Sakura woke up alone in the room with a ray of sunlight bathing her face in its warm glow. She scanned the room looking for Sasuke but didn't find him anywhere. She lay down again and starred at the ceiling calmly letting the morning air wake her up. She heard the door open and turned expecting to see Sasuke walking in, instead his brother was pushing it open with his shoulder while carrying a tray in. The smell of the delicious breakfast Mikoto had lovingly cooked up wafted towards her and she quickly sat up as Itachi placed the food on her lap and sat down beside her taking one of the cups of tea that had been placed on it.
"Sasuke said you hadn't woken up yet and asked me to bring this to you when you did." He explained taking a sip from the warm beverage letting it warm him after his cold night. "Where is he?" She asked watching the door expecting to see him walk into the room and join them. Itachi only pointed at the tray while taking another sip, signaling for her to eat. She had long since noticed that none of the Uchihas liked to be interrupted while drinking their tea, except Mikoto who was at her most talkative when holding the warm ceramic cup tucked away elegantly in her graceful hands. She quickly emptied her plate and eagerly waited for Itachi to finish. "Where is he?" she asked again as soon as he finished the tea. "No idea." He said. She gave a dejected look and sighed. Itachi looked down at her, even when they were both sitting down he was almost two heads taller than her. He smiled and ran his hand through her hair once to tame it. "Don't worry kiddo; he's been disappearing like that for the last week or so. I don't know where he's going but he'll be back soon." He grabbed the tray from her and walked out.
She sighed dejectedly and wondered what to do now that Itachi had left her alone in Sasuke's room. Turning to the bedside table she saw the book Sasuke had been reading and opened it. She loved reading Sasuke's book whenever she got the chance; he had such a wide variety when it came to jutsus and combat techniques that she would sometimes spend hours at a time in his room reading his books. She knew he didn't mind, he seemed to enjoy the quiet companionship of reading together, either sharing a book or simply being in the same room as an occasional rustle of a page flipping came from one of them.
She had started reading the third chapter and was looking at a page that had been scribbled on with Sasuke's neat distinctive handwriting when the book was gently pulled out of her grasp and a sweaty and tired Sasuke came into her sight, kneeling on the bed and still panting heavily from whatever it was he had been doing he still managed a weak smile at her before lying on the bed to catch his breath and slow his erratic heartbeat.
"What happened to you?" she asked surprise at seeing him like that. She didn't recall ever seeing him this worn out before; he had great stamina and was never too deeply affected by their training at the academy, something she had more difficulty with. The heat from his body was so strong she could feel it pulsing onto her own skin.
"Sakura." Even his voice seemed to be unsteady, as if his throat hurt but she knew that Sasuke didn't get sick. Ever. It was the natural way of things. "Sakura, water." She stared at him for a few seconds, his request hadn't quite registered with her but a strange noise that left his throat as he exhaled sharply snapped her out of it and she quickly scurried away to the kitchen.
Itachi was there when she got there and looked up from what he was doing when he heard her burst into the room. She told him about Sasuke and he looked worried for a moment but suddenly a thought seemed to pass through his head and he calmed down. He helped her get the water. "Does his throat hurt?" he asked as he lowered a medicine box from the kitchen shelves. "I think so."She answered hesitantly. She wasn't sure but Itachi just gave a knowing nod and gave her a pill for Sasuke. She had been hoping that Itachi would come with her but he simply ushered her back to the room with the medicine and the water.
Sasuke had apparently somewhat dozed off on his bed. She shook him a bit and he groggily looked up at her. She gave him the pill and the glass of water and was surprised to see him take it without complaint. His pride usually didn't allow him to take any kind of medicine without a fuss which made his mother immensely grateful that he rarely got sick. After a while the medicine seemed to take effect but it made Sasuke extremely drowsy. He tried to resist but eventually he was forced to succumb to it and he dozed off again soon after. Sakura decided to let him rest and went back to the kitchen where she knew she'd find Itachi.
He looked up once again as he saw her come in. "Is he sleeping now?" he asked as he invited her to sit with him at the table. "Yeah." She mumbled as she sat down beside him. They didn't speak for a while and Sakura just looked out the kitchen window and watched a single cloud float lazily across the sky. When she could no longer see it through the window she turned to watch Itachi. He had rolled out a scroll on the table and was running his finger across the lines as he read them carefully, his expression serious, it was what she secretly called the "Shinobi face". She'd seen it often enough on Sasuke at the academy and sometimes it was even present on Ino's face. It consisted of a hardening of the features: thinning of the lips, narrowing of the eyes. It gave almost anyone who wore it a fierce dangerous look, something she had learned was almost as important as any shuriken technique or jutsu a ninja could learn. It told a possible opponent that you were dangerous to mess with and could possibly spare you a fight.
Itachi finished reading and sighed as he leant back on the chair and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand. He finally noticed that Sakura had been observing him for some time without saying a word. "It's an A rank mission briefing," He explained. "I'll be gone for a few days next week to complete it." he pushed a lock of hair from his face and tucked it behind his ear again. She nodded and examined him from her spot. Even though he was almost twice as old as her she couldn't help but think that he was very young to be taking such dangerous missions. It was common for a team sent out on an A ranked mission to come back with fewer members than when they set out. "Be careful." She whispered. Itachi's eyes widened in surprise at the obvious display of concern but he smiled back at her warmly. "I always am." He assured. He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped when he saw the skeptical looked on the younger girls face. "I'm still here, aren't I?"
He watched as she slid off the chair she had been occupying and padded over to him. She wrapped her small arms around his chest and gave him what was supposed to be a tight hug; to him it felt incredibly light compared to Sasuke's rib-crushing ones. He returned the hug by wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "Just don't get yourself killed." Her small voice mumbled as she pulled away. He couldn't help but widen his smile. He stood up and carried a giggling Sakura outside. "Come on. Sasuke's going to have to sleep that pill off but you can hang out with me while we wait." They saw Mikoto in the garden tending to a flower bed and walked over to her. She was kneeling in the ground with her long straight hair tied up in a messy bun and she was wearing long thick gardening gloves, her left hand held a pair of shears and her right hand was picking at the dry leaves of the different plants and stuffing them in the big pouch in the front of her white apron. The sleeves of her black shirt had been rolled up creating a stark contrast with her pale skin that both her sons had inherited. Sakura had long since noticed that all of Sasuke's family managed to maintain its aristocratic look despite not being strangers to hard work. When they were only a few feet away from her Mikoto sat back on the soft grass, she stuck the shears in the earth beside her, took off her gloves and unrolled her sleeves.
"Mother, I'm going to take Sakura for a stroll, do you need me to get anything?" Mikoto untied her hair and pushed a few stray locks behind her ear. "Where's Sasuke?" Her mother instincts were tingling: seeing Itachi and Sakura, Sasuke's two favorite people in the world, together without him was practically a sign of disaster. Itachi frowned slightly; he settled Sakura on the ground and walked up to his mother and began to whisper to her. From where she was Sakura could see Mikoto's face as it darkened with every word Itachi said. When he finished Itachi took a few steps back so that he was standing beside Sakura again. "I'm going to kill your father when he comes back from work." Mikoto growled. How dare her husband teach her baby boy that jutsu already? He knew that Sasuke was prone to straining himself when he set his minds to something!
"Is your brother alright now?" she asked looking towards the house as if she expected to see Sasuke coming towards them. "Sakura gave him the medicine." Itachi told her setting a comforting hand on the younger girl's shoulder since she was shuffling on her feet nervously during the whole exchange. "I offered to hang out with her until he wakes up." Mikoto knelt down in front of Sakura "That's nice. Have fun, both of you." She said as she tucked a lock of pastel pink hair behind the young girl's ear and then shooed both children away.
"Will Sasuke-kun be alright?" Sakura asked. They had decided to head over to Ichiraku's ramen stand to pass the time and were currently waiting for their order. "He'll be fine." Itachi smiled at her. "He's just been overworking himself these past few days." He thanked the girl who gave them their order and slid the bowl of ramen over to Sakura. "Eat up." He waited to make sure she started eating and finally took a bite himself.
"But what was he doing? He never gets so tired when we're in the academy." A thoughtful look made its way onto Itachi's face; he chewed slowly on his noodles and took his time before answering the question. "I think I know what he's been up to, but I'm not sure so I'll let him tell you when we get back. If he's awake, that is." Sakura sighed and returned to her ramen.
An hour later they left Ichiraku's and started heading back to the Uchiha compound. Sakura was recounting some of the things that had been going on at the academy while Itachi laughed.
"You know, Iruka isn't that much older than me." he mentioned during a pause in the story. Sakura stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. "No way! He's way older than you!" she said tilting her head to the side and staring at him.
Itachi smiled at her incredulous look. "It's true." He said as he took her hand and got her to keep walking. "He's just, three or four years older than me. He's about Shisui's age." She stared up at his towering figure, still surprised by the newfound information. "But, you're so cool and Iruka-sensei… isn't." She said rolling her eyes at the very idea of her teacher resembling Itachi in any way. But Itachi just laughed at her comment. "It's not poor Iruka's fault if you brats annoy the hell out of him." Itachi remembered Shisui's comments about how bad the academy teacher's temper could get and considering the kids the poor guy had to teach…
Sakura was thinking along the same lines. "There is one kid who he's always shouting at." She mentioned. "Hm?" They turned a corner and entered the Uchiha district. "An annoying blond kid. He kinda drives everyone crazy. If he shows up for class." Itachi's curiosity surfaced. "You wouldn't be talking about the Uzumaki kid, would you?" he asked as he greeted a stern looking man with a nod of his head. The man wore the Konoha police badge and was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. He mirrored Itachi's action with a great amount of respect as they passed him. Sakura took Itachi's hand again as she scooted closer to him. She didn't dare answer his question until they'd put a good amount of distance between themselves and the man.
"Yeah, that's him." She murmured as she threw a quick nervous glance over her shoulder. "How did you know?" Itachi shrugged. "Word about these things gets around."
Itachi abruptly stopped. Sakura turned around and looked at him as he looked over her head. His family's house was isolated from the rest of the district by a bunch of fields and personal training grounds. He had stopped them at the property's limit where it was extremely rare to come across anyone. "Sakura try and be nice to that kid okay? You don't have to be friends with him but if you run into him at least be civil." Sakura's brow scrunched up, Itachi's voice had lowered to barely above a whisper and his words were all quick in leaving his mouth. He had knelt down to her eye level with an intense serious expression on his face and his hands which had been placed on her shoulders kept her from leaving his gaze. "There's more to him than meets the eye, Sakura. I can't tell you anything else about it but trust me on this." She nodded intently once he finished. He continued looking her in the eye for half a minute and then smiled to lighten up the atmosphere.
"Come on, it's been almost two hours, Sasuke's probably awake by now." He said as he continued walking to the house. Sakura stayed still for a while as she let Itachi's words sink in, once she snapped out of it she ran to catch up to him.
They decided to go in through the back door that went directly to the kitchen and were pleasantly surprised to find both Sasuke and his mother there. Sasuke was drinking water directly from a two liter bottle and ignoring his mother's ongoing lecture about recklessness which she was delivering while expertly handling herself around the kitchen preparing him lunch. Sakura instantly ran up to him and after a few tentative pokes to make sure he was okay she also joined in on the lecture while Itachi simply gave his poor brother a sympathetic look as he sat down facing him.
"What were you doing anyway?" Sakura asked once she started losing steam. Sasuke's face brightened up and he jumped off his chair. "Come on, I'll show you." He said taking her hand and running to the door. "Sasuke don't you-" It was no use. He had already dragged Sakura out the door and was far enough to pretend not to hear Mikoto's warning.
Sasuke dragged Sakura through his mother's garden and led her to the lake where he had been spending the better part of his mornings for the last week. They walked onto the wooden platform and he told her to stand back before he walked to his usual spot when practicing his family's famed jutsu. His hands flickered with practiced ease to form the seals he knew so well and his chest puffed out; for a split second he stayed still letting the chakra's intensity build up. And then he released it from his lungs and let it assume the form of a large fireball. It traveled far into the lake licking at the air as the water reflected the orange light before it dwindled and died. Sasuke braced his hands on his knees; he had only recently managed to master the jutsu and it put his body under a lot of stress, especially his lungs and throat. That and the fact that he had already passed his limit earlier that same day made him take longer than usual to recompose himself. Once he finally managed to get his breathing under control he turned to face Sakura who hadn't moved from her spot. She stood with her mouth ever so slightly open, eyes wide and head tilted to the side, staring at the spot where the giant fireball had been before disintegrating. Sasuke took another deep breath and swallowed trying to wet his dried throat.
"So?" he asked nonchalantly although it was obvious she was impressed and it pleased him immensely. She shut her eyes for a moment and then re-opened them as if the image of the fireball was still burned onto her retinas. "Sasuke-kun that was amazing!" She ran to where he was standing and began looking between him and the place where the fireball had disappeared; judging the distance it had traveled. "When did you learn it?" she asked.
"Father showed it to me a week ago." He answered with a proud look on his face. "It took me a while to figure it out but after that it was pretty easy."
"One week?" she murmured. "Sasuke-kun, you're unbelievable." She said as she hugged him. He let a small thanks escape his lips as a look of pure triumph washed over his face.
Neither one of the two noticed another pair of eyes that had been observing the scene. After the initial shock wore off the same look of triumph appeared on Fugaku's face as he witnessed the scene from a distance.
AN:/ Wow, I'm pretty bad at this updating thing aren't I?
Sasuke-sensei: yeah, you suck at it.
Itachi-sensei: it's because you're weak
Sakura-sensei: Now cut that out you guys!
Yeah, they've been torturing me like this for the past four months…
well at least this chapter is pretty long to try and make up for it. As for me… well. I've got two more weeks of school left. I played in my school's concert back in October it was really cool, the song I sang was one I actually found out about thanks to an Amv: .com/watch?v=bJkUUxB2zzE
Anyway, my computer broke and I've only just gotten it back today. Also, I'm still trying to learn to draw so I can hopefully turn this fan fiction (along with a few other's that are still really vague although they've all got some Sasusaku to look forward to)into a doujinshi.
Well,there'll hopefully be at least one more update before the end of the year and I hope to hear from you guys, seriously, just write whatever's on your mind ;D