Sakura awoke. She was still on the bed, but she was now on new clean linens. She wondered how Itachi had maneuvered that without waking her, but then remembered who he was, and thought nothing of it.

She sat up and looked around. A few hours had passed, and it was now midday. She shifted her gaze from the window to the chair, and smiled at what she saw.

Itachi sat there reading, with a sleeping Tsuki cradled up against him. She wondered what it would be like to have a little girl who loved you unconditionally. A girl to cuddle up with at night. She had never wanted kids before, but the sight of the mass murderer and his daughter changed her mind.

Suddenly, she thought of what it would be like to be wrapped up in Uchiha Itachi's arms.

She shook her head. She couldn't be thinking about him that way. This mission was already complicated enough.

"There's food on the desk," Itachi informed her. Sakura smiled and got out of the bed.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked, walking to the desk.

"Five hours," Itachi answered.

She sighed. "Great impression I'm making," she said sarcastically, before sitting to eat. He had gotten her a salad, to her dismay, but at least there was some toast. She took a bite of the bread and looked over at Itachi. "Are you reading my medic journal?" she asked, noticing the all to familiar notebook.

Itachi nodded. "It's interesting. You are very intelligent."

Sakura was shocked. Uchiha Itachi had just complimented her. "Thanks," she replied. She wolfed down the rest of her salad, and stood up. She looked at Tsuki. "Isn't it a bit early for her to be asleep?"

"Yes," Itachi agreed, "but she's had a rough morning."

Sakura frowned, "What happened?" Itachi looked at her. "Oh, right."

He returned to the journal. "She's not really asleep, though."

Sakura laughed when Tsuki opened her eyes to glare at him. "You never fall for it!" she pouted, then turning to Sakura, "Did you believe it?"

Sakura smiled at her. "You had me fooled," she admitted.

Tsuki beamed at her. The little girl jumped out of her fathers arms and ran to Sakura, hugging her legs. Sakura was taken aback, but put a hand on the child's back.

"Thank's for healing Father," the tiny Uchiha said, "It's nice to have a medic around!"

Sakura smiled. "Well I'm glad that I could help."

The moment was ruined my a harsh knock at the door.

"Itachi!" Kisame called from behind the door, "Deidara and I are going to train."

Tsuki gasped in excitement, and ran to open the door. Kisame walked in and looked at the older Uchiha. "You in?"

Itachi looked at Sakura. "Stay here," he ordered.

"What?" the kunoichi questioned incredulously, "No! I wanna see! I'm prisoner here, I may as well watch other people have fun."

"Yeah!" Tsuki said, mimicing Sakura's angry tone, "Let her come with us, Father!"

Itachi glared at the little girl, but she stood proudly, glaring right back. Sakura almost laughed. Itachi looked at Kisame.

The shark-nin shrugged. " I don't mind. Hell, it might even be fun to spar with her. See what she can do."

Itachi glared at him for a moment before giving up. "Fine," he said, defeated, "she may accompany us."

Sakura smirked at his loss in this little battle. Tsuki absolutely beamed.

"Let's go then," Kisame responded, "Samehada's getting bored." He left, Tsuki following after him. Sakura went to leave, but was stopped by Itachi.

He grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. She stared into his red eyes, a little afraid. "If you cause any trouble," Itachi warned, "Kisame will drain all of your chakra, and it will stay depleted."

Sakura was a little shocked. "What's your problem with me?" she accused.

Those red eyes narrowed a fraction. "I have no problem," and with that, he let her go and walked out of the room. Sakura caught her breath, then ran to catch up to him.

Sakura laughed out loud when she saw the blond Akatsuki land flat on his ass. It reminded her of her times with Naruto, only Deidara had long hair, and she wasn't as subtle as Itachi.

Deidara stood immediately, red in the face from anger and strain.

"I win," Itachi stated.

Sakura saw Deidara's face twitch. "I noticed, yeah" he retorted. He stormed off and, much to the kunoichi's surprise, sat down by Sakura. He looked at her, obviously thinking hard.

"You killed Sasori," he said plainly.

Sakura glared at him, "You kidnapped Gaara, helped suck a demon out of him, killing him in the process, then used his corpse as a fucking couch," she countered.

Deidara nodded, "Fair enough." They both stared off at Itachi and Tsuki. The two Uchiha's were about to spar using only taijutsu. Sakura was more than excited to see it. She wanted to see just how much the little Uchiha had learned.

"I call truce," Deidara interupted her thoughts, "The Kazekage's not dead, and Sasori died an artistic death. All's well that ends well," He looked at her. "I'm Deidara."

"I know," Sakura replied, not ready to accept his truce yet.

Deidara frowned at her. "And your name is...?"

Sakura glanced at him, annoyed. "Sakura," she finally said, holding out her hand.

"I don't shake hands," he refused.

The kunoichi glared at him. "You're the one who called for a truce, and you won't even shake my hand?"

Deidara glared back, "In case you didn't realize, it's a little awkward for me." He held up his palm, and the mouth stuck it's tongue out.

"Oh," Sakura remembered, "Right. Mouths on the hands." Inner Sakura was having a field day, but Sakura kept her composure.

Tsuki and Itachi had begun. Sakura was surprised to see the little girl putting up a fight. Every strike was parried, and she actually managed to get a hit or two in. Itachi was obviously going easy on her, but Sakura knew that even on easy, Itachi was a difficult opponent.

Itachi picked up the speed of his blows, and Tsuki attempted to match it. However, Itachi ultimately got the upper hand at one point, and was pushing Tsuki backwards with his attacks. She blocked most of them, and dodged the rest, until finally Itachi managed to land a blow under her chin, knocking her up in the air. She flipped herself around in mid-air (Sakura's jaw dropped at the sight of such a skilled move from a six year old) and landed roughly, scraping her knees and palms. She tried to recover as quickly as possible, but Itachi was faster and he kicked her back in the stomach as soon as she stood up, sending her flying back.

Sakura's instincts kicked in then. She ran to Tsuki, catching her to soften her fall, then set her down and immediately ran her chakra through the girl to check her for injuries. She was pleased to notice that her chakra levels had been nearly completely restored.

Tsuki was a little taken aback by Sakura's actions, but realized quickly that she liked the feeling of... whatever it was.

Sakura smiled at the little girl. "You got yourself a tough set of ribs. Not one broken bone!"

"You think I would hit my child hard enough to break something?" Itachi asked from behind her. He was offended, Sakura could tell.

"You were sparring with her, not abusing her. Broken ribs are just a shinobi thing," she clarified, "Naruto and I break stuff all the time."

She frowned suddenly, remembering her friend. How was he? Was he worried about her? Had he tried to leave the village in search of her?

Tsuki noticed the kunoichi's expression change, and tried to change the subject. "Can you show me how to heal these?" she asked, refering to the scrapes on her knees and palms.

Sakura smiled, genuine and bright. "Sure," she agreed, "First, it needs to be cleaned. Let's go back to Itachi's room." Sakura stood, Tsuki following suit, and they walked together to Itachi's room. Halfway to the door to the inside of the building, Tsuki took hold of Sakura's hand. the pink-haired girl hadn't really had contact like that with someone so young before, but she quickly decided that it felt nice, and held the little girls hand.

Itachi watched them go, but did not follow. He could sense Deidara coming up to attack him. Obviously, the blond wanted a rematch.

Sakura went to the bathroom to get a towel, and wet it down. She returned to the room and instructed Tsuki to sit on the bed.

"Let me see your hands," she said, "First I'm going to show you how, then you'll heal your knees."

"Really?" Tsuki asked eagerly, "I'll be able to learn that fast?"

Sakura smiled at the little girl. "It took me a try or two, but considering your skill and your young age, you should be able to pick it up much faster."

Tsuki beamed up at her. "Okay! Okay! Show me how!"

Sakura laughed, and quickly got to work. She cleaned the wounds, then placed her hand on Tsuki's right palm. She explained as she went, letting the little girl know what she was doing and how it was done. First she flooded her chakra through the injury, assessing all of the damage. Next, she concentrated the chakra through the broken blood vessels, repairing damaged capillaries. Finally, she ran her chakra through the little girls skin, speeding up the process of regrowing skin cells.

"And that's all there is too it," Sakura said triumphantly.

"Okay, I got it!" Tsuki said, looking at her other hand.

"You think you can do it?" Sakura asked skeptically.

Tsuki nodded, and closed her eyes in concentration. Sakura observed at the little girl's hand glowed a faint green, and began to heal itself. The kunoichi smiled. Maybe she should be a teacher, and a medic!

Tsuki opened her eyes, delighted with the result of her healed palm, then closed her eyes again to concentrate on her knees. When all the wounds were healed, Tsuki beamed at the medic.

"I did it!" she said sleepily. She had drained almost all of the chakra that she hadn't used to battle with Itachi.

Sakura grinned at the little girl. "You sure did!" she complimented. The tiny Uchiha smiled again, then backed up to lay down on the bed. She was asleep almost instantly.

Sakura slowly crawled off of the bed, and went to the desk. She had to write Tsunade about what had happened. She had just witnessed the fighting styles of three Akatsuki, and had to report it. But mostly, Sakura wanted to write to her shishou about the little girl. She had grown fond of her, especially with todays event. She missed Tsunade dearly, and wished she could talk to her in person. But for now, this would have to do.

Before she sent the message, she finally noticed that Itachi was in the room. She turned around and stood up. She smiled at him, "You should have seen it. She healed herself almost perfectly! She's got perfect chakra control. If she were in a village, she would be first in line to be trained as a medic."

Sakura looked over at the sleeping girl fondly, and missed the look in Itachi's eyes. He approached her, and she looked at him, worried for a second that she may have said or done something wrong. But he wasn't mad. He reached out and touched her cheek softly, and Sakura blushed fiercely from his touch.

"Thank you," he whispered. She didn't respond. She was too busy holding her breath.

Itachi lowered his hand and turned away from her. He took off his shirt and climbed into the bed with Tsuki.

Sakura took a moment to compose herself, then went to the bathroom. She had a tiny mental breakdown.

"Gods," she whispered to herself. This couldn't be happening. Itachi was... well, Itachi. She couldn't let herself like him, even a little. And she most certainly couldn't go there with him.

She ran cold water over her face to calm herself down, then slowly walked out of the bathroom. Itachi was awake on the bed, and he looked at her when she stepped out. She tried to avoid his stare, but failed and made direct eye contact with him. They gazed into each others eyes for a few moments, before Sakura turned away, blushing, and laid down on her cot.

Several hours passed before either of them slept.