Itachi slept the entire train ride, something he rarely did (normally due to the stress of the family, but since that was pretty much gone...). He slept mainly because he found himself exhausted, but also so he could ignore the girls ogling him from across the cart.

Stupid fucking girls.

For once in his life, Itachi found himself fed up with women in general. The girls on the train were obvious; the other women flirty and disturbing, some of them old enough to be his grandmother.

Stupid fucking women

"Last stop: Akron, Ohio!"

Stupid fucking celebrity-status.

It was also raining, like Sasuke said it often did in Ohio. Itachi glared at the sky.

Stupid fucking weather.

He walked down through the pathetic excuse for a train station. There was barely a soul there other than him, a few drug dealers, and some leaning against a pole with her hood up. He could tell it was a girl by how she stood and how she was dressed. She stood at around 5'6, her slender (borderline skinny) frame leaning fully on the pole and one of her legs was propped up on the pole, the sole of her Vans pressed against the cold wet steel. She wore tight, distressed jeans, a heather gray tank top showing a bit of cleavage, and a form-fitting navy blue zip up hoodie. Her dark, deep red hair was in down in front, long bangs swept to the left side, but the rest of it was in a ponytail, must like his own, only her ponytail was to the left side of her head, hanging over her left shoulder. She had pale skin, possibly paler than himself, and bright green eyes rimmed with thick black lashes.

...Shit.

"Itachi?" she asked, walking over to him. Her hips swayed slightly in her step, just enough to make Itachi notice, showing that she wasn't as shy as her previous posture showed. She was also standing straighter, showing her full height of 5'7 and a long, ivory neck. Itachi kept his eyes on said neck before he looked her in the eyes, obsidian meeting jade. A small silence ensued, neither one saying anything. She was biting the inside of her cheek like she was nervous, and Itachi unconsciously mimicked her action. Her eyes surveyed the area, her teeth moving to chew on her bottom lip and her fists clenched the too-long sleeves of her sweatshirt.

"So," she stated slowly, her hands now in the back pockets of her jeans. She looked up at him. He looked so similar to Sasuke, but yet he was so different. He was definitely the quiet type, just like Sasuke, but he had a different facial structure. She could easily tell they were brothers. He stood far taller than her, 6'4, and had obsidian orbs that drilled into her eyes like he was trying to see right through her. She took a deep breath almost silently, something she had learned to do from numerous years of yoga. He looked back to her, eyes filled with apathy, just like his brother. However, she knew Uchiha men better than that by now.

"So?" Itachi responded, lifting a perfect eyebrow. She damned him for his male beauty but continued. Her job was to find Itachi, get him to Sasuke's house, help him find a job and get his hair cut so people wouldn't attack him. All within the two days she had off from work and evening job.

"Well," she started, clearing her throat slightly, "I'm Sakura, but I think you already figured that out..."

"Hn."

"Okay, well," Sakura said, now somewhat flustered and annoyed by his uncaring and impolite attitude. "First stop is Sasuke's house. He's home sick right now, but knowing his stubborn attitude, he's probably doing yard work or something like that. Second is my house, because you need a haircut if we're going to find you a job without them hiring you because they want your autograph. Third is finding you said job and fourth is dropping you off at Sasuke's again and me making dinner for you guys."

"Hn." Was Itachi's brilliant reply. He followed her to her old Camero with little emotion (if any). She jingled her keys in her right hand, hood still up. He watched her as she walked, and he found it highly amusing when he came to the realization that she had to do something constantly; not fidgeting, per say, but as they drove, she did little things. She rubbed her wrist at red lights. She glanced in the rearview mirror almost constantly, and she picked the nail polish off her thumbs as she drove, tiny hands either clutching the steering wheel like it was life support or beating it like a bongo drum when the radio actually played something good.

Her car was filled with random things. CDs littered the floor and back seat. She had two pairs of clean scrubs hanging up in the back, covering the side windows. A few packs of food: potato chips, an empty take-out container, and a packet of Chips-Ahoy chocolate chip cookies sat between the two front seats. He noted how skinny she was before, and looking around the car and how it was cluttered with things that should have made her gain ten pounds every second, he deduced that she had some sort of super-human metabolism, or that she was bulimic.

"Come on. I only have two days to get this done," she said, tugging on his shirt sleeve when he didn't respond the first time. He snapped out of his daze and grabbed his bag, attempting to open his door. It wouldn't budge. Sakura sighed in annoyance, rubbing her temples.

"Damn, it's stuck again," she muttered. "Get out this way. I'll have to drop kick it to get it un-stuck later."

Itachi was stubborn however, possibly more stubborn than Sakura and Sasuke combined. He gave it two good, heavy drop kicks and the door finally swung open. Sakura raised her eyebrows, blinking once.

"Huh. Good job. Usually it only obeys me. Even Sasuke can rarely get it to cooperate with him," she mused. Itachi smirked.

"I have my ways," he mumbled.

"What?" Sakura asked. Why did he always mumble? It was really annoying. She could never hear what he was saying.

"Never mind," Itachi said, a bit more clearly. Sakura pounded on the door, giving three good, loud blows to the weak-looking wood. To Itachi, everything here seemed like it was going to fall down any second. It was.... weird, to him. Everything in his old home had seemed so sturdy. Here, he felt like stepping on the large front porch wrong might send him hurtling into oblivion below. He looked around. A small park was across the street big oak trees towering over the three-story houses surrounding them. The sky was gray, but at least it had stopped raining. Finally, after three minutes, the door swung open, revealing a very irritated looking Sasuke. Itachi looked at him for a second, only remembering the fourteen-year-old who had run away from home six years before. His hair was no longer spiky or emo like before, but was down in a messy but very typical skateboarder kind of style. He'd grown immensely, reaching 6'3, only one inch shorter than him. It was obvious that Sasuke was indeed a basketball star at the local college, because he had the muscles to prove it. He was shirtless and wearing basketball shorts. Sakura seemed to disagree with this strongly.

"Why are you going around the house without a shirt one when you're sick?! It's barely sixty degrees outside, let alone in the house!" Sakura scolded, shoving her way past him, going into the kitchen. A few wrenches, nails, a hammer, a small tissue covered in blood sat on the floor, the cabinet open. "And you were doing housework? Damnit, Sasuke, I told you stay in bed!"

"I stayed in bed for awhile," Sasuke said glaring. Sakura glared at his arm, where a small trickle of blood came down from a cut just below his elbow. Sasuke glared back at her. "It was an accident."

"How many years ago did you have your tetanus shot?"

"Eight."

"Damnit," Sakura muttered as she started to clean up the mess. "Go get a hoodie on or something. I'm taking you to the clinic," she said, giving him little to no say in the matter.

"Like hell you are."

"Believe it, Sasuke. Get a shirt on. Let's go. I think Itachi can man the fort for an hour while we get your tetanus shot taken care of."

"I will not get tetanus, Sakura! And I will not go through with thi-"

Sasuke was cut off by Sakura's infamous death glare. Even Itachi had to admit it was pretty mean one. What he probably would never admit was that she looked amazingly pretty when she was angry.

"Get a shirt on. I'm taking you to the clinic. It's not the fact that you'll undoubtedly get tetanus that makes me mad. It's the fact that once you get it, yet again, I'll have to take care of you because you know zero things about how to take care of your health. And if you get tetanus, you'll be out for the rest of the season and whine like the bitch you're being right now!"

Oh, Sakura was good, and she knew it, too. The minute she said that he would be out, he ran upstairs like lightening, and drawers opening and shutting frantically was heard. Sakura sighed to herself, a small smile of triumph gracing her features, as she continued to put the tools away. It took a few seconds before she turned her attention to Itachi.

"Your room is the second one on the left upstairs. There should be sheets up there and a few towels. I dropped them off right before I picked you up from the train station. Hmmmmm," Sakura chewed on her bottom lip, thinking of something else that he might need to know. "Oh yeah! A few other things. Bathroom is at the very end of the hall, the silver remote is for the TV, the black one is for the DVD player. Sasuke has a PS3 but it isn't hooked up yet and incase some hyper-active blond guy with an orange hoodie comes barging into the house, it's totally okay. Just explain things to him slowly when he asks what the hell you're doing here. He's not the brightest crayon in the box."

Itachi stared at her and simply nodded his head, slipping off his shoes politely before grabbing his bag once again and heading up the stairs. Sasuke bolted down the stairs past him, shoes and hoodie now on.

"I'm ready," he said, wheezing slightly due to his current cold.

"You better be. I'm taking you to the bitchiest nurse I know," Sakura grinned, grabbing his arm and dragging him out of the house before he could argue with her. She slammed the door and locked it, and Itachi heard his brother swearing all the way to the curb.

--

Sakura drove frantically down West Market Street, a string of curses flowing fluently through her thoughts as Sasuke brooded in the passenger seat, eating one of her cookies.

"I can't believe you were doing housework," she mumbled, pulling into the parking lot. Sasuke hned.

"Really, Sasuke. I'm so freaking worried about you. You've had this cold for a week now. You really should be in bed finishing up your school work or something."

"I finished it last night," he replied coldly. "You're not my mother."

Sakura absolutely hated him whenever he said that, because was such an ungrateful jerk whenever he said it. She was tempted to bitch at him and remind just who took him in to live and just who made him get into college on scholarship and just who cooked for him every day that they didn't go out to eat with friends since he was fourteen. But she kept her mouth shut, because even though he was being a pain in the ass now, she knew she wouldn't have survived without him earlier. In fact, she might not have survived without him now either, considering how much work he did on her car and how many errands he ran for her while she was at work. Still angry, but not as furious as before she parked the car and put a quarter in the machine. She practically dragged the youngest boy of the Uchiha family into the hospital, threw his butt down into a chair and signed him up at the counter.

"Hey Sakura!" Tenten, a co-worker of hers, said brightly, walking past, smiling. Her smile quickly turned to a look of confusion. "What are you doing here on your day off?"

"Sasuke hasn't gotten a tetanus shot in eight years and just managed to cut himself on a nail," Sakura explained, glaring at said brooding basketball player. Tenten sighed, shaking her head but smiling.

"Don't worry. I went through the same thing with Neji last week. Why are men so against doctors and directions?" Tenten suddenly, wondered, causing both them to think hard for a minute.

"I don't know," Sakura said, drawing a blank, "but I do know that after this I need to get home and help Itachi settle in."

"Itachi Uchiha is in town?!" Tenten shrieked. Luckily enough, no one had been listening to her.

"Sh!" Sakura scolded. "Don't you dare tell a soul. He got kicked out of the family, I think. He just sort of showed up this afternoon. At this rate I won't be able to help him get a job until tomorrow. Most places that have decent pay will be closed for the night once Sasuke returns from the hell of Tsunade's office."

Tenten looked at Sakura sympathetically. Her redhead friend always seemed to work herself to the bone. Nurse during the day, almost always covering some one else's shift. Masseuse during the later afternoon, stand-in nanny during the rest of her time for Sasuke, that ungrateful son-of-a-bitch. Tenten had never liked Sasuke, but he seemed to somehow make Sakura happy, so she kept it to herself.

"He's being a handful, I take it?" Tenten asked, considering Sakura never took people to Tsunade unless she couldn't heal them herself or if she wanted them to suffer. It was a known fact that Sakura's boss, Tsunade, was relentlessly evil to those who upset her favorite previous student.

"He's being more than that. He's being a total pain in the ass."

"And yet you love him like a brother anyway."

"I hate myself," Sakura groaned. Tenten patted her friends back, not daring to agree that she was stupid for taking not one but two Uchiha boys in. Tenten, Ino and all the rest of Sakura's closest friends agreed.

Sakura was going to have her heart broken by an Uchiha.