Chapter 4

Authors note: I¡¦m going quite steady with updating: P

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------recap: As soon as he left, Sakura briskly walked to her bathroom. Looking into the mirror she studied her face for the supposed spot. Satisfied with her searching she grumpily walked back into her bedroom before turning her light out, she grumbled ¡§fucking liar!¡¨
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakura awoke with a headache, after affects of the jutsu. She got out of bed, her neck burning slightly from Sasuke¡¦s tight grip. She was perturbed from last night; no wonder Sasuke hated his brother so much¡Kshe remembered what he had said last night.

¡§I don¡¦t trust you, kunoichi. But I am going to let you take the trial; lets see what you have hidden. Also, know this, I want you, kunoichi. And what I want, I get. Don¡¦t let your guard down if you want to keep your innocence¡¨

She shuddered at the memory, silky baritone voice still fresh in her mind. Putting on the kettle for a coffee she sat down on her sofa switching on TV and watching the music channel.

The kettle boiled, Sakura walked over to it and poured out her coffee. Sighing she sipped at her coffee; finishing it, she went to get in a hot shower to wash her hair and brush her teeth.

Putting on black tight fitting jeans, white tank top and white sneakers she got ready to go train on her own at her favorite spot. As her sensei used to make her, she did 1000 push ups, 1000 sit ups and 1000 laps. All of that within 3 hours, at the end she had a relaxed smile on her face, that routine always made her smile.

Walking down the dirt path and back to her apartment her mind wondered to the menace Itachi. What she had seen shook her up at a level, well of course it did; seeing a boy getting raped by his older brother, and made to like it no less.

A frown marred her beautiful face, Itachi was sick. She was just glad she was the one who would tear the fucking organization to pieces! With a much more determined look she got home and went to take a shower to remove the sweat that was sticking to her like glue.

Sakura yawned tiredly, wrapping a white silk bathrobe that had white flowers all over it around her slightly shivering form. It was cold out, after all they were due for snow.

Tying her hair back loosely she walked into her bedroom and got comfy on her bed getting out one of her favorite books, Across the nightingale floor by Lian Hearn. (AN: this is my favorite book¡Kthere is three other books to it but that is the first bookƒº)

Rubbing her temples a little, she got up too call Itachi; she had decided to do the trial tonight. Searching through her bag she found his card, moving over to her home phone and dialing the number.

It rang, and then someone answered ¡§hello?¡¨ the deep voice of Itachi rumbled. ¡§Hello Itachi, it is Sakura¡Kif it¡¦s ok I would like to do the trial tonight?¡¨ she asked politely.

She could hear the smirk in his voice when he answered ¡§sure thing, princess. Meet in the club at 7 sharp¡¨ then the line went dead, she growled to herself making her hand go slack before it crushed her phone.

Sakura got out her desired clothing, a traditional red Chinese dress with golden flowers embroidered over it and red Chinese style slippers. Carefully she applied kohl around her eyes making them look slightly smaller and bright red lipstick.

Letting her hair down around her all curly she looked like a goddess. She giggled to herself when a small pink hue settled itself on her cheeks. Hearing her mobile go off she went and answered it ¡§hello?¡¨ she asked absentmindedly, trying to find her golden earrings.

¡§Sakura you fucking imbecile, Itachi is waiting!¡¨ Sakura frowned at Ino¡¦s foul mouth, ¡§what do you mean? It¡¦s only-¡¨ ¡§shit!¡¨ Sakura cursed as she looked at the clock it read 7:30pm she must have been to into her thoughts to have thought about the time.

Without another thought she put the mobile down, doing some seals she vanished leaving her bag at home in her haste and reappeared outside the club.

The bouncer nodded to her as he had seen her with Ino before. Hurriedly she looked around her until she spotted them all sitting at the table that they had beforehand.

¡¥Headsprung¡¦ by LL cool J was playing loudly, making her ear drums hurt. ¡§Gomen I wasn¡¦t watching the time!¡¨ she muttered, her chest moving up and down quite heavily. Itachi, Sasuke and Ino scowled at her, Sakura gulped ¡¥boy they would make Tsunade-sama shiver¡¦ she thought to herself.

Itachi waved her to sit down next to him, ordering her a drink. ¡§Shikamaru, bring out the shogi board for Sakura¡¨ he uttered, sipping on his Bacardi. Shikamaru pulled out the shogi board, from where Sakura didn¡¦t know. She grinned openly, she had always been the best at shogi no one had ever beat her!

¡§this is too easy¡¨ she said arrogantly, Itachi raised a singly finely plucked eyebrow ¡§is that so, kunoichi? Shikamaru happens to be the cleverest man in Japan¡Kor did you forget that minor detail?¡¨ he drawled amusement dripping from his perfect white teeth.

An hour later found Sakura and Shikamaru on their last pieces. Both of their kings were surrounded, but it was obvious who was going to win, Shikamaru, as it was his turn all he had to say was ¡¥checkmate¡¦. Shikamaru was impressed, no one had tied with him like this, if it wasn¡¦t for him taking the first go, he would have been the loser.

Sakura sighed in utter frustration ¡§fuck¡¨ she whispered to herself. Shikamaru said the one word that would lower her pride. ¡§Checkmate, although Sakura, you nearly had me there but as Neji would say¡Kfate was against you¡¨ Shikamaru finally said.

Sakura smiled at him in gratitude, everyone clapped ordering another lot of drinks. Someone stood behind Sakura, she could sense that¡Kalso this aura felt very familiar.

Her eyes widened when she knew who it was ¡§Kakashi?¨ She asked turning her head around to look at the masked man. ¡§Yo¡¨ he answered ¡§long time no see, ne Sakura? ¨ Sakura giggled at the still very lazy man, she jumped up and hugged him ¡§sensei!¡¨ She squealed Kakashi chuckled dryly patting her on her head awkwardly.

Itachi studied all of this on the sidelines; Kakashi he was the one who had one sharingan eye, which was hidden under his Konoha forehead protector.

Sakura chatted to Kakashi for a bit, looked at Itachi and saw his annoyed look then remembered the trial. Leaving Kakashi to his woman fans that were now literally jumping on him, she walked back to the table and smiled at everyone.

¡§Urm¡KItachi is the trial over do I pass? Or do I have to do more?¡¨ she asked playing with the hem of her sleeve. He looked thoughtful for a moment, ¡§I want you to fight Sasuke¡¨ he answered. Sakura¡¦s eyes widened and the whole table went quiet, Sasuke got up quietly
and walking outside of the club, Sakura followed grudgingly. She knew Sasuke would be inhumanly strong; still, this was her mission.

Itachi walked behind her, though he didn¡¦t show it he was eager to see what this minx could do.

The fight had started, kunai¡¦s clashed, the sound bouncing off the walls of the alley. Gritting her teeth, she sent flowing chakra to her hand, smashing her fist into the floor she sent the earth up towards Sasuke. Setting his sharingan into action he disappeared, appearing behind her; doing a set of seals and saying ¡§Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu¡¨ he sent fire towards her. When the fire hit, she turned into air.

Running to him from behind she stamped her foot with more force making earth come up once again trapping him in a rock prison. Doing a medic jutsu (AN: the one Kabuto used on Tsunade in esp. 90 or so) and pummeling her hand into his chest, he vanished with a smirked grabbing her hair from behind and throwing her into the ground.

He charged up chidori and ran to her Sakura groaned as her head pounded, through blurry eyes she saw him charging at her. She cursed under her breath she moved her hands into synch she muttered ¡§Kuchiyose no Jutsu!¡¨ suddenly she was on a large slug, chidori going through the slug which turned into millions of slugs falling to the floor.

Half an hour more, Sasuke and Sakura were exhausted. Itachi came over and picked up Sakura¡¦s body which was on the floor, she had scratches all over her body but she would be able to heal it the next day.

Sasuke was standing but panting, he smirked ¡§Itachi, she would be good for us; she is excellent in the arts of a ninja¡¨ he murmured in approval. Disappearing with the sudden wind, Itachi smirked and looked down at Sakura whose eyes were struggling not to shut. ¡§Sleep¡¨ he urged her, moving his hand over her eyes and closing them.

Authors note: another chapter done¡Ksorry it took so long it would have been a shorter wait but my new beta-reader was busy so I wanted to wait until my whole story got beta-read again ¡Gomen! ƒº