Summary: You could call this sorta AUish...whatever floats your boat. This is what if the Uchiha masacre never happened? Sakura gets pissed at Itachi, and hits him when he says a hurtful comment. But then Sakura finds out that she has to get MARRIED to him. This fic is how Sakura and Itachi's relationship changes from Sakura hating Itachi's gut, being friends, then to love! please R&R! I have cookies! -has an endless plate of chocolate chip cookies-

Pairings: ItachiSakura and some others -will list them later

Itachi: -appears holding a card- Suki would like tothank her Beta,AbeoUmbra, for all her help. She would also like to say that she dosesn't own Naruto, or any of the characters, in any way, shape, or form. Sheonly her OC Tsuki. That is all...-dissapears ina a puff of smoke-

Suki: Yes! ABEOUMBRA IS MY GOD! -clings to Star- I love you Star-Sama!

How Love Blossoms Beneath the Sakura Tree

by: ToraYashaChan

Chapter 1: At the Memorial Stone

'Side kick, dodge, throw shirukens, kick, punch, side kick, right hook, dodge, punch, duck, throw some kunais.'

This is what was going on in eighteen-year-old Haruno Sakura as she sparred with her teammates- Naruto and Sasuke.

'Kick, hit, throw some more kunais, side kick, dodge.'

Sakura continued in this type of pattern in her head as she sparred with her friends.

There hadn't beenmany important ANBU missions recently- only a couple in the past month, and those missions hadn't been very hard. Just your average rogue ninja who thought he was all that, but turned out to be just some punk who would get his ass kicked by the ANBU with ease.

The three of them wanted to stay in shape, so they trained almost daily for three to five hours- either sparring or improving their techniques. After all you never knew when a real threat, like the ex-legendary Sanin, Orochimaru, would rear his ugly head and attack Konoha, better safe then sorry.

After about five hours of sparring with each other, only taking two or three water breaks, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto all fell to the ground, totally exhausted from their training.

"Ngh...What a work out, eh guys?" Sakura said in a joking tone, rolling onto her stomach to look at her teammates, despite how tired she was.

Naruto nodded in agreement, "Y-yeah, I'll say." The blond haired Jounin replied in agreement. He cracked his neck, considering that while they had been sparring, Sakura had almost dislocated it when delivering him a hard punch to the head.

"Hn..." Was the tired and nonchalant reply from the youngest member of the Uchiha Clan as he stared up at the sky, lazily the three watched the clouds roll by in the sky. Moments went by in comfortable silence, continuing to watch the clouds while their tired bodiesrecuperated.

After a while, Sakura gave a yawn, covering her mouth as she did so.

"Man...I'll be sleeping like a baby tonight." She said softly, pushing herself into a sitting position.

Her teammates nodded in agreement.

"Mhm..." Naruto mumbled sleepily.

She brought herself into a standing position, stretching out the kinks in her back and shoulders, "I should get home and get dinner ready, okay guys?"

Her teammates nodded in understanding. Sakura lived a hard life, she had lost her parents at age ten, and they hadn't given her a guardian to take care of her. They knew that she was most likely going to the memorial stone to visit her parents, and they knew better than to question Sakura on her antics.

"Yeah...I should probably do the same." Sasuke replied, pulling himself up into a standing position as well.

"Mom wants me to help her with a few things since it's the servants' day off today, and Itachi is off on a mission with some ANBU. They should be getting back tomorrow, considering they left two days ago, and the mission isn't that far from Konoha."

Cracking his neck again, Naruto stood up and stretched as well.

"Yeah, me too. Iruka is supposed to be getting back from his most recent mission today, andI promised I would meet him at Ichiraku's when he got back." He said, smiling sheepishly.

Grinning, Sakura nodded. She found Naruto's affection towards his former teacher absolutly adorable.

"I shouldgo see if he's back yet. See you two tomorrow!" And in puff of smoke, the blond was gone.

Eyeing Sasuke for a moment, Sakura pondered on what to say to her teammate.

After a moment or two, the pink-haired medic finally spoke up,"Um...Sasuke. Would you liketo walk home together since we go in the same direction?" The pink haired medic questioned, tilting her head cutely at the young Uchiha. Shrugging, Sasuke nodded and began leaving the clearing as Sakura followed him. They walked together for a while in comfortable silence.

Near the memorial stone in Konoha---------------------------------

When Sasuke and Sakura were walking by the area where the Memorial stone was, Sakura 'ahemed' softly and told Sasuke she was going to visit the Memorial Stone, and excused herself to go to the said stone.

Sakura was pretty sure that Sasuke knew why she was going to the Memorial Stone, considering he was the first of her team to find her crying. It had happened a year or so after they had been put on the same team together.

-Flashback-

Sakura was kneeling at the Memorial Stone, crying like there was no tomorrow-the pain of her parent's death was still very strong.

"Why? Why did this have to happen?" Tears flowed down her cheeks like a river whose dam had been blown apart. In fact, that's exactly how she felt. The pink haired Kunoichi had been suppressing the sadness and pain since her parent's funeral. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't cry anymore, she needed to be strong.

But recently, the pain had been growing and kept on eating away at the dam that had been keeping the sadness and pain at bay, and it had finally crumbled.

So, here she was blubbering like a foolin front of theMemorial Stone.

'I only hope that nobody comes by and sees me like this...' Sakura thought to herself as she made many futile attempts to stop herself from crying. Rocking herself as she cried.

Fifteen to Twenty Minutes later--------

Suddenly, Sakura heard footsteps behind her. She looked over her shoulder slowly, sniffing softly.

"S-Sasuke-kun...?"

The pink haired kunoichi was pretty sure her face was as red as a cherry. She turned her gaze back to the stone, tears still flowing down her cheeks.

Uchiha Sasuke was watching his teammate in silence,pondering whether or not he should try and comfort her. With a sigh, he walked over to Sakura and sat down next to her, looking at her with concern.

"Is this something you want to talk about?" He asked gently, motioning to theMemorial Stone,unsure of how to address the girl who was crying to the stone in front of him.

Sakura just stared at the Memorial Stone, debating whether or not it was wise to tell her teammate, and friend, about her parents.

'If I tell him, at least he'd know. And that would give me someone to go to for comfort when I get like this...'

In the end, Sakura broke down again, and told her teammate everything, from how her parents had died in front of her- and how she'd been living alone for three years ever since without a guardian or anyone to fill the void in her heart. (AN: o.o wow...how sappy XD please don't kill me for it! -cowers-)

All the while, Sasuke listened attentively until Sakura had finished.

When she had finally finished spilling her guts out to him, Sasuke pondered on how to comfort his friend. After all that they'd been through with Naruto, the two of them were like a brother and sister to him.

Sighing, he pulled her into a comforting embrace. Sasuke didn't know what to say to try and comfort her, so he didn't say anything at all. The pair stayed like that for a while, just sitting in silence.

After a while, Sakura's crying subsided to just periodic sniffles. Sasuke rubbed her back, "Will you be alright now Sakura?" He questioned, still looking concerned, the pink-haired kunoichi nodded in response.

"Y-yes. Thank you, Sasuke-Kun, this means a lot to me." Sakura replied, gratitude showing clearly in her voice. Sasuke stood up then, offering his hand to Sakura to help her up.

"You're welcome. Hey, Haruno, would you like to come to my house for dinner?"

Sakura took his hand gladly and pulled herself up.

"S-sure. Arigato Sasuke-Kun." She replied softly with a nod, smiling at the young Uchiha gratefully, a tint of pink appearing on her cheeks.

The young Uchiha smiled back at his female teammate and began heading to his home in town with Sakura next to him.

-End Flashback-

Sakura smiled as she headed towards the stone. That had been five years ago, and the three of them had grown even closer in those five years, along with Kakashi-Sensei. Sasuke and Naruto were like brothers to her now, and they both thought of her like the sister they never had.

Continuing on her way to the Memorial Stone, she started humming a little tune. Sakura had wanted to bring flowers to her parents, but she hadn't had time to get them from Ino's family flower shop.

'I'll come tomorrow and bring them those flowers from the flower shop...' she thought to herself as she made her way to the stone.

When Sakura finally reached the memorial stone, she knelt down in front of it and sighed, a sad smile on her face

"Hey mom, hey dad. I'm back, finally. Sorry I haven't been able to visit you for a while." she said apologetically, as she closed her eyes legs tucked under her as her brought her hands together in her lap.

She imagined hermom and dadsmiling at her- holding her closely as they listened to her soft words.

Sakura felt tears build up in her eyes as the memories of her parents flooded her mind. She missed them terribly.

'Damn it! I'm crying again. I promised myself I wouldn't cry anymore...'

After a while she calmed down her crying,

"There haven't been a lot of missions lately. But I've been training nonstop, plus, the work at the hospital is time consuming." The pink haired kunoichi added, making amends to the spirits of her parents.

She then began to talk about things that had been going on in Konoha recently; like how different people that had been close to her parents were doing. How her job at the hospital was going, what her teammates had been up to, and various other events that had happened.

When Sakura ran out of things to say she said goodbye to her parents and turned around. When she turned around to leave, she saw Uchiha Itachi standing nearby, staring at her intently.

"Uh...I...Itachi-Sama. You're back from your mission already? Sasuke-Kun said you wouldn't be back till tomorrow."

"Hn..." The Uchiha Prodogy replied in a stoic manner.

"So...how'd it go?" Sakura questioned, titling her head cutely.

Itachi shrugged, "fine. Just another rogue ninja that needed detaining."

"Oh. I see, that sounds pretty boring."

"Hn..."

The pink-haired kunoichi was beginning to feel uncomfortable and very irked with the small talk that was going on between them.

'Damn it, doesn't the guy say more than just a few words at a time?' Inner Sakura exclaimed in annoyance.

Itachi walked up to the stone, only a few feet away from the pink-haired medic.

"Who were you visiting?" He questioned, his gaze locked on the rock with the names of ninja who died in combatetched on its surface.

Sakura sighed and sat back down where she had been standing, "I'm visiting my parents. Why do you ask?"

She looked up at him with a questioning look on her face.

Shrugging, Itachi looked over at Sakura, "Why do you grieve over weaklings like them? They died too easily on a simple mission. They don't deserve anybody's sympathy," the Uchiha prodigy said coldly. Giving her a gaze that could turn anybody to an ice sculpture.

The pink-haired medic's eyes widened in shock for a second,quicklynarroweddangerously, the vein in her forehead twitching in annoyance. Haruno Sakura was pissed.

Standing up suddenly, Sakurawalked up to theUchiha prodigy, and then, without warning,punched his jaw as hard as she could.

"For you're information, Itachi-sama, my parents were STRONG ninjas! They died nobly protecting Konoha! Don't EVER say something like that ever again!"

Sakura ran from the stone back to town, tears forming in her eyes again at Itachi's words.

Suki: -squeals with happiness-

Gaara: -rolls eyes- what are you so happy about? it's total crap...

Suki: -glares daggers at Gaara- shut up! It's GOOD...do you want me to pair you with Rock Lee as punishment?

Gaara:-glares- ...

Suki: that's what I thought -smirks smuggly- anyways! R&R! I'll write a oneshot of whatever pairing for the first person to review this story! -nods, looking hopefully at all the reviewers-