Sitting alone in her room, Sakura realized something important. She had yet to shower, in the time she had so far spent in wherever she was. Sakura very suddenly felt dirty, and decided to change her situation. Itachi would be of no help, and she did not dare bother anyone else, so she had to find Karin. She would understand, if no one else would. Both of them were in the same boat, after all.

Sakura got to her feet, and looked into her closet. Just like the fridge had food in it, it was magically stocked with clothes. Sakura did not question it, it was better not knowing how the clothes had gotten to be there. She grabbed the familiar materials, remembering the last time she had worn the outfit in her hands. It had been when Sasuke killed her. Perhaps it was wrong of her, but when she remembered Sasuke touching her with that outfit on, it made her fell closer to him. She would wear it.

Sakura wandered the halls, until she heard the sound of someone crying. The only person it could be was Karin, she mused, considering how high pitched the voice was. She wondered if Itachi had confronted her as well, however unlikely it was. Otherwise, she could think of nothing to make Karin cry as she was. Unsure if it was the right thing to do, Sakura knocked on the door. There were a few seconds of silence, and then the door slowly opened.

There were steaming tears still flowing down Karin's face, smearing black from her mascara. Sakura would have been lying if she said she was not surprised. Karin looked like a complete mess. She ushered Sakura in, stifling her sobs. Sakura was uncertain of what to do, she had never needed to comfort someone, Ino had always been so strong. It was Ino who had stayed up with her all night when Naruto had returned without Sasuke all of those years ago.

"What happened?" She asked calmly, not sure of what to say. Karin shook, her had hanging to keep her face out of view.

"He rejected me." She choked, slamming the door shut and then slumping to the floor. Sakura crouched next to her, then placed a delicate hand on her shoulder, hoping to give some comfort. Words failed her; she was not about to tell Karin that she never thought Itachi would accept her.

"He pulled me into his room, and I misinterpreted him. All he wanted to do was tell me off, but I thought it was for something else. Itachi-kun was really angry."

Sakura tried to sooth Karin, moving her hand in slow circles, just as Ino had done so long ago.

"I was not thinking. He told me to look him in the eyes, but I was to nervous, so I was looking at his delicious lips instead. Next thing I knew, It was trying to kiss him, and the only thing he said was for me to burn those stupid tapes! He did not even care that he was breaking my heart!" Karin wailed, wiping tears away with her hands. Sakura scowled at Itachi's lack of care in his actions, but she could not pretend that she was surprised by it. It seemed that in social situations, his experience was just as pathetic as Sasuke's had been. Sasuke...

The first time Sakura had tried to kiss Sasuke, it had been such a pitiful failure as well. He had been just as indifferent as always, and called her annoying. There never had been a kiss, not until he had killed her. And what a kiss that had been.

Sakura knew why he had done it, it was his way of ensuring her misery for all of forever, but knowing this fact did not change anything. Its effect on her were tolling, she was always thinking about him. Even if he had done such terrible deeds, she still loved him, and hoped he was all right. The fact that she could love such a cold, hateful person hurt to think about. He deserved no such attention, but recieved it anyway. Sakura wished she could hate him for what he had done, but she still loved him, and she supposed that she always would. She cursed his very name for that.

"I ran away as fast as I could... I cannot believe I let myself ruin everything with Itachi. My chances with him were slim as it was, but now I ruined it completely. He will never forgive me, nor even spare me a second glance. He hates me."

Sakura hushed the sobbing girl. "You do not know that he hates you. Everything may seem bad now, but it will look better later on."

Karin disagreed strongly, but said nothing. It seemed by her distant expression that Sakura was speaking more to herself than anyone else. It was very clear that Sakura was still hung up on Sasuke's consuming hatred. Sasuke seemed to be determined to hate everything and everyone in the world. He hated Itachi for killing off their clan, Sakura for clinging to him, Naruto for being a friend, Orochimaru for trying to take advantage of him, and her for being so pathetically weak. Sakura saw this, and wished she could be the one to heal him, to melt his frozen heart, just as Karin had.

"No, it will not look better later on. Itachi will always hate me, because I am so hopeless, so 'foolish.' All he cares about is his stupid plans for Sasuke, he does not even realize what he has in front of him. He may think that he is different than everyone, than Sasuke, but he is not. Itachi gets irritated with the stupid things his brother decides to do, but he is no better. He is just as blinded as Sasuke had been; too concentrated on the future to pay attention to the present. Itachi will never realize that he could be happy, if he let people close to him. All he ever does is shut himself up in that room though, hiding from everyone. He is afraid of me, because he knows what could happen if he let me close." Karin ranted.

"They really are similar, are they not? Sasuke and Itachi are two of the most stubbornly proud men I have ever known. They are blinded, and until someone does touch their hearts, they will remain so." Sakura sighed in reminisce. Just as Itachi had so callously brushed Karin off, Sasuke had done the same. She was most likely, the only girl in existence that understood exactly how Karin felt, and this similarity made it Sakura's unsaid duty to stay by her side. And confront Itachi for his abrasive attitude. If Sasuke had never left, Sakura knew that Ino would have verbally abused him, until he consented to apologizing. Therefor, she must do the same as well. Men, and their blunt characters.

"Should I pretend it never happened? I do not want things to be more complicated than they are, and I know he will act as if nothing happened. Stupid men."

"Do not worry. I will personally see to that hard-headed idiot." Sakura replied with nonchalance. Karin's eyes widened in disbelief. She could not begin to imagine why Sakura would want to help her.

"You are going to talk to Itachi? He is in the worst possible moods right now! You do not know what he is like when his attitude goes sour. He becomes cruel, and even more stubborn than usual. You cannot be thinking of bothering him." Karin said fearfully. Sakura had the feeling Karin knew this from experience. Still, she was determined, and would not be dissuaded.

"He needs his ass to get handed to him, and who better than by me? My best friend would have done the same for me, so I will do that for you. It is high time someone told Itachi off." She shrugged in response. Apparently, for Sakura, facing one of the most moody Uchiha in all of history was not a big deal. Then again, she already was dead, so there was nothing he could really do to her.

Karin sighed. "Do as you will, as long as handing him his ass does not include checking out his ass."

Sakura blanched at the very thought. She could promise to never 'check out' Uchiha Itachi, no matter what the circumstance. sakura would never be so desperate for attention that she would seek Itachi for it. It was unthinkable, in every possible way. Uchiha Itachi was not, in any way, shape or form, attractive. Even if he was, she would never consider pursuing him; the last rivalry for a boy had not ended well. Karin had already called him, and she would not intervene, even if she did want to. Which she did not.

Sakura hated lying to herself. Fine, she admitted. Itachi was equally attractive as Sasuke-kun. It made no difference nonetheless, her heart belonged to Sasuke, and would undoubtedly stay that way. Sakura did not even want for another man to harbor any feeling for her, not if it always ended in misery and loneliness. Loving Sasuke had been a mistake, and she refused to love another man, if she ever did recover from Sasuke. Sakura would not succumb to letting someone else close to her, not after the pitiful end with Sasuke. she would never be hurt like that again, she would not allow it.

"I assure you, I have no intention in going after the Uchiha. He is all yours."

Karin smiled approvingly, and watched in reverence as Sakura walked out of her room. It felt nice, knowing someone cared, knowing that someone was there to help her when she needed it. It had never been that way during her life, she had been discarded by everyone, experimented on and then locked up in her cell. It had taken years to gain any sort of trust from Orochimaru, years full of neglect and torture. She could not discern if it was worthwhile in the end.

Itachi was just beginning to regain control of his temper; the blare of Otep and the smooth cover of a rather morbid book fixated in his lap truly did help. It made no sense to most people, but reading depressing novels was more comforting to him than anything, except perhaps dango. It made him feel better about his life, comparing it to those who were much more tragic. Understandably, it was hard for him to find a good book. If he thought about it, his life would make a good book, but no one normal would ever want to read such a disheartening biography.

It was during one of these, rare, content moments that someone deemed it necessary to bother him. So much for his semi-good mood.

"Uchiha." The voice spat from outside the door. Itachi did not have to open it to know that a very furious Sakura was just beyond his sliding door. He wondered with frustration what he had done to deserve such tormentation from the irate kunoichi. What she wanted, he did not know, and Itachi figured that the only way he would find out was if he answered the door for her.

"Haruno." He replied with ill-humor, violently sliding the door open. He met an extremely put out Sakura, who was glaring at him with undeniable anger. Not waiting for an invitation, Sakura barged into the plain room, ignoring the fact that Itachi would rather her not. She discovered the interior to be plain but sufficient, and it did not surprise her. Itachi seemed to be a practical sort of person.

"I am here as Karin's representative." She stated coolly, as if this comment would explain her reasoning for bothering him. It did not. Itachi could not see why Karin had anything to say to him, nor why she needed a representative to do so. He got the impression that what Sakura was going to tell him were her words, and not Karin's.

"Do you know why I am her, Uchiha?" She asked irritably. Itachi did not. All he cared about was getting back to his book.

"I do not." Itachi stated blandly. He had the feeling that she was going to tell him, wether he wanted to hear it or not. There was no point in resisting, all attempts would be fruitless. Sakura was a woman Itachi dared not refuse when she was angry. If he did, she would turn violent on him.

"I am here because right now, in the confinement of her room, Karin is crying her eyes out. Is it safe to assume that you know why that is?" She asked tersely. Itachi stood wordlessly, unsure of how to respond to this. He did have a few hypothesizes as to why she would be crying, but everything he had done was justly so. Karin had no reason to be in possession of those tapes, and as for the attempt at kissing him, he had every right to stop her. Other than this, he could think of nothing.

"She is crying because of your standoffish attitude. You did not need to be so cold about what she did." Sakura reprimanded.

"You must be suggesting that I had better let her proceed." He commented cooly.

Sakura scowled. "I did not say you should not have stopped Karin, I merely meant that you did not have to be so careless about it."

"You know not of what you speak." He sighed wearily, shaking his head in disagreement. She seemed to only see the occurrence from Karin's vantage point, Itachi concluded in irritation.

"What do you mean 'I know not of what I speak?'" Sakura mimicked angrily, trying to imitate his ever calm facial expression. She knew perfectly what she was talking about, she knew better than anyone in the world. They had both been rejected by a stubborn, seemingly emotionless Uchiha; it was him that did not understand.

"Picture this, Haruno." Itachi stated, interrupting her train of thought. Sakura ground her teeth, hating how it sounded like he was going to talk down to her. Self-righteous bastard.

"You discover that a man has been watching you, and taking videos of you while you bathed. Imagine that you confront this man, and try to persuade him to stop. He takes no heed of your words, and instead tries to seduce you. What exactly would you do?"

"I would kill that bastard! He would never see the light of-"

It was then that Sakura understood what Itachi had been trying to portray. He must be furious with Karin; first she taped him naked, then she attempted to kiss him. The fact that he had only treated her with coldness was quite a feat. She (strangely enough) felt bad for him.

"It seemed that you now understand." Itachi commented calmly. Sakura blushed. Yes, it made sense now. She had only been thinking about how Karin felt, and nothing of Itachi. It had not been fair of her, she contemplated.

The only sound to be heard in the room was the music Itachi was playing. After listening to it for a few seconds, Sakura realized, with surprise, that she recognized it. She smiled slightly to herself at the familiar sounds, remembering when she last listened to it.

"You listen to Otep?" She asked softly. His eyes shot up from surprise and disbelief.

"You listen to Otep?" He asked back dubiously. Sakura could make sense of why he would not believe her, she did not look the part. Her personality was bright and bubbly, which did not match with the metal.

"Hard to believe, is it not?" She laughed. Itachi rolled his eyes discretely, but still wanting to know how such a happy-go-lucky girl like Sakura had even heard of Otep. She seemed to see his unasked question in his puzzled expression.

"It really is ridiculous, but I started listening to metal because of Sasuke-kun. I thought that if we had at least one thing in common, he might pay attention to me more. I hated it at first, but I was determined to make Sasuke-kun notice me, and in the end, I found that I liked it. When he left, it became my main source of comfort."

Itachi stared at the girl in a mixture of awe and disappointment. She was so absorbed with Sasuke that she changed herself for him. He could not touch her, and he had the feeling that he never would be able to. Her heart still belonged to Sasuke, even after he had rejected her. Still, Sakura was amazing, despite her undying love for his brother, and her obliviousness to his feelings. It was better that she did not know how he was attracted to her, she would only feel guilty. He did not want her to give in to him, just because of how he felt. He knew she would, and he did not want her if she was acting only on her conscience.

"I must sound so childish, to someone like you." She sighed. Itachi was unsure by what Sakura meant when she said 'someone like you,' but he did not really think it childish of her. Itachi could not judge someone for their choices in life, not after the ones he had made. Besides, it led her to listen to real music.

"Someone like me?" Itachi asked, wondering what kind of person Sakura thought he was. Part of him was afraid to hear what she had to say about him, but the other, more curious part of him wanted desperately to know. She looked up at him, hesitant to tell him her opinion of his general character.

"This is merely what I think, I am not sure what is actually true," Sakura started carefully, "for the most part, you are quiet, and you keep to yourself. Mature beyond your years. Sometimes though, if it is important, you will voice your thoughts. Some people consider you proud, but in reality, you are just socially awkward."

Itachi blinked, feeling violated by how deeply Sakura had read into him. She was right though, and that scared him. She was more clever than what he had originally given her credit for. Nobody had ever figured him out so quickly, and in so in depth. Even Kisame, whom he was partnered with for almost ten years, never looked into his character so observantly.

"How did you figure this out?" He asked, regaining his lost composure.

"Sasuke-kun is just like that too."

Of course. He was always going to be compared to Sasuke by her, she would never let him go. It was always going to be about Sasuke with Sakura. His younger brother was the only connection he had to her, and that was only because they both cared about him. Itachi had a sudden surge of anger, focused on his brother. Sasuke had faced nothing compared to him, and yet, he still got the woman, even if they would never see each other again.

"I would prefer that you did not compare me to Sasuke, Haruno." Itachi stated stiffly.

"I was right though, was I not?"

"Regardless. I am not my brother, Haruno. Do not mistake me for him. He has done things I would never dare do, even to protect Konohagakure."

"And you are so perfect? You have never made a mistake?" She asked him, tears prickling the corners of her eyes. Itachi's face hardened into a glare. Why did she have to get so emotional over Sasuke?

"I never said I was perfect, Haruno. I know what I have done, more than you ever could. But what I have done, it was done for the safety of Konoha, not my own selfish reasons."

"You pushed him to do those things, and you know that." She retorted, hot tears stinging her cheeks. Sakura was going to protect him, protect the person that had killed her, until she was out of breath and blue in the face. Itachi hated how she put Sasuke before all else. He hated how she loved him, even though he did not deserve it.

"I did not force him to run off to that snake, nor to join Madara, nor to kill you. That he is blame for, because if he had listened to me, then he would have stayed in Konoha."

"How could you expect him to listen to you? He saw you kill your entire clan!" Sakura shouted back at him. Itachi bristled; she knew why he had killed them, she knew how much it had killed him to do it, but she still used it as a weapon against him.

"Do you think that I wanted to kill them? They were my family, I loved them. It killed me to do it, but if I had not, someone else would have, and your precious Sasuke-kun would have died along with the rest of the clan."

"Does it matter if Sasuke-kun is precious to me? Is that not the reason why you chose me to continue the Uchiha line with him?"

"Yes, it does matter." He blurted out. He froze in shock at what he had just said, knowing there was no way to take it back, nor to cover his blunder. Her eyes widened in anger.

"Well, it should not." She cried, running from the room. Sakura did not understand what he felt for her, she just wanted to get away, to free herself form his calculating stare.

Itachi groaned, swearing under his breath. She was afraid of him, and understandably so. He felt like such a hypocrite; he had just been explaining how he saw Karin as a stalker, but he was hardly better. He did not know her, but he still felt that urging sensation pulling him towards her, originating from the pit of his stomach. Still, he had to go after her. Perhaps, if he made himself known to her, she would start to comprehend his feelings.

Karin heard the sounds of soft footsteps going past her room, and a quiet sobbing. She went to her door, opening it just in time to see a flurry of pink and white turn a corner into another hall. Something must have gone terribly wrong with Itachi, she guessed. Had they gotten into an argument? What had it been about? She was about to follow Sakura, when a flash of black dashed past her. It was then that she came to understand a few important points.

Itachi was going after her, but he had not done the same when she had run off crying. Sakura was important. Sakura was the reason why he had rejected her earlier, the reason why Karin's heart had been broken. He had feelings for her. Jealousy and betrayal washed over in waves. Karin was sure that Sakura had no partiality for Itachi, but he did for her. It was unintentional, and she knew that, but this was the second time Sakura had taken someone from her. It hurt to think about, wondering what he would do when Itachi caught up to her.

Sakura opened her door and fell to the ground, not bothering to close it behind her. She should have, she realized when Itachi materialized into her room. The door was shut behind him, and he crouched down next to her. He watched as she cried, before grabbing her chin, making her face him instead of the ground.

"I am going to say something, and you will listen to me, Haruno."

She silently regarded him, their eyes meeting with opposite emotions. Sakura wanted him to leave, so if she just did as he wished, he would be gone sooner.

"I am not my brother. I will not pretend that I know what I am doing, Sakura. What I do know is that you make me feel different from any other person I have ever met. You make me confused, and angry, but at the same time, I have never felt more alive. I want you to understand that, Sakura." He whispered. Sakura looked up at him, utterly flabbergasted. Uchiha Itachi had just confessed to her. He had just called her by her first name. Itachi had basically told him he loved her. Sakura did not know what to make of it. she would never have suspected him to have any feeling for her. Obviously, he was not the emotionless person most thought he was, but for him to admit to having such feelings was mind-blowing.

"I do not know what to tell you. You know how I feel about Sasuke, that was why you chose me for him."

It hurt to hear such truthful words, to be so abruptly rejected. "You will never see him again, Sakura. When he dies, years from now, he will be sent elsewhere, a place you can never go."

"Do you think that changes the way I feel about him? I wish I could forget about Sasuke, but for sixteen years I lived for him. I was made to love him from the day I was born. It does not matter if he betrays me, if he continues the line without me; those feelings do not go, no matter what I try." She cried.

"It should matter, Sakura. It should matter that all he has ever done is cause you pain."

"It does not, though."

"It will."

Never had Sakura expected him to do this, for Itachi to be so forward. Nonetheless, he had pulled her face to his, then pressed his lips firmly to hers. Her eyes widened in utter disbelief, only partially realizing that Itachi was kissing her. It should not have been possible, but Uchiha Itachi loved her. Sakura felt her stomach spiral.

AN: Wow! What do you think? I know Itachi is sort of out of character, but hey, it's MY fanfic. Please leave me a review, it is so inspiring to hear from everyone who reads my story.