He lifts his blade, flicking it hard to remove the blood coating his ninjato before sheathing it. Itachi turns and freezes imperceptibly at the sight of Sasuke. Not just Sasuke. His otouto's team are standing behind him. He's heard of his younger brother's defected from Konoha, had his informant been lying? It wouldn't matter, Itachi supposes. Even with Kakashi as his otouto's back up, he wouldn't have enough strength yet.
"Itachi!" There is raw anger in his otouto's voice and oddly sadness. Itachi turns his eyes from Sasuke, gazing across the other two - No! Sakura is here too. He quells the frisson of fear that crawls up his spine at the sight of her.
"Why?" Sasuke demands.
There are many answers to that. Danzo, the coup, the clan, Root, the impulsion placed on him by Fu, Orochimaru. All perfectly acceptable but not the decisive one.
\W/ \W/ \W/
She is only a young girl playing with her brother then. Still a civilian, her sensor abilities has not been noticed yet until she notices him in the tree. She shouldn't have, not with his chakra suppressed and his presence cloaked, but she did. She slips from the adult's watch, a feat that a four year old should have not been able to accomplish from the chuunin caretakers, and clambers up the tree where he hid to offer him a single ivy flower.
"Ivy is poisonous, you know?" he says as he plucks it from her hand.
She shrugs and smiles shyly, "but they're 'retty."
She doesn't know the meaning of them, doesn't realise that she shouldn't not have been able to detect him.
"How did you find me?"
"You f-feel like Sas'ka-kun," she points at his little brother who has now realised that his playmate has disappeared. "You were watching for a long time," she pitches in a low voice and Itachi finds the edges of his lips twitching upward. "You should just j-join us instead of sitting in the t-tree."
Below the chuunin watching the Harunos is starting to panic. "Come, your babysitter is getting worried." Itachi picks her up and jumps off the tree.
"Chi'ki-san is boring, he doesn't play with us."
\W/ \W/ \W/
Itachi knows the choice he made isn't the fairest. The weight of one life versus many would never be fair. He lifts his red eyes to drink in the sight of Sakura. Her green eyes, that had once so earnestly stared back him, no longer meet his, but they're still the same green that haunts him in his dreams.
\W/ \W/ \W/
He is lying on a branch in a tree, enjoying the rare moment of his off-day. His brother had been harangued by their mother into doing temple duties for a prank he had committed just yesterday. No good shinobi would have been caught doing a prank, his younger brother has much to learn. Pity Shisui isn't around to teach him the finer points of pranking and not getting caught.
He doesn't sense her until she's almost behind him, briefly flaring her pint-sized chakra as a courtesy - he had taught her that after he and Shisui had almost killed her.
"Your cloaking skills are coming along well," he says, not bothering to open his eyes as she shuffles into a comfortable spot on the branch next to him.
"Papa has been getting annoyingly vig-vig-"
"Vigilant," he offers helpfully.
"Vigilant about catching Ino-chan and I from going out."
"Me-" Itachi corrects. Her vocabulary for five year old is unsurprisingly good considering her intelligence though it is painfully obvious she doesn't speak enough to practice the art of enunciating the words. Though he can't fault her for he is guilty of that too.
"Me…?" She puzzles over it. He can hear her hands toying with flowers, judging by the fragrance, as she considers his correction. "Ino-chan and me from going out," she repeats it with a satisfied tone. "So we've been practising it extra hard. Ino-chan still gets caught."
She plops the thing she has been fiddling with onto his head and he sighs, cracking one eye open. "Ivy is poisonous, you know?"
"But they're pretty."
He'll admit to being partial to the purplish-blue flowers, not because they're pretty but because they mean everlasting friendship and since he knows she goes to kinouchi lessons, he knows she now knows their meaning.
"Besides, these are the Haruno special. They're not poisonous." The Haruno clan are Konoha's poison speciality. There's a reason why people often say, never cross an Aburame and never backstab a Haruno, after all.
\W/ \W/ \W/
He has made his decision and now he'll lie in bed with it. Itachi averts his eyes, away from the dreams of he had of her, the future that he wishes he could have. The single lone dark grey eye of his once ANBU captain.
\W/ \W/ \W/
"If you had to make the decision to protect the one you love over others, would you do it?" he asks his captain one night while in-between the lull of missions.
"Yes."
"Even if means never having that one person?"
The dog mask seemed to regard him with a certain emotion that Itachi isn't sure he knows what it is. He's never been terribly good at reading people's expression. Socially awkward that's what Shisui had called him before he passed.
"Always."
He thinks of the eight year old pink-haired girl who spars with his otouto. He thinks of the spitfire she'll become when she grows out of the young Yamanaka's shadow. He thinks of all the pink-haired clan members he'll have to kill to protect her, all the people who had treated him less like a prodigy, less like an heir but more of a person, a kid that he was never allowed to be in the Uchiha compound.
\W/ \W/ \W/
Itachi wonders if Kakashi had managed to link the conversation up. All the shinobi and civilians he has slaughtered to protect two children. There is an unspoken promise to look after his brother, he trusts and knows that Kakashi has looked after Sasuke in his own awkward way. And contrary to everyone's assumptions, he did not put Kakashi under the Tsukiyomi to torture him, he would never hurt a fellow Konoha shinobi even if Itachi is supposed to be a missing-nin. It was simply unfortunate that his simple questions on how his brother was in the sharingan-weaved genjutsu had knocked Kakashi out of commission for a month, but it had been entirely unintentional.
Though Sasuke was protected, the way Itachi knew he would be, Sakura was not. Kakashi had seen it through for him. Ridiculously overprotective of her in some ways and crippling her growth in others but he had made sure she would be okay.
\W/ \W/ \W/
He steels himself as he stands before the compound. How many more must he kill before he can stop?
"You were always a kind boy," his mother whispers from the pool of her own blood.
He must persist, he must protect Konoha, he must protect Sasuke, he must protect Sakura.
Sakura is awake when he slides through her window. She is the strongest sensor Itachi has ever met and for her to not notice the quickly disappearing chakra presence around her would be nigh impossible.
"Itachi-kun." There is fear in her eyes, fear that has never been directed at him but would be after tonight. It must be the blood across his face that makes her hesitate before padding towards him. She lifts a trembling hand to touch his puffy eyes.
"Sakura… chan."
Her eyes widen in surprise. He has always been adamant about calling her san. She's a Haruno and Harunos have to be treated with respect. Now there are no more Harunos except her, no more poison experts.
"Are you leaving?"
He nods, preparing himself for more lies and the act of betrayal he has to perform. Her hand slips, gripping his sleeve. "Promise to come back soon?" she says to him.
"I will," he promises. In a body scroll, he doesn't add. He pulls her into his arms, reminding himself of why he has killed the others. There is a hot, searing heat in his eyes, heavy from the weight of unshed tears. Itachi pulls himself from her, his dark eyes gleaming into the dull red shine. "Goodbye Sakura… chan." Then he spins her into a deep genjutsu sleep. He brushes the pink locks from her face, pressing a kiss on her forehead. "Sleep well."
\W/ \W/ \W/
"Why did you kill Father and Mother?"
Sakura places a hand on Sasuke's shaking arm. "No," her voice crisp in the silence that follows his otouto's words, ringing with confidence that he knows she doesn't have. All these years, she's become a better liar. "The question is why was he the one made to carry it out?"
Itachi feels an involuntary twitch on his lips at her words, a mix of pleasure and strangely, relief floods him. Sakura inclines her head to him, the smile that she gives him is taut and tight.
"It wasn't really because you wanted to know if you were the best, was it?"
"Sakura… what are you talking about?" Sasuke growls, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword.
His otouto was never the sort cut out to be more than a shinobi. Father had seen it in him and had been disappointed that Sasuke would never be a good military police and Itachi would never want it. However the head of MP would always have to be someone from the main family, how Father hated shackling either of them to something they would not want.
"We talked about this, Sasuke."
Itachi notices the lack of honorifics between them. Perhaps if he had the opportunity to turn back time, he might be the one sharing the lack of honorifics with her.
"If Itachi-kun wanted to test his abilities, he would have gone for Hokage-sama or Kakashi-sensei. Would that not have been the most obvious choices?"
Kun. She had called him kun. After all he had done, he doesn't deserve the endearment behind his name.
"Yet he didn't. He had gone for your clan and mine. It's true that the Uchihas were known for the strength and power while the Harunos were known for their slyness, but no one doubted whether he could have beaten them."
If he gives them anymore time, Sasuke might be dissuaded to fight him properly. Itachi coughs a rib shaking cough. It's worse than any cough he has had. Now that they've arrived, he can finally sleep, he thinks.
He raises his tanto, flashing several discrete ANBU signs that only Kakashi would know.
Thank you. No harm. Good bye.
Itachi shunshins towards his otouto. Sasuke leaps, pushing Sakura to away as he unsheathes sword. He grabs his otouto's right wrist, still his downward motion.
"Still not strong enough," he taunts. Sasuke roars, twisting around to kick his chin. Itachi disperses in a murder of crows, reappearing behind his brother. Sasuke reacts the way Itachi has expected, he swings his chidori sword into Itachi without a moment of conscious thought.
He coughs. The jag of agony that Itachi has tried to prepare himself for is nowhere close to his imagination. Dying hurts more than he expects.
"Aniki…" Sasuke whispers.
Itachi twists his lips into a faint smile, blood dribbling from his lips. "Take care of Sakura. Okay?"
He can't breathe and muscling through sheer will, he pokes his otouto's forehead for the last time then his body gives out, collapsing onto him. He hears Sasuke cry, feels the hot liquid drop on his face.
Then he lets the black take him.
\W/ \W/ \W/
She is twelve. Her chin thrust defiantly at the air. He knows that look anywhere, even four years after he's left, he still knows it. How he wishes he could be there with the crowd of proud parents, be there waiting for his otouto and Sakura. Instead, he sits in the treetops with Deidara who is awfully silent despite being a chatty person.
"It's her, isn't it?" Deidara says, tracking the pink girl as she walks down the road with his brother. Itachi only raises an eyebrow at his question. "The reason why you killed all those people," Deidara clarifies.
He fiddles with the bit of clay in his hands, forming tiny birds then tiny flowers that Itachi has never seen him make. "The Harunos were planning to assist the Uchiha in the coup. There were buckets of lethal poison in their safehouse. They were planning to poison the waters and let Uchiha take charge. That's why your village ordered them to be killed. I read the files while you were stalking your brother. " Deidara looks up, his face stark of his usual mischievous grin. "What I don't get is… why you? And why them?"
Unwilling to explain, Itachi drops from the tree and slides into the shadow of another. He tucks his chakra deep within himself, knowing that Sakura would not be able to detect him even if he was close to her that way.
Kakashi is at the memorial stone as he always is. Though he says nothing, Itachi knows that Kakashi knows he's there. After all, he has not hidden his scent.
"I'll take care of them," Kakashi says out loud as though speaking to the stone, but Itachi knows it's to him.
Itachi steps half out of the shadow and nods at him.
Take care. Kakashi signs.
Go strong. Itachi replies with the traditional ANBU response then he finds Deidara.
"Because it was the only way to protect them," he tells Deidara, many months later. It confuses Deidara for weeks to come before he figures out the question.
\W/ \W/ \W/
He hurts. His throat screams with each shallow gasp he takes. His chest is a scorching field of agony. He's used to pain, used to so much pain that Itachi sometimes can't tell if it's a new hurt or an old hurt, this pain, however, is definitely something brand new.
"Come back to me... you promised me."
He blinks and finds himself gazing into green eyes. His mouth is gulping, frozen in a rictus of suffering.
"Stupid Itachi!" Sakura hugs him as tightly as his injuries allow him. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! We're not kids anymore! We don't need you to protect us anymore."
His brother stands behind her, his eyes are watery, face pale and lips thin from stemming what emotions his brother must be feeling. Sasuke always had a bad poker face. "We're not going to kill you, nii-san. Stop trying, okay?"
\W/ \W/ \W/
When Itachi wakes again, it's to a white room and a fluffy white blanket tucked around him. He can smell the cloying scent of Hashirama trees through the window, the taste of unshed rain in the distance and though the crowds of people are in the distant, he who had gotten used to the silence of isolated bases can hear their murmuring, not precise words but the low grade of buzz.
So he's finally home.
"You were really close," the blond standing at the foot of the bed tells Itachi. She saunters towards him and taps him hard on the head with the medical chart.
Itachi blinks at her, taking in the pigtails. "Hokage-sama," he says simply. How have she let a missing-nin like him enter Konoha again? Why is he still alive? Are they not going to execute him? The questions lie at the back of his throat like ash.
"No, we're not going to execute you." Tsunade flips through the records and places a glowing green hand on his shoulder. "That would have made the time my apprentice and shinobi incurred in tracking you down nulled, you know."
He feels the coolness of her chakra flowing through his lungs, fixing where his breaths used to hurt.
"They searched through the records for all your mission files and worked their way through every other corresponding one. It was quite an impressive case the two put together."
Itachi frowns at her, unsure how to respond. Tsunade grunts. "It means you're free. Danzo was found guilty for treason and executed while you have been acquitted as you were a scapegoat. Now, your lungs need another six more months before they are recovered and your eyes will need a year of treatment. I would say that you are prohibited from training, but that's going to be a waste of my breath. Instead, you can train only when your primary physician is overseeing. You understand?"
He nods mutely. The idea of not dying to his disease is strange and unbelievable, let alone being not blind and free. Free!
Itachi lets out a bark of amused laughter when he is finally alone again.
Free.
He's not dreaming is he? Itachi turns and watches the Hashirama trees sway their leaves in the wind and thinks, maybe he's not.
\W/ \W/ \W/
There are blue ivy flowers spilling across the garden when Itachi and Kakashi finally rounds the bend to the Uchiha compound.
"Are they married?" Itachi asks Kakashi.
"Ew, no." Sasuke makes a disgusted face as he catches Itachi question while opening the door. "Sakura is like my sister. Kakashi-sensei are eating tonight?" He leads the duo through the doors and Kakashi slips on a pair of well-worn slippers from the genkan.
"We all live together. Team Orphans," Sasuke explains.
Itachi winces at Sasuke's words. Sasuke and Sakura wouldn't have been orphans had it not been for him. Sasuke pokes him on the forehead. "That's quite enough. I can hear the self-loathing wafting through the air. Sakura and I don't hate you for what you did. Had their coup not been stopped, Konoha would have had a long civil war."
Sasuke slides the shoji door to reveal the dining room. The same wooden chairs though the table has been expanded and set for seven.
Sakura drops a flower crown on Itachi's head as he walks in and smiles. "Welcome back."
It's the same ivy that sprawls in the front yard, the same trademark Haruno ivy that Sakura used to play with when was younger. "Ivy is poisonous, you know?" Itachi says with a twitch of lips before he can stop the words.
"But they're pretty." She replies like she knows. "And they mean everlasting fidelity."
Author notes:
*gasp* I finally finished this. I really wanted to write an ItaSaku and then the idea on expanding on Haruno Sakura gave birth to this. Sadly, it didn't end the way I wanted it to and the characters were rather resistant to me god-writing to just kiss already! I'm just going to pretend that they kissed and finally got together in the end and had Haruno Ivy in their house.
Hope you like it. You find me on tumblr at Luna-Orlha if you like.