A/N: Hi hi! It's been a while (sorry) and I've only just gotten the inspiration to write again, which is why this baby is here. This was originally meant to be a long one-shot, but it didn't feel like one halfway through, so it's going to be multi-chap... I'm completely in love with ItaSaku and this is one of many ItaSaku fics to come (hopefully) and I seriously hope I can do it justice.

This whole thing is dedicated to Nadine25 who is the main driving factor and inspiration for me writing again. You should check out her story Unholy Matrimony, it's brilliant., and also to littlebirdrobin on tumblr who has been very motivating and supporting, and her story Pretty Cherry Blossom is also a wonderful read.

Now that I've rambled too much, on to the story!

"You're staring at her again."

Shisui looked at his cousin with something akin to exasperation, mentally letting out a frustrated groan.

Itachi did not even bother giving him a glance. He groaned out loud this time.

"Itachi," he snapped his fingers in front of his cousin's face, startling the younger male, who discreetly scrambled to regain his composure.

"Itachi," Shisui sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We talked about this."

He stared at his companion, who only lowered his eyes to his hands, both tightly gripping a glass of whiskey, still silent.

Shisui raised his eyes to Itachi's cause of fascination, watching as she rested her head on her blonde friend's shoulder – Yamanaka, was it? – warm, cheerful laughter bubbling from her mouth as they watched Naruto spit his drink in his other little cousin's face, Sasuke torn between cleaning up or pummelling his friend into the ground first.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Itachi raise his glass to his lips and down the rest of his whiskey, taking out his wallet to throw a couple of ryo on the table before standing up.

"Let's go."

The finality in his tone caused Shisui to immediately spring up, filled him with an air of relief. They quickly made their way through the number of shinobi filling the bar, passing by the youngsters' table on the way. There was no way they wouldn't notice them now.

"Shisui-san!" Sakura piped up when they neared the table, sitting up to greet him.

Itachi stiffened, Sasuke glared, and Shisui had to force himself to grin brightly at the girl as if his two cousins weren't just about to jump each other at the throat.

"Why hello there, Sakura-chan!" he leaned against table slightly, standing in front of Itachi. "It's been a while since I saw you around."

"Oh you were going to get a visit from me soon enough." The girl smirked at him, making him sigh inwardly.

"Oh?"

"Someone has to drag you to your monthly check-up, yes?" She was still smiling but her eyes narrowed at him slightly, "the one you're three months late for?"

He huffed out a laugh, rubbed the back of his neck.

"No need to get violent, Sakura-chan. I'll drag myself over to the hospital first thing in the morning."

She looked slightly placated, but shifted her eyes to his cousin, still standing stiff behind him. The dark-haired man rolled his eyes.

"I'll drag him along too," Shisui said with a small laugh, "now can you quit eyeing me with such murderous intent?"

Sakura's eyes brightened with mirth and she let out a small giggle, running his fingers through her soft, pink locks.

"Fine. Only because I'm in too good of a mood to torture you tonight. Would you join us for a dri-"

"No."

Their eyes snapped to the person sitting across from her.

"Sasuke, don't be rude!"

"We were all about to leave anyway."

Shisui watched his cousin and his teammate for a moment. Sasuke pinned the girl with a hard look. She returned it with a dirty one, looking more annoyed with him than Shisui thought she would be. The two blonds at the table shot each other a slightly alarmed look, seemingly understanding of the perhaps not-so-strange situation.

Well, he wasn't about to get between them. He already had one walking mess to deal with.

"It's alright Sakura-chan. Itachi and I were just leaving actually. We had a long day and we'll need our rest if we're getting those check-ups tomorrow." Shisui gave her a small smile and watched as she dragged her eyes back to him, a frown pinching her eyebrows together, giving him a little nod.

"Come on, I'll walk you home." Sasuke said softly, standing up and holding his hand out for her, looking slightly apologetic. Their two companions stood slowly after them.

"Well, I'll see you soon then. Good night, everyone." Shisui didn't wait for them to respond, only heard their murmured goodnights while he stalked to the door, Itachi hot on his heels.

It was a long, silent walk to the Uchiha compound, one Shisui was more than used to by now to feel uncomfortable anymore

She was upset with him, Sasuke could tell. He didn't even mean to be that aggressive. He just didn't want to put a damper on her good mood after they'd worked so damn hard to get her there.

He sighed. It seemed he couldn't get things right with her on this, no matter what he did.

"Sakura-"

"Shut it Sasuke."

Okay, she was definitely more than a little bit upset.

"Sakura, I'm just trying to look out for you-"

"I know, Sasuke," she interrupted again, softer this time. "I know."

She leaned into him slightly as they walked, and he was grateful for it, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry."

"I know," she said again and put her head on his shoulder, felt him sigh again.

"I won't keep him away anymore if that's what you want-"

"I don't want to talk about it Sasuke," his teammate interrupted in a tone that clearly said there was no arguing with her. He didn't mind that much.

"Okay. I'm sorry." He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her shoulders lightly. She appreciated the comfort it provided for a moment.

They kept on walking in awkward silence, until she decided to look up at him.

"How's Hanabi?"

If he was grateful for the diversion, he didn't show it. Instead, he gave her an awkward smile.

"She's alright. Still getting used to the whole situation."

"Is her father still raging about how she's being shackled down to an Uchiha?"

Sasuke chuckled. "He's… coming around, I think. She said he hasn't been shooting as many daggers at them lately as he usually does."

The female under his arm giggled and wrapped an arm around his waist. "The poor man. To have both his daughters become soulmates to someone who is not a Hyuuga must've been more of a shock than he could handle."

"He wasn't that bad with Hinata." Sasuke sighed and Sakura nodded a bit at his words. "He already knew since they were kids that they wouldn't end up with anyone in their clan, their marks never matched. And Naruto and Hinata knew they were soulmates since they were five or something so he'd already made peace with that by the time we discovered our bond." He ran a hand through his messy hair. Made it even messier, if that was possible.

"It's the fact that I'm an Uchiha more than anything that made him fly off his handle. Hanabi said he almost had a heart attack when she told him."

They laughed at the image, both able to clearly imagine Hyuuga Hiashi red-faced and short of breath after shouting for hours and hours about how his daughter couldn't possibly end up with a man in their primary rival clan. A man from its main branch at that.

"I'm sure Hyuuga-sama wasn't the only person who almost had a heart attack at the news," she teased and he grinned devilishly at her.

"My father wasn't too pleased, no. But you know how my mother could be when she decides to work her magic."

Sakura nodded. "Hai hai." She was more than familiar with the leverage Uchiha Mikoto has over her husband. Over her entire Uchiha household, actually. She didn't think any of the three other occupants of the main house dared defy their matriarch's wishes at any point.

"And it's not even like we chose this, you know?" Sasuke continued, "they both know that you end up with whoever has your mark and that's that. The fact that most of the clan members in our case happen to find their soulmates from within the clan is the exception, not the rule. We can't really decide that we'll both live miserably till the end of our days just because our clans can't stand each other."

"No you can't."

Sasuke realised his mistake a moment too late, and scrambled to apologise when he saw her face fall slightly. She pinched his side and smiled teasingly at him before he could, however.

"And how are you feeling about this? Still giving her a verbal beating every time you see her?"

Sasuke scowled, but there was no ill feeling behind it. "It was only the first two times! And it's not my fault that the first words my soulmate was supposed to say to me were an insult!"

"Yeah, she is quite the spitfire, isn't she? Goes well with her name." Sakura grinned up at him and he sighed, poking her side to make her squirm.

"Yes, she's very intense, and so am I, so we tend to clash a lot. But I'm getting used to it. It's only been a month since we knew, but we're making an effort to have calmer discussions whenever we disagree and all. We've been doing well, I think."

They rounded a corner and passed the familiar fruit stand at the beginning of Sakura's street, their pace unconsciously slowing down as they neared her house.

She was silent for a few moments before she spoke again, her tone subdued this time.

"Do you think you could be happy with her?"

Sasuke looked down at her and found her staring ahead, that familiar sadness back in her eyes. He squeezed her closer to him.

"It's too early to tell, but I think we're making progress. She's making an effort and we're opening up to each other a bit. Slowly, but… Yeah… Yeah, I think we could be happy, at some point."

She didn't speak again until they reached her building a minute or two later. She squirmed away from his hold and stood facing him, a warm smile on her face.

He could see her making an effort not to cry.

"I'm happy for you Sasuke," she almost whispered, taking a step towards him and wrapping her arms around his middle, "I really am."

He hugged her tightly, pressing a kiss against her temple. "Thank you. It means a lot."

She gave him one final squeeze and pulled back, walking backwards to the gate. "Good night, Sasuke-kun."

"Good night," he said and watched as she turned around and started climbing the steps to the door.

"Sakura."

She turned around, looked at him with curious eyes.

"He'll come. I promise."

Sakura smiled sadly at her best friend. Willed herself to hold it together.

"I hope so, Sasuke."

With that, she turned around again, taking the steps up to her apartment two at a time.

She managed to hold off the tears until she got to her bedroom.

Or, more accurately, until she started taking her clothes off.

She peeled off her shirt, a crisp black fabric that contrasted sharply against her vibrant pink hair. Throwing it on the bed, Sakura stood in front of her full length mirror and ran her fingers over the tattoo on her right hip bone.

It had been there since she was born, and she couldn't remember the burning feeling it made as it appeared on her skin. It remained too tiny to read on her small body, the letters squashed together in an unintelligible script until she turned nine. It was Ino who finally managed to read the words when they were splashing in the pool at the Yamanaka estate, squealing when she glimpsed the short, clear line visible on her hip.

"Sakura-chan, look! You can see it now!"

Young Sakura had forgotten all about checking her tattoo for a while, too busy trying to keep up with her lessons at the Academy and fending off bullies with Ino. The girls pulled themselves up to sit at the edge of the pool after that, staring at her soulmate mark, written in beautiful, neat handwriting.

May I kiss you?

The girls blushed and squealed childishly, their eyes excited and dreamy at the prospect of a prince charming asking for permission for a kiss. They kept screaming excitedly until Ino's mother came in and yelled at them to tone it down.

They stayed up late that night, curled in bed trying to figure out who Sakura's prince charming might be. They already knew that he must be older since Sakura was born with her soulmate's first words to her already branded on her skin, so he must've been born by the time she was. Excluding half of the boys in their year because they were at least a few months younger, and then half of those that remained because Sakura's already talked to them before and none of them asked to kiss her, the girls kept on throwing in the name of every handsome boy in Konoha, giggling and speculating over Sakura's mystery man.

They kept on guessing until they were well into their teenage years, half of their friends having already met their other halves by then.

"Maybe it's a girl," Naruto said once, promptly getting smacked on the back of his head by a laughing Sakura and Ino.

"What?!" he cried defensively, rubbing his offended head and looking at the girls with an affronted expression, "the handwriting's too pretty for it to be a guy!"

"Oh yeah? And how did you know it was pretty handwriting?!" Sakura mock-growled at him, making him blush and hide his red cheeks from her view. Sakura laughed at him and patted his shoulder.

"Not that I'm not okay with the concept, but I'm not really into girls at the moment."

He blushed even harder at the thought, while the rest of the group snickered at him.

"I personally think he's a man. A very polite and courteous gentleman," Tenten said, taking a sip of her milkshake.

Ino snorted. "Well that excludes half of Konoha."

They laughed again, until Sasuke nudged her lightly with his elbow.

"He could be from another village, you know," he murmured and Sakura nodded in agreement.

"Might not even be a shinobi," Naruto threw in, which made her eyes widen a little.

"Kami, I hope not!" She tucked her hair back behind her ear. "I would like him to at least be on the same page as I am when it comes to that path of life."

The rest of the group agreed, none of them fond of the idea of having to abandon their shinobi lifestyle, before moving on with the conversation to the upcoming jounin exams.

Her friends kept on coming across their lovers one by one, until all who remained were her and Sasuke.

And it was fine. Really. The thought of meeting her soulmate was nice, especially if he was as romantic as the script on her hip says. But she was too distracted by keeping up with the Godaime's lessons and catching up to her teammates to dwell on it much. It would happen when it was supposed to, she told herself.

It was fine until she started noticing the mysterious black eyes following her around. When she was training, when she was healing, even when she was walking through the market with Ino, catching up on the latest gossip.

She would feel the familiar prickle down her spine, and somehow manage to turn her head in the right direction to where his face was.

The first few times this happened, it left her shaken. As a kunoichi, being watched never sat well with her. The fact that it was Uchiha Itachi watching her made it even more unnerving.

He looked at her with an intensity that scared her, the darkness of his irises scanning every inch of her as if she were a puzzle, and he was trying to put her together, figure her out, just by training that fierce gaze on her. And every time she would turn her head and see him fixing her with that look, she would shiver and turn away as quickly as she could without showing signs of unease.

But then one time she caught his eye and he smiled at her. A shy, crooked thing, like he wasn't sure if he was doing it right or not. And Sakura melted.

It was like he was letting her in on a little secret, one that no one knows about him except for her. And instead of turning away from him like before, Sakura took to following him around with her eyes as well, eager to unravel him as he was slowly unravelling her, each secret slowly making itself known in the form of a beautiful expression on his face.

Sakura and Itachi played this game of cat and mouse for a while, each of them making their presence known to the other as frequently and discreetly as they could, their public interactions few and usually without words, preferring to speak through whoever was accompanying them, but then exchanging those warm looks and secret smiles from a distance with those around them being none the wiser.

It was almost as if they were too scared of facing the inevitable, excited but nervous of that wonderful confrontation they'd been aching for. She knew deep in her heart that soon, she would wait no more, that it would no longer just be distant smiles and hurried touches in passing, and she knew that Itachi knew that as well. And it only took a few more weeks before it happened.

The first time Itachi spoke his words to her, Sakura froze, unable to compose herself at the sound of his calm tenor near her ear. For some reason he chose to approach her while Sasuke was there, and her teammate was gaping at the both of them and she was blushing and scrambling for a response, before she stammered an excuse at them and ran off like the idiot that she was.

For the following few days, she could feel two sets of ebony on her at all times, not one. One anxious, the other confused.

It took some courage for Sakura to be able to look at Itachi again, finding him near the Hokage's office as she was heading inside to help her mentor with paperwork, him leaving the office with a mission scroll. They stared each other down for a long minute, her green hues mirroring his intertwined happiness and distress. It was a silent conversation, one they were too good at by now, and one that told them that their compulsion towards each other, while deliciously ferocious, was inevitably doomed. The circumstances were not in their favour.

Sakura could only give him a sad, watery smile and Itachi raised his fingers to her cheek hesitantly, running his knuckles over her smooth skin, then darting away before he could no longer control himself.

She wallowed in self-pity for the whole month Itachi was away, obviously miserable and subdued. Her friends tried unsuccessfully to pry the cause of her sadness out of her, Tsunade screamed at her to regain her focus during surgeries, only to soften and try and comfort her later when she saw the girl strangely on the verge of tears with each little comment she received.

The annoying insistence of her friends continued for two weeks then suddenly stopped, and Sakura could see them shoot her sympathetic, understanding looks and being extra nice to her whenever she would get lost in her own thoughts. She couldn't explain their sudden change of attitude, but then Sasuke knocked on her door one night, holding her favourite ice cream and a box of strawberries and Sakura instantly launched herself at him, soaking his shirt with tears she had been desperately trying to keep at bay since she last saw his brother.

He was weirdly tender with her, something she had rarely, if ever, seen from Sasuke. Held her for as long as she cried while running a comforting hand up and down her back and through her hair, and listened to her patiently as she dug into the tub of ice cream and told him what he had already known for a while, but he let her relieve her heartache anyway. She finally cried herself to sleep and he carried her to her bed, tucking her in snugly under the blankets, and took the long way home to get some air on the way.

He showed up the next morning too, bringing her some cheese croissants and chocolate pastries and making sure she showered and ate, before they set out to their usual team sparring session.

It was perhaps a blessing that Sakura had grown so close to Sasuke, even if it was under such unlucky circumstances and even if he seemed like the least likely person who could be so understanding and supportive and patient with her situation, but he was, and Sakura was grateful for it. Sasuke would always make sure to surprise her with some of her favourite treats, show up on the nights when she was feeling especially dreadful, and nudge her with a smile or give her a small one-armed hug whenever he saw her slip into the darkness of her mind. And it brought her comfort, to know that she was not alone in her heartache.

Itachi returned almost too soon for her to heal, though, and Sakura slipped into a foul mood again. But she couldn't help but respond to his looks and smiles again in due time. Only this time, it felt exciting because it felt forbidden, and they were more compelled to hide their actions not due to strange flirtation, but due to disapproval. And more misery if it goes on, but right then and there, they didn't care about anything except those quick stolen moments that they couldn't go beyond. A quick smile before someone would notice, a touch of their fingers as they passed each other in corridors, the occasional smouldering, intense look that only served to increase their desire to retreat to a dark abandoned corner and not leave until they were both thoroughly sated.

Sasuke knew, though. With him at Sakura's side at least half the day every day, and living with the other party of the problem, he was bound to notice. And he did not approve.

He would scowl at Itachi whenever he caught him trying to catch her attention, and would steer Sakura away from Itachi's way if he sensed him around. Soon, Shisui got involved as well, trying to control Itachi instead, and their scarcely existent moments became even less frequent. Sasuke even became quite standoffish with his brother when Itachi wouldn't abandon his attentions, the relationship between the two becoming more turbulent as Itachi's 'relationship' with Sakura continued.

"You need to stop, Itachi." Sakura heard Sasuke utter harshly after she and Naruto finished having dinner with his family. She was waiting for Sasuke to walk her home while Naruto helped with the dished in the kitchen, and went to check on Sasuke when she started getting impatient.

"Whatever you're doing, you just need to stop it."

"I fail to see how that concerns you, Sasuke."

"It concerns me because it concerns Sakura! You know that this can't happen! You know that you're just hurting her more by making this attachment grow!" She heard Sasuke take in what sounded like a deep, exasperated breath before he continued.

"I can't allow you to hurt her more than she's already hurting. I can't allow you to hurt yourself more than this. You can't encourage her. She already has to endure the fact the someday, she's going to see you with someone else. And you're going to accept her eventually finding someone else as well. And you can't both do that if whatever it is that you're both doing continues."

Sakura almost ran back down to the kitchen. She had to walk slower so they couldn't hear her. And also so she could have time to compose herself before going back to Naruto and Mikoto.

Sasuke couldn't have been more right, and she knew it. It didn't mean that hearing that out loud wasn't still like a kunai to the heart.

It almost ceased after that. She no longer sought Itachi out with her eyes whenever she went, no longer went out of her way to frequent the same places he would so they could spend some time in proximity. And she could tell that he didn't either. It hurt too much for any meeting of their eyes to be longer deliberate, and should they find themselves staring, they would quickly avert their gaze as soon as they realised it, except for a few slips near-misses, like tonight at the bar. The combined efforts of Itachi's brother and cousin helped too.

And here she was, almost a year after that first time she caught him perusing her, standing in front of her mirror and crying pathetically at her stupid tattoo, wondering for the millionth time how she could somehow be so deeply in love with someone who was not her soulmate.

A/N: Well that wasn't very happy... I'm not sure if it's meant to be, either. I'm almost done with the whole thing, so I should be able to update soon (here's to hoping). Next, we see more of Itachi.

I hope you guys enjoyed this, and don't forget to let me know what you think! Try to be as detailed as you can, please, I'd love to know what I should change or continue doing so my readers could enjoy this more :3