Sasuke sat back in his chair overlooking the lake which has quite recently been the scene of his public humiliation. With his breakfast still untouched, the young man closed his eyes and let his mind wander, fighting heroically to hold back the scowl that was threatening to mar his otherwise inexpressive visage.
The young Uchiha heaved a silent sigh as he reflected miserably on yesterday's encounter with Sakura and the ensuing third degree investigation that his mother has dragged him into, shortly after.
Originally, Sasuke figured that his mother might be angry at Sakura for causing a scene, and in their household of all places. However, as the investigation proceeded, Mikoto's youngest son was proven incredibly wrong.
Flashback to The Night Before:
Having decided to stay in the Uchiha estate rather than return to his dorm room, Sasuke was having a wordless dinner with his elder brother. Said elder brother has also decided to stay in the Uchiha compound for the weekend. (Much to Sasuke's dismay). For his part, Sasuke wanted nothing more than to escape all those who have witnessed what happened that morning, specifically his brother who quite literally radiated dark amusement at Sasuke's expense.
However, leaving the Uchiha compound meant having to deal with a still irate Sakura, and that just wasn't a Sakura he wanted to deal with. And so Sasuke had to put up with Itachi's silent glee. Itachi didn't say a word to his younger brother, However, as they sat to dinner, Sasuke couldn't help but notice his brother's eyes linger on him slightly every once in a while. Yes, his elder brother was making his amusement quite clear using very subtle cues that only Sasuke could detect. And that somehow made it that much more agonizing to the younger Uchiha.
It was just like when they were kids and Sasuke would screw up big time, and then attempt to hide what he has done from his elder brother. Itachi would stay rather silent, yet would cast his brother contemplative looks every once in a while, until the younger boy could do nothing but snap and tell his brother exactly what he wanted to hear. But, this time Sasuke was valiantly holding his ground. He wasn't about to tell Itachi what he wants to hear. Which, as Sasuke rationed would go along the lines of, *Yes, yes I have been beaten by a girl. And yes she has thrown me into the lake, now would you for the love of God start making fun of me over it? Would you just please state just how amused you are, rather than engaging in this silent torment.*
And that's exactly what Sasuke felt like saying. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't give his brother the satisfaction. Nope, he was going to stay silent, damn it! And he was going to pretend that this didn't happen.
And thus their dinner consisted of the two boys sitting in front of each other at opposite ends of the dinner table. With Sasuke giving his undivided attention to his food, while a rather amused Itachi ate his food serenely, as he cast the occasional glances in his brother's direction, more than aware of the fact that his brother was desperately attempting to tune him out.
Yup, that was the Uchiha way. They did everything in silence. Even mockery turned into silent challenges to man up. One must admit that; this is quite the unique ability.
A few seconds later, Mikoto who was uncharacteristically missing from the dinner table up till this point, suddenly came bursting through the door.
Her unusually loud entrance caused both of her boys to snap out of their silent exchange and look questioningly back at her.
"What have you done?" She said in a menacing tone, her eyes firmly fixed on her younger son.
Sasuke simply stared unblinkingly back at her. His otherwise sweet mother currently looked rather upset, a rare occurrence that spells damnation for whoever merited her poised fury. The hell with it, the woman looked flat out pissed for lack of a better term and right now Sasuke couldn't help but stare back at his mother, wondering if the new perfume that he decided to wear this morning inspired female fury rather than love.
"What have you done, dear?" She said slowly, now getting a better grip on her temper having figured that her boy has had his fair share of angry women screaming at him for the day.
When Sasuke did nothing but maintain his unblinking inexpressive façade, the woman pushed on. "To Sakura, Sasuke dear, what have you done to her?" She questioned barely maintaining her temper.
"What?" Sasuke questioned confusedly. "What have I done to her? She's the one who…" Sasuke started but trailed off, as he noticed his brother's eyes on him. He then amended, "She's the one at fault." He said impassively.
"No she's not." Mikoto said irritably, her sophisticated anger rolling off of her in waves, yup; it was quite a sight to behold, a lady, a true lady, angry.
"You're blaming me?" Sasuke questioned in disbelief. Is it even a possibility that a mother, who just saw her son get manhandled in front of her, would blame him? *If for nothing else, she should be mad at Sakura for causing a scene. * Sasuke rationed.
"Yes. Because I'm sure that you did something awful." She said crossing her arms in front of her. "You always merit my dear Sakura's anger." She added as an afterthought.
"That's not fair." Sasuke declared, abandoning all facades, and purposefully ignoring his brother's raised eyebrow at his rather childish statement. "She punched me." He added and his blood boiled slightly as he saw his brother lean forward bracing an elbow on the table to support his handsome face, as his eyes fixated on Sasuke, a slow smirk spreading across his lips.
"Yes, but you did something to merit that treatment from her." She said crossly. "Admit it dear. I know you did something."
"Mother…." Sasuke started, before he stopped mid sentence as his mother's eyes softened.
Mikoto decided to take a different strategy. If she can't get him to spill using menacing temper, she'd just have to go all out and play her trump card, the patented, 'How could you do this to your mother?' routine.
And this is how it goes. First a soft expression, alongside watery eyes. Mikoto has long since perfected the art of fake tears; she kept it in her arsenal just in case she needed to use it on one of her otherwise impassive men. And this technique never failed her before.
The second step is quite self explanatory:
"How could you do this to your mother, Sasuke?" She said in a hurt tone and Sasuke's eyes grew even wider.
"Whaa…."
"How could you take away my happiness like that?" She questioned heatedly. Sasuke looked more confused than his elder brother has ever seen him before. Truth of the matter is, this was the first time Mikoto has used this technique on her younger son. For his part, Itachi has had it used on him numerous times before. And right now he was just amused to get the opportunity to sit back and watch his mother work her magic on his younger brother.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke questioned confusedly.
"You finally made me happy dear. You finally met a decent woman. And you know that I always wanted Sakura for a daughter. But, you ruined it really fast. You ruined things with her dear and you broke your poor mother's heart." She said dramatically, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead, in absolute agony.
Sasuke blanched.
"But, mother…"
"How could you do that to me, Sasuke-dear? Do you not want your poor mother to be happy?"
"O-O-of course…"
"You will never find someone as wonderful as my little Sakura. How could you let her slip out of your fingers like that? What are you trying to do to your poor old mother?"
"But….."
"You will spend the rest of your life alone. Oh, Kami what have I done to bring upon my dear child such misfortunes." She added even more dramatically than before, looking meaningfully up at the sky.
For his part, Sasuke was dumbstruck. The younger Uchiha couldn't for the life of him figure out what to say.
And in mere seconds he started recounting exactly what he has done to merit Sakura's scolding. After which his mother stated just how heartbroken she was, before making her dramatic exit.
Itachi, who was watching closely as his mother played his little brother with extreme ease, couldn't help but give his mother props. The woman knew exactly how to deal with Uchiha men. She used her wily techniques on him and his father as well, and even knowing exactly what she was doing, the men never really stand a chance against her well honed technique. He figured that the woman was an absolute genius and he was pretty convinced that she's where he gets his people reading skills from. Because; simply put, her heartbreaking, sob inducing technique delivered much better results than she could ever ask for if she merely screamed at her three stoic men, because; screaming at them activates their stubborn responses, and getting through those responses would require much more effort on her part than if she merely made them feel lower than scum.
.
Itachi raced out of the room, mere seconds after his mother left. The stoic Uchiha was coming so dangerously close to throwing all his impassiveness to the wind and giving into his desire to laugh, as he watched his brother wince over and over again.
And since Itachi couldn't let himself do that; he raced after his mother.
"Nicely done, mother." Itachi commended in a lighthearted tone.
The Uchiha matriarch turned to face her eldest, all traces of unparalleled misery somehow having abandoned her beautiful face. "What are you talking about dear?" Mikoto questioned innocently, before winking meaningfully at him.
"Hn." Was all Itachi said, as he tucked his hands in his pockets and stared meaningfully back at his mother. The woman chuckled heartedly at just how well her first born knew her.
A second later the woman's face turned rather contemplative as she regarded her son's relaxed posture. "Is there something you want to tell me, Itachi-dear?" She questioned meaningfully.
If he were taken aback by her words, Itachi hid it well; because he replied promptly and without missing a beat, "Mother?"
"Oh, never mind darling." She said laughingly, "It just seemed as if you are a little too pleased at having your younger brother be at odds with Sakura-chan." She said in a tone that made it clear that she was feigning innocence. "I'm sure I'm mistaken, though." She added fixing her beloved son with a maternal gaze, before turning to walk away, leaving a contemplative Itachi in her wake.
End Of Flashback….
And that's why the young Uchiha sat back miserably as he fumbled with his breakfast, his thoughts cast a thousand miles away. He just couldn't understand how his mother's mind functioned, let alone Sakura's. Said mother was sitting next to him, enjoying her breakfast, while putting on a very miserable front for her younger's eyes to see. On Mikoto's other side, sat the Uchiha heir himself, eating his breakfast in comfortable silence.
So deep in thought was Sasuke; that he didn't even recognize his best friend's approaching chakra. However, no living creature could be preoccupied enough not notice Naruto once he came within viewing distance.
Sasuke sat up, his pupils slightly widening as he took in the approaching scene. Naruto was running full speed ahead, completely enshrouded in a terrifying aura. The blonde was running as if the very demons of the underworld were on his trail; arms flailing around as he managed to look around him, while maintaining his high speed trot. Making a beeline straight for his friend, which made Sasuke silently wonder, at what he has done to merit this string of misfortunes, first Sakura then his mother and now a buffoon going at full speed and headed straight for him, Oh life was so unfair!
The second Naruto arrived at Sasuke's location he decided to come to a stop. However, in a very characteristic move, the would be hokage misjudged how near Sasuke was to him. And given the inhuman speed at which he was going; he ended up bumping into Sasuke at full speed, knocking him off the chair to land on the floor with Naruto landing less than gracefully on top of his ruffled friend.
A string of obscenities ran through Sasuke's mind. A whole string, God he wanted to curse at his friend so bad. He just wanted to scream his lungs out right now. Not only has the moron managed to make his already bad day worse, but he has also managed to literally; knock him down once again, in the same location, 24 hours later. God, but life was unfair.
"Remove yourself." Sasuke hissed venomously at the blonde who was still stunned and still sitting on top of him.
"Oh," was all Naruto said, as he looked down at his friend in confusion, apparently still struggling to figure out what went wrong.
"Dobe, I said remove yourself." Sasuke exclaimed once again, but before Naruto could do anything but blink, he found himself flying in the air. Having been lifted by the back of his shirt by a smirking Uchiha Itachi, Naruto found himself standing upright and blinking owlishly at the elder Uchiha as he casually strolled back to his seat at the breakfast table.
Sasuke got back to his feet grumpily, looked questioningly back at his brother.
"Pardon the interference." Itachi said monotonously, by way of explanation, "However, I believe that in his current state, Uzumaki-san wouldn't have been able to remove himself at will."
Sasuke opened his mouth to speak; however, he suddenly became aware of his friend's condition. The normally perky blonde was in a state of disarray. He seemed to have many wounds covering his body, some of them bandaged, while others (Especially the ones on his face) in clear view. And as Naruto stumbled away, Sasuke noticed that he was limping slightly, had the boy been running before; it was merely because of survival instincts, Sasuke concluded. *He's in no condition to be walking, let alone running.* Sasuke pondered as he quickly scanned his friend.
Besides the injuries, Naruto looked like misery incarnated. His normal chipper attitude gone and replaced with a scowl.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his friend.
"Teme! What have you done?" Naruto grunted.
Sasuke only stared back at his friend with his perfectly impassive porcelain face.
"Sakura-chan tried to kill me!" He exclaimed miserably. "Hey, Mikoto-sama, evil… I mean Itachi-taicho." Naruto said proving just how short his attention span is. He then returned his attention to his friend. "What have you done to her?" He repeated accusingly.
"What happened, dear?" Mikoto questioned kindly.
Eyes watering, Naruto happily complied with her obvious attempt to satisfy her curiosity, the young sage was more than happy to finally find a shoulder to cry on, especially after what happened to him.
"I have no Idea." He said waving his hands in front of his face. "One minute I'm training with pervy-sage, after finally convincing him to stop doing research and instructing me, and the moment he starts finally saying some useful stuff, Sakura-chan appears out of nowhere." He recounted horror obvious in his eyes. "And without saying a word, she gives me this death glare, and starts pounding me senseless, right in front of pervy-sage. I didn't even have a chance to ask her what happened. She just kept hitting me and when I attempted to get to my feet, she simply gave a battle cry and hit me again." Naruto said in obvious pain. "The next thing I know, I was in the hospital."
Mikoto's eyes went wide, while Itachi gave a mischievous smirk, as he listened attentively to the younger man's story.
"The hospital, dear?"
"Ah, hai, Mikoto-sama. I woke up in the hospital. And since, Sakura-chan had the night shift yesterday; none of the nurses gave me medication." He declared, clearly on the brink of tears. "If it wasn't for the fact that; Shizune-san checked in on me, Sakura-chan would've left me there for dead." He declared. "I even heard some nurses debating whether or not they should go in and drown me in the toilet just to get Sakura-chan to like them." He added in horror. "I didn't sleep for a second, Mikoto-san." He almost sobbed. "And the moment, they turned their backs, I came running before Sakura-chan, tries to kill me again." He said, his voice breaking, as he wiped his forehead with his hand to show just how tired he really was.
It took a second for the three Uchiha's to process Naruto's horror story, but once they did, their expressions varied greatly. Mikoto-sama displayed a motherly glance as she looked upon the battered young boy, while Sasuke, visibly blanched as his hand absently touched the bruise on his face, absently thanking his lucky stars, for making him stay in the Uchiha compound over night, otherwise he would've been the one lying in the hospital, while being denied medication. For his part, Itachi held an unmistakable evil glint to his eyes, as his smirk involuntarily grew wider.
"Hn." Sasuke replied, casting a side glance at his mother and brother who were obviously more than interested in Naruto's account.
"Don't you 'Hn' me, you…."
"Come." Sasuke interrupted ushering his best friend to follow him to the other side of the garden so that they could talk without his mother and brother listening in.
Naruto followed grumpily, causing Mikoto-sama to scowl in disapproval. For his part, the reigning king of eavesdropping didn't really fret it that much, given that with his perfectly honed senses, he would be easily capable of listening in, even if Sasuke moved the conversation to the other end of the garden.
Once they stopped moving, Naruto finally noticed the bruise on his friend's face. "D-did she do that?" he questioned insightfully.
"Hn." Was Sasuke's affirmative answer.
"THAT IS SO UNFAIR." He screamed, literally stumping his feet. "WHY ON EARTH WOULD SHE ALMOST KILL ME AND LET YOU GET AWAY WITH JUST A BRUISE? WHAT HAVE I DONE? WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU TELL HER, TEME?"He screamed at an ear shattering volume.
"She knows about the ANBU exam." Sasuke said impassively, obviously years upon years of being subjected to his loud friend have made him immune to Naruto's outbursts.
"WHAT THE HELL? WHY DID YOU TELL HER?"
"I didn't." Sasuke said simply. "She heard me and Nii-san speaking."
"I thought we agreed to tell her once we get into ANBU."
"It was unavoidable. And what difference would it have made, she was going to find out either way." Sasuke reflected, trying to find the silver lining.
"No, if we told her when we were already ANBU it would've been different." Naruto said crossly.
"How exactly would it have been different?"
"It's against the law to hit ANBU. I mean people aren't allowed to attack them at all." He said proudly.
"What?" Sasuke, said in exasperation. "Baka, Anbu don't get any sort of law provided protection. She could've easily done the same thing then."
Naruto's eyes went wide. "THEY DON'T?" he exclaimed.
Sasuke simply looked back at his friend like the idiot he was.
Naruto promptly looked even more dejected than before. "I figured that ANBU would be off limits to her. I can't believe Sakura-chan could easily hit ANBU. I can't believe it." He said, eyes watering once more.
Sasuke almost rolled his eyes.
"At least she knows now." He said impassively.
Naruto stayed silent for a second, apparently contemplating what Sasuke said. "Why can't Sakura-chan understand that we're only trying to protect her?" he said miserably.
As an answer Sasuke just gave him a drawled out, "Hn"
Meanwhile, At Konoha's General Hospital:
Birds flew away hurriedly, as another raucous blast tore through the air. Patients froze in their spots after having doubted that they just suffered a heart attack and nurses and doctors blanched before scowling in disapproval. All because, Ino was having a laughing fit.
Sakura scowled at her best friend. After yesterday's incident she went straight for the hospital, having decided that keeping her hands busy is the best way to stop herself from heading back to the Uchiha mansion and killing Sasuke. She stayed all day, leaving only for the hour and a half that took her to tack Naruto down and beat him senseless. Then she was back at the hospital for the night shift, and even now the still irate pinkette is keeping busy with patients. She took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to have breakfast with her 3 friends: Hinata, Tenten and of course the now doubled over Ino.
After much prompting from her friends, Sakura finally recounted yesterday's events and that's what brought upon her the current situation.
"I can't believe you punched him." Ino stated mid giggles. "And in front of his mother too." She added in absolute glee. "Oh this is just perfect." She added, before continuing with her laughing fit.
"Can you please focus on the important thing here?" Tenten berated, meriting herself a thankful glance from the irritable medic.
"What's more important than him getting punched in the face?" Ino questioned happily.
"Anbu." Hinata said shyly.
"Ah," Ino finally caught up. "So, that's why you weren't there with them." She concluded.
"Where with who?" Sakura questioned, "What are you talking about?"
"With him and Naruto, the day they went to sign up for the exam."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The day I went to sign up for the exam I saw Naruto and him, and they were signing up too. Of course I assumed that they'd be signing your name too, since the three of you are like joined at the hip and all. But now it turns out that they went without you just to hide it from you." Ino explained.
Sakura blinked in confusion. "You, signed up?" She asked weakly.
"Yes, me Shoji and Shikamaru." She said happily. "We went together."
"Oh." Was all Sakura managed. *Just perfect.*
"Sakura-chan." Hinata said kindly. "I'm really sorry about what they did to you." She said with a blush.
"Never mind it, Hinata." Sakura said with a small smile. "They're jerks."
"That, they are." Tenten said, making a fist. "How dare they make your decisions for you? Who do they think they are?" She added irritably.
Sakura sighed.
"Oh, come on forehead. This isn't that big of a problem; just go sign up and get it over with." Ino said simply.
"It's not that easy, you know." Sakura said crossly. "Everyone has already had a head start on me. They've all been training for weeks and the exam is in 3 weeks. Not to mention that I don't even know if Shishou has free time to train me for it."
"How about Kakashi-sensei? He can train you" Tenten offered.
"He's training Sa….." Sakura started but after receiving a death glare from Ino she amended. "He's training the guy who shall not be named."
"So?" Hinata questioned.
"Dear, uninformed civilians…." Ino started. "No two people signing for Anbu are allowed to have the same instructor. It's either you work alone without an instructor or you find your own instructor. Because, before you are admitted to the exam your instructor has to vouch for you. Said instructor must sign his name next to yours as a guarantee, otherwise you can't enter. Anbu rules state that no instructor's name could appear twice. They do that to guarantee that participants in the exam are uniquely trained and are capable of getting people other than their sensei's to vouch for them." Ino explained at length.
"I didn't know that." Tenten stated honestly.
"That's why Naruto is training with Jiraiya- sama rather than Kakashi sensei." Sakura said miserably.
"Never mind that." Tenten said encouragingly. "Lady Hokage could probably take some time out of her schedule for you. That aside; you need to sign up immediately."
"That's right." Ino said enthusiastically, while Hinata nodded her approval. "You can't let yourself be shown off by those idiotic morons."
"Let's go get Sakura a signup sheet." Tenten suggested, as the two other girl got to their feet.
"B-But…." Sakura started.
"Get back to work. We'll be back soon." Ino said haughtily, before she and the other two girls disappeared through the door.
Sakura heaved a sigh, smiling at her friends' antics.
However, a second later, her expression turned contemplative. It is true that, not having enough time to train and the possibility of Tsunade-sama not having enough time to coach her; are two of the things that were making the girl question whether or not taking the exam at the moment is the right course of action. After all this was by far the hardest exam a Shinobi could ever take, and going in unprepared might prove fatal. Nonetheless, Sakura had yet another reason, a bigger reason, for being rather apprehensive about taking the ANBU exam. Namely, what Sasuke said.
Sakura has spent years upon years striving to build her self confidence as well as build herself into a powerful and respectable Kunoichi. And she believed with all her heart that she has managed to do so. The girl never wanted to feel week or helpless ever again and for a very long time she didn't. She knew for a fact that her teammates were protective of her, but she always chalked that down to their love of her, but hearing Sasuke say those words, hearing her friend and former teammate say that they didn't think she was capable of becoming an Anbu; was akin to picking at an old scab.
Sakura felt rather dejected. Part of her wanted nothing more than to take the exam, become an Anbu and show the morons what she was made of. But, another part was rather scared. She just couldn't help but experience some of the bad feelings that used to plague her when she was nothing but a little Sakura doll that was constantly being protected by her teammates and demeaned and undermined by everyone else.
She just never thought that her teammates felt that way about her. And hearing those words come out of Sasuke's mouth really hurt. Not to mention that it opened the door for many self demeaning thoughts, the likes of which she has fought valiantly never to let surface to the top of her awareness again.
*Is it possible that I can't do it, after all?* She questioned mentally and given that inner Sakura was to enraged with Sasuke and Naruto right now to even entertain the possibility that her other self was having a crisis, Sakura was left rather alone with her insecurities.
She sat motionlessly in her office for a while after her friends left. Silently, the girl contemplated those dreaded thoughts, as she watched her alter ego raging in the depth of her mind, constantly screaming while sprouting a string of obscenities aimed at the two boys.
So deep in thought was she that; she didn't notice the knocks on her door, or the fact that after a while the door was flung open, revealing a dark clad figure who strode purposefully into her office, before closing the door behind him. The sound of the door closing, brought the girl back to awareness, she looked up and scowled as she remembered what happened the day before.
"What are you doing here?" She questioned grumpily.
"If my presence is upsetting you, Sakura, I could leave." Itachi said meaningfully, and enjoyed watching her expression change from a scowl to a guilty look.
"I—I'm sorry. It's just that I'm not in a very good mood right now." She said honestly.
"Then allow me to cut right to the chase. I am here for a treatment session." He said simply.
"What?" she questioned in confusion.
"You promised that you would be the one to treat my eyes, Sakura." He said plainly. "Have you forgotten?" He questioned in a teasing tone, his onyx orbs boring into hers.
"O-Of course not." She mumbled, getting to her feet and making her way around the desk to stand in front of him. "Do you want to do it now?" She questioned wearily, the man really did have the strangest of timings.
"I would." He said simply.
Sakura resigned herself to her fate. "Well then, let's go to the examination room and…"
"I would rather you conduct the session here." He cut in.
"But….."
"The fact that I'm being treated is a secret, Sakura."
*ah, yes. He didn't tell anyone about it. Men and their pride.* Sakura pondered. *tell him to take his shirt off!" Was inner Sakura's helpful reply.* Sakura mentally rolled her eyes. *He's here for me to treat his eyes you idiot.* She snapped. *OFF WITH THE SHIRT.* she insisted before turning it into a demonstration and continuing to chant, *OFF WITH THE SHIRT.* In Sakura's mind.
Sakura shook her head to silence her inner self.
"Sakura." Itachi said amusedly, as he watched the girl shake her head after a few seconds of staring off into space.
Sakura blushed. "Sorry." She said quickly, before turning on her professional medic mode, just to avoid any more embarrassing situations with the man who seemed to have a natural knack for making her blush. "Please sit on the desk." She said in a business tone.
Itachi complied without saying a word. He simply took a seat at the edge of her desk and waited for her to proceed.
Sakura took her time to plan the session proceedings in her head, before she walked forwards with steady steps and raised her hands. Swallowing her initial trepidation and informing herself strictly that she was a professional, and that this was no context for dreading being close to the Uchiha heir; Sakura framed his face with her hands, her thumbs pressed to his temples.
The second she streamed her chakra through her hands and into her patient, she completely abandoned all thoughts in favor of focusing on clearing the chakra pathways in Itachi's eyes. A procedure which will in time and after a few sessions, improve his vision and prevent any further deterioration of his optic nerves as he continues to use his ocular techniques.
Now completely lost in what she was doing, Sakura was absolutely unaware of Itachi's eyes on her. She also missed the fact that his muscles tightened reflexively, when she so innocently steeped between his legs to get closer to him, as he sat on the edge of her desk.
The girl was also completely unaware of the fact that Itachi's gaze got much darker the closer she got to him.
In about 15 minutes Sakura was done with the first session. The girl opened her eyes triumphantly, ready to declare that she has finished the first session successfully and expected him to fair much better from now on. However, the minute her eyes shot open, she was completely ensnared by the look she saw in the man's obsidian orbs.
A single glance into his eyes, and the rather untamed look that currently resided in his normally serene orbs had Sakura's knees going weak and her throat going dry. The medic, for all her experience didn't know what was happening to her, as she seemed to have lost all control over her body, even her breathing was going erratic.
"I-Itachi-san." She finally managed to whisper and was surprised at just how weak her voice came. The girl stayed upright by sheer force of will, as she fought valiantly in an attempt not to melt into a puddle of goo not unlike the one inner Sakura normally transforms to in the man's presence. The girl shook that thought from her head quickly, "A-Are you Ok?" She questioned, hoping for him to say anything that would distract her from the way she felt at the moment.
"I am fine, Sakura." His voice came rather huskily. His hand shooting up to stroke a pink lock away from her eyes, taking in the delicious dazed look that currently occupied her emerald orbs.
Sakura backed away quickly, thoroughly flustered.
"Ummm, the first session has gone successfully." She said in a desperate attempt to divert her train of thought away from where it was going, as a mere second more of him regarding her like that and she'd have to yield to inner Sakura's desperate pleas for her to forcefully take his shirt off.
"I see." Itachi said, getting off the desk and purposefully closing his eyes, in an attempt to regain control.
The two remained silent for a long moment. Sakura took this as an opportunity to consciously teach herself how to breathe, given that her body seems to have forgotten just how to do so properly.
"Sakura." Itachi said opening his eyes once again, and to Sakura's utter relief his eyes were once again as calm and unexpressive as they normally were. "It seems as if you were quite aggravated by my brother and Uzumaki-san's behavior." He said calmly.
Sakura felt her temper rising despite herself. "Jerks." She growled, causing Itachi to smirk.
"I take it that you will sign up for the exam, then?"
"I-I don't really know."
"Excuse me?" He said stoically.
"I just mean that… Ummm….. I don't know if I'll take the exam or not after all." She explained, not knowing why he'd be interested in what she'll do anyway.
"I was under the impression that this was something you wanted to do, Sakura." He said, fixing her under his gaze.
"Yes, but…."
"But?"
"I don't know." She said enigmatically.
"Are you scared, Sakura?" He questioned, his tone now turning into a no nonsense, ANBU captain tenor.
Sakura could only stare at him before lowering her eyes. For some reason she just didn't feel like lying to him. So she just stayed silent, wondering how he figured out how she felt just like that.
Sakura didn't notice Itachi's eyes turning unreadable as he regarded her. And just like that the man turned around and started making his way to the door, in his usual confident steps.
"W-where are you going?" Sakura blurted in confusion at his sudden action.
"My apologies, Sakura," He said without turning around. "I was under the impression that you were a hardworking person, who doesn't let herself get beaten by mere circumstances, However, I was obviously mistaken. Excuse me." He said icily, as he continued on his way to the door.
"Wait a minute." Sakura almost screamed, running towards the Uchiha and coming to a stop a mere step behind him. "What do you know about me?" She hissed. "I'm a hardworking person damn it! And I'll never be beaten by any sort of circumstances. If I want to get into Anbu, I'll do it, so quickly it'll put even you to shame." She said quickly before she could stop herself. As, usual her temper got the better of her and the girl was currently unrepentant, as she rationed that he started it, he's the one who said those hurtful things to her first.
And before Sakura's train of thought could go any further, the guy who previously had his back to her moved with such speed that her eyes weren't able to keep up with him. One second he was standing before her, the second, he had her backed against her office's wall, with him towering over her as he leaned over her to brace his hands on the wall behind her.
He was so damn close that she was afraid to even breathe. And as if this wasn't hard enough for the poor confused girl who recently stopped breathing; Itachi made things even worse by leaning even closer to her, bringing his face to hers.
"I-I-Ita-Itaachi-san?" She whispered breathlessly.
For his part Itachi proceeded to lean closer to the girl and brushing his lips against her sensitive earlobe he whispered in a tantalizing raspy tone, "Prove it." He breathed, before pausing shortly to wrap his arm around her waist, causing the girl to freeze in her place. "Show me, Sakura; show me that you can do it." He breathed once again; his breathe fanning across her face causing her to bite her lip to stop herself from whimpering, just from how seductive and utterly tantalizing his voice sounded right now, her name, rolling off his tongue like that; had her completely entranced.
And with those words, and before she knew it, the Anbu captain disappeared.
Sakura gawked at the place where he stood for a second, before dropping to her knees. It seemed as if only tension was holding her up and now that the cause of her tension was gone, she could simply collapse on the floor.
*What was that?* She questioned in exasperation, while inner Sakura drooled uncontrollably. *I never felt that way before. Oh Kami.*
For the rest of the day the girl walked around the hospital with her head in the clouds. Unable to fathom just how it was possible for someone to make her feel that way. For the life of her, she just couldn't get her head around that feeling, or how utterly intense it was. However, one thing she knew was that she was happy and kinda proud of herself. *Uchiha Itachi: the heir to the Uchiha clan, the genius prodigy, the best and most powerful Anbu captain around, who put everyone else to shame; said that he thought I was a hardworking person.* She thought in pure ecstasy. Somehow, having him say those words managed to give her self confidence a huge boost, as she promised herself that she will take that challenge of his and prove to him that she was in fact powerful.
"Sakura-chan." Tenten declared by way of greeting. She has arrived alongside Hinata a few seconds ago.
"Hey Tenten, Hinata." Sakura said happily. "Did you get the application?" She questioned eagerly.
"I'm afraid we have bad news." Tenten said dejectedly. "It seems like the deadline for applying was two days ago."
"What?"
"Yah, today, they'll sit together to finalize the list of applicants and they're not accepting anyone else." Tenten said rather miserably. "I'm really sorry."
Sakura's face fell. "Oh."
"Sakura-chan,,," Hinata started worriedly.
"I'm Ok. Umm, I guess there's always the next exam." She said glumly.
"Oh, snap out of it, will ya?" Ino said, magically appearing behind Sakura.
The three girls turned to look at the new arrival.
"How could you say that?" Sakura said crossly. "I lost the chance to…."
"You lost nothing."The blonde said confidently.
"But…."
"I have a plan." Ino said ominously, and the three girls blanched knowing full well that those three words never bode well for anyone.
"Plan?" Sakura questioned dreading the answer.
Ino nodded haughtily. "Two words: Strip Club."
"Whaaaa" The three girls questioned in unison.
Alrighty then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please, excuse any mistakes in it, cuz I'm currently half asleep :D
Just wanna say thanks to everyone who reviewed last time, and pretty please tell me what you think of this chapter and of the direction the story is headed, I really appreciate your input.
Oh, and virtual cookies go out to anyone who guesses Ino's plan right :D