AN: Alright so here's another chapter of The First Time.

Thank you for your time reading this and reviewing and all that fun stuff :)

The First Time

Chapter 3: Nothing of Romance

"And then you turned, put out your hand, and you asked me to dance
I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight."

"So you three are all moving in together?" she asked again, folding clothes and placing them in appropriate boxes.

"Hn." He just sat on his bed, watching his pink-haired teammate pack his room.

"You, your brother, and Shisui?" Her voice sounded incredulous, as if the idea was the most preposterous thing she'd ever heard. Now that she was finished with his clothes, she had moved onto packing his weapons into several pouches and backpacks.

"Hn." Once again, Sasuke made no move to help. Originally, he'd tried to pack his room himself, but Sakura interrupted to find out if there was any truth to the rumor that he was moving into a three bedroom house outside of the Uchiha district with his brother and Shisui. After finding out the rumors were indeed true, she proceeded to scold him for not telling his teammates and best friends ("Really, Sasuke, what were you thinking not letting me and Naruto know?" "The decision was made only recently." "Whatever, Sasuke, that's just something you tell your best friends!" "Hn.").

She seemed satisfied with that answer, but then she began to chide him for just throwing his things into several cardboard boxes. She insisted, for several minutes, that he needed to be more careful and began organizing his things. The hours passed, and she had now packed most of his room for him. Whenever he attempted to help or do anything, she would sigh, wince, and huff at his attempts until he had just stopped altogether.

"Don't you think that's more testosterone than you can handle?" Her voice was amused and her eyes held a glinting smirk behind them, but her face stayed as straight as she could keep it.

It had been almost two months since she'd lost the boy on the operating table, and she was now back to her normal self. Usually, it didn't take too long for her to recover. Eventually she would have to concede that sometimes tragedies like that just happened, but that didn't make it any easier. Slowly, though, the pain and guilt ebbed with the help of missions, training, sake, but namely: her friends.

"Hn."

Sakura snorted as she closed the last box with a triumphant smile. "There. All done!" she called in excitement.

This time, it was Sasuke's turn to snort. "Really, Sakura, you're so easily amused."

Sakura arched an eyebrow at him, her hands landing on her hips as she stood to face him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she hissed in a mocking way.

"You find the most mundane tasks entertaining," Sasuke replied pointedly.

"Do not!" she retorted vehemently.

"Grocery shopping, the dishes, cooking, sewing, packing, sharpening weapons, painting your apartment…" he began to list. Sakura just rolled her eyes, annoyed that her teammate was in fact right about all of those things.

"So what's wrong with enjoying these 'mundane' tasks? We're ninja, Sasuke, and sometimes, with the stress of everything, mundane tasks can be calming!" Sakura vehemently retorted.

Sasuke minutely rolled his eyes. "You're annoying."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest. "You're an ass."

"Agreed," a voice said from the door.

Sakura jumped and squeaked, turning around quickly to find Uchiha Itachi leaning against the frame of the door. His eyebrow was raised slightly in amusement at the scene. "How long have you been standing there?" Sakura chirped, a smile forming on her face the instant she settled and recognized that the man in the doorway was not a threat. Really. Sakura thought to herself. He shouldn't be able to sneak around like that.

"Long enough," he answered cryptically, the ends of his lips tugging upward in a lopsided smirk as he saw the smile that Sakura had for him. Before she could reply, he added, "You were helping Sasuke pack?"

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "You just got back from a mission, right?" she asked. "Your mother was packing your room earlier."

"Hm," Itachi replied, inclining his head at her.

Sakura's eyes instantly went to scan up and down his frame checking for injuries. She attempted to keep the blush that was surely forming on her cheeks from becoming too noticeable. For her, it began the day they met. She had been five years old. When she had knocked Sasuke off of his brother's back and tackled him to the ground, she had paid little attention to Itachi. However, when he bent down and picked Sasuke from the ground, Sakura had stood up and looked at him for the first time. He was only nine at the time, but he looked so serious and jaded for someone so young, that Sakura felt so sad for a moment. Then, his lips had tugged and he smirked, clearly amused. That was it. That was all it took and Sakura was gone.

Years later, she had thought she was in love with Sasuke. She was so convinced that he was the one she had been in love with all that time, but she was wrong. There were the little signs that she was clearly taken with Itachi – the way her heart would jump when he was nearby. She put it off as mere attraction at the time. No one could deny that Uchiha Itachi was incredibly attractive, so that was what she told herself in order to quell her feelings.

One day, everything for her changed.

Itachi came back from a mission, bleeding from more internal wounds than she had ever seen. In fact, most of his innards were gutted, torn, and in the wrong place. He should have been dead, but he was barely holding onto life. Her hands trembled and her entire body was wracked with fear for his life that Sakura had trouble concentrating on healing him. Sakura had worked tirelessly that night. After six hours of extensive surgery, she had nearly collapsed from chakra exhaustion, absolutely drained. She had pushed herself so far, further than she ever had for anyone else, but her mind and heart were so happy. He would pull through, and now she could return home and get some much needed rest. Before she did, though, his eyes cracked open ever so slightly, and Sakura had been filled with so much relief and excitement that she wanted to cry. "Come here often, Itachi-san?" she quipped to him before she could think of anything else. Before he drifted back into unconsciousness, Sakura saw his lips quirk into an amused smile. The realization hit her then, with full force.

She was in love with Uchiha Itachi.

Not that she would ever admit it to anyone. Ino knew of her interest, but that was it. She had never bothered to tell her best friend the extent of her feeling for him because she knew what Ino would say – something along the lines of 'go jump his bones!'. Anyway, she knew that Uchiha Itachi was older, talented, a prodigy, and extremely good looking. He was, in short, much too good to be bothered with his younger brother's medic teammate.

That's not to say that he wasn't kind to her. If anything, he was nicer to her than Sasuke was. He was never shy about complimenting her when he would catch glimpses of her healing abilities or a new jutsu she would use in a spar on the Uchiha grounds. He was always considerate, like giving her his jacket to hide the blood of the boy who died under her scalpel. Sakura always reciprocated his kindness as graciously and whole-hearted as she could, and he always seemed pleased to make her smile. It made trying to get over him that much more difficult.

Of course, she had seen other people and been in a few other relationships, but there was always a constant, nagging voice in the back of her head that told her that Uchiha Itachi was the perfect man.

Now, she was leering at the perfect man suspiciously, as he was concealing his right side and she could see his left hand tentatively placed on the side of his ribs. "Itachi, are you injured?" she asked shiftily, watching his face intently for any signs of deception.

There! His eye twitched ever-so-slightly. It was miniscule, and if she hadn't been studying him closely, she would have missed it. In being best friends with Uchiha Sasuke for so long, she had learned how to observe the Uchiha men for the smallest of changes that indicated their moods. Therefore, with the slightest twitch of his left tear duct, she knew he was going to lie.

"No," he replied silkily. That particular tone always made her knees feel like jello, but her medic-mode was on now, and she was able to avoid thinking of the way her stomach flipped with butterflies.

"Lie," she called out bluntly. Itachi arched an eyebrow at her, but she held her ground. Sakura smiled smugly as he tried to shift his way to prove he was uninjured, but failed miserably. Well, not miserably. No one else would have seen it, but Sakura was too well trained in Uchiha body language to miss the way he bit the inside of his cheek in order to quell the pain. "Let me heal you."

"That is unnecessary."

Her hands landed on her hips stubbornly. "It is necessary!"

"Just let her heal you, aniki. You'll never win," Sasuke interrupted the tense standoff in his room.

Itachi sighed ever so slightly, indicating to Sakura that he was exasperated, but moved to the bed with tentative footsteps and sat next to Sasuke. Sakura smiled triumphantly. "Take off your shirt," she ordered.

It was something she'd said to him a million times, but the pleased look on Itachi's face made the hairs on the back of Sakura's neck stand up as heat rushed up her body. In a clash of obsidian and onyx, they simply stared at each other for a moment.

"Should I leave you two alone?" Sasuke asked sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Sakura exclaimed as her fist connected with the top of Sasuke's head, her face getting warmer from embarrassment. Itachi smirked and pushed his chakra-infused index finger roughly into the center of Sasuke's forehead after Sakura had finished her assault.

"Ow," Sasuke hissed a bit, rubbing both spots on his head. Standing abruptly, he stalked towards the door, muttering something about 'perfect for each other', and left them alone.

Sakura stared at the door where Sasuke had just escaped, but quickly reverted her gaze back to the elder Uchiha whose face was nothing short of entertained. If it had been anyone else, they would have been laughing hysterically, but Sakura could tell that Itachi had enjoyed the double-teaming of his brother by the smirk on his lips and the light in his onyx eyes. Sakura gave him a pointed look, silently telling him to take off his shirt.

This time, he obliged. Sakura tried not to ogle him. Really, she did, but it was to no avail. Luckily, after many years of healing what Ino called 'hunks' like Kakashi (he always kept his mask on, though), Sasuke, Naruto (No one knew when he got so attractive. It was like one day, there he was, shirtless, tan, and grinning like a model), Kiba, and Shikamaru, Sakura was able to keep her gaze discreet. His muscles were lean but well defined, and you could see every ripple against his snowy-white skin – which always felt like silk, by the way. Trying to keep herself professional, Sakura knelt on the ground next to him and to examine the wound on his right ribs.

It was a gash about six inches long. No muscle seemed to be disturbed, and it hadn't broken any bones, but it was serious enough to warrant a trip to the hospital for a medic to seal up. The wound was still wet with blood, and there was a good chance of infection if left untreated. Sakura's brows furrowed in annoyance as she prodded the wound lightly with her healing chakra.

"You know, Itachi, one of these days you're just going to keel over and die from infection and it'll be your fault for not going to see a doctor," she chastised in her doctor-voice.

"I do not require a doctor. I have you."

His words made her still instantly, and she tried her best not to gape at him in awe. As she composed herself, she formulated a response. "You didn't seem to have any intentions of letting me heal it when you lied and told me you didn't have a wound," she rebuffed as her fingers were sealing the skin over.

"I knew you would find out," was his emphatic reply.

"Oh, did you, now?" She retorted, studying the wound to make sure she left no hint of unclean flesh.

"Hm."

"How'd you know then?" She asked as she finished her work, looking up at him with skeptical emerald eyes.

"I'm aware of your proficiency as a medic, and I knew you would notice I was injured."

"How'd you know I would heal you?" she challenged.

"You told me you would if I came to you."

"Oh." That's right, she had told him that, hadn't she? "Well," she said in a quiet, caring voice. A little more so than she meant to, "I'm glad you did."

"As am I."

Sakura found herself looking into his eyes once again, and he met her gaze with an intense look back, and neither of them faltered.

"Am I interrupting something?" a cheerful voice asked. First, Sakura turned towards the door, but there was no one there. "This way!" Her head snapped towards the window to find a boisterous Uchiha leaning into Sasuke's window. He jumped in gracefully and, if it was possible, gracefully tackled Sakura into the ground before she had time to blink or process what was going on. "Sakura-chan, I missed you while I was on my mission!"

"Shisui," Sakura replied from underneath the older Uchiha as she tried not to suffocate under his rambunctious embrace. Really, sometimes he got out of hand, but she had a soft spot for him. He was so much like Naruto and so…not Uchiha that it was hard not to like Shisui. "Are you injured?" she asked casually as Shisui pulled off of her, sitting on his knees, Sakura following suit.

"My lips hurt, Sakura-chan. Only a kiss will heal them," he replied without missing a beat, grinning at her.

Sakura rolled her eyes in response. "That's not something I can help you with, Shisui," she retorted.

"Sure you can," he replied with a grin. Then he puckered his lips and leaned into Sakura smoothly.

Itachi was the one to react this time. His finger went out again, laced with chakra, and he flicked Shisui in the head. The flicker expert flickered straight back and into a wall with a loud thud. "You really need to learn tact," Itachi muttered through gritted teeth. Sakura would have seen his frustration if she hadn't been hovering over Shisui like a worried mother.

"Ow, Itachi! Why'd you do that?!" Shisui cried in protest.

"You are embarrassing."

"That's not nice!"

"I'm aware of the level of 'niceness' that my sentences contain. There's no need for you to point it out."

"You're like a robot."

"You are foolish."

"I'll slice you with a kunai again!"

"That is not funny."

"I thought it was pretty hilarious."

"Sakura would be the one to heal me. Would you really waste her time like that?"

"Sakura-chan loves us!"

"Perhaps."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the two and stood up. Their bickering stopped immediately as she sauntered to the door. Flashing them her winning grin, she stepped over the threshold to see Sasuke standing there with a tomato in his hand. "They're all yours," she muttered. "I'm training with Tsunade tomorrow so I need my rest."

She was about to leave when Sasuke caught her by the elbow tightly. The look on his face was enough to make Shisui and Itachi halt their bickering match (which had resumed the moment Sakura had stepped out of the door) and stare at the youngest Uchiha. His eyes were filled with apprehension and a little worry. "Do not overdo it again, Sakura. You know what happened last time."

She smiled a knowing, sad smile at him and nodded. He released her slowly and watched her as she retreated out of the Uchiha compound.

X

It burned.

It ached.

It bruised.

It constricted.

It was killing her.

Sakura tried to breathe, but her lungs weren't working the way they should be at the moment. Slowly, her knees gave out and she toppled over, catching herself by the palms of her hands. The burning sensation didn't subside with her new position, and she tried her best to ignore the feeling of her lungs slowly ripping and tearing at her from the inside out. Now, the pressure on her lungs felt as if they were about to give out as she coughed, trying to circulate oxygen to her body. Blood flowed from a steady stream from her mouth onto the grass in front of her.

"Sakura, you need to be able to get chakra to your entire body. What happens if your chakra pathways are collapsed by an enemy ninja and you can't heal your team?" Tsunade's voice was angry as she stood over her student. To a passerby, it may seem that Tsunade was being much too cruel to the seventeen-year-old, but Sakura knew it was just the way her shishou was, and it was the best way for Sakura to learn. "Everyone dies, that's what happens. Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, all dead."

Sakura hacked another spout of blood, but focused her attention on her chakra. The exercise was meant to collapse her chakra pathways, and she would attempt to rebuild them in order to heal her team. However, she couldn't get chakra into the points of her body where she could unclasp the pathways. She'd been at it for almost an hour, trying over and over to figure out a way to do it, but it seemed impossible. The only way she knew of was to use chakra in her fingers to manually de-collapse the pathways or have someone else do it, but she couldn't get chakra to her hands because the pathways leading to her arms had been collapsed. It was a horrible conundrum.

Her last resort was attempting to force large amounts of chakra through the pathways, hoping they would spring open. However, so much chakra circulating in huge gusts throughout her body was now harming her vital organs – like her lungs.

Naruto and Sasuke looking on like parents – trying, and failing, to hide discreetly in the trees in order to make sure she was alright – wasn't helping either. If anything, they were only distracting her from her work. Her eyes clasped shut, she tried one more time to force chakra through the collapsed passages, but it didn't work. That was all her body could take, and her arms gave out underneath her as she fell into the ground.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called as he lost all form of self-control and bound from their hiding spot. "Tsunade-baa-sama, knock it off! You're killing her!"

"Naruto!" Tsunade growled. "One, do NOT call me that. Two, do not interrupt a training session that I'm having with my student."

"But Tsunade-sama, Sakura's obviously hurt," Naruto cried. Sakura realized he was closer now, and she felt Sasuke coming up behind him with someone – shit. Itachi was with them. Now, she was too focused on berating herself for letting him see her so weak. She must look like a fool now.

Resolved, she pushed herself up with all the strength she had left to face the four of them. Naruto was obviously concerned, Sasuke held a glimmer of worry in his eye, and Itachi was staring at her so intensely, Sakura felt the need to shrink rise within her.

"Sakura, stay down," Tsunade ordered.

"No," Sakura bit out through clenched teeth. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, and she held back the urge to vomit. "I want to try one more time."

"Don't be annoying," Sasuke hissed, leaning down towards her now. Sakura knew it was the closest thing he would ever say to show his worry, so she just grinned at him through red teeth.

"I'm fine. I want to try again," she replied resolutely.

Now, Tsunade was leaning down towards her. "Sakura, you have surpassed every expectation I had of you today. No other medic or shinobi would have lasted ten minutes, and you managed to force your body into working for an hour. Naruto and Sasuke are going to take you to the hospital now to recover. I need you to get better because I'm sending you on a special mission in one week. Do you understand?"

Sakura's face looked far from pleased, but she nodded her head lightly. Sasuke grabbed her roughly by her elbow, and placed her unceremoniously onto Naruto's waiting back. "Stop manhandling me!" she hissed.

"Stop being annoying. I warned you about this last night," Sasuke replied coolly as the three made their way from the training ground to the hospital. Tsunade turned and looked at Itachi, who was staring at the back of a certain pink-haired kunoichi, worry etched and hidden deep within his features.

X

Itachi had been walking towards the training grounds silently, book in hand, in order to escape his father. He knew it wouldn't be long before Fugaku caught up with him concerning the many issues Itachi had to deal with as clan heir. Hopefully, he could find a quiet place in the forest to read until his next mission came up and he could avoid the confrontation altogether. He knew he had a mission beginning in one weeks' time, but he was hoping that something shorter would crop up before then, allowing him to leave town for a day or two.

Fugaku had been harassing him more and more lately and that was why Itachi felt the need to move out. At first, Fugaku and the elders had denied him permission, but then he resolutely decided he would go anyway, and he would take his bloodline with him, so they relented. Mikoto was sad that her son was leaving, but she understood what Itachi was going through as clan heir. Although his mother never said a word against the Uchiha clan or his father in public, Itachi was sure she felt a great deal of unease at the pressure the clan was putting on her sons. So, she gave her blessing through prideful, yet sorrowful, tears.

Shisui was the first to want to join him, and then Sasuke determinedly stated he would be moving out as well. So, together with some help from the Uchiha clan, they purchased a three bedroom house right outside of the compound. It would give them more freedom but not much.

Fugaku had made that very clear by the way he was still hounding his sons about clan matters on a daily basis. The rants had become more than Itachi could take, so he fled. He wasn't too proud or past admitting it because he had left the house the second he could that morning. As he walked past training ground three, he caught sight of something from his peripheral vision. Just for a moment, and then it was gone, but he was sure he saw it – a flicker of orange. Expanding his senses, he felt Sasuke and Naruto hiding in the trees.

What would they be doing there?

As he felt out further, he realized exactly what they were doing. A surge of familiar chakra was emitted from the training ground. It was frantic and dying which made Itachi frown a bit. Why was Haruno Sakura so upset? What did her training with the Godaime entail that it would completely deplete her of chakra and make her this distressed? Itachi had to know, so he masked his chakra and stalked up behind his brother and the animated blond as they sat in a tree not too far from where Sakura and Tsunade were training.

Well, he wasn't sure if what he saw would constitute as training, but he had very little ideas of what went into medic training. All ANBU were made to go through a medic practical, but it wasn't difficult. In fact, the training was just enough to heal any minor wounds, place bandages, and do some basic stitches if the need arose. That was why most ANBU teams were assigned an ANBU field medic when they went on dangerous missions.

Sakura was on her hands and knees, coughing loudly, and blood was dribbling in a relatively steady flow from her mouth. Another surge of chakra erupted from her and she cried out again, and Itachi noticed her arms almost gave way. It wouldn't be long before she fell in complete exhaustion.

Sasuke and Naruto seemed riveted by the scene, and either ignored him, or didn't realize that he was there. "You need to stop stalking her," Itachi intoned quietly, and their reaction told him that it was the latter. Naruto and Sasuke both jumped and turned quickly to see him, but they seemed equally confused at the lack of amused smirk on his face. Itachi's sights were trained on Sakura as she pushed another blast of chakra from her.

"What're you doing here, aniki?" Sasuke asked coldly, turning back to watch Sakura.

"Hiding from Otou-san," Itachi replied unashamedly.

Sasuke visibly blanched. Although the younger heir didn't get the speeches as much as Itachi, he was still under heavy fire from his father. "Understood," he mumbled back. The concern in his voice was unmistakable.

All three of them stared as Sakura tried again, and for the last time, to push chakra into her arms. This time, she fell forward from the exhaustion. "Sakura-chan!" Naruto wailed next to Itachi and hopped from the trees, sprinting towards his teammate.

"Dobe," Sasuke hissed, jumping from his place as well. He turned to Itachi with an eyebrow raised as if asking 'Well, are you coming?'

Itachi followed silently behind them, putting back on his impassive mask. When Sakura had pulled herself up, demanding that she try one more time, Itachi had been completely floored. He watched her so intently, and she met his gaze with equal fervor, that he was sure they were communicating in some quiet way. Luckily, she had conceded when she had discovered she was going on a mission, but only then. How could she be so foolish? Was she trying to kill herself by pushing herself so hard? He supposed it was just her nature to do so.

As Team Seven left, Naruto carrying Sakura on his back, Itachi continued to watch the medic closely. His eyes searched her, making sure she was still breathing at an acceptable rate. Tsunade was staring at him, assessing him as he stared at her student and surrogate daughter, but he didn't care much. His concern was only for Sakura at the moment. Then, he felt something akin to annoyance at the hokage beside him.

"What was the purpose of the exercise?" he asked coolly.

"I collapsed her chakra pathways. I wanted to see if she could restore them without using her hands since it could happen in the field," Tsunade replied.

Itachi's frown deepened. "It is impossible to do that without using an external force. Most of the time, if I'm not mistaken, it has to be done by someone else."

Tsunade smirked. "I know. But Sakura has beaten the impossible hundreds of times. If she can figure out a way to do it, as I'm sure she can, then she could save hundreds of lives."

"You cannot solve the puzzle?" he asked with no mal-intent. "She is your student."

"Tch," the hokage replied. "She's much smarter than me, and if I know Sakura, which I do, she'll be working on this relentlessly until she figures out how to do it."

With that, the conversation was over and they parted ways without further word.

X

Three days had passed since the incident with Sakura, but Itachi hadn't seen her. From what he gathered by listening in on Sasuke's conversations, Sakura had spent a day in the hospital and had been at home resting for two days. Itachi was glad that she was relaxing. Sakura worked just as hard as he did, if not harder, and took very little time off. Her time spent void of missions was filled at the hospital and training. Therefore, he knew she got little time off of work in one form or another.

Currently, Itachi was sitting on a tree branch about a mile outside of Konoha. Fugaku had found his hiding spot in the training grounds, and now he was forced to sneak outside of the walls in order to get any sort of privacy. Luckily, the past two days had been spent moving into the new home with Sasuke and Shisui, so he didn't see much of his father. But the second they were settled, Fugaku had appeared and began pestering them about something or another… not that it mattered.

There was no longer any light, as there had been when he'd set out that afternoon, and Itachi had been forced to give up reading. Now he was contented to sit in the Konoha darkness until he was sure Fugaku would be asleep. It was unlikely that his father would even bother showing up at this hour, but Itachi wasn't going to take the risk. He sighed a little, but then his senses suddenly pricked.

He wasn't alone.

His Sharingan activated automatically as he scanned the trees. There was only a moment for him to catch it, but he did. Red and black cloaks – that only meant one thing: Akatsuki. Slowly, Itachi stood and ran from Konoha. The ninja was looking for him, he was sure, and he didn't want to disturb anyone on the inside of the town.

These 'meetings' had been taking place since he was thirteen, almost ten years now, and he was getting sick of them quickly. After travelling quite some distance, Itachi stopped in a clearing several miles outside of Konoha. The ninja had followed him, he knew, and he just stood in his place as he waited for the ninja to reveal himself.

And reveal himself he did – with a bang.

Itachi saw the clay bird coming at him and he dodged it quickly. This was someone newer, he realized. The first person he had been approached by had been a man named Pein. Then, there was a man named Kisame who had met with him several times. Itachi would never admit it aloud, but he found the missing Mist-nin to be a fun challenge. His visits were intermittent with those of a duo whose names escaped him. After that was Sasori and Orochimaru, to Itachi's displeasure, but Sasori was now dead thanks to Sakura and Orochimaru had abandon the Akatsuki.

The blond haired ninja that stepped from the shadows with an evil grin was new, at least to Itachi. With an impassive face, Itachi studied the man, recognizing he had heard of him. This was Deidara – Sasori's partner after Orochimaru defected. His specialty was explosions that he created using clay. The information poured into Itachi's head as he remembered the description he had received from Hatake. The explosion-nin focused on aerial and long distance techniques. His weakness lay in taijutsu and genjutsu.

Itachi felt the urge to grin. Both of these things were his specialty. For now, though, he would hear the ninja out. The Akatsuki had come after him a few times for different reasons. Kisame, the missing Mist-nin, had asked him to defect from Konoha and join the Akatsuki. Once he had tried to force Itachi into it, but it hadn't ended well for Kisame. The man was trapped in a genjutsu for several days before one of his teammates found him and released him. For some inexplicable reason, Itachi couldn't find it within him to take Kisame hostage. Others asked him for information about Konoha, which he would never give.

Recently, though, they wanted something else – something Itachi had.

"Give me the ring, yeah."

"You have forgotten to introduce yourself," Itachi replied carefully. When Orochimaru had attacked Sasuke in the forest of death, Itachi had managed to get ahold of the ring he used in the Akatsuki. Since then, the group had been after him to retrieve the ring, but had been unsuccessful thus far, not that they would ever find it anyway.

"You know who I am, yeah. It was written all over your face when you saw me," he retorted confidently. "Now just give me the ring so I don't have to blow you up…although I want to."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't respond. His lack of conversation seemed to anger the blond and a flurry of white spiders erupted from the red and black cloak. Itachi dodged, throwing an array of senbon at them in order to diffuse them. For the most part, it worked. The ones that did detonate weren't close enough to Itachi for it to harm him. The opportunity to attack presented itself, so Itachi unsheathed his katana and jumped towards Deidara.

The blond dodged easily as he attempted to keep his distance between himself and Itachi. The information given to him by Team Seven had been accurate, he realized, if Deidara was fighting this hard to stay away from him. Itachi pushed more chakra into his feet as he increased his speed. Deidara's eyes widened as he too increased his speed to avoid the attacks. Itachi was on the offensive completely, but he had to halt the attack when another array of spiders began scampering out of Deidara's cloak and onto the katana.

Itachi made a few hand seals and allowed lightning chakra to erupt from his hands, which wasn't very comfortable so close to a katana and forced the lightning up the blade. Although painful, it was effective as the spiders died out and fell to the ground. Sighing slightly, Itachi realized that Deidara had taken to a large clay bird and was now hovering over the clearing with a smirk on his face.

The bird was flying at Itachi at such speeds that the Uchiha found himself surprised by the swiftness. Itachi dodged, barely, but escaped any harm. The next time the bird rounded, he was ready for it. His katana sliced through one of the wings as the bird flung towards him. The explosion-nin screamed several profanities as he hit the ground. Jumping up quickly, he sent out several clay birds towards Itachi.

The katana in his hands seemed to move of its own volition, as if it were an extension of his body, and sliced through one of the birds. However, there were too many for the katana to handle by itself. Itachi also realized that the birds were chakra-honing. They would not relent until he destroyed them.

The six hand signs were completed in a flurry and Itachi whispered, "Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu"

The fireballs emitted were difficult to control, but Itachi managed to direct them towards the clay birds. Satisfied that he had destroyed them all, he turned towards Deidara who was beginning to look rather ragged. Although the battle had been brief, Itachi could tell that Deidara had put quite a bit of chakra into the fight which was why he seemed so tired.

It was time to end this, he decided. Itachi closed his eyes as the tomoe began to swirl. Clearly, Deidara had been warned about this as he tried to glance away, but it was to no avail. He was trapped within the inner realms of Itachi's Tsukuyomi before he understood what was happening.

A soft cry escaped Deidara as he fell to the ground, and Itachi turned around to leave, deciding there was no point in capturing him for the ninja was too weak to pose any real threat to Konoha. Now that Itachi knew the signature, he would be able to track and stop this Deidara before he ever got close to the village to do real harm – if he could even do real harm that is. That's when he sensed it, right by his left ear – the hum of a bird.

Before he could dodge or turn away, the clay bird ignited next to his head with a BANG!

AN: If you haven't read the author's note at the beginning of this chapter, and you want a say in how the story is told, please go back and read it.

I'm sorry if the fight scene with Deidara seemed a little rushed. It was the only scene I had to write late at night and I wanted to finish it for you.

I hope you liked it.

Please review with your questions/opinions/comments/concerns. Have a good weekend, everyone :)