That's MY Book!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Oh well, it'd be too much trouble. Or at least, that's what I keep telling myself.
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Itachi was suddenly in front of her. He had moved so quickly no one had seen it. He was crouched, eye level with her. His voice was suddenly low.

"Do you now...?" The dark haired Uchiha said, too close for comfort.

And it didn't help the kunoichi that he just moved closer...

Sakura's breath hitched. 'Why is Itachi getting so close??!!'

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed as he wondered the same thing, watching Uchiha Itachi like a hawk.

'Hmm... maybe he's just trying to get close to snap her neck. THEN I'd have a reason to kill him myself.' Kakashi plotted darkly to himself, 'I mean, it wouldn't be MY fault if I mistook a slight kiss for an assassination attempt by the Akatsuki member. I would be defending my sweet strawberry.'

Gaara stood in rapt attention, his movement constricted by the heavy tension he felt in the air.

'What... is going on....?' The sand nin's eyes flicked from Sakura, to Itachi, to the suddenly crazed looking Kakashi. Alright, so he wasn't crazed LOOKING. The jounin was too experienced to just LET someone see how upset he was. But Kakashi was meticulously scrutinizing the missing nin's every move. Gaara could only imagine what the silver haired shinobi was thinking under that thick lazy skull of his. Probably planning on using any excuse to kill Itachi. 'Huh, that might be bad for the mission.' Gaara thought to himself.

'That might be a problem...' Gaara's gaze drifted nonchalantly away, 'OR... I could have somehow been distracted at the time of Itachi's... er, suspicious, death. Distracted by' -his thought of whatever came in his sights first- "that devastating twig over there. Or that insignificant pebble. Could be traps. Dangerous traps hiding hidden shinobi who plan on killing us. Yes. As a Kazekage, I must always be alert.'

Itachi could see the silver haired jounin tense from the corner of his eye. The missing nin allowed a small grin to grace his stoic features.

Speaking to Sakura as if she was the only one that existed, Itachi murmured, "I could give you a taste..."

At this, the maroon headed sand nin shifted his attention back to them. Though that pebble he had been scrutinizing had looked mighty suspicious. Probably fratenizing with the enemy. That damn twig was mocking him! Gaara's eye twitched.

Then he remembered he was about to say something. He tore his gaze from the offending objects.

"Can't, actually." Gaara said matter-of-factly, holding the tin cup upside down, "I drank all of it."

Itachi barely glanced over at the maroon haired shinobi, his sharingan eyes locked on Sakura and Sakura only.

"That wasn't the way I was speaking of..." He breathed out slowly.

At her side, Sakura heard Kakashi give a low growl. She blinked, trying to pull away. But Itachi's Sharingan eyes were... swirling.

-?-?-?-

There was a room. She was there. But so was Itachi. Sakura didn't wonder how in the world she got there. She didn't wonder where the hell the place was. She didn't even wonder why she was there.

Nope. She didn't need to wonder.

Her vocal chords needed practice, after all.

Currently, her illusionary self was shouting it at the illusionary Itachi. Said Uchiha winced. Inner Sakura grinned in victory.

But suddenly, the illusionary Itachi was closer. Her face was held in his hands, her heart racing. He was going to kiss her. His lips were closing fast.

Wait, he wasn't GOING to kiss her. HE WAS KISSING HER.

And... she could have sworn her hands were in front of her, pressing against Itachi's chest. So then, whose hands were trailing down her stomach to-

Sakura's eyes widened. Oh. MY. GO-

-?-?-?-

Sakura blinked. She didn't know how it had happened, but the spell of Itachi's eyes were broken. Well, she didn't know until she caught sight of Kakashi's broad back in front of her.

The silver haired jounin growled audibly. He had placed himself in between the missing nin and Sakura, his visible eye currently glaring heatedly at the Sharingan eyed Itachi. And somehow... SOMEHOW... he had the tin cup in his hands.

Gaara blinked. Looked down at his hands. Blinked again. And looked back up at the three shinobi before him. How had Kakashi gotten the cup? HOW? The sand nin had a sneaking suspicion the twig and the pebble may have had a hand in it somewhere. Wait, pebbles and twigs didn't have hands. Gaara frowned. Which simply led back full circle. HOW in the WORLD had Kakashi gotten the tin cup from him?

Itachi looked... amused. He had irked the lazy jounin so much that said jounin was all up in his face. AND Itachi hadn't even been trying to kill anyone. Or inflict pain. No. He had simply invoked his Sharingan eyes to bring Sakura pleasure.

But Kakashi... well, Kakashi was NOT amused.

The silver haired jounin imagined so many things he could do with that tin cup of death. Shove and twist it into the Akatsuki member's eyes, watching with grim satisfaction as said shinobi writhed in pain on the ground. Then he could crumble the tea leaves of destruction into the damaged eyes while expressing concern by asking in worried tones if Itachi was alright. Before accidentally dropping his kunai, of course. Dropping it right. On. The smug bastard's. Damn. FACE. Three times. Or once. No... three times.

Kakashi thought what Sakura would have thought of that. Her anger was eminent. And a few months of non-kissing or anything of the sort. No sex. Immediately, his thoughts backtracked.

'Or....I could just let the Uchiha off with a warning.'

Yeah. A warning. That should be enough, right? But once again he imagined the Uchiha writhing on the ground in pain, the kunai, tea leaves, and tin cup having wreaked their havoc. That is, before a disapproving pink-haired chuuning appeared in his thoughts. Quickly, he shook the violent thought out of his head. FINE. A warning. JUST a warning. But a STERN one.

THEN, after that, he definately would have an excuse to kick the sorry Uchiha's ass to oblivion.

Shoving the tin cup into the surprised missing nin's hands, Kakashi said with an edge (so sharp it could cut steel) in his voice, "Stick. To your DAMN. TEA."

"But I find strawberries... to be much more enticing..." Itachi replied, his voice low.

Kakashi was glad he wasn't still holding the cup. If he had, he would've crumpled it while he clenched his shaking fist. Then again, maybe he should snatch the cup back. Serves the bastard right for trying to make moves on Sakura. But then... then Itachi wouldn't be able to stick to his tea. Then he WOULD have an excuse to go after Sakura!! Kakashi growled. That would just NOT do.

Sakura and Gaara exchanged raised brows. What the hell were those two shinobi talking about? Deciding that she should try to do something to calm the situation down, Sakura stood and took the few steps required to stop beside both of them.

"Enough talk about the tea and strawberries already! Why don't you just put strawberries in your tea, if it appeals to you so much?" Sakura frowned at the missing nin.

Itachi rose slowly to his feet, his gaze intently fixed on the pink-haired chuunin beside him, "It is not as easy as that..."

In contradiction to the Uchiha's slow movements, Kakashi rose swiftly to his feet. If he had fur, his hackles would be raised by now. Itachi was doing it again!

Sakura jumped at the sudden, graceful movement from the silver haired jounin. The look on his face was a clearly pissed off one, despite the fact that more than half of it was covered by his mask and forehead protector.

Itachi smirked at the older jounin across from him. It was so easy to get a rise out of the leaf shinobi this way. It was so funny.

Uchiha Itachi froze. Had he thought what he just think he thought? Had he thought something was funny. Or rather, SOMEONE? The missing nin's eyes narrowed. That was inexcusable. For that, Hatake Kakashi would pay. And the delectable pink haired chuunin was just the way to do it.

As if detecting the other's thoughts, Kakashi encircled a possessive arm around a surprised Sakura, pulling her closer to his side. Sakura wanted to pull away, but the jounin was so warm. After feeling a slight flush go through her face, she looked back up at the Uchiha's sharingan eyes.

"You hurt her... you die..." Kakashi had said it so low Sakura had trouble catching it. And she was standing right beside him. Then again, Itachi did seem inhuman at times.

The Uchiha jerked his gaze to the jounin before him. That was a blunt, heart-felt threat if he ever heard one. Itachi had a sudden urge to smirk. But he remained stoic, his voice calm, "...I see..."

A frustrated sound made all three pinpoint their attention at a certain shinobi. Said maroon shinobi was currently growling and venting his anger at something.

The other shinobi just stood in bewilderment.

"Gaara.... What are you doing?" Kakashi asked slowly.

Itachi blinked.

Sakura frowned, "Is that a... Is that a twig? And a pebble? And... what did they ever do to you???"

Gaara's light green orbs narrowed as he shot it in their direction. His voice was low. Too low for even Itachi to fully catch. All they heard was something that sounded like 'spies', 'suspicious', and some other thing that all three shinobi decided they weren't curious or dumb enough to find out.

;-;

"Shit." The hidden ninja shifted, not truly turning to face his partner, but getting his attention.

"How..." His shocked partner demanded in barely audible tones, "How in the world did the Kazekage know?"

"The twig and the pebble were the perfect candidates!" The first ninja hissed, voice shaking in disbelief.

His partner agreed, agitated, "It took forever to find a specialist in making explosive scrolls so small."

"So then how the fuck did that damn sand nin disable them so quickly?!?!"

Immediately after the slightly loud statement, the two froze.

;-;

Sakura frowned.

After a slight pause, she asked, "Did you guys hear anything?"

But Kakashi and Itachi were currently in a glaring contest. Gaara, however, tilted his head ever so slightly in thought. His light green eyes flicked over to her deeper green ones. Together, they shrugged, before returning their attention to the two idiots still glaring at eachother.

;-;

"S-h-i-t..." The first ninja repeated, though his voice quaked more in relieved fear.

"That was too close." The second frowned grimly.

"We should... get the others."

The other one nodded slowly, creeping slowly, soundlessly, back. With a last glance back into the camp, the first followed.

;-;

'Finally. FINALLY.' Sakura's inner self sighed exasperatedly, 'I'm FINALLY going to find out what the heck we're doing out here.'

Kakashi had positioned them across the fire from Itachi again. As if a clump of burning twigs offered a barrier in between them and Uchiha Itachi. Though the fire HAD managed to hurt Sakura earlier. Sakura frowned at the fire, mentally shaking her fist, 'Damn fire.'

Since she had been looking at the fire it was no surprise that her eyes suddenly went past it, locked in the black gaze of the Akatsuki nin. She saw the Sharingan eyes start to swirl slightly and quickly averted her gaze. She didn't need a repeat of what happened earlier. And she wasn't at all curious as to what he would show her. At all.

Her eyes flickered back to his. Maybe she was curious. Just a little. Then she saw the bastard's smirk. That smug, arrogant, know-it-all, smirk.

Maybe it was time for a little payback.