She had fallen like a kid who craved candy.

It was so easy for him to make her melt under his touch; she felt embarrassed for being such an easy target.

But how was she going to fight him at the level she was? he had taken her virginity, so he was the first man in her life. It wasn't something that could be shaken off with ease.

And it wasn't just the crazy nights in which their bodies intertwined, it wasn't the hungry kisses being placed in the perfect places; it was the guilt that attacked her after those dream-like nights. It was the painful stab of betrayal that made her chest so heavy, and her thoughts so foggy.

It was Naruto's face that appeared in between those moments of self-pity.

And she regretted having accepted this mission.

There was something that was in her favor at least. She had finally managed to withdraw the purpose of Akatsuki from Itachi's own lips. All she needed now were the details and her mission would be complete.

But there was something else she had yet to plan. Her escape. She was sure as hell that Itachi wouldn't be too happy at the realization that she was a spy, and he would never let her go without a fight.

Sakura knew that she had grown very strong and that if any of her teammates saw her now they would not recognize her.

But never in a million years would she be able to endure a real fight with the Uchiha Itachi.

She knew that the end was very close. Once she had pieced together the tiny bits of information that she had yet to acquire, her time here would be up.

The thought of leaving Itachi put extra weight on her chest, one that she constantly moved to the back of her head and kept there, in the solitude of unconsciousness, hidden from her thoughts during day, plaguing her nightmares at night.

She knew it wouldn't be easy.

She had found herself attached to him in a whole new level.

She was addicted to him.

Damn! how life complicates everything!, she should have infiltrated, being placed in a team with the leader and collect all the necessary information, and then simply escape without anyone true to the realization of who she actually was.

But destiny had a very twisted sense of humor, and chose her life, her now very messed up life to toy with.

Uchiha Itachi...who would've thought…!

…She was terribly in lust with Uchiha Itachi...

She couldn't take his voice out of her mind, his lips out of her senses, his touches from her body...

"...Ninjutsu, you should know how important it is to possess at least a few powerful ones..." Itachi had been talking for a while now and she hadn't been listening. The truth was that she didn't care what he had to say; she only wanted to feel him...

"...Mia?", he asked.

"S-sorry...", she said ashamed.

'Focus on what he's talking about dammit, not on him!'

"Show me", he said plainly.

'Ninjutsu eh?'

"Ok", she said and started to recall the big amount of ninjutsu she had stolen from Orochimaru. Aside from those, she only possessed medical Justus, some of which were useful in battle, but the rest should be used only for regenerative processes and healing.

She smirked.

'I'll show you, Itachi...'

"Doton, densetsu no hebi no jutsu!"

Two big lessons she had taken out of this spar session:

One, she was way too slow with hand seals and two,

There was no way in the world to beat Itachi at ninjutsu.

Sakura was exhausted to death. She had lost so much chakra and now she didn't have enough to heal any of her scratches. She was bleeding on her right side, one rib had been broken but she had effectively healed it, there was one big cut on her right leg and her knee was currently a mess of dirt, blood and bones.

The thing that worried her the most at the moment was the deep wound on her side, for it was letting a lot of blood go to waste, and she couldn't fix it in her current state.

She might say that Itachi had overdone it a little bit.

She glared at him but he seemed unaffected.

"Itachi, I can't move", she said, venom dripping from her tongue, reprimanding him as if she were his mother.

He stood there, looking at her damaged form as if studying the wounds and the possibility to heal them.

Or maybe he was just choosing between letting her thrown there and run or actually help her.

He got closer and bent down to her level. There he took a closer look at her bleeding side and realized she might actually die of blood loss if the wound wasn't healed.

He tried something he hadn't done in years.

Heal someone.

Itachi placed one hand at her side, looking intently at what he was doing, absolutely in control of his chakra.

His chakra entered her and she bit down her lower lip to endure the pain.

He found the rupture and tried to regenerate the cells around the cut from the inside out, that way, it would stop bleeding and would give her time to recover and heal it herself, and it wouldn't get infected in the meantime.

This was actually a difficult task for him, because he never dedicated time to learn medical jutsu, he only possessed the basic knowledge of chakra usage and cell composition. But in this situation it was enough.

She sighed when he finished, and when she looked down at his work she actually smiled for it was a very well done healing work.

"Thanks", she muttered very low and quick.

Then she stood up and felt like fainting, so Itachi helped her walk until they reached the inn.

"I think you overdid it, Itachi", she said.

"You should've been stronger, it was a baby training", he said indifferently. In reality, he knew he had been too harsh, but he couldn't go soft with her or else she would get used to soft fights and her level would decrease.

He knew she wasn't weak.

Sakura almost bit down her tongue to keep the silence. She wanted to reply to that insult, but she decided better. He was right, she should've been stronger indeed, and as the result she was in this state.

She hated it when he was right.

Sakura walked to the bathroom and turned on the hot water until the bathtub was filled. When she stepped in she felt as if the heavens had opened themselves for her.

It was oh so comfortable!

The warm water was slowly soothing her sore body, and soon it tainted so the comforting liquid became pink as it cleaned the blood from her wounds.

When she finished and had put her clean clothes on they were summoned by Leader.

A Jinchuuriki had been caught.

In an instant their environment was replaced as they quickly started the replica jutsu. They were standing above the fingers of the giant statue of this death god, where the extraction took place.

She remembered the process Leader had taught her when she just entered Akatsuki.

"With this one only two Jinchuuriki will be left. I hope they will be captured soon, Itachi, Mia; Zetsu, Kisame", Leader spoke with his deep and frightening voice. She felt as if she was being reprimanded for not cleaning her room. She smirked.

"Let's begin", Leader said, and they all concentrated their energies to extract the Yonbi of this boy.

Sakura felt awfully wrong for being in this ceremony. She felt as if she was betraying Naruto himself.

When she entered this organization, she hoped for the dear that she wouldn't have to be present for an extraction.

And here she was.

Finally.

Sakura was overexcited, her chest was rising and falling uncontrollably, her senses were sharp as never.

She knew now.

She let a few chuckles escape her lips as she felt her head racing.

She had all the information she needed.

Leader had been "kind" enough as to explain to her the details. He seemed convinced with her act.

She should have been an actress instead of a shinobi.

After two exhausting days of extraction, she was in the room of the inn she and Itachi shared. She sat on the table while he was taking a bath.

All she had to do now was escape.

A wide grin formed on her features as she finally saw the big window of escaping this nightmare of a mission.

To escape him especially.

Memories of their nights together flooded in her mind and made her wish to repeat them over and over again, she even wished she didn't have to go.

But her mind was cold now, cold as the snow that fell on the windowpane.

"I'll go buy some stuff, want me to bring you anything?" she said, preparing herself for her big escapade.

"No", he replied plainly from inside the bathroom.

"Ok", she said and grabbed her cloak. She decided to leave the rest of her stuff so he wouldn't suspect anything.

Sakura walked to the door and then she stopped.

'Itachi...'

She was forcing herself to leave her biggest addiction, and follow her reason, which was currently her best option. She had never gained anything when following her heart's commands. She had gotten stronger thanks to her brilliant mind and her logical skills...

Sakura was sure that her childish behavior had been gone with Sasuke years ago, she knew that fairy tales didn't come true, and up until now she had been proud of herself because she always kept herself glued to reality.

Then why the hell was it being so difficult to give that damn doorknob one turn and run away from this place?!

She sighed.

She felt frustrated and angry with herself for being of such a weak spirit.

"Damn..." she muttered under her breath.

The extraction had tired him more that expected. He was barely keeping his eyes open as hot water ran down his toned body. His eyes were hurting too, as he allowed this brief moment to deactivate Sharingan. He suddenly realized how bad his eyesight had gotten but as usual he paid no attention to it.

Now he needed to rest his body and mind as later he would train genjutsu with Mia. He could teach her some good genjutsus, taking into acount that she had the Sharingan and she had yet to improve her usage of it.

"I'll go buy some stuff, want me to bring you something?", he heard her yell from inside the room.

"No" he replied. Why would she want to go out with a freezing weather such as this?

"Ok", she said and he barely heard her.

Some minutes passed before he finally heard the door close behind her.

Shampoo washed away from his hair as he stood under the shower, enjoying the hot water and relaxing himself after the tension he had accumulated the last two days.

When he got out and started to dry himself with the towel, he noticed how long his hair had grown; it was already reaching his lower back. Maybe he would cut it one of these days. At the moment, he just tied it.

He dressed with clean and dry clothes and exited the bathroom. The ambient was warm, so he supposed they had heating.

He found Mia standing on the table, seemingly fixing the light hanging of the ceiling.

"Why are you replacing the bulb? we'll leave soon", he asked looking at her stretched figure.

"While I'm here I want to see, you know", she said as a matter of fact.

"How are your eyes doing?" he asked. Maybe they could start training genjutsu right away.

"Fine, why? you want to train?", she asked, leaving what she was doing with the lamp and focusing on him only.

"Yeah, genjutsu" he said.

"Oh, it's ok, we can start now", she said all too hyper.

"Ah..." he replied while he turned around to put his heavy cloak on.

He was just about to exit the room, expecting her to follow him, when her voice stopped him instead.

"Itachi...", she said quietly.

He merely turned a little, just to make clear that he was listening.

"Your hair is wet...you should untie it or you'll catch a cold. It's freezing outside, you know...", she said with an unsure tone to her voice. She didn't know why she should be concerned with his health; he could die for all she cared, but her inner medic kicked in, or at least that's the only explanation she could give herself.

Now Itachi fully turned to look at her, a surprised expression gracing his features as he stared at her flushed face.

He only smirked.

He untied his hair, just as she said. He thought she was right.

When he grabbed the doorknob to go out, he stopped.

"You're starting to sound like a wife", he said and left, almost chuckling for he could imagine her dumbfounded expression.

Sakura stood there in shock.

A wife?!

Stupid Itachi for saying such stupid things and make her feel so stupid!

She was as red as a tomato.

Sakura angrily grabbed her cloak and put it on while she left the room mumbling a thousand curses for the elder Uchiha.

Once outside the inn, the full blow of snowy air hit her right in the face. She mildly wondered how he thought to train with this weather.

He was walking some feet ahead of her and she had to hurry to catch him because she lost sight of him amidst the people of the village.

They went to the forest, to the spot they trained everyday that was clearly marked with a series of cut down trees, big holes in the ground and destroyed rocks and plants.

The place was a mess, but it served them as a training field.

Now the snow covered all with a thick layer of white.

She stepped next to a log she had placed some days ago. The sky above was grey; hovering in them were those menacing clouds.

"Ok, so you want us to practice Genjutsu in this weather?", she said with a trembling voice, her hands rubbing her arms in an attempt to produce body heat.

"It shouldn't be a problem, it'll help you focus on your chakra and have better control of your sensations. Things such as cold and heat are psychological, you should know that", he replied calmly.

"Uhmm, ok...", her voice lacked the confidence she desired, but there wasn't much to do considering her poor will to actually train when she could be in the warmth of the room enjoying a cup of hot tea.

"Activate Sharingan", he commanded.

She nodded and did what he said. A stabbing pain was immediate at the back of her head as she forced chakra into her non-Uchiha eyes. Sakura had to act as if it was normal, because he still thought she was an Uchiha.

Her eyes felt like burning embers as Sharingan appeared.

Recently she had discovered that the third black comma of her Sharingan had appeared, and she felt so proud for it.

Itachi hadn't said anything about it. She was secretly hoping for his acknowledgement

"The basic tool for a Genjutsu user is his or her chakra control, it must be perfect if you want your jutsu to be really effective", he started "You already have a perfect control of it, so that stage is cleared", he continued. Sakura felt butterflies on her stomach with a positive comment directed at her.

"With Sharingan, hand seals aren't necessary, all the Genjutsu is created with your eyes".

Mmm, interesting.

Sakura paid attention to his explanation, and felt fortunate to learn Genjutsu from the person who had mastered them.

Maybe it hadn't been such a bad choice to stay, considering all the things that she could learn from Itachi. She had to take advantage of the situation, she soon realized.

She looked at his face and realized that his eyes were deep black, not red as she was accustomed.

"Try", he simply said.

"On you?" she asked incredulous.

"Of course", he replied, raising an eyebrow.

Ok, this was weird. He even deactivated his Sharingan for her genjutsu to be more effective.

Was he really that confident on his powers?

'No, that's plainly called ego'

She focused the chakra, trying to alter his senses and directing the attack to his mind through his emotions, if he had any, of course.

'The exact amount of chakra...and...'

She felt it, strong as a rock falling on her head.

It hurt so terribly much she had to grab the fabric of her cloak to endure the pain a little.

She had felt this enormous amount of strain in her eyes a long time ago, when she faced Orochimaru. She had used a powerful Genjutsu that time, but she could only remember the fight as a blur. After she killed him she realized that it was because she had just used Sharingan.

But now, with her head as cold as the snow surrounding them, she couldn't get to use such a powerful jutsu with all its real potential.

At least she could play a little with Itachi for her own amusement.

She made him stand still, not being able to move. Then Naruto appeared from his shadow, looking at him with fierce eyes. Naruto turned around and another person appeared, one she didn't know. It was an adult man, with brown hair and bangs falling in front of his face. His expression was dead serious and his penetrating eyes made anyone freeze.

Itachi was younger, she realized. His forehead protector lacked the streak on the Konoha symbol, and his eyes appeared a lot less cold.

Little Sasuke appeared next to him. Both of them had Sharingan, Sasuke had Mangekyou and talked to him with a strange voice, one that wasn't his. He said something about being his best friend, and that what he had killed him for would be his death too.

Mangekyou, he said with sadistic expression -Mangekyou will kill you-

But Itachi dispersed her Genjutsu.

What had been all that?

Itachi had Sharingan on once again and looked unaffected.

But Sakura just felt as the tingle of uncontrollable curiosity awoke in her.

"Who was..."

"Your Genjutsu level is better than I expected. It's quite powerful", he said, interrupting her intent of getting into his past.

"Thanks...", she said shyly, understanding that she shouldn't ask any further.

"Work on the durability of it, though", he said closing his eyes.

"Ok", she nodded.

Itachi opened his eyes and looked at her in a way she found very strange. Just when she was about to ask him what was the problem, she realized that her voice wouldn't come out. Her limbs weren't responding and all she could see was his Sharingan, digging into her mind.

Into her memories.

And Sakura panicked.

She quickly used Sharingan to block his attack, but her level was too inferior, so she tried her only option left.

She countered.

And then, she was into his mind, reading him like a book; all his emotions became hers, all his sorrow fell on her chest and suddenly she felt drowned. His memories started to display in front of her eyes, and there she saw the same man that appeared on her Genjutsu. He was Itachi's father, and she couldn't help but feel a suffocating hatred against him.

She was released from the torture of his mind when Itachi activated Mangekyou. She was pushed to the real world and she needed a few seconds to regain her breath and take notice of her surroundings.

"Well done. You countered my Genjutsu very efficently, and even forced me to use Mangekyou", he said, the last part held a tingle of amusement.

Sakura felt her head dizzy and nausea made her want to run away from Itachi.

"I feel sick", she said while grabbing her head.

"You'll get used. It's because you forced yourself too much to counter my attack", he explained.

But Sakura had another thing in mind.

His mind was a very dark place, and in those crazy moments in which she entered and felt what he felt all the time, she thought she would prefer to die than to live any second longer in such place.

How could he stand it? How could it feel so wrong to be him?

His mind was a mixture of suffocating sensations where hatred was the king along with wilted memories.

Would her mind be like that if she was as strong as Itachi?

Now she looked at him and saw nothing but the living hell she saw inside.

His face was the perfect mask and just then she realized how measured each one of his movements were.

All his actions were calculated.

Everything she could see in him was fake.

And she felt frightened.

Who was this man standing in front of her?

"Mia", he said. She hadn't been listening; she had been too deep in thought.

"Uh, yeah? Sorry", she said.

"A storm is coming, we should head to the inn"

She looked up at the sky and noticed that it was snowing quite strong, and that it would become a dangerous storm in mere minutes.

She nodded at him and they started walking back to the village.

'I shouldn't have stayed…'

A/N: Hello everybody!!! yesh!!!! you must be saying..."What's wrong with her??!! why did she update so soon??!!", and stuff xD, well, just because I took too long with the past chapter and I had all the ideas in my mind already, so I wrote them down :P

I hope you like this one; I like it a lot, really :D, but I want to ask you if you like the way this story is going. I'm not very sure if I have sticked to the plotline so well...uhmm, as you can see, your opinions are crucial for me as an author :D, so pleaaaase tell me.

Another thing that I've been wondering for a long time now...

How people knows what Sasuke's parent's names are?? I've read a lot of fics in which their names are fugaku for the father and mikoto for the mother. Are they mentioned in some part of the manga or the anime?, cuz up until now I've read all the manga and seen all the anime and I really do not remember having seen their names...mmm well that xD

Thanks to everyone for the ALMOST 100 reviews!!!!!!!!!!!! (99) xDDD

omg omg...I feel stupid now xD

Thanks to those people who review chapter after chapter, always faithful to this lovely story xD, you're not many, but I appreciate you guys a lot, kisses for you all!! I love you!!!!!!

and of course, keep reviewing :D

PS: special thanks to my beta SharinganAngel, as always a great job, I love you too!!!! xD