About twenty minutes had passed since Itachi had gone into the bathroom until the water finally stopped. Sakura was waiting patiently, but at the same time, very eagerly, to take her shower. The situation she was in made her very uncomfortable. That's to be expected though. Anyone still in their right mind that was being held captive by one of the most dangerous criminal organizations known to the great nations would feel the same as she did.
How do I keep getting myself into these situations? It's always me. Sakura sighed at her thoughts. Naruto and Sasuke never got into trouble the way she did. Sure, each of them had run into some hard and intimidating situations, but they had always been able to get themselves out of them. Sakura, on the other hand, always relied on her teammates to get her out of trouble. She hated feeling so weak and having to depend on others to keep her safe. Once again, her current predicament further proved that she was almost completely incapable of fending for herself. It made her want to cry.
As thoughts found their way in and out of Sakura's mind, the bathroom door opened, drawing her attention. Itachi stood at the opening with only a towel around his midsection. Sakura immediately began blushing like mad, but the emotionless man kept the same cool composure he always had. In fact, the innocent girl would have gone as far as to say he didn't even see any problem with what was happening.
Itachi looked the pink-haired and red-faced girl over thoroughly, before making a statement.
"When I walked into the bathroom, your face was red, and now, as I'm walking out, it is the same way. You can take a shower. No need to stay embarrassed when you're about to take care of the problem you think you have."
At first, Sakura was confused as to what he was talking about. Then, she remembered her excuse for her previous blush.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. You probably don't understand because, one, you don't really ever experience feelings like this, and two, I'm a girl. Girls can be weird sometimes, ya know? Just worrying about things that don't even matter..." Sakura knew she was rambling, but it was somewhat distracting her from Itachi's greatly exposed form. She continued talking as she picked up the bag that she had packed and made her way to the bathroom. "You'll have to excuse my obsessive hygiene issue. I've always been like this. My mom used to call me a cleanliness cop. Funny right? Oh, right, you have no sense of humor.. NOT TO OFFEND YOU! I mean, uh, I'm going to take my shower now!"
With that, Sakura slammed the bathroom door shut, leaving a confused Itachi on the other side. She was just happy to finally be able to take her shower. She turned the water on and stripped down. Once the water was the right temperature, she stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain across so that the water wouldn't end up on the floor outside.
The water felt good against the kunoichi's aching muscles. The shower area was fairly large. It was more than big enough to hold two people. Sakura liked it. As the water washed away the dirt and filth from her skin, it also washed away some of her fear and overly emotional thoughts.
After Sakura was nice and clean, she turned off the water, got a towel, dried off a bit, and used the towel to cover some of herself as she looked into the fogged up mirror. She felt fresh. The only thing that physically looked wrong with her at the moment were the bags under her eyes. It was nothing some sleep couldn't fix.
She stood staring at herself for a little, then began to use her finger to write things on the mirror since it was still quite fogged up. All of a sudden, the bathroom door swung open. Sakura let out a loud, surprised gasp as she saw Itachi standing in the doorway staring at her.
"W-what do you want?"
Sakura asked her question as calmly as she could, but she felt rather violated and was slightly frightened.
"You were in here for some time after I heard the water go off," Itachi started, averting his eyes over to the mirror. "I decided to come in and make sure you weren't trying anything. What is this writing about?"
"Ah, I don't know. I guess I just got bored and lost in thought. Oh, and I just want you to know something. If you weren't an extremely strong S-ranked criminal, I would beat you to a pulp right now."
"Why is that?"
Sakura scanned over Itachi for a moment. He had to be kidding, right? He walked into the bathroom unannounced and before she had gotten dressed. He had to know that was the problem.
"You seriously don't know what the issue is right now?"
"I have no reason to joke with you."
"Well..." Sakura trailed off a bit before continuing, "You just randomly burst into the bathroom."
Itachi waited for her to continue, thinking she would reveal a deeper meaning. After a minute of silence, he spoke.
"Explain what about it is an issue."
"I COULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY NAKED! PRIVACY IS KEY TO ME! I would have been extremely embarrassed if you had walked in and I didn't have this towel wrapped around me."
Sakura watched as crimson eyes looked her up and down and then met with her own foam green orbs. For some time, the staring continued. Both Sakura and Itachi seemed to be searching for something in the other, but what exactly it was, neither of them knew.
"I shall let you finish dressing," was what Itachi said right before he walked out of the bathroom and closed the door. Sakura knew to hurry and put on her clothes, so she did just that.
Once finished, she walked out of the bathroom to find Itachi sitting on the bed reading over a scroll on genjutsu. He simply let his gaze fall onto her very briefly to let her know he acknowledged her. She slightly nodded in return, and continued walking to the far side of the bed.
Sighing, Sakura plopped down lazily. This time, her dark haired captor put down his scroll to focus on her.
"It seems you have already made the assumption that you are sleeping in this room with me, which is correct, but, how do you know I won't have you sleep on the floor? My job isn't to make you comfortable; it is to get my eyes healed."
The criminal's victim laid still for a moment, considering what he had just said. Her thoughts at a conclusion, she replied.
"Healing your eyes isn't going to be easy, especially under the conditions. I need good rest to pull it off."
"You're very persuasive," Itachi let a light grin force its way onto his face before finishing. "I'll allow you to sleep in the bed. Just don't bother me in my slumber."
Just five minutes after the short conversation, Sakura was asleep. Itachi examined her. Her hair and eyes were, at the least, beautiful. Even he had to admit that. He found some inspiration in her sleeping form and pulled out his art paper and drawing utensils. After thoroughly taking in her image one more time, he began to draw.