Senko: All the complicating things and drama will be coming in the very near chapters. For right now, I'm focusing on building Itachi and Sakura's (invisible) bond. So, I'm sorry if you get bored or something.

Responses to Reviews

Ninjaxbunny: I super-uber-duper LOVE you:D you rock and you're always reviewing and you and I share love for….CUPCAKES AND COOKIES! Yay! Meh dun have any cows T-T let's go find your cows! Infinite Inficio: OMFG LMFAO! That's freaking hilarious! xDDDD Neon kun: -gets interrogated by the mental doctors and the doctors declare that I am wayyyy toooo insane for their hospital- TT-TT

Thanks to theoneandonlydarkpowderpuff, mitsuki-no-kimi, bloodstainedmoon, .Homicidal.Psychotic.Insane…, kitty, blacksheep18, 1taCh1's GuRLie, Russian Princess, SweetAssassin, Sylvok, Auel Nader, Kiyoko-San, Ivory Black aka Torri-Chiob…, Gina01, EnV, 01xDevilshBABYY, Hao'sAnjul, Heartless Ghost, tailqundamns, animemistress419, DevilsLittleSister, Madical-Inkable-Pen-Of-The…, XUchihaSakuraX, Riley-Mayori, Midnightfoxkaori, yinyang-sensei, and psychochild22 for reviewing!

Disclaimers: No own. Duh.

Chapter 3

"This is rather complicating now," Tsunade said, leaning back against her chair.

"Yes," Sakura agreed. "How are we going to do this? All potions eventually wear off. Are we going to keep drugging him? And I think that Itachi will really go and seek out Sasuke-kun. But Sasuke-kun wants to kill Itachi."

Tsunade leaned forward and rested her hands on her desk, her face placed on her folded fingers, much like Sasuke. "To be honest, I really don't know what to do. I'm thinking about drugging him continually. It's either that or we kill him when the potion expires."

Shizune stood next to Sakura, holding Ton-Ton in her hands. "Hey…you know what's funny? If Itachi goes out and finds Sasuke and tries to help Sasuke take revenge by killing him."

Tsunade burst into a hysterical laughter. "I would love to see that, but since I'm Hokage I have to say that it would be awful if that happened."

Sakura shook her head in disbelief. "I cannot believe you, shishou. Why did they even elect for you to be Hokage?"

"Because they wouldn't want a Hokage that molested every other citizen or a Hokage who is a peeping tom," Shizune answered.

"Oh," Sakura said. "That's right."

"Well, Sakura, you just go ahead and focus on your training for now. I'm going to drink…I mean, think about this," Tsunade said.

"Right," Sakura remarked sarcastically as she made her way out of the Hokage's office.

A normal day was what Sakura considered this to be. The regular training in the morning, afternoon in the hospital, and evening free time. Today she had worked an extra shift (like many other days) and it was evening now. An exhausted Sakura dragged herself home. She had made breakfast and left some for Itachi, but that was way back in the morning. She wondered if the older…er, younger? Uchiha ate yet. When she opened the door and entered her house, she was met with a shocking surprise.

"Sakura," Itachi greeted, looking up to acknowledge her while placing down a bowl on the kitchen table.

Sakura gaped at the food set on the table. Every dish looked scrumptious and one hundred percent edible. He, a guy, a criminal, a person from a wealthy household who probably had maids working for him, made food that she herself could not generate at all.

"You have lots of ramen here," he said, taking a seat. "But I wanted a proper meal. I hope you didn't mind, Sakura?"

"No, no," Sakura said fast. "I don't mind at all. And…w-wow…"

"Take a seat," he said. "It's edible. You've been gone since morning and that girl…the blonde one, I saw her earlier and she invited me to lunch. She said you probably wouldn't be home until evening, like always. I decided to make dinner for you."

Sakura took a seat, overjoyed with how caring this S-class criminal was. "That's so…sweet, Itachi! You didn't have to do this, though."

"It's the least I can do for you for allowing me to live with you."

A feeling of euphoria rose from within her and she swore if only he hadn't been a criminal, she would have fallen for him. Taking in her fingers the chopsticks, she began to dig in and eat the delicious food Itachi made.

She couldn't deny that she had at first been scared of him. Not really frightened but just slightly scared. The thought that he had taken many lives before made her question whether of not he would take her life as well. When she thought about it, though, she realized that she should consider his younger self. In her memories, she recalled thinking of him as a nice elder brother when she saw him on a particular day giving Sasuke a piggy-back ride when Sasuke had sprained his ankle. Of course, that was the first time she ever saw him.

It had barely occurred to her right now about how less she knew about Itachi. Indeed that had been the first time she saw him, but that was one of the very few times she ever saw him. Perhaps he was overloaded with missions? She wouldn't know. Shortly after finding out he was Sasuke's elder brother, news had spread that he had murdered his entire clan except for Sasuke.

"I didn't know you can cook this well," Sakura said, pausing from eating to speak. "I always thought that since you came from such a wealthy clan and household, you probably had maids working for you like the Hyuuga Clan."

"O-kaa-san had her own special way of cooking," he said. "She didn't like the way the maids cooked."

"I see. You learned from her?"

"Yes."

"She must be one great cook."

He didn't reply for a moment. "Sakura?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering…if I was in a coma for five years, why has my body remained the same."

Damn. He really is a genius. "Tsunade-shishou was called forth to put a spell on you to make your body remain the same."

"Why?"

"I do not know. Five years ago, I was only seven and didn't even know you exist."

"Yet you knew of the spell on me?"

"Tsunade-shishou was teaching me the same spell, so she revealed to me that the same spell was cast on you."

"I see."

Sakura silently sighed in relief. If Itachi continued to do anymore of this genius thinking, he might just come to realize that everything was a lie. A part of her feared him finding out the truth, another part of her feared she wouldn't come up with the correct lie, and the remaining part of her feared that he would kill her.

"So what have you been up to?" Sakura asked, attempting to strike a conversation.

"Godaime-sama has assigned me a mission."

"Oh, really? That's great. What will you do for this mission?"

"Some ninja by the name of Lee will be working with me as we accompany a civilian back to his village."

"That's great! Lee-san is a great ninja! He's a jounin, you know? Say, what rank are you? Or did Tsunade-shishou have yet to assign you your rank?"

"She said I'll be taking my same rank as before."

"Let me guess, chuunin?"

"ANBU captain."

Sakura gawked in awe. ANBU captain! At his age, she was but a helpless genin! "A-ANBU captain! Are you serious?"

"Yes, ANBU captain," he said indifferently.

Sakura's eating pace increased. "I-I-I'm just shocked! I can't believe someone like you is living with me! Hey if you're ANBU captain, why are you going on a mission with a jounin? Shouldn't you be on mission with ANBU?"

"Godaime-sama wanted to see if I am still capable of performing missions well, so she assigned me a C-rank mission with a ninja who can help me if I'm in trouble. She doesn't see any reason to send ANBU with me."

"Oh."

The next day Itachi and Lee left on their mission. Sakura accompanied Itachi while he met Lee and it was obvious he was restraining himself from killing Lee when Lee raise up an extra green spandex outfit and said Itachi should dress up like him and the two of them should be twins. Fortunately, Itachi had much self-control. She said a quick "bye" and wished them luck.

Uchiha, Itachi

Sakura carefully read over the contents of the file. It was her lunch break now and she decided to read Itachi's record. After going through Konoha's ninja records, she finally found his file, sat down at an empty table and ate while she read about Itachi.

Background: From the prestigious Uchiha Clan. Graduated as top rookie of the class, mastered Sharingan at age 8, became a Chuunin at age 10 and shortly after that achieved Jounin and ANBU captain rank.

Number of D-rank missions: 10

Number of C-rank missions: 14

Number of B-rank missions: 6

Number of A-rank missions: 3

Number of missions failed: 1

A small feeling of fear rose inside her. No one had ever really talked to her about Itachi before. All she knew about him was that he killed his entire family and Sasuke wanted to him for that. She didn't know he was actually this powerful. For him to achieve that much at the mere age of twelve, she was impressed; at his age, she had tons of D-rank missions and only one B-rank mission. She wondered if many others feared the infamous Uchiha or admired him instead.

The mission for Itachi proved to be very simple yet also difficult. It was simple because all he had to do was escort a civilian back home, but it was difficult because he had to painfully listen to Lee ramble on about the color green and about "the flame of youth." An exhausting three days past before he made it back to Konohagakure.

"Welcome back!" a female voice greeted him when he opened the door to his house. It was Sakura. She took his hand and pulled him inside the house, a smile on her face. "Look, I made dinner!"

Itachi, exhausted and hungry, took a seat across from Sakura at the dinner table and began to eat.

"So, how was your mission?"

"Good."

"Were you attacked? Were you hurt? Are you feeling okay? Do you need me to heal you?"

"No, no, yes, and no."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm just slightly dizzy. Sleep will make me better."

Sakura looked at him and walked over to him, placing her hand on his forehead. "Maybe you're catching a cold? It's still winter."

"Hn."

He stared at her questioningly when he saw each of her hands placed on both sides of his head. He knew she was going to heal him, and at first he had thought about pushing her away, but the warmth that radiated from her hands was so gentle. A warm feeling of tranquility flowed through his mind, enrapturing and enchanting. He wondered if this was how patients felt when they were being healed, since he hardly ever got hurt or needed healing. He almost felt disappointed when she stopped and pulled away from him. She smiled.

"No more dizziness, right?" she asked.

It barely occurred to him that the dizziness had stopped. "No."

Senko: I apologize if this chapter is too short. I actually have the next chapter three-fourths of the way done and I was going to combine the two to form one chapter, but I remembered that the other chapter is saved onto my other computer and I'm too lazy to go and send the file over.

I have a SasuSaku oneshot out (dedicated to Neon Kun because she told me to write it and she's an awesome writer xD) Check it out!

Which reminds me, for all you good readers who are reading this note right now, I will have an ItaSaku oneshot out on…Itachi's birthday! Of course, chances are that since it's for his bday I'll be releasing it around June 9th o.O;; unless you guys super-mega-ultra-hyper want me to release it now lol and guess what? I even have a doujinshi version of it :D

LASTLY, I made fanart for "Crimson Stigmata"! I'm sure many of you know that wonderful story, yes? Well, it's on my deviantart account. Check it out! My deviantart is animesenko. :)