A/N: This is a piece of an old fic no one reveiwed (I took it off). I just noticed that it fit in with the Stockholm one-shot I wrote ten minutes ago, so now Stockholm isn't a one-shot anymore. This one's about Itachi and it doesn't have enough dialogue for my taste.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Hypothermia

Her skin was glowing less as her chakra began to circulate through her whole body instead of merely her pale surface. Like the current in a pot of boiling water, the chakra was diving and rising in her system, gaining momentum as it passed through the seals that would keep her sane.

By the time Itachi rounded the corner to see her limping down the hall in front of him, the brightness of the seals was surpassed by the dull glow of the embers in her burning clothing. The black ribbon wrappings that normally covered the seals had long since burned through; tattered and trailing, they now hung off of her arms and molted off of her waist as she slid down the corridor, occasionally leaning into the walls for support.

Seconds later, her glistening jade eyes rose to meet the deep red ones of the Uchiha missing ninja. His Akatsuki cloak swayed with the momentum of his sudden stop in front of her.

"I have…to go… Kill me, Uchiha, or you have to let me keep going" the young woman said, finding a way to sigh despite her labored breathing. She could barely hold her pink-haired head up.

"Where?" he asked her, placing his long fingers on her chest to keep her from trudging forward. Her face crumpled in agony at the proximity of his warm palm, making him retract his hand slightly.

"The rain…it could help…the burning, anyway…I could focus long enough to die honorably" she said, lifting a bare, luminescent foot in hopes of moving along unhindered.

"You cannot pass through the entrance without Leader" Itachi said, stepping forward. The heat of his body propelled the kunoichi backward, gasping. Tears started to trickle out from under the clenched lids of her eyes.

"Then kill me, Itachi-san"

She slumped suddenly into Itachi's waiting arms with one final exhaled breath. The black marks in the ninja's eyes continued to swirl even after he'd caught the girl's squinting eyes in his own captivating stare. Her head swung as he lifted her over his shoulder and shifted into a comfortable position. Itachi's quarters where deep in the heart of the complex, and he had a long walk through the darkness awaiting him.

As he began, feet taking up the steady rhythm of a military march, Itachi mused to himself silently.

One of her hips was digging into his collarbone unmercifully, and her body was still uncomfortably warm even through the crimson and ebony cloak. His sole comfort was her smell—the smell of thick forest hundreds of feet above the ground. Even the smell of her burning clothes couldn't mask the fresh scent that wafted up from her hair. Actually, he considered, this walk had quite a few perks.

In addition to the scent of the woods she usually roamed, the pale limber stalks of her legs also provided some distraction for the stoic ninja as he silently maneuvered through the maze of stone walls and identical screen doors. The feeling of her hands limply swishing across his lower back made him remember how those hand looked when they were strong—black gloved and clenched tight around the handle of a shuriken, or shaking at her sides while she tried to fight the pain of the seals on her that had gone so horribly wrong.

She'd nearly killed Deidara, to Itachi's immense amusement. The Konoha kunoichi was a fiercely stubborn prisoner--escaping, attacking her captors, and destroying her hospitable lodgings. Leader had used the seals as a last resort. The marks on her body served a simple, innocent purpose--to keep her in check until it was time to dispose of her. Everything would have been fine if she hadn't resisted like she did.

Pein had nearly killed her on the spot after his jutsu malfunctioned. The anger in his eyes had made her tremble in fear. She had resisted his invading chakra, and he'd successfully been repelled. Three tries later, she'd been finally been subdued, but everyone had noticed the foul aura of cancerous chakra that hovered in the room after the girl had been carried out. No one knew the price Sakura would pay for distracting Pein as he performed the necessary handsigns.

She stirred as she heard the door slide open, and groaned as she felt her captor's body heat rising up out of his shoulder and into her abdomen. She couldn't struggle, though. All the energy she had left was focused on holding the raging chakra inside her. It was like she was holding her breath, trying to suffocate herself. Even her burning skin took second place in the race for her attention.

She was vaguely aware of Itachi sliding her off of his shoulder and onto his bed. She was more aware of the cool, soft, silky surface beneath her smoldering body. She was most aware of the slight reprieve she was feeling form the agony of holding her chakra in.

"So, my hand succeeds where the Samehada fails" Itachi smirked, withdrawing his fingers from the quivering muscles of her abdomen. The return of the pain was instantaneous, and the girl's chest spasmed towards her knees. She couldn't focus enough to formulate speech. She didn't have to articulate, anyway. Itachi would have paid her no mind.

The bedclothes shifted under her as the ninja got off of the mattress and vanished into the shadows at the foot of the wide bed. When Itachi reappeared in the range of the kunoichi's eerie glow, his hands where forming hand signs in front of his bare, toned chest.

His hair was hanging down over his prematurely aged eyes and he surveyed the shaking ninja on the bed in front of him coolly, not lifting the stoic mask he used during the day. "Don't struggle; breaking your 'space bubble' rule is warranted in this case" he said, after lowering his hands to his sides again.

The girl could barely hear him over the roar of her own thoughts and the still-pounding rain, but she heard enough to protest in what ways she could. As Itachi lowered himself on top of her, she whispered through her dry throat, "No!", but it was too late. She saw his eyes boring into hers as his arms snaked behind her back and one hand pushed the back of her head into the infamous Uchiha's shoulder.

By the time Itachi had successfully pulled her to him so that as much of their bodies were touching as much as possible, the kunoichi was limp in his long, strong arms.

She'd been shocked into submission. His body which she had feared so much for its strength and its overwhelming heat, was like a cool marble cage, instantly absorbing her skin's heat on contact. Their torsos were pressed together, so her stomach didn't feel like a small, fierce furnace. Her cheek was pressed into the curve of Itachi's neck, so that side of her face instantly cooled. Even her feet, tangled with the other ninja's, were suddenly pulled out of the hellish furnace she'd been cooking in for the past few hours.

After relishing the relief on her skin for nearly a minute, she finally sighed and spoke softly. "Thank you" she whispered into the cone of Itachi's ear.

He responded by pulling his arms around her a little tighter, bringing her body into his abdomen more firmly. "Hn" he muttered, but it was more like a tired sigh. The jutsu that had cooled his body temperature had cost him a lot of chakra. He'd intended to interrogate her while she lay in his debt, but he found himself quickly falling asleep with the kunoichi in his arms.

Would anyone like to hear Sakura and Deidara enduring "Insomnia"? It won't be smutty, despite the title. I have an idea for it.