Chapter 9: Seeing Emotion
Chapter 9: Seeing Emotion
Step one you say we need to talk
He walks, you say sit down its just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
- How to Save a Life by The Fray
He awoke.
The bed he lay on was soft, soft to the point that it would have been awful for anyone's back. His eyes opened and squinted at a bright light, then froze.
A bright light?
The light died away and he could see pale yellow walls, lilac blankets and coloured pictures with faces and dark shadows and windows. He wasn't quite sure how to react to the lack of endless black and was still unsure when he heard a voice to his right.
"Why didn't you tell me you were blind?" it asked softly.
His head turned ever so slowly and he met a pair of trembling green eyes. He was seeing emotion again, he could see it in the way her chest rose quickly, the slight angry flush of her pale face, the glaze of her eyes and the hands that were clenched in the fabric of her white shorts. She held his attention for longer than he should have credited her and then he looked away.
He rose out of bed and stood up. It was then he became aware of a sharp pain in his lower right arm and he looked at his hand, noticing that it had been bandaged up to his elbow. He only spared it a moment's thought and stood up, reaching for the Akatsuki cloak he saw hanging on the back of a chair with his good hand.
"Itachi," she called his name.
He ignored her and pulled on his cloak. It was then she cracked and grabbed him roughly, forcing him to look at her. He broke out her grip and then pinned her wrists behind her, pushing her onto the bed. He held her there with his right knee and it dug into her lower back, pressing her against the bed.
She struggled and kicked out, trying to break away from him. He leaned forwards and said in her ear, the warm air curling around her neck, "It does not concern you."
She nearly shivered at having him so close but fought her bodily instincts. She was angry now, angrier than him and spat, "It does concern me, I am your team's medic and I should know about all of this! Release me, you asshole, or else I swear I will call ANBU on you!"
"Call ANBU? You're being dependant on other people. You are weak," he told her coldly.
She bucked violently underneath him as she tried to get free again and he used chakra to hold her down. Their skin was in contact and she took advantage of that, sending chakra into his arms to jumble up his nerve signals. His arms twitched and he released her as her chakra caused intense pain to shoot up them. He moved away but he wasn't used to moving again after being in a bed for so long.
She punched him and his head snapped to the left with the intensity of the hit.
"Shut up! You don't know what it's like, having friends, having people who love and care for you, so don't you dare call me weak for trusting the people I treasure! You act so strong and high and mighty but you're alone, and you will die alone without having anyone who cares if you live or die!"
She drew back her hand to hit him again but he grabbed her wrist before she had a chance to do so. Their eyes met, hers flaring with anger and maybe desperation, whereas his were as cold as ice.
- not when you're so full of self-hatred and even though her face was bruised and bloody, even though Sakura could barely move she was still smiling at him with that awful trusting smile and he hated it, hated it, hated it-
"You do not need to tell me what I already know. It does not matter to me," he told her, his voice unmoved.
She was moving closer to him and he didn't stop her. Her fists clenched tightly and he watched her as her pastel hair fell over her face and formed a curtain, hiding her eyes from him. She was close enough that if she took another step their chests would be touching.
"That's bullshit."
Her head rose and their gazes met.
Her voice was trembling with anger, "Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to be alone and nobody…nobody deserves that, not even you."
Her hand touched his face. Her green eyes were filled with angry, desperate tears and he grabbed her wrist. He didn't pull her hand away and for a split second, Sakura thought she saw insecurity flash in the depths of his crimson gaze. His jaw tightened and then he released her hand, disappearing silently.
"Where the hell have you been?" Deidara demanded irritably as Itachi walked past the kitchen doorway. As always, he ignored the artist and succeeded in unintentionally angering him.
"I'm talking to you, yeah!" he yelled, but the sound of Itachi's door shutting cut him off abruptly.
He glared at the doorway, as though he could still see Itachi there, and Kisame rolled his eyes. Kisame's chair shrieked on the floor as it dragged across the cheap plastic when he stood. He drummed his knuckles on the table, once, twice. Then he glanced at Deidara.
"You want to go for a drink?" he asked unexpectedly.
The young missing-nin blinked in surprise and his brows knitted together in suspicion. Kisame sighed loudly in exasperation and snapped, "I don't want to get caught in another one of your stupid arguments with Itachi-san. And I'm going to see Haruno."
"Her name's Sakura."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You coming or what?" Kisame questioned half heartedly.
Deidara stood up, sliding off his Akatsuki cloak. He pulled out a roll of bandages from his pocket and wrapped his hands as he walked, covering the protesting mouths on his palms. As they both exited the compound, Kisame purposely left a genjutsu dog tag necklace on his bedside table- he'd be damned if he disguised himself for the sake of other people's sanity.
"So, where's her house?" he asked Deidara.
Deidara frowned, "What makes you think that I would know?"
"Well, you're obviously in love with her and all," Kisame explained.
"I'm not in love with her, yeah!"
All the same, Deidara still knew exactly where her house was. Kisame chuckled inwardly, the boy really was madly in love with Sakura and it seemed everybody but the two of them knew. It was kind of cute in a weird forbidden love way, he mused. He probably wouldn't have bothered with her, it would have been annoying and troublesome. He waited downstairs while Deidara went to get Sakura.
The artist scaled the walls of her apartment and knocked on the window. The window opened without a moment's hesitation and Kisame noted it seemed to be quite normal for both Sakura and Deidara to meet through the window. It must have happened more than once before. As Deidara jumped down from the window, he wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist beside him and they landed together.
"Know any good sake bars, Haruno?"
"Oh, so you're not calling me kid anymore," she commented sassily and he grinned, revealing his sharp canines.
"Nah, you were promoted to Haruno after the last mission," he told her.
She smiled and rolled her eyes. When Kisame had returned to Konoha, he had wiped out nearly twelve more teams with as much chakra as a normal genin student left. His hands had been burned from the overuse of chakra and he couldn't move his left leg properly as a poisoned katana had pierced it all the way through. It was still there when he hobbled through the gates and Sakura had been called to heal him. He was vomiting disgusting white lung fluid, but once she had removed the poison in his body he had healed automatically on his own.
Konoha had succeeded in fighting off the first wave of Sound's attacks and Tsunade had grudgingly accepted that Sakura's team was useful.
"Let's go and drink. I want to see what you're like drunk, yeah," Deidara smirked at her.
"I can out drink the both of you from under the table, Ara," she teased.
"Deidara can't drink for shit, but I'll take you on. Loser pays for the drinks," Kisame challenged her and a competitive gleam appeared in her eyes.
When they reached the sake bar, Sakura immediately took a spot towards the empty end of the roadside stall. Deidara sat on one side of her whereas Kisame sat on the other and a man came to serve them. He was obviously familiar with Sakura but he didn't stay long to chat because Kisame scared him.
"One," Sakura announced loudly before downing an entire cup of sake easily. She let out a long, relaxed sigh as it warmed her insides and Kisame grinned, following suit.
Beside them, Deidara sipped at his sake cup at a much slower pace. He watched them with an amused glint in his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. He knew for a fact that Kisame would win, the man could drink like a fish, no pun intended.
Sakura's eyes gradually glazed over and she grew less and less energetic and happy. The image of crimson eyes was burned onto the back of her eyelids and she saw Itachi's face every time she blinked. What had that fleeting moment in her bedroom meant? The more she tried to decipher it, the more she drank and the more she drank, the drunker she became.
Two hours later found a completely wasted Sakura, an almost wasted Kisame and a sober Deidara still sitting at the same sake bar.
Sakura had sagged against Deidara with half lidded eyes. As the next round of sake was placed in front of them, she absentmindedly reached out a blind hand to grab at it. Deidara sighed and took it away from her, downing it himself in one swift go.
"She's done, yeah," he told Kisame flatly.
Kisame laughed and commented, "She drinks well, for a woman. She's paying though."
"Shut up, Kisame. Ara's paying," she mumbled into Deidara's shirt.
"What do you mean I'm paying?!"
"You still haven't paid me for the wall in Tea…" her voice was floaty and light from the alcohol.
"No, I've paid you more than that, yeah," he grumbled irritably, but he still slapped down a considerable amount of money onto the counter.
As Deidara helped Sakura to her dazed feet, Kisame mouthed behind her back to Deidara, 'You're whipped'. A sudden urge to eat sushi filled Deidara and he settled for trying to kick the shark man in the shins. Kisame easily dodged the kick and grinned in wild amusement.
Kisame went back to the chuunin hall, stumbling slightly, and Deidara was stuck dragging Sakura home. She tripped over her own feet and laughed, a warm if not crazy laugh and Deidara grunted slightly as he steadied her. Although it would have been hilarious to watch her fall flat on her face, he somehow didn't believe he'd have his perfect nose for very long if she ended up breaking hers.
"God woman, have some dignity," he grumbled.
She laughed and tripped again, hardly listening to him. He caught her for the second time and grew frustrated. His reputation be damned, he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
With growing fascination, she stared at his ass as it moved from side to side as he walked. She then announced loud enough for the entire world to hear, "You have a nice ass."
Deidara went a shocking shade of pink and quickly removed her from his shoulder. They were getting weird looks from the people around them and Deidara tried very hard to avoid them. He carried her in his arms and she snuggled against his chest comfortably.
"I swear, you're awful when you're drunk, yeah," he muttered low enough for only her to hear.
She looked up at him the entire time and he purposely didn't look down at her. He couldn't carry her up the side of her building wall out of fear that she'd vomit all over him, so he had to walk up the stairs like a normal civilian. As he reached the door and realized it was locked, he swore inwardly.
He shook Sakura and he heard her keys jingle in her pocket. He pulled a face as he realized he would have to take them out himself- this was really doing awful things to his libido. Slowly and cautiously, he began to pull her keys out of a pocket that was suddenly way too close to her crotch area.
He nearly dropped her when she moaned loudly.
"Fucking hell woman, stop that!" he hissed at her angrily, his heart beat racing.
Her eyes fluttered open in a smouldering porn star gaze and he swallowed with some difficulty. She shifted in his hold and began drawing lazy circles up his bare left arm that tingled too pleasantly. Deidara hurriedly opened the door and it slammed behind them as he shut it with more force than was necessary.
He dropped her on the bed and all but ran to the bathroom. He splashed cold water onto his face and stared into his reflection. It stared back with a somewhat desperate and frustrated look on its face and he groaned quietly to himself. When he thought he had composed himself, he went back outside and walked to Sakura.
She sat up when she saw him and slowly dragged a finger over the skin of his neck. She rose to her knees and her hands snaked around his neck, doing terrible things to his lower abdomen as something warm and heavy began building up inside of him. When she kissed him, a sudden instinct to throw her off of him and go have a very cold shower filled him.
Her mouth opened. Her tongue darted into his mouth, tracing over his teeth, over the roof of his mouth and she moaned – moaned – and he completely forgot that she was wasted.
His hands pulled her roughly to his body and she tangled her fingers in his hair as the kiss grew more aggressive and heated. When they broke apart for air, a string of saliva connected them and she chased his mouth again. He gently pushed her away and she whined. He was going light headed and came to the firm conclusion that the next time he went drinking with Sakura, Kisame was taking her home.
Wait, no, no, no, if Kisame brought her home then- he cringed at the thought of blue skinned pink haired children.
As she started closing in again, he disappeared hurriedly in a shower of feathers.
When Deidara walked into the Akatsuki kitchen looking extremely flustered, Hidan raised an eyebrow. Kisame didn't notice the artist as he was rifled through their brand new second hand refrigerator and Itachi was sat at the table with a cup of warm tea in between his hands. Deidara went to the opposite side of the kitchen and leaned against the counter, his eyes darting to the window. Kisame pulled out a carton of milk and proceeded to drink it.
"You've got lipstick all over your mouth," Hidan commented.
A gush of white milk spurted out of Kisame's mouth and nose as he erupted into unrestrained laughter, whereas Deidara went pink for the second time that night.
Deidara spluttered, "N-no, I don't-"
"You lost your virginity to a drunk girl!" Kisame laughed, doubling over and gripping his stomach.
"Shut up!" Deidara yelled angrily.
"That's fucking low. Even Jashin-sama would frown upon you for taking advantage of her," Hidan said in disdain.
"I did not take advantage of her, she just came onto me-"
None of them noticed when Itachi left the room silently and shut his door with a soft click.
The morning daylight spilled over Itachi's legs, only this time he could actually see it. Absentmindedly, he stared at his hand and the golden glow that encompassed it. The note he hadn't been able to read nagged at the back of his mind and he pulled out the small folded piece of paper from the depths of his cloak. His eyes scanned over it, a small frown knitting his eyebrows together.
The other half is at the river.
- and he felt sick, sick as he drowned the man in the river, watched him struggle and the life bubble from his mouth until he fell as limp as a rag doll -
He coughed painfully, feeling the familiar copper taste burning the back of his throat. Raising a hand glowing with healing chakra, he pressed it to his neck, healing it again and tried to repair the new damage. He knew it was hopeless but at least it would keep him going for a little longer.
The river mentioned was unmistakable, but he was still reluctant to go. He fingered the other scrap of paper folded along with Shisui's note and his mouth set into a grim line. He had a promise to keep and he couldn't ever go back on it. He left the compound in a flash and reappeared in the Uchiha district, beside the river.
His hand dipped into the river as he kneeled on the dead grass of the neglected riverbank. The cool water rushed over it and he saw another face, another awful smile and jerked his hand away, his chest rising at a rate faster than was normal. He stared at the water for a long time before taking a deep breath and stripping off his shirt and pants.
He dove into the water and it chilled him to the bone, the cold gripped him like pleading white fingers. He ignored it as best he could, his mind set on only the piece of paper that Shisui had said would be here. It would be in a container to keep it dry and he looked around for it, surfacing three times to take long breaths of air.
He could find nothing, even after scouring even the walls of the riverbed. With some disappointment, he swam to the shallower part of the river towards the bank. He stood up and rubbed at his eyes to rid them of the cold water.
"Weird place to have a swim," an unmistakably feminine voice commented and he turned to the source.
A pink haired woman sat on a small dock that protruded from the widest part of the river. Her bare feet swilled around in the water and broke its surface. His clothes were beside her (she had moved them) and he sighed silently as he waded towards her.
"Why are you following me?" he demanded in his hush velvet voice.
She shrugged and answered, "Somebody's got to keep an eye on you, right? Anyways, I don't think you make hanging out with people a habit so I decided to grace you with my presence."
He nearly scoffed at that and was suspicious of how comfortable she seemed to be around him. The last time they had spoken had ended in an argument and he expected her to hold some grudge against him. He pushed himself onto the wooden dock and sat with his back facing her. It was a small space and they were too close to each other, sitting in an awkward silence.
"You're a hindrance to me. And I don't need your friendship," he stated.
He heard the water splash as she kicked her feet slightly. Ripples formed on the surface of the water and he watched as they branched out over the river. She retorted sharply, "I don't really care what you think you need. You didn't think you needed your eyesight when you were going to fight in a war, so I don't really trust your self judgment right now."
He was silent. He didn't remember her having such a strong personality before, but he supposed that he hadn't seen her in three months after all. The change wasn't unwelcome though, it made her more interesting. He let her talk to him because subconsciously, he knew he was in her debt and maybe this was a way of paying it off. Sakura felt the need to break the silence again.
"So…how are your eyes?" she asked tentatively.
He surprisingly decided to give her an answer and further the conversation. "They're fine."
"Wow, you're talkative," she commented dryly. Her heart lurched as silence followed, had she maybe overstepped the line? She still wasn't sure how comfortable she could be with Itachi before he bit her head off.
Itachi turned his head to meet her teasing gaze and said, "I have no wish to talk to you."
"You see, that's a lie. If you didn't want to talk to me, then you would have told me to leave by now and you wouldn't have answered my question. I think you secretly like my company," she mused aloud.
"You flatter yourself, I am not the friend you believe me to be. Now leave."
She leaned back on her hands, the wood creaking beneath her. Her gaze drifted upwards to the cloudless blue sky and he watched the water sparkle with the morning sunlight. She didn't stand up to go and as he had already established that there was nothing in the river, he didn't need her gone.
"Why didn't you want to tell me about your eyes?" she asked quietly.
The sun slowly dried the water on his skin and he could feel her gaze upon the back of his neck. He answered, "It did not and does not concern you. I don't see why you like to make my life your own business."
"Well, maybe it's because if you're blind, you won't see something coming towards you, you might actually die. Since you don't take care of yourself, somebody else has to," she turned to look at him and he shook his head slightly in disbelief.
He told her bluntly, "That kind of naiveté will kill you."
"Aren't you charming?" she said sarcastically.
He pulled on his grey shirt and wrung out his long black hair. A shower of water droplets covered the dry pale wood of the dock and he ran his fingers through the knots in his hair. Sakura watched him with an amused smile on her face and he stopped, raising an eyebrow at her antics.
"You look just like a girl when you play with your hair," she laughed.
He had to admit, he didn't quite know what to say to that. He settled for picking up his dark blue jogging pants and pulling them on. Sakura averted her gaze and watched the sparkle of the river, captivated as it shone like a hundred thousand sapphires. Itachi sat down again beside her, legs crossed, and she had to admit she was surprised he had stayed with her for so long.
"I have this awful hangover. It's a good thing you don't have a really loud voice like Kisame or else I'd be in so much pain," she said to fill the silence.
He asked, "If I started talking loudly, would it make you leave?"
"You wouldn't do that. You like having me around," she insisted.
"You're delusional."
"Yeah, well you're a jerk."
She then froze in horror at what she had said. He was going to stab her in the heart with a kunai any second now, she was going to be so, so dead. The look on her face was comical and Itachi found it amusing. He let the comment slide and said, "I didn't think you would result to such childish insults."
No kunai in her body? No blood on her shirt? Sakura recovered from the shock and said, "I didn't know you had expectations of me."
"They're not very high. You are quite weak," he told her matter-of-factly.
There was something captivating about the way her emerald eyes lit up angrily and a pink flush climbed up her neck and cheeks. It was amusing to draw out the emotions in her and as much as he hated to admit it, she was interesting.
"What are you talking about, you haven't even seen me fight!" she spluttered indignantly.
"Hm."
His eyes were lighter than they had been in a while and he seemed almost relaxed. However, Sakura didn't actually take notice of these subtle details and was a bit nervous and very happy that she could have a normal conversation with Itachi. She had thought her feelings for him had ebbed away but they returned in full force, stronger than before.
She rose to her feet, putting her hands on her hips. His eyes flickered to her figure for the briefest of moments and a melancholy expression washed over her face, a sudden change from the angry one just moments ago. Her ability to change easily from emotion to emotion fascinated him, he hadn't been able to see such things for so long. Comfortable silence fell between the two of them.
Then Sakura slipped with a scream into the river.
She surfaced and pointed an accusing finger at Itachi, "You jerk! You pushed me in!"
"Do not accuse me for your own stupidity," he told her sharply.
Her eyes flared and she pushed herself out, her clothes stuck to her body like a second skin. Her white shorts had gone completely see through and he could make out the triangle of her white underwear line through her sheer shorts. He averted his eyes quickly.
"My stupidity? My stupidity? I'll have you know I'm smarter than you."
He was silent and stared over the river, his expression steely again. The sunlight of the water reflected onto his face and his eyes glimmered strangely with the light.
"Hey, that's really rude! You should look at someone when they're talking to you and you should apologize for what you did!" she complained angrily.
He turned his head to look at her and the corner of his mouth twitched. "I have nothing to apologize for. And I can see your underwear."
She looked down suddenly in horror, realizing what he meant and sat down. Self consciously, she tried to arrange herself in a position that would prevent him from seeing her panties. She then noticed that her shirt was way too revealing for comfort and pulled at the fabric. It landed with a wet smack against her stomach and stuck to her skin.
"You know, a real gentleman would give a woman their dry clothes," she ventured.
He raised an eyebrow as if to say, Are you stupid or something? and turned his head away. She let out a loud sigh and crossed her arms over her chest in a position startlingly similar to one of Naruto's, frowning as she looked over the water.
"…can I have your pants?"
"No."
"Come on, I'm going to be walking around and all the perverts will be staring at my ass," she pleaded with him.
He stated, "I am not giving you my pants."
His guard was down and Sakura had taken advantage of that. She tried to shove him roughly into the river, but he heard her lunge towards him. He dodged and grabbed her by her left wrist, throwing her into the river. She gripped at his shirt with her right hand at the last minute and yanked sharply. He fell in with her.
Itachi surfaced first with a mixed expression. He looked down at his clothes that were now well and truly soaked. Behind him, Sakura had recovered from the fall and was laughing loudly. He turned his head to face her and she had thrown her head back, her eyes closed as something that sounded like life bubbled from her lips.
"See, none of this would have happened if you had just given me your pants," she pointed out.
He pulled himself out of the river and made a series of quick hand signals. He disappeared silently and left her standing in the water alone.
So, I was cold and shivering and extremely self conscious as I walked through Konoha. Wherever possible, I travelled along rooftops to avoid being scrutinized for too long and kept to the shadows.
"We're needed in the Hokage's office," Deidara's voice spoke to me through my conveniently waterproof earpiece.
"Right now?"
"Yeah. She's throwing a bitch fit again," Kisame informed me.
I let out a loud sigh and debated whether to go home and change or to go straight to the Hokage office and make a fool of myself. If I went home first, Tsunade would probably kill me and I didn't want another excuse to make her angry at me. Despair lodged in my throat as I realized I would actually have to go straight to her office.
Trudging into the Hokage office, trailing water behind me as I went was probably not the best way to make an impressive entrance. Tsunade's eyebrows rose high into her hairline, but she didn't say anything. Kisame, however, did.
"Those are ugly panties."
I glared at him and said through gritted teeth, "Thank you, Kisame."
The door opened behind me and the room went silent as Itachi entered, dripping wet. This was the first time he came to a mission briefing, and it seemed like he was only there to embarrass me. I looked as far away from him as possible as I tried to subtly hide my ass from the other people in the room. Deidara looked absolutely horrified, whereas Kisame tried to stifle his laughter. He snorted loudly and completely ruined the effect.
"I will not yell at any of you right now, though you all deserve it for being so unprofessional," she growled at us. Deidara looked very much the kicked puppy and I was the only one who had enough shame to look guilty.
"You need to go and retrieve information from this spot," she indicated to a mark on a map spread before her, "and bring it back to Konoha. I want this finished within the hour."
Only Deidara and I nodded, whereas Kisame was still grinning and Itachi was stone faced as ever. We turned to leave.
"And Sakura, change your pants," Tsunade called after me.
I went a bright red whereas Kisame burst into howls of laughter beside me. Deidara purposely slowed down so that he was walking behind me and a small smirk stretched at the corner of Itachi's mouth.
"Hey, Sasuke?" Naruto asked and Sasuke glanced at him.
"You know that bag you gave Sakura-chan? The one with the 'Sexy Ninja' patch on it?" Naruto pressed.
Sasuke inclined his head slightly and asked, "What about it?"
"Where did you get the patch? I want to get one." Naruto grinned sheepishly.
"I didn't buy the patch or the bag. I found it," Sasuke explained.
Naruto frowned suspiciously. "You found it? Where?"
"In the river of the Uchiha District."
Next Chapter Preview : Reunion
"You have not been performing the task I assigned to you, Itachi-san."
"You're treating him like he's not even a person! Naruto's a human being and should have his own choices and rights, you can't just take his freedom away from him-"
"I can take it away when thousands of lives are on the line!"
"Is this what this is about? Your brother?"
"Do you think the world revolves around you?"
"Yes. I pass."
"What is it, Hidan?"
"I've found the jinchuuriki."
1-800-SELANDORA-IS-SO-SEXY
Is that the random question game that's been mentioned in the preview?
Ahaha, yes! It returns, and with the same players as last time. There is still itasaku in the next chapter, but Deidara's not so important right now. He's had his time in the spotlight, it's time for Itachi now.
How long has Itachi been blind?
At the end of Defining Evil, Sakura helped heal his eyes a little bit. She didn't have enough time to fully heal them so it was only temporary relief, he's technically been blind for a month until Sakura took pity on the bastard.
What's Dragon Dance?
It's a story I'm helping to beta/doing a collaboration with Crimson Violets and I still have yet to send her the second chapter when I'd promised her. ACK. I'm so sorry! I just finished, I'll send it to you straightaway! (Please read it! It's good fun and original.)
The last chapter was really intense, emotionally speaking.
Yeah, I'd like to think it was. This story needed some kind of emotional climax in the first arc. The second arc, the War Arc, begins in the next chapter. I really love emotions, they're so much fun to write and I normally end up feeling really emotional myself writing them. Of course, sometimes I go overboard and cram too many into the wrong character.
Why didn't Itachi just suck it up and go see Sakura about his eyes?
There's something I've realized about Itachi, especially after the past few manga chapters. He is not proud at all, and that was the mistake I made with Defining Evil. He didn't go to her because he didn't want to be seen as relying on someone, but rather because he couldn't. This is explained in chapter 13 (ahh, that's a fun chapter).
Was Itachi blind because of the Mangekyou or the explosion?
He's technically blind because of the Mangekyou. The explosion further damaged his eyes.
Is Itachi a bit of a coward when it comes to Sakura?
That's a very good way of putting it. This is partially true, mainly because she knows so much and he knows she does have a bit of power over him. Since he's always trying to become more powerful, the fact that she can control him a little bit must be terrifying.
Is Itachi jealous of Deidara and Sakura?
Just slightly. Deidara's more jealous of him really.
Are Deidara, Sakura and Itachi going to become or have a threesome?
Although threesomes are incredibly hot (just kidding) I'm afraid not. I think the only stories that work with a proper, accepted three way relationship is the Team 7 relationship excluding Kakashi.
Selandora (the sickeningly emotional one who has to go sneeze right now)
