Clouds gathered outside, filling the sky with grey and white, not a trace of blue to be seen. The air was chilly. There were a few old trees growing near the hotel window. Crows roosted in the boughs, feathers trembling in the wind, heads ducked down for warmth. Few people were awake so early, but the ones that were had headed down to the market in the middle of town to set up stalls or check out the trade before the midmorning rush.

Sakura peered out of the window down at the tiny figures walking below, shivering in the cold, tracing early paths through the grass.

Itachi was asleep.

Not properly. He never slept properly. He was always awake on some level. If she walked near him, he would know. She wondered if he still dreamed whilst in that wakeful state. Surely not? If he did, what would he dream of? She remembered him saying once that he had been in a war when he was just a child. She could easily imagine he had nightmares more often than not. Perhaps being half-awake and fully aware at all times was preferable to being plagued by memories of war.

She was in a thick nightgown with leggings and a dressing gown. The weather had taken a turn for the worse lately. When she walked down in the town in the morning with Itachi or Kisame, frost stained the grass and rime covered the streets, as though someone had taken an icy brush and painted the town in the night.

In a way, she would never forget Kisame wanting her dead. Despite that, they managed to be civil, even friendly. After she saved Itachi's life permanently, Kisame warmed to her. Sometimes she'd find herself laughing at a comment he'd made or listening intently to a story he was telling, and she would then chastise herself. Even though he was friendly to her now, he was still a missing nin; he'd betrayed his own village and murdered people for fun. The only reason he hadn't killed her yet was because they were sort of on the same side.

What strange company she kept nowadays. She thought of what Team Seven back in the old days would think of her situation. She'd run away from their village and joined up with Akatsuki. Maybe, just maybe, after learning all of the extenuating circumstances behind her situation, they would understand.

One thing they'd never understand was her relationship with Itachi. Even she didn't understand that!

Once, Ino had come up to her, aged fourteen, and whispered excitedly that she and Shikamaru were boyfriend and girlfriend. The relationship lasted the length of a single mission, in which Shikamaru received some unwanted female attention and didn't bother rejecting the girl when she flirted with him. Ino had been absolutely furious. But she had confided in Sakura, telling her that the relationship had been sweet while it lasted.

Sakura had wanted nothing more than to be Sasuke's girlfriend when she was a child. She wanted to break down Sasuke's walls, to know that he cared about her enough to be with her. She'd been so young and stupid.

Itachi loved her.

Really, really loved her.

She didn't know what she had done to deserve his love, but Itachi evidently cared for her greatly.

She sifted through her memories. All through her life after meeting Itachi, he was the person she wanted to see the most at all times. When they were on that bridge, surrounded by mist and likely to be killed, the person she'd thought of had been Itachi. When she was in the Forest of Death, scared and alone, she'd wanted Itachi to be there. She'd begrudged the other genin for being able to have their true sensei with them during the exams, wishing Itachi could have watched her fight and win for once. When Sound had attacked the village, she'd wanted nothing more than to have Itachi be there by her side.

Even after he'd 'betrayed' her, in the cold and lonely years when she had sunk to her lowest, some part of her she'd locked away longed for the man who'd taught her, who'd made her feel special when she'd been the plainest, least talented member of a very talented team, who'd been there when her self-esteem had been lower than low, who comforted her when her grandmother was sick, who acted like she had something of worth to say, whenever he sent Raban she'd feel excitement flutter in her stomach, the special secret she'd carried with her, making her feel stronger, giving her the strength to deal with everything that went wrong in her life.

When she hit puberty at around about twelve, she began dreaming things. Silly, childish things that made her roll her eyes to think of now, but back then she'd taken it all very seriously. She'd entertained the idea that one day Itachi would see her differently, would think of her the way she'd wanted Sasuke to think of her. The idea that he did indeed like her like that, well, it was too much to take in.

They'd both grown up. Itachi had been just a kid when they'd met, barely a teenager. Now, after everything they'd been through, Itachi being forced to join Akatsuki after murdering his family, losing everyone he loved, including Sasuke, Sakura believing her sensei was a traitor and that he'd never cared for her, living with the burden of her own village's hatred, feeling herself grow hard and cold, they were together again.

After Sasuke died, she found herself just not caring anymore. That night when she was tied to the bed, she felt the rage, the disappointment, the sadness, all swallowed up by the intense grief that she felt. It was a constant ache in her chest. If Team Seven was one body, they had lost a limb and been crippled by the result.

But being with Itachi, who cared even more about Sasuke than she did, felt like being propped up, the pain and grief lessened by the knowledge that Itachi understood what she was feeling. Not being alone for the first time in so long felt amazing.

She looked up sharply at the knock on the door. Itachi's eyes snapped open. Always awake, never resting.

Kisame slipped through the door, a plastic bag in his hand, his permanent shark grin on his face. He looked at Itachi and Sakura, gesturing to the bag, "Dinner. I actually scored some meat this time. That market is a bloodbath. Morning shoppers are vicious."

Though Sakura doubted that the shoppers had actually pulled out weapons and gone to war over some limp lettuce, Kisame looked cheered by the thought.

Itachi pushed the sheets away and swung his legs over the side. He no longer winced when he got up, he didn't have to peel himself away from a sweat-soaked bed and he never awoke to find he'd been sick in the night or gotten another nosebleed. He still automatically tensed when moved to stand up, expecting to have to fight crippling dizziness or pain as he stood.

But he was healthy now, and got to his feet steadily without trouble, crossing the room in seconds to take the bag from Kisame. His eyesight hadn't improved, but Itachi, as an elite shinobi, was used to using his other senses to get around and so had no trouble taking out the chicken from the bag and examining it closely.

"It's bad." He said shortly, tossing it in the bin without warning.

Kisame's grin disappeared, "Oi! I had to look for ages to get that!"

Itachi shook his head and emptied the bag's contents onto the counter.

His hand swept over the lettuce Kisame had procured, squeezing it to judge its freshness, over the bread, cheese and tomatoes. His hand paused on the tomatoes and his expression tightened just slightly.

"Salad for dinner, then?" Sakura called.

"Again." Itachi commented.

"Look, I'm doing my best to bring home the bacon, oh wife of mine, the least you can do is fix the dinner without complaint." Kisame joked, nudging Itachi's shoulder.

Even Sakura winced at the murderous look on Itachi's face. Kisame removed his hand with a teasing grin.

"Hey, brat! Tell 'im to play nice!" Kisame hollered across the room. Sakura waved a hand in acknowledgment of the request.

"Itachi, calm down." Sakura said sharply. Itachi had to play the part of emotionless mass murderer when Kisame was around, but that didn't mean he wanted to anger or upset Sakura. It was almost comical, watching him switch personalities in seconds.

"I am not angry." Itachi denied quietly, looking imploringly at her until she smiled.

Kisame burst out laughing. Itachi glared at him. Kisame made a cracking noise with his mouth, "She's got you whipped, right?"

Itachi just stared at him coldly until he stopped laughing.

"I can't believe you tried to feed me a line about her being your protégé, you dirty bastard," Kisame chuckled, "Oh, c'mon, don't look at me like that! You two have been acting all lovey dovey for days now, it's enough to put a man off his food!"

Itachi calmly began slicing the bread.

Sakura bit her tongue to stop a denial bursting out. Boyfriend and girlfriend, like Shikamaru and Ino used to be, like she'd wanted with Sasuke? Who knows.

"Sakura is my student," Itachi said impassively, "I think nothing more or less of her than that."

Ouch.

But his eyes flicked to hers, a quick, subtle moment of reassurance and she realised he was only trying to trivialise the affection he felt for her so that Kisame didn't realise just how attached Itachi was to Sakura. Emotional attachments were weaknesses, and Akatsuki members weren't weak.

"Sure, sure," Kisame chortled, "Your sweet little protégé, who you rescued from captivity, who spent hours healing you to save your life, who completely eradicated the disease that was killing you… I'm sure you two are just 'good friends.'"

"Kisame-san is hiding another injury." Sakura said to shut him up without looking away from the window, a grin on her face.

"What?" She heard Itachi say coldly.

"I – I just… Tsk, brat! I might have got into a tiny bit of trouble in the marketplace, OK?"

"Explain."

"Some nin from Konoha. They didn't see me, as far as I knew, but then one of 'em got me from behind. Fast bugger. Looked like an Anbu, well, before I chopped his head off anyway."

Sakura stiffened.

"Ah, brat… your home town, huh? Don't worry about it, kid," He said, his voice sounding warmer than usual, "I got 'em all. If they came looking for you, they won't get you."

"Good." Itachi said, his voice devoid of emotion, but she knew he was worried. He was a Konoha nin too, and it hurt to hear Kisame had killed people they might have known.

"Thanks." Sakura said in a very small voice.

She breathed in. She wasn't going to dwell on this. Kisame had been attacked and he had defended himself. People had died. She couldn't let it consume her, fill her with guilt and seep away her newfound happiness and confidence.

What if Kakashi had been amongst them?

"Let me heal that." She said briskly, jumping off the window seat and letting chakra flow to her hands.

He'd been favouring one leg, so she placed a hand on his other leg, feeling for the problem. His knee was twisted. This sort of injury was easy and even quite fun to heal. She smiled and touched his knee.

Itachi watched silently, ignoring Kisame's shit-eating grin.

Her hand glowed and she swivelled it around the knee until the twist was healed. It was like twisting the lid of a bottle to open it. There was even an accompanying 'pop' that indicated she was finished.

"Done." She said, giving the leg a quick pat and standing up straight.

Kisame was giving Itachi a look that probably said something like, damn right, your woman was touching me! ~~~

Kisame was a weird guy.

"Stop hiding your injuries from me." She glared at him, "I'm the medic of this little group and it's my job to fix you!"

Kisame made a mock-scared face, throwing up his hands, "Ooh, scary little brat!"

Itachi looked as though he wanted to laugh really, really badly. She knew he did because he was twisting his mouth to stop the laughter bursting out like he always did when he found something funny.

"You better believe it." Sakura said playfully.

Itachi turned his face so he could smirk without Kisame seeing.

xxxxxxxx

The bathroom was quite small and it was quite irritating having to share it with two missing nin (who apparently had an infinite capacity for creating mess), but it was a mini-safe haven after a while. After four years of being alone, she had developed a healthy relationship with herself – she liked her own company, her own thought were entertaining enough and she'd discovered a way to block out the bad memories and remember the good.

So she spent a while in the shower, standing up and letting water flow over her face with a stupid grin, enjoying the warmth of the water and the feeling of being clean.

She caught sight of her arm and sighed. The Uchiha burn mark was paler than before, and didn't hurt. She could still feel it if she rubbed her thumb over it, the scarred tissue had felt like a reminder throughout her life of Itachi. Even if it wasn't real, it felt real to her, she could see it and feel it like any of the other scars she had.

At least now she didn't hate it. When she was twelve and in that cell, she'd wanted to take a kunai and cut it out of her flesh. Thankfully, she'd never given in to that urge.

She felt so much better now. She'd really been screwed up. Even when good things happened to her, she'd still been depressed. She'd been obsessed with revenge and her hatred and the need to prove her loyalty.

Knowing that one of the most loyal Konoha shinobi was known as one of the most evil, murdering bastards the village had ever produced made her feel so much better about leaving. She honestly wanted nothing more than to be able to fight and protect her village, but she liked the idea of being with Itachi and helping the village in her own small way. Maybe being a legitimate chuunin was better, but she would take what she could get, and all she could do for her village now was eradicating threats to Konoha from the outside.

It was Ino's birthday yesterday. Every year before they stopped being friends and every year after they reconciled, they would meet up and chat about everything and nothing, and Sakura would hand over a present that Ino would insult and belittle with a smile, but secretly be thrilled with because they were such good friends they knew exactly what each other liked.

She'd had her eye on a sky blue dress that would really make the colour of Ino's eyes pop, but it was expensive, so she'd been saving up. She'd bought the dress after months of putting money aside from her wages from Tsunade and from the hospital. It was hidden in the box it had come in under her bed. Ino would never get that present.

She'd never see her mother or grandmother again.

What had she been thinking when she'd left? She'd lasted four years in that village… she loved it, it was her home, her friends and family were all there… she should have stayed.

And now, she couldn't leave Itachi. He loved her. She had a feeling she might love him back. They needed each other.

Well, it wasn't as though she could just waltz back into the village whenever she felt like it.

She'd made this decision and she had to stick with it, accept the consequences and move on. There was no point wallowing in regret or depression. She'd spent too long feeling the weight of every bad decision she'd ever made on her shoulders. From now on, she was going to live her life and forget the past. The past had been one big waste of pain and anger. She could finally live her life with Itachi by her side.

She no longer had to feel watched in her home, no longer had to worry about Anbu seeing her cry in her bedroom at night, no longer had to watch her mother's pain over her daughter's trials, no longer had to feel like a burden.

They'd be better off without her, anyway.

She stepped out of the shower, grabbing the only dry towel left and using it cover herself.

The door clicked open and Itachi walked in, looking deep in thought.

Sakura shrieked and leapt backwards, pulling the towel more securely around her naked body.

Itachi stopped dead and let his eyes focus properly. It was quite incredible, really, watching his pale face flush so violently, seeing him immediately avert his eyes, muttering apologies, his cheeks aflame just like her.

"Getoutgetoutgetoutgetout!" Sakura yelled when he lingered. He hesitated, looking very much like he wanted the ground to swallow him up, then turned around, lightning-fast, and shot through the door like a thousand enemy ninja were chasing him.

"NO, don't go in there, Kisame!" She heard him shout.

She slammed the door shut and leaned against it. All of a sudden she collapsed into hysterical giggles.

"Are you laughing at me?" She heard him say through the door, sounding long-suffering.

She couldn't answer, she was laughing too hard.

"I'm really very sorry, Sakura, the door wasn't locked and I wasn't aware you were in there. Kisame, conveniently enough for him, neglected to tell me you were showering."

"It's OK," She giggled, "I'm not mad."

It was true, she wasn't even embarrassed anymore. It was the look of pure panic on Itachi's face when saw her near-naked state. The kid in her found it hilarious that she could embarrass her sensei so easily.

She couldn't hear his sigh of relief, but she was pretty sure it was there.

"We need a lock on that door." Itachi said dryly.

"Oh, I don't know… I think it'd be pretty funny to walk in on Kisame painting his toenails." Sakura said brightly.

This time she could hear him laugh through the door. It was loud and deep and she hadn't heard it that much before.

She savoured the sound of a happy Itachi.

xxxxxxxx

She was certain she had mild cabin fever.

The only time she left the room was to sneak into the nearby forest with Itachi to train (they were focusing on her speed now) or to go on walks.

She had memorised every inch of the rooms. It was open plan, meaning the beds and the sofa were right next to the kitchen and the only separate room was the bathroom. She had counted the ceiling tiles so many times she had actually managed to forget how many there were.

She felt like she was settling into this life, hiding away from the world in a hotel room, bonding with Kisame and Itachi and forgetting everyone she'd left behind.

But that couldn't be true, because their faces were imprinted on her brain. She missed each and every one of them, especially her family. She wished she could stand in her Hokage's office and tell her off for not doing her paperwork again, then they'd laugh about it and Tsunade would try and fail to persuade her to go out drinking and gambling with her.

Had there been any choice in the matter, she would have thought leaving wasn't worth it. Itachi could have snuck past the Anbu every day, they could have seen each other even if she hadn't left, and she could have stayed where she belonged.

Except, they didn't really believe she belonged, did they?

For the first time in a long time, she felt happy.

Was that wrong of her? To be happy in the company of murderers and traitors?

She lay on her stomach, the covers pulled over her. She was watching Itachi clean his weapons in the corner of the room, the kunai in his hand becoming steadily less filthy as he scrubbed off the dried blood. He looked so calm doing it, a bucket between his knees and a pile of weapons on the floor beside him.

Kisame didn't bother knocking this time, shoving the door open and rushing into the room, soaking wet from the rain outside. He was grinning as per usual.

"We had a courier," He announced, "He brought the brat a present."

There was a slightly damp package in Kisame's hands.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, rolling over and getting out of bed. He handed over the package, still grinning like a maniac.

Itachi looked worried but then again, that was his default expression.

She tore it open with a bit of chakra, curious and a little bit excited.

Soft black cloth with red clouds lay in her hands.

The grin on Kisame's face was proud, "Leader-sama obviously doesn't want you to be a full-time member, but as a loyal ally you've earned this. Well done, brat."

Sakura stared at the Akatsuki cloak. Hers?

Itachi's frown tightened.

"It's time for your revenge, Sakura," Kisame said, with the pleased air of someone imparting a great gift. He met Itachi's eyes and winked, "You and Itachi have got a mission. Leader-sama wants Konoha gone. People, buildings, everything. Wants to 'start anew' or something. You can get your own back on those fucks who tortured you."

"He – he wants us to –" Sakura said faintly, trembling.

"Invade Konoha and destroy it, yeah." Kisame's shark grin grew as his bloodthirsty nature was exposed, "Happy hunting, brat."

Been ages since I've updated! Sorry :( I've been pretty damn busy for a while now…

Konoha's time is running out ~~

The invasion's coming, with or without Sakura.

I won't be following canon. Not one tiny, weeny little bit. Bye bye almost plausibility! I shall miss you.

It was great at first, squeezing in little changes in canon in the earlier chapters, but it got very boring very quickly. I was pleased when Itachi 'betrayed' Sakura so I could leave canon behind! It's much more fun making up stuff!

Writing about that damn hotel room has got to have been one of the most boring writing experiences, ever. Honestly. Fuck that hotel. I might just have Akatsuki bomb it or something.

This is a very short chapter, I'm afraid :( Still, better to have a small chapter than no chapter at all, right?

I love fanfiction, but I think I'm writing too much and not reading enough :( Gotta work on that…

I never remember to put what I want to put down here! Er… blah blah blah. Insert awesome wittiness here.

No, I'll never write a fanfic disclaimer because it wouldn't change a damn thing. If someone wanted to sue me for writing about something without even profiting from it, they'd be able to do it with or without a flimsy statement proclaiming I don't own anything.

If people started suing fanfic writers, I'd be screwed. Have to go into hiding, live in an underground bunker, typing at all hours of the day and night, high as a kite on energy drinks…

Not a pretty picture.

I just thought I'd say – I love each and every one of you who reads my stories :) You make my day, seriously. Every favourite, alert and review is so lovely to receive, so thank you! Mama loves you, my dears!

Just so you know, gay, straight, bi, transgender and absolutely everything else, there's one person who'd accept you for exactly who you are and that is me! Come over here and let me give you a virtual hug! The same applies to any other discriminated against group :)

Can you tell I'm in a good mood? XD

Ciao, my darlings!

Quick poll take for fun: Who do you like better out of these choices? E.g. pick your favourite of each, like Sasuke, Hinata, Sakura, etc. Explain why you like each one, if you want to :) P.S. If you're really torn cause you like both, you can cheat and say you like them equally XD

A) Sasuke or Naruto

B) Neji or Hinata

C) Sakura or Ino

D) Itachi or Deidara