Her breath quickened as she released the steady flow of chakra into the air around her, the seals coming to her like it was second nature, sealing and narrowing down the exact channels she would need to keep the connection alive throughout the duration o

Her breath quickened as she released the steady flow of chakra into the air around her, the seals coming to her like it was second nature, sealing and narrowing down the exact channels she would need to keep the connection alive throughout the duration of the sealing.

Sakura slowly opened her eyes to the barrage of chakra around her; fully she opened them, the medic-nin underground, far into her mind, alone in her mind, finally alone, carefully, so carefully arranging her chakra in the forms she knew were familiar to Naruto’s chakra build up.

Requesting what she had wanted to do was the easy part, explaining it and proving she could do it without endangering herself or others with the threat of possibly releasing the Kyuubi had been a whole new venture

Sakura released her breath and with it the remainder of her chakra, exhausted, but happy with her results, she turned to face the people that determined the future of both herself and her best friend.

Murmurs went through the air, whispers, fears, doubts, hope.

Sakura had made her argument; now all she could do was wait…

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Two years ago Sakura had walked through the mind of Uchiha Itachi, a land of paper flowers and whispered secrets.

Two years ago those flowers had folded and flown away.

Two years ago today, they became…

Paper Cranes a sequel to Paper Flowers

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Sakura lay on her bed staring at the ceiling her window cracked to let the warm summer air filter in through the screen to be blown around by her silent ceiling fan. The air conditioner had been off since she had arrived home from her hospital shift.

Not bothering to turn on the A.C. she had taken a cold shower and pulled on a shirt and some underwear before tearing off her comforter and lying under the first sheet. She had tried to fall asleep but she had found it nearly impossible with the oppressive silence around her.

If she listened hard enough she could hear the locus outside her window, and occasionally the hoot of an owl or the step of someone walking along the roadside. Her window didn’t face any road and in fact was three stories up in her own little corner of apartments.

Her neighbors were older men and woman, either out for the day with family or relaxing silently at home. Sakura turned her face into her damp pillow, the cotton filling having soaked up most of the moisture from her hair.

She let out a sigh as she stared at her dark room, the only light coming from her open window. And even then that light was only from the moon and had to filter through the screen. Sakura shifted and stood up from her bed, kicking off the sheet that she had been laying under.

Restless…

Sakura wasn’t prone to insomnia but it seemed tonight she would be getting no sleep. It was alright, she told herself, she didn’t have to do anything tomorrow. Tsunade wanted her to take a break after her explanation…

Sakura sighed and moved back to her bed, she flopped onto her back, throwing herself into the comforter and letting her hands land above her head in a frustrated gesture to try and relieve some of the pent up energy in her body.

She stared at her dark ceiling, her emerald eyes bright in the summer darkness.

Sakura listened to the sounds around her, trying to count the times her fan went around. She strained to hear the slow turn of the blades. Her body froze at the soft rustle of cloth in the dark room.

Her heart thudded loudly in her ears, she looked up at the dark silhouette at the edge of her bed and let out startled, strangled little shriek from her throat and immediately ducked down kicking up her covers.

A chuckle escaped the silhouette and Sakura knew immediately what a stupid childish reaction she had shown to whoever it was. And Sakura suddenly had a feeling she knew exactly who it was. She was pressed against her headboard by a firm body over hers; her hair mussed around her and chin tucked trying to escape the sudden contact.

Her breath caught in her throat at the soft heat that came from the body atop hers. Sakura found herself avoiding the thought of his face at all costs; the eyes she knew she shouldn’t look into.

His voice came in a flowing tenor, each word pronounced and delivered in a way of a true aristocrat. The sheet was pulled down and Sakura slammed her eyes shut.

His words brushed against her cheek and ear and she shivered at the contact, less out of fear than pure sensation.

“Tired Konoichi? Let me help you with that.”

Sakura could swear her heart stopped, but then, she could also swear that when she looked straight into his Sharingan eyes he let a brief smile tilt his lips, and she could have also sworn that even though she was suddenly falling into a deep sleep she heard him chuckle.

She could swear Uchiha Itachi wasn’t trying to hurt her at all.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Her legs felt warm, Sakura realized as she turned and tried to pull them from the reach of the sun filtering in from the window. She let out a sigh as she curled her feet in the light sheet she had been sleeping with.

It piled around her waist so that she only had her T-shirt to guard her from the cool air blowing on her form; the air conditioner blowing down from the vents in the corner of the small room.

Sakura paused in her sleepy haze, air-conditioner? She sat up in bed, almost instantly alert. The almost being the fuzzy sight she had from sleeping so deeply. Sakura looked around her room befuddled, emerald eyes blinking away the haze.

Sakura turned her head to look at the window she could have sworn she had left open, then she looked up to the fan that she knew she had left on.

Sakura reached up and combed a hand through her disheveled head of pink locks. She was one hundred percent positive that she had left the air conditioner off.

Sakura struggled to recall what had happened before she fell asleep. And when she did, she felt her heart drop into her stomach and a sudden panic consume her, she was hard pressed to not start hyperventilating.

Sakura shakily stood from her bed and cautiously made her way across the room to her bathroom to make sure she wasn’t sporting a gaping wound.

Her bed tossed pink hair framing her slightly pale face greeted her, wide eyes took in that everything was still in tact; there was no missing limbs or horrible disfigurations. Sakura glanced down at her cloths and blushed. The clothes that she had worn to bed, few they may be, where still intact and in place.

Sakura felt her stomach return to a slightly more or less normal state and sunk down against her blue and white floral wallpapered bathroom walls. She eyed the shower curtain for a second, the beginnings of paranoia washing over her.

Just because she had been alone in her bed didn’t mean she was alone in her home.

Sakura’s hand reached up, hesitant at first before ripping back the shower curtain, her fist raised… to be greeted by nothing but white tiles and air.

Sakura let her fist drop before she did something she would regret. Like bust through her wall…

Sakura moved to open the cabinets over the toilet; she reached under a towel and pulled out a kunai.

And as bravely as she could, she started searching her apartment.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Sakura had checked under her bed, in her closet, in the kitchen, in the pantry, in the laundry room, in the laundry room closet and then proceeded to walk into her family room where there was no place to hide and plop down on the couch, kunai in hand, under wear and T-shirt the only thing she was clad in.

Somewhere between the first closet and the pantry Sakura realized how ridiculous her search was, if anything Itachi would be sitting casually on the couch sipping tea while waiting for her to come in, then he would proceed in killing her as if she were a fly on the wall.

If he was going to kill her, and if he was ever there in the first place.

While she had searched her home she had looked for any evidence that may point to him being there…

There was nothing, if you didn’t count the closed window, the fan and the air-conditioner.

But then again she could have done that and her subconscious mind could have made the whole thing up because she was still out of sorts about the whole… situation… she supposed.

Sakura sat up on her couch careful to not rip the upholstery with the kunai still clutched in her hand, “He was here, I know he was here.” She took a deep breath, or at least, she hoped it was him.

And in realizing that she actually wanted it to be Itachi the pink haired medic-nin took the first step back, and fell off her couch in the process.

Sakura groaned, it wasn’t going to be a good day off.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A Prologue:

.:Paper Cranes:.

A/n: If you haven't read Paper Flowers, you might be very confused about the following story… Paper Flowers is located on my profile page :3