Prologue
Sakura had a highly logical mind. Not as analytic as Shikamaru's but her genius lay in rationalizing, reasoning and memorizing all sorts of theories and strategies. She was the number one student in the Academy only by virtue of her larger-than-average frontal lobe. And as a rational being, Haruno Sakura neatly and without fail compartmentalized everything and everyone in her world. Teammates were teammates, comrades were comrades, enemies were enemies. Her world was sharply divided into strictly dichromatic hues.
When Sasuke left, her world turned grey. The shining white knight she had painted the dark boy as had been sullied by the darkest ebony that was the snake sannin. But that didn't stop her from decking Sai when he called him traitor, even as her logic dictated that what the sociopath shinobi said was right. Sakura's neat organization and categories could only bend so far. Her rigid habits dictated that Sasuke was still white – her comrade, teammate, the special person in her heart. And even his betrayal could only paint him in the slightest grey wash, and one that could be removed, as soon as he came back home.
But everyone else that populated her world? White or black. Naruto, despite his glaringly orange apparel was white. Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Tsunade-shishou, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, Hinata – virtually everyone in the village was white. Even trash-talking Sai was white.
Danzou was black. Kabuto was black. The entire Akatsuki was black. Especially the one man who had in effect taken Sasuke away from them. Uchiha Itachi, the notorious missing-nin who originated from her own village, was second only to the snake sannin in infamy. To Sakura's narrow world, he was often above Orochimaru. He had been the one to massacre Sasuke's entire family causing him to seek only revenge and feel only hatred. Orochimaru was just the insane ex-Konoha shinobi to whom Sasuke turned to for power.
Itachi was the root of all of Sasuke's misery and, by association, hers as well. Thus, in her neat and compartmentalized mind, Itachi resided in the darkest, gloomiest, blackest box – one that Inner Sakura had deigned to secure with a multiple locks.
Sakura saw the world in black and white, with only the barest hints of grey and she knew no other sight. Because of this, she could not (or would not?) see the changes in hues and colors that define the light and shadows of the world. And she never knew of her blindness.
Until the day she had to bring sight back to the blind eyes of Itachi.
Under the weight of his revelation, she staggered and reeled back.
Her logical, unyielding mind crumpled under the effort to process the information written in black and white, carried in a manila folder, under the title of her classified mission.
As she brought him back his sight, he gave her her own. Haruno Sakura's world exploded in color, and she could see all the bright colors of every decision and morality that was not hers, all the subtle hues that changed with every choice and action. Red was not just blood but also love, black was not just death but also the color of depth and secrets meant to protect.
aargh... my muses are eluding me, they're such a tease.
Hmm, i don't know what to do about this story, really. I have a very bad habit of drawing intricate plots and then losing interest around the middle so I thought, why not do drabbles instead? Like, a fic full of drabbles going through the progression of a ItaSaku relationship??
This is SO gonna be AU. Because I have half a mind to resurrect most of the dead Akatsuki. I'm not sure how I'm going to make such a feat remotely believable but... meh I resurrected Itachi already so why not the whole buffet, eh?