Please reread the first chapter if you aren't new to this story. I changed a lot in it and it is in your best benefit. Enjoy!

I don't know why I jumped. I guess it was one of those things you never think about and just do, I knew I had a motive to doing it and somewhere deep inside me, something supported that but why did I jump? A headstrong woman like myself would never in a mind of clarity would take such a daring move and take my own life in any way. But why did I do it? That's the million dollar question that's swimming in my head. I've grown to appreciate the rooms I've slept in and the houses that welcomed me at one point despite they were the same homes to shunned me out when my time was overspent. I have always been grateful for my hard-knock life. I've come accustom to people's false hospitality and learned to never rely on phony hope, no matter who constantly assured me they will never abandon or hurt me. They always do.

They will always hurt my feelings and betray my trust, even when I forced myself to believe they didn't. They never fail to kill my lasting shred of hope I gave them from the moment they made me feel at home. From the moment she made me feel like one of them- wanted. That's all that I wanted to be when I was a little girl. I wanted to be loved in the way my mother loved me- is that too much to ask? I loved her and she loved me, I wanted someone to make me have that rejuvenating feeling, like the butterflies in my stomach has hatched and I can finally breathe, knowing I am safe and found a piece of mind and I can be who ever I wanted because I am finally accepted.

Maybe that's what I wanted to be- accepted. Yes...accepted.

=3=

"Been there, done that, messed around, I'm having fun don't put me down,

I'll never let you sweet me off my feet.

This time, baby, I'll be bullet proof."

Bullet Proof- La Roux

"Time to get up," He clapped twice. I didn't give him the satisfaction to even see me stir. "Sakura..." He said warningly when I began to loudly fake snore. I peeped an eye at him, biting back a delightful smirk at his visible irritation. He sighed and crossed his arms like he was going for the heavy artillery if I didn't comply with his demand.

"Since when was I in prison?" I groaned playfully. I buried my head deeper into my pillow, smelling the fresh Gain his mother used in their wash. Itachi allowed me stay in their home for about two now and already I've shamefully come accustom to mother-Uchiha's hospitality. She would bring me three meals a day with snacks in between, asked if my leg was alright and if I needed help moving or going to the bathroom, she even offered me their credit card to get new clothes (since I've still been wearing her pajamas from the first time Itachi brought me here). I tried not to get use to this welcome mat his mother has lain out for me, but I couldn't help but instead roll around in it.

"Since you've been given the title of my personal assistant." Itachi watched me carefully, I threw off the fluffy comforter his mother gave me and revealed the boot on my foot. It was the stupid looking ones that looked and felt like it will fuck you up if you were to happen to be attacked by one of them. I have to wear this for a month before I can be able to at the very least hope to walk around without a limp. Itachi tried to lift my spirits by getting the boot in pink, saying it matched my hair perfectly. 'Bad Joke' I bitterly thought. The doctor they had to examine my leg was an older gentlemen who's was from a region in Sand. I remembered his thick bifocal glasses were perched on his nose. A cold sheen of sweat dotted over his dark aging skin. He had a nice smile though and a very thick ancient Sand accent. It was pretty intrigueing if you asked me. I like when he talked, it took away from the pain when I almost punched him in his chest for twisting my left leg.

"Sweet Kami!" I bit my lip in sheer agony, slamming the fist that was urging to connect with the doctor's chest, onto the coffee table. "Um, Mutua-sensei. can you be more gentle?" I swiped at a tear threatening to fall.

"Oh, sorry. I was trying to get a better look." He apologized, giving me a toothy smile. 'You could've just ask, old man'. I thought.

Itachi sat through the whole ordeal, arms crossed, eyes analyzing everything. Nothing must never go pass him. I saw him give a look though, every time Mutua-sensei yanked my leg a certain way, he would look at me like I deserved it for something I've done in the past that karma has come back to exact revenge on. Mutua-sensei said my leg was nothing but something minor that I didn't catch quite well and Itachi understood but I have to continuously keep this boot on until my leg was fully healed. Oh joy.

I limped through their home like an idiot, Itachi watched me do this. He didn't show it but I knew he was very amused. I refused his help when I got up to do things and when I fell-well damnit-I fell with pride. I must have been causing quite a stir because one day a boy came up to Itachi to complain about me. Technically they didn't converse in front of me, but I did hear the conversation.

"Kaa-san says you and that girl is tearing up her house." The boy said with so much wrath and boldness, for a moment I felt guilty for tripping over this NASA boot all the time. I pressed my ear to the wall. I wasn't technacally eavesdropping, I was just laying my head next to the wall and that so happened to have them on the other side.

"No, she didn't, Sasuke." Itachi cooly replied as if he's use to the other boy's complaints. I heard the other boy say something else I didn't quite catch, he was angry though and it worried me. I hoped I wasn't such a pest or a bother to anyone that shared this house with Itachi. I felt like telling them this wasn't my intention in the first place to even be here, but I simply kept my peace.

"Get her out of here, she doesn't belong here," 'Well my feelings weren't hurt. What did I do to him to upset him so much?' I rolled my eyes.

"Have you even taken the time to meet Haruno-san?"Asked the elder Uchiha. A silence fell over the two and I stretchered my neck in attempt to heighten my senses to hear what they were saying, I felt the curiosity to listen to what Sasuke had to say about me.

"I don't have to and I don't want to. Get her out of here, now." Sasuke growled. I didn't know what type of man he was but already I held a strong dislike for him. If all Uchihas are like him, then I wonder how the head Uchiha's personality was like. Probably worst than Itachi and Sasuke combined.

"Why don't you step in and meet Haruno-san before judging her so fast. Okaa-san taught you better than that." Itachi quietly chided his younger brother (I assume). Sasuke declined his brother's offer. They talk even more quietly before I heard silence again. I'm already hated by someone who've I've never met before. Lovely.

That name Sasuke rang a bell though, like I've heard it before in the back of my mind but I didn't have the slightest idea who the hell he was. After that day, I started to see less and less of Itachi but his mother (I found out her name was Mikoto) dropped off my meals, medication, ice, and she even massaged my leg. That's how I've gotten to like her, she treated me like her own child and honestly I'm going to miss that when I have to leave.

Itachi was currently holding ice wrapped in a green bandana for my leg, allowing me to forget all about the conversation he had with his younger brother and now tending to annoy me for the rest of the day with more questions about the life and time of Sakura Haruno. He adjusted the ice over my leg and I collectively sighed, the pain was immediately melting away. I arched my back, letting my bones appreciatively stretch with an audible 'pop' and sat up in my seat. "Here," He handed me a rolled up news paper.

"What's this for?" I asked, unrolling the paper, I immediately noticed the green circles at the bottom fold of the paper and the red 'X's decorated around the green. I quickly scan the green circles, noticing addresses and I shot Itachi a disbelieving look. "Apartments?" I let the word roll off my tongue like a bad aftertaste. My chest tightened and I felt a cold chill slither down my spine as I knew what was happening; I overstayed my welcome and he was already giving me the boot, just in a nicer way.

"Close- pent houses. I cannot keep you crammed in my parent's home despite you have made my mother quite happy having to baby someone when my little brother isn't home." I still didn't believe his words but I swept my eyes over the paper again and noticed the addresses closely this time. "If I keep you here any longer, I may have to marry you." He smirked with a lecherous look in his eye that made my cheeks burn.

I coughed uneasily as I tuned my eyes back to the paper in an attempt to rid my mind of that look he gave me. "These are all in Konoha..." That much was obvious. I continued down the paper, they all were practically close to each other- walking distances at that. "In the 4th district..." I felt another wave of doubt and shock wash over me. The 4th district is named after our fourth Hokage, all the legendary Hokages has a district named after him/her and the older, the more expensive and classy the districts get. Frankly, District 1 and 2 were industrialized old homes that ranged back to times when Konoha was still a developing country and 3 is modern style royal and 4 is for people who's name are a household name, who did he think he was that he can snap his fingers and get me a Pent House in the celebrity district? "Itachi, what the hell is this?!" I finally snapped in disbelief after reading the last address, that one was in Leaf Square. He only smirked as if my confusion amused him, I had the right mind to glock him with my boot but I stopped my urge. These places were highly exclusive.

"Sakura, I am hurt." He said in a monotonous voice, yanking on his coat, he tossed a black peacoat over my way. "You seriously don't know who the Uchihas are?"

=3=

I thought Itachi was joking- a prankster. I didn't believe him for one second when he said we were pent-house hunting but we saw so many pent houses. Big ones, small ones, ones with multiple rooms, ones with only one room. None of them caught my attention, however and Itachi was running low on places to show me and even drove to the 3rd district and could not convince me to rent a Queen Victorian Castle style home next to some equally ancient move star. So now we were currently in the fourth district walking up the steps of a black tinted building. I knew this penthouse from one of the celebrity gossip magazines my friend, Ino, use to read.

Ino

She was a former classmate of mine. I actually moved in with her shortly after my mother's passing and I lived with her family briefly before the state came to put me in the system. I didn't see her anymore after that but I remembered how she was a confident, very modern and trendy girl that was born into wealth. We were enemies at first- I forgot why, actually, but we ended up becoming friends when we realized it was silly pettiness. I never told her my situation or what was going on at home, and I never had the chance to since Ino happily talked about herself most of the time. I was honestly grateful for her selfishness in that sense, but after that day when I showed up on her doorstep. She became more intertwined in my life than ever before-

"Do you want to see other places?" Itachi asked, effectively pulling me out of my musings. We were just getting off the elevator that directly went to the main floor of the pent with an agent jabbering on about all the celebrities that may-or-may not inhabit one of the many floors beneath us.

"What?" I tried to play it off by pretending I was listening to the agent's nonsensical gossip, but I could tell Itachi was not fooled as easily.

"I asked would you like to see other places?" He repeated slowly this time. I glanced around the large pent and quickly was drawn in.

It had no walls in front of us, instead, a giant sheet of glass separating us from the outside world. I hobbled closer to glance out the window and could see the expanse of Konoha beyond the room. I looked down at the clean sidewalks, expensive vehicles, and gorgeous people moving about normally, I looked farther ahead and saw rooftops of residential homes and apartments. I was shocked to even see the rougher parts of Konoha in the distance. I would assume if you were selling a view like this, they would make like any painter and blot out all the bad notches to strategically paint the facade of a perfect village, but instead, it relieved me to see that part visible and naked. It was like looking at a part of my life, to know someone before me witnessed this view and probably saw me without even knowing. To see we exist and are not entirely a forgotten part of this village.

At that point, I didn't care what the rest of the pent house looked like. I wanted this one. I turned to Itachi and smiled knowingly. No other place would sway me with their fancy décor or historical significance. I was sold.

Itachi turned to the lady who was smiling so hard, I thought her cheek bones would rip from her skin any second. They begin to talk while I stared out the window. I heard the rustling of papers and quiet negotiations and soon I knew it was time to leave when Itachi laid on a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you happy with your new home?" He said to me and I turned and to give him a confused look.

"My home?" I squawked like some sort of bird. I swallowed the word and allowed the foreign taste to linger on my tongue. I made a face, the word made my stomach twist and my heart race uncomfortably. "I don't believe you."

Itachi turned from me and started walking towards the elevator. "Don't. Just know I'll have my mother help you get situated and you two can go shopping tomorrow for your wardrobe and some more furniture. I won't be around to-"

"Why are you helping me?" I suddenly asked. I desperately wanted an answer from him. I must have sounded that way too because he stopped mid walk but didn't turn to address me, leading me to wonder what his expression held.

"Because...You're my assistant." He answered as if it wasn't already obvious.

"Cut the crap, what's your real motive? We haven't known even known each other a few weeks and you're already leasing a penthouse. For me?" I couldn't wrap my head around the concept. No matter how much I looked for his hidden motive, I couldn't find a plausible one to use against him.

I pressed on. "How do you know I'm not some psycho? Or a junkie?-"

"Are you?"

"-or a mass murderer? How do you know I won't kill you right where you stand?!"

That seemed to get him. He turned around and walked back towards me, a cold look in his eye. He towered over me and looked me dead-straight in my eyes and whispered.

"Would you?" A smirked broke across his lips after a moment as he left me breathless and leaning against the glass for support. He turned away from me again and walked towards the elevator as he pressed the button to go down. Just as the elevator dinged and he was intended to step in. I had one more thing to say.

"Who are you, Itachi Uchiha?"

I didn't receive anything but a quiet chuckle as he stepped into the cart and turned around.

"You'll find out soon enough. Rest easy, Sakura. You're in good hands now."

~O~

Sorry for such a long update! Life is crazy any for those who follow and fav my other story, The 30 Year Old Virgin, please hang on, so much as happen to delay the chapter.

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