I don't own Naruto and characters etc.

I do own this story so please don't copy it exactly, but you're welcome to as many of my ideas as you like.

With the greatly apreciated permission of BlackElement7, CrimsonSakuratree I begin writing what I hope will be an amazing Story! (Check out their stories (my inspiration): Not Weak!, Untold Secrets).

Chapter 42 -

"It's a long story."

"It'll be even longer if you don't start now." Tsunade told him.

Itachi sighed. "After I left the bar, Sakura, as you know... Got drunk. I don't know what happened specifically after that, but she was with Genma-"

"Genma!? You left her drunk with Genma!? I can't believe you."

"I know." He lost a bit of his stance. "And I went and lay down in the training fields... And Anko was out training, so we talked, and eventually, we started to spar."

"And you hit her with shuriken..." Tsunade began piecing it together, Anko having checked herself into the hospital with mild wounds about 10 minutes before."

"I hadn't meant to hurt her. And so I tried to quieten the wound with my shirt... when Sakura found us, it could have appeared..."

"I see."

"She had been Inner, I imagine too escape the drunkeness. However, after she turned to run, she transformed, fell and hit the road."

"Which explains the shock to her cranium and wrists."

Tsunade wrote the recount briefly on a sheet of paper and put iton a clipboard at the end of Sakura's bed.

"I have other patients, but I want you to be here when she wakes up."

"Hn." He settled on Sakura's bed, placing a slender hand against her neck.

"You're such a lie Sakura, appearing as frail and harmless as you do. If your enemies could see you now."

He set his hand on her forehead feeling for her temperature.

It was extremely high.

---

'Sakura! Sakura! This, it hurts like nothing I've ever felt.'

'I know. I feel it too.'

'What is it!?'

'I-It's heartbreak Inner-chan. And you need to help me.'

'Help you? I couldn't feel more useless, more helpess, more... weak!'

---

Itachi was very worried.

If he didn't find a way to cool Sakura down quick, things were going to get bad.

He picked her up and carried her, running through the hospital corridor and past the front desk.

He burst through the front doors and into the cold night air, vanishing and reappearing in the same forest they'd first met.

Itachi lay Sakura own in the newly grown grass, resting her head on his lap.

He touched her head again, but she was still burning.

Sakura's tank top was the first to go, followed by her shoes.

He needed to cool her down now.

Brushing the hair from her face, he fanned her, calling to her, begging her to wake.

Just then, her eyes began to flutter. She was finally coming to.

Her breathing was uneven and sharp, intervened occasionally by choking or wimpers.

"Sakura-chan."

"I'm sorry! She screamed in her broken and tearful voice. "Genma didn't touch me, I swear!"

"I know. And Anko and I were only-"

"No, it's no buisness of -sob- mine. You're a man Itachi-kun. I can't be expected to understand your needs." Sakura closed her eyes.

"No, Sakura-chan. Look at me. We were sparring. Nothing happened. I took off my shirt to stop the blood of a hit."

Sakura suddenly looked quite ashamed, breakinginto tears.

"I'm sorry-"

"Stop. Stop apologising.This isn't your fault. It isn't anybody's fault, but mine."

"But. If this was what hapened." Sakura coughed.

Itachi just watched her.

"If this was everything we've achieved. Everything you've won. Then why?"

"Why?"

"Why did you come, here, to me. Why are you still here, with me?"

"It's just..."

"What, Itachi? And... why?"

"I promised myself that I'd never make that mistake again."

Sakura said nothing.

"I would never let myself make the mistake I made with Sasuke, again."

"I don't understand." Sakura shook her head. "What does this have to do with-"

"Everything! It has everything to do with what happened to Sasuke.It was exactly the same... when I found you."

Sakura just looked confused and lost, rubbing herarms rapidly, trying to settle the goosebumps, rupturing across her skin.

"There was the same thing about you. I had to be with you, to, to--"

"To fix me." Sakura said slowly.

"That's not it."

"No, it is. And you know it is don't you. I was a challenge."

"Have you heard nothing I've said!? You weren't just a game. You were a burden, somebody I couldn't leave as..."

"As?!"

"Neglected potential."

Itachi looked away.

"Why not. You didn't have to train me, you could've killed me... Unless, unless I was a replacement. I was merely a comfort. You thought, that by saving me,nurturing me, you could redeem yourself. You could make abandoning Sasuke 'okay'. That was the mistake, that you promised yourself you'd not repeat."

"Yes."

"Yes? Is that all I was?"

"That's all you were. but you're more now."

"Oh yes. Thank you sensei! Thanks, for everything..." Sakura turned and sobbed weakly, before petalling away, no doubt to pay Sasuke a visit.

I thought you guys kinda deserved a longy, for all my absense so i stayed up extra -yawn- late to write that for u...

Well, I'm totally drained, both mentally and physically, I hope I havnt left too many puntual, grammatical, spelling orvocab mistakes. If so, my humblist apologies.

night guys:O yawn