xXxXx Recap xXxXx
He visibly relaxed. “Good. If Leader knew that I told you that, he’d have my head, un. Literally.” He grabbed her hand again. “Now c’mon, let’s continue the tour, k, un?”
Ch 9: Getting to Know Them, Part 2

xXxXx With Sasori and Ino xXxXx

“Before we begin the tour, I must drop something off in my room. Excuse me,” Sasori spoke. He started to want into his room before stopping in front of the door. “You may come in, if you want.”

Ino gulped nervously before walking in. Her eyes widened. The place was full of puppets. She found it strangely interesting. Ino walked over to one of them and bent down to examine it. Her hand reached out and touched it lightly-

“EYA!” She screamed as she was roughly pulled backwards by a pair of hands. As she fell flat on her back, she could see several kunai whiz past, right towards the area where she had just been standing.

“Ow….” She spoke. The ground she had landed on, while covered in some fabric, was obviously made of wood.

Suddenly, the ‘ground’ spoke. “Could you please move?” Sasori spoke, slightly annoyed.

Ino squeaked. “Sorry!” She exclaimed as she quickly jumped off him, her face quickly turning red. He seemed unconcerned as he stood up and brushed off his cloak. She turned away quickly and started to examine the puppets again.

“So you’re interested in puppets?” Sasori’s voice spoke from behind her. Ino spun around to see that he was standing right behind her.

“Er, it was sorta something I picked up from Kankuro and never really dropped….” Ino trailed off, feeling akward. He looked at her, and Ino couldn’t shake the feeling she said something wrong. She spoke again, “I mean, I like them and all, but they’re not like an obsession or anything.” She could see him still staring at her. “I mean they’re really cool and all and and-”

“Ino,” he spoke.

“Er, yeah?”

“Shut up.” He turned and exited the room then, after all, he didn’t want her seeing the small smile on his face.



xXxXx With Itachi and Sakura xXxXx

“And here is your room.” He opened the door. It was fairly plain, with red sheets on the bed and light red walls. The carpet was black, and the rest of the room was decorated with various shades of red.

“Thanks for the tour, Itachi,” Sakura spoke politely. Over the tour, she had gotten the impression that he was polite but distant, and a part of her couldn’t help but want to break down the walls he had built around his heart.

“Hn.” Any feelings she had had towards the Uchiha prodigy immediately vanished. There was no word she hated more than that cursed syllable.

“Don’t say that stupid word.”

Itachi raised any eyebrow. “Is there any particular reason you hate it so much?”

She swallowed and looked away. “Not…really….” She quickly walked into her room and dropped her things. “It doesn’t matter, really!” she spoke cheerfully.

Itachi frowned slightly. “….”

She plopped onto the bed and pulled open her bag. On top of her clothes lay a package carefully wrapped in bubble wrap. Itachi wondered vaguely what could be so important that she would need to wrap it so carefully. An important scroll, perhaps?

It was nothing like that. Itachi watched as Sakura pulled out a wooden picture frame, framing the picture of the famous Team 7. She put it gently on the nightstand next to her bed, at an angle so she would be able to see it when she woke up.

Itachi watched as she traced a finger over the figures, a hard to read expression on her face. Part of him knew that he should tell Leader about this, in case of a possible betrayal, but part of him was just content to watch her for now.

“Itachi, are you just going to stand there?” Itachi blinked; he had forgotten what he was doing. Sakura smiled at him. “You can come and sit down.”

Almost akwardly, Itachi walked over and sat down at the edge of her bed, watching her adjust the picture.

He stared at the young, foolish girl in the picture, and compared her to the strong, capable kunoichi in front of him. It was almost unbelievable that they were the same person. He spoke, “You’ve changed.”

She seemed startled for a second, before laughing a little. “Yeah,” she looked at herself in the pictures. “I guess I have.”

Reaching forward and grabbing the picture, Sakura spoke again, “I remember how stupid I was back then.” She traced her finger over the picture. “I used to be so obsessed with Sasuke, even though it always felt like he didn’t even know that I existed.” Her smile slowly grew more and more sad. “I was a fool….”

Itachi, not quite believing what he was doing, shook his head. “He was the fool.”

“What…?” Sakura whispered as Itachi shifted closer to her.

Itachi reached out and touched some of her hair; his face blank, but his eyes were almost...caring. “Sasuke was the fool,” he repeated.

“What do you mean?”

“He never noticed what was right in front of him.”

Sakura’s eyes widened as she leaned in-

BANG! “Itachi, who’s cooking din…ner….” Deidara trailed off as he watched Sakura jump from her spot on the bed next to Itachi to halfway across the room, on top of the dresser. “Uh…. Actually, I’ll be in the kitchen, kaythanksbye!” He flew out of the room.

Itachi sighed and stood up. He glanced at Sakura, who was still crouched on top of the dresser. “I’m afraid I must go cook. I will see you at dinner.” With those simple statements, Itachi left the room.

Sakura awkwardly rolled off the dresser, landed with a small ‘Oomph!’ on the floor, and stood up, all the while reflecting on what had just happened with Itachi. She couldn’t believe it. It all seemed so unreal. Had she and Itachi, Uchiha Itachi, S-Rank Missing-Nin, really almost kissed? Yes. Did she want to kiss him? That was the question.  She felt her face go bright read at the thought of it. She wondered if Hinata had felt like this, around Naruto.

Naruto. She frowned before standing up. Any romantic feelings would be ignored for now.

They were here to become strong.

xXxXx Chapter End xXxXx