『約束のない明日であろうと　君の立つ場所に必ず舞い戻ろう』

Rewritten on the 3rd of March, 2007


I was getting quite sick of this essay and it's flames because as said by someone else, it's flamed to hell and praised to heaven and everybody has a different interpretation on it. So I wanted to delete it and then decided against it.

This essay was created for authors who would like to write a believable story. One that can fit into the storyline of Naruto. Of course, every fiction is different and every fiction will not resemble the truth as Kishimoto has planned [unless you have psychic abilities], but authors can try to make it somewhat canon and that's why this essay is here. To plainly tell you which things are OOC and will never happen in the original story line and some tips to help you build up the characters.

I don't care if you call me an elitist bitch, or if you hate me or lose all respect for me afterwards. A lot of people do find this essay helpful and my help concerning fictions has been requested numerous times by various people, so I figured I'd write it out and put it on LJ.

Also, please remember these are my guidelines. People have been asking me how I develop characters, what kind of things I keep in mind and this entire essay is basically about the workings of my mind when it comes to ItaSaku. By no means at all is this an essay to write ItaSaku, because nobody truly has the answers how to write a fanfiction that everybody likes.

If you hate it, so be it, leave a comment if you must and go on. If you like it, I accomplished my goal. That's all.

EDIT NUMBER 2: GUYS, THIS ESSAY WAS WRITTEN 2 YEARS AGO. YES, IT ISN'T RIGHT ANYMORE BECAUSE ITACHI'S CHARACTER CHANGED. YES, I KNOW THAT. I DON'T CARE. THIS IS HOW I WROTE ITACHI 2 YEARS AGO. KTHNXBAI.



Haruno Sakura

This is Haruno Sakura. She's been devoted to Uchiha Sasuke ever since she was a child and has a very strong connection with him, even professing her love for him. Although it's unrequited love, it's fair to say that Sakura is still not quite over him, even though he left years ago.

Sakura loves Sasuke. She's a medic ninja, and she's powerful; don't underestimate her abilities!



Uchiha Itachi

Uchiha Itachi; one of the many enigmatic characters of Naruto.

All we know about him is that he's a sadistic bastard who presumably killed his entire clan bar Sasuke [although a lot of fans have their own opinions about this, let's just keep this in mind]. He joined the organization Akatsuki several years ago and is an S-Class missing criminal.

Itachi is cold, calculating and will do everything for power.

RANT:

Meeting:

Itachi & Sakura have met once. In a manga chapter during the Gaara arc after the timeskip. Yes, that's it, only once.

Itachi never spoke a word to Sakura, nor did Sakura say anything to Itachi. The only thing about Itachi that she remembers is that he's the man Sasuke wants to kill and that Itachi is the man who murdered Sasuke's family and forced Sasuke to go all angsty on us.

They have not met ever since.

Fanfiction:

Truth be said, most people believe that there aren't many options you have with ItaSaku stories. Five actually and ironically enough, they are the most cliche storylines:

1. Itachi never betrayed the clan and is still living with the Uchiha clan.
2. Sakura leaves Konoha for Sasuke, Itachi finds Sakura and takes her with him as a hostage to lure Naruto.
3. Sakura and her other teammates get the order to hunt Akatsuki down, Sakura meets Itachi.
4. Alternate timeline as in divertion from the storyline, such as Sakura leaving with Itachi once she met him in the manga chapter.
5. Alternate Universe (and for the love of me, I cannot understand why everybody thinks AU means Highschool fictions.)

There are few other options, but hardly none. In Konoha, Itachi risks the danger of being caught. The only way of Sakura and Itachi building a relationship would be outside of Konoha, which seems almost impossible.

So these limited choices for the usual plots have been proven as an obstacle. But, unfortunately, rather than to perk the author's attention with these obstacles, people tend to go for the obvious plots [points at the five options above]. Then, the characters slowly turn OOC or the story turns into a plot which makes you say "been there, done that."

That's seriously not a good thing.

In every essay there is, a few points are stressed and one of them, which is potentially the biggest factor that needs to discussed is originality.

Granted, most of us start out with the plots mentioned above. I know I did when it came to Metamorphosis, how else was Sakura going to meet up with Itachi and fall in love with him? So, I took the easy route, Sakura left Konoha, went to search for Sasuke, stumbled upon Itachi and is taken along.

Halfway through, I started remembering the essays I had read about writing fanfiction. Is it all right to go with the flow and do a similar story like others had done before, or could I possibly divert from all of this and make up an original story line. If Sakura is in Itachi's grasp, it's not game over, not by a long shot.

In the original story line, Sakura will fight for Sasuke. She'll give up her life for him if necessary. Sakura will fight until she's either dead or away from Itachi at any rate. She'll probably be scared of him, but Sakura's will is strong. Never underestimate this point.

All authors wish for a few things. Some want to get reviews and improve themselves, some want people to read it and that's enough for them, some want to be published writers someday, but regardless of what you're trying to do when writing, have fun in writing and try to be as original as possible. Those are the most important points.

Sex:

The majority of the ItaSaku, let's be honest, is based on sex.

We have fictions where Sakura is under Itachi's control and he makes her his pet, or where she's blatantly raped by Itachi, stories where Sasuke is Sakura's husband and she sleeps with Itachi, stories where Sakura is drunk and sleeps with Itachi... You name it, the ItaSaku fandom has got it.

Okay.

Again, refreshing your memory, this is for stories that want to be believable and somewhat canon. In fanfictions, everything can happen, I understand that. They can have sex like bunnies, and Sasuke can watch quietly, but we're not talking about stories like those at the moment.

Canon!Sakura hates Itachi. She hates him for everything he's done to Sasuke. She probably hates him for trying to steal away Naruto as well. Along with Orochimaru and some others, I think it's safe for us to assume that Sakura, truly despises Itachi.

Canon!Itachi is anti-social. He grew up in a cold house where he was expected to excel and become the best ninja in his clan, if not the best ninja of Konoha. He is incredibly polite to everybody but Sasuke, which indicates that he was raised well. Itachi is a sadist. He likes to torture Sasuke and seems to have quite some fun when torturing Kakashi. Is Itachi the raping type of guy? Maybe; most probably not. If you'd ask me why, I'd tell you to find some analyses about rapists and compare them to Itachi. He might fit on a few points, but he won't fit on most.

Bottom line; Sakura and Itachi would never sleep with each other in the canon storyline. This is a fact. Neither one is interested in each other.

ItaSaku fanfictions should be calmly build up if you'd like them to be somewhat canon. They will not accept each other at first and it'll take a long time before they'll even start liking each other. Itachi and Sakura having sex in the first chapters is highly unlikeable [unless you're writing AU or a story where they're together already].

Give them time to get used to each other, to like one another and when the time is ripe, they can sleep with each other. At least, that's my advice.

OOC-ness

Every fanfiction has OOC-characters in them. When writing ItaSaku, Itachi will be extremely OOC, and so will Sakura. It's a crack-pairing.

However, one can try to stay true to their personalities and characteristics.

In many stories, Sakura has just fallen out of love with Sasuke. This can happen, but give us an explanation. Is it because she realized that he might never return her affection? Is it because she never really loved him in the first place, as opposed to what the anime/manga is trying to tell us?

As described in the tips, Sakura is a spirited, strong young woman, with a fierce personality that makes her loyal to friends, and she loves Sasuke very deeply. She has to love him deeply or she'd never have offered him to go to Orochimaru.

Will she fall in love with Itachi instantly? No. Will she think he's attractive even though his actions disgust her? Maybe.

Will Itachi fall for her? This is the big crux. Maybe, probably not. He's a heartless killer who thinks emotions make one weak. He'll think Sakura is weak, so make sure to incorporate that into the story. It doesn't matter how strong Sakura is, it's the emotions that will make her weak in Itachi's eyes.

Itachi is cruel, ruthless, cold, un-caring, calculating and cares about no-one except himself [although ItaSasu fans might disagree with me, haha].

Sakura is a cheery, intelligent, warm person and does everything she can to protect the ones she loves.

Whatever you do, don't forget those traits. Fanfiction is there to alter them, and shape them into characters that can love each other whilst it's completely impossible in canon, but keep her Sakura and keep him Itachi. They're already beautiful characters made by Kishimoto, don't re-write them, edit them.

Unlikely/Impossible scenarios

This is all according to me, feel free to discard this list.

- Itachi will never sacrifice his life for Sakura.
- Itachi will never admit to loving Sakura.
- Itachi will never pick Sakura above Akatsuki. Power is everything to him.
- Itachi will never be redeemed. He is a clan-killer and will be just that until he dies.
- Itachi will never be kind-hearted, warm or dance around with bunnies.

- Sakura will never sacrifice Sasuke for Itachi.
- Sakura will never accept being Itachi's hostage.
- Sakura will never stop fighting against Itachi.
- Sakura will never stop having conflicted emotions.
- Sakura will never give up on Sasuke without a solid reason.



And now for the tips and stuff. These are just listings of the common traits of both Itachi and Sakura, paired with a few tips that will make your writing experience somewhat better and more fun.



Tips to keep Itachi IC (in Character):

- Make him cold, ruthless and calculating
- Keep him as polite as possible, Itachi knows his manners
- Itachi is not a savage beast, he's not the type to rape girls around
- Even after initial feelings for Itachi, abid by the first three things I gave you
- Never make Itachi sacrifice his life for Sakura; it's OOC to no end.
- Itachi values his own life more than other lifes. In a life-threatening situation, Itachi would make sure that he comes out alive before even risking anything to save Sakura.
- Itachi is strong <- important point. Many of you underestimate this guy. He is not weaker than Oro.

Tips to keep Sakura IC (in character):

- Make her warm, intelligent and strong
- Sakura is not a slut, don't let her sleep with Itachi during the first meeting
- Sakura despises Itachi for what he's done to Sasuke, don't forget that
- Sakura should be afraid of Itachi. He's much stronger than her and let's not forget that Sakura actuallt values her life.
- Sakura would never betray Naruto by helping Itachi to get him
- Sakura LOVES Sasuke. Either work with her feelings or make sure you tell us why she's stopped loving him
- Sakura would NEVER join Akatsuki voluntarily. Akatsuki hunts Jinchuuriki. Big no-no since Naruto is her best friend

Tips for their relationship:

- Make their relationship angsty or romantic/angsty. Romantic as in fluffy all the time is a big no-no for ItaSaku.
- Do not make Sakura forget about Sasuke. Her loyalty for Sasuke should still be visible in your story
- For Christ sake, stop making Sasuke magically fall in love with Sakura in order to create ItaSasuSaku
- Stop doing the hostage versus mean Akatsuki-thing. It's irritating and un-original. If you do insist on doing the hostage thing, make sure Sakura breaks free from it or something.

Again, these three things are all the guidelines for my fiction. You can stray away from them or use other standards. This is just how I view Itachi, Sakura and their relationship.

Tips for writing better fanfictions:

- Get a beta. Beta-readers are your best friends. Make sure the beta is a NATIVE English person who is utterly neurotic about grammar and can pick out those small, irritating mistakes.
- Try to keep the descriptions low key. It's horrendous to read through huge chapters filled with descriptions and hardly any conversation
- At all costs, try to keep the characters in character. Nothing irks writers more than out of character Itachis and Sakuras having sex like rabbits.
- Do not - I repeat - do NOT insert OC's falling in love with Sakura or Itachi. If it's ItaSaku, it's ItaSaku. Make it a love triangle if you feel like it but please, NO ItaSakuOC.
- Have FUN in writing. Don't write if you don't feel like it because it will always show in your writing.
- Don't stretch the story. If you run out of ideas or feel that your plot is running thin, try to end it as soon and as best as possible. There are a lot of good fictions out there which started spectacular but the authors tried to stretch them and they ended up lousy. Don't allow your fic to be the same.



Wow, so that was a huge rant (it took be 2 hours to type it all). Remember that I'm just trying to help all of you and not trying to assault you guys.

Hope this was a bit helpful! You can always comment if you have any questions