Thank you again for all your lovely reviews – this is far and away the most I have ever received for a piece. I'm apologising yet again for letting this one sit and stew for a while – I got the worst writer's block I've had in a long time. You are allowed to throw things at me. I'll already got started on Chapter 11 so hopefully that will be up within the next few days.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The plot is my own.

1

Sakura was hugely confused, trying to add up the events of the past weeks. Itachi had tortured her, informed her he would kill her, experimented on her, yet in every action had shown a respect for her abilities that he had never shown Sasuke. And now there was the matter of the kiss. She knew that one should have been enough to drive Sasuke mad. Yet Itachi had been giving all the signals that he wanted it again. He had found every excuse to touch her and had been kind to her over the past couple of days.

What the hell was he planning?

There were other issues that needed addressing. Sakura wanted to know exactly why he had not killed the only member of the Uchiha clan who stood a chance of defeating him. She'd mused over it so many times in the last few days that it had taken on the same significance in her mind as what happened to a person after death. It seemed crucial to her. She felt that, if she knew, she could get out of this situation in one piece. Itachi never let even his closest comrades in on every detail of his plans, to allow for things going wrong. If she could just find out how his mind worked… what twisted thoughts were going through his brain.

She also felt a sensation that everything was coming together. The best-laid plans can fail if one error occurs, and while Sakura knew that Itachi had covered for every eventuality the vague sixth sense every good shinobi had was going off. Something was going to go wrong and she was pretty sure she would be the one to suffer if Itachi was driven into a corner while still being in control of her.

It was all going to happen over the next few days. And whatever was going on with Itachi was going to have to reach a conclusion soon.

1

Naruto's nose flared as he picked up a new scent. The vibrations that had diverted him had long since stopped but he locked his body in a straight line and kept going. There had to have been an explosion, and so sooner or later he would come across the traces of it.

This scent was similar to Sasuke's, and while there was no other traces of the origin Naruto could make an educated guess at it.

Evidently Itachi had left an open, winding trail for Sasuke to follow at some point, but he hadn't countered for Naruto's ability to track. The last time he left the compound to get provisions, he had not covered up his scent. Naruto wasn't to know that at that point, Itachi was distracted enough by the thought of setting his plan to mentally damage Sakura in motion not to think of it. Sasuke didn't have enough chakra control to focus it to his nose, and Itachi had assumed he'd immobilised the rest of the group.

It was stale, possible five or six days old. Nonetheless, Naruto could pick it up. He was lucky in that it hadn't rained in a few days.

Now he had something new to follow, heading in the same direction he was, Naruto took off with new determination. Sakura-san was not far away now. Naruto felt his teeth grate together as he thought of her completely at the mercy of the Uchiha. If the teme had done anything to harm her…if he ended up killing her…

He'd willingly go to four tails just to kill Itachi.

1

Sasuke thought he was going to go crazy. The trail looped and wound around, disappeared, reappeared, went from ground to treetops and back again, sometimes faint, sometimes strong. And in some spots there were dozens of other people who had crossed the area, confusing him momentarily as he struggled to pick up Itachi's trail.

Tracking had never been his strong point. He'd been more focused on power displays. It was the only reason he had taken Karin with him when he first went hunting for Itachi – she could sense his chakra. She'd been so much worse than Sakura had been at age twelve that he'd been relieved when Sugietsu had beheaded her in the middle of the night. Although it had forced him to kill the former Mist-nin out of principle as he had messed up any chance he had of finding Itachi at that point.

I should have studied even harder in the academy, he grouched. He couldn't help remembering the Chuunin exams. He had shown he had a great potential for raw power and an ability to use ninjutsu well, but he hadn't passed. Neither had Gaara, Neji, or Naruto. They had power but lacked the necessary strategy. Sasuke hadn't picked up the hint at the time and grew ever more isolated, thinking he needed to be even more powerful.

Even with thoughts of hatred for Itachi overwhelming his mind, he still had moments to think on his treatment of Sakura. As he had been resting and rebuilding Chakra the previous day, he remembering fighting Gaara in the forest following the final Chuunin exam. What was it he had said to Naruto?

"You'd better save Sakura. I never want to see an important person die in front of me again."

Yet…he'd treated her as unnecessary ever since he returned – ever since he had hit that nerve centre in her neck and deposited her on the bench before leaving Konoha for Otokagure. Sasuke now knew she was important to him and he was going to let her know about it. It didn't matter if she hadn't been able to fight off Itachi. Nobody who didn't have a Sharingan could. What mattered was getting her back safe again. He didn't know what Itachi might do to Sakura just to pass the time, but Sasuke swore that he would put Itachi through seven hells of pain before killing him if he had seriously hurt her.

It had surprised him when he realised afterwards that revenge on Itachi for his clan had not been at the forefront of his mind for the past few days. He still loathed the man, still dreamed up the most violent genjutsus to put him through when they met, but it was all in relation to the pink-haired medic. He didn't care if it was because of the principle of having something he took for granted removed from his life. He was going to save Sakura, whatever it took.

1

Sakura shifted, popping the vertebrae in her back as she awoke. The clock indicated that she had only slept for two hours, yet she felt as though she had had a solid night's sleep. She settled into medic mode and shut her eyes.

Heartbeat: Fast.

Blood is moving around the body faster than normal.

Body clock indicates that eight hours of rest have been taken.

This was confusing. Everything inside her body was operating faster than was healthy. She could be going into cardiac arrest, and for a second Sakura's breath froze in her lungs with fright.

She heard a snapping noise, and then her heartbeat returned to normal.

What was that?

She considered the options. While she was asleep, she was free from any mind tricks that Itachi could have played. Other than the dreams…She shook her head and returned to her thoughts. She had not had a nightmare. Nor had she been startled out of sleep.

Could Itachi have slowed time somehow?

It would make sense. As she woke up, her brain entered the time stream of the world Itachi had created, but her natural working that were not directed by the conscious mind kept going at the pace of regular time. In her slowed-down state, it would make her heart and breathing seem excessively fast until her mind gained control and her whole body came completely under control of the jutsu. It would also explain why, in real time, she had had a decent night's sleep and yet, in this world, she had woken at three in the morning.

"Kai!" Sakura formed the seal and pushed chakra into her mind. There was no shift around her and she opened one eye cautiously to look at the clock. It hadn't changed.

Was she just being paranoid?

Sakura flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a minute. Even though there was nothing to disturb her now, she knew she would not get back to sleep. Grumbling, she headed through to the courtyard just for something to do.

Itachi was poised in a corner, eyes shut, reminding her of a spider lying in wait. She stood and watched him for a minute. He was definitely not asleep, and Sakura realised that she could never imagine him sleeping. He was always alert, always wary. Even when he did sleep, she imagined it was very light, the slightest disturbance instantly wakening him. She remembered Gaara's having a similar problem – although it was more of an attribute in the shinobi world – with his sleeping after the Shukaku extraction.

His years of insomnia made him terrified of exposing himself to whatever could attack while he slept. Sakura had helped him with that and to her surprise she found herself thinking fondly of the Sand-nin. His company was quiet, not as obtrusive as Naruto's, but not as arrogant as Sasuke's. He was intelligent and while she had helped him develop a normal sleeping pattern they had had interesting conversations. He had mentioned inviting her to Suna again, for no other reason than wanting to thank her properly for her help. She suddenly desperately wanted to see him.

"Are you unable to sleep, Sakura-san?" Itachi hadn't opened his eyes.

"I've slept." She made her voice just cold enough to provoke him. He opened his eyes and frowned a little.

"Not enough. You should be rested for the fight."

"So should you." Something had made Sakura slightly reckless and Itachi's eyes narrowed.

"I do not need sleep. I can meditate enough to rest me fully while remaining alert." That made little sense to Sakura. Meditation was a withdrawal into the self, blocking out surrounding distractions. It was for development of the mind. Perhaps lack of sleep was the cause of the lines under his eyes.

Sakura sat opposite him, legs crossed.

"You've slowed time."

Silence.

"I've noticed it. I can't dispel it. I assume it's a genjutsu that you've trapped us both in. Are you going to tell me why?"

"Events were advancing too fast for what I have in mind. Should a person not under the influence look in, we will be moving extraordinarily slowly. I need extra time here."

"Why? You are prepared for Sasuke. You've got me under your control. You've kissed me-" she spat it out bitterly – "what else is there to do?" Itachi shut his eyes again.

"You are interesting. I intend to learn more about you before I kill you."

That was not the answer Sakura was expecting. There was a long period of silence before she spoke again, and she had moved away from the topic.

"Why didn't you kill Sasuke?"

1

Itachi felt a flicker of surprise, with no little amusement. She must have really relaxed – or be utterly without self-control – to ask him that. He would humour her, however.

Sakura was looking at him suspiciously. She had heard his little 'huh' that indicated laughter.

"I could see the limit of every other Uchiha," he eventually replied. "They were no match for me. My brother, however, was doing well, but I felt he could match me. Maybe even surpass me. He needed motivation and I needed to test my capacity. The clan was ruthless in the training of the young, and it was suffocating me. Those elders who did not let the brightest and the best run the clan, preferring to stick to their rules and their petty jealousies, letting them affect the Uchiha Clan. I knew they would do the same to Sasuke. They would make him a tool and then let him gather rust. I released him from that destiny."

Sakura glared at him and tried to speak, but Itachi held up a hand.

"A long time ago, I told Sasuke that I would always be there as a bar for him to overcome – whether he hated me or not. I told him it was the purpose of older brothers.

"I am still a mark by which he measures himself, and the day he overcomes me is the day I am of no longer any value to him. Over the past years I have used every opportunity I had to goad him further. Now a decision will be made. He will either win against me through demonstration of his bonds to you, or he will fail. He hates me. If he cares for you in equal measure to that hatred then he will prevail. If not, he will not survive."

"Must I die for him?" Sakura asked. It wasn't pleading. It was a straight question. "Do I have to cease existing for your experiment to succeed?"

Itachi slid his eyes towards her. She was sitting in the corner opposite him, the moonlight shining in at an angle onto her. She was looking up at the sky, and the light streaming in gave her skin a luminescence that intoxicated him. Her face was serious, and her eyes a brighter green than he had realised.

She was beautiful and she was smart. She had experienced so much more trauma and fear than most ninjas. It was her bad luck that it was a result of ending up on a team with the two shinobi whose pasts eclipsed the pain it caused her in the present, and who were taken to be infinitely stronger than her.

"No."

Her head snapped towards him. "What?"

Itachi gave her the first genuine smile of his life.

His jaw felt rusty but it reached his eyes and he saw she knew he meant it.

"It is not necessary for you to die. I just need him to believe it."

1

Sakura somehow knew, right then, than even if Sasuke lost, Itachi wouldn't kill her. But still…

"So…if Sasuke loses…what happens?"

Itachi stood and walked over before settling down next to her. She didn't shift away.

"He will suffer and he will die. I will move on and – considering the way this is going…" his voice dropped. "Take you with me."

Sakura's eyes widened.

Itachi was not waiting for a reply, but Sakura's mind was scrabbling for answers. Up until now she knew he had been playing mind tricks, a further end to Sasuke's suffering. This, however, seemed to be real. He wanted to know more about her, keep her with him…to no end but his own desire.

"Why?"

Sakura could feel her heart hammering in her ribs as he turned to look at her. His body moved as he freed his arms and crossed his legs.

"You fascinate me."

The next second Sakura was sitting in Uchiha Itachi's lap, his arms wound tight around her. He looked directly into her eyes and Sakura felt another jolt of shock. He'd turned the Sharingan off.

Stop this! Stop! Think of Sasuke!

"But Sas-"

Itachi's mouth covered hers and her mind was wiped blank. It was as incredible as it had been the first time and Sakura realised she had missed it. Her whole body seemed to be thrumming and she didn't make the conscious decision for her arms to reach up and wrap themselves around Itachi's neck. When one of Itachi's hands crept up her shirt and started drawing patterns on the skin of her stomach she trembled and felt Itachi smirk against her mouth.

Her mind was foggy and Inner Sakura was yelling for common sense, for her to stop, to run away.

Sakura didn't want to. Itachi was worshipping her and her body and she suddenly didn't care if it didn't last. Her sense of touch was heightened and every brushing motion Itachi made left her tingling. Her hands were wandering as well, finding a sensitive line below his navel that caused him to shudder when she ran a fingernail down it.

Itachi stood, lifting Sakura in his arms, the two of them still attached to each other's lips. Sakura knew where they were heading and she wanted it, she didn't care, to hell with the consequences, just for once to do something she wanted…

Itachi carried her into his room and the door shut behind them with a soft click.

1

This was DIFFICULT. I apologise. And don't think my Itachi's gone all mushy, either – he's still going to be a sociopath!

Also, there will NOT be a lemon in the next chapter. I can't write them and there have been requests for me not to up the rating, anyway. I'll just stick to the suggestive stuff.

R&R please!

-Genjutsu-Dragon-