Before anyone gets pissed — yes. I know. I've been gone for a long time. I was grounded.

And, yes, in fact, I DO realize that this is a short chapter.

Nevertheless, I hope you all like it. :) This story only has a few chapters left, so please enjoy!

Please read and review! :D

Sakura had had it. This was the last straw.

Uchiha Itachi was fucking dead.

Sakura had set the alarm clock on her night stand (kindly provided by Dumbledore) to wake her at five the next morning. Instead, however, she woke up past noon to find a note resting on the clock.

Do not strain yourself.

Unsigned, of course, but she knew who it was from.

Sakura had been pissed, but she'd gotten over it grudgingly. It was just his way of checking in on her, she'd told herself. He wasn't trying to belittle her; he was just concerned. No, he didn't watch her while she slept like a freakish stalker, and, no, he didn't think her incapable of taking care of herself.

Yeah.

Fat chance.

Then, when she'd stormed into the Great Hall and claimed her seat for lunch, the jerk had smirked at her. After glaring Black Flames O' Doom at him, Sakura had swallowed it like a bitter pill.

So he wanted to be annoying? Fine. She'd take it. And she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of getting angry, either.

Easier said than done, of course.

It had been slightly less difficult to deal with the infuriating man after that, but not by much. He was still an egotistical bastard, after all.

She's remained silent (fuming, mind you) when he 'accidentally' broke her chopsticks and made her use his. She's ignored his damnable smirks and the hidden taunts in his words. She'd put up with the way he watched her as though she were a piece of meat. She'd even stayed calm (somewhat) when he 'misplaced' her new dragon-hide gloves — WHICH SHE WAS STILL PISSED ABOUT, YOU STUPID PRICK.

But not now. Not this.

This was where she drew the line.

That bastard was going down.

He had worded it so perfectly that only Sakura (and Sasuke, because he and his brother thought alike) could pick up on the underlying meaning. The five shinobi had been examining the caged animals in the back of Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class — because, honestly, they had nothing better to do — when he said it. Itachi's comment was so out of the blue that it threw them all for a loop. Then, when Sakura proceeded to yell at him, the others (save for Sasuke) had no clue why she was so angry.

Itachi's comment, you ask? What could he have possibly said that made Sakura's temper explode. He, kind, considerate Uchiha Itachi, saying something that made the pink-haired nineteen-year-old want to castrate him? Blasphemy. Utter blasphemy, I say.

It went a little something like this:

"I believe that our feline companions are justified in sharing a single cage. Haran is clearly a worthy mate for Kurohyou. Their offspring would possess remarkable traits and abilities. I'm curious as to your thoughts on this matter, Sa-ku-ra."

Sakura probably could have told herself that his...statement was simply a coincidence. However, a few key factors argued otherwise.

A: Sasuke's head had snapped up the instant the words left Itachi's mouth, so she wasn't the only one to notice.

B: Uchiha Itachi never said anything without reason and/or carefully choosing his words.

C: The way he'd said her name sounded very...dirty.

D. He had been smirking at her.

E: Ergo, they both knew that he was not, in fact, talking about the cats.

Be default, any control she'd had whatsoever over her temper shattered.

That resulted in a lot of yelling, a lot of throwing, and a lot of violence in general. McGonagall abruptly deposited the five shinobi in Dumbledore's office.

"What seems to be the problem?" the elderly wizard inquired, blue eyes watching them all carefully from behind half-moon spectacles. A silent 'this time' hung in the air between them.

"Nothing," Sakura mumbled, still glaring at Itachi. "Just a minor misunderstanding." Itachi was obviously amused.

Dumbledore regarded the shinobi calmly, taking in the situation. Judging by Itachi's smirk, Sakura's scowl, the faint streak of red on her face, and Sasuke's pissed-off expression, the Headmaster had a good guess as to what had happened. He smiled slightly.

"I have agreed to provide hospitality for the next three days," he said, "but regrettably I will be forced to send the five of you away sooner if any further damage is dealt to the school."

Kisame shot her a look. "Good going, kitten." Sakura glowered back.

In all fairness, she hadn't meant to blow a giant hole in the wall. It just...happened. McGonagall's classroom needed another doorway, anyway.

Besides, it was all Itachi's fault.

"I propose that the two of you spend the day in the Room of Requirement and work out your issues."

Sakura froze, Sasuke looked even more pissed than before, and Itachi's smirk widened slightly, eyes on the former.

"What?" the kunoichi choked out incredulously, staring at Dumbledore as though the man was crazy. In that moment, she was certain that he knew what was going on.

"Should you be in need of something upon which to relieve your frustrations, the Room will provide it for you," he explained simply. "You would be free to take out any negative emotions in the school without actually damaging it."

Itachi was looking straight at Sakura, smirk in place. "A very logical resolution, I believe."

Sakura glared openly at him. "Not in my opinion."

Deidara and Kisame were genuinely confused. What was Sakura so worked up about? Okay, so maybe she didn't want her cat to have kittens with Itachi's. Big deal. Nothing to attempt to murder him over. The pair exchanged dumbfounded looks, wordlessly settling on an answer:

Sakura was a woman.

Women were weird.

And complicated.

And they were meant to unintentionally screw with men's minds.

Ergo, Sakura was complicated.

Period.

They nodded in agreement. There. Who ever said that men couldn't figure things out when they thought about it a little? Pssh.

.

.

.

It was then that Sakura decided the world hated her. She wasn't sure of her views on God, but she knew that someone or something up there just seriously liked to fuck with her. Maybe Hidan was right; maybe there was a death god named Jashin that was now making her life a living hell for fighting with the silver-haired man all the time.

She glared murderously at Itachi, calling him every curse word she could think of in her head. He merely smirked back, looking as if he had all the time in the world. Which he probably did.

They were both sitting on the floor in the Room of Requirement.

"Shall we 'talk it out,' then?" Itachi inquired, obviously amused.

Sakura's DIEDIEFLAMESGRR death glare didn't affect him in the slightest, serving only for further amusement. "No," she growled, arms crossed over her chest, fingernails digging into her biceps. "Why don't you actually do something useful? Help Deidara, Kisame, and me with our plans."

He raised an eyebrow smoothly, the insult bouncing off him as though he hadn't heard it. "And what exactly would these plans be?"

Sakura fixed him with a stern look, making sure he knew that she was serious. "You know the talks we've had about Madara?" He nodded slightly, sensing where the conversation was headed. "We've come to the conclusion," she said evenly, "that he needs to be taken down. We've already created the basic structure of the plans, but we still need to hammer out a few details. With you on our side, it would run much more smoothly, and we'd be able to cut down on some of the more taxing pieces —"

"Madara is already dead."

Sakura didn't keep talking after his explanation like many slow-processing people usually did. Instead, she stared at him blankly.

"He's...dead?"

Of course, Itachi probably still thought she was an idiot.

"Hn."

"...you killed him?"

"My brother and I, yes."

"...when?"

"Four days ago. Roughly an hour before we arrived to aid Kisame, Deidara, and yourself."

"...and you failed to mention this, why?"

"I saw no point in bringing up the topic."

"Our tyrannical leader is dead, and you killed him. You didn't think that was something we ought to know about?"

Itachi's gaze was blunt, as if saying, "I already explained my purpose, you idiot."

"You are such a bastard," Sakura hissed, fists clenched. "All this time, I've been unable to sleep and worrying over nothing—"

"Worrying?" Itachi cut in, forcing her to look at him. She didn't like the look in his eye. "Over what, pray tell?"

Sakura glared at him. "Nothing. Didn't you hear me?"

If Itachi had been anyone else, he would've rolled his eyes. She was an incredibly difficult woman, and he often wondered why he bothered putting up with her.

"I don't suppose," he murmured, capturing her gaze in his, "that you will cease your resistance and make my efforts less difficult?"

She looked as though she was mentally bashing his skull in. "No."

This, Itachi thought, was why he did it — why he put up with her. She was just so damn interesting. Every female he had ever met immediately caved into whatever he demanded of them; Sakura didn't. She fought back — often physically — until she realized that she had lost or until she got her way. She didn't grovel at his feet because of his name or looks, and she sure as hell didn't go easy on him. She was strong-willed and -minded — just like him.

That was a very rare trait in kunoichi.

And damn did Itachi like it.

o o o O O O o o o

Deidara lay flat on his back on the ground, throwing a dirt clod into the air and catching it over and over. He glared up at the sky, utterly bored out of his mind. Kisame sat a few feet away, leaning against a rather large tree. Samehada was stuck in the ground beside him. Sasuke sat on the second lowest branch in the tree in the same manner as Kisame, one leg dangling toward the ground. He, unlike Deidara, glared at everything.

It was silent on the Hogwarts grounds. Not a creature was stirring except for the hideous beasts stalking all throughout the Forbidden Forest, making god-awful noises in an attempt to scare away the shinobi. (The…things were still pissed about the Akatsuki members frightening them off when they were training in the forest a few days previous.)

Obviously, it didn't work.

It just served to piss them all off.

Fed up, Deidara stuck his hand in his clay pouch. The extra mouth on his palm bit off a small chunk of white clay and chewed methodically. After a moment, it spit out a tiny white bird. Deidara made a sign with one hand, making the beautiful agent of death expand to twice its original size. He chucked it at the Forbidden Forest, made another hand sign, and the fake bird exploded.

The howls and screeches immediately stopped. Deidara grunted.

"Damn weird beasts, yeah," he muttered.

Kisame snorted, and Sasuke wore a "How immature" expression. A few seconds later, Professor McGonagall rushed out of the castle.

"What happened?" she demanded. "I heard a —"

"Sorry, yeah," Deidara mumbled, not sounding sorry at all.

McGonagall glared at him briefly before whipping around and stalking back to the castle. The three shinobi faintly heard her speaking to another teacher. "No, no; nothing's wrong. One of those guardians just decided to set off a bomb for some god-unknown reason."

Kisame grinned widely, giving a rough laugh. "Good way to make a name for yourself," he jibed. "I can see it now, kid: 'Deidara the Destroyer'."

Deidara scowled at the fish-man as he chuckled. "Go jump off a cliff."