Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ What are these Memories? ❯ Chapter 18 ( Chapter 18 )

Author's Note: All right, I'm trying to make up for some lost time here and for time that I will lose. With band camp starting and all, it's going to be really hard to keep everything going at the same pace it usually goes (not to mention I also have to finish up this damn Scarlet Letter project). Things will slow down even more during the school year as I am trying to concentrate on my studies more than anything else (I have to if I want to get into Duke University, plus I had a really bad start and all in my freshman year). I will still be checking up on everything every other day or so, so if you do leave comments or ideas, I will get them. Thanks for all your time, patience, and support for me. By the way, if Itachi killed his family when Sasuke was about seven or so and Sasuke still lives in the same house, who cleaned up the mess after the massacre? Think about it…

-Yuugi-chan

 

Italics- flashbacks

 

Chapter 18

 

From then on, Sakura stayed as far away from Itachi as possible (except when she slept as she had no choice in the matter). Itachi never inquired towards her new behavior, and Sakura thought he didn't really care. During training sessions, she stayed on the defensive almost all the time, acting like a deer ready to flee at any instant. She never touched him, and when he did ask something of her, she immediately went and got it. She didn't eat what he gave her, and she didn't sleep very much anymore. She was so desperate to refrain from contact that she even preferred sitting next to Kisame than him.

One day during training Itachi had turned around to talk to someone and discuss some matters or whatever they were talking about, Sakura fled. She wanted out of the Akatsuki and she wanted out now. Unfortunately for her, Itachi, being the quicker one on his feet, gave chase and caught her in less than five minutes. This provoked something in her, saying she wanted to escape, needed to escape, and she sunk her teeth into the flesh of his arm. Itachi, on the other, didn't do anything about, though he did feel the pain of her bite. Basically, he stood there in the middle of the training area with Sakura now attached to his arm showing no signs of letting go, waiting for her to either tire herself out, realize it was useless, or eventually calm herself down. This caused a commotion that drew the other Akatsuki members to the scene that watched in disbelief. The just didn't find it at all possible that Itachi could be letting anyone, girl or not, bite down into his arm and doing nothing but standing there. It was so surprising to them that it drew even more members to the scene like moths to the flame of a candle. After all, it wasn't everyday they saw someone go against Itachi seriously and not sparring with him instead. After about ten minutes of standing there with Sakura latched onto his arm, she starting crying, though it didn't stop her from keeping her teeth sunk into his arm. She had drawn blood quite a while ago, so her recently white teeth were currently now red. After about five more minutes past, she eventually let go, and just stood there, tears streaking down her face. The members considered it a new record of having someone bodily injure Itachi without being mutilated or given up afterwards for fifteen whole minutes, and is was a record no one wanted to beat, nonetheless attempt to try and break it. As told to their entertainment for the day, anyone could tell the Akatsuki would get quite bored doing the same routine every single day, and they that they never got much excitement.

“Are you done?” Itachi had asked her tonelessly, still taking no notice of his now bloody arm. Sakura didn't say anything in response to his question. “Well?” She gulped down another sob and slowly nodded, blood dribbling down her chin. “If I let you go, are you going to try and escape again?” She shook her head. “Good, now get out of my sight.” Itachi released her and she slowly slunk away like a beaten dog with its tail between its legs. Itachi looked down at his arm as soon as the pink-haired girl had disappeared, and shook it off, not only to get rid of some of the excess blood, but because his arm had fallen asleep (though he'd never actually admit that to anyone). He glared at the still staring Akatsuki members, and they scattered. “Shit,” he said, not really caring that he had violated his own swearing policy. “That actually hurt.” One of the members stared at him wondering if he had heard Itachi correctly, but then shrugged and walked away.

Sakura didn't bother to clean herself up. She didn't really care. She sat curled up in a corner of a room, and stared blankly at the wall. She didn't so much as look up as she heard the door opening and closing. Seeing as she was looking down at the ground, all she saw was Itachi's shoes pass by. He sat down in a chair and looked at her.

“What the hell do you want?” she asked grudgingly, looking up at him for the first time since he had come in. She took note that his now bandaged arm was still bleeding and silently praised herself on her accomplishment.

“I want to know why you tried to run away this time,” he replied, still looking intently at her.

“You ask me why I tried to escape? Well why don't you figure it out yourself? You were the Uchiha genius after all! I'm sick of being stuck here with you, I want to go home, and I don't want you giving me those looks anymore! Why the hell do you think?”

“That's still no excuse for you to go and try to bite my arm off.”

“You're lucky I didn't do more than that!” She slammed her fist onto the ground and it created a five-foot wide crater. Sakura looked down at the damage she caused. She had unconsciously drawn chakra into her hand. “Shit…”

“I'm not at all pleased with the way you've been acting lately,” he stated.

“No shit Sherlock!” she snapped. “You have been acting no better.”

“Then please feel free to refresh my memory of when I tried to bite you last.”

“…”

“Well?”

“…”

“You can't think of any, can you?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“I really would prefer if you not speak to me that way.”

“And I don't really give a crap if what you would prefer.”

“I can see that.” Itachi looked down at his arm once again and noticed it was still bleeding. “Damn it.”

“Now who's the one that needs to watch their language?” she retorted.

“I have a valid reason to swear, you don't.” She said nothing. “You need to wash your face off.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then I will drag you there and wash it off for you. I really don't wish to that. God knows I had enough trouble of getting Ototo to take a bath…” he mumbled at the end. Sakura blinked and then started to laugh. “What do you find so funny as to laugh at it? You've obviously never had a younger sibling.”

“No, I haven't,” she said between snickers as she tried to pull herself back together. Itachi frowned at her.

“I don't see what's so funny about that.” She stopped laughing and looked up at him. Her face turned serious.

“You need to stop using your Sharingan all the time. At the rate you use it, I estimate you're going to blind yourself by the time you reach twenty-eight or earlier.” He shrugged.

“I worry about that when that happens.”

“I suggest worrying about that now. I'm a medical-nin for a reason you know.”

“And what are you going to do about it kunoichi?”

“I can't do anything about. Optical nerves are much harder to heal than most anything else. And besides, with the Sharingan, your eye structure has a more than likely chance of having a different structure.”

“And how would you know so much about this?”

“Neji came to Tsunade at one point saying he had something wrong with his eyes, I think he had gotten a scratch in it or something, and I came across the theory that advance-bloodline users that happen to use their eyes more than likely have a different structure so you can get chakra to them more quickly. Your eyes are not an easy place for chakra to reach. If you use the structure more often than it's made to be used, it creates strain on the optical nerves causing them to tear or, in more severe cases, such as yours; the nerves with close themselves up as to give themselves a break. Because those nerves can also be used to send chakra through as well as seeing, you go blind.” She let out a long breath after her tedious explanation…

 

Sakura opened her eyes and looked up at a concerned Sasuke.

“You blacked out again,” he said.

“Sorry,” she apologized.

“It's not your fault.”

“Hey Sasuke?”

“Yeah?”

“Is your vision still 20/20?”

“No, why?”

“What is it now?”

“I don't know, 20/60?”

“You're making the same mistake as your brother.”

“Let me guess, I'm using the Sharingan too much. If that's what you were going to say, I already know about it. Kakashi told me.”

“Just making sure.”

“Hey, Sakura-chan! Sasuke-bastard! Are you coming to get ramen with Hinata and me?” a loud-mouthed Naruto shouted from outside the door. Sasuke looked at Sakura and Sakura looked at Sasuke. She shrugged.

“Sure, why the hell not?”

 

Author's End Note: Everyone's OOC here (maybe except Naruto), but I really don't care anymore. As anyone can tell, I made the explanation up, but who the hell cares? Anyways, there's a reason for the way I wrote Itachi in this chapter. This chapter is dedicated to my elder brother, who just left for college (and god, I miss him already). When I was little, my brother was playing tag with me, or something like that, and he caught me. Not wanting to admit I'd lost, I bit him in the arm (I was five, okay?). Now I have a very tolerant older brother, so though even though I bit him, he wasn't too upset (I didn't bite it so hard as to make it bleed like Sakura did Itachi's). Also, I'm a really big procrastinator when it comes to getting to take a shower, so my brother always had to quarrel with me to tell me to get in when Mom and Dad weren't around… ^^; Written badly and poor stopping point, but I'm running out of ideas yet again, and I'm trying to spit these out as fast as I can, so if you have any ideas, let me know!