Hi! Sorry updates have been slow. I've started nursing school and it takes up a lot of my time. I will be posting one or two chapters every weekend, though. Thank you for reading this story! I do have a sequel in mind for it, but we're still a few chapters from the end, I think.

Chapter 11

Cold. Cold, no matter how I curl myself under the blanket and wrap it around me. I can't get warm. I can't sleep anymore. The room is dark. There's no window, I can't tell if it's day or night, let alone be able to deduce the hour. I toss and turn. I try to imagine the warmth of a campfire, of a bowl of ramen, a cup of tea, telling myself I'm going to get warm soon. I'm shivering so badly my teeth are chattering.

I hear Itachi shift and I feel bad for waking him up. I just can't stop shivering, shannarou! I pray he pulls an extra blanket out of his scroll to lay over me, but instead I feel cold air as he lifts the blanket. The mattress dips under his weight as he slips in beside me and pulls me closer. My back is against his chest and he's radiating heat. It sinks through my skin and into my flesh, melting it on my bones.

It takes a while, but eventually I start shivering less and less, until it stops. I feel my cheeks start burning as blood begins to flow within me again and I'm thankful for the darkness. I lie in his arms completely still, completely awake. I can't tell if Itachi has fallen asleep. Except for that night when I could have brought the hotel down around him and he would have still been dead to the world, he's a light sleeper. I've already woken him up once. I'd feel terrible if it happened again.

My lashes brush against the skin on his arm when I blink.

"Getting warm?" Itachi asks quietly. His lips are very close to my earlobe and he's breathing on my neck. He doesn't sound half-asleep. Maybe this is a novelty for him, as well. Being this close to someone. I'd like to think that.

I nod in reply to his question.

We spend a few minutes suffused in silence and darkness and warmth. I realize there's nowhere I'd rather be right now. It's selfish of me, but I can't help it. I don't know when I started caring about Itachi and it's frightening, because it feels so different from the love I had for Sasuke all these years. Is it still betrayal, since he never returned my feelings? I shake my head, pushing him away from my thoughts. Yesterday's events are still not something I want to recall.

"How did you know who I was when you found me?" I ask Itachi, voicing a curiosity that's been at the back of my mind for a few days now.

He doesn't say anything and I think he might have fallen asleep, but he sighs after a few moments. "I'll show you tomorrow," he says.

What does he mean by that? I wonder, but don't ask. I can wait until tomorrow.

"If you weren't going to use me as bait for Naruto, why take me along?"

"You're full of questions tonight," Itachi says, and I can feel his lips curling into a smile against the skin on my neck. Then the smile fades, and I grow restless waiting for him to continue. "I was selfish," he says.

Those words again. I'm having an incredibly difficult time picturing Itachi as selfish. I also find it necessary to ask for clarification, as it usually happens. Like his brother, Itachi is a man of few words.

"What do you mean by that?"

He smiles. "Tomorrow."

I sigh and close my eyes. Tomorrow seems years away from now.

I wake up envelopped in warmth and revel in it for a while. At first, I'm convinced Itachi is still holding me, the shape of his body moulded on mine, but minutes pass and I realize I can feel no steady movement of breath from him. My eyes open and I jump up, filled with panic that pumps adrenaline into my veins.

The room is lit by a flickering light and I see Itachi sitting at the table, reading something. I look beside me and realize my drowsy mind confused the blanket with his body. Baffled by my own ridiculousness, I blush under his curious gaze.

"Had a bad dream?" he asks.

"Something like that," I manage to say. "What are those? I didn't know Akatsuki members had paperwork to do."

Although Itachi smiles, I perceive a hint of wariness in it. He throws a folder, which lands in my lap, and I stare at it. It has my name on it. I don't understand. What is this? I place a hand on it, tentativelly, running my fingers over the smooth surface.

"I promised," Itachi says.

That, he did. I swallow the lump in my throat and open the folder. Pictures of me are in there, along with all of my past. Personal information, Academy scores, in-depth analysis of my personality and abilities, my current status as medic-nin trainee under Tsunade-shishou… everything.

"Where did you get this?" I ask, my voice quivering. This is highly sensitive information. It should never be outside of Konoha. Never.

Itachi has the grace to at least look guilty. "I've kept a very close eye on my brother throughout the years, ever since I left," he says. "That included you and Naruto, as his teammates."

"You couldn't have gotten this without help from the inside." My tone is betraying the horror and the anger bubbling up inside of me. Whoever gave this to Itachi is a traitor.

"I would never have allowed any of this to fall into the wrong hands," he says by means of justification for his action, as if that would excuse the action itself.

"I hope you did a better job hiding these than you did with that scroll containing information on the Akatsuki."

Itachi seems miffed by my sharp words, but he doesn't retort. I have the right to be angry and he knows it. "I suppose things are only going to get worse from here," he says, "so I'll also answer your second question. By being selfish, I meant that I took you with me for my own gain. I knew I was sick and that I couldn't hope to treat myself. I needed a medic. I came across you that day. Thanks to this file, I knew exactly who you were and what you were capable of. I didn't miss the opportunity."

I am appalled. Try as I might to think of something to say, there is nothing. On the other hand, I don't think he's ever said so many words to me in one go. It has a calming effect on me to realize that Itachi's opening up to me. I start breathing deeply, counting up to ten every time I inhale and exhale. Once, twice, three times. Then I look at Itachi. He seems tense and wary as he tries to discern the emotion behind my facial expression. I hold out my file.

"Just put this away for now," I say.