Disclaimer: Naruto's not mine. At all.
**NOTE: Alrighty, before I get tomatoes and eggs and lettuce thrown at me, I'll get down on my knees and beg forgiveness for not updating this quickly. I'll also beg forgiveness for the fact that the date isn't in this chapter T.T I'm so so sorry, I know I said it was. I've been so incredibly busy with schoolwork, that I didn't have much time to work on this chappie. I didn't really want to rush writing the date, it probably would've turned out incredibly lame if I had. I had two choices: make people wait a while longer for me to update, or at least give my wonderful, lovely readers something while I try and hurry up with my other stuff. Thank you so much for your patience, hopefully I'll have the final chapter out in a few days!**
Sakura woke up at five in the morning the following day to the noisy ringing of her alarm clock, as her hospital shift lasted from six in the morning until five in the afternoon. Needless to say, she had experienced a near-sleepless night. Counting sheep, drinking warm milk, pacing around her apartment, even attempting to knock herself out with a certain pressure point (all that had given her was a raging headache) had all ended in complete failure. She had briefly considered sleeping pills, but decided against it. Sakura didn't react overly well to drugs—they left her feeling extremely loopy and insane hours after taking them. Thus, she had been reduced to tossing and turning restlessly, drifting in and out of slumber, her mind dwelling on the tragedy that would be happening to her at seven o'clock tonight.
Slowly sitting up in her jumbled nest of blankets, sheets, and pillows, she yawned loudly, rubbing at her red eyes that felt like they were in danger of drooping at any second. Hell, she wasn't even sure exactly why she was so worked up about this date. She shouldn't be bothered to the point of losing so much sleep over it. After all, it wasn't like she hadn't gone out with guys numerous times before!
She sighed in defeat. All right, so that was a lie. The downfall to having the renowned Copy Ninja as a teacher, and a member of the feared Uchiha clan and an insanely strong demon container as teammates was that other males tended to be rather…hesitant about approaching her for reasons outside the realm of friendship. She winced at one particularly sharp memory involving Sasuke's Sharingan and a fellow medic-nin that had shown some interest in her once. For some reason, after one attempted dinner date, the man had decided to change his profession to a baker and moved to Suna for the rest of his days. Though Sasuke swore up and down he didn't know a thing about it, he was never able to come up with a suitable alibi for that incident. Sakura didn't even want to think about some other nasty events relating to boyfriends that had Naruto and Kaka-sensei's styles written all over them. Though it was endearing at times, their mindset of Sakura-is-ours-don't-touch-her-bastards did tend to get tiresome rather quickly.
Oh well. At least it was comforting to know that if they tried anything with Itachi, he would wipe the floor with them. Sakura allowed an entertained smile to come to her face as she contemplated the lovely visual imagery. Not that she really wanted to go on anything resembling a date with the man, but it would indeed be nice to have Naruto and Sasuke learn a lesson or two about interfering with her love life, since her fists didn't seem to have driven the message into their thick skulls yet.
Uchiha Itachi. That seemed to be the whole problem with this situation. It wasn't so much the prospect of being blackmailed into going on a date, but rather the person doing the blackmailing. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Sakura didn't appreciate being coerced into anything, no matter who was doing it. And Itachi didn't appear to be a…dreadful man to date as far as such things go. He was far more handsome and refined than should be allowed, he wasn't the least bit dull or uninteresting, and he held an intellect equal, if not superior, to hers. His manners were also unparalleled, owing to Mikoto-san's persistence in instilling good behavior in her two sons. Furthermore, there was the plus side of having known him, even if it was at a distance, for a considerable number of years. Compared with the few men she had interacted with romantically, she should have been jumping at this chance to be involved with him. Sakura was not so pigheaded that she couldn't swallow her pride enough to admit to all of that.
But still, there was just something about that man that rubbed her the wrong way. To put it simply, he irked her. In the past when she had come into contact with him (and that had been often, due to the fact that he was Sasuke's older brother, and the amount of times she and Naruto had been over for dinner had been many over the years), he seemed to enjoy ruffling her feathers more than was healthy. And lately she had been getting a weird type of feeling whenever he looked at her or took the time to converse with her. Sakura chalked it up to him being a daunting, demonic bastard. There was also the drawback of Itachi having the unfortunate Uchiha trait of being emotionless. Or at least appearing to be so. She could never decipher what the maddening Uchiha was thinking. At any rate, she was confidently ready to deal with whatever the Uchiha threw at her tonight. She sure as hell wouldn't back down from him now, wouldn't give him the satisfaction of thinking she was afraid of him.
Sakura shook her head briefly, trying to clear her head of troublesome thoughts, and rolled out of her bed, glancing at the heavenly matress longingly as she stretched her weary limbs out like a cat. Just her luck, she was finally beginning to feel sleepy when she had to report for work in an hour. If she fell asleep on Uchiha tonight, she could hardly be held responsible for it. After all, she fully blamed him for bouncing around in her head all night and keeping her from having a blissful sleep. She intended to inform him of this when she saw him as well.
Sakura dragged her feet into the small bathroom that was connected to her bedroom, turning on the rusty faucet when she reached the sink. Cupping her hands, she filled them with the clear water pouring out and splashed it on her face, the frigidness of it snapping her out of her sleepiness. She grabbed a hand towel lying to the side, mopping the wetness from her face, and raised her eyes to check her reflection in the mirror.
Sakura's blood-curling scream echoed throughout her apartment.
Dammit, she looked like something out of a horror movie! With zombies! Or vampires!
Sakura wasn't a vain girl, and she didn't have the confidence about her looks like Ino did, but she still tried to be presentable and wary about her appearance. But this was another story. Her eyes weren't just red, but bloodshot; her hair now resembled a porcupine's back, as it stuck out haphazardly in every direction; and her usually unblemished skin had rash marks from where she had rubbed it against her pillow all night while trying to find a comfortable spot. Such were the consequences of getting scarce amounts of beauty sleep.
"CURSE YOU UCHIHA!"
And that was how Itachi earned another black mark against him without even being aware of it.
After thirty grueling minutes of frantically trying to untangle the snarls that had woven their way into her hair, rub moisturizer on her face to rid it of the redness, and shoving on her regular outfit and doctor's coat while hopping around on one foot looking for breakfast in the kitchen, Sakura had never been so glad to get out of her apartment. She pulled her keys out, shoving the key in the door lock and turning it, and then pocketed them again. She bounced her way down the stairs lightly, removing her shinobi headband from her pocket and expertly tying it around the top of her head, using it to push her unruly pink locks back.
When she made it out of the complex and began making her way to the hospital, the first rays of sunshine were beginning to cover Konoha with a glowing light. The streets were relatively empty because of what time it was, but Sakura could see a few shops containing the hurried movements of employees getting the store ready for the day. A very few civilians were out and about, jogging or taking an early morning walk. Some appeared to be cheerfully strolling off to a job, eager to get through the day so that they could come home that much sooner. Sakura allowed a content smile to touch her rosy lips as she observed the peaceful scene in her hometown, all troubling thoughts slipping from her mind unnoticed. Whenever she needed reminding of why she was a kunoichi, whenever she found the stress of dealing with other shinobi or missions or anything just too much, all she had to do was observe happiness like this. It really helped improve one's outlook on the trying job of being a tool of the village.
Pity Naruto and Sasuke never get up this early unless they can help it, those lazy bums. Sakura thought ruefully. They could use some reminding that being a shinobi entails more than outdoing each other in contests of 'who has the coolest new jutsu'.
After traveling another few blocks, Sakura turned her attention to the gigantic medical center coming into her line of sight. Resolutely, she pushed all remaining thoughts of this coming evening to the back of her head, allowing Inner Sakura to open a trunk and shove the thoughts inside, put chains around it, nail it shut, glue warning signs to it, and then push it into a closet where it would remain for the rest of the day. She wouldn't allow herself to be so unprofessional as to worry about personal matters when she had important duties to attend to. When she walked through those doors, she wouldn't be Sakura, the sixteen year old girl childishly fretting about a date. She would become Haruno-san, respected medic-nin and third in command at the hospital (obviously, Tsunade-shishou and Shizune-nee-san were first and second, respectively).
When she entered the lobby of the hospital, she relaxed at the familiar smell of disinfectant and hospital food floating through the air. She sent a polite nod towards the receptionist at the front desk absentmindedly, already noticing the fairly large amount of hustle and bustle going on, with doctors and nurses rushing around, people getting into elevators, going up stairs, and in and out of rooms. Though the streets of Konoha may sleep, the hospital usually was busy almost all the time, without fail.
Intending to make her way to her office to get her list of patients she would be working on today, she was stopped when a young nurse that was employed under her came running up to her, a relieved look on her face.
Sakura gave her a cheerful greeting, saying, "Good morning, Maya-san. Did you need me for something?"
The nurse smiled briefly, telling Sakura in a rapid pace, "Haruno-san! I'm so glad you're already here, it's been a madhouse this morning, like you wouldn't believe. A bunch of genin had an early morning training accident, so it kept us busy for a while. Nothing serious, don't worry. Just some kids with some rotten aim with shuriken. But, I took the liberty of getting your patient list for the day and everything, so—"
Sakura nodded her head, taking the clipboard from the nurse and cutting her rambling off. "Thank you so much, Maya-san, I appreciate it. I'm going to go start on these, so I'll see you later, alright?"
The other girl nodded eagerly, and with a polite goodbye sped off to attend to her other duties. Sakura looked at her list, deciding to pay a visit to one of her patients that was in rehabilitation after getting all of the bones in her arm crushed. That was a nasty case, it had taken months of steady healing and a lot of work to get to this point. Steeling herself for a long day, Sakura headed down one of the white corridors to do her job.
It was about noon when Sakura heard it. The loud, obnoxious voice that she would certainly recognize anywhere. Bidding her patient, a child that had come in with a sprained ankle that had been easily fixed, and her relieved mother goodbye she strode out of the room in the direction of Naruto's voice. She wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead wearily, wishing she could take a break for a few minutes instead of being forced to deal with her troublesome teammates.
She walked into the lobby, almost instantly finding Naruto in the crowd next to the reception desk, a disgruntled looking Sasuke standing next to him. Sakura watched in amusement as Naruto whined grumpily to the receptionist, "Whaddya mean we can't see Sakura-chan right now! It's already lunch time, she's gotta have time to get some ramen with me an' the teme!"
The receptionist pinched the bridge of her nose, as if praying for patience. "Sir, I'm afraid Haruno-san is in the middle of looking after her patients right now. I'm not sure when she'll be—"
Sakura decided to save the poor woman from any more of Naruto's whining. She knew how annoying and nerve-jerking it could get after constantly being exposed to it.
"It's okay, I'm here. Naruto, Sasuke-kun, what in the world do you think you're doing here, huh?"
The lady behind the desk gave Sakura a perceptible look of relief and thanks for being saved from interrogation by the loud blonde. Naruto grinned in boyish delight, dragging Sasuke towards where she was standing.
"Yo, Sakura-chaaan! It's been so long since we saw you last!"
Sasuke lifted a single hand and smacked Naruto over the head. "Dobe, we were with her yesterday."
"Shut it, teme! You don't love Sakura-chan like me, emotionless bastard!"
"She's important to me too, idiot, I just don't go around shouting it in the ear of every random person I meet."
"I don't tell everyone I meet! Sakura-chan, tell him—"
Their pointless squabbling was immediately cut off as Sakura seized both of her friends by the scruff of their shirts and started dragging them away from the lobby and towards the elevator. She ignored their complaints and threats, still holding them captive as she waited for the silver doors of the lift to open. When they finally did so, she tossed her two pain-in-the-butts into the small area and entered, pushing the button for the third floor rather aggressively. Sasuke and Naruto were silent, knowing better than to annoy her when she was in one of her violent moods.
After a few seconds, the doors of the elevator gave a soft bing and slid open again, and Sakura led the way to her office. Upon reaching it, she unlocked it quickly, shoved open the door, and allowed the other two to obediently walk in. Ah, sometimes having the ability to frighten her friends came in handy.
She closed the door behind them after she entered, both of her boys flinching simultaneously at the sound. She leaned up against the door, staring at them unblinkingly.
"Explain. I've told you two countless times not to bother me while I'm at work, unless one of you is suffering from something potentially fatal."
Naruto hopped up on her desk, sitting crossed legged on it and adopting an innocent look. "Neh, Sakura-chan, we just came to ask you something."
She surveyed the two of them with curiosity. "…What is it?"
Sasuke folded his arms like a petulant child, his cool eyes looking at her grumpily. "Sakura, this morning I heard Itachi telling my mother he was going to be out late tonight. You wouldn't happen to be the reason for that, right?"
Damn. Sakura shifted uneasily avoiding the gazes of her friends. She said nothing, only massaged the bridge of her nose. She could just feel the headache coming on. One that would require painkillers. And possibly beating her teammates up. Though she was silent, Naruto and Sasuke seemed to take it as confirmation of their worst fears.
"Sakura-chan, it's-it's true?"
"I told you so, dobe."
"I don't really wanna get in trouble, but still, the ROBOT? The DEMON? What the hell were you thinking?"
"She wasn't, obviously."
Sakura snapped at that, enough was enough. "I'm doing this for all our sakes, idiots! Remember? We've been over this before! Anyways, do you think I want to?"
The boys fell silent at that, their conflicting feelings written across their faces. On one hand, they could refuse to allow Sakura to go on the date this evening. That would mean saving her from the nefarious schemes of the demon, but would also result in their asses being served to them by a steaming mad Hokage. On the other hand, they could give their acceptance of her doing this, but that would mean letting someone else other than themselves spend time with her. And a male, at that. And it just had to be Sasuke's bastard older brother, who they had all sworn was the evilest thing to come along since Kakashi's bell test.
Decisions, decisions.
Sakura's face became gentle, allowing the angry wrinkles on her brow to disappear when she noticed how dejected they seemed to be. "Guys, it's not that big a deal. He's coming at seven, we'll probably eat or something, talk, take a walk. You know, normal date-ish stuff. I'll be back home early, and we'll never speak of this ordeal again, alright?"
She received two sullen stares in reply. Naruto was the first to speak up.
He asked in a hesitant tone, "But, Sakura-chan, what if you, er, I dunno, end up getting attached to the demon bastard?"
Sasuke threw in his agreement. "He's just getting his hormones in apparently, Sakura, who knows how…" Sasuke paused, looking ill. "…seductive and charming he might be, though it's highly unlikely?"
She gaped at them in astonishment, marveling at their foolishness. "It's ONE date! One. It's not a declaration of love, it's not an engagement, and if you honestly think I'm the kind of girl who loses her head over a guy if they're suave and a smooth-talker, you won't be leaving this hospital for a week after I'm through with you!"
Naruto laughed nervously, trying to appease her. "Heh, that's really not what we're implying, Sakura, we're just worried."
Sasuke nodded along, his bangs swishing from side to side as he did. "Teenage girls lose their rational thinking capabilities on dates. Kunoichi are no exception. We're trying to protect your honor."
By this point, Sakura was trying to decide between throwing them out her window or throwing them out the door. After all, she did have to get back to work, and she was getting a little tired of all this interrogation. The window would injure and humiliate them more, but then again, they did have good intentions, she supposed. The door it was, then.
"Out."
"But, Sakura-chan!"
"Now."
Naruto opened his mouth, ready to argue despite the dangerous look gleaming in Sakura's green eyes. However, he was prevented from saying anything when the dark-haired boy next to him slapped a hand over his mouth, cutting off the sound. Sasuke was wearing a rather odd look on his visage.
"Let's go, idiot." Sasuke dragged Naruto past Sakura, who was looking surprised that they were leaving without a fight. Usually these sorts of squabbles ended up with Sasuke and Naruto being tossed out on their bottoms with plenty of bruises to spare.
Naruto let out a muffled sound, trying to pry Sasuke's hand off his face. "Mmph, Sakmph-chmph, domt goma dumf! Themr uffer oftions! Dmmut, eme, fet offme!" (Translation: Wait! Sakura-chan! Don't go on the date! There are other options! Dammit, teme, get off me!)
Sakura grinned cheekily, waving at them. "I'll just imagine you're wishing me a fond farewell, Naruto."
Sasuke gave a short nod to Sakura on his way out. "We'll see you tomorrow then, Sakura."
"See ya, Sasuke-kun."
And with that, the two left her office, one voluntarily and one very involuntarily. Sakura walked over to her desk, sinking down into the hard chair behind it. She closed her eyes, tipping her head back wearily. At least she wasn't going to have any problems with those two dummies. She reminded herself to thank her Shishou for giving Kaka-sensei a month long mission. Thank goodness for small favors, as she could handle Sasuke and Naruto, but Kakashi was a little harder to deter when he set his mind on something. Knowing Kaka-sensei, he would've scheduled a mission tonight as an excuse for her not to go on the date. She sighed. Maybe she could bribe Naruto and Sasuke to keep their mouths shut about all this when Kaka-sensei returned. After all, she didn't want her overprotective sensei going weasel hunting when he got back. She paused for a moment, visualizing the picture. Hmm…then again, maybe she would let those two shoot their mouths off.
Sasuke continued to drag his best friend and rival down the hallway, into the elevator, and out the front doors of the hospital, ignoring all of the weird looks they were getting. Naruto wasn't making it any easier, as he was fighting against the chokehold, trying to get back to talk sense into Sakura.
Sasuke's excellent hearing picked up one elderly woman whispering to another, "Is that young blonde man getting kidnapped? Maybe I should call someone?" Sasuke grimaced. Who'd want to kidnap the dobe? He never shut up.
Sasuke let go of Naruto once they were safely out of the hospital, causing the blonde to stumble and gasp for air. He glared at his indifferent friend, who had begun walking away. Regaining his breath, Naruto bounded after him. "What the hell was that, teme? You're just gonna walk away, let Sakura-chan do this thing tonight? What if the date goes well, huh? What if she wants to see him again? What if—"
"I've already thought of all that, dobe. I don't care what Sakura says, I'm not giving my brother the chance to succeed in whatever he wants with her. Itachi doesn't do things like this without good reason." Sasuke said all of this to the outraged blonde next to him, looking thoughtful.
Naruto appeared to be pacified for a second, but then he burst out again, "Then why'd you drag me outta there, dammit! We could've just kidnapped her, taken her somewhere the bastard couldn't find her, screw the consequences!"
Sasuke shook his head, telling him, "That wouldn't work out, Naruto. Itachi has the upper hand as long as he's got this blackmail on us. Sakura'll have to go through with this."
Naruto shot back, "I'm not exactly following, Sasuke-bastard. How're we supposed to save Sakura from your brother's lecherous clutches if we don't stop her? What exactly is the genius plan I really hope you have, eh?"
The Uchiha grinned, a plotting look on his normally stoic face. Naruto looked at him suspiciously, taken aback by the uncharacteristic look on Sasuke's face. "Well, I'm waiting, teme."
"Sabotage."
"Eh?"
"We'll sabotage their date, dobe. Spy on them, foul it up for my brother. That way we're carrying out our end of the bargain, so Itachi will have to keep his end. If Itachi's going to blackmail Sakura, there's no reason he should have a good time with her. I came up with it while we were in Sakura's office. That's why I left so quickly—it's probably better if she didn't know what we're up to, if she thought we weren't going to make a big deal out of it."
A slow, excited smile was growing on Naruto's whiskered face. "And Sakura-chan won't ever want to see your brother again. Maybe she'll even punch him through a tree for giving her a rotten time!" He looked impressed. "Ya know, Sasuke, for being such a goody-two-shoes, rule-abiding Uchiha heir, I'm surprised you actually thought of something this good. I may have misjudged you."
"Hn. We'll need to plan for tonight though."
Naruto scratched his head out of habit, staring up at the sky as they walked. "She said they're meeting at seven, right?"
Sasuke nodded. "I think Itachi's picking her up. I didn't hear him say anything about Sakura coming over tonight to my mother."
"That gives us plenty of time then. We've got seven hours to come up with a good attack strategy," Naruto said confidently. "We'll do it at my place, otherwise your bastard brother might overhear us."
Sasuke voiced his agreement, and the two walked on silently for a little while. After a few blocks of traveling, Naruto's hesitant voice broke them both out of their thoughts.
"Ne, teme, what if Sakura-chan, um, catches on to what we're doing tonight?"
Sasuke snorted. "I think the actual question should be, dobe, what if my bastard brother finds out what we're doing."
Naruto went pale, coughing out a nervous laugh. Both Sasuke and Naruto wondered which one would be worse: having the crap beat out of them by Sakura for interfering, or being subjected to Itachi's skilled ANBU torture methods. Super-enhanced punches that could send one flying through a brick wall effortlessly, or Sharingan hypnotism that could cause mental instability for the rest of one's life? Though they wouldn't ever admit it out loud, hell, they wouldn't even admit to thinking it themselves, Naruto and Sasuke were for once in perfect agreement over something without even knowing it: Sakura and Itachi were like a match made in heaven, as far as violent tendencies went.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate constructive criticism, helpful tips, or happy comments, so feel free to leave a review! ^_^