Chapter 7: Running

Sakura woke up feeling tired and lazy, not wanting to do much of anything. She looked around and like every morning, Kisame was the only one still in the camp with her. She thought of Itachi and blushed. She had almost completely forgot about what had happened earlier that morning, and she had tried so hard to not remember it either…but Itachi was so like Sasuke that she couldn't help but think about him.

She also remembered it was Itachi's fault for everything in the past. I vow to completely ignore him and anything that happens between us and everything that has happened in the past was a complete accident and did not mean to happen. I'm merely a thing for him to use…that's all. But she couldn't help but notice how sad she was that it was like that. I suppose any girl no matter who the man can't help but want to be more to him than to be used…she thought, sighing and flopping back down, ready to go back to sleep.

"Sakura it's your turn to make breakfast, get your lazy ass out of bed!" Kisame yelled, and Sakura groaned into her pillow. "Sakura! I'm starving and we've let you sleep in for 30 minutes! Get going!" he said and kicked her in the side, making her roll of her mattress and get achingly too close to the fire.

"I'm getting up, fish stick leave me alone!" she screamed back at him, starting to roll up her mat and put it in her backpack, yawning and looking completely exhausted as she prepared the fish someone had caught last night.

"Woah, Sakura, you are not a morning person." Kisame said, crouching down and looking at her. "You look like you just got dragged up a mountain then pushed off…"

"Kisame…" Sakura said, her head down then looked up at him with a ferocious scowl on her face, making Kisame stand up and back away. "SHUT UP!" she yelled and began to throw hot coals at him with the tongs she was using to turn the fish over.

"Sakura." She froze when she heard Itachi's voice and turned to look at him, oddly ashamed with herself for acting so childishly. "Stop." He said and sat down next to the fire, getting a cup of tea and began to drink it.

Sakura blushed and went back to turning the fish over the flames until it was done. She put them on the plates and handed them out to each individual. She handed Itachi his plate without looking at him, and he quirked an eyebrow. He took the plate, anyway, and began to eat, watching Sakura , mildly interested at her new behavior.

Sakura could not stop blushing at his constant gaze. He just sat there, staring at her. She wanted to ask him why, but he would probably take it the wrong way and "warn" her again, or Kisame would make fun of them, like he had constantly done since Itachi had seen her taking a bath in the river. She blushed deeper at the memory…She then decided to go for it. She wanted to know why he kept of staring at her like that. She looked at him, and he kept on staring at her, even when she was staring back at him!

"What?" she asked, trying to make her voice as gentle and non-sarcastic as she could… Itachi's eyes narrowed and he looked away, sending a wave of guilt her way. She shouldn't have asked him…now he probably hated her even more than he did before. She sighed. Kisame grabbed the bowl out of her hands.

"Hey, I wasn't finished!" she complained. Kisame grinned at her.

"Sorry, sweet cheeks I have to clean, besides Itachi is already ready to go. You would have more time to eat if you didn't space out between every other bite…" he taunted and Sakura glared at him.

Sakura stood up and brushed herself off, and then went and packed up all of her things. So many things have happened since I left Konoha. It has only been a week, but I feel as if I have always been with them…she thought awkwardly.

It was the next day when she realized that she was learning habits of both men. When Kisame was hungry, he'd either make fun of her more or huff a lot. When he was nervous about a situation, like getting in trouble with Itachi he'd try to laugh it off, running his fingers through his spiky defying-gravity-like hair. In an odd sort of way, he reminded Sakura of Naruto, with the exception that it was her Kisame was making fun of not someone else.

And Itachi, like she was painfully reminded of Sasuke, with his cold glares and his aloof behavior, and his deep black hair and is 'hauntingly beautiful' eyes that made the darkness seem less frightening, with the exception that he wore the sharingan all the time and Sasuke did not. But there were the few times that Itachi did not wear the sharingan, and she could see his onyx colored eyes, different from Sasukes but in all aspects the same. Sasuke's were usually angry and vengeful, Itachi's was stone cold, but with an older maturity and thoughtfulness.

She often thought about Itachi, which scared her in a way for she felt like she was betraying Sasuke by thinking of him, and betraying her feelings for Sasuke. But it was often what kept her sane when traveling with the two criminals, especially Kisame, who drove her literally insane.

"There's a town coming up ahead. We'll stop there for the night." Itachi said, ignoring the cheers from Kisame.

"Finally! I can't wait to sleep on a soft feather bed…I can't bear to sleep on any damn stones anymore my back is killing me." Kisame complained, rubbing his lower back for the dramatic effect. Sakura rolled her eyes, but she had to agree with Kisame. They hadn't stopped at any real place to sleep, and the thought of a soft mattress excited her.

They entered the town gates, and Sakura was sure that there would be an uproar and frightened glares trailing after them when they entered, because of the Akatsuki robes and all, but to her surprise the town went on as usual, smiling and crowded with yelling and merchants selling their wares. All of the commotion almost seemed to bring her back to Konoha and she smiled with the thought of it.

"Stop smiling, Sakura your face is a loss cause, and smiling makes it a hundred times worse…" Kisame whispered in her ear. Sakura growled and glared at him but she didn't want to make a scene, so she kept her silence. I'll get him later…Sakura sighed.

"Why doesn't anyone run…I mean, don't they know you guys are S-class criminals?" she asked rhetorically.

"People in this town don't ask many questions. They're a poor town, and they do what they can to get money. We will be going through a lot of these towns, we don't want people to know about us. No one in here will tell either, it's small and we can find out easily who spilled our secrets." Itachi answered, not looking at her but at the road in front of them.

"Oh." Sakura said. They walked into a small Inn, and Sakura looked around, amazed. For a small town, the hotel was beautiful. Itachi walked up to the front desk. "Two rooms." Itachi said simply, and received the key.

"Twenty thousand yen for a night." The clerk said, and Itachi paid her, leading them to the room.

"Why did you get only three rooms! There's three of us here!" Kisame said. "And Itachi, man I like you but I'm not sharing a room with you."

"I know." Itachi said, glaring at him. "I'm sharing one with Sakura."

Both Sakura and Kisame froze. "WHAT?" the yelled at the same time.

"I thought that it would be better for me to watch over her and make sure she doesn't escape. Plus, I'm the lighter sleeper. She'd easily escape you, Kisame." Itachi said, looking at the room numbers for their room.

"Well, if it isn't Itachi, yeah?" a voice said from behind them. Sakura turned around. A man was standing there, with long blondish hair, part of it covering a side of his face and the top of it in a ponytail.

"Deidara!" Kisame said, shaking hands with him. "I haven't seen you in forever, how have you been?"

"I've been fine, yeah." The man Deidara answered. "Sasori is in the other room, he'll be glad to see you, yeah. We're just looking for my bijuu here in Stone country I'm from here and all, yeah." Deidara said, then spotted Sakura. "Woah, who's the chick, Itachi. Nice lay…" Deidara said, staring at Sakura from behind Itachi. She blushed.

"We haven't slept with each other!" Sakura and Itachi said at the same time, Sakura panicky and Itachi blank but Itachi's eyes flashed menacingly in Deidaras direction. Deidara put up his hands, surrendering.

"Okay, okay, yeah. I was just saying." He said, laughing.

"What's all the noise out here?" another man in Akatsuki robes walked out of a room. He had red hair, and Sakura noticed that he was different looking from everyone else. She couldn't pinpoint it, but there was something very different.

"Oi, Sasori. It's Itachi, Kisame and…" Deidara trailed off.

"Sakura." Sakura said, nodding her head at Sasori who returned the gesture. If someone was to kidnap me and use me, I would have liked it to be these two…they seem nicer and none of them look like Sasuke… Sakura said, and snuck a glance at Itachi. Itachi grabbed her arm and she began to walk with him.

"What are you doing? Don't you want to talk with them?" she asked him. He let go of her arm, her arm tingling where he had just touched.

"No." he answered. "We need to find our rooms. Kisame!" he yelled.

"You go, we're going downstairs to the bar for a drink." Kisame replied and walked down the stairs with the two other Akatsuki members. Itachi sighed and kept walking to their room. He opened the door and walked inside, looking in it then set his stuff down on one of the beds. Thank god their were two… Sakura felt relieved that they wouldn't be sharing one.

Sakura laid her stuff on the other bed. "I'm taking a shower." She said blushing, getting her stuff out. "No peeking this time." she said as she closed the door, attempting to make light of the situation. She heard Itachi's growling "Hn." And she smiled. She turned on the water and immediately began to scrub her skin. It felt really good after all the walking they'd been doing, and it was much safer and better-feeling when she was taking a shower behind a locked door then out in the open in a river.

She turned off the water after she felt clean enough and she stepped out of the shower, drying herself off and getting into her pjs, the ones she had reserved for when she would sleep in a bed, which she had expected to sleep in every night…before she got caught. She blow dried her hair and walked out, flopping on the bed then going under the covers, snuggling deep into them. She turned around and faced Itachi, who was already laying on the other bed and facing the wall, not her.

"Itachi?" she asked. He did not answer. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Hn?" came a reply, and she opened her eyes again. Crap…I didn't think he'd answer. I was just trying to make conversation…

"Why haven't you killed me yet?" she asked, and covered her mouth as she did. The question had recently been bothering her, but she had to know. Was she a tool or was she something to him? It took a while for Itachi to answer, but eventually he did.

"We need you as bait for the kyuubi and other reasons." Itachi said, a lazy tone creeping into his voice. Sakura frowned. That wasn't exactly the reason she was hoping for, but she would feel more guilty if he had said it was because of her…

"Oh." She said. "Also, why won't you open up more?" she asked. If he had answered her last question, maybe he WAS opening up more…and maybe she was pushing her luck with all these questions.

"I can't afford to make friendships. I can't have anything stand in my way or be a weakness to me if I want to become stronger." Was Itachi's simple reply.

"But...that's no reason!" she said, sitting up in her bed. Itachi turned to face her, sitting up as well. "That's no reason to ignore people at all. You can still talk to them without them becoming a weakness."

"They are weaknesses. I killed the whole of my clan…for what purpose? They were in my way; distractions, and in killing them I improved my strength."

"You didn't kill Sasuke." Sakura whispered, looking down.

"That is because he is going to become stronger, and one day I'll have a strong opponent that might actually challenge me. That's the only reason. And you, you shall help motivate him." Itachi said.

"Is…is that the other reason?" Sakura whispered.

"Yes." Itachi said, now standing next to her bed.

"I'm going to lead him to his death…You can't make me. I will escape and before I do I'll kill you." She said, and looked furiously up at him, earning a smirk from him.

"It shall prove amusing when you attempt to." Itachi said.

"God, why did I have to be roomed with YOU. I rather have been with Kisame…You are awful Uchiha, Itachi! It's your fault that Sasuke left the village…and me, It's your fault that the Uchihas are dead…You ruined people's lives, Itachi! You-" Sakura was stopped by something warm and soft touched her lips, almost like a peach. Itachi's smell engulfed her senses he was so close. Itachi's lips were on top of hers as he pushed her down on the bed, silencing her completely. All she could think about was the sensation of it, and how Itachi had just stolen her first kiss.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! I'm not so satisfied with this chapter, but I like the ending, don't you guys? Lol. Well thank you so much for all the reviews, but I'm awfully short on time! Do you think Itachi is OOC? I thought he was in some parts, but then again I fear I'll never actually portray his character correctly….-Sighs- anyway, I think he did kind of rush things by kissing her, but it was only to silence her….Or was it? Tee hee hee. Well, I'll write another tomorrow, because I'm busy today and this is all I could write this morning...but I hope you like it! Leave Reviews, I love you guys! –hugs- : D

- moonlitXkunoichi