Alright, everybody, here ya go—the 8th chapter of my first story to probably ever finish. And this could probably be a spoiler for those who read manga… ^.^

Title: The Ghost and the Confession

(This would be a short chapter so don't complain. If it's not short to you, then lucky you)

Itachi was awoken by a scream from outside his room and immediately went out to check it out. But long before, he knew it was Sakura.

Itachi found her in the kitchen, frozen and looking out the window. "What happened? Tell me." Then he looked out at where she was looking. He saw what she saw. Then he heard a sharp intake of breathe from Sakura beside him.

He caught her as she fell back weakly, shaking heavily with fear. "Hey… that's just the reflection of the water creatures…" Itachi said, comforting her. But she still didn't seem to be calmed down. She looked him in the eye as he laid her on the couch, she was still shaking.

"Then… tell me why it has the shape of a girl… and why it's moving around…" Sakura shivered. "Itachi-kun… I… I d-don't think I'll make it through the rest of the night until that soul crosses over…"

Itachi heard the fear and worry in Sakura's voice. "Sakura, that soul does not and will not bother us. Now, if you'd just lay back and try to close your eyes… and think of something else that's nice and peaceful." Itachi said, but Sakura shook her head. "I'll take care of her…"

As Itachi was standing up, Sakura grabbed his arm and said, "Please don't leave me here… I-I'll come with you… But I'll keep a good d-distance…"

Itachi nodded and sat on the couch, his back to Sakura, signaling her to ride on his back. Sakura put her legs on each side of him and gently put her arms around his neck. "Please make this quick… Itachi-kun." Sakura whispered into his ear as he ascended to a standing position.

"I promise…" Itachi whispered back. Then they both went out the back door. When they were about 2 meters away from the water, Itachi stopped walking and tried to look back at Sakura. She nodded weakly and got off Itachi. She was strong enough to stand now… with Itachi's support, anyway. Then they walked towards the lake and the foggy figure of the girl in front of them.

The girl, she wasn't so scary-looking after all. She didn't have blood stains on her dress and she didn't look dead at all… except the white skin. But she didn't have a sunken face or hair that covered half of her face. But then Sakura remembered something Kisame said before she went outside the backdoor hours earlier to meet Itachi.

"Remember that ghosts can make you believe things that seem to be so real." Kisame said, then Sakura nodded nervously and went out to meet Itachi.

Then Sakura walked a bit closer to the shore, this got the girl's attention. Sakura shivered, pierced by the cold look of the ghost on her. Then Itachi whispered to Sakura, "Let's go… she won't bother us if we don't bother her."

Sakura looked through the ghost and saw a glowing, white, circular object behind her. 'What could that be?' She thought. 'It can't be something I normally see… could it be a powerful thing…'

"Sakura, we have to go back now. It's gonna rain soon." Itachi said. He held her arm and tried to pull her back but she stayed stationed. "Sakura, that isn't a real ghost. She's just a reflection of the water… she's just your imagination. She isn't real."

"No, she is real…" Sakura said.

"Sakura, this girl… she's not real and she won't be if you stay away from the lake" Itachi said, more firmly this time, "She doesn't need our help."

"How could you say that?! Look at her. And there is something behind her. Don't tell me… you're just letting this spirit roam here…" Sakura said, looking into Itachi's onyx eyes. "She needs our help"

"Sakura, she doesn't. I just don't think it's time for you to…" Itachi started. But when he saw a tear go down Sakura's eye, he couldn't continue. "Sakura… Kisame wasn't supposed to tell you this now. There is a time for you to understand your purpose here… you're not just our prisoner or a hostage… you never were…"

Droplets of rain fell on them.

"Then tell me…" Sakura said. She couldn't stop the tears now. "What am I to you?" When Itachi didn't answer she said, "Tell me, Itachi. I'm ready for any answer. Tell me the truth…"

"You are supposed to replace a certain person in Akatsuki." Itachi said, "I was supposed to train you. And turn you into one of us. And show you this thing the ghost is protecting… after you've been trained well. But you're not ready, Sakura."

Sakura felt like a fool. How could she have not known? What a stupid, stubborn, dumb little girl. And she even fell… for Itachi. "Then," Sakura said, "I was a fool to plan to tell you I love you…" Then she flung her arm out of his grip and ran back to the house.

The rain started to pour harder.

Itachi felt like he was hit hard. He didn't know she would say this. He never expected her to be so honest and sudden. "Sakura…" He said, running after her. "Sakura… I'm sorry. At least listen to me."

"You could've just asked me to join Akatsuki then I would think about it even for just a little while. But torturing me like this then breaking my heart… it's unforgivable!" Sakura shot at him, facing back to him and shouting, "I hate you, Itachi! I loathe you and I'll never make the same mistake of trusting you again!!!"

"Look at us—fighting over a silly ghost, shouting at each other because of a stupid ball of white energy." Itachi said at Sakura, walking towards her, "You don't think I'd be ashamed of this?! Kisame is just over there, listening, listening hard and he's gonna be waiting for a good time to tell and embarrass me."

"Oh, I see… so this is all about your reputation?! How ironic… and I thought you didn't care about it! You've done your job with your own clan!" Sakura shouted angrily, "You know what? You could've just killed Sasuke as well and left me alone so I didn't have to be his stupid teammate!"

With a swift move, Itachi was in front of Sakura and was holding her wrists with amazing power. His eyes held a raging and uncontrollable look of anger. "You don't know what I've been through that time I was killing the rest of my clan!" he said, "Do you honestly think it's easy to stab them and beat them up then get them to suffer pain slowly while I was doing orders from Danzo!?"

Sakura couldn't believe her ears or… she couldn't believe him at all. 'So he was following orders when he was killing his clan…' she thought as her mind created more questions and realizations that complicated her hugely. 'How could he do that to his own clan? Just for the sake of respect or… dignity or pride?! That's ridiculous. Itachi couldn't just probably do that… to his own clan, too!'

"You…" Sakura squeaked, "You were following orders from Da—"

"I was. And you don't know the pain of trying to stop myself from doing that." Itachi said, "It took me almost everything just to stop but I couldn't help it…"

Now, Itachi's hold loosened and he fell to the ground. Sakura thought it better to help him with his problem if he talked about it with her. "You wanna… talk about it?" She asked as she lowered herself to his level.

"It was the times during the first ninja war… so many people died and I was still a kid. The Uchiha clan was one of the most powerful clans at that time. Then sometime after that… Konoha was made and my dad wanted to destroy the current Hokage. He told me to be a spy as I became a ninja. So I became ANBU. Danzo, he was in charge that time, he… I… I became a double agent. In other words, I betrayed my family. I hated it if a war would've broken out again, killing innocent children and civilians. I gave Danzo information about my clan's movements and my dad's choices. Then, at the night my dad was about to declare war, I… killed them all. All the Uchihas… I didn't pay attention to innocence. I tried not to think about the pain… I tried to do my job. But in the end, I failed my mission. Sasuke was the only helpless thing left in my way and I couldn't take it anymore… I couldn't kill him, my own brother. He always looked up to me. He always wanted me to help him. But my mother wanted me to do well in school and I did, leaving him bored and alone in the house."

Sakura couldn't help but cry at this quietly. Now she knows why he killed his clan. She never knew such pain, actually, she couldn't even say if it's much worse than Naruto's. But this pain was different—it wasn't of aloneness or of being laughed at. It was of family and peace. 'Now I see… Itachi's a peaceful man. I never knew,' she thought, 'So could this mean…'

"Are you planning to die by Sasuke's hand?" Sakura asked. Itachi didn't seem to be stunned or surprised at this. It seemed that he was waiting for her to figure it out on herself. He nodded. Then there was the sound of thunder from above and the rain hardened more. Sakura didn't know what to say to break the silence between them.

Now, she really felt like a stupid fool. She assumed without hearing him out, but now that she did, she was glad that she didn't leave yet. She thought she heard Itachi say something.

"What?" she asked.

"I said, you can go if you want to. Now that you know my story I don't think you'll never think twice again." Itachi said, "And you're free to go. So just pack up and go. Tell Kisame to just bring you to the boss and tell him I never wanna do this job again."

Sakura knew that Itachi just wanted to be alone. She knew that these were supposed to be insults. It was hard to think of any now… especially since she helped him get a bit more through it. So she headed back to her room, leaving Itachi in the rain all alone.

End of chapter. Wasn't that dramatic! I was surprised myself… making up a crazy, dramatic confession. And… part of it is totally pointless. I mean, fighting over a ghost?!

PS: Itachi's story is sort of true (you can take of the sort of)

Hope you liked and enjoyed it. ^.^