Chapter 15: Just Sleep

When they sat down at the table to eat dinner together, Sakura cleared her throat and said, "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Don't be. I was very bitter towards her, anyway. My parents made all of my decisions for me—even ones about love. I resented her very much."

Sakura thought about his words for a moment. "I'm sorry. I have no idea what that's like, but I imagine that it would feel… confining."

He shrugged and went on eating. It seemed that he was cutting off the conversation there. While this would normally annoy her, she could do nothing but respect his decision in this scenario—he had already shared much more with her than she would have ever asked for or expected.

Silence lingered until they both finished eating. It was a comfortable silence, though.

Finally, Sakura asked, "Are you ready for the next healing session? I figured that we could routinely work on healing after dinner."

"Whatever you'd like," he responded.

They both stood up and moved to their usual spots—Itachi lying in bed and Sakura sitting at his side. His eyes drifted closed before she even had the chance to begin.

"Do you mind if I stay silent again?" Itachi asked.

"Do whatever makes you most comfortable." This time, she meant it—she had grilled him enough for one day.

She proceeded to work on his wounds as she did the first two nights. However, tonight was different: within the first hour, Itachi's vitals dropped.

Immediately, Sakura panicked. Was he ill? Did he have other wounds that she failed to notice? Did he overdraw his chakra stores during their training for the day?

Fortunately, her panic quelled within moments. She chuckled at her overzealous concern—Itachi's vitals had dropped because he fell asleep.

Despite finding humor in the situation, Sakura was shocked. He must have been utterly exhausted to allow himself such vulnerability in front of her. It made her wonder if he had slept at all over the past several nights. Perhaps he stayed awake at night to make sure that she did not escape.

As much as she wanted to bolt now that he was unconscious with vital signs guaranteeing it, the medic in her would not budge until she completed the job. Still, she hated passing up such a perfect opportunity to escape. This might have given her the head start that some of his previous hostages probably would have died for—or rather, died without.

Perhaps it could serve as a trust-building exercise, though. And, as Sasuke had proven to her time and again, trust was something that could always be used to one's advantage. Maybe she could build a bridge of trust with Itachi just quickly enough to burn it down.

Sakura knew that taking advantage of the medic-patient bond conflicted with every oath she had ever taken, but she had defaulted to deceit since leaving the village, anyway. Why embrace honor and honesty now?

She considered waking him, but decided against it. He probably needed the sleep if his body sought it in such a precarious situation. Much to her relief, he slept as still as the dead, so she did not need to worry about him moving during her work.

Once she finished her healing for the night, Sakura was unsure of what to do with herself. So, she stayed in her seat and inspected the progress of Itachi's healing. It seemed that she was advancing at a faster pace than she had initially anticipated.

As she studied his fading burns, she found herself distracted by locks of hair splayed across his forehead. Gently, Sakura reached out and started to brush them away.

Just as she began to tuck them behind his ear, his eyes snapped open to reveal his swirling sharingan and his hand wrapped tightly around her wrist. In less than a second, he had her pinned to the ground.

"Whoa, Itachi! It's just me. Calm down!"

Finally, Itachi realized who she was. His eyes widened in horror at his actions and he looked the most mortified she had ever seen him. As quickly as she had ended up on the floor, he put her back on her feet.

"I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" The look of horror had yet to leave his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Honestly. You just scared me," Sakura reassured him. She had not meant to startle him like this. Unfortunately, her reassurance seemed to have the opposite of its intended effect.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I should be more careful. Thank you for your help tonight." He disappeared even more quickly than usual.

Sakura sat on the bed for a moment before lying in the spot where Itachi had been sleeping.

"Boys are weird," she murmured. As much as she wanted to think about what had just happened, she was too tired to muster the brain power.

Instead, Sakura nuzzled into the blankets, which were still warm with remnant body heat, and went to sleep.


The next day, Sakura awoke to the smell of breakfast wafting from across the room. It seemed that Itachi had already come and gone, leaving her breakfast behind. As the events from last night flickered in her memory, she suspected that he had made an effort to avoid her.

She lifted herself from the bed with a sigh. No matter how villainously he presented himself to the outside world, moments like that one showed a much gentler side than anyone would believe existed. Sakura had already suspected that he was softer than he let on, but that moment left no room for dispute in her mind.

Feeling gloomy, she trudged over to the table and pushed her breakfast around on its plate. Despite knowing that the food was probably delicious, Sakura could not bring herself to feel hungry. After about ten minutes of playing with her food like a child, she forced herself to swallow it.

Once she finished her meal, she dragged herself to the shower to find that not even steamy suds could wash away the mental funk in which she had awoken. Sakura sat on the floor of the tub for a while and let the hot water rain down on her as she pondered the entirety of her situation.

As much as she had grown to respect Itachi over the past couple weeks, Sakura could not lose sight of her greater mission—Sasuke had a right to the truth. The truth presented his only reasonable chance to find happiness and a sense of family with his brother. However, it would be hard to convince him of Itachi's innocence after years of his brother's carefully cultivated confabulations.

She pulled herself up from the bottom of the tub with a sigh. Sakura had three more days to come up with an escape plan. She needed to take mental moments where she could put all of the food, poetry, genjutsu, and conversation aside to focus on her real mission. No matter how much she was beginning to see Itachi as a worthwhile person, or even as a friend, she faced the moral obligation of setting aside those feelings for the sake of a greater good.

Deciding that it was time to face the day, Sakura stepped out of the shower and dressed herself. By the time she left the bathroom, the sun filled her room with light bright enough to indicate noontime.

Sakura had wasted enough time for one day. She knocked on Itachi's wall and resolved to leave her room to drag him out if he did not show up within five minutes—she would not let one petty incident drive a rift between them.

It took longer than usual, but Itachi showed up. He looked exhausted beyond healthy human limits—not that exhausted was a new look for him.

"Could we work on more genjutsu today?" Sakura asked. As much as she wanted to reassure him about last night, she knew that transitioning back into normalcy was more likely to have a positive effect than any verbal reassurance could offer.

Itachi nodded. "If that's what you'd like to do. You made good progress with dispelling yesterday, so I think we can work on casting today."

Sakura could not constrain her smile; such high compliments from a true master of the art would never cease to affect her. As she beamed, they both moved to the table and sat down across from each other.

Once they were both settled, he asked, "What type of genjutsu are you interested in learning?"

That was an excellent question. Sakura thought about it for a moment—what would be most effective at immobilizing the enemy? Based on her own experiences, she surmised that playing with her opponent's feelings would likely have the most profound effect. However, she also thought that a genjutsu revolving around emotional strife would make the person want to escape the illusion's sense of despair. Conversely, if she placed the enemy under a mind-blowingly euphoric illusion, it would remove all desire to leave the sweet world of her genjutsu—her opponent would simply submit.

"I want to learn a genjutsu that determines my opponent's greatest aspirations and constructs a world where all of these things have come true. I want a genjutsu too good to leave."

A small smirk curved Itachi's lips. He appeared eerily pleased by her choice and its reasoning.

"Devious. Using human nature is key to successful genjutsu and I think that your approach would be especially effective. However, implementing something like this will also be difficult—you're skipping ahead to advanced techniques. Is that alright with you?"

"I think I can do it." Part of her wondered if she was overestimating herself, but she also doubted that Itachi would offer if he thought she was incapable.

"Alright. Now, I'm going to give you a crash course so that you can understand the basics of what to expect.

"This is the type of genjutsu that needs to be incorporated into your identity. For example, my identity is sinister. So, when I cast my terrorizing genjutsu techniques, my opponents are naturally more susceptive to them—people like and expect things that go together. Fortunately, you already have your pink hair and pleasant face to match your idea—regardless of your fearsome reputation, people are going to feel good when they look at you."

Sakura silently hoped that she was not blushing as he continued, "You're going to mercilessly use that preconception to your advantage. In order to implement your illusion, you want to use a physical cue outside of normal hand signs. This will trigger the genjutsu when your opponent least expects it."

Sakura could tell that Itachi was in his element—that kind of passionate explanation could only come from someone who cared about the subject. She was beginning to feel incredibly fortunate to be his pupil, no matter how short-term their lessons might be.

"A physical trigger… Do you mean something like the faint eye contact you use for most of your genjutsu? Would a smile work?" she queried.

"Exactly, Sakura. A smile would be perfect for this—something positive, natural, and attention grabbing. One look at your smile would provide an opening to cast the illusion. Now, this part's harder to explain: you're going to use your chakra to exert influence over the person. It's easier than it sounds because humans are malleable creatures. To do this, you're going to use your chakra to make every bit of your smile—the glimmer in your gaze, the dimples in your cheeks, and the crinkles around your eyes—a doorway to their sweetest dreams. You need to gather every scrap of happiness in your life to build a mirror in which your opponent will see his own happiness."

She felt a little overwhelmed, but it seemed doable. "Is this something you can show me? An example might help before I dive in."

Itachi shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. This type of genjutsu relies heavily on the natural connection between the caster and the content that I was talking about. Even if I wanted my illusions to be positive, the human mind would reject it. From someone who murdered his whole family, people expect a genjutsu of nonpareil agony. I have some freedom with the tsukuyomi because it's a special technique, but even that's most effective when I make it insufferably painful."

Itachi stood from the table. "I'll leave my sharingan off for the rest of the day. I want you to try to surprise me with what you develop when I return." He paused before adding, "And remember: even though I'll be dropping my guard, I've had a lifetime of near immunity to genjutsu. Please don't be hard on yourself if it doesn't work—it's not meant to be anything more than practice."

"Thank you for your help," Sakura said with genuine sincerity.

She knew what she needed to do and she knew that her chakra control would help—it was just a matter of making it happen. Even if it were unlikely to affect Itachi, she would keep practicing.

Once Itachi left the room, she began to think about how to make her genjutsu work within the brain. Her prior experiences with genjutsu taught her that it disrupted chakra flow in a way that influenced neuron activity. Her medical knowledge of the brain would make this easy, but one major problem remained: how would she get her chakra into her opponent's head?

From Itachi's instructions, she knew that she had to do it in chronological congruency with the psychological vulnerability created by her smile. The timing was important, sure, but she was beginning to feel like the mechanism was a total mystery.

Huffing with frustration, Sakura decided that she just needed to try; maybe the right mechanism would naturally present itself during practice.

She started by imagining a future in which she had attained all of her major goals: Sasuke knew the truth and changed his ways, she managed to heal Naruto and help him make a full recovery, and she was happy. Finally, after years of strife and hard work, Team 7 was back together in the best of ways.

Sakura smiled and knew that this was the time to cast her genjutsu. Her chakra conglomerated behind her third eye in response to her intentions—but, with nowhere to go, it quickly fizzled away.

Now she knew how to make this work. Her chakra would project from her third eye to mirror her opponent's brain activity with her own. While she had perfect control over her own thoughts, she would have them trapped in a saccharine illusion.

Just as she smirked smugly at her discovery, Itachi entered the room with dinner. Her smirk turned to a frown when she discovered that he still wore his sharingan—it would be impossible to test her theory with his eyes like that.

"Sorry, Sakura. I can't help you learn how to cast genjutsu anymore; my sharingan needs to stay on. From now on, we'll keep working on dispelling illusions until you're immune to them—I'm sure that'll be just as useful," Itachi said apologetically.

She was distraught, but waved away his apology with an unconcerned face. "I'll take anything I can get. Just don't leave me locked in this room with nothing to do anymore."

Despite her aloof charade, Sakura wondered what could mandate the use of his sharingan for constant surveillance. Even though she knew that it might be nothing—the sharingan was something he wore constantly, anyway—she worried that it might be something serious.

Itachi carried their plates over to the table and set them down. They both sat in their usual chairs and began to eat their food.

"Is there something going on that I should know about?" Sakura asked. After all, if they were in danger, she had a right to know. While she was always ready for a potential attack, she wanted to take extra precautions to protect herself if necessary.

He shook his head. "It's just a safeguard for now. It's when we start dropping our guard that it'll become a real risk."

Itachi seemed unwilling or unable to divulge any further details, so she shrugged. "All I know is that if I wake up to an intruder in my room, we're going to need a new place to stay once I'm done with them."

"I figured as much," he smirked. Sakura noticed that he was beginning to smirk a lot more lately. Even though it was not a smile, she hoped it meant that he was opening up around her.

Once they finished their meal, they moved to their usual healing set-up.

Before he had a chance to make his request, Sakura asked, "Silence again?"

He nodded, looking relieved. "If you don't mind."

She smiled reassuringly and began her work. As she leaned in, she noted that his face was healing remarkably fast. If Sakura kept up her pace, she could have him fully healed at least one day earlier than expected.

As usual, his eyes drifted closed as she worked. Within a half-hour, Itachi's vitals dropped again. Although she did not panic this time, it shocked her to know that he felt comfortable enough to fall asleep with her hands on his face. Biting her lower lip, she hoped that he would wake more civilly this night than last.

Suddenly, it dawned on Sakura: she was ahead of her proposed healing schedule and Itachi was making a habit of falling asleep during sessions. This gave her the perfect opportunity to escape every night, but she would not leave until his skin fully recovered. If his slumber became a pattern, then she would have both these things on the seventh night. However, he would expect her to attempt an escape on the seventh night—fleeing on the sixth evening would prove much more effective with the element of surprise on her side.

If she sped up the healing process just a little more, on the sixth night she could escape.


Authoress's Note:

Dun dun dun. :)

As usual, thank you all for reading! Also as usual, a special thanks to those who take the time to review - I reallyyyyy appreciate the feedback. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Have a splendid evening (or day, depending on your location),

A