Disclaimer: None of us own Naruto, okay?! All we want to do is force certain characters together and make them kiss!
A/N: The chapters will continue not corresponding with the end of the series, lol. Some people will be alive that are dead in canon (:cough: oneofthemaincharacters) and vise versa if it comes to that I guess (I'm evil). I hope it still makes at least a bit of sense to you anyway. Also I'm sorry if the plot is coming across as slow. It's definitely intentional, but I'm in this for the long haul. Let's all be emotionally invested together! lmao :dead:
"Just eggs," Sakura motioned, sliding into the empty stool next to the Rokudaime. "Thank you."
"Coming right up!"
Kakashi looked mildly interested, following her movements with his available eye. The natural droop of it seemed more prominent this morning, probably exacerbated by an accumulation of sleepless nights and boring days spent without the company of his porn collection (which had been seized by none other than her loving shishou).
"Hokage-sama," she tipped her head in recognition, fully aware of his distaste for the shiny new title. "Do you usually like to eat ramen before eleven o'clock?"
"Good morning, Sakura-chan," he said, clearly faking the crease of a smile beneath his mask. The blatant sarcasm made her press her lips tight in a chuckle. "There's no such thing as breakfast anymore. You of all people should understand that."
She hadn't expected him to be sitting there at this time of day. Actually, Ichiraku was still an hour away from opening when he appeared, claiming he was starving and had forgotten all about the restaurant hours. It was hard to tell the hokage 'no' for anything, especially when it was Kakashi standing there, the most intensely pitiable look on his face from years of experience selling excuses.
Sakura could tell that they hadn't been open long. One bowl of ramen wasn't quite enough to create the pungent smell of roasted barbeque pork that one could always smell from several meters away. Where there were usually thick clouds of steam billowing from the roof and the sting of searing vegetables sizzling underneath a covered frying pan, the air was now clear and dewy, droplets of rain from last night coating the waterproof padding that protected the outside of the shop.
Morning always brought with it a sense of beauty and tranquility; Sakura reveled in it, but it never seemed to last too long.
She heard Kakashi suck in a large mouthful of broth and instantly turned, but his mask was pulled back up before she could even register he was done..
"Thank you," she said as a plate with two boiled eggs was placed in front of her. It wasn't much, but she was never that hungry when she woke up. She just needed something to feed her chakra levels for the next couple of hours.
"Are you going out?" Kakashi asked.
"Hm?" She followed his gaze south towards her outfit which consisted of a lengthy red qipao top, reminiscent of traditional chinese cocktail dresses, that extended past her hips in the back and exposed her navel in the front. Underneath she wore light colored pants with black heeled sandals, and for an extra touch, she had even added a red ribbon to her hair. It definitely stood in stark contrast to the powder white med coat she usually wore to work, but houses were less clinical in nature than hospitals were. She thought she'd easily be able to get out of wearing it, if just this once.
"Oh, no," she said quickly, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. "I just have a house call in thirty minutes." She glanced at her watch, turning her attention back to her eggs as Kakashi's shoulders visibly relaxed.
He took in small a breath and released it. "Thank Kami. I don't think I can handle another birthday party this month."
Sakura laughed. She must have worn the same outfit to Ino's birthday party last week... "It's September! Of course there are a lot of birthdays."
"Don't say that," he murmured as if he were superstitious, lifting the bowl back up to his face and finishing off the remainder of the salty broth.
"Pfft," she let out a snort of amusement from the back of her throat. She never thought she'd say this, but she almost liked the exhausted version of Kakashi better than the normal one—he was funnier without a filter, especially since he was now a walking figurehead.. Forever the Rokudaime—the one person in the entire village meant to be an image of perfection, and boy was he was far from it.
"Naruto will save you soon," she said with a small smile, the last frays of their conversation easing into a comfortable silence.
The dewy film of mist from this morning had dissipated by this time, but the remnants of last night's rain shower had spread itself over the village. Pooled in gutters. Dripping down the sides of buildings... Sakura wondered if the storm had reached both of her partners equally. And if so, had they taken shelter fast enough to avoid it? As much as she would like to deny the fact that she worried about these things; even still towards Sasuke, if she were to do so, she would be lying.
She'd heard from Tsunade that Naruto was making another trip to visit all five kages. It was meant to be his final trip around the continent before he stationed himself permanently in the Hokage's office, drowned in the monotony of government and politics—official memos, declarations and treaties, trade deals, and correspondences. After all, it had been a long time since Konoha saw such long-standing peace, and he was encouraged to take advantage of it while he still could.
"Ne, Kakashi-sensei."
"Mm?"
"Have you heard anything from him?" she mumbled. "If anyone should know, it's you."
As if he were reaching for a memory, his gaze traveled wordlessly up and across the line of cooking utensils dangling from the ceiling rack. A moment passed in relative silence before he blinked, redirecting his attention to the refrigerator in the back.
"Who knows? He said he'd only be gone for six months, but assuming he walks, it takes two months alone to get to Kumogakure from here."
"He could be riding with some of the merchants, I guess..." She let the idea linger for a bit but eventually just sighed. "You're right. He never plans these sort of things out rationally beforehand.."
He scratched at his head. "I asked Yamato to go with him, and he agreed. I don't know why he suddenly decided to change his mind.."
"I would've gone with him," she said. "I offered, but he just kept dodging the subject. He wouldn't tell me when he was leaving."
Kakashi looked at her. She was picking at her food like a schoolgirl, which wasn't completely uncharacteristic of her, he supposed.
"Don't let it bother you, Sakura." She heard a faint rustling from where he was sitting, only to find that he'd stood from his chair and was in the process of fitting the wide hokage visor back onto his head, something his spiky hair didn't really take to. "He can handle himself now," he said. "He and Sasuke both have proved themselves capable enough, don't you think?"
"I guess so.."
The words ghosted around in her head for most of the time it took to walk from Ichiraku to the opposite side of town where the Uchiha estates were located. She thought she'd lost it at first, but the paper Tsunade had given her with the address on it ended up being in her pocket all along. She'd dug in it for several minutes as she walked and found nothing at first, but who would have thought! She just needed to turn her pockets out and look for a fifteenth time for it to finally reappear...
"Really?" she drew the word out extensively as she smoothed the paper out in her hands.
The gate to the compound was only a few yards away, but she didn't want to go in until she at least knew the address and made sure she had all of her supplies ready to go. If she was lucky, there would be nothing there for anyone to criticize except maybe her natural personality, but she could tone that down for a few hours, surely.
"You have got to be kidding me..."
The building staring at her was 100 percent, without a doubt in her mind, Sasuke's house.
So much for hoping that Itachi lived on his own by now. With two doors and a divided front porch, it looked as if it could be a duplex of some kind, but there was no telling who all lived here. The only two things she knew for sure were that 1. This was where Sasuke lived. and 2. If that woman was here... she was scheduled to have a very bad day. A very bad day, indeed.
She sighed quietly, drawing her frustrated gaze up from the paper as if the look of the building alone was enough to drain every ounce of energy she'd gained from this morning's breakfast. Either way she saw it she was going to have to knock on one of the doors, but only one of them was the right one—could that mean she was supposed to pick the door on the right?
Now she was reading too far into it...
"Whatever," she mumbled as her inner child flared, erupting with a mixture of anger and impatience that carried her in a series of stubborn steps straight towards the door on the far right.
She raised her fist, pausing to listen for sounds—there were none of course—and knocked three times.
The seconds passed by soundlessly, save for the distant rustle of leaves in the breeze and the chaotic pounding of her pulse in her ears. It felt like the longest ten seconds of her life, but she eventually caught the light creaking sound of footsteps growing steadily closer to the door. The bottom lock was loosened first, followed by the thick bolt at the top, and when the door finally opened, she couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief at the sight of him.
"Uchiha Itachi," she tipped her head formally. Tsunade's crumpled directive was clutched in both of her hands as if she were clinging to it for purpose. "I'm not sure if you remember me from the medic corps. I'm Haruno Sakura."
The last time she'd seen him he had been dressed in his ANBU uniform, the steel plates on the outside of his arms and torso hiding the shape of his frame, which turned out to be less imposing than the details her foggy memory had originally led her to believe. His hair was longer now as well, pulled into a characteristic low ponytail behind his shoulders. He wore a simple navy t-shirt with a low collar—if Sakura had to guess, it probably had the Uchiha crest on the back—and a pair of dark shorts to match.
If these were the only details she had to build from, she wouldn't have thought he was sick at all, but once she allowed herself to take in the full depth of his features, she felt herself slipping into a pitch black pit of loneliness and exhaustion. And it wasn't a genjutsu, she was sure.
"I remember you," he confirmed with a nod. If she had to guess, it was probably because she was Sasuke's teammate. "What can I do for you?"
She looked at him dumbly for a few seconds, the ends of her brows narrowing. "Uh," she said. The paper was still in clutched her hands, forgotten. "I'm here to heal you, I thought..."
Itachi's expression was unreadable, but there was no malice in it. In fact, he looked exactly like what he was: an older, more docile version of Sasuke. There was even the slightest glint of curiosity present in his eyes as his gaze lifted, skimming over the bright red bow in her hair, but it was long gone by the time she was able to get a good look at him again.
"I—don't remember calling the clinic." He seemed to be a little lost for words, as did she. It felt like the air between them had turned to lead, heavy with an invisible magnetism that both pushed and pulled at the same time.
He was definitely hiding something. Was it about his eyes?
"—Oh! Tsunade-sama sent me, actually," she said, eager to fix the misunderstanding. It made her feel a little bit weird to hand over the crumpled orders, given the state of its appearance, but she didn't have much choice in the matter. Shinobi are trained not to reveal anything without proof, and something told her that Itachi still made his own decisions regardless. She wasn't going to get anywhere with him today, she just knew it.
"Apparently your father requested one of my coworkers, but I seem to be the only one qualified enough to help you with your eyes."
There it was. That painfully familiar tick of annoyance at his brow that had been mirrored to her by Sasuke for so many years. It was faint, but not invisible; she almost let it slide..
"What is it?" she asked.
He glanced at her over the top of the note, his features softened again, almost as if she hadn't seen anything. He could play it off as nothing if he really wanted to, but he didn't. His brows curved inward, lips lengthening into a half smirk. It was obvious he was amused. If only they were closer, perhaps she could've gotten her forehead poked.
"You're very perceptive, Haruno Sakura," he said, handing her back the note. "-But I don't need your help."
Before she realized what he was doing, he had turned to close the door. "I will send a message to the Godaime. Take the rest of the day off-"
"Wait!" she shouted, thrusting herself inside the doorway. "Are you saying there's nothing wrong then?"
He looked puzzled by her actions, but he answered her regardless, keeping his hand safely on the doorknob in case he needed to shove her out. "I didn't say that. I said I didn't need your help."
"If you didn't need my help, you wouldn't still be sick!" She didn't know why she was suddenly so enraged. Maybe it was all of her pent up feelings being released at one time. She was like a human power vacuum, constantly sucking in more and more pressure until whatever bubble she happened to be floating in finally burst, exploding all the ugly contents of her anxieties onto whatever unsuspecting victim happened to be around.
Or maybe he was just being a prick.
Something told her it was a mixture of the two.
He responded with a look of deep irritation, indicating he was starting to lose patience.
"It's incurable," he said, his tone like a heavy weight ready to drag her under the surface. "Whatever you claim to know, I already know. Whatever you claim to be able to do, I've already done, or had done."
Sakura couldn't take her eyes off him. She felt sandbagged in place by a whirlwind of emotion. Despite having come here with relatively high hopes, his words didn't sit well with her. They felt icky and cancerous, and they stuck right into her heart.
"Then why won't you at least let me try? Isn't it always worth trying?"
He sighed. Not out of annoyance this time but more out of exhaustion. "Not always."
There's no telling how long this had been bothering him, or what his journey had looked like since he was forced to quit ANBU. Even now, she wasn't sure how much detail he could actually see; whether he could tell the difference between the shapes of the clouds or even what her face looked like right now. She was sure that from a stranger's point of view, she must look pretty pathetic.
Every experience she'd ever had with terminal illness had been traumatizing for her, so she wasn't even fully sure why she was trying to hard to make him let her into what she could only assume was a world of physical and emotional pain the likes of which were way beyond her understanding. Something screamed to her that she was much too sensitive of a person for this, but even still... she wanted to help in some way. It was the only thing she was ever really good at.
Without thinking, Itachi had been resting more and more of his weight on the doorknob. Sakura thought she heard another barely audible sigh as he released his hold on it and began retreating back into his house.
"H-Hold on!" she shouted.
"Just come in," he replied tonelessly. "And shut the door behind you."
A/N #2: Okay so I do want you to tell me if I butchered Itachi, but I don't at the same time. I feel sort of unhappy with it myself, but I'm super sensitive so go easy on me! There will be more to come soon. Thanks to everyone following along (and who are still following along after this chapter)!