Comatose by Skillet
A/N: I really gotta stop it with the rock songs. Next, it is so Alanis Moriasette, even though that isn't how you spell her name.
Itachi was a reasonable person; emotions hadn't affected him very often in his life. He could remember being a little-kid, like all little kids, who would cry when something bothered them. He remembered his feelings for his younger brother, Sasuke. Yes, love was as big a part of his life as it was in others' lives.
It just wasn't like this.
The first time had been a complete accident. He had been delirious for days, suffering from more pain than even he could handle. Pain in the eyes was easy to succumb to; he had been suffering with it for a very long time. One day, he had just snapped. He had gone into a mumbling state, unwilling to get up from his crouch against a rather random wall.
The rest of the Akatsuki had freaked.
And that's when she was brought in. Sakura Haruno was kidnapped because she was the best medical ninja in all the Hidden Villages, only she stood a chance of healing his eyes. Under threat, she was the one who had crouched next to him, touching his eyes and his head.
He didn't remember a thing.
Breathing life, waking up, his eyes opened.
He recognized his surroundings, he realized the pain was gone from his eyes, and he noticed that he could see without a blur. The Sharingan was not activated. And then he had felt the warmth on his left side. The pink-haired kuniochi had passed out from chakra-depletion at some point, falling to curl up beside him against the wall.
That was the moment that changed everything.
Like I said earlier, Itachi was not one to let emotion dictate him. He often went as far as avoiding emotional circumstances. They never led to anything good.
This development was no different.
Being sure this pink-haired medic had no idea where she was, or how to get back, Konan had delivered her to Konoha's doorstep. It was a simple task, no harm seemed done.
He had never been much of a sleeper, he often only received four or less hours, but it had always seemed like enough. Until, of course, then. That night, he couldn't sleep. His wish to dream had suddenly left him; the escape from reality was missing something. He spent two weeks trying to find the problem. Along with those two weeks came blurry vision and the pain, it was a relapse.
He moved himself out of bed one morning, due to the glowing of his Akatsuki ring, and made his way toward the meeting room. There, projections of several members were waiting for him. Konan was the one directing the meeting that morning.
"Sakura Haruno has been deemed a traitor." She stated, looking down at a folder in her hands. "Apparently, the Konoha council decided that healing one of us, whether forced or not, is out of the question. Not even the Hokage could stop it."
"What's going to happen to her?" Tobi asked.
Konan looked at the projection of Pein. "She managed to escape her execution."
"My eyes are deteriorating." Itachi stated.
"We get a new member then?" Tobi asked, his excitement easily seen.
Pein looked toward Deidara. "Bring her in."
And that is how he found himself laying in his bed, his head in the kuniochi's lap. She was a very sad individual, still trying to fathom her new missing-ninja status, but the pull of somebody's need for her skills was too great. The warmth that came from her green glowing hands felt like the most wonderful thing in the world. He was soon asleep.
He dreamed of waking up to see her asleep beside him again.
That reality was not what he woke up to.
Two weeks later, his head was cradled once again in her lap. Once again, he had gone with no sleep. With the feeling her hands imparted on him, he realized the thought he had been missing before unconsciousness took him.
This girl was like a drug, in a way. He wanted to wake up next to her. Her hands could take away the pain he felt everyday. He wanted her beside him.
He didn't like the thought.
He went four months without his drug, four months surviving on disturbed and broken sleep, four months avoiding her.
He only went four months before the pain got to him again. By then, he was often found mumbling the following words. "I hate feeling like this, I'm so tired of trying to fight this, I'm asleep and all dream of…"
"Itachi-san?" the once sad girl asked, kneeling beside him. He wasn't as bad as he had been the first time she healed him. "Please let me heal you?"
He didn't give a verbal reply, instead pushing the hand she had extended as far from him as he could get it.
She continued to ask, only relenting after months of asking. That's when he came to his next realization. He didn't really want to live with this pain, the pain she could take away. He didn't want to breathe unless she was there beside him.
Seven months of pain was plenty for him. Weakly, with shaking legs and a headache that felt like it would never leave, he stood up, seeking out her room. It was the one at the far end of the hall. She wouldn't be out on a mission; she wasn't allowed to leave the hide-out. Without knocking, he stumbled inside, landing in a heap a few feet in.
He was half-aware of the girl gently turning him over onto his back and lifting his head into her lap. The feeling that spread through his head was so welcoming that he, of all people, actually smiled. Yes, he was happy, for the pain was going away. His hand came up to hold onto her wrist, gently so as not to stop her.
Because of the hold, he found her there after a dream.
"Itachi-san?" she asked, "Are you okay?"
"Tell me that you will listen." He pleaded without showing it in his voice. "How I adore you, how I think of you…how I need you. Your touch is what I'm missing. The more I hid, the more I slowly began to loose you. Thank you."
"You are welcome." She replied.
"Stay."
"Of course."
Years later, he always awoke with her beside him. He had once not wanted to sleep, not wanted to dream, because his dreams didn't comfort him anymore. The way she made him feel…"Waking up to you never felt so real."
He was comatose, he'd never wake up without an overdose of Sakura.
A/N: I had two ItaSaku requests, I'm pretty sure both of them came from Iridescent Rain.