I'm awesome, but not awesome enough to own Naruto.

Sorry it took me so long to update this. I've been busy but...here's another chapter. Enjoy!

Sakura sighed in near-ecstasy as the warm water in the shower poured over her. How long it had been since she'd had a nice, hot shower. She'd missed small luxuries like this! She scrubbed herself down with the hotel provided soap, which smelled a bit more masculine than she'd expected but she breathed it in happily, her thoughts at once turning to her roommate and partner.

Itachi.

Her skin prickled into goosebumps picturing his haunted eyes, the sharp but beautiful angles of his face. The sound of his voice had thus far sent chills down her spine every single time he'd opened his mouth to speak to her. Would that ever go away? Imagining him touching her made her knees grow weak and shaky. How desperately she would love for him to hold her in his arms, for them to become the kind of companions who confided everything in each other.

Screw cuddling and confiding. Showering together. Inner Sakura supplied, all but drooling. Sakura bit her lip at the thought of Itachi in the shower with her, naked and wet, pressing hot kisses down her neck.

She groaned, resting her head against the shower wall. She couldn't think this way. Why had Inner Sakura been so damn vocal the last few hours anyway?

Inner Sakura or not, her thoughts were inappropriate and she knew it. Imagining Itachi in the shower with her was about as practical as imagining herself back in Konoha- back with Neji. Her heart wrenched thinking about her former teammate and lover. That was all gone now. Along with it had gone any of her hopes for friendship, love or happiness. This with Itachi is a business deal. Nothing else, she scolded herself. I'll never confide in him. We're nothing to each other and we're going to stay that way.

But there was something about him, about that glimmer of hope she'd thought she'd seen in his eyes earlier. She couldn't help thinking that Itachi Uchiha was lonely, lonelier than she'd ever know, and had been for awhile. Looking into his eyes, she couldn't help but feel like there was more there than the stoic Uchiha would ever let on. For some reason, she desperately wanted to know him, and she hadn't anticipated feeling that way when she'd approached him.

She hadn't anticipated any of this.

Sakura turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping herself in one of the plush burgundy towels. All of this feeling she was doing since seeing Itachi, and the re-appearance of Inner Sakura, was freaking her out. She'd controlled herself too well until this point to allow herself to get weak now because her new partner was ridiculously attractive and mysterious. She was stronger than that.

She stepped out of the bathroom, holding her towel up with one hand and her clothes in the other, without giving it a second thought. She was hopeful that there would be a robe or two supplied in the closet so that she wouldn't have to put back on her filthy clothes after her nice shower.

She scanned the room and jumped when her eyes rested on Itachi sitting on the chair in the corner by the bed. She'd been so preoccupied with thoughts of dirty clothes and robes that she'd completely forgotten that duh, Itachi would be waiting in the room. Where the hell else would he go? Inner Sakura snapped.

"I-Itachi." Formalities forgotten, they stared at each other a moment. Itachi's eyes never left hers, but she felt herself growing redder by the second anyway. The blasted towel barely covered her thighs...

"Sakura-san," he tilted his head in greeting, as though her flouncing around in a towel was no big deal. Gods bless him, he truly was well-mannered.

"I was just looking for a robe," she offered, turning to open the closet, relieved not to be looking into his intense eyes any longer. She almost jumped for joy when she found a single robe in the closet. Perfect.

Itachi said nothing, she felt his eyes on her back and when she turned to face him she gave him her best attempt at a smile. "Sorry. I'm just going to slip this on and then the bathroom's all yours."

Itachi nodded and Sakura bolted into the bathroom and all but slammed the door. So well-mannered, she grumbled to herself, that of course he'd give a curt nod rather than say something normal like, "No problem," that might put her at ease.

After slipping on the fluffy white robe, she ran her fingers through her wet hair and gave up on doing anything else with it. She'd hogged the bathroom long enough. This time when she stepped back into the room, Itachi was rummaging through his pack and blessedly didn't look her way until after she'd gotten a good enough look at him. He really is ridiculously gorgeous, Inner Sakura crooned. Strands of hair that had fallen out of their tie brushed his smooth white cheek as he pulled a shirt and some pants identical to what he had on out of his pack. He looked remarkably...not intimidating while just wearing his black knit pants and Uchiha crested shirt. Of course, he was also looking down. The moment his eyes rose from to meet her own, any thoughts of him not looking intimidating flew out the window.

She gave him a dumb smile, mortified that he'd seen her staring, and started pulling the blankets down on one side of the bed. "Well, goodnight," she said in an obnoxiously cheery voice. Inner Sakura rolled her eyes and made a face. "Enjoy your shower and-" "Stop effing talking." Inner Sakura all but screamed.

"Sakura," Itachi's voice was dangerously close to her ear and when she whipped around she found herself face to face with him. His dark gaze pierced hers, but his lips were twisted in a mild smirk.

"Y-yes?" she stammered, trying wretchedly hard not to lean close to him and breath him in.

"We're partners now. There is no need for awkwardness between us."

Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened. Had Itachi Uchiha really just said that?

He took stock of her reaction and one corner of his mouth lifted slightly. "The past, along with us being enemies, is long gone and behind us. You have no need to be nervous around me."

Sakura let out a deep breath. He had it all wrong, of course. It wasn't that she was afraid of him at all, or that she was fixated on the fact that they'd been enemies at one point. No, she trusted Naruto too much to doubt Itachi's intentions and character after what he'd told her. It had nothing to do with the past and everything to do with the magnetic pull she felt to him and his sheer physical Sakura had a feeling that was something Itachi would never sense nor guess. Maybe he, like his asshole little brother, was completely oblivious to women.

"Of course," she said quickly. "I'm sorry. It's more that I'm just not used to having someone around. I've been alone for a couple of years now." Itachi had to know all about solitude. His years in the Akatsuki she was sure hadn't been filled with friends and being social. That stuff is probably neglected in the quest for world domination.

"I understand." His voice was soft and oddly comforting to her. His eyes were so damn beautiful she marveled. Much more so than Sasuke's. And unlike Sasuke's, they weren't cold and dead. Now that Sakura could look into Itachi's eyes without fearing for her life she found them astonishingly...warm. Heat prickled her skin into goosebumps and she smiled at him before hurrying and turning back to the bed. "Night." she said quickly, aware she'd wished him goodnight just a few moments ago.

She felt him turn away from her, the distance between their bodies suddenly leaving her feeling cold. She kept her gaze on the bed, not wanting to look at him as she got underneath the blankets. That would be just too...intimate. More than she could handle after years alone.

"Goodnight." His voice drifted across the room to her before she heard the bathroom door close and she let out a deep sigh.

Goodnight, indeed.

Hope you all liked it! I was worried that Itachi saying that she doesn't need to be nervous around him would come off a little weird...but frankly I'm REALLY trying to make sure he doesn't seem robotic because it seems like in a lot of fics I've read he comes off that way. I think there's a BIG difference between reserved and robotic and I'm going for reserved here :)