Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters in it. I apologize if this is similar to some other fanfic and I can assure you that this fanfic is as original as it can be.

Chapter 1: Favourable

She felt cheated.

Well, it was not the first time that she felt cheated. There were a couple of times that people got the better out of her and every single time it happened, she swore to herself that she would not let it happen again. However, things did not normally go according to how she wanted it to. Instead, she always got the opposite and most of the time, she had no choice but to just go along with it.

Maybe it got something to do with the fact that she was best friend with the knucklehead Uzumaki Naruto, to whom she could not deny anything, and also with the spoilt (good thing he could not read her mind) Uchiha Sasuke, who always ended up getting whatever he wanted (because he would throw a tantrum, albeit a quiet one, if he did not).She was often forced to follow what people want. She was a master at adapting to unfavourable situations.

But this was something that she felt like she could not adapt to.

Why, you asked?

Having the infamous Uchiha Itachi sitting in front of you when you expected to have a catch-up session with your only female best friend after few weeks of not seeing her in one of those calm artsy looking café near the University was one of the most unexpected, unadaptable situations.

She did not have to be a genius to realize the fact that this whole situation was planned by that one female best friend of her who she should have mentioned when she was talking about people who often got her into situations that was not at all favourable.

Now she was just overusing that word.

But could you blame her, really?

She was not personally acquainted to the Uchiha Itachi despite the fact that she should be since she was close to his younger brother. It was probably because she preferred hanging around at Naruto's place rather than Sasuke's. She went to Sasuke's place once but Uchiha Fugaku scared the hell out of her. To be specific, his strict and traditional self made her feel like she was out of her comfort zone. The second when she entered the Uchiha compound, she felt so out of place in her casual modern attire. Not forgetting to mention that she was kind of brazen and informal.

"I take it that you did not expect to see me here."

No, shit. She might have been unable to mask her surprise. She would not be surprised if the face that she was making right then was so unattractive. She was sure that Magikarp would look more attractive than she was at that moment.

"Haruno-san, I have been trying to contact you but-"

"I changed my number," she blurted out. At this moment, she was not surprised that she was no longer in control of her brain. In her defence, he was not the first person to say that they had not been able to get in touch with her. It was true that she changed her number and it was not just some kind of an automatic response.

His lips twitched upward. "Hn, I am aware of that."

She was sure that he was also aware of her thoughts when she felt her blood rushing to her face. Good Lord, did the Uchiha Itachi who always look so emotionless just smiled at her? It was only for a second but still…

Trying to calm herself, her hand reached for her iced coffee. She was aware that her hands were shaking but she hoped that he did not see it. Sadly, it was rather obvious that he did. Even if he did not notice the shaking, her loud sipping must be an obvious telltale of how nervous she was.

Dammit, why was she feeling so nervous?

She decided to talk. She decided that now would be best to act like she was not affected by his presence. She let out a soft cough to check her voice. "Erm…"

Looking at this positively, she managed to voice out a syllable even though that was not a word. She managed to let out two sounds and not just one.

"I would like to explain." She did not realize that his coffee was already on his table until he brought the cup to his lips.

"That," she squeak. She let out a cough again trying to cover herself. "That would be helpful," she tried again. This was so unlike her. Why was she being so formal?

"I would like to apologize first for making your friend lie to you but I can assure you that I did not force her to do this."

She knew that Ino planned this. However, she did not expect the revelation that he was the one who made her best friend do this.

"I have tried to get in touch with you."

Yes, he said that already. She was still nervous but her curiosity got the best of her. "How?"

"I got your phone number but it was only recently that I found out that you changed it. I also tried to add you up on Facebook but I'm guessing that you had not been checking it."

He was right. She had not been checking it. Her eyebrow twitched when she realized that even though she had not been checking it, she should have received a notification as her phone was connected to her Facebook.

"I have also DM-ed you on Twitter but I still-"

"I do not have a Twitter." She was not sure what she was more confused about right now: the fact that she supposedly had a Twitter or the fact that Uchiha Itachi had a Twitter.

His eyebrow twitched. He was sure that it was her account that he followed. "To put things short, I am unable to get in touch with you. So I was advised that I should get your friend to set this up for me."

She did not know what he was trying to tell her. But, "You could have just approach me if you have something to talk about." She had always thought that she was an approachable person and now knowing that someone went to such length just to get in touch with her made her think otherwise. Well, if she was unapproachable, it might be attributable to the fact that her two male best friends were so protective of her. However, she had a feeling that the Uchiha Itachi would not be discouraged by that.

"It would be nice if it was that easy." She was not sure if she was interpreting his words right but it seemed like he had tried to do that already.

She was not sure how she should act after hearing that statement. She was not an oblivious person. She could not guess what he could have wanted from her but she knew that for him to try so hard to contact her, it must be something important.

Something that Sasuke said during one of his Itachi-worshipping moments came back to her.

"Aniki is doing a research on medical law and ethics focussing on….." the details were lost on her. But it could be because of that, because what else could a Law lecturer want from her, a second year medical undergraduate?

"If this is about your research-"

"It is not about that, Haruno-san," he interrupted. She swore she saw a pleased sparkle in his eyes for a second there.

She frowned. All of her nervousness had left her by now and she wanted nothing but to know what exactly he wanted from her. Something told her whatever he was going to say would change her life. Whether it was for the better or for worst, she could not predict.

Then a thought came to her mind and with a horror-filled expression, she responded, "I've read about this many times already. I am not going to be your fake girlfriend."

She did not know why she said that but she forced herself to not feel embarrassed…yet. Because why else would he approach her? Everyone knew that Itachi was not close to any female other than his mother. Everyone also knew that his privacy was often invaded by the many females who appreciate his good looks. Everyone also knew that he actually loved his personal space so much that he felt those privacy invasions were a nuisance even though he said nothing about it since Uchiha Mikoto had made sure to teach her sons to be a gentleman.

Well, the lessons might have been lost on Sasuke.

But Itachi… he was a known gentleman to the core.

…Now that she thought about it, if he was a gentleman, he would not ask her to be a fake girlfriend. The logic of it all would be lost. Sakura, of all people, was well accustomed, unfortunately, to the fact that people often turned to the things that was least expected of them when desperate.

She could not even accept the idea of the Uchiha in a state of desperation but he was human, too. And it would not be weird if he lost himself to that state. Especially after years of keeping up with those females. Sakura herself had learnt how annoying fangirls could be. She had been friends with Sasuke for as long as she could remember. She did not know how annoying they were actually but with Sasuke's constant whining (he would really kill her if he knew she said this) she could imagine just how annoying they could be.

Nothing could have prepared her for what came next.

"You don't have to be a fake one."

She felt cheated a lot of time.

Every time she felt cheated, she was often forced to adapt to an unfavourable situation.

She was a master at adapting.

This time, she could not adapt to this unfavourable situation.

It was unfavourable because she could not adapt to this.

It was unfavourable because, deep down, she knew that it was a favourable situation disguised as an unfavourable situation.

She had been asking to be in a relationship because she was getting tired of having male best friends who were close to her but not a boyfriend. This was not saying that she never had a boyfriend. She had but it was just that she was now at that age where she needed some kind of a secure standing in life. She had reached the time of her life where it was only normal for her to graduate from being single to a more serious relationship.

But this was beyond favourable.

Beyond what she thought was possible.

Sakura was not the kind of person to daydream for something unachievable so this was something that she would never have expected could have happened to her.

So she was at loss at how to act.

"No."

She should have practiced responding to a flirtatious remark when Ino told her to.

AN: I apologize for any grammatical errors in this. This idea came to me suddenly and I just had to write it down and I thought that I should post it for fun. The characters may be out of character but all is in the name of a fanfiction, lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the read!

Please do leave a review and tell me what you think! Anonymous reviews are accepted!