This chapter is slightly longer then what I normally write. But oh well. I can either leave it as just an innocent one shot or I can make it something more. That I'm going to leave up to you lot. Let me know via review what you want. I'll leave it for two weeks and depending on the majority I may or may not turn it into a story. Now thanks again to S3v3rusIsMin3 for everything she's done. Hope you all enjoy and please review. :D
A five year old Itachi sat between his parents. It was unusual for a child of such a young age to sit still. Yet here he was, almost like a statue. The only sign of life was the barely noticeable movement of his chest as his still developing lungs filtered life giving oxygen through his blood. This and his eyes, already burning with an intelligence beyond his years. His mind was working overtime to process what he heard.
"Interesting hair colouration. Do you know if it will be passed onto her children?" Itachi's dark brows moved slightly in confusion at his father's words, directed not at him, but at the woman who sat opposite, holding a bundle of blankets in her arms. She smiled good naturedly in answer and Itachi mused silently that she was pretty.
"No, it's a recessive gene. Your son's black hair would cancel it out."
'Son?' This word alerted Itachi to his part in this conversation. The woman turned to him with a gentle smile, "Would you like to meet her Itachi?" Black eyes turned to his father who gave a curt nod.
Rising slowly, Itachi walked towards the mother who moved his arms into postion before passing him the tiny bundle. He looked down in confusion into the wide eyes of the infant girl.
"This is Sakura and when you grow up, she's going to be your wife." The final pieces clicked into place.
"Sakura." He said her name softly, testing out the sound of it on his tongue. Two bright emerald eyes stared back at him from under a soft pink fringe. Surely she was closer to his baby brother's age?
"She's so little." He muttered and the child's mother laughed, the sound almost musical.
"That's right Itachi-kun. So you're going to have to look after her and always make sure she's happy." One small hand reached out capturing his long hair in a death like grip.
"Yes Hanuro-san." The two mothers shared a secretive smile.
~*~
That was the day Itachi's mother handed him a Kunai. It's unusually long blade coloured darker than the midnight sky. Its edges lined with diamond. Its hilt was wrapped in a soft red silk ribbon. Itachi's looked at his mother; silently acknowledging the fact that his mother was recognised as one of the greatest kunai masters. Her skills higher than even her husband's.
"Remember Itachi, this blade is only to be used to protect those who mean the most to you."
He had nodded silently and carried the weapon ever since.
~*~
It was two years latter that he saw Sakura again. The tiny infant had grown into a chubby toddler.
"Itachi-kun, how nice to see you." The seven year old had run into the mother and child as he walked past the local park on his way home.
"Good morning Hanuro-san. How are you today?" The woman smiled her eyes focused on her daughter.
"Well thank you. Itachi-kun if you're not busy, would you mind playing with Sakura for a moment? I need to get a drink." Itachi shifted his weight to a more balanced position.
"I don't know how to play." Sakura's mother looked sadly at him for but a split second,
"Try."
Itachi walked nervously to where the young girl sat. He was a ninja and the sun reflected off the leaf symbol that graced his headband. As a ninja he could track, capture, torture and kill. But dealing with children? This was something different altogether. Then Sakura looked up at him with wide green eyes from under her long pink fringe, a bunch of flowers in her hand.
"Hello Sakura, I'm Itachi." Her button nose wrinkled in confusion.
"Tachi?" his brows furrowed as he sat next to her. She smiled brightly at him, "Tachi!" She sounded pleased with herself as she offered him the bundle of flowers she had been holding.
"Yes Sakura-chan."
~*~
That was the day Itachi first learnt to play. Sitting in a park as Sakura knotted a multitude of flowers into his long hair. Then later she shrieked and laughed as he tickled her. It was when, as he gave her a soft farewell kiss on the forehead, causing her eyelids to flutter in her sleep, that he thought about the decorative blade he had been gifted.
'I will use this Kunai to protect all those dear to me'
~*~
When he was eight everything changed. Through the activation of his sharingan, Itachi lost part of his childhood. It was a time of war and he was in the heart of it. So little of his time was spent at home and when he was, his father forever stood at his back. Pushing him to go further, train harder. But how do you improve your aim when you always hit a bullseye? It was a blessed freedom and sweet relief when he was asked to baby sit tiny Sakura. An hour away from his family, an hour that slowly increased in time until it was not uncommon for him to spend his days off missions looking after his wife to be. It was shortly after his ninth birthday that he was baby sitting.
"Tachi-kun?" Itachi turned away from the microwave that held their soon to be reheated dinner, to look at the four year old child. She stood in the doorway covered in dirt as she always was, her hands hidden behind her back.
"Yes Sakura-chan?" The small child launched herself at him, squealing in delight when he caught her easily, spinning her in a circle. She held out her hands, a crumpled bouquet of flowers bound by a clumsily knotted pink ribbon.
"Happy Birthday Tachi-kun." Something contracted in Itachi's heart as he pulled the girl into a hug.
"Thank you Sakura-chan"
~*~
That was the day Itachi was first given a present not related to missions of being a ninja. One of the few gifts he still carried with him. The flowers pressed and forever preserved. The ribbon still tied in a clumsy knot.
~*~
Being made ANBU captain at thirteen turned Itachi's world upside down. He now stood on a slippery slope, at the bottom of which only madness awaited him. Here he balanced, clinging to sanity with everything he had. His missions came closer together, if not from the Hokage or the council, then from his clan. So little time was left over, no longer was he able to baby sit Sakura, he hardly saw her. Glimpses of her pink hair as streets flashed past him, as he raced along the roofs of the town. The small snippets of information he gleaned when his younger brother talked about 'that forehead girl' from his class.
"Hello Hanuro-san." The mother smiled as her eight-year-old daughter hid behind her with a bright blush on her cheeks. "Hello Sakura-chan." The girl blushed even harder and continued to attempt to vanish behind her mother.
"Hello Itachi-senpai." It felt as if a knife had been thrust into his chest at her use of honorific. Offering a false smile he stepped back.
"Well I had best be off." He turned to walk away when she called out to him. He glanced over his shoulder at her.
"How is Sasuke-kun?" She giggled at her bravery and he felt the knife twisting. For his brother's name to be graced with such a tone whilst his own was tossed aside, hurt him deeply.
"He's fine Sakura-chan." Then he was gone.
~*~
That was the day Itachi understood what his team mates meant when they talked about heartbreak. It was the day that his best friend died to further his sharingan. It was the day that, full of resentment, Itachi placed his village above his clan. It was the day he sat in a secluded forest clearing, kunai in hand as he pealed back the red ribbon, long fingers tracing the flowers engraved onto its hilt, whispering their name softly, "Sakura", to himself.
~*~
For his fifteenth birthday Itachi received the scroll that would seal the fate of the clan; Orders to kill, swiftly and indiscriminately, a massacre. Itachi felt his heart contract as he read the instructions. He was a ninja though, his place was not to questions his orders, but to fulfil them.
His Kunai was coated in blood. The blood of family, the life giving substance of those he had once called friends. He could feel it on his fingers, a sticky second skin. Compulsively he rubbed at his hands, scratching at the drying liquid and trying to get it off his hands. Slowly, he entered the room to meet his parent's face to face.
"Itachi? What's going on?" His father's voice as always, asked no question but commanded answers.
"Slaughter." That was when his mother, always the more observant of the two, noticed the blood that coated his hands, and the blade that he gripped so tightly.
"Itachi." She didn't say anything more as he tossed a shuriken into the heart of the man he once called father. It wasn't until he stepped towards her that she spoke again. "Swear to me that you wont lose your humanity, that the blade in your hands will only ever be used to protect those who are most dear to you." Her eyes widened as the blade slid home, cutting her life short.
"It could protect no other." His mother's lifeless body fell down as he stepped back into the shadows.
Soon, soon his brother would be home. It was too late to go back now. His fate had been sealed by a blood contract with the devil. He was bound to this path with no option of turning back. The point of no return had been passed when he had sworn his loyalty to the village whilst still ignorant of the cost such loyalty came at. He heard his brother's voice drawing closer. His eyes flickered red. It was time.
~*~
That was the night Itachi sat on Sakura's open windowsill, watching the girl sleep. Too afraid to enter and shatter the dream. His eyes swirled red as he longed in that moment for the carefree childhood that she had, the peace and happiness. That was the night he placed a soft kiss on her lips; offering her just another one of his firsts. That was the night he fled, nothing more than a distant dream of black hair and black eyes that would be lost with the childhood of one Sakura Hanuro.
~*~