Itachi glanced over at his little brother as he was driving down the road. Sasuke was looking out the window, bobbing his head to the beat of the song playing on the radio. Itachi was never able to keep up with popular music, so he had never heard the song playing on the radio before.

Itachi turned down the radio, making Sasuke let out a groan and look at his brother. Itachi typically turned off the music to complain about said music, which Sasuke assumed was going to happen again. Instead, Itachi brought up a topic that was a total surprise: Sakura.

"Was Sakura okay today?" Itachi asked. "She seemed a little...off."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That's just Sakura. She's a total scatterbrain at times." He reached to turn the radio back up, but Itachi shot him a look that screamed "we aren't done with this conversation." "Look, she's fine. I'm her best friend, so I think I'd know if something was bothering her."

"So she's always like that?" Itachi asked. Rather than turning down his street, he kept driving and turned down the next one.

"Like what?" Sasuke asked, his confusion clear in his voice.

Itachi parked his car along the street and turned off the ignition. He turned so he was totally facing Sasuke. "There's no way she's always like that," he said. If he didn't know Sasuke better he would say that the boy was faking his confusion. "She was totally rushing through that store. Something had to have been pushing her like that."

Sasuke thought a moment. "Maybe she's on her period or something." He let out a chuckle, but Itachi wasn't as amused. "Oh, come on, Itachi! It's Sakura we're talking about. Hardly anything bad has happened to the girl in the year I've known her."

Itachi didn't respond right away. He began running the scene in the grocery store through his head. Although the exchange couldn't have happened more than ten minutes ago, it had all happened so fast he was struggling to remember the details. Sakura had been poorly dressed but, like he had said to Sasuke, it was a Tuesday during summer vacation; there was nothing suspicious about the way she was dressed. Sasuke had teased the girl and made her blush, which Itachi hoped didn't mean the girl would have a crush on his little brother. She would certainly get her heart broken if she did. Finally, Minato had come in, talking about some problem that he took care of.

"That's her house up there, right?" Itachi asked, motioning a few houses away.

"It must be," Sasuke said. He craned his neck to see better. "Yeah, it is. She lives across the street from Naruto."

Itachi nodded. Naruto and his family had been over to dinner at the Uchiha house a few times before, so Itachi knew that Minato was Naruto's father and Kushina was his mother. At the store, Minato had been discussing a problem involving Sakura that Kushina had told him about. If Kushina saw it, it must have been in Sakura's house. She could easily just look across the street and see it, Itachi thought. So what was it? What emergency did Sakura have?

"Are we going to sit out here all day?" Sasuke asked. He motioned to the bags of groceries sitting at his feet. "We need to get home so Mom can start getting ready for tonight. The whole reason we went to the store was to get stuff for the party, and now you're just worrying over nothing because of it."

Itachi wasn't about to stop thinking about Sakura and what the issue could be, but he wasn't going to let Sasuke know that. If Sasuke won't worry about his friend, fine, but that doesn't mean I won't be a decent human being. There is something going on, Itachi told himself.

Itachi drove down the street and turned onto the next street over. He could still remember last year when Sasuke came home, complaining because he found out that Naruto lives on the street parallel to his own. Sasuke hated the idea back when he didn't like Naruto, but now that they were best friends everyone appreciated the convenience.

Sasuke carried the bag inside while Itachi started putting everything in nice piles on the counter. Their mother, Mikoto, smiled when they walked inside. She tried to kiss Sasuke on the forehead, but he easily dodged it and left the kitchen, probably planning on going to his room. When Mikoto moved to kiss Itachi's forehead, he made no complaints and actually lowered himself so she could reach. By the time he was Sasuke's age, he had realized that Mikoto wasn't trying to be overbearing and decided to let her give her small affections of love.

The location of the kiss reminded him of Sakura, which wasn't hard to do at the moment. "Mom?" Itachi asked. She gave a hum in response. "What do you know about Sakura?"

Mikoto began to cut up vegetables for a tray, which was one of the things she was taking to the party. "She's a wonderful girl," she began. "She's only come over here a few times, and every time it's been with Naruto. I don't resent her for it, of course. I understand that she might not be the type to like to hang out with a guy on her own."

Itachi didn't respond because he was afraid of what he would say. He knew that if he said something about being worried about Sakura, then his mother would surely worry herself sick, so he would just ask enough questions to help himself without raising questions. Mikoto either gave very useful information or enough information to prove that there really wasn't anything to worry about, but Itachi didn't know which was the case this time.

If Sakura was the type to not want to be friends with guys, then it would make sense that she would be uncomfortable with them at the grocery store. Sakura wasn't that type of girl, though, and Itachi knew it. Sakura had been friends with Naruto since grade school, Sasuke had said once, so there was no way that she was uncomfortable around guys. Itachi had seen her around school the year before, too, and he never saw her around any other girls. She was the type to only have male friends, it seemed. If that was the case, then Itachi couldn't figure out why she wouldn't come over to the Uchihas by herself.

"Honey, will you finish cutting up the vegetables?" Mikoto asked her son. "I need to get started on these cookies."

The rest of the afternoon passed with a blur for the Uchihas. Mikoto and Itachi worked in the kitchen, preparing cookies, the vegetable tray, and the fruit salad. Sasuke had spent his time cleaning his room and listening to music. Fugaku, Itachi and Sasuke's father, was just getting home from work when it was time to leave for the party. The family of four all got into one vehicle before driving down the road, making one small turn, then driving down the road parallel to their own.

The party was at Naruto's house. His little sister, Kimawari, was turning ten. Fugaku knew many people at the party because of his job as a policeman, but the rest of the Uchihas were left in the dark. Many of the guests were the families of Kimawari's friends, so Sasuke and Itachi knew few people. If any of the teenagers they knew had younger siblings, there was no way they'd go to a birthday party for one of their siblings' friends. Sasuke went because of Naruto and Sakura. Itachi mainly went to help out, but now he was glad he went because Sakura was going to be there.

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked Kushina as she walked past. She had a plate of cupcakes in her hand, on her way to set them on the dessert table in the backyard.

Kushina smiled at Sasuke and Itachi. "He went over to get Sakura. If you want to go over there, I'm sure Sakura wouldn't mind. I bet you'd all have a lot more fun at her house than here with all the little kids, anyways." She looked behind her as Minato called her name. "Excuse me, but I need to get these outside."

"Let's go," Sasuke said, immediately walking away. He wasn't completely sure if Itachi would follow, but either way he was going to go across the street to get Naruto and Sakura.

In less than a dozen strides they were standing on Sakura's porch. Itachi noticed that there were no cars in the driveway. "Are her parents not home?" he asked. Sasuke shrugged, since he didn't know anything about Sakura's parents. He hadn't actually been to her house before, though that didn't stop him from walking right inside. "Sakura! Naruto!" he called.

Itachi walked ahead of Sasuke, looking around the first floor of the house. The whole space was open-concept, and it only took only a few seconds to go from the front door and through the living room to the kitchen. He ran his hand along the smooth countertop before picking up a piece of paper that was carelessly thrown there.

bye

Itachi wasn't sure wrote the note, but he could tell from just the one word that the person had terrible handwriting. Who would write such a meaningless note to her? he wondered. Her parents aren't here right now, so maybe they wrote it. But why would they leave such a simple note as goodbye?

"They must be upstairs," Sasuke announced, startling Itachi. Itachi had almost forgotten where he was and who he was with. "Let's go up there."

Itachi set the note down and followed Sasuke upstairs. The first door they saw was open and the room looked as if a tornado had gone through. An odd odor was also coming from it, a mix between body odor and alcohol. The next door was clearly Sakura's room because of how girly and perfect it all looked. Before they could get to the next door, Naruto popped out into the hallway. He looked surprised.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked, a frantic edge to his voice. He looked back at the door he closed quickly before looking at the brothers again. "Did the party already start? We'll be right over. You can head back."

Sasuke, unlike Itachi, didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. "I'll see you guys in a bit," he said. "You coming, Itachi?"

"No, you go ahead," Itachi said, trying to act casual. Sasuke just nodded and went down the stairs. A moment later Itachi heard the front door close. "Is Sakura in there?" Itachi asked, nodding towards the closed door.

Naruto let out a forced laugh. "Yeah, she's taking forever to get ready. You know girls." He looked back at the door again and itched his arm. "She won't be much longer, so you can go back. Really."

Itachi knew something wasn't adding up. "Why were you in there with her? And why do you seem so freaked out at the idea of us being here?" he asked, not bother to sugar-coat anything.

Naruto pressed his lips into a line. He knew that he couldn't say anything. Plus, if he was going to tell anyone, it would be Sasuke, not Itachi. Itachi had always been Sasuke's older brother, never a friend. He was always someone just...there. He was never a part of anything. Now, it seemed like Itachi was finding Easter eggs in Sakura's life.

The door opened, revealing to Itachi that the room was a bathroom. Sakura leaned against the door frame, wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts. When she saw Itachi, she covered her arms and backed up a little. Looking closely, Itachi saw marks over her body. He soon realized that not all the marks were the same. The bruises ranged from being about to disappear completely to the one on her forehead, just then starting to show itself. Not only were there bruises, but there were some healing gashes, burn marks, and others that weren't identifiable.

Itachi wasn't sure what to think. He couldn't even begin to figure out the cause, yet the obvious choice was that she put them there herself. The idea appalled him. He hadn't know Sakura long or interacted with her much, but he knew that she was too wonderful to hurt herself.

Itachi realized something that should have been obvious: Naruto knows about whatever secret she has.

The idea of Naruto knowing that Sakura hurt herself, if that was what was happening, was worse than the knowledge of Sakura doing that to herself. If Naruto was a true friend, he would prevent anything that was hurting Sakura, especially herself, yet here she stood, bruised and beaten.

Sakura had been staring at Itachi since she came into his view, and she finally tore her gaze away to look at Naruto. "I didn't get a chance to pull the clothes from the laundry yet. Can you go get the basket? I want to have something nice to wear to Kimawari's party."

Naruto looked between Sakura and Itachi, clearly not sure if he should leave them alone. "Please," Sakura reiterated. Naruto was still worried, but he was going to respect her judgement. If she thought she was fine being alone with Itachi, then he would let her be alone with him. He gave Itachi one long look before moving past the older man to go downstairs.

Sakura went back into the bathroom and sat on the toilet, where she was previously. She wasn't surprised when Itachi followed her into the room. He looked around cautiously as if worried he'd find a dead body. Instead, he found a bloody washcloth, a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide, and a box of opened bandages.

Sakura began to use the items on herself, cleaning any open wounds she had. While she did this, she began thinking about earlier that day, specifically when Minato brought her home. She had hurriedly thanked him before going inside after he dropped her off at home. When she saw the note on the counter, she became furious for reasons she didn't understand. Within seconds, she began hitting walls and throwing things. It had felt like hours, but in reality it had only been seconds since she walked in the house, so there was no doubt Minato was still close enough to hear what was going on inside. He was probably responsible for Naruto arriving minutes later.

By the time Naruto arrived, Sakura had already done a lot of damage. She had bruised her arms and legs from kicking and hitting things and her knuckles had split open from punching. She had mostly thrown nonbreakable items, but a lamp and the few dishes in the sink didn't survive her fit. Naruto had walked in on Sakura like that before, so he quickly diffused the situation. He took her upstairs to take a cool shower to calm down, then started cleaning the mess. Itachi and Sasuke arrived after most of the cleanup was finished, but Sakura was still touching up on a few spots before applying bandages.

Itachi was feeling conflicted. He wanted to know what had caused Sakura's injuries so he could help her, but he also didn't want to know; if he did, he would drive himself even more insane. Instead, he watched her eyes as her emotions swam behind them until Naruto back.