That's MY Book!

Disclaimer: Naruto is great. I merely take it to a slightly different path...

A/N: -scratches head with a sheepish smile- Heh heh, uh.... about the story....

yeeaaahhh.... it's not gonna end yet. But I do know about when this will end. NOW. Haha, just kidding.
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The forest was silent, the embrace of the falling night was slightly warmer than usual.

'Or maybe its just the fact that I'm making out with my hot, but slightly perverted, sensei,' Sakura grinned.

'Gods, how can I think with her around,' Kakashi wondered, breaking from one of their longer kisses, 'Oh wait. That's simple. Don't think. Yeah, I can survive without thinking for the rest of my life.'

"I'm just... curious," A breathless Sakura said softly, her lips moving lightly over Kakashi's as they both took a slight break, "Why... did you want... me to throw away the strawberry shampoo?"

"Because the smell bothered me." He said bluntly.

Taking it the wrong way, Sakura frowned, "Well, why didn't you tell m-"

Seeing that the object of his desire was starting to fall out of 'the mood', Kakashi quickly made his statement more clearer, "The smell of the strawberries remind me of YOU. It drives me... crazy." See, this is what he meant about the not thinking.

Sakura blinked. Then a feral gleam entered her eye as she asked slowly, "Do... I make you crazy?"

Without a moment's hesitation, he snaked a hand through her soft tresses, pulling her head gently towards him. Their lips locked in a burst of passion, Kakashi's tongue playing, curling, and sucking on hers. When he broke it, both their gazes were a bit dazed.

He breathed out, "Yes."

'Hehe,' inner sakura squeeled, 'I make him crazy. Take that ich icha paradise!!' At the thought of the books, she suddenly experiences an onslaught of guilt, horror, and eye-popping badness. 'Nooooo.... the book......'

'Don't feel guilty. Don't feel guilty. How can I enjoy the kiss if I feel so guilty?'

Kakashi sees the turmoil in her green eyes and raises his brow.

"Kakashi-" She begins to say.

But all of a sudden, the jounin's eye goes wide. "SHIT." He curses loudly, tucking his feet under her and launching her into the air.

Sakura's eyes widened, not quite understanding his sudden indulgance in tossing her around. That is until the flash of something metallic whizzed past beneath her. The shuriken sliced through the air, inches above Kakashi's flattened form and centimeters below the chuunin who wished she could defy the pull of gravity. Not a moment too soon, the onslaught of shuriken stopped and Sakura landed with a small 'oof' back on top of the jounin.

In an instant, the two Konoha shinobi sprung off eachother, standing back to back as they waited for another attack.

"You know... these... are useless." A cold voice commented from the shadows.

Both shinobi directed their gaze to the ninja walking out of the shadows, one of the trap spells held in his hand.

'Sa-Sasuke??' Was both of their first thoughts.

But no. It wasn't.

"Itachi." Kakashi breathed out the same time the realization hit Sakura.

Though the hair and facial features resembled that of his little brother's, there was one feature that was definately different. His blood red sharingan eyes. That and the fact that the chance of him talking to you was as great as the chance that he'd kill you on sight. And then act as if nothing really important had happened. Probably even go out for some ice cream. If that monster ate ice cream. Bastard.

"Is he the mission?" Sakura hissed to the silver haired jounin behind her.

'He can't be,' inner Sakura raged, 'if he is, this should be an S-class mission, NOT an A-class one.'

"No..." Kakashi replied, never taking his eye off from the Uchiha clan murderer. That's when Sakura heard it. There was a question to his voice. Was Kakashi... unsure?

Itachi smirked, watching the two wary shinobi through distant eyes. After a moment of tense silence, Itachi replied simply, "I'm not."

"Then why are you here?" Sakura sneered, "To kill us?"

'What am I doing?' Inner Sakura wondered, 'Am I INSANE? I'm provoking a cold-blooded lunatic!!'

Itachi shot a look at the pink haired kunoichi, his eyes unreadable. Kakashi tensed. If he made any homicidal moves towards Sakura, he'd KILL him. He didn't care that he might not be strong enough. He WILL kill him.

After a while, the Akatsuki member decided to reply, "No."

He walked towards them, making the jounin and chuunin start. Sakura fingered her shuriken. Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan eye. At that move, Itachi smirked, but did nothing to attack. Nope. He just headed towards the fire and did something that made Sakura and Kakashi wide eyed in disbelief. He sat down.

"What the hell?" Sakura hissed to Kakashi under her breath.

Was this some premature, supposedly 'innocent' move, made to get them to lower their guard? Was he trying to meditate before going all crazy and killing them? They saw him reaching for something in his pouch. Kakashi readied his hands to make some jutsu signs at a moment's notice. Sakura drew her shuriken out, a couple in each hand. She would distract him for Kakashi to use one of his jutsus... distract... Itachi while he.... uh, pulled out a tin cup of death.... and er, tea leaves of destruction and.... oh, oh, boiling scalding water that he could throw in their eyes. Yeah.

A few minutes rolled by in silence.

Kakashi just had to ask, "Are you... making tea?"

Itachi graced him with a look that asked are-you-a-moron. Wait, this was Itachi. None of his looks would ASK anything. Rather, it stated, you-ARE-a-moron.

;;;;A few hours later;;;;

"Do you want any." Being Itachi, he even made a simple request sound like an order.

The two shinobi were still standing where they had been the moment he appeared, still wary. And for good reason. Of course, Sakura was getting tired. Just standing there was boring. And she hadn't eaten anything yet. The tea smelled tempting.

'NO! What am I thinking?!' Sakura screamed in disbelief, 'This is ITACHI!! He probably poisoned the tea!!'

Then she heard Kakashi say something that made her jaw drop.

"Sure."

"OMG. Kakashi, what're you doing?!" Sakura hissed, "He probably poisoned it!"

Kakashi shrugged, "We saw him make it."

The green eyes of the chuunin stood resolute, "No. We can't accept it."

She threw her gaze over to the bloody eyed Uchiha. His eyes were cold. Promised death. Sakura returned her gaze to Kakashi's, wide-eyed in puppy dog pleading mode. Sakura blinked. Shifted her gaze to the missing nin, full of contempt. Then back to Kakashi, still pleading.

"No. Absolutely not." Sakura said. Though her voice wasn't as strong as she wanted it to be.

"But I'm thirsty." Kakashi pouted. Wait. He doesn't pout. And he doesn't beg. Was this some sort of trap made by Itachi?

Sakura's eyes narrowed as she returned a scrutinizing gaze towards the Akatsuki member. Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly in return, his voice irritated, "What."

Sakura sighed internally. No, it wasn't a trap. It was just Kakashi being lazy. And bored. And hungry. No, wait, thirsty. And she absolutely could NOT agree to this small act of stupidity. No matter how Kakashi looked. Or how he was lifting a tin cup to his lips. Drinking.

"Kakashi!" Sakura exclaimed, snatching the tin cup from him.

Said jounin grinned. Then realized his mask was still off. Pulling it hastily back up, Kakashi grinned again, "It tastes okay."

Sakura frowned. How could Kakashi treat this so lightly? She shot another look at Sasuke's older brother.

'Why does she keep looking over here,' Itachi wondered, getting annoyed and annoyed that he was getting annoyed, "Drink it or don't."

'Hmm... that probably wasn't a smart move.' The silver haired jounin thought to himself. Shrugging, he took the cup back and drank again. He had to hand it to the crazy psycho murderer. Itachi made a decent cup of tea.

"You..." Sakura pointed, her voice quacking in anger. WHO did he think he was? He was their ENEMY and he just waltzed into their camp as if they were just gonna get all cozy together around THEIR camp fire.

Before she realized it, the kunoichi had stomped her way right up to Itachi, her finger right in his face. Itachi frowned slightly, looking up at the pink haired chuunin before him. His black orbs traveled slowly up from that accusing finger to her flashing green eyes, "I.... what?"

Sakura, too enraged, hadn't noticed the way the Uchiha boy's eyes traveled over her. But the jounin did. Spraying tea out in a not-too-subtle expression of shock, Kakashi was by her side in an instant, handing the cup back.

Thinking that a little distance wouldn't hurt, Kakashi draped an arm around Sakura's shoulder, leading her around to the other side of the campfire, "I think we should sit over here."

Itachi, on the other hand, was busy staring at the cup he had suddenly found back in his hands. The jounin had barely drunk half of it. And then he had sprayed the rest back into the cup. With a slight grimace of disgust, Itachi turned over the cup, spilling its contents back onto the ground. That done, he looked back up to regard the shinobi sitting across from him.

By this time, Sakura had managed to calm herself, though she didn't notice at first how close she was to Kakashi's side. When she did, she tried to scoot a bit away, to give him more room. But an arm encircled around her waist prevented that. With a sigh of defeat, she leaned against him, avoiding eye contact with the missing nin across the fire. Of course, it wasn't that he just wanted her to be by his side. Nah. He just wanted to know where she was in case Itachi decided to attack. He'd be better able to protect her if she was closer to him. Yupp. Exactly.

'She doesn't have to be this close,' his logical side pointed out. At which point Kakashi locked the logical side up in a small dark corner of his mind, deciding to pointedly ignore it.

"So what brings you here," Kakashi asked conversationally, "To this place. At this time. In... this exact part of the forest?"

Itachi turned his eyes to the chuunin's. Sakura felt his gaze but tried to ignore it.

'So what if he's looking this way? I can look whichever way I WANT to. He could just take his tea cup and shove it up his-'

"I thought you would have figured it out by now." Itachi said suddenly, irked that she refused to meet his eyes. He knew she had heard him. And still...

Not quite understanding why Itachi was looking at Sakura, Kakashi replied tightly, "Why don't you enlighten us?" Unconsciously, his grip around the pink haired kunoichi tensed.

The missing nin's eyes narrowed at Sakura's blatant disregard of him. Whatever. Its not like he cared. Finally he shifted his eyes to Kakashi. Said jounin, in turn, relaxed. Maybe it was only a very small muscle in his pinky finger, but it still counted as relaxing. Slightly. Okay, I lied. Only a small part of that small muscle in his small pinky finger relaxed. But it still counts. Right?

"I'm here... for the mission." Itachi stated.

When it registered, Sakura's head whipped around, eyes wide as she looked at the Uchiha boy. She didn't notice the small smirk that appeared when he noted that he had caught her attention. Kakashi spluttered. But it wasn't from his statement. Not fully. Rather, it was from the strands of pink hair that had whipped at his face, somehow getting caught in his mouth even with the mask on. Since Kakashi's speech-abilities were temporarily out of order, it was Sakura that had to ask.

"What do you know about the mission?" Sakura demanded to know.

One of the Uchiha's brows raised, "I'm the one who sponsored it."

Those seven words felt like nails to her imaginary coffin.
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Give yourselves a pat on the back. Your reviews held back the two dreaded words 'The End'. For now. Now I'll just be over here, eating my cookies and recovering from my bruises. -smirks- I'm probably being too nice...

Itachi: -walks into the room- I thank no one.

Sakura: -frowns- but you wouldn't have made it into the fic if they hadn't demanded an encore.

Itachi: -looks at her-

Kakashi: -saunters lazily into the room- Let him be a bastard. -noticing the look Itachi was giving Sakura, the jounin growls, placing his arm around his kunoichi- Stick to your tea.