Beginning notes: An update! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

Pianissimo—Act IV

Scene I: Progress

Sakura had never been afraid of the dark, not even when she was a little girl.

No, rather she was terrified of it.

The kind of darkness that she was now drowning in was a new kind of terror that she had never known throughout her years. It was heavy, like a thick woolen blanket, and oppressive. It was pregnant with the hope of nothing and the rebirth of death and silent like the meadows in frozen winter. Sakura could only lay in cold silence while wishing away the dark to go away, feeling like a little child once more. Slowly counting backwards to calm her frantic mind, she resisted succumbing to the irrepressible urge to scream.

She awoke with a start, her breaths coming hurriedly and harshly. Her room was dark with the exception of a small sliver of light trailing from her window and the only sounds in the room were her breaths. It seemed to grate against the silence and the soft rustling of her sheets joined it in its strange harmony as she slid her legs over the side of the bed.

The bare-legged kunoichi stumbled to the door—her head spun and pounded—and her hand momentarily slipped as she tried to grasp the doorknob. Wrenching her door open, she flew to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet as she violently vomited. Sakura felt her stomach lurch another time and retched again.

Weakly, she turned on the faucet of the sink and rinsed the foul sourness in her mouth. Sakura rested her weight upon a hand while leaning against the sink as she massaged her temple with the other. Her breathing was hard and fast and she had to take a deep, shaky breath to calm her exhausted lungs.

"A side effect after experiencing a strong bout of the dojustsu of the Sharingan." Uchiha Itachi said emotionlessly at the doorway of the restroom.

The medic almost tripped over her own feet as she scrambled away from him. "What did you do to me?"

"I had to." He replied shortly.

"How did I get here?"

He stared at her with one eyebrow ever slightly raised and didn't answer her.

"How long have I been out?" She asked feebly while barely being able to get her legs to stop wobbling.

"Since late afternoon." Itachi was dressed plainly in a mesh shirt and black pants, his cloak missing from his usual attire. "Come, you don't have much time."

You mean you don't have much time. Sakura thought to herself coldly as she followed clumsily after him into the bedroom again.

Itachi felt weak; the use of the Sharingan had worn him out. He could feel his burdened heart beating sluggishly, unhealthily in his chest but he refused to show his current state.

Again, he was seated in the middle of her sheets, this time his awareness was able to catch her fragrant scent permanently embedded in the blankets. It gave him a reason to relax just a little. Sakura sat in front of him, waiting silently, tiredly, until he was able to get his arm in full sight of her lighted candle.

The color of his arm had almost returned to a pale peach and the chaffing had reduced significantly. The wound was much better and only left a large scar. All she had to do now was to slip out the poison.

Forming a bubble like aura around her hands, the kunoichi was able to dip it through his arm, catching some of the venomous liquid. The poison was resisting her and hesitant to leave its host; it was almost as if it created a mind of its own.

"What is it?" He asked, observing the slight concern that had washed over her pretty countenance.

She shook her head before continuing. Sakura tried again, only to capture even less than what she had gotten on the first try. "The poison isn't responding to my chakra."

Itachi tensed visibly and his eyes narrowed dangerously, threatening her nonverbally. She felt her spine tingle with fear and apprehension but she hid it well behind a look of concentration, nervously looking away from those malicious, empty eyes.

"We'll bleed it out. I'll need the poison to make something that can counter it." She said.

He looked at her carefully, the suspicion evident in his orbs, while he fingered the kunai that he had kept with him. "You said there was no antidote."

Sakura nodded. "There isn't, but I can find something that can subdue the poison while I try to reverse the damage that my chakra is doing to your arm."

Gracefully, the kunoichi slipped out to her kitchen with her candle, not caring if Itachi followed her or not. Here, she opened several cabinets and Itachi was able to see that they were dried herbs and plant medicine; he watched as she quickly got to work.

Nimble fingers took hold of several bags of herbs, glancing at their labels and carefully sorting them by their potential usefulness, as she dug through her cabinets. The Uchiha ironically felt idiotic while standing behind the chair across from her and eventually made up his hesitant mind to help. He wasn't sure what he was exactly supposed to do, but time was precious, and he didn't have anymore to spare. Kneeling beside an open cabinet, Itachi reached in for the bags to place them in her sight so that all she had to do was to read their labels.

The young woman was strangely comforted by his effort to make her job as easy as he could, though she knew that he had other selfish reasons. Sakura hurriedly looked through the herbs and was able to gather the ones that she needed. Standing up with the bags in her arms, she went over to her kitchen counter and laid out all of her ingredients along with water, a bowl, and a knife.

"I will need your blood now." She said in a whisper as if she was afraid to disturb the dim silence between them.

Itachi nicked his skin and blood trickled from the small wound and Sakura was able to catch about a teaspoon into her little bowl. Busily, she worked while the man sat down on the chair, observing her cautiously.

The candle between them signified the secrecy of their meetings late at night and her shame that she wanted to hide. The Uchiha had a vague idea of what she was thinking. Helping a criminal recover and keeping it a secret from everyone. If she was found, she would be declared as a traitor.

"Did Sasuke manage to injure you during your battle?"

It was sudden and she carefully kept her head down, but the inquiry bore significant weight in its meaning and Itachi felt compelled to answer it. "No."

Her hands continued to work but her eyes were distant. "So he really never stood a chance?"

The Akatsuki member finished storing away the herbs again and stood to his full height. "There was not enough hate."

A bitter smirk clouded Sakura's pink lips as she carefully poured out the sticky contents from the bowl onto her hands. "Because he had our love."

Sakura stood while molding the dark dough-like paste and led him back to the bedroom. The door clicked shut again. She rubbed the herbs over the small wound that Itachi cut on his arm. Her fingers massaged his skin, his muscles, and Itachi couldn't help but breathe out in contentment.

"It was a battle to the death. I was not to give him another chance." The Uchiha said quietly, looking into her emerald eyes.

"Did you not love Sasuke?" Sakura asked of him the forbidden question that he never could answer without lying.

He remained silent and she did not wait for his answer. Instead, the kunoichi took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she laid her hands on his arm and concentrated. The warm blue glow of chakra began to neutralize the poison with the help of the herbs, but fighting against one's own chakra was a devastatingly exhausting process. The flow of chakra in Itachi's arm was chaotic, without any balance or pattern, which disrupted the arm's normal functions and nerves. Sakura had to counter all of that.

After two hours of intense healing, Sakura could not open her eyes anymore. She was dead on her feet. Her chakra automatically stopped before it reached a critically depleted level and she slumped against Itachi's chest, fast asleep.

It was still dark and the male ninja gathered the petite female in his arms and placed on her bed, this time taking care to cover her with the blankets. The poison was not all neutralized, but it was good progress indeed. Itachi could grudgingly agree that she deserved some rest.

Scene II: Tallies

There was a third little tally mark on the bark of the tree in the little clearing that early morning.

Scene III: Private Meeting

Hatake Kakashi was tired of lies. He wanted to hear some truth and he wanted to hear it from the woman in charge of everything: Tsunade. As always, though he respected the woman in everyway, he appeared in her office with a small pop and a ball of smoke. The Godaime, believe it or not, was stooped over a scroll that she immediately rolled back up when she heard him enter.

"Kakashi, what brings you here?" She asked in mild surprise. "You don't usually come in like that unless you want some privacy. Maybe you shouldn't be allowed this privilege since you seem to take advantage of it." Her amber eyes twinkled merrily, meaning no harm in her words, but the Copy Ninja bowed respectfully.

"Is this a bad time, Hokage-sama?" He asked, his face void of the usual lazy grin.

Tsunade stopped smiling and cleared her throat. "No, not at all. Sit." She gestured to a chair.

He shook his head. "I'll be quick." Kakashi's eye seemed accusing, but she paid no mind to it.

"I think Sakura is in danger, and I don't want her to get hurt. Even this morning, she was absent to the jounin meeting." Kakashi began. "She seems tired and I know there is something that she's not telling me. Perhaps she has confided in you."

Pale, golden eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise. "It's not like you to ask me to betray someone's trust. This must be serious." She frowned thoughtfully as she rested her chin upon her gathered hands. "Sakura has only told me that she is tired. Of what, I'm not sure. Perhaps I am overworking her in the hospital while she juggles around missions."

He shook his head. "No, she had bruise markings on her neck from a human hand. She tried to tell me that Naruto had mistaken her for an intruder when she went to visit him and had attacked her." Kakashi scratched his head in a frustrated manner.

"I will talk to Sakura and let you know if something is going on. After all, she is my student and I don't want her getting hurt either. I'm glad you came to me and calling this to my attention."

He bowed again. "I'm only looking out for her. She is all I have left from Team 7."

Tsunade smiled gently and nodded in an understanding way. "Of course, Kakashi. Take care for now. I will call as soon as I find out something."

He disappeared and Tsunade sighed. "Sakura, what is going on?"

Scene IV: Letters

Sakura could only think of one thing to do after she woke up groggily from her recuperating sleep. The sun filled her room with warm light, and she had to stop to appreciate its warm beauty compared to the coldness of the night.

Breakfast was little, but it did fill her small appetite. The empty seat in front of her made her nostalgic of the days when Team 7 had dominated. Now, she was all alone in her team, the only member existing in Konoha, but sometimes she wish she'd never existed at all. Sakura slowly approached to her drawers and knelt in front of it, reaching out to slide out the last one with hesitant hands. Digging through the many pieces of various papers, she achieved a thin box that she had not opened in seven years.

The little tarnished metal clasp that held the lids together had been broken a long time ago when she had thrown it against her wall in a fit of rage. The said wall still bore its angry mark behind a mirror. Sakura now fingered it the smooth wood and cautiously opened it to peek inside it as if she was discovering a new present.

Mounds of letters that she had left untouched still remained with their curious feeling of care and tenderness, bringing fresh, wistful tears to her eyes. She took out the bundle gently and shifted through them one by one, noticing the change of her penmanship throughout the years of when they were written. None of them possessed a reply from the addressed, but only her words and her heart written inside each one.

"At least, if you were going to die, you could have injured the man you were out to kill."

Her tone was bitter yet loving at the same time, but she was trembling at the sudden rush of rage against her will. Sakura couldn't stand the sight of her own handwriting to the love of her life, one that was dead and buried a long time ago. Gripping the fragile, aged paper in her hands, she pulled them apart, enjoying how each rip seemed to echo in her head. Almost maniacally, she shredded the letters one by one, white lonely pieces fluttering down around her like feathers.

"I'm angry at you, Uchiha Sasuke. You liar." The kunoichi whispered hopelessly. "I hate you for making all of this happen. If only you'd killed him, he wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't feel like I'm betraying everyone."

Surrounded by the torn letters like party confetti, the rosette looked up with dull eyes but did not find what she was looking for on top of the drawers. Frowning, she gazed around, wondering where she could have left the patched up stuffed animal but soon gave up at the tiring headache it gave her. The room seemed to resonate with loneliness.

Sakura did not pick up the remaining pieces of the letters. Instead, she made herself a cup of warm coffee while she hid the bags of herbs in her cabinets again and washed the bowl where she had mixed the paste for Itachi's arm. The dry, flaky remains crumbled under the pressure of her fingers as she fingered it.

There was a knock on her door, something that seemed to be happening rather often, and Sakura had to quickly rinse off the bowl and hide it in her cabinet. Calmly substituting an emotionless face with a small smile, she opened the door, hoping and praying that it wasn't Kakashi.

It wasn't.

It was Tsunade. Sakura let out a big smile and stepped back. "Shishou!"

The older woman gave her a wink. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Sakura."

"No, no, of course not. I was just reading a book." The rosette lied easily as she closed the door behind her teacher.

Sakura made her teacher sit on the couch while she fixed the tea. Tsunade was not one to be gullible, so the apprentice decided to play it smart and safe. "I just ran out of green tea. Want some coffee instead?"

The Hokage grimaced and shook her head. "It's either green tea or sake, preferably sake."

"I have a bottle." The jounin opened up her refrigerator and took out the cold sake bottle and grabbed two cups. She poured out the spirit and waited until Tsunade drank first. Sakura felt the cool liquid slip down her throat and the effect of the alcohol began to grasp her mind immediately.

After many drinks, Tsunade said in a low voice, "Kakashi is getting suspicious. Whatever you're doing, it's getting too obvious, Sakura."

The sake had allowed her to become free from pain and all emotions except anger. Her emerald orbs glinted dangerously and drunkenly while their owner began to tremble. "What do you want from me? Isn't all of this enough? While I'm here risking my neck for my village, you have the nerve to tell me something is getting obvious? I don't give a damn about being obvious." Sakura savagely hissed while she slammed her cup down, causing it to shatter in her hand.

"You're drunk, Sakura. I just wanted to warn you. I give you free reins to do whatever you wish." Tsunade replied coolly, unaffected by her loss of temper.

"Not even going to ask what I'm doing?" The girl sneered.

The Godaime nodded. "I trust you."

Her words proved to have a much different effect on Sakura. The younger woman's furious countenance turned into a pained, crestfallen look as she tried to hold back the tears. "What if I do something stupid?"

"If you doubt yourself, you shall." She said simply. "Man, you're really bad a holding your alcohol. Don't let Jiraya catch you. He'll never let you live it down."

There was no response from her pupil and Tsunade couldn't deny that it didn't hurt her in some way. Sakura was like a daughter, and seeing her depressed and angry allowed her to see everything in a different light indeed.

"I'll take my leave, Sakura. Be careful." The Hokage left without another word.

The room was silent and the female shinobi's head swam with dizziness and fatigue, as if the short conversation had cost her a large part of her stamina. It was hard to accept the fact that Kakashi couldn't trust her enough, and that her teacher didn't seem to care if she was this tired at all. She wished Naruto was there with her, helping her and joking with her until all of her worries had faded with the morning.

The afternoon went by uneventful except for a quick visit to the Hyuuga manor to see her ANBU captain, Hyuuga Neji. He had also noticed the change in her and asked out of politeness if she had been worn out from the previous mission.

"Iie, Hyuuga-san, I'm just tired from staying up late at night." She said with a forced smile.

He raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further. Neji quietly asked after Hinata and about how she was faring with Naruto, if Sakura had seen them as of late. She was glad to bring him glad tiding about them. The Hyuuga seemed relieved and content that the true heir of the clan was doing fine and was happy with her husband.

He escorted her into the market where she wanted to buy some herbs and bid her to have a languid remainder of the day, not knowing that he'd just reminded her of the impending night. It was all Sakura could do not to wince in front of him or give anything away. Instead, with a large happy smile that did not quite reach her eyes, she returned the greeting and left.

Her apartment was empty and when she went to her room to change, she saw the tattered letters on the floor and she regretfully swept them up before throwing the pieces away, feeling like she was throwing away a large piece of her heart.

Scene V: Sake and a Bear

Itachi splashed cool river water on his naked chest after a spar of weapons with Kisame. He glanced at his reflection in the stream and got up stretch out his cramped muscles.

"Oi, you want some sake?" The shark-like ninja dangled a half-full bottle of sake and tossed a cup in Itachi's direction when he agreed with a nod. "The arm looks better. It's almost time?"

Itachi nodded again and sipped the sake without really tasting it. "She is skilled in medical training, but she is foolish."

"All bitches are like that." Kisame grunted out his stereotype.

The Uchiha didn't reply and absently toyed with a kunai with his injured hand. The long, fresh scar would remain there until his death, whenever that was to be. He gazed at the smooth texture of the new skin but thought nothing of it, and then he looked at his sake cup. "A fool indeed…"

If she wished to try him, he would show her the mercilessness of an Akatsuki and he would give her the taste of ice of an Uchiha. Itachi slipped something worn and soft from inside his cloak and he examined it carefully, seeing if it contained an answer for him.

The strange stuffed animal looked even worse up close, with its poorly stitched sides and missing eye. He fingered the remaining red button that hung on just barely by a thin red thread and then softly touched its rough nose, vaguely remembering a face that it seemed to conjure in his mind. Itachi set it down on the ground, watching it droop forward rather pathetically, and almost smiled at her childishness.

"Looks like a horse trampled over that piece of shit." His partner growled with a dreadful smile, showing his row of jagged teeth. "Is it hers?"

"I wanted to keep it for her. She will need to know who did it."

Kisame grunted again. "You want her to know? Wouldn't the entire village know then?"

Uchiha Itachi stared in the general direction where Konoha lay. "No, she will come alone."

"All bitches are like that."

Scene VI: Recovery

It was late into the night and Sakura didn't dare sleep as she waited for Itachi. It would be the fourth day and it was almost time. She would be able to heal his arm completely tonight.

It had to be tonight.

The light curtains which hung over her windows fluttered, indicating his arrival. The medic nin stood from her bed without really knowing why.

"Let's get this over with." She said softly.

They took their usual places and Sakura found it much harder to heal without the help of the herbs of last night. Slowly, gradually, the chaotic chakra in his arm had been undone and a healthy flow was restored.

Sakura was panting with the effort even after she was done and neither of them moved from where they were, the woman mainly wondering what to do next.

"I will not be responsible for what happens next. Remember your challenge. You will suffer."

"I am already suffering," She said without passion.

His hand brushed against her wrist. "Do you hate me?"

"Yes."

"Enough to kill me?"

"More than that."

"Liar."

"I will hate you more than Sasuke ever could." She said, wondering if she really meant it.

"You will? It is too late to collect hate now. I let Sasuke live for many years to allow that hate to grow, but even then, it wasn't enough." Itachi trailed a finger along her jaw.

"It is enough to do this."

In a millisecond, Sakura pulled out a kunai and thrust in front of her toward his heart, but he dodged almost easily and stood a few feet from her. There were no words. She launched again—he dodged again—and lightly landed on the wall, her chakra keeping her from falling, and pushed off once again. Itachi met the kunai with another of his own and with a free hand, he summoned a little jutsu to jab her neck. Green eyes went wide and she made a choking noise as she held her throat while doing a flip over the bed.

"Is this what everything has come to?"

Itachi stared at her but didn't reply before closing his eyes. "Tsunade could have chosen another for this mission."

"When did you find out?"

"As soon as I saw your eyes when we first met." He reopened his eyes and they were crimson and black. It spun faster and faster. "Deception is a quiet art form."

Haruno Sakura gripped her weapon. Her hands were cold. "What is your deception?"

"You will see."

He created a horrible genjutsu in his mind and transferred it into her stunning eyes. He was successful in knocking her out.

Itachi stepped over her still body and glanced at her terrible beauty once more. "You have no hate. You could have killed me easily tonight. It will be a price to be paid."

Ending notes: Sorry for the long wait. Thanks for all of your wonderful comments and reviews. They mean a lot! Keep an eye out for another update!