Dear Diary,

Wow, that sounded really cliche. Well, whatever. Why am I writing in this stupid journal at five in the morning? Well, that's easy. I can't sleep, I can't even close my eyes without thinking about him. I wonder if he feels the same as I do. He's probably asleep right now, but I long to see him, to hear his voice. Great, now I sound like some sort of love-sick fool. I do love him though. Strange.

I need to talk to him about this, it's starting to get out of my hands. And there's another thing, the whole ordeal with Sasuke. I don't like leaving it as we have, I still want to be his friend. Do you think a friendship would be enough for him, or will he only accept my love? I can't give him my love though, and he knows that, but I still want to fix things. I guess I can talk to him before school, and set things straight. I hope it won't get on Itachi's nerves too much, but he knows I belong to-

There was a sudden knock on her door, and Sakura's mother walked into the dimly lit room. She looked disapproving of the lack of lighting in her bedroom, but was too sleep deprived to recommend her. Sakura had forgotten that he mother woke up so early in the morning. By the looks of it, her mother already was ready to head down to the station. Konan looked at her daughter tiredly, surprised to find her sitting at the desk, writing in a small, black book. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out why Sakura had decided to wake up so early, when she normally slept in.

"Saku-chan, what are you doing?" She finally asked, walking into the room. Sakura blushed slightly, and then closed her black book. Konan sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I couldn't sleep." Sakura muttered, joining her mother on the bed. Konan nodded her head, understanding everything instantly. Sakura's head was so full of Itachi that she couldn't even sleep properly. She hadn't suspected that her feelings for Itachi were so strong, but that was fine. The more Sakura preoccupied herself with Itachi, the less time she had to think about her father.

"I see." Konan smirked. Her daughter was growing up, falling in love. Next thing she knew, Sakura was going to be getting married, and having children of her own to care for. They went so fast, it felt like she hadn't had hardly any time with her at all. It wasn't fair, and she knew there was nothing she could do to change it, to stop the process.

"I can't stop thinking about him." Sakura admitted. Her mother chuckled to herself, remembering when she had felt like that for Nagato, all of those years ago. They had been childhood friends, and as they grew older, they discovered feeling for each other that they had never thought they would have. Then Sakura had come along, and before they could catch up with themselves, they were parents. That wasn't to say that they hadn't wanted their daughter, they had just been so young. Konan had barely been nineteen when Sakura had been born.

"I remember how that felt, so long ago. I suppose I had been around your age when I began to feel as you do, and years later, I ended up marrying him, and then you came along."

Konan was careful to not say his name, she knew the affects of mentioning Nagato in Sakura's presence. Yet, Sakura instantly thought of her father, and his marriage to her mother. She refused to cry, to let her memories take over her again. She knew that Deidara was right, she needed to move on, to get over the fact that her father wasn't going to come back. She just didn't know how.

"Sakura, just because you move on, it doesn't mean that you forget about your father. You can still cherish your memories of him." Konan said, watching as Sakura fought her emotions. She was doing so much better, Konan realized. There was only one reason for Sakura to be improved so much after such a short amount of time, Itachi was doing more for her daughter than even he suspected.

"Kaa-san, tell me how you met Otou-san again." Sakura whispered. Konan smiled proudly, and nodded her head.

"His family had moved, and he became a new student at my elementary school."

Konan looked up from her workbook at the sound of the classroom door opening. In walked a boy with flaming orange hair, and a bored expression, as if he were above everyone else in the room. He silently walked to the teacher's desk, then handed her a yellow slip of paper. Sensei inspected it for a few seconds, then looked at the boy standing before her. His hair was a severe case of disarray, and she noticed with repulsion how he had two piercings on each ear. Sensei sighed tiredly, but gave him a warm smile nonetheless. His face remained blank.

"Attention class, we have a new student joining us from Harajuku, Tokyo. I want everyone to be nice." Sensei said, standing up. The boy looked across all of the faces in the room, landing lastly of all on Konan. Her teeth gritted in irritation, already knowing what he was thinking. The new boy thought she had funny hair. Well, he had no right to think her hair was funny, considering the color of his, She thought angrily. The new boy saw her frustrated expression and smirked slightly. Konan fumed, looking back down at her workbook. Great, another kid to make fun of me, she growled inwardly.

"Can you tell the class your name?" Sensei asked sweetly, turning back to the disinterested looking boy. He stood silently for a few moments.

"Pein." He finally drawled, closing his eyes in exhaustion. Konan looked back up at the boy curiously. He hadn't bowed, irking most of the other, well-groomed students, offending them so soon after his arrival. Sensei's face scrunched up in exasperation.

"That's not your real name. Tell the class what your real name is." She reprimanded the new boy who called himself 'Pein.' The orange headed boy looked up at her in disdain, clearly not wanting to say what his true name was. He knew better than to object though, and so he turned back to the class full of inquisitive peers.

"It's Nagato." He corrected himself, earning an approving smile from Sensei.

"Thank you. I'm going to have you sit behind Konan for today." Sensei told him, pointing to her. Nagato followed her finger with his eyes, and smirked after seeing the blue haired girl. She glared at him, which Sensei seemed to have missed. He walked down the isle of desks until reaching his, and he pointedly looked her haughtily before siting down. Sensei looked satisfied, and she went back to her desk. It was a few minutes before Nagato, who was utterly bored, said something.

"You have blue hair?" He snorted quietly, so Sensei couldn't hear him. Konan bristled in her seat, not liking his mocking tone. She had diligently turned to her work after he had sat in his seat, trying very hard to pretend his smug face wasn't right behind her.

"So? Your stupid hair is orange and messy." She retorted under her breath, only just loud for him to hear her. He growled back at her in fury.

"Well, it's better than dumb old blue." He finally said. She spun in her seat to face him, both of them glaring relentlessly. She took in his strange, grey eyes, and his ear piercings. He didn't look away after seeing her odd, golden-honey eyes, but instead smirked with a sense of superiority. It was a while before she finally spoke.

"If you think that your stupid piercings make you look cool, then you're wrong."

"It's still better than having fucking blue hair." He sneered.

Konan didn't even think about it, but instead acted on instinct. She jumped over the desk to tackle him onto the floor. They rolled around, drawing the attention of the other students, who began to chant either of their names. Konan had hardly known what she had done until she was pried off Nagato, and then dragged into the hall. Sensei, who was known to have an unlimited patience, talked to both of them. Konan listened to her attentively, while Nagato stared at her with disinterest, not really caring about what she was telling him.

Both had to stay after class to write lines, and the entire hour they spent in the almost empty classroom was utterly silent. Sensei watched them the whole time, observing how they silently fumed, both of them blaming the other for their predicament. It wasn't until the hour was over that either of them dared to look at each other. It was Konan who spoke first, despite the fact that it meant that she had lost to him.

"I'm sorry, Nagato-kun." She whispered, adverting her eyes from him. He sighed, digging his hands into his pants pockets.

"No, It's my fault." He grumbled, also adverting his eyes in embarrassment. Thus, what should have been a life-long friendship was born.

Sakura smiled sadly at the story, remembering the first time she had heard it. Her father had been in the room, and after hearing Konan's version of the story, he had insisted that it was inaccurate. There had been no resolution, but it had been a very amusing thing to watch. There were so many stories that they had told her, and half of them they couldn't agree on. Their first date to the movie theaters, when they had kissed for the first time, how he had finally gotten the backbone to ask her to be his wife, and when they had found out about her.

There were so many stories of them, and Sakura wondered how she could be so selfish for all of those years, compared to what her mother must have felt. I hadn't been fair of her, not at all. Her mother had so many years with him, and she should have had so many more, but that had been taken away prematurely. She was so self centered, never wondering what her mother had felt after the crash.

"Sakura, I don't blame you for how much you've missed him." Konan whispered sadly, hugging her daughter briefly. Sakura watched as her mother stood and made her leave, knowing that she had to leave for work.

"I'm sorry, Kaa-san." Sakura replied softly, looking down at the hands in her lap. Konan smiled down at her daughter, taking the time to ruffle her hair thoughtfully. Sakura looked up from her hands, her emerald eyes meeting with her mother's golden. She knew that her mother wasn't angry with her, even if she probably should have been, and it made her feel even more guilty. How could she be so inconsiderate?

"I have to go. I expect Temari-chan and Gaara-kun to arrive sometime soon, so keep your chin up." Konan said wisely, shutting the door as she left Sakura's poorly lit room. Sakura knew her mother was right, she didn't want her friends to have to see her in such a pathetic state anymore.

"Have a nice day, Kaa-san!" She called as her mother marched down the stairs. There was no response, and so Sakura looked at her clock, and after seeing that it was almost five twenty, she forced herself to walk across the hallway and into her bathroom. She tiredly stripped to nothing and turned the red knob to her tub faucet, letting the water run hot before pulling the plug to close the drain. Sakura turned the blue knob slightly to add cold water. She mixed in some Bath and Body bubble bath, and slipped into the hot water.

It was soothing, and ran the coldness from her body almost instantly, but it did nothing to clear her head, like she had hoped it would. Itachi had to be asleep still, it was too early for someone mentally sane to be awake, she told herself. She unwillingly pictured him stretched over his bed, his black comforters just barely covering his body, his toned chest unabashedly showing. She growled at herself, and splashed her face with water to drive such thoughts from her head. It failed to help.

Sakura busied herself with scrubbing her body harshly with a rough sponge, then by digging her fingers into her head with strawberry shampoo. When everything was as clean as she could possibly get it, she slumped completely under the water, only her face being above it. She shut her eyes, and let the steam uncloud her thoughts. It seemed to work slightly, so when she could think about something other than Itachi she stood and grabbed a towel to wrap it around herself. She looked at her flushed expression in the mirror, and then brushed a comb through her tangled, pink hair. Once satisfied, she snuck across the hallway again and into her bedroom. Sakura put on her school uniform and went through her bag, to be sure she wasn't missing anything. Her bag already packed, she sighed and slumped onto her bed. She had nothing to do, and it wouldn't be at least a half and hour before she needed to go to the bus stop.

Breakfast, she remembered, she still needed to eat breakfast. Sakura jumped down the stairs and into the kitchen. With thirty minutes to kill, she pulled out a large mixing bowl, along with some flour, milk, eggs and vanilla. She combined the ingredients and heated a pan on the stove. Her batter prepared, and her pan ready, she poured some in and waited to flip her pancake. Sakura cooked all of the batter, and when she had a large plate of pancakes, she took two for herself, and covered them with maple syrup. The rest were put into a one hundred degree oven, to keep warm for her boys. Once she had finished eating, she rushed up the stairs to grab her bag and then to the door.

The bus came with no consequence, and Sakura sat in spot nearest to the exit. It was loud and hot, as always, and she felt relief at getting off.

Sasuke was standing at his locker, a cell phone in hand and his infuriating best friend standing next to him. He was trying to ignore Naruto's silly antics about him stealing Sakura from Itachi, knowing that it would be futile. Apparently Naruto had missed his ranting on how Itachi was a vampire who drank the blood of little children.

"Sasuke-kun." He heard that sweet voice call. He looked up from his phone screen, and sure enough, Sakura was standing there. She was smiling slightly, which he hoped was a good sign. Naruto stopped his constant blabbering about him stealing

Sakura and making her like him.

"Konnichiwa, Sakura-chan!" He chirped cheerfully. Sakura giggled, while Sasuke groaned in exasperation at his friend's simple blunder.

"It's not afternoon, Dobe. You say 'ohayo gozaimasu' in the morning." Sasuke corrected Naruto in irritation. Sakura continued to giggle, it didn't really matter if Naruto wasn't good at speaking Japanese, she thought it was cute that he tried for her. Besides, they didn't teach Japanese at their school, so whatever Naruto picked up, it was probably either from watching anime, or listening to Sasuke and Itachi.

"Fine then. Ohayo gozaimasu, Sakura-chan!" He said, putting both hands behind his back proudly. Sakura laughed, but then turned back to Sasuke again.

"Sasuke-kun, I need to talk to you." Sakura sighed, though unable to ride her face of the sweet smiles, and her beautiful, jade eyes met his cold, dark ones. She quickly deduced that he had no intention in being commodious, or of even speaking. He was angry with her for choosing Itachi over him, and she understood that. To her though, it felt like she was just a possession of Itachi's, at least in Sasuke's vantage point. She was just a shiny little toy to fight over. Sakura knew Itachi didn't feel that way, which was reason enough to favor him over his brother.

"I don't like the way we left things. I know you and your brother have a complicated relationship, but I still want to be your friend."

He shook his head stubbornly.

"Sasuke, I don't know how you like to do things around here, but I never leave things hanging like this." She said, pointing a dainty finger to his chest. He flinched visibly, but said nothing.

"Wether you want to or not, you're coming to my birthday party, and you're going to have fun, despite whatever you might think."

"My brother is hosting that cute little party of yours. What makes you think that I'll want to be there?" Sasuke asked dubiously. She huffed, and crossed her arms over her chest. There was no way that she was letting him get out of going.

"Yes, he will be, and that means I get to dress him in a ridiculous outfit, one that even you would have to laugh at." She stated wisely. He blinked at her in confusion. Sakura was going to humiliate his older brother for her brother? This, he had to see.

Itachi was looking for the disappearing little pink-haired girl, when he found her speaking to his younger brother. As always, the blond punk was there as well. He didn't like how much of Sakura's legs the two boys could see, nor how please Sasuke seemed to look. Whatever she was saying, it was making him happy, which for Itachi, would mean a dangerous thing. He walked up to the group, and casually, slinked an arm around her, as a reminder to Sasuke that she was his.

"What are we talking about?" He asked cooly, ignoring Sasuke's blatant staring. Sakura laughed, meaning they had been talking about something he wouldn't like. Sasuke didn't appreciate how easily Itachi showed his possessiveness of Sakura. It was as if he was rubbing it in his face.

"My birthday." Sakura smirked. Itachi grimaced. He didn't like this one bit.

"I was inviting Sasuke-kun. He wants to see what you'll be wearing as my host." She continued, the teasing smile growing wider. Was she serious? Itachi had thought that the whole party ordeal was nothing more than a hoax, he never considered that he'd actually have to host it. Then again, the invitations were already out, and half of the school was going to be showing up at Sakura's house on Friday night. He believed himself to love her, but he wasn't willing to dress up like a clown for the sake of her amusement. That was too below him.

"I will dress as I please. I refuse to look like a fool." He replied stubbornly. If Sasuke was somehow involved, there couldn't be a good ending.

"Actually, I will be deciding what you wear."

"And why is that?"

"Because, I'll let you dress me in anything you want." She whispered. Both Sasuke's and Itachi's expressions changed into multiple looks of shock. Sasuke looked utterly horrified by what she just said, while Itachi seemed to whole heartedly approve. Sasuke didn't like how smug his older brother looked then.

"Can you really trust me to do that? I may not be Hidan, but I wouldn't mind a replay." He murmured playfully. She blushed crazily, confusing Sasuke to no end. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what they were talking about or not.

"Would you really dress me in lingerie for my birthday?" She asked anxiously.

"I'm very serious, Sakura." He purred, letting the syllables of her name roll off his tongue mischievously.

"You're not serious. You can't be." Sakura breathed.

"No. I'm not." Itachi chuckled. Sakura took what he said so seriously, she really needed to stop being so gullible. Still, he had wanted to know what his boundaries were, he seriously doubted she would let him choose 'whatever' he wanted for her to dress in. For example, lingerie was out of the picture. On top of that, what he said had served to irk Sasuke greatly, which amused him.

"Sheesh, you had me worried there for a second." Sakura sighed. Much to everyone's relief, the bell rang for first period. Itachi smirked, then kissed Sakura on the cheek, giving Sasuke a pointed look.

"I have to go to my locker. I will see you in AP U.S." He muttered. Itachi turned to leave, but Sakura grabbed his hand to stop him. She stood on her toes, and kissed the corner of his lips.

"I'll see you there." She told him, and then left a very pleased Itachi in her wake. Sasuke was livid, while Naruto was utterly confused. Wordlessly, Itachi left as well. Naruto patted Sasuke on the back sympathetically.

"Well, so much for that." The blond said. Sasuke ignored his friends.

Itachi was beyond pleased, beyond ecstatic. He was sure that he was so much closer to her being comfortable with him kissing her. She would have to wait for her birthday though, that was when he planned to finally take her lips. Sakura wasn't nearly as desperate for him as he wanted.

It was finally lunch, and Sakura had brought an extra-large bento. She had noticed, with aggravation, how Itachi never ate anything for lunch. She happily walked down the hall, until finding Itachi in their usual spot.

"I brought you some lunch this time." Sakura said in greeting, sitting next to him. He rolled his eyes at her concern, not really wanting to eat anything, even if it was probably Sakura who had made the meal. He wasn't all that hungry.

"You are going to eat it." Sakura growled, seeing his reluctant expression. She opened the bento box and the smells of rice, edamame and fresh-water eel filled the air. She smirked after seeing his eyes drawn to her bento.

"I'll feed you." She pouted. Again, he rolled his eyes at her, but he decided to let Sakura do as she wished. She saw his change in mood and picked up a piece of unagi with her pink chopsticks. Itachi grudgingly opened his mouth, and she put the unagi in. Sakura giggled as she watched him chew the food, and then as he swallowed.

Sakura fed him another bite, and then reached into her bento for something Itachi didn't recognize. She took a bite of whatever it was and nearly moaned with appreciation. To Itachi, it looked like a strange twist on one of his favorite foods, onigiri. Sakura saw him looking at her, and apologetically smiled, thinking he was waiting for another bite. She set down her unrecognizable food and gave him a bite of rice.

"What is that?" Itachi asked dubiously, after quickly chewing and swallowing the rice she had fed him. Sakura followed his gaze, and picked up the unusual onigiri again. She smirked at him, and then answered.

"This is a Hawaiian delicacy, known as the spam musubi."

He continued staring at her musubi, not understanding how anything with processed meat could ever be considered a 'delicacy.' She saw this contemplative expression, and took another bite, as if to disagree with his thoughts. He eyed her musubi warily, and Sakura had a hard time not laughing at him.

"It has spam in it. It can hardly be healthy." He finally said. Sakura gave in, and laughed at his unneeded caution.

"That's funny, coming from a sweet tooth." She giggled. His face scrunched up in confusion and irritation. His having a partiality for things that were sweet had nothing to do with her 'Hawaiian delicacy.'

"Last I knew, dango didn't have processed meat in it." He retorted with a huff. To Sakura, it seemed that Itachi had a sensitive spot for his little, Japanese snack. Sakura wondered if Itachi had a soft spot for her, but knew better than to get her hopes up, this was Itachi. She had to tell herself that Itachi wasn't the person everyone seemed to think he was, he had proven it himself, time and time again.

"Be nice, or I'll put 'processed meats' in your dango." She muttered, mimicking his bored voice to the best of her ability. Itachi paled, completely horrified by the thought of finding spam in his dango one day, revenge via Sakura. The very thought was unsettling. Smirking in victory, she took another bite of her musubi, throughly proud of herself. He sighed, then stole her chopsticks to get another bite of unagi. She stopped him in his tracks, taking the chopsticks back. He suppressed the urge to groan, and patiently opened his mouth to get a bite of eel. It was at this inopportune moment that someone Itachi couldn't identify decided to interrupt them.

"Saku-chan!" A girl called, running up to them. Again with that nickname, Itachi mused. Sakura turned from him, knowing the voice, while Itachi looked somewhat put out at having been interrupted. Secretly, he had been enjoying Sakura's ministrations, her insisting on feeding him. While it was a little annoying, it was also cute. Much to his chagrin, she jumped up to meet the girl. Sakura ran, and both girls met with a tight hug. Absentmindedly, Itachi wondered what it would feel like if Sakura hugged him like that.

"Temari-chan! What are you doing here?" Sakura exclaimed excitedly. She had expected Temari to show up eventually, but she had never suspected she would show up at her school. Not that she minded, she was always happy to see her best friend.

"You want me to leave? Well, I can't say I blame you." Temari teased, poking her head around Sakura to look at the boy sitting behind her. Sakura blushed considerably, knowing not to bother with denying anything. If anyone could see through her, it was Temari.

"He's hot... Is he a senior?" Temari asked in Japanese. Being in America, she had thought he wouldn't be able to understand her sly comment, which he had, of course, instantly made sense of. Itachi glared at the mystery girl, not liking her observation when it came from her. Sakura blushed even more so at her friend's truthful comment, and turned to glance at Itachi. She giggle quietly at his slight blush and deathly glare; it wasn't a combination she got to see on a regular basis. He obviously didn't like what Temari had said about him.

"I can hear you, you know." He muttered.

Temari glanced between the two of them and smirked approvingly. "Good thing too, because I wouldn't let my Saku-chan go out with anyone who couldn't understand Japanese. She tends to forget what language she's talking in when she gets overly excited."

Itachi blinked a few times, then noticed the redhead boy approaching them. For a moment, he had almost confused him for Sasori, but then he saw the excess of black eyeliner, the blueish eyes, and the tattoo on his forehead.

"Itachi, this is my best friend Temari, and her younger brother, Gaara-kun." Sakura finally said, a weak smile on her face.

Oh hell, more visitors. Just what he needed.

A/N: So here's the rest of Sakura's old Harajuku group! Hooray! To anyone who's wondering what a 'spam musubi' is, it's basically a heap of sticky rice, topped with a slice of spam, and then wrapped in nori. It's actually very yummy, and is a common snack in Hawaii. Not that I live there anymore... (sad face) but I was eating one when I wrote this. I suggest it to anyone who's never tried it. Don't be a hater like Itachi just because it has processed meat in it, LOL!

I'm seriously disheartened by my lack of feedback. Please leave me a review, I promise they'll kiss soon!! Don't throw bricks!!!