Itachi woke up with a strange feeling in his head – a constriction that he didn't quite understand. His eyes were burning and for some reason, his sight was gone. In a panic, his sat up, clawing at the bandages around his eyes. He was blind. His eyes hurt. He couldn't remember where he was.
"Itachi, calm down. Don't touch that."
Instantly, he relaxed, dropping his hands back to his sides. Her voice was enough to calm him, to quell his apprehension. He was safe. He was in the hospital, under Sakura's care. He felt her hands on him, pushing him back down against the bed. He let her, sinking back into the mattress with a relieved sigh. She slid her hand down his arm and latched her fingers around his.
"You're okay," she murmured. "Your surgery was complicated, but everything is okay. Sasuke is okay, too."
"Complicated?" he croaked.
She hummed her acknowledgement. He felt her brush his bangs away from his face. "It took almost twice as long as Tekka and Izumi's surgery," she explained. "For a moment it seemed like you were rejecting Sasuke's eyes. But you didn't. And everything looks good and healthy."
"Can I take off the bandages?"
"Not yet," she answered. "In a few minutes. Try not to touch them until then."
She pressed a cup of water into his hands and then helped him bring it up to his lips to drink.
"Are you feeling okay?" she asked as he drank. "Are you experiencing any kind of pain anywhere?"
"Just in my eyes," he answered. "They're burning."
"That's normal," she explained. "You'll experience it for a few minutes after you open your eyes, but it should fade fairly quickly."
"Sakura…"
"Yes, Itachi-kun?"
He had the urge to say something to her. Something profound, maybe, but he didn't know the message he was trying to convey. He wasn't even sure he had a message at all. He was proud of her. He was afraid of potential complications with his eyes. He wanted to rip the bandages off now and test them, see what new powers his Mangekyou afforded him.
But all he could do was sit there lamely, waiting.
"You were in quite a panic there."
He didn't know how to respond to that, so he settled for giving her hand a squeeze. She couldn't imagine the terror of waking up blind, forgetting the reason. His power, his strength was in that sight. It was only natural that he would panic.
"I'm glad you trust me," she continued. "I know you've been nervous about this surgery. But it's over now and you're okay. You can relax."
"Where is Sasuke?"
"Across the hall."
"Can I see him?"
"I don't know," she giggled. "Can you?"
Too unsettled to be in the mood for her jokes, he let out a chuffed sigh.
"Okay, okay," she said. "How about you drink the rest of that water and eat a little bit first. You were out for almost six hours. You must be hungry."
"I'm not hungry," he said because all he wanted was to see Sasuke.
"Well, you need to eat anyway," she said. "Doctor's orders." He heard her roll a cart from across the room over to his bed. She set a tray across his lap and guided his hand to the plate where there was nothing but a piece of dry toast. He grimaced.
"Eat the toast and then you can go see Sasuke."
A little amused by the role reversal, Itachi picked up the toast with disdain and began taking small bites.
"So are you excited about your new eyes?" she asked. He felt her sit down beside him, the mattress sinking down under her weight.
"I'll be excited when I can see," he said between bites.
"Alright, let's take off those bandages, then." He set down the toast, but she immediately put it back into his hands. "Finish that while I unwrap them."
Begrudgingly, Itachi took another bite of the toast as Sakura unraveled the bandages around his head. He quickly shoved the rest of it into his mouth, eager to test out his news eyes and see Sasuke.
When the bandages had been removed, he blinked his eyes open only to find darkness waiting for him.
"Sakura, I can't see," he said, a momentary hysteria creeping into his voice.
"It's okay, your sight will come back in a minute or two," she said.
He sat back against his pillow, his body rigid with apprehension. He definitely did not like this. He hoped the end result would be worth it, but he couldn't think of a time where he'd felt more vulnerable and helpless. He felt Sakura press a kiss to his forehead, brushing his matted hair away from his face.
"You poor thing," she cooed, though he sensed a little amusement in her tone and he didn't much care for it.
He blinked again, realizing that he could see a pinprick of light now. He blinked more rapidly, as if doing so might dispel his blindness. After a few seconds, his vision started to come into focus. He could see the greyness of the hospital room, the brightness of the florescent lights above. He blinked again, glancing toward the window to his left, the sunlight trickling in through the slatted blinds. He looked to his right where he could see the pinkness of Sakura's hair against the blurriness of everything else.
"Is your vision coming back?" she asked.
He reached forward and caught a strand of her hair between his fingers, using his other hand to pull her toward him by the back of her neck. "Yes," he said, inspecting the tendril of her hair as his vision became sharper. He could see the individual strands now, the different shades of pink that gave life to her mane. He glanced to her face, crystal clear now that his vision was rapidly coming back into focus. He could see her pores, the glow of her skin, the lines around her eyes that deepened when she smiled at him.
"Well?" she asked.
"I can see."
She laughed. "Yes, that was the goal," she said. "Would you like to see your brother now?"
He nodded, standing up carefully. His legs felt stiff from lack of use and he felt his back pop as his bones adjusted. Sakura took his arm and guided him across the hall into Sasuke's room.
"Sasuke?" she asked as she cracked the door open. "You have a visitor."
She pushed the door all the way open. Sasuke was standing near his window, gazing out at the village. When he turned to face his two new visitors there was a bright smile on his face. Itachi looked at his eyes, looking for whatever would indicate that they were different.
But much to his chagrin, he realized that Sakura was right. He couldn't tell that those were his own eyes in his little brother's head. They looked exactly the same to him.
"Itachi," Sasuke greeted. "I was worried about you."
"Worried?" Itachi asked, glancing over to Sakura, who was beaming at Sasuke.
"Oh, yes," Sakura said, shifting her focus to Itachi. "As I said before, there were complications with your surgery. Sasuke's went quite smoothly, but you caused a little more trouble on the operating table. Luckily, everything worked out fine – as I knew it would. But it's only natural that Sasuke would worry about you."
Itachi pressed his lips together. He wanted to ask about those complications, but he wasn't so sure that he wanted to know about them.
"Both of you should be able to activate your Sharingan now," she continued. "So you can go ahead and try if you'd like."
Itachi watched Sasuke's eyes bleed to red before he followed suit, activating his own Sharingan as well. It worked exactly as it should have. There wasn't any noticeable difference between his old eyes and his news ones in terms of how that Sharingan felt. Of course he would have to test it out with jutsus to know for sure, but he was satisfied with his vision for now.
"I imagine your father will want to help you unlock your Mangekyou powers, so I think it would be best for you to wait to activate that until he's around," Sakura suggested. Itachi remembered she had said the same thing to Izumi and Tekka as well.
Itachi glanced back to Sasuke, memorizing his face then. He was smiling so genuinely that it took Itachi by surprise. Sasuke smiled plenty, but it was never so unguarded. He looked so much like their father and so happy with his new eyes that Itachi cracked a smile of his own – the first since he'd woken up.
"I have to go," Sakura said after a few seconds of silence. "I have other patients to see. But you two are both free to go now. I'll check up on the both of you later. I recommend you both be easy on your eyes for now. Don't over exert yourself."
Itachi and Sasuke both nodded to her. She stood on the tips of her toes to kiss Itachi's cheek. "See you later," she said to him. "Bye, Sasuke."
With that, she took her leave. Itachi joined Sasuke by the window, gazing down at the gardens below. Maybe he was imagining it, but everything seemed to look a bit clearer now.
They stood in silence for a few moments, just enjoying each other's company and the view of the world through their new eyes.
"Are you okay?"
Itachi glanced over at his brother. "I'm fine," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"You seems a little out of sorts," he answered. "I know you were nervous about the surgery."
"I was," Itachi agreed. "And I'm still a little nervous about the results. We don't know if it worked yet."
Sasuke scoffed. "It's bizarre to me that you have so little faith in Sakura," he said. "Maybe it's because I've come full circle with her. I doubted her and she proved herself. But you? You saw something in her that I couldn't. You praised her skills as a shinobi after you took that mission with her. So what changed?"
Itachi blinked, surprised by Sasuke's candor and his opinion about Sakura.
"She proved herself?" he asked.
"She was always dead weight," Sasuke explained. "She didn't care about getting stronger or being useful. She just followed me around like a puppy. But then I guess she realized I was never going to be interested in her and she gave up. It made it unbearable to have her on the team because instead of fawning over me, she was glaring at me instead. Still dead weight."
"So that's what happened," Itachi mumbled. Sakura had told him something similar.
"Yeah," Sasuke continued. "But then she started training under the Hokage. She got stronger and she learned medical ninjutsu. And after what you told me about her and your mission with her, I figured she'd changed. I asked her to come back to Team 7."
"You did?" Itachi asked with surprise. That didn't seem like something his little brother would do.
"Yeah, why shouldn't I?" he asked. "Of course it's handy to have a medic on the team. She's literally the best medic in the world."
"She is…" Itachi agreed, beginning to see Sasuke's point.
"She was pretty pissed when you crashed our sparring session," Sasuke said. "I was, too. I wanted to see what she could do."
Itachi laughed. "So did I."
A crow landed on the windowsill. Sasuke and Itachi watched it as it cocked its head to the side, peering through the window. It let out a sharp caw before it flew away.
"You know what would be fun?" Sasuke asked. "If I sparred with her while you watched."
Itachi gave him a rueful look. "That doesn't sound fun for me."
"Well, it's not going to happen the other way around," he insisted. "I'm not going to watch you spar with her. It'll get weird."
"You think I can't spar with her seriously?" Itachi asked.
"Please," Sasuke said with a roll of his eyes. "You'd go too easy on her. Or it would get flirtatious."
"I could spar seriously with her," Itachi argued.
"But it wouldn't be the best way to really see what she's capable of," Sasuke pointed out. "She still feels like she has something to prove to me. And I wouldn't go easy on her."
"Okay," Itachi conceded. "That's not a bad idea."
Sasuke grinned.
Itachi could find no fault with Sakura's surgery. After several weeks of training with his father and his brother, he had become accustomed to his new eyes – his Mangekyou powers and how to use them.
He wasn't sure if Sakura realized how monumental this surgery was. He and Sasuke were the only living people to have Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. It was a huge deal and it gave them a massive advantage that the rest of the Uchiha clan didn't have. It also meant that she could give that power, those eyes to any two Uchiha siblings, which would only bolster the clan's power.
Fugaku seemed exceptionally pleased by this. He had even begun to affectionately refer to Sakura as 'Sakura-chan' whenever she was around, which made her blush and made Itachi feel pleasantly warm.
Itachi couldn't believe his good fortune. Not only was his clan stronger and more unified than ever, but he had his good luck charm – a cheeky little cherry blossom who adored him. Compared to most shinobi, Itachi hadn't had a difficult life. But he couldn't fathom how much better it was with Sakura in the picture. All his doubts about her had been for nothing, he thought. She was a treasure and he couldn't imagine his life without her in it now.
Because of her status as Itachi's girlfriend and her work with the Sharingan, she had been hanging around the Uchiha compound a lot more often. It pleased Itachi to see that she got along well with the other members of his clan and that they seemed to genuinely enjoy her presence. It was a good sign that really prompted Itachi to consider asking her to marry him.
He was only hesitant to do so because they had only been together for just under a year and he wondered if that was too soon. Sakura had always been the one to decide what stage of the relationship they were in and he didn't want to risk her rejecting a marriage proposal.
But to Itachi's surprise, it was Fugaku who brought the matter up to him. Nearly a month after his surgery, Itachi found himself out on the Uchiha training grounds, alone with his father.
They had sparred for several hours while Fugaku taught Itachi new jutsu, new tricks he could use with his Mangekyou. It never ceased to amaze Itachi just how powerful his eyes really were.
When they had finished, Itachi reached for his canteen and sank down to sit against the trunk of a large tree. Fugaku joined him on the ground – something he didn't usually do after a spar with either of his sons, so Itachi knew he was in for something unusual.
"Itachi," he said. "You're improving very quickly. Soon enough you'll have surpassed me in power. With the added benefit of having the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, you'll make a fine clan head when the times comes."
"Thank you," Itachi said, glad to hear such kind words from his father.
"You need to take a wife soon," he continued.
Itachi glanced over at his father to find a hint of a smirk on his face.
"Yes, I'm aware," Itachi said.
"Sakura-chan is a very bright girl," Fugaku said with less subtlety than Itachi was used to from his father. "She knows a lot about our kekkei genkai. She also has many good traits to pass on to future children."
"She's my girlfriend, father," Itachi said. "You don't have to convince me that she's a catch."
"You should marry her soon."
"I will discuss the idea of marriage with her," Itachi said.
Fugaku smiled. It was such a rare expression to see on his father's face that Itachi couldn't help but smile back.
"I'm not going to go easy on you," Sasuke warned. Itachi was amused to see Sakura's lips quirk up in a sardonic smile.
"I don't expect you to," she replied, digging her heels into the ground. Both Sasuke and Sakura squared their shoulders, facing one another in their fighting stances. They were on the Uchiha grounds this time, and had pulled a substantial sized crowd from the compound.
It was no longer a secret that the Uchiha heir and the Hokage's apprentice were in a romantic relationship. Once rumors had begun to spread of Sasuke and Sakura's spar, everyone in the clan wanted to see what the pinkette was really made of. And who better for her to fight than the younger brother of her boyfriend, her teammate, one of only two members of the Uchiha clan with Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan? Even Mikoto and Fugaku were in the crowd, also eager to see their son and their potential daughter-in-law duke it out.
If either Sasuke or Sakura were nervous to have so many eyes on them as they sparred, they didn't show it. From his position closest to the training field, Itachi could see the set determination of Sakura's face, and the eager glee in Sasuke's.
"Should we set some ground rules?" Sasuke asked.
"Like?"
"I won't use Eternal Mangekyou if you promise not to use chakra enhanced strength on my face or groin," he suggested.
"You'll still use your regular Sharingan?"
Sasuke nodded.
"And I can use chakra enhanced strength anywhere else?"
He nodded again, only the twitch of his eye indicating his dwindling patience.
"Alright, let's do it."
Sasuke darted off into the trees, leaping up to a high branch. Itachi had sparred enough with Sasuke to know that his next move would be to launch a barrage of shuriken at her.
Sakura seemed to be prepared for this as well. She held her arms up to brace for the impact of the shuriken, but they never came. Instead, Sasuke leapt down from the tree branch above her, hovering directly over her to strike with a katana that Itachi hadn't even realized her had.
At the last second, Sakura dodged out of the way, just as the katana came down to the ground where she had just been standing. Sakura whirled around to face Sasuke, who looked smug as he slung the katana back over his shoulder.
"Where the hell did you get a katana?" she demanded.
"I had it sealed away," he said. "It's not the kind of weapon you're good at fighting against, is it?"
Sakura narrowed her eyes at his arrogant words. At this point she was probably feeling grateful that she didn't have to deal with his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan as well. Sasuke was right – this wasn't the kind of weapon she could defend herself very well against. She was a close range fighter, but she usually struck with her fists. Evading a blade would be difficult for her.
But that didn't seem to deter her. She summoned a healthy amount of chakra to her fists and moved to attack. She lunged at him with her fist ready. Sasuke held his katana poised in front of him as if to block her attack with it, but Itachi saw with his Sharingan that he was prepared to dodge instead.
Sakura threw a punch toward his chest, chakra alight in her fist. As predicted, Sasuke dodged to the left, but Sakura seemed to know he would do this and extended her leg to trip him as he moved. He expertly leapt over her leg, but Itachi could see that he was a little caught off guard by her action.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but there was a wry smirk on his face. He was already enjoying this. He reached into his side pouch and launched a barrage of shuriken at her. Sakura deftly dodged to the right, moving closer to Sasuke and punching the ground at his feet with what would have been lethal force if she had hit him instead. Sasuke jumped back away from the wreckage, wiping his eyes where the dust had caused them to tear up.
Taking advantage of the opportunity she had created, Sakura launched herself toward him, using the dust and debris as cover to engage him in some heated taijutsu. Itachi glanced over at the crowd to his left and saw each of them with their Sharingan activated as they watched the spar. With all the dust Sakura had kicked up, they wouldn't be able to see without it.
Sakura continued to throw punches and kicks toward Sasuke, who chose to avoid them by dodging instead of catching them as he might have if it had been anyone else. He didn't want to risk any broken bones, of course.
With his katana, he blocked a few of her punches, but the chakra barrier around her fists seemed to protect her from the sharpness of the blade.
After several minutes of this, getting nowhere, Sakura leapt off toward the tree line, deciding to change her tactic before she wore herself out throwing useless punches.
Itachi let his eyes fall back to Sasuke, who had promised not to go easy on her, but had not yet landed a hit on her. Sasuke was watching her up in the trees – she must have known he could always see her with his Sharingan activated.
The snapping of twigs near him made Itachi turn his eyes back to Sakura. She was running along the length of the trees now, tossing punches at their bases as she passed. The trees began to crash to the ground in Sasuke's direction. Sasuke leapt up into the air to avoid being crushing by any of the falling trees, but because of their height, he was forced to fall back even further, closer to the crowd behind him.
"Come on out, Sakura-chan," he teased. "Just try to hit me with those fists of yours."
A cloud of senbon was launched in his direction, but he used his katana to deflect them. He peered down at the collection of senbon now on the ground at his feet. Even from this distance Itachi could see that they contained some type of poison.
"You think you could hit me with a senbon?" he taunted, kicking the slew of silvery pricks across the ground. Sasuke scanned the trees, looking for her amongst the thick leaves and shrubbery, but he had lost sight of her.
Itachi knew that she had made her way underneath the ground. He had seen her give him a sly wink before she delved into the earth, preparing to strike from underneath, so he kept his eyes on Sasuke, waiting for her to catch him by surprise.
As Itachi predicted, she launched herself up from the earth directly underneath Sasuke, landing a brutal punch squarely on his back and hurling him high up into the air. Sasuke flipped his body over, swinging his katana back toward her as he hurtled back down toward the ground. Sakura blocked the katana with her forearm. Itachi winced as the blade made contact, but he could tell that she had used chakra to buffer the impact. With more of the chakra concentrated in her open palm, she reached forward and grabbed the blade of the katana and squeezed, shattering it into several pieces that clattered noisily to the ground.
Sasuke glared at her. "I expect you to put that back together for me when this is over," he chided.
"Only if I lose," she said with a wide grin.
Sasuke only smirked in response. Sakura lunged forward again, aiming another punch for his chest now. Sasuke caught her fist, which Itachi thought was a foolish, foolish mistake, but she didn't break his hand with her strength. She only twisted the arm he held around to her back, tossing Sasuke over her shoulder.
Sasuke rolled across the ground before jumping back up behind her and aiming a punch of his own toward the back of her head. Sakura ducked down to avoid the blow and swept her leg back behind her to knock him off his feet. Sasuke jumped over her leg and then grabbed her hair, pulling her back against his chest and bringing a kunai to the column of her throat.
Sakura locked her fingers around his forearm and used her strength to push his arm, and subsequently, his whole body back over her shoulder and onto the ground. Sasuke was able to knick her with his kunai before he was tossed onto the ground, so a trickled of blood ran down from the pale column of her throat into the collar of her vest.
She ignored it as she descended on him, straddling his hips and rearing back to punch him again. Agilely, he curled his body up toward her and bent over to the right. Her fist landed on the ground where his chest had just been. Sasuke grabbed onto her arm with one hand and grabbed the back of her head with the other. Roughly, he shoved her face toward the ground, pressing his knee into her back.
With one hand crushed beneath her body, and the other flailing wildly behind her back as she struggled to get her bearings, Sakura was unable to right herself by using her strength. Instead, she wriggled beneath Sasuke, squirming fruitlessly as she tried to escape his hold.
With smug satisfaction, Sasuke pulled another kunai from his pouch and held it up against her throat again. This time, she was unable to get away from him. Accepting her defeat, Sakura let her body go limp, her cheek pressed down into the dirt.
"I win," Sasuke said to her quietly.
An eruption of applause sounded from the crowd. Itachi glanced over to see his clan cheering on their victor. Sasuke eased himself up off the ground, extending his hand for Sakura.
"Looks like you'll be fixing my katana," he said as she dusted herself off. Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment, which Itachi found insanely charming. He hadn't thought she did too poorly. She handled herself quite well against Sasuke, who seemed to also have something to prove to her, even if he didn't realize that.
"You know, with a little practice, I think you could beat him," Itachi said as he approached them, grinning.
"I was hoping to beat him this time," Sakura said.
Sasuke laughed. "Maybe next time," he said. "Hopefully you'll have my katana fixed by then."
She glared at him.
"Itachi, you promised we would go on vacation soon."
Itachi glanced up from his plate over at Sakura who sat across from him, picking at her food. They were sitting in the teahouse near the Uchiha compound – a favorite for them now that they had been together long enough to go on regular dates. The staff always prepared fresh dango for Itachi when they saw him come in, so even though Sakura didn't care as much for the food there, they found themselves there often, sitting in their regular booth by the window.
"We can leave whenever you want, Sakura," he said after he swallowed his mouthful of food. "I didn't know you were waiting on me to say the word."
"You said you wanted to wait until you were more comfortable using your Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan," she said.
"Right," he said. "Well, I'm accustomed to it now. So whenever you want to leave is fine with me."
She narrowed her eyes at him, watching as he took another bite of his food.
"Something wrong?" he asked, his eyes glinting with amusement.
"Umm, yeah," she said. "I've been waiting on you this whole time to tell me you're ready to go. Do you know how long I've been looking forward to his vacation?"
Itachi chuckled. "Let's leave tonight then," he said. "As soon as you can get packed."
She rolled her eyes at him. "No, I won't be able to pack that fast," she said. "We can leave tomorrow morning."
"Of course, Cherry," he said agreeably. "Anything you want."
"Don't be so agreeable," she said, crossing her arms.
"You want me to be less agreeable?"
"Yes."
"Fine," he said, giving her an eye-crinkling grin. "Let's leave tonight."
"Itachi, I just said we can't leave tonight because I haven't packed yet," she said, more agitated than she usually was.
Itachi laughed, reaching into his pocket for some money to pay for their lunch. "Okay, then, tomorrow morning it is," he said, leaving the money on the table before extending his hand to Sakura across the booth. "Ready to go?"
Sakura's face was still pulled into a pout, but she took his hand anyway and let him lead her back outside.
"You're cranky today, aren't you, Cherry?"
Sakura glared at him.
"I like you when you're a little bit grouchy," he continued, grinning through her petulant glances in his direction.
"I'm not grouchy," she said. "I'm just tired. I need a vacation. And my feet hurt. And I didn't really care for that food."
"Sounds like the definition of grouchy."
She shoved him roughly by the shoulder, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "How about a quick spar?" she asked, her voice dangerously low. "So I can get out some of this grouchy energy."
Itachi laughed. "No way I'm sparring with you while you're grouchy," he said. "You'll break every bone in my body. And I'm going to need those if we're leaving for Tea Country tomorrow."
Sakura shrugged, but didn't seem too bothered by his rejection.
"Although," he continued. "I can think of another activity we could do to waste some time before we leave."
"Oh?" she asked, raising her brow.
"A romantic, but also sweaty and rigorous activity…"
"Oh."
Itachi couldn't help the wide, warm smile that lit his features. It would have been impossible to frown while watching Sakura's face shift from bemused and curious to shy and blushing to flushed and eager.
"That's an even better plan," she said. He let his eyes linger on the flush across her cheeks and chest, the way her eyes seemed to sparkle, finally rid of some of that grouchiness that was amusing, but not nearly as amusing as this new mood she was in.
"I thought so, too," he said, picking her up by the waist and flinging her over his shoulder.
Sakura laughed with delight, though Itachi knew he was one of the few people in the world who had the privilege of being able to manhandle Sakura like this and not incur her wrath.
"Hey, Itachi," she said between giggles as he carried her through the street.
"Yes, Cherry?"
She leaned her head in closer to his ear, the barest touch of her lips ghosting against its shell. "I love you," she said and then kissed where his jaw met his neck.
"I love you, too," he said automatically, like it was the easiest thing in the world for him to say. He couldn't remember whether or not she had said that to him before. He certainly couldn't remember ever saying it to her. But it was true – he did love her, and he knew she loved him, too. She didn't even need to say it, but he was filled with a pleasant warmth hearing those words, feeling the delicate press of her lips against his skin.
"Thank you," she said. He set her down on her feet, a little concerned about the seriousness of her tone. She was still smiling jovially, letting her hands linger on his chest and shoulders as her feet dipped down to the touch ground.
"For what?"
"For loving me even when I'm grouchy."
He smiled and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "You deserve nothing less," he said.
"Do you trust me?"
Sakura eyed Itachi warily, wondering whether however she would answer that question would change their trip back home. They were both just outside the inn they'd been living in for the past week, their packs hanging from their shoulders. Itachi had considered his father's words, his mother's urging, and decided that Sakura was the woman he would make his wife. After everything they'd been through together, he couldn't imagine anyone else by his side for the rest of his life but her.
Even more so now after their relaxing week touring Tea Country, trying new foods, seeing new sights, and enjoying one another's company, Itachi's affection for Sakura had grown to the point where a marriage proposal was logically the next step he should take.
And given that Itachi had been schooled in romance by the woman herself, he felt a certain pressure to give her a romantic proposal. His initial thought had been to propose to her atop Madara's head – the first place she had taken him, and arguably the place he had fallen in love with her.
But after some consideration, he decided that there was no way to surprise her up there. If he asked her to climb Madara's statue with him, she would surely suspect a proposal. After all, it was now a well-known fact to the both of them that the Valley of the End was one of the most romantic places in Fire Country.
No, Itachi had another plan – one he hoped would be to Sakura's liking. But he needed her to play along, which was not very Sakura-like behavior.
"Do I trust you to what?" she demanded, hands on hips. He smiled at her antics, amused by her sassiness.
"You think I'd hurt you?" he asked.
"No."
"Or do something untoward?"
"Well, no."
"I have a surprise for you," he said. "A place I want to visit before we head back to Konoha."
"And I need to trust you to be able to go there?" she asked.
He nodded, giving her a wry smile. "Exactly," he said.
"Why?" she asked, suspicious.
"You'll see," he said, taking her hand in his and leading her through the tiny tea village back toward Fire Country. They would have to travel a little farther east than they normally would to get back to Konoha, so as they made their way to his surprise destination, Itachi took the lead, making sure they stayed on target.
Quite honestly, Itachi enjoyed the journey there and the journey back more than he enjoyed the vacation itself. He couldn't deny that he'd had fun fooling around with Sakura in Tea Country, but there was something about the normalcy of traveling, or having Sakura by his side that made Itachi feel truly grateful for all the blessings his life had given him.
So he soaked up every bit of pleasure he could get from his journey with Sakura to his secret location. He joked and laughed with her, teasing her the way she liked (or sometimes the way she didn't like). He wasted no opportunity to touch her, to hold her hand, or guide her with a hand on the small of her back. Sakura, too, let her hands wander, teasing him not just with gentle touches and caresses here and there, but also rough shoves, flicks to the forehead, and light hair pulling.
Once he could hear the rush of water, the laps the ocean made as waves crashed against the shore, Itachi turned back to face Sakura, holding her hands in his.
"This is where you'll need to trust me," he said.
"Why?" she asked. "Because you brought me to the beach even though you know I dislike it?"
"I didn't bring you to the beach, Cherry," he laughed, pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket. "Come here. Let me blindfold you."
"Ooh," she said, her voice rising an octave. "Sounds kinky."
He laughed again. "It isn't. Just come here."
Obediently, Sakura let Itachi tie his handkerchief around her eyes. When he was satisfied with her lack of vision, her took her arm in his and guided her toward the shore.
"Itachi, I swear if you're taking me to the beach there will be hell to pay."
"Just trust me, Sakura," he said. "I promise you'll love it."
Sakura made a small noise of disagreement with the back of her throat, but she said nothing else as Itachi led her across the wooded area just beyond the beach she suspected he was taking her to. In spite of her disapproval, she clung to his arm, leaning against him and sighing contentedly.
Once they were past the trees and there was sand beneath their feet, Itachi removed his pack from his back and then pulled Sakura's from her shoulders as well. "We can leave our stuff here," he said, setting their belongings down at the base of a tree. "I'm going to have to carry you the rest of the way."
"What?" she demanded. "Why?"
He kissed her mouth, catching her a little off guard while she was blindfolded. But she returned his kiss nonetheless. "Because you don't like sand, remember?" he said, hoisting her up off her feet and onto his back.
"I can walk, Itachi," she insisted, though her tone was light and not anywhere near the deadly tone used to indicate that he should actually put her down.
"You'd get sand in your shoes," he said. "I know how much you hate that."
"If you know how much I hate the beach, then why are you taking me there?"
He gave her a pat on the backside. "You'll see soon enough, Cherry." He crossed over the beach and boarded the dock that was waiting nearby. He had arranged all of this by messenger the night they left to go to Tea Country, so there waiting for them at the end of a dock was a small boat. He deposited her in the boat and untied it.
"A boat?" she asked as he kicked the boat away from the dock.
Itachi hummed in response, watching as she dipped her fingers into the water beside her. He rowed them out farther into the water, carefully noting their position in case the current swept them away. A rowboat on the ocean was no easy thing to maneuver, even for a shinobi like Itachi.
"Can I take off the blindfold?"
"Not yet," he answered.
"Can I kiss you?"
Itachi laughed and leaned forward to press a chaste kiss to her lips. "The answer to that will always be yes, Sakura," he said.
"Now can I take off the blindfold?"
Itachi glanced up at the sky, noting the position of the sun and the moon. They were far enough away from the shore that it was just a line on the horizon now. Her surprise would come soon – any second now.
"Yes, take it off."
"Oh," she said, a little surprised that he changed his tune so quickly. She unraveled his handkerchief from around her eyes and let her eyes wander around her.
"Oh, look," she said. "We're on the ocean." She did not sound impressed.
"Come here."
She gave him a wary look before glancing back toward the shore – barely visible from where they were. She seemed nervous.
"You trust me, don't you, Cherry?"
"Yes," she said, drawing the syllable out like she might change her mind before she finished uttering the word.
"Okay, then, turn around."
Obediently, Sakura turned back toward the shore. Itachi grabbed her shoulders gently and pulled her back to his chest until she was reclined against him and they were both laying back against the wooden bench in the boat.
"Oh, wow," she said now looking up into cloudless sky. "Look at the moon."
Itachi chuckled. "Yes, it's pretty, isn't it?"
"Not half as pretty as you, Itachi-kun."
He pinched her thigh, causing her to squeal and wriggle against him. He kissed the top of her head and pointed up at the moon and the sun, which were now both very close together in the sky.
"Just keep watching the moon," he told her.
Together they watched as the moon's circle began to intersect with the sun's. It was just after noon, so the sun was still quite high in the sky. The world was brightly lit and hot, and the clear, blue sky was made all the more beautiful by the darkening shift in lighting.
"An eclipse?" she asked, her eyes still trained on the celestial bodies above them.
"Yes," he said. "A solar eclipse. For just eight minutes, the sky will go completely dark. It will only be visible in this region."
She made a small noise of appreciation and sighed. Itachi wrapped his arm tighter around her. They continued to watch the sky – the moon moving closer and closer toward the center of the sun. The sky began to darken, rendering the world around them into shades of twilight blue. The shadow of the moon swept over them like a blanket, covering them with it's darkness.
And then the moon covered the sun entirely, blocking its light. It the pitch darkness that surrounded them, Itachi felt Sakura's grip on his forearm tighten. Planets and stars popped up in the sky out of nowhere. The halo of the sun – its corona shone in a bright ring around the moon.
"Holy shit," she said in a low whisper.
"Look at the horizon," he muttered into her ear. She dipped her chin down, following the line his finger drew to the horizon near the shore. All around them the sun lit up the world, creating a circle of light around them – the daytime light that everyone but them could see. They were enjoying the light of day as usual in Konoha, but here on the ocean in their little boat, they were cocooned in the moon's shadow.
"Itachi," she breathed. "This is amazing. You planned this for us?"
He hummed and kissed the top of her head again. "I did," he said. "What do you think?"
"It's romantic as hell."
"I'm glad you think so," he laughed. "Because there is something I wanted to ask you."
He felt her tense up in his arms for a split second before she turned sharply to face him, rocking the boat as she moved back to her own seat.
"No way," she said. "You're going to ask me to marry you, aren't you?" In the glow of the sun's ring – no brighter than the moon's light, he could see the excitement on her features, the glee that sparkled in her eyes.
"Well, now you've ruined it," he said, doing his best to refrain from pouting because that was unseemly and ungentlemanly.
She giggled and reached forward to brush a lock of hair away from his face. "Did it ever occur to you that I might want to be the one to ask?" she asked.
"Do you want to?"
"Yes."
Itachi pursed his lips, caught off guard by her reaction and little nervous now that his plan had gone awry. "Okay, fine," he said. "You can be the one to ask."
Sakura smiled and leaned back against the boat, looking back up at the eclipse above their heads. She sighed, her grin infectious, but also concerning as she watched the sky.
"Well? Aren't you going to ask?"
Sakura laughed as she leaned forward and kissed him again. "Itachi, will you marry me?"
With a petulant cock of his head, he pretended to consider her offer. "I'll have to think about it," he said.
"Please?"
He drank in the sight of her – the way her eyes glittered with amusement, the contentedness of her features that hadn't been there prior to their vacation. She was leaning in toward him, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she waited for the answer she knew was coming.
"Okay," he said. "I'll marry you.
She squealed with delight and threw her arms around his neck. The boat rocked beneath her amorous attack, but Itachi couldn't bring himself to care. He wrapped his arms around her, clinging to her, tangling his fingers in her hair to hold her face in place as he kissed her over and over again.
"I love you, Itachi," she said breathlessly once they had broke apart.
"I love you, too, Sakura."
Author's Note:
That's it! I really hope you guys liked this story and I'm so grateful for all your really sweet reviews! If you can spare the time, I'd really love to hear your feedback about what I could do better next time, or what you thought really worked that I should keep doing. I always appreciate constructive criticism!
Side note: yes, I just happen to live in the path of totality of the most recent eclipse. I actually wrote this chapter a couple weeks before the eclipse so I had no knowledge other than what I Googled of what it would look like. After actually seeing it, though, I don't think I did it justice in the scene, but whatev.
Ps, be on the lookout for my GaaSaku story coming up next. I'll start uploading chapters next Friday. :)