Beginning notes: You don't need to yell at me. I know I'm late. This is my Please-Forgive-Itonami truce chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

Pianissimo—Act III

Scene I: Suspicion

The dawn of morning did not provide any comfort or hope for the kunoichi who had fallen asleep against the wall, slumped over her knees pathetically. Her despair had continued through her dreams while rendering her mind useless against any struggle to awake from them, allowing her tormented mind to dwell in a mental hell that existed without question to her. Through the night, she had seen the gruesome images of Hinata lying in a pool of blood, her throat cut savagely like a pig in a slaughterhouse, and Naruto's empty corpse no longer possessed by the Kyuubi.

Haruno Sakura pried her eyes open only to shut them quickly when they touched the light from her window, her eyelids swollen and colored a nasty reddish hue. She forced her arms and legs to move as she attempted to stagger to her feet. It was difficult at first—her back felt like it had rusted over—when she tried, but she eventually reached the couch in relief.

Night was far away but Sakura couldn't help shivering involuntarily at the inevitable coming of the darkness…which would bring Uchiha Itachi with it. She felt dirty, unclean, when she thought back to the night before, when Itachi blackmailed her into helping him.

Her hands clenched into fists, as she mentally kicked herself again and again for her helplessness. She could never do anything but now she felt that she had sunk to an all-time low, helping a criminal regain his health after actually putting the poison there in the first place.

The rosette gasped and snapped her head to listen to a quiet knock on her door. Silently, she rubbed her eyes and stole to the bathroom to wash her tired face, pointedly ignoring the knock.

The knock came again, its easy rhythm and soft volume unchanged. "Sakura, I know you're in there. It's Kakashi." The muffled voice from the other side came through.

Sakura winced at the name but quickly went to the door and opened it, smiling widely as she met his worried eye. "Oh, I was just about to make coffee, Kakashi-sensei."

A disbelieving look crossed his face before concealing it behind a mask of friendliness. "Do you have some crackers to go with that?"

He heard her giggle childishly before her familiar teasing tone tickled his nerves. "No, but I can make toast."

The stormy gray of the Copy Ninja's eye searched her apartment carefully. Nothing seemed to be out of place; everything was neat and tidy as it was Sakura's habit of organization, but the queasy uneasiness began to slowly suffocate him. It felt like he had buttoned his shirt wrong but couldn't figure out which button was mismatched.

"Kakashi-sensei, you look pale. Are you alright?"

Her voice shook him out of his thoughts, but Kakashi did not look at her as if he was afraid to find the answer in the orbs of jade. "Nothing, I'm fine."

A small mug of dark liquid was placed before him and he could see the wavering reflection of his face, drawn and obviously concerned, but it dispersed when he picked it up to sip its contents.

"So, what makes you visit your old student at this time of the morning?" She asked as she settled in a chair in front of him while holding her own cup in her two hands. Sakura leaned forward allowing her long hair to cascade over her shoulders attractively, distracting the older man expertly.

Kakashi gazed at her youthful face for a long while, inspecting the redness around her eyes, the dullness of her eyes, and the fake smile that she hid behind. He was hurt that she felt the need to deceive him, to behave a certain way around him, but then he realized that none of it was really Sakura's fault.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Did you go see Naruto last night?" He asked swiftly changing the topic.

Sakura nodded. "He was fine, but he almost attacked me when he saw me approaching."

"I hope you told him that I send my best wishes."

She smiled that falsetto smile again. "A given, Kakashi-sensei."

The Copy Ninja's eye suddenly widened when he saw something that he had not managed to catch before. "Sakura," he breathed, "what are those marks around your neck?"

True to his word, when Sakura shifted her head and pulled her long locks from her shoulders out of habit, red blotches were revealed on her skin so that if all of them were seen together, they resembled a human hand. Quickly, the kunoichi let her hair fall back in place but it was too late; Kakashi had seen too much.

He stood from his seat, his dark eye clouded in anger and worry. "What happened? Were you attacked? Threatened?"

She backed away from him and stood defensively. "Nothing, when Naruto tried to attack me, he had his hands around my throat. It was an accident, sensei. Stop worrying." She tried to refrain from being cold.

Kakashi's hand flew to her throat unexpectedly and grasped it gently but firmly, ignoring the panicked, shocked expression on her face. His eye narrowed again in suspicion. "No, this handprint is smaller than mine. Naruto outgrew me years ago. You're lying, Sakura. Don't lie to me."

"I am not lying." Sakura hissed through gritted teeth.

He jerked his hand away as if he had touched something hot or contaminated, his eye displaying a look of disgust as he glared at his hand. Without another word, he left in ball of gray smoke.

Sakura let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding as soon as he disappeared. She touched her neck and looked at the mirror to inspect the discolorations while cursing at herself for not noticing such an noticeable thing before. Indeed, the spots marred her creamy skin, the bruises themselves evident of Itachi's strength and power…and his ruthlessness.

The kunoichi sighed and began to heal away the bruises with her chakra with her hands, the famed hands that saved hundreds of lives over the course of her medical career. A full adult at the age of twenty-one, Sakura was a treasured member of Konoha as a valuable medic nin.

But now, she felt like a stupid, foolish girl for provoking Itachi and allowing him into her apartment. At the unheeded warning of her sensei, she had awoken new suspicions that could prove to be bothersome and unnecessary.

She hated lying to Kakashi.

Sakura sighed and rubbed the back of her head, unable to think clearly and still rather shocked at Kakashi's unprecedented anger. She had only seen her teacher this angry just once and it was a full nine years before, when they came across Zabuza and Haku.

"Naruto, this is why I need you here." The kunoichi muttered. "God, I hate being alone."

In order to clear away the troubling thoughts, she continued to walk and pace outside until darkness fell once more, the same blackness obscuring her heart as easily as silk. The beauty of the night was ironic compared to the hideousness of her dread. Sakura whispered the unspoken fear of Uchiha Itachi to the wind before walking slowly back to her apartment which would soon contain the very nature of poison.

Scene II: Night

The apartment was quiet, unearthly so, and it gave off its own inexplicable scent of eeriness when she entered it softly. The kunoichi could not see much in the shadows that inhabited the corners and she could not detect any kind of chakra even as she heightened her awareness. Sakura shut the door behind her and heard it lock with a quiet click before creeping towards her bedroom. Opening the door, she ventured a little sigh of relief.

"Were you out somewhere, kunoichi?"

Sakura muffled a strangled cry of surprise as she whirled around with eyes as wide as a frightened deer, her gaze transfixed by the form that had been the cause of her terror. Her heart was beating loudly and rapidly like the rhythm of the drums that she had danced to not long ago.

Itachi stood dressed in his usual black cloak, patterned with red clouds, and his Sharingan seemed to glow in the dark a venomous red, instilling further fear into his prey. The feminine handsomeness of his face looked strangely haggard; the poison had apparent difficult side effects.

"Uchiha Itachi." She breathed his forbidden name, daring to venture a step further towards him.

The Uchiha held her gaze for a full second before carefully slipping out his injured arm. It smelled revoltingly of pus. "A clever poison, little kunoichi. Your chakra working against mine while rendering the nerves in my arms from responding by the actual poison."

She was actually astonished he had figured it out so quickly. Truly, this man was an unrivaled shinobi. Clearing her throat, Sakura pointed to her bed. "Sit."

Swiftly, Itachi was seated cross legged in the middle of the soft sheets while Sakura sighed and lighted two candles, her pupils dilating at the sudden but dim light. She tossed off her shirt and rummaged through her drawers in search of a clean one, while the bandages wrapped around her breasts and her upper torso were displayed to the preying eyes of the man sitting upon her bed.

Finding her shirt, she pulled it on and turned to face him, her eyes inanimate and distant as she sat down next to him with a shuddering breath. Sakura asked him to undo his cloak and properly show her the infected arm. She refrained from gagging at the horrendous sight and the foul smell.

The arm was a sickly green color, the skin breaking up painfully while blood oozed like the pus itself, and it seemed to be incapable of moving. The main lesion on his hand was caked with dead blood, still open and unhealed. Sakura frowned but did not the trouble to be careful. After all, all she had to do was heal him but healing always had a hurting phase.

The kunoichi carefully circulated a precise amount of chakra into her hand and let it hover over the wound first since it was the origin of the poison that had spread to his body. Even while she was working, the eyes of Uchiha Itachi kept a close watch on her actions. One false move with her chakra could result in her carotid artery sliced with the blade of the kunai he kept beside his hand. It would not be a good time to show the dangerous criminal that she had no idea how to reverse the poison's wrath. However, she could start by healing the wound first so that the infection wouldn't get any worse than it looked.

"When can you completely restore the arm?" His impassive voice spoke softly in the room, while nothing else shifted.

Sakura shook her head. "I don't know," She uncomfortably shifted her weight closer in order to prevent from sliding off the bed. Sakura could see the fine lines of each defined muscle through his mesh shirt and it was all she could do not to stare openly at such a sight. It had been awhile since she had been with a man besides her teacher and Naruto.

He gave no other reply by a small nod of his head. He tried not to show any signs that he was being mentally affected by the toxin, though he was exhausted from making the travel to her apartment and it seemed to take every bit of energy in order to keep his eyes open. Itachi inspected her with feigned attentiveness while she worked intently on healing his arm.

In a few hours, the gentle waves of her chakra dulled the pain to a degree where Itachi could ignore it and he became alert enough to care about the small bedroom he was sitting in.

It was simple; the only things furnishing it were the bed and a small dresser that was complete with drawers. He noticed that the only personal items that were put on exhibit were a wooden picture frame and a roughly worn doll that could have been a bear in its better days. The frame contained a smiling picture of what he assumed to be the former Team Kakashi: Sakura in between the two male teammates (who stood glaring at the other in a childish way) and the Copy Ninja complemented them with his lazily grinning presence behind them.

However, it was mainly the bear that drew the pair of Sharingan to it, one of its red button eyes missing and the other one hanging by a thin thread. It was an odd blue color, perhaps it had been dark blue, and its black nose was scratched. A puff of black hair stood up on the top of its rather pathetically wrinkled head, its unruly style reminding Itachi of someone who had been long dead. There were many mending jobs done upon the body, the mismatched patches giving it a homely aged look; it appeared as if Sakura had it forever.

The many hours seemed to tick by unhurriedly as the candle wax grew ever dimmer and Sakura grew wearier by the second, her eyes drooping tiredly and her chakra flow becoming unsteady. Shaking her head to knock some sense into herself, the young female sighed. "It would be useless if I continued like this. I've done what I can for one night." She said quietly as she got up to stand.

The dark Uchiha inspected the wound which had already closed and started to heal on its own. He swirled the cloak as he stood to leave. "I will be back tomorrow."

He allowed her to nod before sweeping past the small figure, his healthy hand daring to brush against her upper arm. But he hesitated at the door when he heard her weeping, trying to muffle her sobbing with a hand over her mouth. There was no pity in Itachi's eyes when he slowly turned around to see Sakura standing dumbly in the same position, her shoulders shaking with each sob.

"A ninja shouldn't wear her emotions on her sleeve."

Sakura spun around, letting her hand fly to his face with the momentum, only to be stopped easily and effortlessly by the taller man. Those crystal tears slid down her face, anger and bitterness clearly shining in the darkness as the light of the candles blew themselves out by the slightest breeze from Itachi's robe.

With a gritted wail sounding in her throat, the kunoichi sank into his chest while crying openly and forcefully.

"I hate being alone." She whispered brokenly into his chest, her voice cracking slightly because the rawness of her throat.

"I have gotten used to it." He said monotonously, neither moving to or from the woman.

"How?" She questioned as she lifted her head to look into those ruby orbs, "Why?"

Itachi's eyes seemed to become hooded to make his appearance a little less frightening and less austere. Sakura felt her stomach do a flip at his beauty and his prowess, but she fought the feeling back and remained calm. She noticed that the two facial lines that drew from the bridge of his nose to the middle of his cheeks looked more distinct than usual.

"To be strong is to be isolated."

His gentle lips formed the words that he had never repeated to anyone but the little brother who had once chased the dream of revenge, and he felt strangely detached as he said it. Sakura looked away and her eyes caught her old friend on the dresser. Fresh tears welled from her unique green eyes as she reached over to tenderly pick it up.

"I've never been strong, Uchiha Itachi, so why am I this alone?" Sakura asked as she gazed lovingly at the worn stuffed animal.

"You aren't." He breathed to reassure her. But he had also seen the awareness in her eyes when he had leaned in closer. It would serve to warn her.

"Be wise, do you wish to challenge me?"

Sakura looked at him in surprise and confusion, her mind unable to make sense of what he had just said, wondering if she was in a trance or a dream. She frowned, her sleepy senses begging for sleep, and she unconsciously tightened her hold on his robe.

"I have to." She murmured drowsily, the rest of her remaining energy spent on her tears and crying.

"You will suffer then. There is no going back." He bent down to scoop her up in his arms and carried her light weight on her bed, not bothering to cover her with the sheets. Itachi had to leave before dawn.

Turning to go, he stopped when he felt Sakura's small hands grasping the hem of his cloak. Itachi knew danger even when it was a mile away. He couldn't stay any longer. Prying her fingers from his robe, he stepped out of her reach.

"Don't disappoint me."

He was gone.

Scene III: Countdown

The same familiar clearing in the forest came into view and Uchiha Itachi halted briefly to check for chakra before safely arriving beside his companion. Kisame was training as he wielded his oversized sword over his head, his speed and delicacy sure to catch many jounins off guard.

The shark resembling man sniffed the air again. "The poison is still there."

"She worked on the wound for tonight. I will return again tomorrow." The Uchiha etched another think mark on the bark next the one from last night. "She has three days, Kisame."

The two Akatsuki members paused in their limited conversation to listen to the wind that sighed greatly, as if troubled and burdened by something. They looked gravely at each other, knowing that the wind was usually carefree and playful.

"There isn't much to lose."

Kisame narrowed his eyes. "Iie, there is nothing to lose."

Scene IV: Second Dance

Haruno Sakura had two mentors whom she trusted with her life: Hatake Kakashi and the Godaime.

Tsunade knew that something was troubling her pupil and apprentice but she also knew that Sakura would never talk about it; after all, it was a private topic and a sensitive one at that. However, she was wary of something when Sakura was late to their once-a-week brunch, showing up half an hour after the designated time with tired dark circles under her eyes.

"I know something has to be wrong." The friendly Hokage tried to say cheerfully.

Sakura only shook her head and fiddled with the peas on her plate using one of her chopsticks. "I'm tired." She said flatly.

"I know, Sakura." Tsunade said, catching the aggravated tone in her voice.

"I'm really tired." She said a little softly.

The elder woman sighed and patted her hand. "I'm sure you'll do fine. There's nothing wrong, is there?"

The pink-haired kunoichi faltered before nodding. "Everything is fine." She lied.

Tsunade's auburn eyes glimmered before settling down. "Are you sure?"

Sakura nodded firmly. "I'm sure."

Suddenly, the Hokage looked up in surprise—almost a fearful look passed over her face—but a wide smile spread across it instead. "Kakashi, I'm glad you're here. Did you eat yet?"

The gray haired shinobi smiled lazily and held up a loose hand in greeting, his eyes creasing in a laughing manner. "I'll pass on the food, but keeping two beautiful ladies company doesn't seem like a bad idea."

Sakura shifted uneasily at his smile, guilt squirming in her chest under his piercing gaze that didn't look completely angry, but she knew better than to think that Kakashi had forgotten about their last encounter. She held back from speaking openly, merely answering her mentors' questions and comments with a murmured simple phrase or word.

The Godaime ran her hand through her golden hair as she gave Kakashi a coded look that he couldn't really decipher. "Sakura, why don't you go home and rest up? You still look tired."

Sakura grimaced before standing. "I'll just keep myself busy at the hospital. Don't worry about me and just enjoy the brunch."

But instead of going to the hospital, the kunoichi ventured into the forest in order to find a peaceful place to rest her mind and perhaps take a light nap. Sakura breathed deeply the fresh air of the woods, enjoying how relaxing its effects were on her system and her lungs. Clasping her hands behind her back, she bent down to survey several different types of flowers, wondering if any of them had healing properties secretly hidden away.

The sun filtered through the canopy of deliciously lush green treetops, sprinkling her with golden sparkles and teasing her skin with soft kisses as she walked further along. The breeze languidly played with her long pink tresses while the grass swayed in a music only heard by the natural inhabitants of the woods.

There were no roads to guide her petite feet but she preferred it this way; Sakura could pretend for a day that she was no one but Sakura, who was a girl that loved simplicity in all aspects. Leaves were light with dew and the birds chattering above the woman, excited by the newcomer and greeting her with joy.

Abruptly like a cannon, the forest hushed, the cheerful singing and chatter subdued by a strange presence that felt misplaced among them. It was quiet and the smile on Sakura's face vanished with the forest sounds when she realized that it had been a big mistake coming alone.

He never uttered a word as he approached from behind but Sakura could feel that familiarity of dread and fear washing over her once more. The Uchiha could already strike her numb with that deadly silence. She cursed him for being so controlled and being able to control.

She had to breathe in deeply as she closed her eyes to soothe the pounding headache drawing near. "Leave me alone, Uchiha Itachi."

There was a moment of silence as the wind swirled between them before she felt him right up against her back, his hands barely touching her shoulders and his breath hot on her neck. There wasn't even time to gasp.

"Let's dance…Sakura."

His warm breath almost shattered her fragile ear, some kind of emotion exploding inside of her as she felt her body respond gracefully and almost in second nature. The geisha part of her was reawakened once more as she shied away from him almost flirtatiously, her mind hardly conscious of what she was doing. But, she swayed and twirled anyway, her body language speaking a myriad of emotions into one movement.

Sakura could not have noticed the rapid spinning of the Sharingan. Her sight was suddenly seeing out into an empty room from a lonely stage alighted with elegant candles. She danced as if in a trance to the coaxing melody of a flute and the drums beating at a pianissimo to match the quiet volume of the instrument. This time dressed in a kimono of white and green, Sakura was dancing only for an audience of one.

Beauty was an undefined word.

Grace was hard to acquire.

Uchiha Itachi knew she possessed both.

The male shinobi watched with obvious interest, but always keeping his mind alert on what she was: his only ticket to a properly working arm. True deceit was never too apparent and always performed at the quietest pianissimo. This was truth and this was reality, but he could dwell in misconception of the Sharingan for a little while.

Their first encounter was a dance of their physical bodies. This second one would now start their dance of control and lies.

Sakura's dance came to a close, the bottom part of her face hidden by a green fan. The eyes of the same tint looked up at him suddenly.

Itachi was sure to win.

Ending notes: Alright, again, I'm sorry for the lateness, but I had some blocks and the lack of motivation to write. With the holidays, I was busy and lazy with food and friends so I didn't do much writing.

Hope you didn't mind the ending.

I've actually put so much double meanings in this chapter that maybe I've made my intentions too obvious. This is sad.

Thank you for your reviews and comments. Always much appreciated.