*Sakura Age 12, Itachi 17*

It really was quite perplexing. Such a small slip of a girl, such monstrous strength. Sasuke's little teammate was 12 and Itachi had just seen her yank a tree out of the ground with her bare hands and swing that tree around at their sensei like it weighted barely more than a feather. As fast and dexterous as the copy ninja was, even he had trouble evading the wide swings.

Kakashi had his work cut out for him, really. Uchiha Sasuke, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and the girl who'd been raised and trained by Senju Tsunade since infancy. Overpowered was too mild a way to describe them. They might be too much even for the man of the thousand jutsu.

Itachi watched with interest as Kakashi appeared to flicker then disappeared. Ah, he'd retreated below ground to escape the tree. But was that really smart? If the girl could swing an entire tree…

He didn't get to finish his thought before the entire forest seemed to explode. Right. She could swing a tree; she could break the ground. Kakashi had learned that the hard way, laying dazed in a crater. The pink haired girl grinned in triumph.

"Got you, sensei," she taunted.

She got him all right, Itachi thought, watching Kakashi unsteadily climb to his feet.

"Whooowhooo!" the blond Jinchuuriki cheered, jumping up and down enthusiastically. "Way to go, Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke on the other hand just crossed his arms on his chest and sneered. "She just caught him by surprise with that monster strength."

"He underestimated me," the girl retorted, clasping her hands together to get the dust off her leather gloves. "Tsunade-shishou says that's usually the first and the last mistake someone makes facing a kunoichi. Underestimation is our greatest weapon, after all."

"She got that right," Kakashi grunted, slapping dirt off his clothes.

The girl grinned and Itachi watched in amusement as she slugged Sasuke so hard he flew part way across the training field when his brother muttered something about underhanded tactics being the only way women won battles. There was nothing underhanded about this girl's fighting style.

It really was quite refreshing, seeing his little brother have his ass handed to him.

*Sakura Age 14, Itachi 19*

His ears were still ringing from the blast that had caught him too close for comfort when he came to, and he could feel the mother of all headaches build behind his eyes. So much for that easy, routine mission. B-ranked, his ass. The client had lied, but what else was new. It's not like they actually could verify all the claims their clients made. He really shouldn't have taken the assignment. But he'd wanted to get out of the village so bad, that he'd convinced the Hokage to accept the mission when he'd seen that she was openly skeptical.

He'd needed to leave, period. In hindsight, however, he should have applied for vacation and just gone wandering with Shisui. That would have been smarter. Alas, he'd been desperate and that was never good.

Autumn was fast fading into winter, the ANBU mission roster was closed till spring, barring an emergency of course. Missions as a whole were sparse in the winter when all villages closed their gates. Winter was about survival, not about sabotaging the competition. With barely any missions to be had ninja had to find other ways to earn money, to pay bills and bring food on the table. That wasn't a problem for Itachi, money was never an issue for the Uchiha clan, but he wasn't so ignorant not to know that many other shinobi struggled to make ends meet during the winter.

Usually, Itachi didn't take any missions at all during that time, preferring to leave it to those who actually needed the pay, but the elders had been driving him insane, for weeks. He'd turned nineteen this year and they were harping that he was still unmarried. His father and mother had been married at 18 and 17 respectively, and he'd been born soon after. Itachi couldn't care less about that. He had no intention of marrying to appease his clan and so early. And he really had no intention of marrying a simpering Uchiha woman who'd only make him miserable. Besides, there were no Uchiha he wasn't related to by blood. Itachi wasn't about to spawn children that were so inbred it was almost a guarantee that something would be wrong with them.

He wasn't stupid, unlike the elders. He'd done research on what inbreeding could and eventually would do. And he wanted no part of it.

Now, he was paying for his rebellion. He'd gone unprepared into an uncertain situation, a rookie mistake. He really should have been more aware of what was going on around him, but he'd assumed it was nothing more than a simple recon mission, something he'd done millions of times before, without trouble. But nothing about this mission was simple.

He couldn't even say that he knew what happened. One minute he'd closed in on the bandit's camp and was scouting for a good position where he could keep the entire camp in eye, and the next thing he knew something had exploded, way too close for comfort.

So, this was how the famed Uchiha Itachi would go out, killed on a B-ranked mission, for a rookie mistake. Kind of ironic. Shameful, yes, but a little shame wouldn't hurt the Clan, they needed a lesson in humility.

Except, he wasn't dead. In fact, the pain was lessening, and he could feel his strength returning, the ringing was getting less obnoxious and he didn't feel the need to cough up one of his lungs anymore.

With some trouble he forced his eyes to open and focus. With the return of his sight, his other senses seemed to sharpen as well, and he could hear a commotion all around him. Forcing his eyes to cooperate he started to look around and came to a stop when a familiar, feminine face appeared above him. Pink hair surrounded pale cheeks and piercing green eyes scowled down at him.

"Don't move, Sasuke-no-Onii-chan," she muttered as he felt what could only be her chakra, knitting him back together. Right, the girl was a medic. "I don't know how you managed to get yourself into this mess, doesn't matter right now, anyway. I have to fix you while the boys try to fix the rest. Who in the world told you to get so near Akatsuki?"

"Akatsuki?" he managed to choke out and she nodded.

"Don't tell me you didn't know who you were spying on," she said fiercely, her scowl deepening.

"Client said… Bandits," he rasped out before succumbing to a cough.

"Crap," she muttered and redoubled her healing efforts. "Definitely not bandits. You were attempting to spy on a master spy, Deidara of Akatsuki. He's also the one that blew you sky-high. Recon and explosives expert. We don't know much about him, though. We don't know much about any of them. We're fighting blind, here. Thank goodness we have Kakashi-sensei, or we'd be screwed seven ways to Sunday."

Well, she definitely knew more than him at the moment. And he too was grateful that the Copy Ninja was present. The Akatsuki organization was a mystery, they knew next to nothing about them, their members, goals, anything really. All they knew was that they recruited shinobi with either strong Kekkei Genkai or extraordinary abilities. So, in short, shinobi like Itachi himself, or even the girl healing him. They also hunted down the Tailed Beasts for whatever purpose. And last, they were not friendly.

A sudden shout broke his musings.

"Sakura!"

The girl flinched and turned around and Itachi could see a white bird flying towards them. He didn't need to guess to know that it was a projectile and that it was deadly.

"Fuck! Shit! Crap!" Sakura muttered as she abandoned his wounds and went through a series of seals. The small blue diamond on her forehead flared to life and black lines suddenly appeared on her face and limbs. She threw herself on top of him and a second later the projectile detonated. She took the brunt of the explosion. Itachi looked on fascinated as all her wounds disappeared as soon as they appeared, and his wounds also faded lightning fast.

The blond missing nin was suddenly there, looking on wide-eyed. "What the?" he muttered as Sakura stood up with a thunderous frown on her pretty face.

"Too bad, asshole. I can't be killed in combat," she flashed him the middle finger. "Bet you can't boast the same, huh?"

Itachi also stood up, now fully healed and activated the Sharingan. "Allow me, please," he stepped in front of Sakura. "He took me by surprise once, I think I need to pay him back for your hard work healing me."

He could feel her shrug against his back, as she stepped to the side. "Be my guest."

In hindsight, Deidara really shouldn't ever been able to catch him unguarded. The missing nin was ridiculously easy to subdue with the Sharingan. Too bad, they managed to escape, though. But Itachi would be keeping an eye on them…. And on Sasuke's teammate. No doubt, Deidara would inform whoever led the organization about the girl's abilities, and they could turn their sights on her. He wouldn't allow that.

*Sakura Age 16, Itachi 21*

It was strange how the passage of time affected everything. Human beings, the most. It affected everything about a person. Their appearance, their thoughts, emotions, memories, even down to the simplest nuances of their personalities.

It's been two years since Itachi's run in with the Akatsuki on that ill-fated mission and his subsequent rescue by Team Kakashi. Two years in which he'd watched over his brother's team, partly by Tsunade's orders and partly by his own fears that that the organization might strike to either take Naruto for the Tailed Beast contained inside him, or Sakura for her singular abilities. Sure, Tsunade possessed the same abilities, but she was much older than Sakura and even though she'd never admit it, she was also getting weaker with age. She couldn't keep up with her apprentice now, nor would she be of any real interest to Akatsuki, except of course, for her knowledge. There were still a great many things all of them could learn from the two remaining Sannin.

The Akatsuki had made a nuisance of themselves since. Just under a year ago Itachi had been sent with Team Kakashi to rescue the Kazekage from them. That had been an interesting mission. Working with his brother's team wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. All four of them were headstrong, stubborn and downright insufferable at times. They could try the patience of a saint.

The only one who was mostly pleasant of the bunch was Sakura. That was when she wasn't in a screaming match with Sasuke or beating up Naruto-kun. Itachi had no idea his little brother could be so loud. Not to mention foul-mouthed. When left unprovoked by her teammates' idiocy Sakura was amiable, though maybe not the best company, since she mostly talked with Kakashi. Or, one could say at Kakashi half the time, since the man couldn't be bothered to listen to everything she was saying.

Later, he'd find out that Kakashi did listen to everything, just didn't bother commenting. Not that Sakura seemed to mind. Probably used to the taciturn man, and comfortable in the knowledge that he did listen and would say something if he needed to.

Naruto-kun on the other hand didn't take their team leader's silence as graciously. He badgered and pestered and made an annoyance of himself until either Kakashi answered, which didn't happen often, or Sakura lost what little patience she had and clobbered him, which happened a lot. How the boy didn't learn from his mistakes, Itachi didn't understand.

Sasuke communicated with 'hns' and 'ahns' which wasn't much better than Naruto's relentless pestering. You did not answer your direct superior with a 'hnh' when given an order. This, he could tell, irked Sakura as well, if all the teeth grinding was any indication. Kakashi took it in stride. But then again, Kakashi took everything in stride. Itachi had never met a more unflappable individual than the Copy Ninja. If the man wasn't a reputed genius and well known and feared for his prowess on the battlefield, with or without the Sharingan, Itachi would have thought him a fool.

Traveling with the four of them was simply said exhausting. Naruto questioned every decision and order and usually only complied after Sakura beat him to a pulp. He didn't listen to Itachi, at all. In fact, none of them did. Sakura and Sasuke listened to Kakashi, followed orders, but didn't do anything he asked before asking Kakashi if they should. This irked Itachi a little bit. He and Kakashi were the same rank, mostly, the older man was retired from active ANBU duty, but an ANBU Captain stayed an ANBU Captain for life. The only difference in rank was that Kakashi was Captain in ANBU division Alpha which is higher ranked than division Beta where Itachi belonged, but the difference was slight and not acknowledged outside ANBU because it only affected the payroll. Essentially, they both wielded the same authority.

After noting that the team's seeming insubordination was staring to bother Itachi, Kakashi had found a quiet moment when Naruto was sent ahead to scout, and Sakura and Sasuke were too busy squabbling to pay any attention, to explain that Team Kakashi was special, and he shouldn't let their insolence bother him. Naruto didn't even listen to Tsunade, Kakashi had said with a sigh. Generally, they listened to him because the boys were scared of him, even if they'd never admit it, and Sakura just listened because she liked him.

"That girl is Tsunade with pink hair," Kakashi had said with a chuckle. "Don't let her age fool you. One brush of her hand and we'd be dead, any one of us, one punch, the same result. I spent years honing her taijutsu and genjutsu skills, I know what she's capable of. Tsunade taught her well, too well I think. She's so young and I sometimes think the power she's been given could be too much for her."

Itachi understood that only too well. Too much power at too young an age could very easily ruin a person's life. When Izumi had died and his eyes had changed, become stronger, more dangerous, Itachi hadn't been aware yet of what a burden that kind of power could be. He'd been lucky, he had Shisui, who also had obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan at an early age, after his father's death. Shisui had guided him, advised him, protected him as best as he could. Itachi had no doubt that if it hadn't been for Shisui the Clan would have found more ways to exploit his powers.

It was easy to understand why his brother's team was formed the way it was. Each of them, starting with Kakashi himself had so much to offer that if they were left without someone to look out for them the village elders would exploit them mercilessly. Thus, Kakashi was given Naruto, as Naruto who'd always been alone would probably latch onto anyone who showed even a modicum of affection and would be extremely protective. Naruto in turn was given Sasuke, as the two had been friends since very young and Sasuke had often exhibited protective tendencies towards his best and only friend. And all three males were given a small, pretty girl to presumably hold them all together, but in truth she'd been put in the middle to be protected because Tsunade loved her apprentice like her own daughter and had demanded that the girl always have someone to take her back. And who better than the Copy Ninja, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and an prodigious Uchiha?

AN: Been working on this for a while, unsure if I should take the time to actually finish it. Any thoughts?