It had been nearly four months since Itachi had come to stay with Sakura. They had all been slightly apprehensive about Sasuke's reaction to Itachi's sudden appearance. But when he had first seen Itachi, he had simply stared at him blankly and then turned and walked right back out the door again.

"Well," Sakura had said with a long-suffering sigh. "It's probably better than anything we could've hoped for." She'd had to stop Naruto from going after Sasuke and dragging him back, a look of indignation and outrage written all over his face.

"They're brothers!" Naruto had protested loudly. Sakura had ignored him and turned to Itachi, one hand still firmly gripping the collar of Naruto's shirt.

"Do I need to stop you from going after him?" She'd asked, tamping down on the desire to go after Sasuke herself because the only other person Sakura had seen wield kicked-puppy eyes like that was Naruto when he really wanted his friends to get along or an extra bowl of ramen. And Naruto had stopped a war and united nations with a combination of those eyes and beating people into getting along and being friends. She shuddered to think what Itachi, who had actual charisma and was pretty, could do if he put his mind to it.

"No, Sakura-san, I believe space would be the best thing for us right now."

And that was that. Sasuke refused to come around Sakura's apartment, which she had to admit did wonders for the longevity of her furniture and shot Itachi straight to the top of Obito's favorites list right after Sakura. And that still confused Sakura, because she wasn't overly nice to Obito or had done anything to warrant such preference beyond existing. Tsunade had said he was projecting the last time Sakura had brought up to her and to just make sure Obito went to therapy.

Over the months, Sasuke's outright avoidance had turned to him showing up at group outings and carefully keeping to outskirts while he watched Itachi and hovered by either Naruto or Sakura, to confused petulance where he wavered between wanting Itachi's attention and actively shunning him, to outright aggression whenever he could get away with it.

"I think Itachi thinks it's sweet," Naruto said, squinting as he tried to keep up with Sasuke and Itachi's movements on the training field. Obito was off bothering Kakashi at the Hokage Tower and probably offering advice that undoubtedly pitch the nations into war again if Kakashi were to actually follow it. Luckily, Shikamaru was there keep things under control. He may be lazy but he would do work if it meant he didn't have to do even more work later.

"Probably," Sakura said, leaning back on her hands and watching as Itachi barely dodged a shower of kunai. "I do think Kakashi-sensei made the right decision in unsealing his chakra, though."

"For his safety, if nothing else," Naruto agreed. "After the fourth time the bastard tried to set him on fire it made sense to at least make sure he could dodge."

"I think the fact it kept happening in the market had something to do with it to," Sakura pointed out. "Less casualties if Itachi can make to the training grounds under his own power." They both scrambled out of the way as a giant fireball came roaring in their direction.

When they reappeared in one of the trees on the edge of the grounds, they could hear Itachi chiding Sasuke for being so careless. Sasuke's face was slowly turning an alarming shade of red and with a wild yell he threw himself at Itachi.

"Well, if he wears himself out now, he might not have nightmares later," Sakura yawned, settling into the tree.

"Nah," Naruto disagreed. "I have to drug him to make sure that doesn't happen." Sakura debated for a moment between being appalled that Naruto of all people would drug a teammate, even if it was for his own good, and being impressed he could pull it off.

"I tell him I'm drugging his tea so he thinks that I'm not," Naruto answered her unspoken question. "I make sure to do it every time I'm over so he doesn't notice a pattern."

"And people said you were dumb," Sakura said fondly. Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head. A slight cough from above them drew their attention and Sakura and Naruto both looked up to see one of the Anbu guards perched in the branch of them. They stared at each other for a long moment.

"Yo," Naruto greeted before turning back to the field.