The Rival

The training sessions from hell with an increasingly irresistible Sakura continued. They got more frequent, in fact. Tsunade got wind of them (Itachi decided to blame Kakashi, he had no real proof, but the man was way too gleeful when he'd asked Itachi how training was going) and promptly removed Itachi from active duty to give Sakura more time with him. She also told him that depending on how he did with Sakura she may or may not decide to make him a Jounin instructor. Why she thought Itachi would even want that was a mystery (he decided to blame Kakashi for this as well).

So Itachi had his hands full with a kunoichi that fascinated him to no end and who didn't shy away from physical contact, ever. What in the world had Kakashi been teaching his Genin? And why in the world did he allow Sakura to be so demonstrative all the time? He'd seen her hug Kakashi more times than he was comfortable admitting and once she'd even sat on the man's lap! Okay, that had been mostly a joke, but Kakashi hadn't protested. Why would a taciturn shinobi like that allow so much skinship? Wait, no. Better he didn't know.

Though he'd noticed that Sakura limited her hugging tendencies to her teammates and him of all people. He'd gotten used to see her clinging to Naruto-kun and Sasuke over the years. Sasuke had apparently also learned to cope because he never said anything anymore, when before he'd shake the girl off and tell to stop being an annoying leach. Come to think of it, Sasuke had stopped complaining around the time Sakura had started including him in the physical punishments she liberally doled out to Naruto-kun. Right, self-preservation. Better have the girl hug him than break his jaw, after all. His little brother had some sense it seemed. Maybe he wasn't a total failure as a parenting figure.

Her various other friends and acquaintances weren't on the receiving end of her affection very often, if ever. Much to the chagrin of some of them. Most notably, one very fast, very skilled and very loud taijutsu expert. The self-proclaimed Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha had joined Itachi and Sakura for a couple of training sessions and had been useful for her taijutsu training. He was way too fast for her to hit him and didn't mind sharing his knowledge with her. In fact, he was most gleeful in teaching the Beautiful Cherry Blossom anything she asked for.

He wasn't very fond of Itachi.

Rock Lee wasn't the type to be disrespectful to anyone, he was always courteous to a fault, something Itachi appreciated. He was also blunt and direct, again traits the Uchiha valued. Just not when Lee stopped him in the middle of the very busy market early one morning to demand answers.

"Uchiha Itachi-san!" the younger man had suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere in front of a stunned Itachi. Legs spread apart, one fist on his hip, the index finger of his other hand pointing in Itachi's face (very rude, if Itachi was honest). "What are your intentions regarding our fair Sakura-san?"

Stunned and not only slightly disturbed, Itachi had not managed to find words and remined quiet. It had made the already painfully awkward scene even more so. Lee, waiting for an answer, had not been prepared not to receive one and had remained in his accusing pose for a whole five minutes while Itachi stared at him, only sheer willpower keeping his jaw from dropping and eyes from widening.

When he'd realized that Itachi wasn't going to respond, Lee had visibly deflated. But only for a second. Within a blink he was his energetic self again, still pointing at Itachi's face, and shouting.

"I'll have you know that Sakura-san belongs to all of us! You cannot just commandeer her attention as you wish! She is Konoha's sweetheart and everyone deserves to their fair share of her time and attention! Lately you have been hogging her! I, the founder and president of the We Heart Haruno Sakura Society have the obligation to remind you to share Sakura san equally with everyone!"

Speechless, but not about to stand there any longer, exposed to more ridicule, Itachi walked around Lee, not sparing him a second glance.

"Uchiha Itachi-san!"

He really didn't know how to give up, did he? Itachi continued walking, willing the villagers to stop staring, even as Lee's booming shouts followed him.

"You are very cool, Itachi-san! I hereby acknowledge you as a worthy rival for Sakura-san's love and affection!"

Rival? Really? Never mind, he had bigger things to worry about.

AN: Um, yeah, I love Lee. I hope I haven't butchered his character too much, I just started thinking what would Lee do? I could really see him doing something like this, lol. Then again this is meant to be a comedy series, so even if I did butcher Lee, it's all for the sake of the story, really.

Anyway, this series is not gonna end any time soon. I had planned maybe seven one-shots, but no way can I get it to go where I want it so soon. So maybe fifteen one-shots? Should I just compile this into a multi-chapter story or leave it like this? I kinda like the one-shots, I dunno? Any opinion? I love reading what you all have say