Posted: 18/10/2006

Edited: 10/07/2007

Beta-ed: Never

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Full Summary: Sakura finds herself in a difficult situation. In love with the enemy and with a rescue mission on her hands how far must she go to find happiness? Hidden truths revealed. Secret heritages uncovered. Pasts unfold. Betrayal. Forgiveness. Death. How strong must a forbidden love be to survive it all?

Sasuke lived his all life with only one purpose, but what happens when he finds out his entire life was based on a lie?

And what’s the relation between the new girl and the Uchiha clan? Why does she hate them so? Lies. Deceiving. Hate.

ItaSaku with NejiSaku and slight SasuSaku.

“Speech”

Flashbacks/Memories

‘Thoughts’

‘Inner Sakura’

Until then…

WARNING!! PLEASE READ: This fic may start in a cute way, but it WILL get dark on the second arc. I don’t intent of writing any lemons so back off if that’s why you’re here! I may write some limes but that’s all. Rated for language and dark themes. Mentioned rape and child abuse later on! Don’t read if you don’t like it! I’m warning you so that later you don’t come crying about how ‘disgusting’ or ‘sick’ I am for writing about it. I won’t go into details, I’ll just mention it.

ARC I

Chapter 1

Sixteen years old Haruno Sakura lies in her bed gazing at the bedroom ceiling. She couldn’t stop thinking about HIM and that was getting her frustrated. Sighing loudly she sat up and hugged her pillow tightly against her chest. Her eyes were unfocused, almost as if seeing beyond her bedroom walls, beyond time and space itself. She couldn’t sleep… AGAIN. It had been like that for sometime now and all because of HIM.

She still remembers the first time she saw him, well not really HIM because it was a jutsu, but it was the first time she got close to THE Uchiha Itachi.

She had lost herself in that beautiful face that reminded her so much of her beloved Sasuke-kun; his long dark hair dancing with the wind taunting her, daring her to touch it; his deadly eyes of the most beautiful crimson colour she had ever seen. Granted, she had seen both Sasuke’s and Kakashi’s Sharingan, but none was more hypnotizing than Itachi’s. Her gaze lowered and she cursed that damned cloak that kept his (or what she assumed to be) sculptural body from her hungry eyes. Her gaze went back to his face and she suppressed a gasp when she saw his penetrating eyes locked with hers, his eyes looking at her almost as if seeing all the secrets of her soul. She averted her gaze remembering that looking into his eyes was signing her death sentence, so she kept her gaze in Kakashi who was now speaking and at the same time preventing her already crimson cheeks from becoming a deeper shade of red. Pity she averted her eyes from him for she did not see the typical “Uchiha smirk” he offered her.

That was their “first encounter”. Although it wasn’t really him it was controlled by him and un-best-known to the little kunoichi it would be the beginning of her downfall.

After that she didn’t have much time to think about the older Uchiha. Saving the Kazekage and meeting her long lost team mate consumed all of her thoughts for a while.

The attempt to bring Sasuke back to Konohagakure was, once again, a failure. They returned empty handed and with a heavy heart.

With the preparation for the next confront and with Naruto spending his time with Kakashi learning a new technique, Sakura spent almost all the free time she had thinking about Itachi. At first it began with hatful thoughts for it was because of him that Sasuke suffered so much, but then she couldn’t help but wonder about what made the elder Uchiha what he was now. Sure, he said he wanted to test his strength, but Sakura couldn’t help but believe that that was not the only reason.

Since Kakashi, Naruto and Yamato were busy (Naruto still hadn’t learned the new jutsu) Sakura was sent on a mission with a group of jounin ninjas (even though she was still only a chuunin). It was an A-Ranked mission, but Sakura wasn’t very worried about it. She had had worst, and she wasn’t going to fight, she was only to use her medic-nin abilities. What she wasn’t expecting was to run into Uchiha Itachi along the way. Most of her team was murdered, and she would have been too if Itachi hadn’t prevented Kisame from crushing her with his Samehada. Both Kisame and Sakura were surprised to say the least, but knew better than to question the Uchiha prodigy. The two S-class criminals disappeared and (what was left of) Sakura’s team returned home. Sakura made her report but omitted the fact that Itachi had actually spared her (and no other team member was alive/conscious at the time to state otherwise).

A couple of days later Sakura was training alone in her favourite “secret” spot near a small river when she met for the third time the man who occupied her thoughts. It was getting dark and she was drained of most of her chakra. It would be impossible to fight him even if she wanted to, but to her surprise (or maybe not) he did not kill her nor did he hurt her in any way. He looked at her for the longest time and then began the interrogation. He asked for her name (though secretly he already knew it), about her team mates, about her teachers, friends, about her relationship with his brother (he had noted the –kun at the end of Sasuke’s name)… small information, nothing compromising nor the “where is the Kyuubi” or the “you’ll be the bait for the Kyuubi” that she expected. Night was falling and she was loosing her (already thin) patience. Sure she feared the man before her, but he could be very infuriating (especially with all the painful questions about her feelings for his younger brother). Why the hell was he there? And what’s with all those questions? She tried to get that information out of him. As an answer all she got was another question: “Why do you love that foolish little brother of mine?”

She was taken aback by that and turned her back to him (momentarily forgetting that he IS her enemy) to think about the answer. When she looked back at the place he used to be he was no longer there.

Sakura got home but that question kept playing in her mind like a broken record “Why do I love Sasuke-kun?”

It had been almost two months now and she hadn’t seen him since. The question was still left unanswered in her mind. She tried to avert her thoughts to Naruto and his almost finished training, to Ino and her new boyfriend Chouji. Heck she even tried to think of Lee! Everything to keep her mind off of the older Uchiha.

And there she was now, sitting on her bed in the middle of the night hugging her pillow like a lifeguard, thinking about the events that took place earlier that night.

Sakura was tired after all day in the hospital followed by training with the Godaime Hokage. Scratch that, she was dropping dead! She arrived home after a quick trip to Ichiraku where she ate dinner with Ino, Chouji, TenTen, Lee and Neji (she rather enjoyed the company of the byakugan wielder, much to Lee’s disappointment) and went to take a long, hot bath. Leaving the bathroom wearing only a towel covering her small frame she went to the bedroom to get changed, but before she could properly enter the room she found herself pinned to the wall with her wrists held tightly above her head. She wanted to scream but when she noticed the blood-red eyes of her attacker she refrained from doing so. Upsetting an S-class criminal wasn’t a very smart thing to do.

“I-Itachi?”

“Hello little kunoichi, missed me?”

Oh, how much she wanted to wipe that smug smirk out of his face!

“Dearly.” She replied rolling her eyes, earning a chuckle from the raven-haired man.

“My, my, why so bitter?” Sakura simply replied with an ‘are-you-fucking-insane’ glare. She wanted to scream “who the hell are you and what have you done to Itachi?” This man was teasing her for pete’s sake! And Uchiha Itachi doesn’t tease: he either kills you or tortures you and then kills you.

“So little blossom, do you have an answer for me? Why do you love him?”

“I don’t.” She froze. That just came out before she could think of what to say. Itachi raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow silently urging her to carry on. “I really did love him, long ago when I thought he was something he wasn’t, but even love can only bare so much betrayal. Ever since he left my love has been dying day by day and then when we met again and I saw what had become of him I guess that was the end. He still is very important to me and I’ll do everything to help him, but I won’t love him again. He isn’t the man I fell in love with, I guess he never really was and I was too naïve to see it. But now I know he will never be like that, like I always SAW him, like I always expected him to be. I saw someone who was hurting and I wanted to do everything to take his pain away, but instead I found someone who knows only anger and hatred. Someone who doesn’t want to be helped. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want you to, ne? I know he can never love, but I’d like to at least be able to teach him that there are good things, good feelings he can learn. Friendship for instance, that I will always offer him. Friendship but not love. Not anymore.” Tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

“Interesting…” He whispered too close for comfort sending shivers down her spine. “My brother truly is foolish.” Before she could think about his words his lips came crashing down hers. After the initial shock she found herself responding to the kiss, and with that he was gone. Sakura slid down sinking on the cold floor and brought her fingers to her lips. What the hell had just happened? And worse: WHY THE HELL DID SHE KISS HIM BACK?!

And that happened a couple of hours ago. Damn the Uchiha clan! They are all so complicated! She just couldn’t keep the incident out of her mind… but the worst part is the disappointment she felt when he broke the kiss.

She threw her pillow against the wall out of frustration. Was she stupid? He was just toying with her, using her, and even so she longed for him? HELL NO!!

She did her best to fall asleep and eventually she did, dreaming of a certain S-class criminal WHO HAD JUST STOLLEN HER FIRST KISS!!

A/N: Kay…I think I’ll end it here for now, the 2nd chapter will be here soon (hopefully).

This story is just coming out completely different of what I had planed but heck, I’m loving it! xD

Please tell me what you think of it so far (makes cute puppy eyes).