe her teary eyes. She took a deep breath again before apologising once more. Sakura shook her head, telling her not to apologise anymore, she had no need to.

"What's really wrong?" Sakura asked, Ino needed to tell her herself otherwise she would never get over this. Ino knew that too, and her gaze dropped onto the silken sheets that they sat on. With a deep sigh, she finally answered.

"I should never have let you go." She finally stated, her voice serious and her eyes teary again, looking away from Sakura and biting the inside of her cheek to try to stop herself from bursting into tears again. Sakura looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to carry on. She didn't have to tell her friend to carry on, Ino already knew this. "I knew it from the moment that you came back all beat up from the battlefield that something bad was going to happen, and you didn't tell me until the day before the wedding." Ino said sombrely, she changed tactics and resorted to pinching her index finger really hard to fight back the tears.

"I shouldn't have let you go, I shouldn't have let you marry him… You don't know how many nights I've spent worrying about you, scared to death of the things that he could have been doing to you, I was so scared that… that… he could have…" Ino couldn't help it, the tears started flowing again, but she kept going on.

"Sakura… If you hate it here, tell me, we'll run away together. It was mine and Shika's fault that you got captured, and it was our fault that you're here now, married to him. I don't know how we'll do it, but Shika is smart, we can do this. All you have to do is tell me, we'll think of something. We got you into this mess, and we'll get you out. Sakura… Don't… I don't want you to be hurt anymore, I can't bear to see you suffer for our sakes." She couldn't continue anymore, and Sakura took this chance to step in. Rubbing her back gently, she saw before her her best friend being torn up with guilt that didn't belong to her in the first place.

"Ino…" She started, but was interrupted once again by a sniffle and a sob. Smiling slightly, the fact that her friend was now crying in her arms instead of herself crying in Ino's was slightly amusing, the nostalgic feeling that Sakura felt made this event feel slightly light hearted even if it was the total opposite. She waited again for Ino to interrupt her once again, but when she found that she didn't she carried on, unaware of their hidden eavesdropper who was discreetly hiding in the corridor that the door led out to.

"Ino… He's never hurt me since that time when we attacked him, and if you think about it he had every right to defend himself. Even if he has a temper that I can't predict when it will burst, or even if I can't understand what he's thinking at all, he has never tried anything to hurt me intentionally." She said, looking carefully into Ino's eyes, showing that she was telling the truth.

"But… at the day of your wedding you looked so sad… Look at your leg… Are you absolutely sure he didn't do that to you? He didn't touch you anywhere? He's an Uchiha for goodness sake… They're all assholes…" Her words were just distant murmurs, said like a child who knew they had lost an argument and instead from their immaturity decide to make excuses.

"Ino…" Sakura scolded in a mock angry tone, "I already told you. He saved me from the guys who did that to me. And he wouldn't do the types of things that you're thinking of anyway, he's not the type to and he has no reason to either." She said to Ino in a very matter-of-factly tone. Ino just looked at her whilst pouting slightly, before whispering a short, "Do you think he's gay then? I had my doubts about Sasuke," which earned an annoyed stare from Sakura and an even more annoyed but silent sigh from the person who was having his sexuality questioned.

"Ino!" Sakura scolded her, amazed that her friend even had the guts to try to say that her husband was gay. But then again, it could be true.

"It could be true Sakura! All of the guards around this house are men!" She said, and Sakura hit her forehead.

"EVERYONE who has a house to guard makes sure they have male guards. What about your father when you were threatened to be kidnapped! According to your statement that means your father is gay!" She told her, the annoyance rising. Itachi had to fight himself to stop himself from laughing.

"Well… Gimme 3 good reasons why I should think that he isn't gay then." Ino said, she was never one who could think of a comeback to an insult. Sakura just sighed, and started thinking of some points.

"Well… He doesn't walk gayly. Normally you can tell by the way they walk." Sakura pointed out, and even though it was a weak excuse, Ino decided to accept it out of good charity. Itachi just closed his eyes and breathed in slowly, making a mental note to find out how a gay walks.

"And? Anything else?" Ino asked, almost certain of her victory.

"Why are we discussing my husband's sexuality anyway!" Sakura asked, realising finally that she had gotten lost in Ino's pace.

"By changing the subject you therefore lose, right forehead?" Ino smirked, earning another glare from Sakura and reminding her why she used to want to throttle her friend. Ino knew that Sakura didn't like losing, especially against her.

"Ugh fine. Since he married me, a GIRL, that means he is not gay." Sakura stated with a proud triumphant smirk.

"Yeah but, that could be a cover up. Just because he married you doesn't actually mean he's into girls." Ino teased, this time choosing her words carefully to avoid saying the obvious 'He didn't marry you because he loved you'. But Sakura already knew and understood that.

"Unless of course… He actually likes you?" Ino whispered, and this time not even Itachi could hear her naturally loud and boisterous voice.

"What!" Sakura shouted out, before Ino cupped her mouth and told her to hush it in case Itachi was listening in on them, which of course he was. Thankfully though, Itachi had already gotten bored of eavesdropping, content with the fact Sakura didn't look at him and see a monster.

"Sakura, what if he didn't actually hate you? What if he actually seriously liked you?" Ino asked, her tone serious and her gaze fixating. Sakura instantly knew that Ino was being serious, but wanted to know where the hell Ino would have gotten that idea from. So when she asked, she found out she had hit on the right target, and watched as Ino averted her eyes.

"What happened?"

"He asked me an hour ago if I wanted to visit you." Ino said, as if that was enough to explain it. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

"And? What's so special about that that means he loves me?" Sakura whispered, she hated whenever Ino tried playing matchmaker, especially when it was a dangerous S rank missing nin who could kill her ten times over in a second.

"Because he asked me if I wanted to visit you. Don't you get it? He actually asked me if I wanted to visit you."

"I still don't get it!" Sakura pouted, she hated not knowing things, and she hated being agitated over Ino not getting to the point fast enough.

"Because when he asked me, and then saw that I was busy, he looked like a heartbroken little puppy!" Ino explained, she had to constantly remind herself not to raise her voice too loud.

"That doesn't mean he likes me! Plus, you were just saying how much he must have hurt me and beaten me up earlier!" Sakura scolded again, before gasping in shock as she realised that her friend wasn't telling her the whole truth.

"Ino… Were you lying to me earlier? Did you plan this all?" She asked as she looked at her friend in disbelief. Ino just shook her head and grabbed Sakura by the shoulders.

"Of course not! I was just trying to make sure that he wasn't lying."

"What?" This didn't make sense anymore.

"He told me before I got here that you had been injured, and asked me to be gentle and not to touch your wounds."

"But yo-"

"Let me finish!" Ino butted in, and when Sakura became silent and calm Ino continued.

"He told me that, but I didn't know whether or not to believe him. Everything before that I said was real, and so were his words too. And now I can tell that he seriously cares for you Sakura. You'd be blind not to notice." She explained, her face showing concern as Sakura looked dismally to a wall.

"You have to think about it Sakura…" Ino said, before pushing up the sleeve on her left hand to see her watch.

"Sakura… I… I'm sorry but I have to go now." Ino said, pulling Sakura's hands in her own as she assured her that she'd come to visit her again soon.

"Ino! Don't go… Please… It feels like so long…" Sakura begged, not wanting her best friend to leave her with such confusing thoughts.

"Gomen…" She said, giving her a final hug before getting off the bed, and exiting the room after waving.

Sakura looked dismally down at her hands, Ino's warmth disappearing rapidly as she felt cold all over her body. Sighing, she didn't want to think about the words that she had said. She wasn't an egotistical person, quite the opposite actually. And she was even shyer around the subject of relationships. And there was no way, ever, that she was going to believe that her husband actually liked her.

Being a logical person, she tried to reassure herself through facts. Yes, facts. Those lovely things that pull you down to reality again. Making a list in her head, she started to list down the things that proved that he had no interest in her whatsoever. It was a silly thing to do and she knew it, but she needed her sanity back. It was the only thing she had left other than mindless daydreams.

The first thing she listed down was the fact that they had never met before. That pretty much ruled out any chance of him liking her. Already starting to cheer herself up, she decided to continue and think of the next ones. Her reasons ranged from tiny things like the fact that he always scolded her for small things, to huge things like when they had first met and kicked her ass. Unfortunately for her, she had thought ahead and knew that there were all good reasons for them, like how whenever he scolded her it was because it was either unsafe or unhealthy for her, or because she had 'forgotten' to eat again.

Putting her hands in her face again, she moaned as she knew the next hour would be a long one.

As I explained earlier in the author note at the top, I rushed the ending xD Like I said, this chapter is meant to show how Sakura starts not hating her hubby.

Review people, tell me what you think XD It was a chore to write this chapter because I had to write tons of narration and had to attempt to show why Sakura will not hate Itachi as much in the following chapters xD As usually in romance fanfics with Sakura, one second they are just friends, the next they are in love and like woah o_O

I'll update faster I hope, it'll be easier now I got the hard stuff out of the way xD

Oh, forgot, no offence to gays in this, it was just a joke :X Tell me if its really offensive though, I'll make it less harsh DX *Has no problem with them*

See you soon :D