Sakura was awaken the next morning by Itachi.

"Do you have enough chakra to heal yourself?" he asked.

"Good morning to you too," she retorted. She tested her chakra levels, and frowned when she realized that they weren't full. "Damn," she muttered.

"What?"

"I didn't eat yesterday," she answered, "I have just enough chakra to heal my ribs and my ankle."

Itachi stood and walked towards the door. "Stay here and heal yourself as much as you can, I'll be back with food."

She nodded, and began to do just that.

"Kunoichi," he interrupted her thoughts, "you should probably clean up as well."

She blushed a little, "Shut up," she muttered. He smirked and left.

She quickly got to work healing herself. She took care of the ribs first, then worked on her ankle. It only took her about ten minutes, but it drained her a lot. She didn't feel like getting up and washing, but she knew she had to.

The bathroom was small, and Sakura noticed that there were no luxuries. Not even a bath tub. She sighed, realizing she would have to stand in the shower. She undressed, stepped in and turned on the water, shivering as the cold liquid poured over her naked skin. She stood there washing for another ten minutes, thinking about what she had gotten herself into.

She was surely not welcome here. She had killed one of them. Her hand lingered on a scar just above her navel. Sasori had almost killed her as well. If Chiyo-san had not been there, she would not be in this situation.

She shook her head, willing herself not to think about it. She stepped out of the shower and dressed, then left the bathroom to wait for Itachi.

While she was waiting, she heard a knock at the door. "Sakura-chan?" she heard a little girl call.

"Come in," Sakura welcomed, wondering if she had that right.

Tsuki entered, smiling at the kunoichi. "Good morning!" she greeted, running to Sakura's side. "Father has requested I keep you company until he returns with food."

Sakura smiled. "Where's he getting the food?" she asked, trying to make conversation with the girl.

"The kitchen," Tsuki answered.

Sakura frowned, "Does it usually take this long?"

"No."

Sakura waited. "What's keeping him?" she pressed, when she realized she wasn't going to get an answer.

"He's talking with Madara." Sakura didn't miss the disgust in her innocent little voice.

"What about?" Sakura asked.

Tsuki shrugged. "Probably you."

Sakura looked astonished. "Why?"

"Madara wants my father to have a little boy. Maybe he wants you to be the mom?" she mused.

Sakura blushed. She prayed to all the gods that the conversation taking place between the Uchiha's was not about her.

But it was. Itachi and Madara stood on the roof, arguing in whispered voices.

"She is a hostage, not a whore," Itachi explained.

"There can be little to no difference between the two," Madara jested, "You don't mean to tell me you haven't had one thought about her in that way?"

"I have not."

"Hmm," Madara tilted his head to the side, "Interesting. That can mean one of two things. Either you've got the willpower of a monk, or you actually care for your former comrade!"

Itachi glared. "No, I simply refuse to drop to that level. I will not take advantage of a vulnerable girl who is already in a stressful situation."

Madara sighed. "What a shame."

Suddenly, Itachi doubled over in pain. He coughed up a little blood. When he regained his composure, he glared at Madara, who was nonchalantly spinning a bloody kunai on his finger.

"You should know by now that disloyalty will not be tolerated. You have one year to conceive a son. I don't care if it's with her or anyone else, but it must happen," the older Uchiha grinned sadistically, "Or your precious daughter will pay for it."

Itachi didn't respond.

"Itachi, Itachi," Madara clicked his tongue, "I'm only trying to help you. We need to rebuild our clan!"

"Our clan that you destroyed," Itachi retorted.

"We, Itachi. We destroyed out clan. In order to create a more obedient and loyal clan. We could not simply take over the clan, and hope that they complied. We had to start fresh."

Itachi continued to glare.

Madara smirked at him. "One year," he reminded, "My patience with the body is running thin."

Madara walked past him, leaving Itachi alone on the roof.

"So how old are you, Tsuki?" Sakura asked.

"Six," the little girl answered.

Sakura had been asking the little girl questions since she realized she wasn't going to get much out of her about Madara.

"Does your Dad train with you?"

"Yes."

"Do you like training?"

"Yes."

"Do the other members of Akatsuki train with you?"

"Kisame and Deidara do."

"Do you have a favorite Akatsuki member?"

"Yes."

Sakura almost laughed. Tsuki was exactly like her father, despite the obvious happiness. If you asked her a question, she would tell you the answer. No details, no fluff. Just what you needed to know.

"And who would that be?" the kunoichi pressed.

But she never got an answer, because at that moment Itachi came into the room.

Tsuki jumped off of the bed where she was sitting with Sakura, and went to greet her father. She suddenly stopped, and Sakura couldn't tell if it was because of the furious look on his face, or the blood that began to pool around him. Probably the latter.

"To your room," Itachi ordered her, and she left quickly and without a word. Itachi walked to the bed - where Sakura sat, to shocked to move - and sat down facing away from the kunoichi.

"What happened?" Sakura asked after a few minutes. He didn't answer

Sakura got off of the bed and walked to the bathroom. She came out with a damp towel and walked over to Itachi. "Lie down," She ordered, and to her surprise, he did. She opened his cloak, and went to pull up his shirt before he grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I'm healing you to the best of my abilities without chakra," Sakura explained, "but if you want to bleed to death, be my guest."

She tried to pull free of his grasp, but he only tighten his hold. She glared at him before going at it with the other hand, but he grabbed that one too.

"Dammit, Itachi!"

Suddenly, she used a little bit of the chakra she had to break free of his grasp, and grab his wrists. She pinned the to his side, and straddled the Uchiha so that he couldn't move them. She noticed the hitch in his breathing, but she was in medic mode, and couldn't care less if she was making him uncomfortable.

"Now let me see," she ordered, finally lifting his bloody black shirt. She gasped. What she saw was not one, but twelve wounds that she saw were from stabs from a kunai. "Who did this?" she asked.

"Madara..."

She nodded. "I have to heal it, or you're going to bleed out," She shrugged off his cloak, then grabbed a kunai from his leg strap, "Hope this isn't your favorite shirt," she thought aloud, before cutting the fabric and shrugging it off as well.

Somehow, it never crossed her mind that she was now straddling a half naked, very attractive Uchiha Itachi.

She grabbed the wet towel and cleaned the wounds. Then she placed her hands on his abdomen, allowing her chakra to flood from her hands to his stomach.

"What are you doing?" Itachi questioned, "You don't have enough chakra. You're going to pass out."

"I don't give a shit, Uchiha," Sakura asserted, "I'm not gonna let you die."

"Why not?" Itachi pressed.

Sakura thought for a moment. "Because if you die, there's nothing to stop them from killing me."

"You hesitated."

"Because I don't want you to die, dammit!" Sakura snapped, "It doesn't matter why, all that matters is that I'm not gonna let it happen, now shut up!" Sakura closed her eyes, attempting to concentrate. She knew that what Itachi said was true. She didn't have enough chakra, and she would pass out. She could already feel the last reserves of her chakra running out.

Itachi pulled his hands from under her knees, and she cursed inwardly. He was going to stop her.

But he didn't. Instead, he put his hands on hers, and allowed his own chakra to leak into her hands. Sakura realized what he was doing, and quickly began to channel his chakra into her own.

With his help, she was able to completely heal him, and remain conscious. She got off of him, and stood beside the bed. "Go shower," she ordered, "Careful not to strain your abdominals. They're probably sore-"

Itachi grabbed her arm and spun her to look at him. Sakura hadn't noticed him stand up, but there he was, shirtless, standing over her like a lion over its prey, staring at her with dark crimson eyes. "I don't care that you and I are loyal to the same village, we are not comrades."

Sakura glared at him, and yanked her arm away from him. "Think what you will, Itachi. In some weird, unexpected way, we kinda are comrades. I wouldn't stick my neck out for you, but if I can do something after the fact, I will, and I'll be damned before I let another leaf shinobi die on my watch. Especially a father."

Itachi stared at her for a few more seconds before leaving to the bathroom. Sakura didn't realize that she was holding her breath until he was gone. She looked around the room. There was a trail of blood on the floor leading from the door to the bed, and the bed was stained as well. She wondered if the mattress was covered in blood stains, but didn't venture to find out.

Instead, she grabbed the wet towel and cleaned up as much of the blood as she could. She got all of it off of the floor, and quite a bit of it out of the bed, but then she found herself battling her eyelids.

The healing had taken a toll on Sakura. She was already tired from healing her own wounds, and before Itachi lent her a hand, she had depleted even more chakra. She walked over to the other side of the bed - the side without a puddle of blood - and laid down.

Just a quick nap, she thought, and then fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

Itachi stepped out of the bathroom - still shirtless, but clean - and saw the sleeping kunoichi. He stared at her, amazed by the innocence hidden behind her rough attitude.

The deadly assassin gently touched her cheek. Once again, he had put himself out of his comfort zone. He pulled back his hand, and she murmured something unintelligibly in her sleep.

Itachi didn't understand his behavior around her. Why had he allowed her to position herself so rudely on top of him? Why hadn't he just let the girl wear herself out and pass out? Why did he use his own chakra to help her?

Itachi came to the conclusion that it was his fatherly instincts. Tsuki liked her, so he wanted to make sure she didn't overexert and injure herself. That's right, it was all because of Tsuki.

Yes, it's all Tsuki's doing, he thought, remembering what Sakura had said.

'I'll be damned before I let another leaf shinobi die on my watch. Especially a father.'

He shook his head, attempting to clear his mind of such hypnotisms, and walked to the door.

The Uchiha looked back at the pink haired kunoichi once more, before leaving to comfort Tsuki, whom he assumed was beside herself with anxiety.