A/N: Yay! Back to long chapters! Yay! Back to ItaSaku!

Itachi knew that this was the worst possible time to resurface in society. Akatsuki wasn't a group of idiots, so, if they hadn't realized right away, they would know by now that he and Sakura had faked their deaths. They would be out there, using all of their spies and all of the members to find them and wouldn't stop until they were found.

And he was looking at one of those spies right now as he was being interviewed for a position at the docks. He was very relieved that the spy hadn't been given back any of his memories dealing with the Akatsuki or, if he had, he didn't seem to recognize the Uchiha.

But still... this was bad. Very bad.

"Fuujiwa-san?" the spy, Yoshida Hikaru, called with a tone of worry, "Fuujiwa-san? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

And with a blink of his eyes, he was out of his dazed reverie and was looking into the anxious face of the man who could ruin everything. He forced a smile, something he'd been practising the past year or so, and nodded. He had to act normal; he couldn't be his usual emotionless self because, oddly enough, that seemed to draw a lot of attention. "I'm fine, sorry. You were saying that you have an opening?"

Hikaru nodded. "Yes. It won't be on the boats, but on the docks themselves. The pay is quite decent compared some of the wages in the markets and the work will be laborious, but it tends to keep people busy so that the time goes by quickly."

"It sounds great." He forced his smile an eighth of an inch wider so that it caused teeny little smile-wrinkles in the corners of his eyes and queried, "When do I start?"

Hikaru thought for a moment, then answered, "If you come in tomorrow at about six in the morning, I'll have somebody there to train you."

"Perfect."

The man/spy extended a hand for Itachi to shake and he did. It was more of a quick brushing of hands and the tiniest of shakes, but Hikaru seemed appeased by it and Itachi wasn't willing to stay there and see just how appeased he was. He was getting out of there, going home, and thinking things over.

He needed a plan. But, first, he would go wake Sakura up and would hold onto her. Because there was a possibility that he wouldn't be able to hold her for very long. And, though he admitted it very reluctantly, the idea scared him.

He wasn't going to deal with losing her. Not again.

"He lied to you... nothing is as it seems. Come to me and I will show you the truth. Come to me and, together, we can eliminate all who have lied to you. That's what you want, isn't it? You want revenge."

"I... I never thought of it as revenge."

"Don't feel ashamed, my dear, it's quite alright. It is simply human nature to wish for retribution when another has wronged you. And many have wronged you, haven't they?"

"Yes."

"And you want them to pay for what they have done to you?"

"Yes."

"And Itachi? What about him? Will you kill him, too?"

"Itachi? But Itachi has never once hurt me. He loves me."

"Remember, my dearest Sakura, that nothing is as it seems. Many, many people have lied to you, your mind has been corrupted by love and lies and they want it to stay that way. They don't want you to know the truth. But I do. I'm on your side, my darling. I want only the best for you."

"But you hurt me, too."

"Is that what he said?"

"... Yes."

"You do not have to trust me right away, darling. Take some time to think. Once the signs begin to show, however, you will know that the only person you will ever be able to trust is me and me alone. Then you will begin to trust me."

"I... I don't know."

"You will soon, sweet Sakura. You will soon. Do not tell anybody of this conversation... it was only a dream, alright?"

"Alright. It was only a dream."

Sakura's eyes fluttered open and, when she saw that she was in a room, in a bed, she immediately tensed, wondering where she was. Then she remembered that this was her and Itachi's new home and she relaxed. No more sleeping on the cold hard ground. No more hunting for food. The thought made her smile. This was the Ritz.

But her mind quickly returned to her dream and her optimism trickled away. This had been different from any of her other dreams. While there had been only darkness so that she couldn't see anything, she felt as though she had been actually participating in the conversation instead of listening from the sidelines. And then there was the familiarity of the voice. The hissing quality to it.

Orochimaru. The name struck like lightning through her mind and her anger suddenly flared. He was the reason everything had gone wrong. He was the reason why she and Itachi weren't living a comfy life back in Konoha together. And now he was trying to tap into her subconscious.

She turned to greet her "husband" so that she could tell him about the dream, but found that Itachi wasn't in the bed with her. All there was on his side of the bed was a note left on the pillow. She picked it up and read what it had to say.

Reina:

I've gone to the docks to look for a job, but I'll be back. I left some breakfast in the kitchen for you, so feast well.

Love, Ritsu

She sighed and rolled onto her back and draped an arm over her eyes. She wondered if life would be as peaceful here in Waves as she hoped. What if things didn't work out? What if they were unable to find jobs? What if... what if they were found out?

She mentally admitted to herself that that was what was bothering her. Was it okay for them to be out in public, even with their disguises? It wasn't like they'd gotten plastic surgery, after all, so they technically still looked the same. Just because their hair was different and they wore different clothes and coloured contacts didn't change their face, their bodies. If somebody were to take a picture of the old her and put it beside her, the resemblance would be noticeable.

Even if that didn't happen, that letter to Konoha was certain to cause some unrest. Tsunade was probably making plans to find her as she lay in this bed, worrying. That idea scared the hell out of her because she knew that to return to Konoha meant losing Itachi. And being without Itachi just wasn't something she wasn't willing to deal with.

The horrible sound that she recognized as their apartment door opening pulled her out of her depressing thoughts and she tensed, unwilling to rule out the possibility that it wasn't Itachi walking through that door. She bit her lower lip and reached for the kunai she had tucked under the bed just to be safe, waiting for any sound that would tell her who was there.

After the door closed, there was no other sound and that frustrated Sakura because that didn't rule anybody out. Itachi was still the silent predator he had always been, unable to break the habit of staying stealthy, their landlord was pretty quiet himself and, the option she disliked most of all, other shinobi were silent, too. It could have been anybody.

Then she saw Itachi walk into the room, his head bowed, one hand absent-mindedly running through his short, spiked hair, the other tucked into his pants pocket. Then he looked up and stopped when he saw her. "Oh, you're awake," he murmured.

She nodded. "I was just about to get up anyway."

His hand went back to his hair and he winced, dropping the hand back to his side. "I found a job."

Well, that ruled out one of her lesser worries. She raised her eyebrows in question and sat up, leaning her back against the wall, patting the bed for him to sit beside her.

He sat on his side of the bed and rested his own back against the wall like she did, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. He let out a long, soft sigh, almost unnoticeable if it weren't for the movement of his shoulders, and said, "I'll be working on the docks."

"That's a good thing... isn't it?"

He nodded. "Yes, that's the good news. The bad news is that things are going to get a little bit more challenging."

Of course. Just when her doubts began to surface things went wrong. "What do you mean?" she asked, "What happened while you were out? Did anybody recognize you?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, but I saw some unfortunate acquaintances at the docks. But, we'll talk about that later. Right now..." He wiggled until he was laying on the bed on his side and pulled Sakura down with him, crushing her to his chest and holding her there, his arms around her feeling almost desperate.

She slowly wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. Could this last forever?

A/N: But there's nothing interesting about that! It'd be like me saying, "And then Pein died of an aneurysm and Ororchimaru with an STI and Sakura and Itachi lived happily ever after"! Bleck!