The sun was too hot on his back. His mother insisted on him wearing a new, nicer shirt that donned a bolder Uchiha symbol on the back. She said that he should be proud of his family name and to show it off to his new teammates.
Well, in his opinion black retained too much heat and the people on his team did not need impressing.
Slick black eyes looked over at the older Akimichi boy and Shiranui girl. They were chatting away (mostly the brunette girl, the boy was too busy licking potato chip grease off his fingers to respond with anything besides a nod).
He didn't want to say that he was upset with his teammates. They would have to get along to properly protect one another later in life and he couldn't nitpick the girl's boisterous mouth and the boys eating habits. The elders of the clan would call him perfect, but Itachi knew he wasn't, so he would not hold himself higher than the two sitting next to him. Well, not out loud.
Shiranui Eri was talking about her older brother—Genma if he heard her correctly—when Itachi sensed a chakra signature slowly walking towards them. The training grounds that they were currently occupying were barren; no other chakra signatures besides his teammates and the small animals dotted the radius. This person was definitely their sensei.
Akimichi Kenta didn't look up from his snack and Eri kept talking, informing him that they haven't excelled enough on their own to hone in the signature. Itachi kicked a rock with his shoe. Not that it surprised him, but he would definitely be taking the lead.
Especially when a thin, pink haired woman who was shorter than his own mother walked up to them, a bright, overly cheery smile taking up most of her face. He could let the strange hair color go considering most of his relatives sported a tint of a blue, but she looked like the only thing she could break was a pencil. If his luck kept sliding downhill this fast he'd only have Shisui to rely on for training.
"Hello everyone!" The pink haired woman said, her smile somehow getting wider. "My name is Haruno Sakura and it is a pleasure to meet you all. I'm sure you guys don't want to do anything crazy, especially since you just got finished taking your exams, so how about we all just say a few things about each other?"
Kenta grumbled out a greeting as he munched on his food while Eri and Itachi kept quiet, warily staring her down.
The pink haired woman awkwardly shifted on her feet, her green eyes scanning the three of them in the silence. "Well," She said, "I guess I'll go first." She tapped a glove finger to her chin as she thought. "My name is Haruno Sakura, as you know. I'm a medic, my hair is naturally pink, and I hope to become the head of the hospital one day, but I decided it would be good train a genin team first!" She finished with another bright smile and her gloved hands on her fists.
Eri stepped up next, jumping at the chance to talk about herself. "I'm Shiranui Eri; I like fighting with senbon, I hate mornings, and I really like it when boys pay on dates."
Itachi looked down at his feet to hide his eye roll. Maybe he could request a new team later. Unlike him, the woman in front of him looked like she was fine with her new student's answers, smiling that too big smile.
"Ah, you're Genma's sister, right? He's been coming in my hospital room more frequently these days. ANBU is really pushing him, ne?" Green eyes switched over to Kenta. "And you?"
Kenta looked up; swallowing whatever morsel was in his mouth. "Uhm, I'm Akimichi Kenta; kake udon is my favorite food, I hate steak, and, er, my dad says that my Super Expansion Jutsu is really good for my age group..?"
"Wow!" Sakura said cheerfully. Itachi felt like she was treating them like toddlers. "How are you related to Chōji? He's a friend of mine."
Kenta smiled. "He's my cousin."
Sakura nodded and finally turned her eyes to him. They were a warm, mint green. Itachi had to catch his breath; this was the first time she looked at him head on, directing that encouraging smile and kind look only on him. Now that he paid attention to it, her chakra was equally as welcoming. Smoothly flowing through her system and radiating a cool disposition.
It felt like his mother's.
"I'm Uchiha Itachi. I like to train, ANBU is in my future, and I will kill Orochimaru." He blurted.
She didn't react to his self-explanation like she did with the brunettes next to him. Was it something he said? She wasn't smiling anymore and if her body language could speak it would scream out the word "awkward".
What was wrong with what he said? Did his sensei not find it acceptable? Did he already ruin his chances at forming any kind of positive relationship between himself and his sensei? Why was this so awkward? All he wanted was to train, not stumble over self-stories. Plus, everything he said was true and way more interesting than who pays on a date and someone's favorite udon.
Yes, he was definitely sure that his speech was the best and well thought out one of the group, but why did he feel his face heating up so much?
Noon was his least favorite time of day. It was bright, hot, and most of the wildlife were active in the forests all around the village. It wasn't impossible and it certainly wasn't hard to tune out the wild creature's activities around him, it was more annoying to do so. Blocking out their noises but also keeping sense of everything around him.
Tedious.
Sasuke had helped him perfect it because of all of those times he brought his obnoxious girlfriend home. That Yamanaka must have been raised in a house full of ducks because her voice was too loud and she was basically a quack herself.
Itachi leaned his head back against the post with a quiet sigh. He had given the rest of the bento Sakura-sensei had made to Kenta. The Akimichi burned off a lot of calories when the three of them tried to retrieve the bells from Sakura's belt. He needed to regain the lost fuel to perform well later. Said Akimichi was currently scarfing the food down his throat while Eri berated him on manners.
He felt a shadow fall over him. "So you want to kill Orochimaru, eh?"
Itachi grunted, keeping his eyes closed. He rarely had any time to relax so he was going to soak this time up, chit chat didn't sound pleasant. He knew if he looked at her he'd probably regard her as pretty… which was unacceptable.
"Do you want to kill him because of what he did to Sasuke?"
His turned towards her a little too quickly. "You know about that, Sakura-sensei?"
"Yeah," She said, smiling. It was different though, hurt and distraught. She sat down next to him before he could regard it anymore. "Your brother is a good friend of mine. We graduated from the same class. You've met Naruto right?" He nodded. "We were all on the same genin team together, around the time you were born actually. Then some things happened after we made chunin and we each split up." Itachi noticed how she rubbed her arms uncomfortably. "Naruto trained with Jiraiya, Sasuke with Orochimaru, and I trained with Tsunade.
"I was actually sent on the team to retrieve Sasuke when Orochimaru put that stupid seal on him. Tsunade had me patch Sasuke back into tip top shape before she left on her vacation." Sakura snickered. "She took on another apprentice named Shizune because medics are on very high demand."
"Kaa-san has mentioned that."
"Oh?" Sakura smiled warmly and Itachi could feel his face get warm too. "Does Mikoto-san know any medical jutsu?" Itachi shook his head. "Well, I guess I'll just have to teach you three later in your training. You have shown incredible advancement, in the academy and during the bell test today, Itachi.
"To be honest, I can see you surpassing Sasuke by the time you turn eighteen."
Being raised as a child born to the head of the Uchiha clan, Itachi was used to praise from his family, his classmates, and the small ones his father said, which were far and few between.
But what Sakura-sensei had said was the best of them all.
Shisui clapped his large palm right in the center of Itachi's back, laughing loudly when Itachi turned towards him with a glare. "Hey, cuz! What are you doing waiting out here by yourself?"
Itachi shrugged his cousin's hand off; who knows where it has been? "Sakura-sensei returns today."
He refused to look at his older relative, knowing a smirk the size of the Hokage monument would be blaring back at him.
"Oh?" Shisui slithered his way into the other Uchiha's vision. "Where are Mr. Munchie and the Shiranui girl?"
"They accompanied Sakura on her extended mission."
Shisui blinked. "Are you seriously going to stand out here, wide open, and wait for them?" The older Uchiha laughed. "I know you have a crush on Haruno, but this is a tad weird, Itachi."
"Hn." Itachi grunted boredly, ignoring his cousin's jab. What did Shisui know anyway? He was as much of a playboy as Sasuke. "I am on guard duty."
"Oh," Shisui rolled his eyes with an exaggerated vigor that was begging for a punch in the face. "Sorry, I forgot that ANBU treated you like genin your first month. It's been so long since I got in."
"Go away, Shisui."
"Sorry," He snickered. "I wouldn't want to intrude on welcoming your baby-cakes home." Shisui jibbed in with a stark laugh before walking away.
Sasuke would poke his forehead and call him a wimp when they were younger. Itachi put a stop to that once he got his hands on a package of exploding tags, trip wire, and an easy genjutsu that slipped past Sasuke's sharingan.
Shisui, on the other hand, was much harder to get off his back. The curly haired cousin had a backbone stronger than steel and a will power to bug him that was even thicker. The only thing that got him to back off was a short skirt or his mother calling for dinner.
Itachi sighed, refusing to rub his eyes.
Sakura—his team—would be coming soon. He had to look presentable and sturdy in his new ANBU gear. He had to show them—her—how much he grew while they were away.
Their chakra signatures flared before he could see them walking up the path into the village. Kenta was in the middle with Eri and Sakura flanking him. Itachi was on a mission of his own when they were sent off on theirs four months ago. Kenta must have been set as squad leader.
It was a good ten minutes before his team walked their way up to the gates and stopped in front of him. His two teammates congratulated him on his accomplishment of becoming ANBU; he nodded his thanks and congratulated them on their mission success and safety of returning. It was only when his pink haired sensei patted him on the shoulder did he smile.
"I'm proud of you, Itachi. I knew you could have passed with flying colors when you were thirteen, but I'm glad you waited." She said, her voice jubilant. It felt good to make her proud.
He debated on if he valued her praise over his own father's.
Sakura turned towards the three of them, grinning brightly even though her green eyes looked emotionally drained. "You three are growing up so fast, leaving me in the dust. Way to make your sensei feel old! Gosh, you guys went from eleven to eighteen at the drop of a hat! How freaky is that?"
Itachi knew she was kidding when she poked jabs at them. But he could see the sliver of disheartened sadness in her eyes. Sakura was scared of age just like her old mentor and Itachi didn't like it. Her being sad over something so natural to human life bothered him.
Sakura-sensei would always be beautiful in his eyes. But he would never be able to tell her that.
And there you have it! This was heavily inspired by the short comics ksanon post on tumblr with Kakashi and Sakura generation swaps. :P
I just decided that a little ItaSaku would be cute to do too!
Please review and tell me what you think!
(PS- Let's just say that Sakura is five years older than them. Then the generation swap is accurate. And Sakura is so bad ass that she could be a sensei at 16!)