A boy could be seen running through the darkness of the Konoha Village. His sharingan seemed to be the only things that were visible in the darkness. At times he would secretly return in the depths of the night to take a peek at the sleeping girl he had left behind the day he decided he would never return to the village again. It was mere coincidence this was the day he chose to pass through the Uchiha Village. When he was passing by one of the houses he saw a shadow on the street. He quickly hid behind a nearby tree and observed the road from the side.

The scene he saw was the exact moment that Itachi decided to take Sakura to a cave. He was carrying her and preparing to run away. Itachi was too quick, the next moment he was gone leaving Sasuke staring at the road in disbelief. Confusion was mixed with rage both for his brother and for Sakura. He stood for a moment trying to annalyze what was happening, why Itachi was taking his teammate away. The next moment he figured out that for now the most important thing for him now was to get Sakura back. Sasuke began running the direction his brother had gone. However, a while later he was standing in the woods not knowing what direction he should go. He'd lost sight of Itachi. He stood in the darkness while his brother ran off with Sakura.

***

Sakura woke up the next morning covered in a blanket. She woke up and looked around her. Kisame was still asleep next to her, and Itachi was sitting by the mouth of the cave staring into the darkness. Without turning to look at her he claimed, "you're awake."

Sakura froze in disbelief but replied, "yes."

She slowly tried to get up but found that she was in pain. She stared at the several wounds that she had. They were fairly healed but still were painful.

"Don't move much," Itachi replied. Sakura ignored the comment.

"Why did you take me with you."

At this moment Itachi turned to her for the first time, "I am interested in you."

Sakura glared back at him, Itachi just kept the same poker-face that he always had.

"Do you want anything to eat?"

"Don't mind me."

"You won't be well unless you eat."

"Leave me alone, I'm going home."

Sakura got up but fell over. Itachi swiftly moved in front of her and caught her. She pushed him away in anger.

"I've set up a jutsu, you won't be able to escape for today," Itachi claimed. "I'm only keeping you until tomorrow, you shouldn't have any objections to that."

For two hours Sakura completely ignored Itachi's existance. Kisame left as soon as he woke up to do an errand for Akatsuki, so only the two of them were left. Sakura had her back turned to Itachi. "You must be hungry," he suddenly said.

"No," she replied, but was interrupted with a gigantic growl of her stomach. She pretended she hadn't noticed out of embarassment.

"Here," Itachi said, placing two rice balls in front of the girl. She stared at them as if trying to curse them. "Eat them, you need the energy."

In the end hunger won and Sakura reached for the food. She ate quickly because she hated appearing so vulnerable to him. While she was eating Itachi sat next to her and stared at her. She tried to turn away because she didn't like it. Suddenly he broke the silence between the two by asking, "what do you see in my brother?"

Sakura stopped eating out of surprise, "what?"

"Why is he so important that you would die for him?" Itachi said still staring at her.

Sakura swallowed and replied, "I love him."

"Ah, love. Another one of the concepts I left behind when I killed everyone important to me."

She glared at him and claimed, "if you really loved all of them then you shouldn't have been able to kill them."

"And why is that so?"

"If you love someone, they should be the only thing that matters. You should be able to do everything you can to protect them, not to kill them. All that you should be caring about is if they are ok, or if you can be with them."

Itachi was silent. She was so innocent, so pure. She didn't know anything about darkness or tragedy or loneliness. She didn't understand anything he did. This was what made her so attractive to him.

"What was your name?"

"Sakura."

"Sakura..."

Itachi slowly bent forward and moved his face closer to her. Sakura didn't move a muscle. His lips slowly touched hers, but the moment was interrupted by a scream.

"ITACHI!"

Sakura slowly turned around. When she did her eyes widened, both out of surprise and relief. Sasuke stood there with his fists clenched looking more angry than he'd ever been before in front of them. He'd been looking for them all night, and finally found them. He was there to defeat his brother.

-to be continued-