A certain lil gummy bear is to thank for this chapter. You know who you are huhuhu!

Chapter 4: The Patient's Patience

It was suffice to say that Itachi had not fallen for her genjutsu. Sakura had laughed at her crazy attempt and told him that he was fit for a Buntaichou in truth, then she'd added something self-deprecating about her lack of womanly charm. Before Itachi could have even opened his mouth to correct her, Hyuuga Jin, had jumped in and embarked upon a solid defence of her womanly wiles.

Sakura had no idea how close he'd come to falling for her genjutsu. The reason - he'd wanted it to be real. Seeing her throw aside her training top, and then watching her bindings get caught on a branch and ripped from her lithe, fit body… Her genjutsu self had squeaked, demurely covering her chest with small, ineffective hands.

His Sharingan had activated.

He'd panicked.

Itachi had broken the genjutsu with a shaky, whispered 'Kai'.

And he'd been totally, completely disappointed when the vision had dissipated and Sakura had leapt from the trees to attack.

And he'd continued the rest of the fight completely aroused; he hoped she hadn't noticed. Itachi flopped an arm over his face to hide his embarrassment from the darkness of his room.

He had a feeling that if he ever saw her topless like that again, he would silently attempt to break the genjutsu. Itachi sighed in frustration and considered his next steps.

What should he do?

His heart thumped madly at just the thought of her. His mind brought forth the image of her genjutsu self, clutching at her chest, the mounds of her breasts looking even plumper because of the pressure of her hands pressed to them. Itachi pressed his hands to his face and groaned.

Could he forget her if he waited long enough?

That wasn't likely, since she was on his team and he would be seeing her pretty much every single day.

Seeing the soft pink hair he wanted to sink his fingers into; maybe he would fist his hand in her hair to hold her steady while he kissed her.

Seeing those plump lips of hers, that he wanted to taste until he was sated; they looked soft enough to satisfy him after the most gruelling of missions.

Seeing the smooth neck that he wanted to nibble at; to mark her as his.

She was the medic. They would probably be put on co-op missions together. Would she wrap her arms around him and be with him in the nights when they were out there alone?

Itachi grunted, pushing his thoughts aside and rising up sharply to sit in the lotus position. His heartbeat was threatening to break his ribs, but he dared not send for Sakura.

What in Kami's name was he to do about her?

Could he pursue her?

If he did, would it be okay? Would he have to give her up as a team member? There wasn't supposed to be fraternization on ANBU cells, although it was certainly not unheard of. He'd stumbled upon members of the same team in flagrante delicto several times and they had not even been given a warning.

But he was known for being principled. Could he manage to stay away?

As Itachi rationalized reasons why he should pursue Sakura and put himself out of this misery, it did not occur to him that she might already be in a relationship.

The sun struggled to peek through an overcast sky as morning came to Konoha the next day.

Sakura was already sitting groggily on the edge of her bed when it occurred to her that she didn't have to report in to the hospital today. In fact, apart from a late evening training session with her new team, this was a free day.

She sighed, the gush of air being a bit too exhausted and heavy for it to be identified as happy or even relieved, and slowly slid back in bed. She was sleeping again before her head even hit the pillow.

Her sleep was deep and black and peaceful for several hours. She slept like the dead. At some point, the physical drain from the zombie-inducing hours at the hospital had to catch up, and it usually did whenever she didn't have to report in to the hospital.

Suffice to say the large majority of Sakura's few off days were spent catching up on as much sleep as possible.

A fact which Hyuuga Jin was forced to notice when he arrived at Sakura's apartment building. The young shinobi guard on duty eyed him with unconcealed wariness and no small amount of malice when he arrived at her door. In fact, the young man followed Jin from the front gate to her door, with a grudgingly respectful distance between them.

Jin paused at her door, fist still raised to knock, and turned to face the guard with a frosty enquiring glare. The guard returned a heated glower of his own and stood his ground, even though he must know who Jin was.

"Excuse me?" Jin started. "Is there a problem?"

"Can't you leave her alone? It's her off day," the guard snapped.

"Precisely why I am here," Jin returned, raising one brow. If possible, the animosity from the guard tripled when he identified what Jin must be here for. If it wasn't work-related, then it must be personal.

"She's sleeping," he stressed, scowling at Jin. There wasn't much he could do against a Hyuuga of Jin's caliber, so his offensive stance was both amusing and telling.

Jin looked back at the door. He warred with his own selfishness. It was after midday. Surely she would want some food and company by now. He glanced back at the guard.

"She's always working herself to wrist-rash," the guard continued, referring to the dry scabby rash that typically formed when overworked medics developed intense chakra burn at their wrists, palms and fingers. "And still they often scrape her in for emergencies even on her off day. Leave her alone."

The guard would have probably combusted if he knew about Room 1007. Jin had experienced chakra burn twice in his life, and he had slept seemingly for days afterwards as his body struggled to recover. For someone who had such immense chakra control to have frequent chakra burn meant that her workload must be insane. The private attention to her ANBU patients would only exacerbate that.

Jin's fist fell to his side.

Even yesterday at their spar, she must have been operating on the last of her reserves. He hadn't even sensed her exhaustion.

He felt, very deeply, that this was something he had to rectify. He… cared for Sakura. At the same time, he couldn't allow the productivity of the team to suffer because of her exhaustion, and he couldn't allow her to be embarrassed in front of her peers.

Which meant he probably shouldn't tell anyone the extent of her condition… not that he knew the details.

At the very least, he could delay the training session, attempt to orchestrate events so that they didn't have to use chakra, and even if they did, not in their hands, and attempt to make this day as restful as possible for her.

If he could somehow manage to convince Uchiha-buntaichou that they should put off active duty for even another week, he would feel like he had contributed some to her welfare. It would be a thankless endeavor, but he wasn't doing this for gratitude. He could always get brownie points later in some more obvious manner.

But he had the feeling that openly expressing this level of care at this junction would put his heart in unwelcome jeopardy.

The wind blew across the compound of the apartment complex, unloosening a few strands of Jin's hair from his topknot. He sighed, and tilted his head to the side. He gave the guard an enquiring look. Perhaps he could be useful in Jin's attempts to win over the overworked medic.

"What is your name?"

He waited, with his arms crossed over his chest, for his subordinates to arrive.

This was merely their second day, but already Haruno-san was late.

His eyes slid shut as he mentally prepared himself to face her. She had no idea how he felt about her. Hell, he had barely come to it himself. And while his attraction to her made sense, he wasn't exactly sure what to do with his feelings.

Surely, he could picture the more carnal side of the relationship in vivid detail, however the thought of breaching his personal rules in order to achieve even that was very difficult for him to swallow. Still, the lure of her soft flesh, of her full lips, and of her sparkling green eyes was very powerful. It was as if now that he was aware of what had been plaguing him, he could be aware of nothing else.

She consumed his thoughts.

She resided in his dreams.

Unbidden, the memory of her hands on him when she had been testing him rose to his mind.

Embarrassed by the turn of his thoughts, and feeling suddenly very obvious and vulnerable, Itachi opened his eyes, cleared his throat and forced his mind to the task at hand, namely, training.

"She's still not here. Should we start without her?" Shikamaru asked, turning his dark gaze from the sparsely clouded evening sky to meet Itachi's eyes. Itachi's brows pulled together ever so slightly. This didn't look good. Their team had only just been formed, and already she was late. Would she even deign to show up a few months in the future?

"Yes, I think we should," Hyuuga Jin suggested. "I can always spar with her later." Itachi gave Jin a discreet once-over.

No.

That would not do.

"We will wait," he decided, clenching his jaw and closing his eyes once more.

She appeared thirty minutes later, her face flushed with embarrassment, and her hair hastily caught up in a top-knot. She ran up, huffing slightly, and swallowed.

"I realize that I am-"

"Ridiculously late," Shikamaru finished for her.

She looked like she had just come out of bed, but Itachi wasn't sure if the colour in her cheeks was due to her sprint over here or…

He didn't want to contemplate what had kept her in bed up until this point. With a soft grunt, he turned sharply and led the way to the training grounds.

It would be taijutsu today.

He wasn't ready to face Haruno-san's genjutsu again.

She was still exhausted.

But how could she even ask for a vacation when on the record she had taken all her leave days? Never mind that she usually still ended up back at the hospital for most of them. Never mind that even when she went outside of Konoha for vacation, people seemed intent on requesting her services.

They were always poor and desperate.

She couldn't even charge them.

And she was a kunoichi. She had enough to overcome in the eyes of the male ninja without adding fatigue to the list. It was doubtful that anyone who didn't work in the Konoha hospital, the busiest of all ninja medical centres, would ever understand her fatigue.

The other medics might, to some extent, but they were so far down the ladder that they had no power to change anything, and whenever she tried, the higher ups played on the reason she was a medic in the first place.

'But don't you care,' they had asked. 'If you are not there, then what of those valuable ninja that would surely perish? And what of the children… and the elderly?'

They made it impossible for her to extricate herself.

She wasn't trying to puff her chest up if she said she was the best, most rounded medic in Konoha. Obviously there were some specialists whose talents exceeded hers in some areas, but on the main she had surpassed even Tsunade in some areas.

But while she had been climbing she had no idea that the top would be like this.

Which was why she had jumped at the chance to even join this team in the first place. She couldn't risk losing it.

She closed her eyes, the afternoon breeze wafting warmly over her sweaty face. Her knees trembled under her weight after the relatively short, but punishing taijutsu session with Uchiha-buntaichou. Her eyelids parted lazily when a large, calloused hand pressed lightly into the small of her back and she glanced to the side though her lowered lashes.

"I have somewhere to take you," Hyuuga Jin murmured close to her ear. Sakura's brows pulled together and her face knitted in annoyance as she opened her mouth to respond.

"Not now J-"

"Trust me," he interrupted, his hand splaying in the sweaty curve of her back and sliding around to firmly grip the her side. Her knees temporarily gave way, not in reaction to him, per se, but more in relief against the support his iron-like forearm provided.

And then she was whirled away in a teleportation jutsu.

She really hoped he wasn't taking her back to his flat to have his way with her.

She was too exhausted to fight him off. She had very little chakra remaining, and her muscles felt like jelly. She had regrettably shirked on physical exercise of this intensity on a regular basis. She hadn't had the time or energy to be diligent. Right now, she was literally the most vulnerable she had been in years.

She was pretty much helpless.

This took more than a few stolen moments to write. It's actually only really out because it was ⅓ completed already and I just had to finish it up. I am insanely busy these days but hopefully I will be able to keep some chapters coming in this and some of my other stories - short and sweet though they may be. I really despise the idea of another year-long break from writing.

Please bear with me my lovelies. And as usual, Please review~