• On Their Way
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    Sakura and Itachi moved on out. It was hard for Itachi to concentrate on finding the way to the Akatsuki hideout everyone was at. The reason? It was because this cute pink haired girl was on his back, sleeping. Not so bad huh? Well, it's not. Other than the fact that her chest was pressing up on Itachi, making him blush.

    'Stay calm. Relax. We're almost there... I think' Itachi thought to himself.

    "ITACHI! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Kisame yelled over the radio.

    "Shhh. You'll wake her up. I'm about 10 minutes from the hideout. So cool your jets" Itachi half whispered, half yelled.

    "Wait, what? Wake up whom? Itachi you have some explaining to do when you get back." Kisame said and got off the radio.

    'Sheesh. Kisame is so impatient. No matter. I'll be there soon.' Itachi said to himself.

    It had started to rain a while after they left Konoha. Being the forgetful person Sakura is, she forgot a coat. When she started to shiver, Itachi couldn't bear having her rub against his back, so he put his Akatsuki robe on her. It was then that he noticed how light she was. Did she not eat well? Were her parents never around to cook?

    'ITACHI! Jeez you need to stop falling in love with her, and start figuring out where to go! I think you've gotten ourselves lost.' Itachi yelled at himself. What was he going to do if he fell in love with her, and then became her partner? That would be bad.
    'She's getting a little heavy, I'm going to move her.' Itachi thought.

    Just as they reached the hideout, Sakura woke up. Itachi was blushing, because her 'just waking up face' was cute to him. But Sakura was also blushing, because his hand was on her butt, but only because of the position. The position she was in was a little awkward. Her head was up by his shoulder, but not all the way up. Her legs were hanging over his arm. One could say it looked like Itachi was carrying a baby.

    "Uh… you can p-put me d-down now. I can walk." Sakura said, looking away.

    "Oh, your awake. Good." Itachi said, with a straight face. He put her down gently, and walked into the living room were everyone was waiting.

    "God damn it Itachi what took you so long?" Kisame yelled at him. Surprisingly, nobody knew about Sakura.

    "Sorry, the rain made us stop. It was getting hard for me to see." Itachi said. It wasn't technically lying, since it was hard for him to see in the rain lately.

    "Who's the girl?" "And why is she wearing your coat?" Zetsu asked.

    "It's Sakura. Remember? The one who wanted to become an Akatsuki member of her own free will? And she's wearing my coat because she forgot her own and was shivering like hell in the rain." Itachi managed to say the first part with a straight face, but started blushing towards the end, recalling the feeling. Looking down, he noticed that Sakura was clinging to his arm, making him blush more. It was natural for someone to be scared of a talking plant.

    "Well what do we have here? Itachi has the hots for the new girl! Un!" Deidara said, being late as usual.

    "I do not!" Itachi said, blushing at the fact that someone as dumb as Deidara could figure it out so quickly. "Whatever, lets just go see who she's going to be paired up with." Itachi said. He stormed off into the next room, with Sakura right at his tail.
    "Pein, give Sakura her partner now." Itachi said, being fierce for once.

    "Now, now, don't be hasty. You already know who she's going with." Pein said, looking amused. "Why do you think I assigned Deidara and you to pick her up? Because I knew Deidara would forget and you would be on your own. It would give you a chance to be like a team." Pein said, ending with a smirk.

    "******** you Pein. I don't need your sarcasm right now. Whatever. Is she going to be in my room too since we are in the same unit?" Itachi asked, curious yet embarrassed. He looked down to see that Sakura was blushing madly as well.

    "Well of course. It's only natural that the two on a unit be in the same room." Pein said with another smirk.
    "Fine. We'll be getting situated in our room then." Itachi felt awkward saying 'our room'. It would be the first time since Tobi died Deidara being Sasori's new partner that Itachi would be sleeping in a joint room, let alone have his partner be a girl. They walked down the hall to the last room on the left.

    "Sorry. I have a rough attitude that people hold me to. So I have to keep it up around them. They would laugh if they knew I had a soft side." Itachi confessed.

    "It's ok. It's actually really cool." Sakura said with a sweet smile, making Itachi blush.

    "So, were am I sleeping?" She looked around, only seeing one big bed.

    "Oh yeah. I'm sorry, but for right now I'll sleep on the floor. We don't have the new bed for you yet." Itachi said. He hated making people sleep on the floor. It was mean.

    "What! No! You can't sleep on the floor! Look, we'll sleep in the same bed. There's enough room in it for both of us." Sakura said blushing and smiling at the same time.

    "N-No. That won't work. I would be too much trouble for you." Itachi said, blushing at the idea of sleeping in the same bed as Sakura.

    "I insist! It wouldn't be right for me to take your bed. Plus I can't sleep in a huge empty bed. It feels awkward for me." Sakura said. And it was the truth.

    "Ok, fine. You win. Hey, are you hungry?" Itachi said, trying to change the subject.

    "Actually yeah I am! What do you have?" Sakura said, glad he changed the subject.

    "Come on, I'll show you!" Itachi said, grabbing Sakura's hand and pulling her to the kitchen.

    As they made their way to the kitchen, Kakazu interrupted them.

    "Where are you two going?"

    "To the freaking kitchen, where else Kakazu." Itachi rebutted.

    "Hmm. I'll go with you. Just to make sure you're treating her right." He turned around, gave a wink to Itachi, and started for the kitchen. Sakura started to get closer to Itachi, scared of what might happen to her. Itachi looked at her and blushed, because of the cute, scared face she was making.

    "Well," Itachi clears his thought. "Shall we go?"

    "Yes, please. But…" Sakura stutters.

    "What's wrong?" Itachi sounded concerned.

    "Well… I'm scared of him! I don't want to be near him for long. Please make sure he leaves quickly!" Sakura almost started to cry. Itachi knew that she was serious.

    'Crap… I can't resist this girl… I need to be carful. I can't risk being hurt again…'
    "Alright. Lets go." Itachi finally gave in.

    They walked through the kitchen door. Sakura was amazed at how big the kitchen was. There was so much room, someone would have thought it belonged to a chef. Sakura thought it was kind of cute how the fridge was filled with pictures of the Akatsuki and of random notes of threats. Yea… she could get used to this place.

    Just as they were walking past Kakazu, Sakura recognized a certain food and almost hurled. He was eating Ramen… Naruto's favorite food… She couldn't think of that now thought. She had to push all remaining feelings for them out of her mind… she had to… But as she was doing all this, Itachi had grabbed her hand. Now, instead of thinking about all of her old friends, all she could think about was Itachi.

    Did he notice? Does he feel the warmth of my hands? Is he holding it only to be nice? Was it just a fatherly instinct?

    So many questions rolled around in her head. She just had to get out of this place and be alone with Itachi. Suddenly, she was hungry for something else; hungry for love.