Beginning
"Get out."
Itachi opened his eyes. Through the fogginess induced by heavy, drug and chakra-aided sleep, he gazed up at the young woman who had woken him. Her voice's edge was subtle and softened by humor and tiredness—the latter of which he understood all too well. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, refocused on her, and tried his dry throat. Only a thin, questioning sound passed through his parted lips.
"I said get out." She rested her hand on her hip, and she stared at him. After a second, her stern demeanor faded against his scrutiny and gave way into an awkward smile. "I'm kidding."
His temples throbbed and his muscles ached. However, the constant breathlessness, the pain in his lungs, and the sting behind his eyes seemed to have dissipated. When had he been this way last? Unscarred. Unwounded. Knitting his brows together, Itachi pushed himself to sit upright.
The medic grabbed his shoulder but drew back just as quickly as if his skin had burned her. Her fingers hovered just above his arm, curled uncertainly. "Ah… No, seriously, it was a joke. Don't leave just yet. I'm Haruno Sakura, but I think you know that already. I'm your doctor. And we fought together."
Humor and sheepishness melded together to lower her tone near the end of her sentence. Clutching a clipboard to her breast, she stood frozen somewhere between treating him like something accessible or untouchable. Itachi frowned, although concentration rather than displeasure furrowed the space between his brows.
"Why am I here?" he asked finally.
Sakura lifted her brow at him before tapping her cheek. "Well, if you must know, your wounds were nearly fatal. You would have been released sooner… had we not detected the disease you decided to leave untreated." She paused pointedly, crossing her arms. "I fixed your eyes while you were here too since I had some time."
Itachi was silent. Sakura seemed to gain more nerve because she pressed his shoulder firmly but calmly and guided him back onto the mattress. He surprisingly complied.
"I really want you to rest, though. You'll need your strength to talk to the Hokage," she continued coolly, although her grin betrayed her. His cold expression tensed in subdued shock until it relaxed into a wordless disbelief. "Your bill of health is entirely clean, so after you sort out everything, you are free."
His eyes glittered and his lips formed a thin line as he fought back the range of emotions that surged through him. The white ceiling and walls, the obscured window, and the sterile smell of the hospital room offered no solace, no advice. At last, he looked to the pink-haired woman standing above him, haloed in the light streaming in from outside.
"I never imagined I would be given this opportunity."
She sat down on the edge of his bed and laid her hand on his arm very lightly. "Yeah."
They sat in silence for a long while. "So, what are you gonna do now?"
Itachi inhaled deeply: the first full, clear breath he had taken in a long time. "I'm not sure."
"That's not a bad thing," Sakura said pensively. "You have so many options. It's… a chance to begin again."
He said nothing. Even so, she smiled down him so gently and so sincerely, he felt the understanding. He felt the light caress of her thumb against his skin before she rose from the bed and left the room. He felt the possibility lingering in her wake. He felt, most intensely and most poignantly, truly at peace.