Responses to Non-Member Reviews
To nickle: Hm...never thought about that LOL. Thanks for bringing it up! To be honest, I don't think putting his precious Sakura in the Tsukuyomi is any strain at all! ;D Trust me, I can't believe it's ending already either. Hohoho, I like those stories too! :) Yes, I do want to keep this fic light, but also because I can't write lemon fics. They will probably turn out like "His weewee is big". Yep. Wonderful. No problem! Thank you!
To Neko: LOL I didn't know how else to put it, so "Touchy-touchy" had to do. I'm glad you found it amusing though. It served its purpose then! :) Yep! I'll be providing more information on the sequel in the epilogue.

Thanks for reviewing!

Standard Disclaimers Apply

The Sixty-Eighth Hour: Fun

When she was done hanging her jaw in awe at his laughter, he started to approach her again, and she moved back only to find the wooden structure still there. She inched to the side and felt the stake move along with her. Great.

"You're a genius, you know that?" she says, pulling her knees back to avoid any contact with him. (Because if she did make contact, her body would undergo another heat wave.)

"I get that a lot," he offers a light smile, one that she never knew he could even make.

Is Itachi enjoying this? She would never have imagined him having this much fun from…teasing her.

"You seem to be having fun," she commented dryly. "Too bad I'm not."

His smile turned into a smirk. "Look who's the one not speaking the truth now."

She pauses, because she realizes he's right. She is the one hiding her feelings now.

In her moment of hesitation, he traps her in another embrace.

The Sixty-Ninth Hour: Human

"Itachi, you're really not being yourself right now," she grits out, frustrated that he had caught her once again.

"What exactly is 'myself'?" He had his head against her shoulder, so his voice was slightly muffled, but the emotion in his voice was clear. He was lonely.

He had murdered his family at such a young age. How did she expect him to actually be okay with it all? Itachi was a prodigy, but he was human too.

When he lifts his head, he sees she is crying. "Silly, what is there to cry about?" he asks gently, wiping her cheeks with a thumb.

"You can…"

"Hn?"

"You can…you know, if you want."

"I can what, Sakura? Speak clearly."

She looks him in the eye. "You can treat me like home if you want. You're…always welcomed…in…my…arms…'cause…you know," she trails off at the strange gleam in his eyes. His sharingan were blazing with a different kind of fire she had never seen before. It wasn't filled with the usual blood-lust one would find in the eyes of a murderer. This fire was…warm, but not hot. It didn't burn; it only relieved.

He pulls her into him, and although she found herself in a rather awkward position, it was not uncomfortable at all. "Thank you," he whispers in a strained voice, as if he was crying himself. "Thank you, Sakura."

The Seventieth Hour: Hand

As he quietly mourns into her shoulder, she soothes him by caressing his back with slow, even strokes. After he pulls away, she still feels his warmth lingering all over her body. Examining his face, she realizes that he hadn't cried at all.

She thinks he's strong, being able to hold it in. If it were her, she wouldn't be able to.

He got up first, offering a hand to her. Gladly, she took it. If it wasn't for his support, she probably wouldn't have been able to stand up properly. Her legs were asleep from being seated there for so long, and she was also still a little riled up from all the kissing and hugging.

But then again, if it weren't for him, there wouldn't have been any kissing or hugging to begin with.

When she was finally up and steady, she realized he was still holding onto her hand. Either he didn't notice (which was highly unlikely since he was grabbing onto her hand pretty firmly) or he didn't want to let go.

She didn't let go either.

The Seventy-First Hour: Secret

"The Tsukuyomi is not used for these sorts of things," he suddenly explains. "It is meant for torturing the enemy."

"You have tortured me," she says, "in the beginning."

He doesn't show it, but he instantly regrets hurting her, even if the injuries were not real.

"It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"

She smiles a little at that. "No. I don't feel anything at all."

"Very well, but if they ask, tell them I did torture you."

She didn't need to ask who "they" referred to. "Oh, I'll tell them all about the torture. I'll tell them about how you kissed me, then pulled away and watched me struggle to get free so I could kiss you again...And I'll tell them about how you wanted to touch my-"

He put a finger on her lips, shutting her up immediately. "Let's keep that a secret between the two of us."

She smiled and pecked his finger lightly. "It's a secret."

The Seventy-Second Hour: End

"It's time."

She looked up. "So it is."

"When we leave, we will be enemies again." Although his tone was indifferent, his hand squeezed hers tighter. She squeezed back.

"Do we really have to?"

"It's for the best. You know that, Sakura."

She did. In fact, she knew that better than anyone. "But they'll understand, right? That you're not all that bad?"

He watched her silently as she tried to convince him to go back with her, and after a while, he offered an exhausted smile. "I am afraid I cannot do that."

The look in her eyes pained him. "I…I don't know what to do without you."

"We've only met for 'three days', Sakura. It doesn't even count as three days in reality. You cannot possibly say that."

"You've heard of 'love at first sight'. So why can't there be a 'love in three days'?"

He sighed, not because he thought she was out of her mind, but because he inwardly agreed with her, and she was making this departure way too hard for the both of them. "Sakura, we will meet again. And when we do, I promise I will try to come back with you."

Her eyes were glossed over with stubborn tears, tears that she wouldn't dare let down, but she was smiling.

He didn't know if he would be able to keep the promise. After all, their fate together was bound for the worst, but he would definitely try.

Because it was not the end quite yet.

Wiping the tears away from her eyes roughly, she smirked at him with a new-found confidence. "And by the way, I'm going to give you a big, fat hug when we're out of here."

The last thing she felt before the illusion ended was the smile of his lips upon her own.

A/N: Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be the last (the epilogue)! It will be a continuation from the first chapter (the prologue), so if you'd like, you can read that before reading the epilogue. That's just a heads up! :) Just a little more to go! Keep up those motivating reviews! ^^ Enjoy your day!