Kisame didn't correct her, but hustled up the stairs. Being taller, he kept an easy pace with her angry walk.

"Look, what I told you was true. Itachi is in love –"

Sakura swatted a hand as if he were a fly, cutting him off. "With Izumi, his betrothed, as he should be. I really am happy for him, Kisame." No, she wasn't happy, but she should be.

"He wasn't in love three weeks ago. Izumi and he rarely spoke. They are not close and Itachi was definitely not happy with the arrangement."

She paused. Wait, what? Unhappy? She looked up at Kisame, attempting to discern any sign of a lie.

"He can't get out of it," Kisame said, a bitter smile on his face. "Well, he can, but he won't go against his family. He didn't know what he was missing. And then lo-and-behold you show up on the scene with whiskers and honestly, the guy can't stop smiling. It's kind of creepy."

Sakura put a hand to her hip. Did he really expect her to believe this bullshit? "He's betrothed."

"You don't understand."

"Understand? What is there to understand?" She tapped her foot in impatience.

"They've little to nothing in common except quidditch. They've differing opinions on everything from types of magic to political parties to the number of kids they want to have."

"They've talked about kids?" Sakura's shoulders curled.

"That wasn't the point," Kisame sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Can you imagine living your life with someone you tend to disagree with on a daily basis without some spark? Hell."

"You're being dramatic, they'll work it out."

"They've been like this for six years. Longer, according to Sasuke. They were friendly as kids, but they barely tolerate each other now. They've gotten to the point where they say as few words as possible to each other instead of attempting to work out differences. They've given up."

"We're all still kids." Sakura turned away. "And that's just another lie. I watched Itachi tonight. He loves her. "

Kisame poked her on the shoulder hard.

Ouch!

"Idiot. He loves you."

"What?" she asked, eyes wide. And just for a moment, heat rose to her ears as she pictured Itachi — perfect, hot prefect of Ravenclaw – with an underperforming messy Sakura Haruno. Her almost re-energized heart sputtered out. Before she could form words, Kisame gripped her arm and forced her to face him.

"I am telling you the truth. Please just hear me out."

She turned and ripped her arm out of his grip, and then started walking, this time down a hallway, forcing her pace to become even faster. She couldn't afford to listen to anymore of his shit or she'd burst into tears.

He just had to lengthen his stride to keep up with and then pass her. He stopped her in her place by getting in front of her. "Here." He shoved a piece of paper into her hands.

A picture.

"I don't want –"

"That is the only one I never sold. The only one in existence. I didn't even copy it for Mikoto."

Sakura looked down at the photo. As the bunny, she was out of focus, which was probably why Kisame hadn't sold it. But Itachi's image was crisp, and he was smiling. Happy. Leaning down to give her a kiss.

She stopped herself from crumpling the photo as she watched the replay.

"He's changed a lot in the short time he's known you."

And now that Kisame had brought it up, she realized he was right. Just a bit. Itachi did smile more now, even when he just filled in his homework in his armchair, more than he ever had in the past. Not his dimply, evil smile, just a slight tilt in lips. Like maybe, just maybe, he was enjoying his life. A stark contrast to the stern gaze she remembered from a year ago.

And when she was with him as a rabbit. Well, it was like he couldn't stop laughing. Like the weight of the world couldn't hold him down anymore. Itachi in the photo laughed again, leaning down to press his lips against her fur.

"Keep it, it's yours. I feel bad about selling the photos, since it caused some sort of rift, but I made a killing and I'm not going to cut you in – Kakuzu already took too much of a cut from me. He's such a swindler."

"Gee thanks, your apology means so much to me."

He rubbed the top of her head like she was some dog. "Listen. I didn't really care all that much before, probably because I assumed that Itachi would be Itachi with anyone. But now that I've seen him with you. I can't let him settle in an unhappy marriage."

Marriage, right, the word brought her back to reality like a knife to the gut. "We shouldn't project on them. Don't acculturate. They'll be happy. Eventually."

"They've had their entire lives. For once, Itachi actually wants something other than world peace. Everything else he does out of a stupid sense of duty. Studying. Homework. Grades. Seeker. Prefect. Posture. His entire future has been planned out since birth - like which mastery he'll be allowed to pursue, when he'll take over the seat on the Wizengamot and whom he'll get to marry. He'd just accepted it and never questioned once in his life what would happen if he left the chains his family forced on him. He's tasted it, he just doesn't know it yet."

Sakura squashed the rising hope. "I think you're reading into this a bit much."

Kisame leaned down until their gazes met. "I have been a shark in the sea my entire life, I know an aquarium when I see one. And that goes for Izumi too. She's in the same predicament as Itachi, maybe even worse."

"Worse?" Sakura questioned.

Kisame's lips tightened into a firm line, before he broke the stare. "I can't talk about it."

He returned his gaze to her. "But believe me when I say. You've made a difference. Please don't turn your back on Itachi."

Sakura's neck hairs raised at the intensity. Kisame was really worried about Itachi, wasn't he? Well, she could meet him halfway, she cared for Itachi too. "Look, I'm not going to stop being his friend."

Kisame gave a relieved sigh, curling over.

"But I'm not going to break him and Izumi up, or anything like that. I'm also not going to be the other woman. We'll either be friends, or we won't."

Kisame leaned back up, and gave her a wolfish grin. "I can work with friends."

She glared, "There will be no working ."

Kisame glanced up then and completely straightened. "Hey, Lee!"

Sakura turned around catching motion as she did so. Hey, she knew that bowl cut dipping behind a suit of armor. Wait. Had Lee just overheard their entire conversation?

Seeing he was caught, Lee moved away from the suit of armor and gave a cough. "I'm sorry, when I saw you two leave together I assumed you were going to go make a call. And I-I was gonna walk with you. But then you turned. I tried to catch up. You walked faster and then it seemed like you were having a moment." He dipped his head. "So sorry. I'm not trying to be weird. I swear I didn't hear anything."

Sakura felt bad for him, he definitely came off as weird, but… She'd been just excited earlier to walk with someone down to the calling zone. "It's fine, did you need to make another call? I don't mind taking a stroll."

"Ah, no. My dad will think something is wrong if I call too soon. But I was just going to offer…." the flush on his cheeks grew even larger and he ducked his head again.

Hmm… It would be kind of cool to have someone else to walk down with, especially if the weather got worse. "Wanna meet up to make phone calls?"

His head shot up. "Yes. It's starting to get really dark."

"I'll do Saturday mornings, same time as before," Kisame said with a shrug. "But if I call more than once a week, my mother will come packing heat."

Just what kind of mom did Kisame have?

Lee gave a laugh as if Kisame told a joke.

Kisame only winced.

That night, making her way up the stairs to the tower, her feet felt lighter. She clutched the picture to her chest.

She had made new friends and maybe Kisame had given her a bit of hope. The crush she had on Itachi would go away, eventually. But that didn't mean she couldn't be his friend. Kisame was right about that. Itachi needed a friend that made him smile. But a friend . As long as she made it clear to Itachi she wasn't Izumi, then nothing bad could come of this.

She stuffed her bed with pillows and closed the curtains. Before people got back from dinner she needed to go find a classroom to hang out in. She'd climb the stairs as a human and transform after curfew. Maybe she'd use that room on the 7th floor, it couldn't be that hard to make the door appear if Itachi had done it.

She filled her book bag with study materials, paper, parchment, pens and quills. It was so much easier to write out an essay on a spiral bound notebook and then fill in parchment once she had it edited. Slipping out of the common room, she continued further up the staircases leading to the seventh floor. Hopefully she wouldn't do too badly on her potions exam tomorrow if she stayed up late.

Sakura paced the empty hallway for over an hour. She tried every unlocking spell she knew and even some from the muggle world and nothing happened. No doorway magically appeared. So much for easy "open sesame." She stayed until the noise of students going to bed echoed in the large column of stairwells. It was then time to get out of the hallway and find a place to pass the time covertly.

She began the trek up to the divination classroom, making sure to be quiet and look like a good student in the eyes of the portraits that began sprouting advice no longer applicable.

Such as the man, painted in a field of clovers, yelling that bestowing a single red carnation to your beloved would win their heart.

Regardless of their words, she nodded sagely and responded "I'll definitely try that next time" to which the portraits would puff their chests in pride. Win them over and they'd never turn her in… At least that was the plan.

She finally made it up the last flight of stairs, and found herself a stone window sill inside a classroom overlooking the lake and rolling hills. She sat there and stared at the sliver of moon reflecting on the still water, trying to figure out how to solve her dilemma with Itachi.

He thought she was his betrothed, regardless of how obvious she wasn't. Once he realized he'd had a stranger in his bed, his tone with her would likely change. Her fists clenched at the pang from her heart. She needed to prepare herself for that outcome, regardless of what Kisame suggested, Itachi would not appreciate his delusion shattering.

This wasn't a subject to beat around though. She needed to be as forthcoming as possible, before he really got the wrong idea. Nothing would be worse than allowing his interest in "Bunny Izumi" to escalate. He could easily tease the real Izumi and let the cat out of the bag. She could find herself on a trip to prison if she didn't figure this out now. But if he took it wrong, well she needed to escape quickly and make sure he never caught her again. Nobody did well with a broken heart.

With a sigh, she looked away from the serene scene and began digging through her bookbag. No use in wasting time. As she pulled out a piece of parchment to do homework the idea struck her. Keep it simple, stupid. She scribbled on the paper the most practical thing she could think of. My name is not Izumi.

If he got upset, she'd flee, and if he caught her, she'd try to play on his sense of guilt. She bit the tip of the quill. The evil Itachi she knew had no guilt. Her tactic of pouting and puppy dog eyes would do little good, she had nothing compared to Shisui's expressions and Itachi was immune to him. Maybe she could appeal as Sasuke's friend, his tutor in Transfiguration. Lock her up and poor Sasuke would fail a grade. She coughed as she swallowed a bit of feather. Ok, maybe not that. But surely she'd do better in the spur of the moment when she could read the situation. Well, maybe if she corrected her statement upfront. She pulled out another piece of parchment. Sorry, but my name is not Izumi.

She winced at her penmanship, but it was going to have to do. She stared at the empty sheet. Well, assuming he accepted it and things returned to normal, he did promise her she could ask questions to Madara. She removed the tip of the quill from the paper and let it hover. Now what did she want to ask him? Which were the important ones? She had so many questions running around her brain. She didn't want to waste Madara's time, but what would she give to have an hour of it. Ok, she'd take five minutes.

She pulled out her lined college ruled notebook and began to jot down page after page of questions. After she got to page four, she winced and forced herself to stop. That would be a day of work for the poor man. She began labeling them by priority before finalizing the parchment for Itachi. She'd select the top four.

For Madara: You mentioned that you'd a story to tell about harnessing dark magic while still in your teens, what is the story and do you have any suggestions for someone of that age harnessing dark magic can it be done without traversing the cavern? You wanted to dive further into the topic of utilizing blood magic to seal a healing spell, could you dive further on the details? What is your opinion upon the required registry for dark magic practitioners and not light magic ones? At what point must someone actually register, for example am I legally safe to practice the countercurse spells listed in chapter 8? (I've only made it to chapter 15, please ignore it if you cover this later in your work.) I could find nothing in the Registry Fundamentals by Tobarimi pertaining to usage and registry.

She glanced at the notebook. Well, maybe just a few more wouldn't hurt. She never got a chance to take notes because she'd always been stuck in bunny form, so she felt as if she were missing several important ones she'd wanted to ask. She bit her lip and pressed a hand to her forehead, but nothing came. She smacked her hand to her head. Great, her one opportunity to ask and her brain opted to fry on her like when her father tried to make breakfast but ended up with charcoal instead. Gah. Well these would have to do.

She rolled the scroll and tied it with a ribbon. She casted tempus. Good, it was almost time for Itachi to start his patrol. She checked and made sure that there were no portraits in the classroom before she placed the scroll on the floor then she transformed. As a rabbit she picked up the paper by the tied ribbon via mouth. Annoying for sure. She needed a little harness she could shove a scroll in. Wait, what about a vest, with lace and a cute little pocket watch on the side. Now that would look adorable. But maybe not convenient. How would she go about putting it on without help?

She left the room and made her way to the spot below the divination chamber entrance. She laid directly beneath it, waiting. Ugh. Well she would, in the future, definitely ask via scroll about the hour in which he would be in a particular location. What if he only checked this area at the end of his round? Well, maybe she'd catch some shut eye.

Actually. Her eyes popped open. If someone put a vest on her, should she transform into a human and back into a rabbit, would she still have the vest? She still had clothes on as a human, it would stand to reason she'd keep the vest as a bunny.

She'd have to text her mom later. No doubt mama would sew her something super cute and functional. Sakura sneezed with glee, imagining herself in a tiny suit and pocket watch. All the muggleborns would get the Alice and Wonderland vibes!

Oh, but Itachi wouldn't. Great. She couldn't pull off the vest thing being "Itachi's familiar."

Or. Her ears perked. Maybe it would be extra funny to watch him try to explain it away in his deadpan way.

Sakura continued to chortle by herself in the empty corridor, imagining Itachi's expression at a dressed up animal. Wait. Did wizards or witches dress up animals? Surely not owls, they wouldn't be able to fly, nor cats, they wouldn't tolerate it, and toads - just ew. But what if it was common? What if he opted to put her in something hideous? For all she knew it could be a pandora's box.

"Glad to see you could make it." Itachi had swooped by the divination classroom first.

Sakura bolted up, paws dancing with energy. She grabbed the scroll and sprung to his side. She plopped the scroll by his feet, her hind paws not stilling.

He picked it up, pulled the ribbon gently and unraveled the roll.

His smirk appeared immediately.

Huh? She hadn't really put anything funny in there.

He kneeled. "Nice try Izumi, you really do sound like a muggleborn with some of these questions about the registry office. Did you use your left hand to write this?" Itachi patted the top of her head like one would a small child. "I'll ask about the stories for you though."

She sighed. Well, she tried her best. She was just going to have to pray Itachi didn't prey on the real Izumi like he did on her. She was going to lose a lot of sleep over this, wasn't she? Onwards they went, doing rounds together.

There were a few bonuses to being 'Izumi.' For starters, Itachi took pity on her and carried her up any stairs. Her front foot had slipped out from under her and her face had plowed right into the stone stair skirt. After that he took it upon himself to swoop her up and into his arms for upward climbs. He courteously would set her down once they got to the landing, so princely. He kept up the conversation and talked about 'their' classes which meant Sakura got to learn sixth year material. When it came time for bed, after pets from Ouka she got to shuffle in beside Itachi and read for four hours while getting ear pets.

At the small pang of guilt and shame should her mother find out she was being used as a pillow by a promised man, she reminded herself that she did try to tell him the truth.

At this point, it was all on Itachi.