AN: I'm so disgusted with this chapter that I can't even revise it. Yeah, it's that bad. So please take this chapter with a grain of salt and read it only for the plot points for the rest of the story, and forgive my horrible ineptitude at writing for this chapter and chapter 4. Thank you for your patience, and I promise that the rest of this story is better than these chapters. Thank you for reading and please review.

Updated 8/25/13

Nothing but the Truth

Chapter 3: Eating the Apple

"Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?"

― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

"Itachi-san," her voice was sweet as her hands finally left his eyes. The sudden lack of soothing sensation from her chakra made Itachi feel somewhat empty. Her healing chakra was absolutely glorious on his tired eyes.

She'd been with them for a week now. Every other day they would work on his eyes and Itachi could already feel a difference. When he used his Sharingan, it no longer hurt as much as it had before. His vision was sharper and he felt himself responding quicker.

"Hn?"

"When is the next time you're going into a town?" she asked. Sakura felt a little more comfortable around the Uchiha. Her body didn't seem as tense when he entered her room, and she didn't feel the need to be constantly battle ready with him around. This being said, she was always on guard around him.

"Tomorrow, most likely," he stated.

"Get this while you're there?" she asked. He opened his eyes and found her sitting on the cushion next to him, holding a piece of paper. In her large loopy handwriting, a type of tea Itachi had never heard of was listed. "You'll be able to find it at any medical shop."

"Why?" he asked flatly.

"It's good for your eyes. It also helps me regenerate my chakra. Oh, one more thing!" she muttered excitedly as she grabbed her pen and a scrap of paper. Carefully, she drew a rough sketch of a plant and its root on it with a name and a brief description. "There should be a ton of this growing around. Could you just pick some next time you're outside?"

"Hn," he replied flatly. She was getting more and more brazen with him; she'd ask for things and he found her calling him foolish under her breath. Also, she'd begun making demands of him when it came to his eyes – telling him not to sleep with his Sharingan on, or keep it deactivated when he was in the compound. He supposed it was just the doctor in her, and he was sure she rarely had opposition to her demands back in Konoha.

She smiled her best smile at him and thanked him. He supposed they were done for the day, and he escorted her back to her room. She subconsciously held her wrists up to him and he reduced the amount of chakra she was allowed. Then, after she entered the room, he sealed her back in.

Sakura was going stir crazy in her room. She found herself loving the times she would heal Itachi just because it was getting out of this tiny, claustrophobic room. She had read over her notes a hundred times in the past week. Ugh I'm so bored.

She found herself staring at the wood panels on the ceiling. She made shapes using the naturally engraved grooves that were on the boards. She found one section that looked like Naruto. It created the allusion of whiskers, a big smile, and spikey hair. She found another one that resembled Sai. There was another that gave Tsunade credit. Sakura rolled over, huffed, and tried to sleep.

She awoke to a light knock on her door. She was surprised how long she'd slept despite the fact that she never did anything. It was most likely from her expelling so much chakra during her healing sessions with Itachi.

Itachi entered the room once she righted herself on the bed, holding a tray with her breakfast. "Sakura-san," he acknowledged quietly.

"Good morning, Itachi-san," she replied happily. He sat the miso soup on her end table and turned to leave the room.

Before he left, he looked at her once again. "Kisame and I are leaving on a mission now. Deidara and Tobi will be looking after you in our absence. When we return, though, we will be moving to a different location."

"Why?" Sakura asked. She set her spoon down thoughtfully. Itachi felt a twinge of annoyance in his chest – why would she even ask such a question? He could move her all he pleased and she'd have to go. If she resisted, he would kill her.

"Kakashi-san will surely be searching for you by now."

"Oh," she replied. Her brow furrowed a bit in deep thought. She seemed to practically forget he was there. This was not uncommon – she seemed to do this all the time – especially when she was healing him. It irked him a bit, not that he'd ever show it.

"Is there something you wish to say?" he asked curtly.

Blank green eyes filled with life again as she snapped out of whatever trance her thoughts had put her in. Her eyes looked a little perturbed, yet a little worried. "Oh, no," she huffed.

He could feel his eyebrow visibly twitch at his frustration with her. "What is it?"

"I'm just bored," she sighed. With that, she returned to her attention to her miso soup and began eating again. This was her sign that she was done with the conversation. Itachi slanted a last glance at her as he left the room.

He allowed a silent sigh of exasperation to leave his lips. She was bored? He thought tersely. The kunoichi had some nerve. She was technically a hostage, and she was complaining about being bored? Well, fine, if she was bored, then he would leave her with something to do.

Itachi walked swiftly to a room with a large amount of scrolls in it that was hidden at the back of the compound. He quickly found the box he was looking for, and he pulled it out and walked towards the kitchen. Deidara and Tobi had just arrived, he surmised, judging by the two chakra forms that were now in the living room.

"Are you sure about this, Itachi-san?" Kisame asked, looking at the contents in the box that Itachi had just set on the kitchen table. Itachi had just shortly explained his purpose for the box to him when Kisame's face had become curious at its' presence.

"Hn."

Kisame's brow wrinkled in discontentment. "These are secrets," he hissed. "She'll realize that there are spies in Konoha."

"Konoha is very well aware that they have spies," Itachi replied briefly. "Sakura-san is the apprentice to the hokage – she probably knows exactly who our informants are."

"She's getting under your skin, isn't she, yeah?" Deidara asked. He was lounging lazily on the couch in the next room. "She is a gutsy one. Fun to battle."

"Deidara don't you dare try to spar with her while we're gone," Kisame warned. "She'll escape for sure."

"Oh calm down, yeah. I won't let her out of her room," Deidara replied. "I don't even like her. She killed Sasori."

"I'll make sure Deidara-senpai behaves!" Tobi interjected jubilantly. Itachi could hear Deidara sigh in the next room at his annoying partner.

Itachi's eyes shifted to Tobi who was now sitting on the same couch as Deidara. He always suspected something amiss with the newest member of the Akatsuki. He couldn't prove anything, though. So he was contented with just observing and avoiding the masked man as much as he could. Truly, the man was obnoxious.

"Fine. Please give her this box with her dinner tonight, Deidara-san. Kisame-san, let's go," Itachi said. Kisame stood and they left the house for their mission.

X

Sakura wasn't surprised when Tobi and Deidara came to the room with her dinner. After all, Itachi had said they would be guarding her in his absence. What did surprise her was the box of scrolls that the masked-nin had with him. Deidara didn't say anything as he set her dinner of tempura down. He motioned for Tobi to set down the box at the foot of her bed.

"Itachi-san said you were bored. He asked us to leave these with you, yeah," Deidara muttered. Then, they were gone.

Sakura ate her dinner warily as she stared at the box. What could he possibly leave me? Medical scrolls, perhaps? When she was finished, she crawled slowly to it and observed the contents inside. She gasped – they all had a secret seal on them that marked they were from Konoha, and they were marked as classified ANBU missions. Judging by the various colorations of the scrolls, some of them were very old and some of them were brand new.

She pulled one out, unsealed it, and began to read. Soon, she found herself crying in frustration, sadness, confusion, and anger. Scroll after scroll, hour after hour, Sakura read them all. Each time she did, she found herself getting angrier and sadder. To her surprise, Deidara came in the next morning with her breakfast, and she realized she hadn't slept at all.

"What is this?" she shouted, her hand shaking a scroll. Tears were welling up in her eyes as her heart ached in pain. "Why'd you bring these to me, you bastard?"

"I dunno, yeah. Calm down," he replied. "Itachi-san just told me to bring them to you. Like I said, he mentioned you were bored."

Sakura threw a scroll against the wall, hard. If she had any chakra, it would have broken the wall to bits. Unfortunately, the only thing she could do now was sob. Deidara looked nervously around, not knowing what to do. Of course, he knew what the scrolls contained. He knew from his previous altercations with the kunoichi that she would get upset with the information she was now reading. He hadn't, however, anticipated her sobbing all over the damned place.

"Do you want me to take them out?" he asked, a little more tenderly then he liked. Her entire body was shaking with her furious sobs.

"No," she choked out. "When does Uchiha-san get back?"

"Tomorrow."

"Leave them here until then, please."

Sakura had never marked the Uchiha as cynical. Of course, this was a man that had annihilated his entire clan in one fowl swoop. Nonetheless, she had not anticipated this. He was a heartless bastard. Once her debt was paid and she'd escaped, he would receive a chakra-infused kick to the groin for this.

Deidara left, sealed the room, and walked back into the kitchen where Tobi was. "She is not happy, yeah."

"Itachi-san doesn't like Sakura-san," Tobi observed. "And I don't think Sakura-san likes Itachi-san either. Why is she here, Deidara-senpai?"

"You know why," Deidara replied shortly, his blonde hair falling into his face.

"There's no one else who can heal Itachi-san's eyes?" Tobi asked, curious.

"Don't forget about that other reason, Tobi," Deidara reminded him.

Tobi's face went up as if he remembered something, "That's right, the other reason. Oh I do hope Sakura-san agrees. I like her. I don't want to have to kill her."

X

The mission hadn't been difficult – a simple assassination mission of a feudal lord. The payment was relatively large compared to the difficulty of the task, and Itachi supposed that the lord must have done something very wrong to elicit such hate from his wards. That was beside the point now – he was dead and the mission was successful.

When Itachi and Kisame walked back into the house, Deidara and Tobi were sitting at the kitchen table sipping tea. Deidara looked at him a little worried. Itachi quirked a brow at him questioningly.

"You should go see Sakura-san," Deidara muttered. "She's pissed, yeah. Been throwing furniture around down there for a day or so – wouldn't surprise me if she didn't have much furniture left"

Something inside of Itachi tingled with amusement. His attempts at discomfiting the kunoichi had clearly worked judging by the grave look on Deidara's face. Even Tobi was slumped a little. Kisame walked past him, sat down at the table, and poured himself some tea. "Have fun," he muttered.

Itachi glided down the stairs and unsealed the room. As he opened the door, a scroll hit the wall right next to his head at alarming speed. He glared at the kunoichi who was pressed against the wall at the opposite end.

Itachi was startled by the look that Sakura had in her eyes. It was one of complete hate, anger, and deadly intent. Instantly, his senses were on edge. Her eyes were dead – the usual light that was in them was gone. When she spoke, Itachi realized it was a different person completely.

"You. Bastard," the girl hissed. She was shaking uncontrollably. Her face was red and puffy from tears, but she seemed to be paying no mind to them now. Itachi was slightly taken aback by the absolute killing intent coming from deep within her voice, and he moved to contain her.

"Sakura-san…" his voice said quietly with warning.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed. The sound of his voice had incensed her further. There was a click and two small poofs of smoke by each of her wrists. Then, the chakra bracelets that had once been around her wrists, containing her, fell. Itachi was quick to move, but with chakra fueling her legs, she was faster.

Her right hand was headed directly towards his face. He saw it coming just in time, but he couldn't completely dodge the blow. While her hand never made direct contact with his face, her chakra grazed it. He felt two cracks and a pop, and determined she had fractured and dislocated his jaw, as well as broken his cheek bone.

Kunai in hand, he was prepared to slit her throat, when Kisame, Tobi, and Deidara flew into the room. Kisame and Tobi both grabbed one of Sakura's arms respectively and were pinning her to the back wall.

Deidara stood in front of Sakura, who was thrashing around. "Get off me!" she howled. Deidara grabbed her face in his hands and studied her closely using his scope that covered one eye. His legs were pinning hers down, but he could tell he wouldn't be able to hold on long.

"This isn't her," he stated flatly. He turned towards Itachi who was trying to ignore the pain and instant swelling of his left cheek.

Itachi walked up to them slowly. Deidara knelt down and fastened Sakura's legs with binds so she couldn't kick anybody. Sakura, though, was now starting to lose herself to unconsciousness. Itachi placed his right hand on her face and forced her to look at him. Suddenly, those dead eyes were replaced with shining pools of confusion and sadness.

"I-i-itachi-san?" she asked. Her eyes widened as if she'd just realized something. She pushed chakra into her right arm, throwing Tobi off of her with a swift movement, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry."

Her hand was moving slowly to Itachi's face as tears streamed consistently down her cheeks. "What did she do, what did she do?" she repeated as her soft medical chakra touched his face tenderly. Instantly, the pain that had been there was soothed and the fractures and dislocations were healed.

"Sakura-san, look at me," Itachi commanded. Her head nodded slowly as her sad jade eyes met his. Sharingan eyes were turning to pinwheels as he felt himself being sucked in.

X

Itachi was inside of her mind which was clearly in turmoil. As he gained his bearings he realized he was interrupting some sort of internal battle. He turned to see Sakura on the ground. She was sitting, but her knees were pulled to her chest so she was in the fetal position. Although her body was black in his genjutsu, her eyes had remained a brilliant green. Red tears were streaming down her face and her arms were clenching her hair.

"No…no…no…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she was whispering to herself.

Itachi felt the ground shake and he whipped around to see another Sakura there. This one had jade eyes as well, but they were the dead eyes of the girl he had seen in her bedroom. "Who are you?" he asked evenly.

The 'dead' Sakura as he now chose to call her laughed mirthlessly. "We have yet to be properly introduced. I'm inner-Sakura."

Itachi had remembered Sakura saying something like that when he first had invaded her mind. Realization dawned on him – this was a different person completely. "Don't you usually stay behind her mental block?" Itachi asked.

Inner-Sakura laughed again. "Yes, you see, Sakura shoved every negative emotion within her down for so long that her brain finally formed me to compart metalize with. Then, I realized, as I was reading those scrolls you gave to us, that you are the reason for my being. You are the reason behind Sakura's heart ache."

Itachi quirked a brow, needing more explanation. Inner-Sakura huffed. "YOU," she boomed, "Are the reason why Sasuke left. YOU are the reason why Naruto left after him. YOU are the reason why Kakashi began the search for Sasuke. YOU are the reason why Sakura was ignored. It all began one night thirteen years ago when you massacred your entire clan for power."

"Aa," Itachi said. Inner-Sakura blamed him for everything. Of course, not all of her information was false – but it wasn't completely accurate either. That was alright, though, it was none of her business. "And you come out when Sakura is distressed?"

"If she can no longer control herself, yes, I make an appearance. Over the years, though, with her training, she was able to bury me further and further. Then, one day, she found out how to use me to her advantage with her mental barricade. However, with what those scrolls said, she was no longer able to handle herself."

"She's weak," Itachi stated pointblank.

That statement was a mistake because the other version of Sakura – the true version – was now standing behind him. Red tears were still pouring down her face, "Don't you dare say that. I'm not weak."

"Then don't act weak, you sniveling piece of shit," Inner-Sakura hissed. Sakura was now pushing past Itachi and attacking her inner-self. "You should just give me control completely. No one needs you. No one wants you. I'm twice the shinobi you'll ever be. I'm stronger then you are, I have more chakra then you do. I'm even a better healer then you are."

Itachi took a step back. He realized that he was in the middle of Sakura's mind, and the way she felt about herself made his insides churn. No shinobi should second guess themself like this. This lack of self-esteem is what created inner-Sakura.

"You are a heartless, careless, rotten piece of myself that I wish didn't exist," Sakura screamed as her fist made contact with her inner-self.

Inner-Sakura laughed hollowly. "And you're bothersome. Even Itachi-san is annoyed by you. Every Uchiha you've met finds you annoying – Sasuke was annoyed by you, and now Itachi. Maybe you should just give up talking to people for a while you annoying piece of –"

Sakura felt two strong hands on her shoulders as she was being pulled away from the battle. Itachi was now in front of inner-Sakura, making hand seals quickly. "This is enough," he muttered. He pressed his hand to the top of inner-Sakura's head and with a poof of black smoke, she was gone.

X

"Sakura-san," she heard. She felt her body jerking lightly, like someone was shaking her awake. "Sakura-san," the voice chided a bit, goading her out of her sleep. She didn't fully recognize the voice, but it was familiar.

"C'mon, yeah, let her sleep," another voice said. That was Deidara, she realized. Her eyes snapped open, and she was staring at an orange mask. It was Tobi.

"Sakura-san! You're awake!" Tobi exclaimed.

She sat up groggily, and realized that they were no longer in her room in Water Country. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere north, yeah," Deidara answered. Sakura took in her surroundings carefully. She was in another bedroom that wasn't too dissimilar from the one she'd inhabited previously. This one was a little larger, though, and was made out of stone. She surmised they were probably in Earth Country.

Tobi's voice snapped her out of her observations. "You feeling okay, Sakura-san?" he asked. Sakura was surprised by the genuine concern in it.

"I'm fine, Tobi-san, thank you. How'd we get here?" she asked sleepily.

"You, Tobi and I flew," Deidara answered. Sakura understood that he meant with his bird. "Itachi and Kisame are walking here. We figured it would probably be good to give you and Itachi-san some space and days apart. He told us everything that happened."

Sakura groaned as all of the memories from her last interaction with Itachi came flooding back. She had been blacked out for a lot of it when inner-Sakura had taken control of her. When she came to, she'd realized that she must have hit Itachi judging by the swelling of his face. He'd allowed her to heal him, though, before he entered his mind.

She felt a wave of embarrassment and shame wash over her. No one was supposed to see that side of her – the shameful, angry side that she always kept buried unless she needed her. Itachi had been in her mind though, and he'd done something to inner-Sakura.

The hand-seals he had made came back to Sakura – she'd recognized them. Sakura searched and searched inside herself and she gasped when she came to the conclusion that inner-Sakura was no longer there.

AN: I hope I didn't make you want to vomit at how horrible this chapter was. Thank you for sticking with it and please just make it through chapter 4 before the story gets better. Please review!