Title: House of Cards

Author: AppleL0V3R

Beta-reader: SymphoniaFreak

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Uchiha Itachi and Haruno Sakura

Rating: T

Type: One-shot – Complete

Summary: Because no matter how splendid, everything soon collapsed in on itself. Just like the house of cards they'd built as kids.

Word Count: 1,210

Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.

Note: I'm not entirely satisfied with the ending. So if it doesn't feel finished, please tell me and I will add more to it.

Edited on: February 5, 2012


Her high-pitched laughter rang out like a bell, and her green eyes were wide with enthusiasm. After all, it wasn't every day she got to play with her favorite raven-haired hero, and even less common that they had the time to play more than a round or two of any given card game. But right then, they had the time for themselves. He had come home early from a mission and had an hour to spare that he had chosen to spend with her.

The older boy was always so busy that she seldom caught even a glimpse of him in the streets or at the playgrounds. She never had the time to ask him all the questions she wanted, or the time for him to answer, but she knew him. Not just of him or who he was, but she was positive that she knew him. She knew that his calmness was just a small indicator of his peaceful nature, and she knew that he liked having conversations with her even if her vocabulary wasn't as big as his. She knew he was content with his life, but wouldn't mind having more time with his family. Most of all, she knew that he was sad, and that the few times she could spend any extended amount of time with him, he was exhausted of the emotions and people who controlled his life.

So when he was there, she told herself she would make him smile at least once. That was all she wanted, but every time she forgot herself in their card games. Yet in the end, he always smiled at least once, and if she was especially lucky, he laughed.

Itachi was so painfully polite that she loved being treated to his happy nature when he was willing to show it.

Even when she lost, she didn't mind all that much. To her, a loss wasn't about not winning a card game; it was about getting a chance to show her pouting face to amuse Itachi. As far as she concerned, any game was a win for her.

So she wasn't very put out when he laid the winning card, a serene expression on his face as dark eyes flicked up to hers. They watched as she huffed and jutted out her lower lip in the cute, sulky way of hers, a smile still lilting her lips. "Aw, no fair, Itachi."

He hummed thoughtfully. "You did lose fair and square, Sakura, I fail to see the unfairness."

She kept up her façade only a moment longer before she was on her feet and tackling him to the ground. She erupted into giggles at his briefly stunned countenance and turned to full blown laughter when he smiled softly. A hint of deviousness entered his warm smile. It was the only forewarning she got before he flipped them over and pinned her down so as to tickle her unhindered. By the time he decided to be merciful was when she finally managed to get the word 'stop' completely out in one go.

For a moment he rested all his weight between his knees and elbows as he leaned over the younger child. The moment was just long enough to sober her and allow her to be ensnared unmercifully in his dark eyes and wonder at the pretty, blue slivers that made all the difference between his indifferent sable and lively dark blue. As a child, she could only think how pretty they were and that they were Itachi's eyes. She would always know Itachi by his pretty eyes.

When he pushed up to his knees and got off her, she let her body stay sprawled the way it had stilled during that moment for a second or two before she sat up. Her childish grin was back in full force and her young mind already whirling with the possibilities of what to do next.

After all, she knew that she wouldn't get to keep her Itachi very long, and it had already been longer than he usually stayed. "Can you stay for another game?"

He paused only momentarily, and she let out a relieved breath when he nodded. "Do you want to play a new game?"

That was all the incentive she needed to explain the new game and the complexities of building a house of cards. He hummed periodically as she continued to chatter and they began the process of building.

And when it fell in on itself on the sixth row up, she pouted before laughing. He smiled, and though there was a quality to it that she didn't quite catch, the discrepancy was gone when she looked up with pleading green eyes. He resolutely acquiesced to building another house of cards.


Thinking back on that day, Sakura marveled how she had completely missed how that one simple game would mirror her life.

How her world had seemed to collapse when Itachi killed his family. Yet they had managed a new start when she was a teenager and he had sought her out; needless to say that particular reunion hadn't been pleasant, but it had been the foundation. Although she had remembered how he was sparingly there in her childhood, and if they were going to associate once more, she demanded he be in her life more often. That same look she remembered from young when he had to leave but she wanted him to stay just a little longer had entered his eyes, but, just like he did as a child, he agreed.

And so they slowly started building their 'house' again, but this one had more close calls then the last one ever did. She wasn't sure if it made it farther either, but Sakura wasn't entirely sure that it mattered anymore anyway. The number of rows didn't change that the house had inevitably fallen in on itself, after all.

And when the second house did, part of her wanted to call it quits there. But back on that day, she remembered the second house of cards falling and Itachi promising that the next time they could play together, they would build an even bigger house.

But that was about the time of the Uchiha Massacre, and she'd never built that third house of cards. Not physically anyhow.

So as she watched him breathe deep and even on that plain, white makeshift hospital bed, she decided. If he pulled through, she would ask if he could build another 'house' with her.

Part of her wanted him to say yes, and the other wanted him to say no.

But first, she knew he would have to wake. And that was already a slim enough chance as it was.