Sakura and Deidara were pressed up against a wall near Itatchi's room when he walked towards the door.
The two of hem stifled laughter as Itatchi opened the door. He stepped into the room. There was a sudden girlish shriek.
Sasori and Kisame came running down the hallway and paused at the sight of Sakura and Deidara crying with laughter against the wall. "What did you two do?" asked Kisame. Sakura tried to explain but burst out laughing again.
Itatchi emerged from the room, he was paler than usual and he walked straight over to Sakura, he picked her up by the collar and slammed her against the wall. Sakura continued laughing. "How did you know that?" he demanded, letting Sakura go. She wiped a tear from her eye, "Well during one of your genjutsu trainings I managed to do a little soul searching, of your soul of course."
"You read my mind?" Itatchi was annoyed.
Kisame walked to Itatchi's room and peered in, "What theā¦" The room was filled with cherry blossoms, daisies and other assortments of flowers. She'd also opened a window and painted his walls pink. She's covered his bed in flowers and hay. Itatchi sneezed.
Sakura and Deidara shared a high-five. "This is my pay-back for you making me relive that memory Itatchi. Remember what happens when you cross me!" she smiled and gave him a peace sign before walking away form him with a broad smile spread across her face, she opened the door to her room, which was next door to Itatchi's. She blew the four boys a kiss before walking through the doorway.
Itatchi sneezed again, "This means war." He said rubbing his eyes. "I never knew you got hay fever." Muttered Kisame.
"Sakura told me ages ago." Explained Deidara, "I only wanted to paint the walls, but she went all evil on him and put the flowers in."
Sasori smirked in approval, "It's only been a few weeks and she fits in so well." He said. Itatchi angrily stomped away from them, "I need some water," he muttered.
After Itatchi had left Kisame and Deidara burst out in fits of laughter again.
Sakura had just stepped out of her en-suite shower room and was draped in a towel. She started tying up her red silk robe as the door opened.
She gasped and spun away from the door. "What the hell Itatchi?" she squeaked as her cheeks went bright red. She fastened the tie on her robe and turned to face him.
Her hair was tied in a bum and dripping with water. "Ever heard of privacy?"
"You're a fine one to talk, re-painting my room and putting flowers in there, I'll be sneezing for weeks."
"So you peeked on me?" Sakura sounded outraged,
"Don't flatter yourself I just come in here to tell you that I'll be spending a week in here." Sakura narrowed her eyes. "No!" she said, turning away from him and stomping to her wardrobe.
"Too bad Haruno, I'm staying in here because it's your fault."
"What about Deidara?"
"He'll accidentally blow me up, remember what happened last week with that bird that flew passed his window?" Sakura grimaced.
A bird had woken Deidara up, so in an angry tantrum he threw an explosive at it and destroyed it. "If I move in my sleep he'll kill me."
"You're a strong guy, you can look after yourself."
"Haruno."
"Uchiha."
They glared at each other for a few moments. Finally Sakura sighed, "Fine, but you sleep on the floor and no touching my stuff." Itatchi smiled with relief.
"Oh and by the way Uchiha." Said Sakura turning away from him, "Annoy me at all and I'll get a nice little collection of summer flowers in here. Understand?" Itatchi nodded.
Sakura smiled sweetly, "Good, now get out so I can change into my PJ's!" she shoved him out of the door.
Sakura was trying to persuade Sasuke to stay. She was crying, "Please take me with you?" Sasuke darted behind her, "Thank you." She felt the shocking pain to her back. She felt her knees ache from the pain of her fall. "Sasuke-kun." She whispered.
She was suddenly moved to another place in time in the middle of a fight with Orochimaru. Naruto was fighting Sasuke.
Orochimaru tried to take Sakura down with his tongue. Sakura was standing on the snake tongue as Orochimaru writhed in pain. She pulled out a kunai and pinned him to the ground by stabbing it through his tongue. A spurt of blood erupted into the air.
"Strangle that!" she shouted. She channelled her chakra into her fists, she was running low on energy as well as chakra and her wounds were very deep.
Orochimaru laughed and pulled his tongue from the ground, he pulled it back into his mouth and took the kunai from it. He'd thrown Sakura off balance. She flipped onto her palms and then onto her feet.
"Tsunade's little prodigy, I've heard so much about you, the beautiful Konoha medic Nin with a short temper and great fighting skills. How would you like a chance to join me?" offered Orochimaru with a hungry grin.
Sakura laughed slightly, "What would posses you to even think I'd consider that offer?" she asked, charging him and trying to land a kick to the side of his face.
Orochimaru blocked her attack and threw her backwards. Sakura disappeared in a puff of smoke. She kicked him from the other side and sent him flying into a wall. At the same time Naruto was knocked out by one of Sasuke's shuriken.
Sasuke was out of breath and so was Sakura, Sakura turned to face him, "Sasuke." She whispered. Sasuke sneered at her, "What do you want with me now?" he asked.
Sakura gained a fighting stance, "I came to take you home Sasuke-kun." Sasuke snorted, "My home was destroyed years ago."
"Stop being such an emo and accept it. You can avenge your family without destroying the one you've built up!" Sasuke pulled out a set of shuriken, "I don't consider you to be anything other than an annoying fan girl I got put on a team with way-back-when. Don't flatter yourself by think you mean a damned thing to me!"
Sakura felt hurt by his words. "You don't mean that."
"Yes I do, and to prove it I'll kill you!" He rushed her. Sakura didn't think in time to block or dodge and felt the full force of his punch.
She fell backwards and rolled for a couple of feet on the ground. He threw a kunai at her. Sakura was about to block it when a force of red chakra defected it, "How dare you harm Sakura-chan." Hissed Naruto, he was in nine-tails mode.
Sakura felt tears running down her face, he had actually tried to kill her. She thought depressed. As Naruto and Sasuke continued their fight, Sakura turned to see Orochimaru standing up through the hole in the wall he'd been knocked through.
"Little Sakura-chan. Sasuke doesn't love you or even like you, he never did. Now that you're trying to get strong so that he'll notice you for being great, it just isn't working."
He was suddenly behind her. His hand pressed lightly above her head. She froze; her body was put into a paralysis. Tears were frozen in her eyes. Orochimaru stroked her hair, "Do you understand now? Why you should give up on him and join me?"
"No!" she said trying to move. "Poor, poor Sakura-chan."
"Stop it, get off me!" an invisible force started shaking her, "Poor little Sakura doesn't know where she belongs anymore."
"Stop it!" she screamed. She managed to thrash out her hand and felt it clasped tightly by another hand. "Haruno wake up!"
Sakura moved her other hand out to punch him. "Get away from me!" Orochimaru's smiling face filled her mind as her other hand was clasped as well. "Sakura!"
Sakura opened her eyes; she was straining against Itatchi's grip. "Uchiha?" she whispered. Itatchi was holding her flat against the wall.
Her hands were held tightly in his. He was wearing a grey vest and sweat gleamed across his forehead, "Are you awake now?" he asked. Sakura let her arms go limp and he let go of them. He stepped away from her and moved back to the small bed on the floor. He'd made it from spare sheets and a mattress.
Sakura pressed her back against the wall and let herself slide into a sitting position, she was panting and sweating. Itatchi tuned away from her under the covers, "Was he that bad to you?" he asked.
"Who?"
"My little brother." Replied Itatchi as if she'd asked a stupid question, "You were talking in your sleep and crying and screaming at some points."
Sakura sighed, "He destroyed me." She explained simply. "He slowly took away my life." Itatchi sighed, "He killed your parents didn't he?"
"Yeah, he did that. He also left me when I begged him to stay, I felt so lost without him and he knew it." She sighed and leaned her head back.
"Did you love him?" asked Itatchi as Sakura calmed. "I did once, now I don't love him, but I can't hate him either."
"Then why did you fight him?"
"It seems he wants me to be on my own." She said quietly. Itatchi stared at her closely as she continued, "He left me alone when I loved him so dearly, then when my parents finally started to spend time with me he took them away too."
She was emotionless again silently re-living the memories. Her eyes narrowed, "I was weak then." She admitted, "But I'm not weak anymore. So Orochimaru and he can torture me all they want. It doesn't work anymore." she stood up and got into her own bed.
"I'm sorry for subconsciously attacking you Uchiha." She declared pulling the covers over her. "Don't worry, it's not like you were trying to hurt me, you wanted to hurt Orochimaru, am I right?" Sakura nodded in reply, "Yeah."
"I never liked him either, even when he joined I disliked him, he was way too into things for himself, it made him a danger to the organisation, but when he started taking an interest in stealing my body to use when he gets too old, I really hated him, and by then so did everyone else, so he left."
Sakura turned over to look out of her window. "Night Itatchi."
"Night Haruno."
