"Haruno-san," one of the guards at the front entrance greeted the recurring guest at the mansion, tilting his head in a slight bow. Sakura smiled back at him, looking dazzling in her full length sea green chiffon dress and bright smile," Evening." She remembered him from this morning, both from when she first walked into the mansion and second when he helpfully pulled from the snow drift.
The guard then turned to Sakura's reluctant date tonight as Itachi stood sullenly in the standard Konoha's police uniform. "Uchiha-san," the guard greeted him as well, though with a sly smirk, as he had seen the debacle prior this afternoon. Itachi frowned at him, not finding the situation funny at all.
"Please come in," the guard said, opening the front door and stepped to the side to let them pass," Orochimaru-sama is waiting in the dining room."
Sakura thanked the guard before pulling Itachi inside, finding a servant in the foyer waiting to lead them to the dining room.
…
The dining room was lit in the same manner as the study, with lots and lots of candles. Sakura eyed the burning sticks of wax longingly,' Oh, how I just want to knock one over and set the whole place ablaze.' But alas, she was deliberately kept away from the fire as they were seated at the table. Sakura noted with dismay that there were guards posted around the room, presumably to make sure she didn't slip anymore poison into the food. To Itachi's own dismay, she fixed him with a death glare.
"I am surprised you even came," Orochimaru's voice echoed around the room as he entered through the kitchen doors, swirling a glass of wine in his right hand. Behind him, a servant followed with two more glasses and a bottle of wine. Orochimaru gestured for the guests to be served and the servant did so quickly, filling the two glasses and setting them in front of Itachi and Sakura.
Itachi eyed the glass of wine in front of him dubiously, wondering if maybe Orochimaru took his idea and decided to poison the wine. Whereas Sakura swiftly picked up the little glass, momentarily inspected the wine with a watchful eye, before delicately taking a sip. When nothing happened, she took another, larger sip, despite Itachi's incredulous look.
Orochimaru smirked, enjoying the Uchiha's discomfort while the woman beside him sipped away at her wine like she was having dinner in her own home. He seated himself at the head of the table, right in between the two detectives, though his chair a tad bit closer to the woman on his left.
"We will renegotiate the terms of my 'surrender' after we dine," he stated, gesturing for a servant to bring out the first course. Sakura immediately huffed and crossed her arms," You aren't going to try and pass those ridiculous conditions by me again, are you?"
Orochimaru feigned hurt," My dear Sakura-san, I am hurt that you believe my requests to be ridiculous. I am merely trying to protect myself. After all, we both know the Uchiha clan will want nothing less than the death penalty for me."
"And with good reason," Itachi murmured, finally taking a sip of his own wine, fixing the man in front of him with a glare full of hatred.
Orochimaru ignored the Uchiha heir and instead continued speaking with Sakura. "After all, we have established that my employees and I are able to safely remain here until this whole incident is swept under the rug."
Itachi spluttered at the insinuation that Orochimaru would be able to get away scot free, while Sakura sighed, used to Orochimaru's antics already. "Or until you're swept under the rug," Sakura mumbled into her wine, ignoring Itachi's splutters and Orochimaru's laughs.
"So what will be your next course of action be then, Sakura-san?" the vile man smiled in her direction, ignoring her look of pure disgust," Talk me into surrendering with my life forfeit? Convince me into walking out here with my arms up? Perhaps try to seduce me to get me to comply? Or maybe you'll trust your colleague to come up with another way to kill me?"
Itachi snarled at the presumptuous man, sounding oddly like his brother, Sasuke, on a bad day. Sakura merely snorted," He's already on strike two."
Itachi glared at first her, then at Orochimaru ten-fold. He barely contained his hatred and malice as he seethed between his teeth," How about I just strangle you now and watch the life drain out of your eyes? That sounds agreeable, yes?"
The guards around the room visibly tensed at the spoken threat, ready to take down Itachi the moment he attacked. Sensing the tension in the air, Sakura paled and shot Itachi a nervous glance, wondering if he would really go through with it and risk his life with only her as back-up? She was only one person! She couldn't take down five guards on her own, and she was pretty sure they were all packing heat.
"Itachi?" she spoke his name tentatively, seeing as with how angry he was right now, he just might lunge across the table and wrap his long fingers around Orochimaru's skinny white neck.
The man whose life was in question merely seemed amused at the entire situation and smirked widely at the fuming Uchiha. "Why, I haven't seen such snark and disrespect since Sasuke walked these halls…" he mused, referring to a time when Itachi's own younger brother betrayed their village and family, going to Orochimaru to teach him the ways of the underground. It was a hard blow that still affected Itachi, who loved his brother more than anything in the world, to this day and he blamed it fully on the man before him.
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow at Itachi's sudden snarl," I was always under the assumption that you were the more mature and calm one. Perhaps I was wrong?"
'He wasn't,' Sakura thought as she glanced between the two men, surprised to see her senior detective acting so out of character. Itachi had always been the thoughtful and level-headed one in the team; the snarkiness and temper was her reign while the childishness and unpredictability belonged to Shisui. So what was up with him? Sure, Sasuke's defect was a sore subject for him, but from how Itachi was acting, did his animosity for Orochimaru run deeper than that?
Orochimaru himself merely just grinned when neither Itachi nor Sakura spoke up. Finally turning away from the angered Uchiha, Orochimaru faced a servant waiting by the doors and mildly asked," I believe now would be a good time for dinner to be served."
As the servant went off to retrieve their food, Sakura shot a sour look at the snake lord," As if I'd eat anything you serve."
"Likewise," Itachi echoed.
Orochimaru just grinned, but ignored their comments. What happened next was fairly normal, for their situation, as platters of covered food were brought out and placed before them on the table. The food smelled delicious and though she vowed not to touch a single part of it, Sakura had to admit that the aromatic smells were beginning to make her mouth water. Thank Kami that Kakashi made her eat a light dinner right before coming in here. Though she wasn't sure if Itachi had done the same…
Glancing over at her partner, that's when everything started plummeting from 'fairly normal' to 'downright cruel'. Itachi was eyeing the covered platter in front of him with a mixed look of apprehension and disgust. His nose was scrunched up and Sakura noticed how he had pushed his chair back from the table, as if trying to separate himself as far as possible from the platter.
"Itachi, are you okay?" she questioned, but Orochimaru was the one to answer her. A sly and malicious smile slid across the snake lord's mouth.
"Does the smell of… meat still not agree with you, Itachi-kun?" he asked sweetly, far too sweetly.
And that's when Sakura recognized it. Sniffing lightly, she leaned closer to her own covered platter. That was it. It was the smell of cooked pork and spices. She threw a sympathetic look at Itachi, who couldn't decided between glaring at Orochimaru or the platter before him.
Itachi was a vegetarian; had been since he was fifteen. That was before she knew him and she never found out why he suddenly changed his diet (the man was not a tree hugger and came hunting season, went out and hunted elk right alongside his father), but it was something Shisui assured her would never change. Itachi refused to even touch meat, and vowed never to for the rest of his days.
"Yes," Itachi growled lowly," I am. So I suggest you take this right back and dispose of it."
That did nothing in the least to deter the infuriating older man. "But you haven't even seen the main course yet." And with a signal from Orochimaru, the servants stepped forward and removed the lids on their food.
On Sakura plate sat a delicious looking pork chop, seasoned to perfection. And on Itachi's…
…a large raw steak sat in a pile of its own blood, looking every bit as rancid as raw meat could be. It wasn't fresh by a long shot, looking as if it'd been left out in the sun for hours… and was that a couple of flies crawling all over it?
Sakura barely managed to get a glimpse of Itachi's horrified face before he bolted to his feet, grabbed her wrist, and all but forcibly dragged her out of there. Keeping a hand covered over his mouth and another grasped tightly onto Sakura, Itachi fled that mansion and Orochimaru's vicious laughter.
This was personal…
