A non-beta'd ficlet that mauled me this evening ^^ literally the shortest ItaSaku I've ever written.

Hopefully Sasuke doesn't sound too OOC XD

The usual AU Non-Massacre ItaSaku ^^

Enjoy!

Gesture

Two fingers tapped her forehead – not hard, but with enough force to set her back a pace – as their owner's lips curved into a gentle smile.

"Sorry Sakura," he said mildly, dark eyes warm with the emotion they shared between them. "I'll make it up to you another time."

His rose-haired wife crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, but it was a sigh of resignation. She'd known this was going to happen anyway.

The small twinge of guilt that occurred every time never failed to amaze him. After so many years of guarding his emotions, being perfected as an efficient, effective, level-headed shinobi, the woman before him had brought such a strange sweep of feelings into his life. And she was no longer the only one.

She huffed in mild irritation, blowing a lock of cherry blossom hair out of her sharp green eyes.

"Itachi, if you're late to the twins' birthday by so much as a minute, so help me I am going make you cringe every time someone says ANBU," she threatened, eyes narrowing; but the way her hands fisted in his shirt held none of the menace she projected into her voice.

"Aa, I will return in time," he promised.

Her lips met his in a soft embrace, slow, passionate, and loving. There was no urgency in it as she pressed herself to him, wrapping her arms – the same arms that had so recently crossed her chest in irritation – around his neck as his own came up instinctively to caress her slender waist. She kissed him as if they had all the time in the world.

Lips parted together, her sweetness filling his mouth as he deepened their kiss, the pace still as languid as ever. It was like drowning in her, and everything she represented to him. She had been the one to open the relentlessly self-sufficient shinobi he had grown up to be to the lingering moments in life, the moments where it was more important to savor than to rush. These slow kisses they shared were a lesson all her own.

He was breathless when they broke apart.

With her startling green eyes gazing up at him with such calm acceptance reflected in their depths, it was hard not to pull her closer and claim her lips with all the fierce passion he reserved for her. His hands tightened on her shoulders at the mere thought.

"Remember, don't be late," she murmured.

"Aa," he acknowledged. "I will return soon, Uchiha Sakura."

He loved how her cheeks flushed with pleasure at the sound of that name rolling off his lips. With one last lingering look, he stepped out of their apartment and closed the door.

"You took your time, nii-chan," Sasuke muttered irritably as soon as Itachi joined him outside the older Uchiha's residence.

Itachi merely raised an eyebrow.

Sasuke was rarely this vocal about his older brother's slow goodbyes; the fact that he had felt the need to say something meant it had irked the younger man somehow.

As he slipped the pale porcelain mask over his features, Itachi considered just ignoring whatever irritation Sasuke seemed to be harboring. His younger brother was a competent ninja who could be trusted to keep his personal emotions out of the equation on a mission.

Besides, their latest was a simple scroll retrieval.

He couldn't foresee it being terribly difficult to execute.

Still, dealing with his younger brother in a snit for the week this mission would take didn't exactly sit well with Itachi. Sasuke could be downright obnoxious when goaded, and whatever had happened, the younger man seemed to be pulling himself into a monumental huff.

Better to deal with it while they were still in Konoha.

"Sasuke, something is bothering you."

The younger Uchiha said nothing for long moments as they ran, eating up the distance between themselves and their destination.

Then, "It's nothing."

There was another long silence as neither Uchiha spoke and they sped off through the foliage.

"Otouto, it's hardly nothing. You are still quite irritated."

"I said it was nothing," Sasuke bit out a little more vehemently this time.

"Hn."

More silence.

Then, finally, "Fine! It was this!" he exclaimed, tapping two of his own fingers to the forehead of his feline mask. "This, nii-chan! You can't just go and do that to Sakura! It was our thing!"

And there you have it, the strangest little plot bunny ever to hop into my head! Honestly, I have no idea where it came from but I suppose Sasuke might be a little irritated if Itachi were to use said gesture with Sakura considering how obsessive he is about his brother...still, hopefully Sasuke wasn't too OOC ^^;

To answer any questions you might have in regards to the story (which I realize might have come across as kinda confusing)....

Sakura and Itachi are married and have twins, I'd estimate their ages are about 27 and 32 years old respectively, their daughter and son being about 4-5 at this point in time. Itachi and Sasuke are going off on an ANBU mission together and Sakura is trying to make sure her husband comes home in time for their kids' birthday party. This story is not in the Nerves-verse and "Gesture" refers to Itachi's usual poke-in-the-forehead; the random tiny rant about slow kisses kinda just happened. Trust Itachi to take stories into his own hands. I swear he and Sakura are so bad...every time I start a story they decide to make it do what THEY want...sheesh.

Please review ^^ the authoress thrives on review happiness