Dark Truths Undiscovered

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Nor do I own the songs used within.


Sorry it's so short, hope you like!

~

They ate in silence, a chill forming in the room despite the small fire crackling cheerfully in the hearth. Sakura chewing slowly, her mind in turmoil over what had occurred beyond the refuge of these walls.

Itachi had kissed her. Kissed. Her. Why? Did he want to? Of course he did or he wouldn’t have, she told herself.

Now, she wasn’t sure of she could look at him without blushing. Despite the wrongness of it, it had been quite nice. She almost would have wished for it again. Itachi however seemed unaffected, he was cool as always. Finishing his rabbit and tossing the stick and bones into the fire, where all was greedily devoured.

His face betrayed nothing of his thoughts, but they were far from calm. He had kissed her. Kissed. Her. Why? Had he really wanted to? And in that moment, he knew, he had. More than anything he had wanted to replace, if even for a moment, the marks of Sasuke and Naruto on her heart. But he couldn’t.

She loved the blonde shinobi, he had no doubts of that. She often murmured his name in her sleep, as though she might call him to her location with will alone. She needed him.

Itachi had nearly forgotten how that felt. To be loved, to be needed. He was feared, hated, perhaps even admired. But he was not loved and had not cared to be.

Until she had slapped him.

She had risked everything in her defense of the demon vessel. Everything…..

He glanced up finding her silence irritating, “You should have gotten out of those wet clothes.” he told her, though his tone said he cared less.

She shrugged, “I will dry” she replied, “I can’t keep taking your clothing and you are just as wet as I am.”

He rose from his seat, pulling his wet robe off and then his shirt. He hung them in the corner to dry, his back to her.

Sakura’s eyes widened at the sight of his naked torso. Pale and well muscled, marked with scars that bore the true tale of his long life of fighting. That perfect face was hiding so much from the world. Her eyes lingered on a particular one and she spoke up before thinking, “That one alone should have been the end of you.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her, “Perhaps. I have never been so easy to kill, though this one was closer than all the others.”

He turned from her again, reaching his hand out, “Give them to me. There’s no point in wearing them at the moment.”

She blushed looking down at her wet and chafing clothing. She rose and moved to the bed, lifting her blanket as she peeled the garments from herself. Once she was wrapped in the blanket, she handed her clothing over. Watching as his strong hands wrung the excess water from them, snapping them smartly and neatly hanging them.

She sat on the corner of the bed again, sighing. “Itachi” she asked softly, “Will you tell me something about yourself?”.

His face remained deadpan, “The less you know of me the better for you” he told her honestly.

She smacked the corner of the bed, suddenly angry at the lonely world he had chosen.

“Is that how you want to be?” she demanded, “Is that all you really want, a miserable death and a lonely life?” Her green eyes blazed at him from across the room, but there was a touch of sadness there as well.

Itachi grunted and turned away to rifle through his pack, “You are picking up the annoyingly famed habits of the fox” he told her, “Looking for some way to understand the people around you. It won’t help you Sakura.”

“Uchihas are the same I guess” she muttered, flopping back on the bed and curling on her side, her back to him, “Too selfish to understand anything good or warm. That’s what I get for trying to care about them.” She said nothing else, nor did she move, but nearly an hour later Itachi heard her even breathing and knew she was asleep.

Her words had struck a chord within him, though he was certain she hadn’t meant them to. She was correct of course. For as long as he could recall, Uchiha men had behaved much the same. Cold, distant, they wore arrogance like is was the latest fashion and they wore it well.

They deemed very few worthy of friendship and when they did, they often couldn’t show that as another might. He knew that Sakura had chased his little brother around endlessly as children.

Awed by the dark beauty and the fearfulness of the Uchiha clan. Of course she had also seen a little boy who was lonely even when surrounded by others and her heart had reached out to him.

Look how far that had gotten her. Half a lifetime later nearly, and she was still chasing, trying to offer a home a refuge to someone who had willing thrown them away. And she’d just done it again. For him. He sighed softly, rose and looked outside.

The storm was growing worse, he pondered the odds of it breaking the next day but doubted it. They were safe enough, he’d seen to that.

Of course he was certain that the Kyuubi was drawing closer and even now little Sasuke was likely planning to come for the pink haired girl.

Not because he loved her.

Not because he cared.

But because she was useful to him now.

Closing the door, Itachi tried to pretend that he didn’t feel the chill seeping into the house, into him. He strode to the clothing, checking to see how much longer it would need to dry.

He frowned, a lot longer than it had been apparently. The damp creeping in on the air wasn’t helping either.

He put more logs on the fire, hung heavy blankets near the doors and windows to battle some of the chill. No wonder this place had been abandoned. He glanced back to Sakura, seeing that she hadn’t stirred in all his efforts. That woman could sleep through a battle he supposed.

Her bandaged shoulders seemed far too thin to him suddenly, too delicate to take on the task at hand. Yet he knew of her monstrous temper and equal strength. She was like another Tsunade he mused to himself.

He looked around the little room, he should sleep on the floor, however the cold coming from it was not a welcome thought. Though Itachi didn’t sleep for long or very often, when he needed rest, he needed rest.

Currently he did, perhaps half a night’s worth. He never trusted anyone enough to relax enough to lay down his head for sleep. However, with the cover of the rain and the intricacy of his traps, his concerns were mostly allayed.

He lifted the blanket on the bed, not looking at the bare Sakura that slept beneath and slid in beside her. She was warm from sleep, and smelled of shampoo, rain water, and soft herbs. He sighed, curling himself around the source of warmth.

Sakura felt the weight of an arm across her and nearly bolted from the small bed. Her eyes wide. Itachi merely held her in place, “Sleep Sakura” he murmured to her.

She sucked in a deep breath, her body rigid. She was about to demand that he remove himself and then kick his ass.

It was then that she noticed something. His chest was cold against her back. She felt like a heel. He was cold and she couldn’t blame him for not taking the floor.

“You are like ice” she whispered to him.

She felt him pull from her and covered his arm with her own which she had wrestled from the blanket. Stopping his flight.

“I didn’t mean it like that” she said quietly, “Your skin, is cold. That’s not good.”

He lay very still as though considering her words and Sakura inched herself around until she was facing him. The bed was painfully small. Two heads, one pink, one dark lay close enough that their noses nearly touched.

She blushed over the close quarters, but he said nothing. The arm around her shifted to accommodate her movements and then drew her close again. She could feel, where her knees bumped his that he still wore pants. ‘Thank god!’

He seemed far more pale than usual and her brow furrowed in concern. Lifting her hand, she touched his brow, finding it cool like the rest of him. Her fingers strayed to his hair which was still damp and clucked, “You have to let your hair down Itachi so it will dry.”

He grunted as though he didn’t care, but he didn’t stop her when she slowly worked the band free, “Dumb man” she muttered, “Going to die of hypothermia or some crap like that. Just great.”

She pulled the blanket higher on his shoulder, tucking it carefully around him. Mothering him shamelessly.

Itachi found he didn’t care that much. The demands of his body for rest were pressing in on him. When he felt Sakura’s fingers glide through his thick hair to encourage it to dry faster his eyelids grew heavy.

“Itachi?” she asked, her voice filled with curious wonder, “Are you falling asleep? I didn’t think you ever slept.”

He shrugged, “I am a living thing.” he told her, “Even I must sleep from time to time. Though I require infrequent rest.”

She stared at his face, framed by straight dark hair, long and smooth. He looked younger now.

“How long has it been since you last slept?” she asked. Sleep deprivation was bad juju in the medical world.

Again he shrugged, “Nearly three weeks. Stop petting me.” he replied.

Her soft fingers traced over his brow, pushing his bangs back. His mother had done that when he was small. He snuggled a little closer, feeling the heat of her body seep into him.

“Itachi” she whispered, “Go to sleep. I’ll look after you.”

Against her shoulder she thought she felt him smirk, “I need nothing of the sort”.

She was about to berate him for that damned arrogance again, when his arm tightened again and he pulled her flush against him, tucking his face further into the crook of her neck and breathing deeply, “But I thank you just the same.”

Her hand stilled in his hair. Had he just thanked her? Was Itachi human after all? She continued to stroke his hair for several long minutes. The soft repetition lulling her as much as it lulled him. Her last thoughts before she fell into her own dream was that Itachi Uchiha had very nice hair.

~

Sasuke strode through the dark subterranean halls that he called home. Deep in the bowels of the earth his objective lay waiting. Strapped to a medical bed, and connected to various life-giving machines. Kabuto hovered over Orochimaru, checking tubes and lines. Keep a steady drip of enhanced morphine in the sannin’s arm.

He would need a new container again and soon. Damn the third for being so thorough in his cursing. They had both supposed that jumping into another body would have ended it. How wrong they had been, for each time he took another body, the curse spread with him.

They had fought against that time and time again. Kabuto sifting through his extensive texts for ways to slow or stop the deterioration. It had been impossible to even consider taking Sasuke’s body in this state. Orochimaru had worked far too hard to lose his precious goal. No, he would use others until he could be stabilized enough to take the Sharingan.

Years had gone by however, and Kabuto knew that as powerful as he remained, Orochimaru would never be able to take Sasuke’s body. Sasuke would have to give it to him, when and if they could do it successfully. He knew also that Sasuke had no intention of doing any such thing. He never had and he’d never made it a secret.

Sasuke paused at the door, looking in on the two. He strode inside with a curt nod to Kabuto before leaning casually over the sannin’s bed.

His broad shoulders hardly covered by the garb of the Sound. “Still here” he said in a low voice.

Orochimaru had always liked the boy’s spirit and his pale lips split into a wide smile, “How nice of you to visit Sasuke-kun” he purred, “It has been some time since you came here. I hear you have been busy up there.”

Sasuke sank into the bedside chair, “Kabuto keeps you well posted, as he should.” The medic continued his work, as though he was deaf.

Orochimaru nodded and cast clever eyes at Sasuke, “What has brought here?” he asked.

Sasuke said nothing, merely held up the scrap of pink for the other to see. Yellow eyes narrowed on the hair for a moment and then lifted to Sasuke in question. “That girl.” he said.

Sasuke nodded, “Itachi has her. They were spotted on the border.”

Orochimaru chuckled, “And engaged I assume.”

Sasuke nodded stiffly, “Engaged. They defeated my men.”

Orochimaru would have expected nothing less from the killer of Konoha. “So your former teammate is now Akatsuki.” he mused.

Sasuke shook his head, “My reports from the traitor indicate she was his captive. He went to Konoha to take her. Yet she fought against the men of Sound and when wounded he retrieved her, rather than leaving her behind. It makes no sense to me. I thought she would have fled him when my men came within sight.”

Kabuto pushed his glasses up on his nose, “Why would she have done that? Sound ninja might have killed her without a second thought. At least with Itachi she had survived to this point.”

His words were logical but they didn’t sit well with Sasuke.

He turned his dark, cold eyes to Kabuto. “She would have, because I am here. She would be naïve enough to think that I would have protected her.”

Orochimaru lifted one brow at his choice of words, “But you wouldn’t have?”

Sasuke grunted, “I would have taken her from Itachi and she would have been my captive instead it’s as simple as that.”

The sannin chuckled, “Oh Sasuke-kun, you really make me very happy. Look at how you have grown under my watch. You have no more heart that he does now. Doesn’t that feel good? You even call the shinobi of Sound your men.”

Sasuke leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his dark eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Lay there and laugh you old snake” he said with a smirk, “but make no mistake. They ARE my men. Only the strongest can lead them, can rule here. Last time I checked, that was me. Now be quiet and listen to what I have to say, or I might make him unplug you.”