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To Guest: Haha, you know I like my stockholme syndrome fics. :) *creepy smile* LOL Thank you! I will!
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To SoundlessWind: I really enjoying writing about a strong Sakura. I feel like she never gets enough screen time. :( I will try my best! Thanks for the suggestions!

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The Twenty-Third Hour: World

She didn't expect much from this barren land. She also didn't expect Itachi to have enough creativity to spice up the illusion a little.

"I have already made many changes. Are you still not satisfied?"

"I don't see how turning my breath visible will satisfy me." She sighed, breath still coming out in white puffs of air. "Okay, maybe it's a little amusing."

He kept quiet about the real reason for adding that function in.

"Why don't you add a garden or a forest?" She pointed towards the horizon, flinching when she saw the scars all over her arm.

"Wasted energy," he provided before turning his attention to her arm. "Do not strain yourself."

"You say it as if you weren't the one who inflicted the injury on me."

Itachi never expected he would be saying this in his lifetime. "Your injuries are all an illusion. You said so yourself."

"It's not like it hurts a lot, but just because it's an illusion doesn't make it any less of an injury."

He couldn't help but see the double meaning in her words.

Just because this was an illusion doesn't mean he shouldn't treat it like a world, a world worth little details like gardens and forests.

The Twenty-Fourth Hour: Common

"You're different," she says as they walk across the arid terrain. He doesn't ask, but she knows he is urging her to go on. Reluctantly, she did. "You're…completely different from Sasuke."

"My brother is still young. He has much more to learn," he finally replies, staring off ahead of them.

"I don't think it's just the experience," she insists. "There's more to it than that. For starters, you actually care."

He didn't need to ask about what, or better yet, about who. They were, after all, on the same wavelength. "I do."

There was a pregnant pause. Then, "I care too. About Sasuke, I mean."

He didn't smile. He only acknowledged. "Then we have something in common."

The Twenty-Fifth Hour: Peculiar

"I can say the same about you," he says, coming to a full stop. She stops too, because she wants to hear him out.

"What do you mean?"

"You're…different as well."

She tilts her head endearingly. "I am? I seem pretty average to me."

You are beyond average, he wants to say. Instead, he says the other truth to the answer. "You are not afraid of the Tsukuyomi, or of me."

She just stares at him, but her expression seems to drop a bit. Then, turning away, she gives him a short response. "I'm just foolish."

The Twenty-Sixth Hour: Foolish

Maybe admitting her foolishness was a bad idea after all. How could it not? She was basically getting a lecture from Itachi right now.

"Foolish is my brother. Foolish is the vessel of the kyuubi. You are not foolish."

She almost laughs, because to her, she is the most foolish out of all of them. As young and inexperienced as she had been, she had made no effort in improving herself and instead had spent the effort constantly chasing after Sasuke. After he had left, she had trained hard in hopes of catching up to her teammates, and for a while had believed she has surpassed them, but she sees now that she still has ways to go.

"You're wrong, Itachi. I am foolish."

Seeing her fallen expression, he sighs. "You were once foolish. As a genin, you had a weak resolve. That was indeed pathetic." She didn't seem hurt by his words, because she herself knew best how incompetent she had been as a child. "However, you took initiative. Your eyes took on a spark brighter than anything I have ever seen. Your will strengthened. And today, you stand, confident and tall, in my genjutsu. To me, that is certainly admirable."

She didn't notice the small smile that crept up to her lips, but he saw, and that was enough.

The Twenty-Seventh Hour: Bitter

The pain from the small (or relatively small) torture session has not receded yet. As the Slug Princess's apprentice, she had built a very strong endurance for pain over the years, so it did not bother her too much.

So not-so-surprisingly, yet surprisingly because it was Itachi, he was the one who brought up the topic of her wounds. "Do they hurt?"

She raises an eyebrow at him, because she has almost forgotten that the injuries even existed. They were negligible compared to the burns, sprains, and scars she had accumulated over the course of her training.

"Your wounds. Do they hurt?"

It was strange. She did not take Itachi to be such a caring person. She knew he cared about Sasuke, but to an enemy like her? She let a bitter laugh escape her lips. "It's your job to make them hurt, no?"

His eyes seem to darken then, his eyebrows furrowing in distaste. "Do you take me for someone that low? I gain no merit in harming you."

She didn't know if he had merely forgotten or if it was on purpose, but he seemed to have missed the fact that harming her would rouse the kyuubi vessel's anger, which seemed like a pretty good merit to her.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I love reading reviews!