For the next few days, Sakura was bored out of her mind. Itachi and Kisame would spar often, which Sakura enjoyed watching, but other than that there was nothing to do. The Akatsuki base was incredibly boring.

Well, not everything was boring. Itachi was acting strange around Sakura. After he had touched her that night, it was like a barrier between them had been removed. He would touch her every so often, and though these feather light touches were never as intimate as that initial caress, they still made Sakura's stomach flutter with a feeling she didn't quite understand.

But more intense that that was the way he would stare at her. She had only caught these looks a few times, but when she did he wouldn't look away. Instead, he would gaze into her eyes, his sharingan strikingly beautiful. She felt like he was trying to tell her something, but she just couldn't figure out what it was.

To distract herself, Sakura taught Tsuki a children's card game that she and Naruto liked to play. It was called Manko, and it was literally the simplest game in the world. One player puts down a card, and the other player tries to flip it over with the wind from putting their card down. If the card doesn't flip, the first player takes the cards, and if it does, the second player takes the cards. Whoever ends up with all of the cards wins.

The game was childish, and a little boring to Sakura, but Tsuki, who had never played games before, was having a lot of fun. The young girl was definitely an Uchiha - good at everything she tried to do. She had beat Sakura every time they played.

It was right after one of these many victories that things ceased to be boring.

Itachi came in the room as Tsuki was celebrating her victory. The little girl looked at her father and frowned at the way he was looking at her. She had learned to read his intense gazes, and she knew all to well what they meant.

"You have a mission?" she asked. The older Uchiha nodded and she frowned more. "How long this time?"

"A few weeks," her father answered.

She sighed, turning to Sakura. "Are you going too?"

Sakura felt a little left out of the conversation. She hadn't known that he would be assigned to missions. She thought his only mission was to find and capture Naruto. She hoped to the gods that she would not be accompanying the Akatsuki nin.

"Yes," Itachi answered. Sakura's stomach tied into a knot.

Tsuki sighed once more. She gave her father a tight hug and then left the room.

Sakura waited until the girl was gone before she spoke. "I can't go with you," she said, "I just can't, I can't watch what horrible things you Akatsuki assholes do."

Itachi's eyes narrowed. "You have no choice. Leader wishes to speak with you. Come," and with that he turned on his heal and left the room, Sakura running to catch up with him.

"You are to remain in Itachi's supervision throughout the duration of this mission. If you cause any trouble, you will be punished severely," he narrowed his gaze, staring at her to make a promise behind his next threat, "I should warn you that Akatsuki is well versed in torture methods. Especially Itachi. There are worse things than death, kunoichi."

There was something about the Akatsuki leader that scared the shit out of Sakura, and she only nodded, trying to look as innocent as possible.

Leader turned his attention to Itachi and Kisame. "You will leave tonight. It should take around a month to monitor all of the transactions."

The two S class criminals nodded at Leader, and Sakura realized they were dismissed. Itachi placed his hand on the small of Sakura's back and led her out of the room and back to his. The contact, after Leader had threatened her so blatantly, finally drove Sakura over the edge.

As soon as they were in the security of Itachi's room, she pushed his hand away and glared at him. He stared back at her, a little confused, although she couldn't tell.

"Look, Uchiha, I don't know what kind of game your playing with me, but I'm sick of it! I can't deal with..." she couldn't find a word for it, "whatever this is, and keep my cover of 'scared hostage'. And I'm not really a hostage, we're a team on a mission, so you shouldn't be fooling around with me. Just stop..."

Sakura was cut off when Itachi placed his hands on her waist.

"...this," she finished, quieter than her initial rant.

"I don't play games, kunoichi," Itachi said quietly. He ran his hands up and down her sides. She brought her hands to his chest, but couldn't bring herself to push.

"Then what are you doing?" she questioned.

Itachi's hands stopped at her hips and he looked straight into her eyes. Sakura audibly gasped to see that his eyes were not the breathtaking red of the sharingan. They were a beautiful charcoal color, and the young kunoichi found herself lost in them. Itachi sighed and, to Sakura's surprise, shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Sakura glared at him and pushed his hands away. "Well you need to figure it out and do something about it," she turned and walked into the bathroom. She needed to cool off, and that was the only place she could find some privacy.

She slammed the door, turned away from it and sunk to the floor to have a tiny mental breakdown. Itachi was getting inside her head. She was upset about that little interaction, but all she could think about was how strangely pleasant that feeling was.

A wave of emotion washed over her, drowning her under the pressure of conflicting thought and ideas. She sure as hell didn't love the bastard, but she no longer hated him. She had to admit that she adore Tsuki, but that couldn't possibly cause her to feel such a strong pull to the feel of his fingers.

She shuddered. She had never been touched like that before, so she didn't know how she would have reacted if anyone other than the intimidating Akatsuki had done it. Sure, she had made out with Naruto before, but she was beyond drunk, and his hands never left her shoulders.

She stood up and looked in the mirror. She was still as red as a tomato. She turned on the faucet, and washed her face, wishing that it would clean away the red. But it didn't. She sat back down on the floor, and went over the incident in her head, again and again. Every time she played it over, she felt less and less against the though of his hands on her.

Before she realized it, she had spent half an hour in the bathroom. And in that time, she had become an infatuated teenager all over again. Only this time, it was a much more attractive Uchiha.

Itachi was concerned. Well, for him. She had been in the bathroom for a while, and it didn't look like she would be coming out any time soon.

He had meant what he said earlier. He wasn't sure what he felt about Sakura, or why he was initiating such contact. He had assumed earlier that it was because of Tsuki, but could no longer rationalize that. All he was certain of was that he would really like to touch her again.

He knew Kisame would be expecting to leave soon, so he gathered his things, distracting himself from musing on about Sakura. When he was done, he decided to gather Sakura's things as well. He had learned a little about her personality, and had discovered that she was a complete neat freak. She folded her clothes immediately after removing them, separated them into piles of 'clean' and 'dirty', and never left any of her things in the bathroom. Itachi suddenly wondered what she was doing in there, without her toiletries, for so long. Surely, she couldn't be sitting in there doing nothing. (And technically, she wasn't. She was in there freaking out.)

The Uchiha couldn't tell which of her piles was which, so he placed both piles into her pack, followed by her medical journals, which were stacked neatly on the desk she had claimed as her own. He wasn't sure if she would want the Manko deck, so he threw it in there, just in case.

He was about to knock on the bathroom door when Sakura decided to come out, looking a little embarrassed.

Itachi handed the pack to her. She took it without a word.

"I apologize," the mass-murderer said, impulsively and without much thought.

Sakura met his eyes. To his surprise, she didn't look mad. She walked toward him, and took his hand, giving it a squeeze. "Just not in public, okay?" she compromised.

He took a moment to collect his thoughts. What? Hadn't she just exploded on him a half hour ago? What was she doing in that bathroom? But he disregarded his negative thoughts, closing his fingers around her, and nodding in agreement. The young woman smiled at him, and he surprised her by smiling back.

Sakura took that moment to scrutinize him openly. She realized that she'd never really looked at him. Of course she had seen him, and she knew that he was attractive, but she had never taken a moment to really study his handsome features. His face was pale, and thin, but in no means pathetic. He looked much like his younger brother, but somehow more masculine. His eyes were almost always clad in the red of the sharingan, and she realized that she liked them better when they plain and beautiful. And then there was his smile. So rare, and so beautiful. It completed his face, she thought, and she suddenly decided to be the cause of it more often.

The moment was ruined by a harsh, loud pounding on the door. He dropped her hand, and opened it, gesturing for her to follow.

"Let's get this show on the road," Kisame said, his voice carrying a sort of humor only he could manage. Sakura smiled at the shark man. She had really begun to like him. The smile faded. That was not a good thing.

If Kisame noticed, he didn't let on to it. The three ninja headed for what Sakura guessed was the main entrance.

"Wait!" a little voice called from behind.

Itachi turned, recognizing his daughters voice, and she practically jumped into his arms.

"Come back," she said. It wasn't a plea, Sakura noticed. It was just their usual parting words.

"I will," the older Uchiha promised. He set her down, and the little girl turned to Sakura, hugging the woman's legs. She turned to Kisame, and - much to Sakura's amusement - fist-bumped him. Then she waved, one last time, and returned to her room without another word.

Sakura wanted to follow her. To stay with the little girl and wait for Itachi to come back. But she couldn't.

The three shinobi set off again, without further interruption.