Summary

Kagome convices Itachi to let her trim up his bangs. He gives her a history lesson, and she discovers something that bothers her about him...

A/N: Yayz! Time for another update! And I just thought I'd get this little guy out of the way. So please enjoy!

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kisame winced when Itachi's fist connected with his jaw. Damn, but his partner was hitting harder than normal today. The blue man had to wonder why the Uchiha was so intensely focused on beating the crap out of him today.

'Oh yeah. Because Hidan knows about the girl,' the shark man thought, dodging a potentially deadly swing from Itachi and snapping a hand behind him. He stopped, though, when the smaller man immediately started going for his shuriken hiding spot. That's right; they'd said no weapons in their sparring match today. The large man huffed and instead swung his hand out to try and literally slap the crap out of the Uchiha. He failed, of course, but it managed to put some distance between them. It was exactly what he'd planned...

Until the Itachi clone behind him reached up and tapped a fist to his jugular.

"You lose, Kisame."

"... That's cheating, you little bastard!" the shark-man snarled, annoyed that he'd fallen into one of his partner's tricks so easily.

"We said no weapons. We never agreed about genjutsu or clones, Kisame," Itachi answered smugly, nudging the taller male's shoulder with a fist before the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"You always find some kind of loophole to do whatever the hell you want, don't you Itachi?" Kisame sighed, rubbing his side where the Uchiha had delivered a particularly viscious kick earlier. The shark man knew he would have several bruises in a few hours. He blinked, wondering something interesting.

"Itachi?" The Sharingan user turned to him, taking care not to wince when it pulled at his shoulder, "Why don't we have a medic?"

Itachi blinked slowly. That... was an excellent question. Why hadn't Pein recruited some sort of medic? It hit him a second later.

"Because no medic in their right mind would want to willingly join the Akatsuki," he replied, shrugging at the defeated look on his blue partner's face and walking away. It was true though. What medic would join them? Briefly, he entertained the idea of Kagome patching everyone up, then discarded the image. He'd never let her do something so reckless. Besides, she wasn't a medic.

She was a priestess.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kagome sighed at the less-than-desirable condition Itachi came to her in and opened the door wider.

"Let me guess. Training?"

"Very astute of you," he replied, stepping in smoothly and hanging up his black cloak. She immediately went into mother-hen mode when doing so made him wince slightly.

"You're so careless, Itachi! You need to take better care of yourself!" the priestess chided him, ushering him into the kitchen and sitting him down at a chair. She didn't wait for an answer, and instead pulled the medical kit out from under the sink. Ever since the incident with the knife, not to mention the time he'd let her patch him up after a particularly grueling session with Madara, she'd taken to storing the kit under the kitchen sink. It came in very handy, after all.

"I have yet to die, so I believe I'm doing a capable job," the Uchiha responded quietly, biting his lip when she rubbed antiseptic cream on a cut.

"Right right. So, who beat you up this time?" He hissed in annoyance and grumbled under his breath as she glanced at him in amusement.

"It's called sparring. No one would intentionally attempt to 'beat me up', as you say." Kagome laughed and waved him off, securing a bandage around his arm. He took a moment to hold the end as she began wrapping the cut.

"Well, it makes me wonder, when you come out here all messed up, that someone doesn't try to truss you up a little," she countered, smirking when he glared half-heartedly at her. Finishing that injury, she moved on to the next one. "Anyway, who was it this time?"

"I was sparring with my partner-!" he stopped when she snickered at him, a twitch beginning to develop in one eye, "What. Now."

"Your partner?"

"Yes, my-! That's sick!" He finally connected the dots, flushing in rage and spinning away from the laughing priestess, "If you'd ever met Kisame, you'd never had said such a thing!"

"I'm sorry!" she laughed, clutching her stomach, "but you walked right into that one, Itachi!"

"Not. Amusing," he ground out, avoiding her when she finally calmed down. If this was the abuse he was going to suffer...

"Okay! I'm sorry! I won't do it again!" He slapped a hand to his red face as she pulled his other arm closer. Swiping antiseptic cream on the new injury, he tensed when she smothered a giggle.

"Don't tense up! I'll never get done if you keep squirming!" For the rest of his injuries, he stayed perfectly still, letting her fix him up here and there. When she got to his shoulder, she squinted closely at it then sighed.

"This probably hurts, doesn't it?" He shrugged, agitating the quickly forming bruise, and grit his teeth to keep from wincing.

"It will heal over time." Kagome prodded it gently then narrowed her eyes sharply.

"Let me... try something." She stepped even closer to him and put a hand on the injury. Itachi gulped. She was close enough that he could feel the heat radiating between them. All in all, it was not an unpleasant feeling, but one he didn't need right at the moment.

'Concentrate, Uchiha. She'd just trying to help you that's... all?" Her hand flared brightly with a pink light and she closed her eyes to take a deep breath. What was... she doing? A warming sensation started tingling in his shoulder, washing away the pain and the ache there. Then it slowly swam over the rest of him, filling his with a sense of overall peace and contentment.

He was even breathing a little easier, the pain in his lungs lessening ever so slightly. And whatever she was doing, he never wanted it to stop. Sadly, she couldn't keep the feeling up forever, and the tingling sensation slowly faded until he was left almost breathless in awe.

"Yep. Still got it," Kagome whispered, watching her hand carefully as the glow dimmed and sparked out, smiling sadly in rememberance. Itachi watched the emotions flicker across her face rapidly, inwardly wondering how she was able to feel so much in such a short amount of time.

"That... What was that?" he finally asked, snapping out of his daze and shifting away from her just slightly. Apparently, whatever she'd done had made him lean very close to her. It was a little embarrassing to think that he hadn't even been consciously aware of the act.

She smirked and sauntered away, setting the first aid kit back under the sink. "I'm a priestess, Itachi. I don't just purify stuff. I am capable of healing... to an extent."

"I... see." In a way, it was similar to what a med-nin was able to accomplish. Kagome came back over to him and absently ran a hand through his bangs.

"You should let me trim them up. That way, you can see a little better," she murmured, smiling warmly and patting the top of his head like a child. He gave in, if only to keep her from asking again. She'd been doing so every time he came over to visit recently.

Humming quietly to herself, Kagome set about accomplishing her task. It didn't take very long to trim them up, but she still took the time to thoroughly run her hands through the silky texture cascading down his back. The moment her fingers started running through his hair, he was a boneless heap and completely unwilling to say no to her. How she was able to do it, he had no idea. All he wanted was for her to never stop that.

"Itachi?" He grunted to acknowledge her, and she continued, "Your Sharingan? What is it, exactly?" Now, that was a question he could easily answer. He'd actually been waiting for her to ask about it for some time now, and he had a good answer prepared.

"It is a family trait passed down from generation to generation. It's called the Sharingan because it has the ability to instantly copy any ninja technique. There are other clans that have their own Blood-Line Limit, but mine is specifically born among the Uchiha clan. It is said that the original ancestor was capable of some interesting techniques. Each one is slightly different, as it accomodates to the user. Mine, for example, is highly genjutsu-based. It's a technique that I use more often than not." At her confused look, he proceeded to explain. "Genjutsu is an illusionary technique. It allows the user to control the senses of their opponent, making them believe they are seeing, hearing, even feeling something that isn't real."

"That's... pretty interesting," she replied, blinking in thought then getting an odd look on her face, "Have you ever tried to use it on someone that couldn't be affected by illusions?"

"There has never been anyone that could not be affected by the Sharingan in some way or another," he answered, furrowing his brows slightly.

"Well... I don't know if I'm affected by it or not, but I am a priestess. See, I have this rare thing where I'm immune to illusions," Kagome explained softly, ducking her head subconsciously at deliberately revealing such an important thing, "I don't really know how to explain why I can, but it comes in handy when I need it."

The Uchiha's dark eyes narrowed sharply. The way she put it made it sound like someone had deliberately tried to put her in a genjutsu before. And as soon as he found out who, he was going to kill them. "That's... something I'd like to test out someday, if you don't mind playing along?"

She glanced up at him, noting the gleam in his eyes and nodded shyly. "Okay. If it might help you, I wouldn't mind."

Subconsciously, he filed away the extremely important information about the dark-haired girl. If what she said was actually true, maybe he could adapt a way to become unaffected by Madara's genjustu. Maybe even block the Magekyou to an extent.

That would be worth considering. Especially if he could get an edge on the older Uchiha.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"It's a nice day today," Kagome commented offhandedly, shading her eyes against the bright sun and watching her breath puff away from them. Even though it was still cold, the late February afternoon was bright and had the first beginnings of spring. He nodded and "Hnn"ed in agreement. It was a fairly nice day today.

"Hey Itachi? When the snow melts, what does it become?" He gave her an odd look and had to wonder at the goofy grin on her face.

"Water."

"Nope! It becomes spring!"

"No. When snow melts, it turns into water, Kagome," he countered, raising a brow at the black look she sent him.

"No it doesn't! It's spring when the snow melts away!" she argued, glaring when he shook his head.

"You're wrong. When winter melts, it becomes spring. When snow melts, it's water. Your confusing seasons and science," the Uchiha stated blandly, stepping to the side when she reached over to try and slug him.

Kagome huffed, growling weakly at him before finally turning away to try and ignore him. He stopped himself from snorting at the childish display and instead messed her hair up in retaliation.

"Itachi!" she whined, angrily trying to pat down her frazzled hair.

"I have to go." She stopped suddenly, and gazed up at him with huge sad eyes. Damn, but she was hard to resist when she did that!

"Already?"

"... Sorry," he replied, avoiding her searching eyes and trying to make their goodbye as painless as possible. She, of course, ruined it by colliding with him in a crushing hug. For a moment, he was frozen in shock. Then, when she'd rested her head against his chest, he snapped out of it and awkwardly held her back.

The priestess's brows furrowed and she resisted the urge to pull away and stare at his chest. Something... His heart sounded... off. Shaking herself out of it, she savored the moment for just a little longer.

"Be careful, okay? And come back soon!" Kagome whispered, raising up on her toes and kissing him on the cheek. His face was dark red in about two seconds.

"R-Right." How the hell was he supposed to keep from getting even more attached when she did stuf like that? Disentangling himself from her, he started back to base before he made an even bigger fool of himself than he'd already done.

'How is it that she can affect me so much? I just... don't understand,' he thought, putting a hand to his cheek and remembering how soft her mouth had felt against it. He proceeded to physically slap himself.

"Get it together, Uchiha. You're not going down that road." Nodding to himself, he made his way slowly back to the hideout. The truth was, he was honestly afraid that he was already halfway down that particular road.

He'd made a vow to himself though. His brother was the most important thing to him. Everything else had no place in his plans.

Too bad fate was deciding differently.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

A/N: And little bit by little bit, they're learning a little more about eachother as they grow a little closer. Thanks for being so patient, everyone! I'm glad you've stuck with me on this so far!

Did you guys see that blatant line I stole from Fruits Basket (Furuba)? Did you also see where I butchered the possible romance? I blame Itachi. He's really got no clue when it comes to sweet moments, does he?

Please kindly leave a review. They inspire me to continue working.