Crimson Ties

Chapter 7

Ino decided to take the cave they initially discovered and Itachi and Sakura took the one to the east. Itachi and Sakura wandered around in utter silence for over an hour. Neither of them knew what to say to each other. 

  'Come on now Sakura. Tell him how you feeeeeel!' 

  

   'Inner? Is that you? Wow, It has been a while huh?' 

   'Do not change the subject miss! You know you like him. I am in your head remember? I can hear every thought you ever have. You wanted him to kiss you that night. Just tell him so.' 

  Sakura rolled her eyes and focused back on the mission. She sighed to herself. She knew inner was right. She was hoping he really would have kissed her that night. Honestly, she had just thought it was a way to help her get over Sasuke, but as the day continued, she found herself continuing to look in his direction. She found herself hoping he would come back for what he had started. 

  'I am scared. I don't know what is going through his mind. I don't even know if he was being honest. Maybe he was just trying to make me feel better. This entire time he hasn't looked at me or even said anything to me.'

'Sometimes I wish I could just take over your body and do what I know you want to. You will never know unless you try Sakura. You were never this shy in expressing your feelings for Sasuke. He never returned those feelings but you kept trying. How is Itachi any different?'

   'He's not, but my feelings are. I like him a lot but he was also a very good friend first. Sasuke never really was a friend so I had nothing to ruin by confessing. If i confess and he was only cheering me up, then things could get awkward with us. I am scared.'

  Sakura looked up to see Itachi's back in front of her. He really hasn't turned around once this entire time. Sakura fought the tears attempting to flood her eyes and continued walking. 

   'Do not wait forever. You never know, he may have been afraid to kiss you because he didn't know how you felt. If that is so, he is probably waiting for you to make a move now to confirm his feelings. If that is true then he won't wait forever.'

  Sakura sighed softly hoping it would avoid Itach's ears. She was wrong. He turned around instantly and looked at her as soon as the sigh escaped her lips. 

  "Is something wrong Sakura?" He asked her. 

   "No i am okay. Thank you though." Sakura said with a clearly fake smile.

   Itachi crossed his arms and stared her down. 

   "I am not an idiot Sakura. I can tell something is bothering you, so tell me. We have hours before we return to the villagers, so technically we have all night." Itachi said sternly. 

   'Tell him Sakura.'

  "You should know what's bothering me." She told him. 

   Itachi looked at her confused and uncrossed his arms. 

  "Is it Sasuke?" He asked.

   "No! It is you! First you almost kiss me and make me think you actually like me and now you walk in front of me and don't even say a word to me or even try to finish what you started! The only thing that caught your attention was when i sighed!" Sakura yelled. 

   Sakura could no longer hold back her tears and they ran down her face like a waterfall. Itachi stared at her wide eyed. She took notice of his non response to her outburt and took off running in whatever direction her body would carry her. 

   "Sakura! Wait!" Itachi yelled after her. 

   Sakura kept running and refused to stop for him. This was not how she wanted to express her feelings but her mouth refused any other way. 

  

  Sakura ran for quite some time before she finally stopped to catch her breath. She had found it weird that she hadn't ran into Ino or anyone else. She sighed and sat down in front of a tree.

   'Nice work Sakura, you had him afraid of you. When I said to tell him did you honestly think that was what I meant? Do you think I wanted you to yell it to him?' 

   'I am sorry. I didn't want to tell him that way. I don't know what came over me. It's like my mouth wanted to shout it out loud.' 

  Sakura sighed and placed her head in her knees. 

  "Why am I such an idiot? He probably thinks that I was mad at him for trying to kiss me. God, if he only knew..." Sakura said to herself.

  "If I only knew what, Sakura?" Itachi asked as he sat down beside her. 

  'Tell him now without screaming, please. He obviously followed you for a reason.'

   Sakura looked at him wide eyed and he face turned red as a tomato. 

  "Itachi..I.." 

  Itachi quickly interupted her by placing his finger on her lips. Before Sakura could even react to his finger, it was moved and replaced by his lips.