There was a hush around the shady inn, it being just after noon and all, but the newest occupant chose none of the empty seats in the main area but a barstool at the counter next to a tall man with dark brown hair tied back in a pony, droopy green eyes and a scratchy looking suit.
"What do you want Kakashi?"
If he was surprised at being discovered so quickly, he made no indication of it.
Kakashi turned to the man who had called him by name, the voice holding a distant familiarity he couldn't quite place.
When Kakashi caught sight of the older Uchiha, dressed in a black cloak and making no great efforts to hide his identity Kakashi froze in shock.
Because for all his aloofness and years and years of dulled reactions, Kakashi could honestly say this was not who he had been expecting.
"Holy mother of..." he gaped beneath his mask.
The Uchiha, though maintaining his stoic disposition, flinched just barely, the slightest hint of hesitation at the surprise of the man who had called him here.
Clearing his throat, Kakashi quickly shifted his demeanour, aiming for casual but coming off awkward in his swift attempt to dispel the moment. He knew the fine line he toed in maintaining contact with such a person, one wrong word and he could disappear never to be seen again.
"I'm not here as a shinobi or for Konoha." He began, levelling his gaze with the Uchiha who leaned casually on the bar top, his dark eyes piercing through the jounin. "This is not a trap either, though I don't know if you'll believe me…"
He scratched his head awkwardly and looked away, unable to meet his sharp gaze as he said his next words.
Sliding a set of keys across the bar top, he spoke in low tones.
"The 'In Inn', room 305. She's waiting."
And without another word, he slipped off his barstool and made to leave. After a step he paused and turned around as if stopped by a sudden thought, he lowered his voice, his lone eye holding a dangerous glint as he added on viciously:
"Don't even think for a second of pulling anything or I will be all over your ass like white on fuckin' rice."
oOo
The young teen waited anxiously in the room they had checked out under a fake name. The agreed plan was for her sensei to go ahead and meet their contact, ascertain if it was safe and real, and depending on the result he would return to their room to determine next steps.
Truthfully it had taken them a long time to reach this stage. At first Kakashi had been almost pleased to hear she wanted to meet the father, but as she explained the difficulty it would take to reach him, he began to hesitate.
"How do we get hold of him then?" Kakashi began with all the practicality of a born leader.
"We don't. He has to come to us." Sakura replied, evasive not out of choice but simply because she didn't know how to explain it.
"How would he come to us? Do you have a channel through which you communicate?"
Sakura looked down at her hands sadly, "No."
"I think if we put a very specific message out, he might answer."
A slither of worry wormed its way through Kakashi, "Out where?"
"Possibly… Sound." Green eyes rose to meet shocked dark one, the worry borrowing to the pit of Kakashi's stomach.
"Sound? Sakura it's not-"
"Its not." Sakura interrupted knowing exactly what he was going to say. She laughed bitterly a sudden thought coming to her at the idea of what it would've been like if it actually had been him.
"Imagine that, soz Naruto I found your best friend but had to screw him instead of bring him back." Sakura scoffed mentally at the insanity of it all, because she didn't think Naruto would take the real version of events any better – 'Sorry I fucked the guy who ruined your best friend's life' wouldn't exactly go down like a treat at the dinner table.
Kakashi frowned, though he and Sakura had grown a lot closer over the last two weeks since her retrieval, he was occasionally blindsided by this new, darker, and likely more honest, side of her. It saddened him to think this was the result of a child having trundled through the bowels of the shinobi world, exiting broken and jaded, just like he had.
"Ok, lets do this," Kakashi brought the conversation back to planning, his fingers folded as he rested his chin on them in thought, "There's an izakaya down in Sound that's famed for being an information hub. We can put out a message there and if the right person picks it up, we're golden. Though there's also the chance the wrong person could pick it up too – do you have any idea of a message coded enough that he would get it but no one else could?"
Sakura paused, pursing her lips she thought hard and long about what could work. Though she had spent a month with Itachi, she hadn't exactly spent that time 'getting to know' him. It was more a series of experiences they had shared. Of course, this watered the seed of doubt in her heart that experiences shared didn't equate to a real connection, but she pushed this thought to the side for the time being.
"Ah, how about – The white rabbit waits by the willows?"
Kakashi nodded mulling the words over.
"Do you think it would make sense?" Kakashi asked and a small fragment of joy welled within Sakura, unused to being consulted on tactical planning.
"I'm sure it will. Whether or not it gets answered is a different question…"
After they conferred further details, they had set a decent plan in place which Kakashi put into motion the following week when a mission happened to conveniently overlap with Sound. He personally requested the notice be put up and payed a hefty sum (of which Sakura knew nothing of) to ensure no unsavoury characters were to accept it; it would be down to the bartender's judgement as to whether he thought they truly understood the message. Sure enough, two weeks later they received a message from the bartender saying there was a man who had inquired requesting to meet "Alice" at a given time - if that made any sense to him. Sakura, with a tremble to her words told Kakashi it was him, and a week later they made their way down to Sound, under the ruse of a training mission, to make the allocated appointment.
Thus, there Sakura sat a bundle of nerves and fear, her hands resting on her growing stomach. Though still small, it had been getting harder to hide the more it grew, but Sakura's life had changed since her return and she didn't run in the same circles she used to. Her shifts at the hospital were less, and more at the flower shop where she spent most of her time. She had resolved on breaking the news to a further few people following this meeting, depending how it went – for better or worse.
The door opened and she stood hastily, nerves tingling through her body as she waited for what news Kakashi would bring, anxious to arrange next steps.
But it wasn't Kakashi who opened the door.
Sakura's heart dropped to her feet, all the breath leaving her body in an instant as she watched the familiar figure edge around the door.
She knew she had missed him; she just hadn't realised it was this intensely, this all-consumingly.
He took three steps into the room and she had taken two steps away from the bed before he froze in front of her, the straw hat in his hands falling to the ground.
Though it was obvious by the shape of her body, the sharingan swirled to life in his eyes.
Kakashi who had slipped into the room shortly after him, flinched, twisting his body into a more battle-ready stance out of reflex and edging towards them. Sakura, noticing his movement from the corner of her eye signalled discreetly with her hand that it was ok.
Her sensei hesitated for a moment before relenting with a sigh, choosing to lean against the balcony doors across the room instead, watching the exchange intently.
Itachi took a step even closer, the rapid spinning of the sharingan hypnotising as he stared through her belly with an intensity.
"Its yours." She interrupted before he could even ask. His eyes snapped to hers for the first time, confusion shaping his features, a storm raging in his dark eyes.
But Sakura for once, felt calm. Absolute tranquillity, like the sea on a clear day; settled and at peace.
"I don't have any expectations of you. That's not why I called you here." Her hands tightened over her stomach as she began, words had been turning over in her head for weeks and yet she still didn't know what she was going to say.
"I just figured, you deserved to know…" her calm wavered as she tried to read the war in his eyes, the tumult in his expression.
"For whatever reason your life ended up the way it did, and for the reasons behind what you committed. I… I believe in you. I don't think you're uncaring or unsafe. Hell, I'm living proof that's not the case." She sighed shakily, pulling a trembling hand through her hair, "I just thought that you deserved to know, that you have other options out there."
"That if this was your last wish, then God knows it's been answered."
Sakura didn't know what made her say it. She knew nothing of Itachi's real wishes and dreams, aside from the conversations they had had which had oft been about fairly mundane topics, Itachi had never shared his true desires with her. But somewhere within Sakura she thought she just knew. She knew not from his words, but from his actions. From the way he treated her, from the way he had reacted to her death sentence and the inability for her dreams to be fulfilled. She was shooting wildly in the dark here, but somehow, she thought that maybe all along this had been one of things Itachi had wanted but never even had the chance to ask for.
And yet it still surprised her, immensely so, when Itachi fell to his knees on the ground in front of her, his hands cradling her stomach and his forehead pressed against the apex of her bump, a gleam in the corner of his eye.
In that moment, an unimaginable torrent of emotion thundered through the young mum-to-be with all the gentleness of a brick wall. Sakura sucked in a shuddering breath of air, as hot tears rolled down her cheeks, her hands resting on Itachi's shoulders as a wave of unexpected relief washed over her.
Kakashi in all his years of being a shinobi had witnessed many a strange and extreme occurrence, but this was not one he could ever in his wildest dreams have anticipated. He rubbed his hand across his face roughly, not quite knowing what to do with himself. With all the stealth of his profession, he decided to slip out the balcony doors, welcoming the cool outdoor breeze with open arms. The expression on Itachi's face however continued to flash through his mind, and he reached hastily for the pack Asuma had shoved in his hands after one dark and depressing mission, sliding the tip into his mouth as he rooted around for a lighter. The feeling of relief was tangible as he breathed out a plume of smoke, but the heaviness in his chest remained as his mind twisted around what he had witnessed. He truly had never felt so ignorant in his life. As a person and a nation.
Itachi's voice was a hoarse whisper when he finally spoke.
"They are twins."
A broken sob escaped Sakura, she had had no idea.
"Are… are they ok?"
He nodded in confirmation, but switched the sharingan back on nonetheless, scanning carefully.
"Have you not had a check-up?"
"I have," Sakura's voice was small, all the emotion of the intensity her journey had been thus far desperate to escape, to confide, to seek comfort. But she held back with a strength she didn't know she had. "I visited a civilian clinic, but they only identified one heartbeat."
"Civilian?" he questioned in surprise, raising from his position to guide her to the edge of the bed and sitting beside her, his hands never leaving her stomach.
"It was the best I could find… checking within Konoha is still a little…" she trailed off not quite knowing how to word it, not even knowing where to begin.
But as always, he seemed to understand what she wanted to say before even she did. One hand raised to catch a strand of auburn hair between his hands, a frown marring his features.
"I see."
"Its fine though!" Sakura reassured, not even sure it was reassuring she needed to be doing, as she was still learning her way around his expressions. "Kakashi took me there and kept me safe, and I'm still learning but I'm starting to be able to feel some chakra…" she began to sound a little disheartened, "though its hard since the chakra feels exactly like my own, I hadn't even been able to tell there was two…"
He rubbed her arm reassuringly and a warmth spread through Sakura, not realising she had missed even these small bits too.
A gentle rap from the balcony doors interrupted them, the moment shattering like glass. Sakura realised with great sadness it was Kakashi's signal that it was time to go.
Itachi recognised this too, and began to stand, rifling through the bedside drawers.
"Do you know how to perform summons?"
Sakura shook her head in the negative as Itachi began to scrawl on the hotel-branded notepad.
"This is the circle and seals for my summons." He pressed the folded paper into her hands. "Kakashi will teach you how to use it. If you ever need me do not hesitate to use it."
Sakura nodded in understanding, curling her fingers tightly around the paper. Rising from the bed, she stood in front of him at a loss, not wanting it to end so soon.
He brushed his hand through her hair, tucking a few strands behind her ear.
"When we meet again, we can discuss properly some sort of plan of action."
He began to turn but Sakura lunged, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist with a fervour even she hadn't expected.
There were a million things running through her mind which had been for the past few weeks, things which she was dying to say to him, and things she would never let leave her mouth, but in that moment all that managed to escape was:
"Thank you."
By the time Kakashi popped back into the room Sakura was sitting on the edge of the bed alone and bereft, a piece of paper clutched tightly in her hands.
Kakashi scratched his head awkwardly, not knowing how to break the silence.
"You were right about the genetics…"
Sakura laughed, turning to face her sensei with a solemn expression.
"Apparently I have a type…"
A/N: Do you guys believe in Kismet? I sure as fuck do :)
"He took three steps into the room and she had taken two steps away from the bed before he froze in front of her, the straw hat in his hands falling to the ground." - *Imagines Itachi with a straw summer hat, covered in flowers and a pretty bow*
Thank you for your patience, thank you for the reviews! Apologies for the delay! Next chapter will be out August 11th!