This is the prequel to "Almonds and Cherry Blossoms". In this AU, Itachi is Fifth Hokage since Sarutobi died, so no surprise? Our favorite Uchiha does have the qualifications to become village leader. And this time, he is in position when his brother defects and Sakura is left broken-hearted. He helps her get through the pain as well as dealing with his own.

I did notice this story title has been used by many before, and comes from exactly what the term means: "When someone is placed in the right place at the right time to be a catalyst for someone in need, when the person in need have been in angst about how they would get through a certain situation." I have been thinking that because of his own failure, Itachi wishes to help Sakura by being there for her, and then taking her to a place where she deserves to be more than just support for her boys.

Disclaimer: nothing is mine AT ALL.

Chapter One

Orders of the Hokage

"It's been decided, Itachi. At the emergency executive committee, it was decided that you would be the Fifth Hokage. This village needs a strong, trustworthy and knowledgeable leader."

A couple days after Orochimaru's attack, leaving the Hidden Leaf Village nearly in complete ruins, then the funeral services of the Third Hokage, he was summoned in the presence of Homura and Koharu, his mask pushed over his head to show a tired youthful face with distinctive lines beneath his eyes and bags to prove stress and lack of sleep. He was accustomed by now, but according to physicians, there was a chance he wouldn't live past twenty-one if he continued like this.

Too much had happened ever since the exams had begun. Orochimaru infiltrated first Sunagakure, found Sasuke and marked him, which Itachi had failed to prevent because the slimy snake had slipped in undetected. That was what real serpents were known for: they slipped in without warning and attacked when defenses were all down. His summoned serpents knocked down homes and buildings while he himself then engaged Sarutobi within a barrier created by four of his lackeys - identified as the Sound Four. Itachi wished he was there to try and help, but his orders were to protect the village and the civilians. In turn, he commanded his inferior ANBU to do the same.

Sasuke and his team fought Gaara, whose One-Tailed beast took him over and ran amok. His pink-haired teammate, Haruno-san, was the constant butt of distress, no pun intended, and needed protecting. When his younger brother couldn't, it was Naruto Uzumaki.

Itachi had never been so impressed with the Kyuubi vessel during the exams and this despairing time. However...Sasuke...

He was proud of his otouto's progress, but he'd been taken down by Gaara in the end just like Rock Lee. I couldn't tell him myself. I had to keep him away from the clan, to make him hate me to be stronger than average. If Sasuke seeks his own path instead of clan expectations...

Yet their father and the rest of the clan saw him as average no matter his efforts.

Itachi was there when he learned his brother had been marked, but Sandaime had no choice but to continue the exams because Orochimaru swore that he would assassinate Sarutobi, or worse - but the inevitable would occur either way. In the end, his trump card was killing the village leader and leaving his leash on Sasuke. Nobody else was to know about this, not even the Uchiha clan - and the last part was worse than ever on Itachi besides the devastation and death of the man whom he and Shisui helped avoid another Shinobi World War. His cousin took his own life in Nakano River when Danzo, ever since under house arrest by Sarutobi's order - nobody would ever learn how tarnished the Uchiha clan was - seized his right eye to prevent the coup d'état, and since then, the Uchiha had been quiet. But the distrust remained today, in the form of petty disputes.

But now with me about to take Sarutobi's place, things will begin to change on both sides. Little did he know that in the next few months to come, it would become that much worse.

He never thought he would become Hokage, but when he took the seat and sat behind the desk, it felt surreal and a living dream. To be the one to handle negotiations and diplomacy - nothing new to him - but also to foresee the Genin, Chuunin and Jounin Exams, and onward. This was a great responsibility, and a great honor. Even if the two to come to him about taking this seat were involved in the original plan to judge his clan as traitors to the Hidden Leaf Village, which his little brother still knew nothing about.

For years, everyone was still after Orochimaru, and now with recent events, the seeds of something greater was still coming in his form. And you'd have thought Sasuke's will to resist would be great - and temptation gave way.

Whatever made him decide to leave them all, whatever the snake said, it had caused him to give way. But Itachi had suspicions of his own. Naruto Uzumaki has grown stronger, so my brother has come to feel inferior. But I am the one at the top of the list...and our father...but I drove him to do this.

Danzo also had to be included. The crafty war hawk was still around, he was sure of it. If Itachi had his way, he would put the man away from the village, but what good could any of that do? Death would be too easy for him, and the Uchiha loathed killing even though he'd had to since he was a child. Unless it had to be necessary...

He learned of the fight his brother had with his teammate atop the hospital when the squad returned from the latest mission, a few weeks after his inauguration and Lady Tsunade being brought back when Orochimaru went to her to attempt to heal his sealed arms. Kakashi broke it off; he and Jiraiya both came to him about it, both men sharing how this "unhealthy rivalry and friendship" was very much like the Toad Sannin and his own old teammate, Orochimaru. And the fact this final push made their female teammate cry nonstop. Itachi regretfully had to agree, painfully so, but would not show it. He had to put aside his personal feelings for the sake of the other people around his brother.

Sasuke...you're becoming a fool.

What made him feel compelled to comfort in privacy was that of the rose-haired girl, Sakura. She had the best chakra control out of the trio, but compared to the boys, she was hardly worth being called a legend. And wasn't she one of Sasuke's many fangirls? He specifically recalled the duel between her and her own best friend, Ino Yamanaka, which made him shake his head. Those girls were wasting their time, and he was determined to make the girl see that. Even if he would have to be harsh on her. He was no fool; she became a ninja just to try and get close to Sasuke, whilst Naruto had his eyes on her and she would strike at him. Young girls that age had scant understanding of love compared to adulthood.

Sasuke left the village that night, packing up what he needed and set off. Word got back to him, sending him into a numbing state that he collapsed on his desk surface when he was alone again. Sakura had been found on a bench near the road which left the village; he'd knocked her out when she tried to stop him.

In an uncontrollable rage unlike himself, Fifth Hokage Itachi Uchiha ordered the boys of the remaining Rookie Eleven - excluding the girls - to seek his brother out and bring him back. He knew Sakura's emotions would interfere, and Sasuke would likely not wish to see her. This hurt to the girl's heart made Itachi decide enough was enough, and now that she was here while the men went out to the hunt, he would have the talk with her.

She walked in alone and without a word. Her short pink hair, once long but then cut off during the brutal exams, was brushed and tied down with her headband. Her skin was a healthy flush, but her vibrant green eyes were glossy and puffy from crying before she was summoned. "Sakura," he said, closing his fingers together atop his desk. "I take it you aren't faring well." To say such a thing only made the person in distress feel worse, but she didn't seem to mind - or so he thought.

"No, Lord Hokage." She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at him but avoided eye contact, as if ashamed. Ashamed to look at the elder brother of the boy she loved and failed to stop from leaving the village. "You blame me for not stopping him?"

"There was nothing you could have done. He chose to leave of his own will. We both agree it was Orochimaru's fault." And someday you shall reap for this. It has taken years only for you to evade us at every turn. Sarutobi should have killed the bastard himself when he had the chance, never mind that it had been his own student, because look what happened. He was a man who believed he was the worst Hokage in the line, but didn't he have help preventing a takeover by Itachi's own clan, with his and Shisui's help nonetheless? Yet he could not kill his own student, who came back and marked my brother...and I have failed myself in every step.

He did not feel he deserved the Hokage seat if his baby brother had turned his back on them all. The consequences would be severe, punishable by imprisonment and perhaps the death sentence.

Her eyes squeezed shut. She was quivering, her shell slowly coming undone. He watched her without a change in expression. "Sakura, you really did care for my brother," he noted. She nodded.

"Y-yes," she whispered, the tears showing crystal clear down her cheeks. "But he said I was..."

He said you were the most annoying girl he'd known. He didn't understand the impact his decision would have on us all - or he didn't care, in the end. He only cared he would get what he wanted. After everything that I did for him, just to - Itachi held up his hand to make her stop. "My brother was foolish to not see what was in front of him," he said firmly. "He was never worth your time." Her eyes widened, shocked and hurt he would say such things to her. But all this would be was planting the seed, then give it time to grow. She had time for this. In ANBU intel and Master Jiraiya, Orochimaru's next body vessel would be in another three years, since he needed someone ripe and strong to last. With any luck, if he got his claws on Sasuke, his life would be prolonged beyond that limit.

"But he's even more foolish to sell his soul to the man who murdered the Third Hokage and nearly brought this village down."

It was then and there that her face changed altogether, eyes flashing green fire, and her lips twisting. A clear sign of unbridled fury. He braced himself for her wrath. "It's also your fault, too," she hissed, hands dropping to her sides and clenching her fists. "You pushed him away all his life, made promises you never kept, and you called him weak and pathetic instead of being there for him like a big brother should." Her words struck his sensitive core. He admitted she was right, but he wouldn't let her see she got to him.

"He ought to decide his path for himself instead of wasting his time on people who didn't see his potential. I kept him away from the clan this way because he would never gain what he wanted most, from our father and the other clan members who had fought a war that took place before either of you were born. He should hate me most of all. All I wanted was for him to walk the right path without being held back."

"I find it hard to believe. A big brother is supposed to support his younger no matter what." And this was coming from whom?

Itachi sniffed once. "The words from an only child of civilians," he said bluntly, causing her to freeze where she was. "You really thought you understood him, Sakura, but you knew nothing at all. You were sheltered and protected as he was, and you thought that because you 'loved' him, you would be that much closer. But it doesn't work that way. I have seen and done things you could never comprehend." He sat straighter in his chair. "And as your Hokage, I order you to grow up for him and the rest of us if you don't wish to be known as 'dead last' like Naruto was."

All it takes is a push where it hurts most to give motivation. Emotions make you weak, cloud your judgment. Sakura Haruno, you are just a child - a little girl who always needed her men to pull her to her feet. You must learn to do that on your own from now on. If your friends can't retrieve Sasuke - even if I want to believe they can - then it's your turn to grow into the ninja you dreamed of.

"You may go home now and think about what I have said. And one more thing," Itachi called just as her hand closed around the knob. She turned her pink head only halfway, refusing to look at him out of self-preservation. He smiled slightly. "You and Naruto-kun are welcomed into my office any time you wish." It was the least he could do for his brother's friends. If he still knew Sasuke well enough, his otouto saw Naruto a worthy opponent and a best friend at the same time, someone to make him wish to be stronger.

Even after Sakura left to shed more tears, he had a terrible premonition up his spine. It was the same one he had the night Shisui jumped into the river, after giving him his remaining eye.

~o~

She was so hurt she wasn't sure she would be able to stand being in the presence of that man now that his brother, the boy she loved so much, was gone. He left her on the bench when she tried to stop him, threatened to scream, and he accused her of never understanding him and being so shallow. Even his elder brother stated the obvious.

"You really thought you understood him, Sakura, but you knew nothing at all. You were sheltered and protected as he was, and you thought that because you 'loved' him, you would be that much closer. But it doesn't work that way."

Sakura didn't WANT to be called selfish and shallow. She wanted to show she was so much more than that. She'd stood there in the presence of the man who had exited the Academy at age seven - much sooner than she and her boys - became Chuunin at ten, then entered ANBU at eleven. And to become captain at thirteen? She wasn't sure if she herself could easily do something like THAT under so much pressure! She remembered Kakashi-sensei saying that there were even young boys or girls who were even better Shinobi than he ever would be. Itachi Uchiha had to be one of them if he'd said he'd "seen and done things you could never comprehend." She was almost afraid to find out what those things were...

Sighing, Sakura sat on the nearest bench she could find - and it was none other than the one she'd sat the day it was her and Sasuke alone for the first time, and where he dumped her before going off to where that Orochimaru was. Naruto, you guys, please bring him back. Keep your promise, Naruto. But when the day was coming to an end, she would be in an even greater state of depression than before, and Naruto would take it just as worse.

Would Itachi feel that way and not show it?

She thought the man had no emotion to show, but there was one thing she did notice: he looked so much like Sasuke, but not at the same time. His features that marked him different from his younger brother were the long black hair in a ponytail, those downward curving lines on either side of his nose, and the tired calm. Looking at him made her blush like Sasuke was supposed to do. Why did he do that, and why was she feeling this way for him when he was so much older than her and the Hokage? She doubted he would ever like her that way with the way he talked to her that day.

"And as your Hokage, I order you to grow up for him and the rest of us if you don't wish to be known as 'dead last' like Naruto was."

So, that was it. His words, Naruto's return - and Sasuke gone from their lives, but still out there - was wounding to her, as was seeing all her friends battered, Shikamaru devastated with his lousy progress as squad leader, but he would learn from his mistakes...everything swirled into focus for her. Her determination to become stronger enflamed as Naruto's promise to her.

Days later, she went to Lady Tsunade, the greatest medical ninja of her time and one of the legendary Sannin, and requested she be her apprentice. The well-endowed blonde woman looked surprised for a moment - and then it turned into an expression bordering on malice. "Then let's get you started, Sakura. Before I can introduce you into medical ninjutsu, I would like you to read -" She gestured to the stacks of books that lay in piles on the floor, a few scattered here and there. "- these books and learn the basics."

She could have sworn she felt her eyes pop from her skull, but she tried to assure herself it wouldn't be a problem. She could handle books; she loved every subject she got her hands on. I can do this, she kept repeating over and over in her head, swearing to work day and night without even a break - but Tsunade-sama and anyone else could ask her to stop for replenishment if she overdid herself.

Either way, she would become a powerful kunoichi who surpassed her master and would be one of those to bring back the boy who abandoned them like this.

Review please. :D And please say something that doesn't involve begging for an update.