There was a scratching sound in another room, far away. Sakura could hear it constantly grating at her ears, a soft, low sound that was impossible to ignore.

It was dark in her room. The curtains had been closed so the only lighting in the room was a dim bulb that kept flickering on and off.

Sakura closed her eyes and breathed in. She imagined what her friends would be doing right about now. Ino would be asleep after saying goodnight to her parents, probably still shaken by what had happened that day. Kakashi-sensei would either be sitting in a bar slowly drinking away his memories of the execution with Gai at his side, or demanding a difficult mission to take his mind off it. Naruto would be sitting alone in his apartment, or shouting at Tsunade.

What would Sakura be doing if she was free? She'd be with Naruto, shouting at Tsunade until her voice grew hoarse.

She found that it was easier to cope with the seething emotions inside of her if she stroked the bed sheet under her fingers, the feel of the soft material a welcome distraction from the pain and anger she suffered from.

When she finally regained control over herself, she looked into Itachi's blood red eyes fearlessly, not caring if he tortured her mentally or not. Not anymore.

He was sitting beside her like a regular visitor, like any other sensei come to see his student. His tears had dried up and now he was staring at her face, a quiet desperation in his eyes.

"Have you come to finish the job?" Sakura asked, her voice once again lifeless and dull. She couldn't attempt to put feeling into her words. The rage and pain that had leapt up at the sight of him had been supressed by the numbing grief Sasuke's death had brought.

Itachi put a hand over his eyes and leant forward, breathing rapidly.

He finally brought his hand away from his face after a moment of silence and moved closer to her bed.

"I would never," Itachi said fervently, "hurt you."

Sakura let her eyes slide away from his face and onto her forearm, where she could see the burnt Uchiha logo pulsing gently on her skin.

"I'm so tired," She said, surprised at the sob rising in her throat. She lay back and fixed her eyes on the ceiling, tears gathering, "So tired of you. I'm tired of wondering why you did all of the terrible things you did. But most of all, I'm tired of your pretending. One minute you act as though you still care, like the sick, twisted bastard you really are, playing with my mind, and the next you show your true colours, and you hurt me again. So please. Just. Stop. Stop pretending you care. I can't take it anymore."

Now the tears were flowing freely and she couldn't even bring herself to feel ashamed of crying in front of him.

He dared to put his hand on her arm, feeling her stiffen under his unwelcome touch. He nearly flinched at the loathing-filled eyes she turned on him until he removed his hand.

"Sasuke's dead." She said, swallowing, "He's dead and gone and it is your fault. You pushed him to do all of the things he was executed for! You couldn't just allow him to live a happy, normal life despite what you had already done to him, you had to nearly break his mind and force him to the breaking point for no good reason! As if murdering his family wasn't enough! You are a monster! The world would be better off without you!"

"That is enough," Itachi said coldly, standing.

If he expected her to be afraid, he would be disappointed, Sakura vowed, glaring up at him without a trace of fear. She lacked the capacity for fear. It went missing around about the time the axe fell and destroyed one of her best friends.

"It is time you learned the truth." Itachi appeared to regain himself and sat back down, "About why I killed my family."

"Do you expect me to believe any more bullshit from you? No matter how you sweeten it with charm, murder is murder. Mass murder is inexcusable. If all you're here to do is lie to me, you may as well leave because I am never going to listen to you. If I wasn't tied down, my hands would be around your neck."

"No," Itachi said wearily, "You would be dead. You can't kill me, Sakura. You can't even try. No matter how much you want to, blind rage and hatred is not enough. You need to be stronger than I am," He looked down at his hands in a strange, unseeing kind of way. His next words were quiet, "And no matter how hard I have looked, few people are stronger than I am."

It was weird. He should have been boasting – his words alone certainly indicated that he had an inflated ego, no matter how justified his regard for his strength might be, but the words were hollow. As though they were just bare facts that he was stating, not for the pleasure of bragging, merely to inform her.

"I killed my family," He said quietly, so quietly she had to strain to hear him, "Because they were planning to overthrow Konoha. It would be the beginning of another war. I could not bear to live through another. I was four when the Third Shinobi War took place. I became a pacifist after that. I did not want to grow into another killing machine. But, inevitably, the strong are always noticed first, and used the most. My family's actions would trigger another war. I was chosen by the village officials, to stop the threat against Konoha," Itachi stopped speaking, his eyes bleak.

Sakura couldn't breathe, could only stare at Itachi in horror.

"Even though they were my family, I had my duty. My village. How many would die if my family didn't? I made sure that Sasuke would be safe. I made them swear. I left him alive and told him to live hating me until he grew strong enough to kill me. And then, he would be revered as the hero who got rid of the mass-murdering monster who killed the Uchihas. Sasuke was our family's last hope of redemption. He could be a hero, saving the Uchihas' reputation, and I would die the villain, having played my part perfectly. I owed my family that much. I owed Sasuke my life. I should be the one who is dead." He had recounted his tale in emotionless, dry tones up until he spoke of owing his family. He began to shake, so lightly that Sakura could barely see it.

"Liar." She whispered, hardly daring to believe it. If he was lying – and of course he was, he had to be – then he was even more twisted than she had thought. To make up such a detailed story just to convince her he wasn't evil…

It didn't make sense.

"Why haven't you killed me yet?" Sakura said, almost pleadingly. She didn't want to die, not even after everything that had happened to her yet, but she wanted the normality of her life to be restored and in her life, Itachi was evil. That was normal. This… sad explanation… it was not normal. She needed reassurance that she had suffered all of these years because he was a sick son of a bitch and it was all his fault.

"Because I care about you," He said softly, his eyes imploring her to believe him. The red faded away until she could see the black eyes of her old sensei, "I never told you what I did because I had never told anyone. It was classified. I am not a missing nin. I am not a traitor to Konoha. I am merely deep undercover. I've dedicated my life to keeping Konoha safe and after I met you I wanted to do the same for you. I thought I could just help you, keep you alive. I hoped you would never find out about me. But you did, and I had to hurt you to keep my secret. I had to hurt you and Sasuke."

Sakura now knew how Gaara felt when he clutched his head, eyes wide, as his world rearranged itself around him. Everything was changing again… her perception of Itachi… she was too wary, too scarred by past betrayals, to accept everything this man said at face value, but his words seemed honest. He had no logical reason to lie to her. If he truly was evil, he would have killed her in front of Sasuke all those years ago to prove his point.

Right?

"No!" Sakura shouted suddenly, trying to rear upwards, straining against the chakra strings until they groaned, "Sasuke died because of you! I have lived in a village that despises me because they believed I was allied with a murderer, I have been tortured, imprisoned, hated and feared! You left a mark on me, Itachi," She jerked her arm up as far as she could, trying to show him the burn mark, "Not just burnt into my skin, but my life. You destroyed everything I had, my friends didn't trust me, my sensei – my real sensei – was hurt by my deception, my mother couldn't look at me… If you say you have lived life reviled for being something you aren't, then how dare you make me suffer the same fate knowing exactly how fucking lonely and miserable that existence is!"

Itachi flinched. He sighed and put his head in his hands.

Sakura's face had contorted in her rage, her eyebrows pulled so sharply together it hurt, her mouth screwed up. Her anger was boiling back up again after hours of feeling dead and numb. She was no longer cold and unfeeling, she was hot and fuming and she wanted nothing more than to grab his fucking neck and squeeze until he met his brother in the afterlife, let him whine about not dying at the right moment then!

"When I first met you," He said carefully, as though trying his best not to rouse her anger any further, "You were a child. A happy, weak child, who was doomed already to die as cannon-fodder. After meeting you, I knew I could not just allow you to go on with your life when it would end so shortly… I believed I owed Sasuke a small piece of happiness, and after seeing how you cared for him, I wanted you to always be there for him… in a way that I could no longer be."

"My own village hated me," She said flatly, "I would rather have died than live through that. You did me no favours. I wanted nothing more than to fight for my village, like even you could, but you denied me that basic privilege that every other ninja took for granted! When I died, I was so sure I wouldn't even get a grave… Nothing to remember me by… no statue to honour my life. Just a file in the Hokage's office and a shameful memory for Konoha to forget…"

"I could never have known they would consider you a traitor!" Itachi burst out with suddenly, "I had no idea they would treat you like that!"

"How could you not have considered the possibility that fraternising with and being trained by a mass murderer could have damaged my good standing in Konoha?" She snorted derisively.

"I thought they would be more reasonable. They have the Yamanaka Clan. They would have looked into your mind and saw that you were innocent."

"They did," Sakura said, temper flaring, "After they took a kunai and dug it around in my stomach for a while."

Itachi came closer and slowly, carefully, he put his hands on either side of her face, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. Sakura restrained herself from leaning into his touch, refusing to let her desire for comfort to show.

"I want nothing more than to track down every person who tortured you and inflict the same pain upon them that they caused you." He said, his voice low and intense, his eyes burning.

Sakura stared unflinchingly back at him, ignoring his proximity, "I thought you weren't a monster?"

He breathed out deeply, his breath cold against her cheek, "I have always been driven to do monstrous things in order to protect those who I care about."

"Sasuke should have known the truth." Sakura said, grimacing at the realisation that this was it, she truly believed him. Maybe what the interrogators had drilled into her was true – she was a gullible fool, and her naiveté would lead her to her end.

"He could not. He was only a child when the massacre happened. He wouldn't have understood, and I couldn't have him telling anyone about it. When I met him again, I was with my Akatsuki partner. I could not have shown an inch of mercy when I hurt him, Sakura, or my cover would have been blown and Kisame might have chosen to kill Sasuke himself. I regret the pain I caused you and Sasuke every day."

Sakura had almost convinced herself she was dreaming. She had had this dream all too often. Her sensei would somehow, inexplicably, prove he really was good all along, and she would talk with him like this again. Just to sit and speak with him, knowing he was real, not a liar or a monster. That was all she dreamed of.

She knew it wasn't a dream, however, because Sasuke had never been dead in these blissful dreams.

"He's dead." Sakura's mouth quivered and she shuddered, emotion suddenly bubbling up, more tears forming in her eyes as the memory of Sasuke's bruised face staring defiantly out at the crowd baying for his blood assaulted her, "Why didn't you save him?"

"I didn't get here in time," Itachi closed his eyes; "I got to the outskirts of Konoha and overheard a few traders talking. They … they said he had been executed earlier that day, and that his teammate had gone insane and had been hospitalised for her own safety."

"I was standing there at the platform," Sakura replied, vision blurring as the tears swelled, "And he was so calm. He didn't care that he was going to die. Right up until the end, I believed he would be fine. I even hoped… that you would save him. I almost saw him die, but my friend, Anko… she covered my eyes for me. Itachi. Sasuke made me swear that I would kill you for him."

Itachi's face betrayed the slight flash of pain that comment gave him. His beloved younger brother's last wish was that he would die by Sakura's hand.

He sat back down in the chair.

"Do you want to?" He asked quietly.

Sakura's shoulder gave a convulsive jerk upwards. She had no idea what she wanted anymore. It seemed as though Itachi was going to screw with her mind every few years or so, changing her world radically every time.

"Yes," She said raggedly. He looked away, "and no. I want to kill the smirking bastard who hurt me and betrayed me. I want to believe you are my sensei, and that you aren't the evil scumbag I thought you were. If Sasuke knew why you had killed his family, I'm sure he wouldn't want you dead. He loved you once."

"As did you," Itachi nodded, looking at her steadily.

"A child," Sakura corrected him, "A child loved you. I am not that child. I am the shell of the girl you knew."

They both considered this for a while. Itachi might be the old sensei she had believed dead and buried, and he was clearly chasing the ghost of the girl she had once been. Neither of them had escaped the ordeal unchanged. If Itachi cared for her at all, it would be the happy, cheerful twelve year old he had known, not this prickly, cold girl who had clawed her way out from beneath the ashes of her former self. Sakura wasn't even sure who she was anymore.

"Nevertheless," Itachi said, "You are the only thing I have left to remember that little girl."

The scratching noise had long since faded away, but Sakura could suddenly hear footsteps, heels clicking briskly along the hallway, coming towards them.

"Someone's coming." She hissed. It was almost amusing. When Itachi had first appeared, she had hoped someone would come and find him. Now she was warning him! For all her claims of being smarter and wiser now, it was clear that she would never change. She would always be that stupid girl who allowed herself to be fooled by the same trick twice. It was fine. She had gotten used to self-loathing over the years. You learned to avoid mirrors, especially when your mistake was burnt into your arm.

He gave her one last intense look filled with regret, tucking her hair behind her ears and wiping her face clean of tears again.

He left through the window, and Sakura was left to explain to an irate nurse why she had been shouting in the middle of the night in a hospital.

xxxxxxxx

She awoke to sunlight.

Someone had been kind enough to open the blinds and the window, letting a soothing breeze flow into the room, lightening the atmosphere.

Sakura glanced to her left, and knew immediately who had opened the window.

Naruto sat in the chair Itachi had occupied the night before.

He had taken his headband off, leaving his hair free to fall in his beautifully blue eyes. His shirt had slipped over one shoulder, revealing a slice of paler skin the sun hadn't touched.

He was crying.

Sakura wanted to comfort him. She felt her fingers twitch in her desire to reach out and give him a hug, place a hand on his knee, just anything to take away that agonized expression.

"Naruto," She said, her voice coming out hoarse from sleep.

He jumped.

His eyes fell on her restrained form and he started to cry again.

"Sakura-chan," He wept, "I can't believe what's happened. I… I got here late. Too late. Baa-chan sent me a letter, but the hawk was slow… I," His words dissolved into sobs, "I was running into the village as fast as I could, but when I found you crying, I just… knew."

Sakura could feel herself crumbling, could feel the hard wall breaking down. For Team Seven to have been reduced to this… It wasn't fair. No matter how childish Tsunade thought she was for claiming it was unfair, it was the truth. The team had been plagued with disaster from the start.

With Sasuke dead…

"He wasn't upset," She said, her voice thick with tears despite herself, "In the end. He was smirking, like he found it funny. He chose to die, Naruto. I begged him, but he believed we could live without him. I… I obviously reacted badly to his death but… he didn't. He was almost happy."

Naruto blinked watery eyes in confusion, "He wanted to die?"

"I think he didn't mind dying," Sakura wanted to shrug, but the chakra strings prevented the movement. After a long night pinned down to the bed, Sakura was sore everywhere, especially her chest where the strings cut in mercilessly.

Naruto nodded and wiped his eyes, "I hope he… I hope he was OK," He looked away, out the window, at the sunlight, "I just wish I could have at least been there."

"No," Sakura shook her head, an ugly grimace on her face, "You don't. You're lucky you weren't."

"I'd have gone Kyuubi," Naruto said ruefully, miming an explosion with some wiggly finger movements, "I could have killed them all."

Sakura almost said she wished he had, but bit her tongue sharply. She was being restrained for a reason, and she needed to keep that reason in mind. The only reason she was here was because she had started attacking people. The last thing she wanted was to follow in her sensei's footsteps and become a missing nin for real.

"Are you… alright?" Naruto seemed to read her mind, gesturing to the various straps and chakra strings tying her down.

"I'm not going to go around massacring people, if that's what you mean," Sakura responded dully, eyes on the ceiling.

She missed Naruto's wince, "Um, no. I meant it looks like it hurts."

"It doesn't," Sakura said shortly, lying.

For some reason this made Naruto burst into tears again, to her shock.

"I will save you," Naruto promised, his voice shaking, "I couldn't save Sasuke, but I promise, I'll save you."

Sakura felt oddly touched, but confused, "Why do I need saving?"

"He left Konoha," Naruto said weakly, "I don't want you to leave."

xxxxxxxx

Kakashi came next.

He slunk in the room, the carefully measured steps letting Sakura know he had gone with the first option and drank himself into oblivion the night before.

He didn't sit down, but hovered at her side, his fingers twitching towards his kunai holster. Sakura assumed he either wanted to stab her or set her free. She knew it was the latter by the way he'd greeted her with a pat on the shoulder.

"How are you?" He asked, dark eye running up and down her constricted body as though measuring the pain she was in. Judging by the way his hands clenched into fists, he'd noticed how tight the straps cut into her skin.

Sakura didn't let the pain enter her voice, although after a whole night and half a day strapped to a bed she was left in agony, "As good as can be expected."

Kakashi rubbed his cloth-covered jaw but said nothing. She could see he was struggling to find the words to adequately express the situation.

"I just wanted to thank you," Sakura said quickly, before he could speak. He raised an eyebrow, "For always standing by me even though… I made you look bad. Thank you for believing in me."

Kakashi didn't say a word, but his hand settled on her head affectionately.

"Tell everyone who cares that I'm no traitor," Sakura urged him, "Shout it from the rooftops of you have to. Tell Naruto, tell Sai, tell Ino, tell Tsunade-sama, Anko, my mother, everyone, tell them I am innocent."

"…What are you planning to do?" He asked, the shadow of his mouth frowning beneath his mask, "Get revenge on Itachi?"

"I don't know," Sakura sighed, "But look at me. This has gone too far. I don't want to die a traitor's death that I don't deserve."

Kakashi looked at her, long and hard.

"One of my students has died," He said, "Please do not do the same."

xxxxxxxx

After her mother and grandmother had left, convinced that Sakura was thinking about going away for her health and that was the only reason she had been left here, tied to a bed for a whole day and night, Itachi entered the room again, so quietly and stealthily she hadn't even noticed him approach her bed.

"Sakura," He said in a low voice, the hospital room dark once more, his red eyes spinning in the gloom, "I have made a decision. I left you and Sasuke alone, and I will live to regret that decision. Now, I won't make that mistake again. I want you to come with me."

Sakura had known he would come creeping back into her room, had known it since he'd stroked her face, had suspected he would want her to leave with him. She'd been thinking about it all day, mulling it over in her mind, throwing up pros and cons for leaving and staying.

Pro for leaving: She could be with Itachi.

Con for leaving: She would be leaving behind everyone else she loved.

Pro for staying: She wouldn't disappoint her loved ones.

Con for staying: Everyone else in the village despised her and would gladly see her dead.

Living there had gotten her tortured, accused, despised, mistrusted and so many other things… Sasuke had been executed despite her wishes… This was the village that had actually ordered Itachi to kill his own family. What if they'd wanted a similar show of loyalty from her?

But…

"Akatsuki want Naruto dead." She said sharply.

"I'm not asking you to join Akatsuki. I'm not asking you to betray Konoha. I'm just asking you to leave with me."

The chakra straps had cut off her blood supply hours ago and she was in such pain…

Itachi bent down near her face and whispered, "Please."

Um.

More twists.

Sorry.

Don't hurt me!

I need these fingers to type!

Quick poll for fun: Who would you like to date the most? (Not just for the girls XD)

A) Sasuke

B) Naruto

C) Itachi

D) Other! Let me know!