They never caught up with Sachiko. For a girl in heels, she was oddly fast.

Sakura poked her chocolate cake with a fork moodily. Itachi had been craving sweets after declaring that Sachiko would be in a cake shop, meaning they'd checked every single one in walking distance before Itachi spied a pink cake and demanded they stay to eat.

"I don't really want cake…" Sakura had said, thinking of the dinner she hadn't got to eat back at the Uchiha's.

But he'd bought her one anyway, ignoring her protests.

"Do you think Sachiko's alright?" Sakura asked anxiously, cutting her cake up and eyeing him closely. He seemed almost… giddy.

"What? Oh, Sachiko… I suspect not. She takes blows to her character rather hard… She feels too deeply. She is an emphatic, caring individual, and she believes the world to be a wonderful place. When it strives to prove her wrong, she takes it very badly." Itachi ate his cherry cake absently with an expression of slight surprise etched on his features.

"Shouldn't you call her?" Sakura frowned at him.

"She won't be up to talking. She was fond of Sasuke, thought the world of him. Thought he returned the sentiment, you see. Finding out his true feelings… Very upsetting surprise, I imagine. She will call me in a few days, after she's gotten over it."

"Call her anyway!" Sakura jabbed her fork at him, "Surely she'll want to speak with you!"

Itachi looked thoughtful, "Actually, she never wants to speak to me when she is upset."

Sakura sighed heavily.

What a mess… Sasuke proved to be a cruel bastard with backwards views, she'd shouted at him and made a fool out of herself, and Itachi had pretty much cut all ties with his family.

"Well," Sakura let her head drop onto the table, mumbling into the wood, "That was a disaster. I can't believe Sasuke knew I liked him and that he was going to ask me out, just so he'd have a girlfriend who was meek and submissive. What does that even mean?"

"It means Sasuke wants to please our father in every way, including future spouse. I imagine Father advised him on what the perfect woman was, and told him it was a woman who was silent, obedient, happy to be walked over. My father doesn't live in this century, Sakura. He's a relic from the good old days where sexism was rife but not a word yet."

"Lovely," Sakura rolled her eyes, "What was that all about with your dad? He wanted you to dump Sachiko!"

Itachi stuffed a piece of cake in his mouth and chewed furiously, looking at the ceiling in a heroic attempt to avoid answering her question.

"Tell me." Sakura glared at him.

He swallowed and grimaced, "He doesn't think I love her."

"Oh?" Sakura's eyebrows rose slowly and she tilted her head as she gazed at him, "And do you?"

Itachi paused, looking down at his plate contemplatively. He gave her a quick little smirk and licked his lips, "Of course. She's perfect for me."

"Perfect as in, your personalities mesh, you get along, she makes you laugh, or perfect as in, obedient, silent and willing to overlook stuff?" Sakura's glare darkened at his awkward expression.

Itachi rolled his eyes, wiping his mouth delicately with a napkin, "Perfect as in, absolutely gorgeous, kind and compassionate. Would you like me to compose a poem? A sonnet, perhaps, fourteen lines of justification to appeal to your suspicious nature? Yes, shockingly enough, I love my girlfriend."

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Sakura raised her eyebrows at him.

"Well done for quoting that correctly, you little genius. Don't worry, my father is wrong in most areas… including this one. Don't dwell on it." Itachi's tone was light, but his expression brooked no argument or continuation on the subject.

Sakura glanced around the restaurant as Itachi began to mash up his cake into creamy little bits, glaring at his plate like it had personally offended him. Everything was perfect. The walls were painted a sugary kind of pink, the wooden chairs each decorated with lime green cushions and there were touches of yellow everywhere that managed to brighten the room up, like the sunshine-yellow clock and lemon floor linoleum.

"This place is nice," Sakura gestured around them at the smiley-face napkins and the chocolate fountain, "Looks expensive."

Itachi looked up from his plate and grabbed a menu, examining it swiftly. "No, it's fine." He said simply.

Sakura took a peek when he was once again focused on his cake-mashing, and nearly gagged. The prices would not have been out of place in a jewellery shop. What the…?

"Itachi…" She began cautiously.

"Hmm?" He spooned some mashed cake into his mouth with a pleased grin.

"How rich are you?" She asked bluntly. Even she had her pride and being taken out for free lunches was bad enough – expensive free lunches were too much to bear. It was nice to have a good friend, but she didn't want him thinking he had to pay for everything. Her father gave her some money every month, even she could afford to treat Itachi every once in a while.

Itachi paused, considering the question, "You know, I've lost count."

She wondered what it would be like, to have so much money you lost count of how much there was. She decided it would be disorganised and frustrating, and tried to ignore the little flickers of jealousy she felt. If – when she was famous, she would use her money to send her dad to one of those drying out clinic things. She knew celebrities went into rehab for 'emotional' problems, she figured they'd take her dad, no problem, as long as she had the money to pay for him.

Her dad would be out in no time and they'd pour all his alcohol down the sink together. He'd throw out that old dressing gown he was glued to and she'd buy him a new one, a black one, the kind that he used to look at in shops. But he'd never wear it because he'd never stay in bed all day and he'd get dressed every morning and they'd go to the park and get coffee and watch the sunrise like they used to when she was very little.

Who would she be if she could be anyone?

Maybe Paris Hilton, she had loads of money, didn't she? Hmm… maybe not. Sakura didn't think she was cut out for that kind of lifestyle.

Itachi called over the waitress, who came over so quickly Sakura figured she'd been watching them closely for a while.

The waitress was pretty in a vacuous kind of way. She smiled at Itachi, "Is there a problem, sir?" She didn't look at Sakura.

"Not at all, sweetheart," He said casually, doing his slow-smirk thing at the woman, making her blush, "Is there any chance I could get a pot of honey to go with this cake?"

"Yeah, if you want diabetes." Sakura muttered.

Itachi glanced at her, looking amused, "And please take my cute little student's cake away, she doesn't appear to like it that much… And a coffee for me, lots of cream, sugar… what do you want, darling?"

Cute little student. Darling.

Bastard.

Sakura glared mutinously at him, "Black coffee, please."

"And do you do meals? Not just desserts?" Itachi looked up at the waitress hopefully.

"Of course, sir. I'll be back with a dinner menu, plus your drinks and honey." The waitress fluttered her eyelashes and smiled flirtatiously at him before leaving with Sakura's uneaten cake.

"Man whore." Sakura scowled.

"What?" Itachi asked, looking genuinely confused.

"You've got a girlfriend!" Sakura pointed out, incredulous.

"…I know?"

"So, you were flirting with that waitress!"

Itachi looked at her like she was crazy, "Actually, I wasn't."

Could he not even tell when he was flirting? Did he just do it automatically?

Sakura huffed and looked away.

"Oh, so you're mad at me now?" Itachi sounded exasperated, "I shouldn't be nice to waitresses?"

Nice? He... He called her sweetheart, and smirked and…

Gah. Sakura ran a hand through her hair. She was overreacting like she always did. She was such a moron sometimes.

"I don't know… you're all smirky and you say darling like your voice is dripping with, I dunno, honey, which makes sense considering you appear to be pining after honey right now." She pointed at him redundantly with two fingers, as if to emphasise the extent he was pining for the honey.

To be fair, he was craning his neck to see if the waitress was coming back with a look of mild frustration on his face. Sakura felt a smirk of her own bloom into being with the mental image of Itachi desperately downing honey to get a sugar rush.

"No, I just…" Itachi sighed heavily, rubbing his chin. Sakura frowned a little at the bag under his eyes, the paleness of his skin. Once again, he looked unhealthily tired, "I was a bastard once. I didn't care about anyone's feelings. I thought the worst of everyone and didn't care what they thought of me. I took what I wanted and never gave anything in return. I don't want to be that person anymore."

"You aren't." Sakura said instantly.

He raised an eyebrow, fixing his glasses so he could peer at her over them imperiously, "How would you know?"

"You always want to help me out with my problems. Like, you never think they're too small or dumb or childish to bother with, you just listen and give me advice without judging me. You've been kind to me. Would you have been so nice to me before?" Sakura spotted the waitress coming back with their orders and tried her best not to glare at her.

"Oh yeah," Itachi mumbled, eyes on the approaching honey, "Just to get in your pants, mind. I'd have been the nicest guy you'd ever met, until I wasn't."

While it was gross and discomfiting to hear that her friend would have lied to her and acted nice just to try to get her to sleep with him, it was also oddly flattering. Not in a oh-my-gosh-that-is-so-nice-of-you-to-say kind of way, more of a what-the-hell-you'd-go-that-far-for-a-shag? kind of way.

"What made you change?" Sakura asked him curiously.

He waved a hand carelessly, "God knows. There was no specific incident that forced me to change my ways. I just gradually got sick of everything. Daddy Dearest threatening to cut me off helped, though. I cared more, back then, about what he thought. Even after… well, after everything. Stupid of me."

"Here's your honey!" The waitress danced over, shoving Sakura's black coffee at her without care and then slowly sliding the honey onto the table next to Itachi's elbow, chest strategically positioned so that the only way for him to avoid making eye contact with her heaving bosoms was to stare manfully at the ceiling instead.

Sakura watched, growing increasingly more irritated, as the waitress flirted with Itachi, twirling her curls around her finger, leaning her entire body towards him with an inviting smile.

Itachi turned, gave her a thoroughly disinterested look, and then started to paint his mashed up cake with honey.

The waitress drooped in disappointment, heaving bosoms and all.

Almost like an afterthought, she dropped a little piece of paper on Itachi's plate and drifted off sadly.

"I think you dented her perk." Sakura said, hoping she didn't look too pleased in Itachi's disinterest.

"Hmm? Really? She seems plenty perky to me." He said, bored, not even looking at the poor woman.

Sakura plucked the piece of paper from his plate before he could read it.

Heya cutie ;) Here's my number.

She'd written her number on the back in lipstick. How depressing. Itachi inspired this sort of lovestruck behaviour often, huh?

Well, Itachi had a girlfriend anyway. Sakura crumpled the paper up stealthily whilst Itachi was still making eyes at his glistening honey-cake monstrosity. He didn't need a girl's phone number.

"So, tell me about this Ami girl then." Itachi commanded, pointing his fork at her.

Sakura felt her mouth pucker up in disgust. The last person she wanted to talk about was that purple-haired skinny bitch. Especially after the lies she'd told about Sakura's mother. Sakura had a very good idea about what had put those ideas into Ami's head, and she was not happy about them at all.

"She's… she's just some girl who got the wrong idea about my mum."

"Bull," Itachi said calmly, "Tell me."

Sakura bit her lip. No. She'd overshared already, whining about her mother and her father. God, the day she'd actually broken down and cried in Sai's arms, Itachi having to actually comfort her… that was too embarrassing.

"Tell me, Sakura," Itachi's dark eyes connected with her own, "I want to know. You found out about my past, now tell me about this girl so we're equal."

Sakura made a silent snarl at him, lips curled, teeth bared. He recoiled in mock-horror.

"Fine, it's a short, boring story anyway. I didn't know Ami till last year when I started college. I didn't know her but I'd noticed her and her friends laughed at me a lot in the corridors. I thought I was being paranoid, but she stopped me one day when I was walking past her and said, 'Don't you ever wash your face?' I had my make up on, you see…" Sakura gestured towards her eyes, usually smeared with eyeliner. Itachi said nothing, just watched her, "So after that I was wary of her, tried to avoid her. Didn't want any hassle. But she did. She wanted to upset me. Kept making niggling little comments about how I looked and stuff. Every now and then, she'd give me a little push, just to scare me, I guess. It worked, I started learning how to fight from my friend Tenten, just in case she ever got violent with me. She never did, but she probably will now after I slapped her…"

Sakura sighed deeply, looking down at her lap, "I don't really want to go back to college tomorrow. I know she'll have something planned."

She jumped when a cold hand suddenly covered hers on the table. Itachi leant forward, rubbing her hand with his thumb, "Well, you won't be alone. You'll have me, and your friend Tenten."

Sakura saw what they must look like to the rest of the café, a boy and a girl, the boy touching the girl's hand, looking into her eyes and smiling. They looked like they were together. Was it wrong that she didn't want the moment to end, just so that she could have this feeling for longer, so that, just for another second and only in a stranger's mind, they were a couple?

Yes.

She pulled her hand away hastily, face flushing pink.

Itachi narrowed his eyes.

xxxxxxxx

English was uneventful. Obito was just as sleepy as the rest of the class, sitting at his desk in front of the room, yawning and occasionally mumbling facts about Shakespeare.

It was a hot, drowsy sort of day. The window next to Sakura was open, the smell of cut grass and fresh flowers drifted into the room. The sky was deep blue, uninterrupted by clouds, the air hot and heavy, weighing the classroom down.

Sakura rested her head on the desk, staring outside the window at the grounds outside. Ami hadn't said anything, hadn't even looked at her all day. Sasuke hadn't even shown up.

There was a slight, blissful breeze that set the dandelions outside dancing, little blurs of butter-yellow against green grass.

Ino sat alone, a little anxious frown puckering her forehead, restlessly tapping her foot on the ground and staring at the door.

"Can we go yet?" Ami's sharp voice suddenly cut through the heavy silence, slicing through the lazy atmosphere of the room and startling Sakura out of her lethargic state.

Sakura glanced at the clock. Huh. The entire English lesson had sped by.

She'd been frightened when she realised Itachi wasn't going to be shadowing today's class, but it seemed like she'd had nothing to worry about.

The class filed out of the room after Obito lazily pointed at the door and fell asleep, head on his desk.

Sakura was just wandering out, a safe distance behind Ami, when a hand dropped on her shoulder.

Stifling a shriek, she turned.

Konan stood before her, wearing a black, tight t-shirt with many belt buckles strapped around her waist, a skirt with a newspaper printed pattern and knee-high boots. Sakura would have wondered why the head teacher allowed Konan to dress as she did, but she had seen his orange hair and multiple facial piercings and realised this wasn't that kind of college.

"You will have to be prepared to give up a lot of your free time." Konan warned her, passing her a piece of paper.

Confused, Sakura scanned the page's contents.

Haruno Sakura…. after audition process, in which many… has been selected to play Ophelia in the upcoming play, Hamlet… please devote at least an hour a day to rehearsal, and never skip practice unless necessary.

"I'm going to be Ophelia?" Sakura's eyes went wide and she couldn't fight the massive smile that broke out.

"Yes," Konan didn't smile, but her constant scowl lessened somewhat under Sakura's enthusiasm, "I chose you personally. I feel I should warn you, we've been making changes to the play and there are some requirements… Itachi told me you were more than capable for the job."

"Eh? Itachi?" Sakura looked up.

Konan pointed behind her.

Itachi winked at her, grinning like a maniac.

Without even thinking, she leapt at him, throwing her arms around his neck and squealing.

I'm Ophelia! She thought joyfully, she'd actually got the part!

Itachi chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist to stop her falling.

"Oh and," Konan said suddenly, seemingly unfazed by one of the students launching themselves at a teacher in training, "Uchiha-san? I have a letter for you."

Sakura's smile dropped in her confusion. What?

She turned her head as Konan walked past them. Sasuke stepped up from behind and took the letter off of Konan, glaring hotly at Itachi and Sakura.

"You got the part of Hamlet." Konan told him, "Well done."

Sakura felt herself slip out of Itachi's arms. Hamlet and Ophelia.

Fuck.

Sasuke briefly glanced at the paper and smirked, those dark eyes flicking Sakura's way, "Oh, I'll be playing your love interest, Sakura? You should probably let go of her, then, nii-san."

Itachi's hands tightened on her waist, then let go completely.

"If you actually read the play," Sakura said, her voice only wobbling a bit from the shock and anger, "You'd realise that we aren't love interests at all, really."

"Well, I know Ophelia loved Hamlet." He contradicted her with his smirk growing every second, "She always made it so… obvious." His eyes were boring into hers intensely, making it clear exactly who he was referring to.

Konan shrugged, "Love or not, you two ought to socialise with each other more, to get a rapport going. Your relationship needs to be believable."

"Believable?" Sakura scoffed, "Sasuke couldn't go a minute without lying or deceiving someone. That's what he considers a relationship. Forgive me for being unable to achieve an authentic rapport with someone like that."

Some people considered Sakura shy. It was true that conflict literally made her feel sick to her stomach, but sometimes, when pushed too far, she'd bite back. Those people never liked it when she did.

She turned on her heel and left, ignoring Sasuke's last comment.

"Maybe you're more like me than you think. What would Sachiko think if she'd seen that hug?"

She heard Itachi snap, "She wouldn't think anything of it, Sasuke, and at the moment I don't even want you using her name."

"Yes," Sasuke tone was musing, "She did always like me better, didn't she?"

xxxxxxxx

She was fuming!

Who would she be if she could be anyone?

The She-Hulk. Supergirl. Batgirl. Wonderwoman.

Anyone capable of grabbing Sasuke by his stupid, arrogant face and punting him across a football field!

Not that Batgirl could punt anyone across the length of a football field. She had some cool toys she could hurt Sasuke with, though.

How dare he? How dare he? To insinuate things between her and Itachi were more than platonic, to imply that Sachiko preferred him over Itachi, to make comments about their mutual love interest state! Revolting little… urgh!

Sakura marched to R.E., still furious with Sasuke, with Ami, with herself. If she hadn't been stupid enough to jump at Itachi…

Though he'd caught her. Slipped his hands around her waist like it came naturally to him. Didn't push her away or complain, or even joke.

Then again, knowing his previous manwhore status, Sakura found this distinctly uncomforting.

Of course catching flailing women came naturally to him. He'd practically made a career out of it.

She'd been so happy about being Ophelia, and now Sasuke had to ruin it by being Hamlet… How was she supposed to act like she even cared about him?

"Hey, Sakura," A feminine voice said from behind, "I haven't seen you in a while."

Sakura stiffened.

Tenten.

"Of course you haven't," Sakura said, turning, "You fucking told Ami about my mother, you made up lies about her and now everyone believes the crap you made up!"

Tenten took a step back, astonished by Sakura's fury. Neji stood next to her, mouth tightening at Sakura's words.

"I didn't," Tenten spluttered, "I would never - !"

"Who else knew my mum died? Who else knew she died in prison?" Sakura was horrified to feel her bottom lip quivering and knew tears weren't far off, "I told you that in person, after two months of not talking about it. I came to your house and we sat on your porch and I told you everything I knew. We both cried about it. How could you do this to me?"

"Sakura, I swear, I never made up anything about your mum!" Tenten promised, tears glittering in her eyes.

Neji took a step forward, crossing his arms, "You've got it wrong, Sakura."

"No one else knew!" Sakura shouted, "I never told anyone else, just my best friend!"

The R.E. class had shown up, Ami at the head of the pack, scenting gossip like a bloodhound and heading right to the source. Ino frowned and put a hand on Sai's arm, who shook her off. She looked upset at his reaction.

And of course, where her class went…

…Itachi always followed.

"Sakura, you walk incredibly quickly, do you always power-walk to your lessons?" He huffed, moving to stand next to her, ignoring his glowering little brother.

"I don't know how Ami found out about your mother because I didn't tell her!" Tenten said desperately, "Please don't be mad at me!"

"I've only ever told two people and you are lucky enough to be one of them!" Sakura yelled, ignoring Itachi's look of surprise.

Ami giggled. Sakura wanted to whirl around and snap at her, but her courage had deserted her by that point.

"Actually, I did hear it from Tenten," Ami said smugly, smirking, "The whole juicy tale of Sakura's crackwhore mummy dearest."

Shut up, Sakura thought viciously, why don't you shut up for once in your life?

Tenten looked horrified, "I didn't tell you anything!"

"Oh? That's not what I remember. You told me all about how Sakura's mother sold herself to fund her crack habit –"

"Shut the fuck up." Itachi said coldly, his voice injected with icy fury.

Ami flinched, perhaps remembering Itachi's threat to her in the past.

Ino chipped in, her voice dry, "Ami, have you taken that STD test yet? I'm pretty sure I can smell the crabs coming off you."

Sai looked puzzled, scenting the air.

Sakura spotted Hidan moving towards the crowd, heading towards his classroom.

"Tenten didn't tell you a thing." Neji spat.

Regaining some of her confidence, Ami flicked her hair back and smirked, "Didn't she? Then how did I know about it?"

"I don't know how you heard it. I can only assume that, like the filthy, sneaking little rat you are, you lurked around the college until you heard something interesting. Tenten only told one person of Sakura's personal tragedy, and that was myself, and only in defence of Sakura." Neji said in clipped tones.

Sakura stared incredulously at Tenten, "You did tell! You treated my mother's death like gossip!"

Tenten shook her head, clearly upset, "It wasn't like that –"

Sakura cut her off by turning away, shaking her own head in amazement and anger.

"Hey, I just explained to you what happened. Don't take this out on Tenten, you moron." Neji's voice rose in anger.

"I think it's best if you all went into class, and if you never spoke to Sakura like that again." Itachi said mildly.

"If she's intent on blindly remaining convinced that Tenten would do such a thing, then I will dedicate my time to drilling it into her head how utterly stupid she is for believing it!" Neji snapped.

Hidan broke through the crowd and slapped Itachi on the shoulder casually, "Right you, pipe the fuck down. Everybody shut the fuck up and get in the fucking classroom now. Not you, purple. Go to Pain-sama's office and write down on the floor in tiny writing exactly why Jashin would fucking burn you for talking shit about people." He pointed at Ami with a glare. When she looked furious, he stuck his tongue out, "Hey, I don't make the rules."

He thought about it, "After that, clean Pain-sama's floor 'cause he gets fussy when I make kids write on his shit. You could just not use ink, I guess. Got any lipstick? Blood would work. Aw, hell, just fucking go to his office and tell him what you did, OK kid?"

Ami left, muttering furiously about psychotic R.E. teachers.

Sasuke entered the classroom, but not before giving Itachi a thoroughly scrutinising look. Ino followed Sai in, but smiled at Sakura before she entered the room.

Tenten allowed Neji to tug her into the room, looking back at Sakura with the saddest expression she'd ever seen on the other girl's face.

Sakura had about thirty seconds to feel truly alone, before a hand settled on her head and Itachi muttered, "I don't know about your friend Tenten, but you still have me, if it helps."


Lengthy chapter!

No Sachiko, shame.

More Tenten!

Ami, Ami, AMI. I hate you.

The romance is sloooooowly building. I hope XD

Sasuke is Hamlet and Sakura is Ophelia! Awkward.

Hidan saves the day. Sort of.

Still hate Ami.

My favourite characters to write are Hidan and Itachi. Though Sai is still funny to pull out every once in a while. What do you guys think of his and Ino's relationship?

Quick poll take: Was Tenten wrong to tell Neji about Sakura's mother or did she have a good reason?

A) Completely wrong, you don't tell people your friend's secrets.

B) Not sure, it could be a bit of both.

C) No, Neji was bad-mouthing Sakura and Tenten only wanted to defend her.

D) Other! Let me know!