Title: you became responsible, forever, for what you have tamed
Word Count: 4613
Prompts: 10. thunderstorm & 054. emergence & 488. when worlds collide

Summary: In which Itachi and Sakura reach an understanding.


"Sakura-chan? Yoohooo, Sakura-chan?" When the girl in question didn't reply again, Naruto did something he would usually never dare to: he flicked her forehead, with one, final, "Sakura-chan!"

Sakura blinked a few times, blearily. "Huh? Oh, Naruto. What is it?"

"Jeez," her blond brother said, scratching his head. "You've been really out of it lately. I've been trying to get your attention for the past minute."

"Oh," Sakura blushed slightly. "Sorry, I was thinking about something."

"What is it? What's bothering you? You know you can tell me anything, Sakura-chan!"

"Nothing's bothering me, Naruto. I'm just thinking about all sorts of random things, that's all."

Naruto squinted over at her sceptically for a moment, as if sizing up her answer. She could see the sharp glint in his eye that indicated his disbelief, but Naruto knew her well enough to know to back off. "Alright, Sakura-chan. But if you ever need to talk, you know who to go to!"

She patted his head gently, and Naruto bore the gesture with an affectionate smile. It was a move reminiscent of their younger days, reserved for when they both needed a dose of nostalgia. "Well, Naruto, I should go. Early shift tomorrow morning," she said as she laid down the money due for her ramen. "You should go too, Hinata's probably waiting up."

"All right, Sakura-chan," Naruto replied hesitantly. His reluctance to let his heart sister leave with so much unsaid reached only as far as his grip; once she stepped out of his arm's reach, he relinquished his light hold on her. "Good night. Remember what I said."

Sakura nodded once lightly, matching the gesture with a small smile before disappearing out of the ramen stand. The speed at which she fled the situation was a sign as obvious as any to Naruto of her deception. There would be time to pursue this later, he decided, as he watched her shadow disappear down the dimly lit road.


Some thirteen days later

Sakura sneezed. And sneezed again. And again.

When the sneezing fit finally stopped, Sakura was one notch short of miserably murderous. Everything about this mission pissed her off, and this last development was just the cherry on the cake. There was a reason she was rarely assigned to do solo missions, the chief of them being that her skill was mostly wasted on such an endeavour. In the time it took her to finish such a mission, she could have saved a bunch of lives, either in the field or in the hospital. Thus, she took it personally as divine retribution from above that everything that could have gone wrong during this mission did.

It had taken her exactly four days longer to finish this mission than originally planned, and if not for that delay, she wouldn't be stuck here in the middle of nowhere during the worst thunderstorm of her living memory.

Sakura sneezed again.

And to top it off, she had caught a cold, something her medical skill was completely useless against. Sakura rubbed at her red nose miserably. Even the rain couldn't be of comfort to her today.


Unlike Sakura, Itachi was often sent on solo missions. His skills, stealth and efficiency were often maximized when he was alone. Tsunade knew this, and was always shamelessly sending him off into the dangerous unknown on his own. Itachi didn't mind; he enjoyed the occasional time off from his boisterous team. It was real-time training that ultimately benefitted his team as a whole. When Itachi improved, their team improved.

Today though…

Itachi resisted the urge to glare uselessly at the sky. The onset of the thunderstorm had been very sudden, and by the time the severity of the storm had hit Itachi, he'd been too far away from any sort of civilization to seek shelter. He was in the stretch of the vast forestry that lay between Konoha and the nearest civilian village, an uninhabited radius of about seventy miles. Even though he was usually the type to barrel on through a mission until he reached Konoha again, he acknowledged that in the current weather, that would be a very stupid thing to do.

Itachi was about to think of an alternative when the familiar smooth caress of a genjutsu hit his senses. Immediately he tensed for the onset of an attack, but relaxed a moment later when he recognized the jutsu and what it was sheltering. But of course, he thought, mentally berating himself for forgetting such an obvious solution.

They were all over this dense stretch of untouched forestry, created for this exact purpose. Years ago, the Sandaime had commissioned the construction of several cabins, placed sporadically throughout the seventy mile radius for the use of Konoha shinobi in emergency situations. They all had the same genjutsu cast over them, one taught to every shinobi jounin-level and above.

Perfect, Itachi thought as he gravitated towards the source of the genjutsu. He dispelled it with no occasion, and had never been so glad in his life to see the unassuming, plain wooden cabin. As soon as he'd dispelled the illusion, though, he realized that he wasn't the only one seeking shelter from the storm. Another shinobi was in the cabin, and even though they were masking their chakra, Itachi remained unalarmed. There was a warm familiarity to the chakra signature, even though he couldn't place it, signalling that at the very least, they weren't strangers.

Itachi pushed the cabin door open, and was immediately bombarded by the overwhelming scent of wet, soggy wood. Lack of regular maintenance had rendered the cabin rather dilapidated and sad looking, and it was with mild distaste that Itachi took in the sorry state of his shelter. In addition to the many leaks the ceiling seemed to sport, if the constant drips and small puddles on the floor were any indication, the cabin was also very sparsely furnished. There was just one square table with three chairs around it. The fourth chair, Itachi noted, was broken and discarded in an empty corner of the room. At least there was also a futon, which the other inhabitant was currently perched on.

Itachi had recognized her right away. The familiarity of her chakra signature made immediate sense to him. What alarmed him was the fact that Sakura didn't even stir from her position on the futon as he entered, despite the old door creaking rather obnoxiously upon his entrance. Even as he walked into the place, shutting the door behind him a little less than silently, pattering around the space, Sakura didn't move. Itachi knew her to be a better shinobi than that. He'd witnessed it himself before. On missions, even at the slightest hint of disturbance, she would be awake, alert and ready to take action. And even though they weren't exactly out in the open, this was still not an entirely safe spot, genjutsu aside.

Something was definitely wrong.

Without missing a heartbeat Itachi was next to the futon, Sharigan eyes checking the pink haired woman for injuries. She didn't seem to have any external injuries, but he noted with a frown that her breathing was quite laboured. Itachi dropped down on the futon next to her.

"Sakura." He shook her lightly. Immediately he realized what the problem was. Sakura was burning hot, her temperature easily exceeding forty degrees Celsius. "Sakura," he called again. This time, he shook her a little more violently.

At last she stirred, a mumbled string of words escaping from her mouth. Now that Itachi could see her face, the signs of fever were impossible to miss. Her normally rosy cheeks were a heightened red, and her face was scrunched up in a frown that spoke of her discomfort. Itachi shook her again.

Sakura's eyes blinked open blearily – once, twice, thrice – and even then, didn't seem to fully register the elder Uchiha brother currently next to her. "Itachi?" she mumbled, blinking more furiously now. "What-"

"You have a fever, Sakura."

"Itachi? What are you doing here?"

"Do you have any medicine? Antibiotics? Pain killers?"

"What, how-"

"Sakura. Focus." Itachi was gripping both her shoulders now, and had guided her body into a position where they now faced each other. "I know you are disoriented. Questions later. For now, think. Antibiotics?"

In her half-delusional state, she was surprisingly compliant. "No medicine…Not that kind of mission, didn't bring…"

Sakura shivered then, a deep shudder that wracked her entire body. "It's so cold, Itachi…"

Itachi wanted to smack himself. Although most of her clothing had dried, they were still damp. Evidently, she had been caught by the storm as well, which had definitely just worsened whatever bug she'd managed to catch. In one swift movement he'd removed her semi-wet jounin vest as well as his own ANBU cloak. His cloak was wet from the rain as well, but a quick wind jutsu had the cloak dry in seconds. Itachi wasted no time in wrapping the shivering woman up in the folds of the fabric, and was satisfied that her shakes stopped as soon as he did so. Sakura drifted back into her feverish sleep almost immediately.

Itachi was painfully careful as he adjusted the bundled up woman in his arms. Even now the frown marring her pretty features refused to relent. The irrational desire to smooth away all her troubles that Itachi felt surprised him. Such a deep protective feeling was one he hadn't felt in a long, long time. But he shouldn't have been surprised, not really. This was a feeling that had been festering for nine years now, and as…slow as he was in areas of interpersonal relationships, he knew what this meant. Itachi thought, with a wry twist of his lips, that he was long past the stage of denial. Besides, he'd already declared his interest in her, and had made his interest very known to her. What he was feeling was normal. Absolutely normal.

Itachi sighed and brought his free hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. His day had suddenly become so much more complex, but it wasn't annoyance he felt. It wasn't exactly joy that he felt knowing that it was him that found Sakura like this, and not some random other man. But he was…glad. Itachi could accept, now, that when it came to Sakura, he found that he often had reason to be glad. It was the worry that he also felt that made the situation troublesome.

The storm looked like it had no plans of relenting any time soon, if the thunderous claps and occasional flashes of blue were any indications. Itachi decided that a little nap wouldn't harm him, and he was pretty drained from the lightning-fast mission he'd just completed…

Decision made, Itachi adjusted himself on the futon until he found a comfortable position. Then, he adjusted Sakura against him, delicately and slowly, so that in the end she ended up sort of lying in his lap. Itachi justified the position by convincing himself that this was the only way for him to wrap his arms around her in a suitable manner in order for him to transfer a constant flow of heat to her. Right. Only way.

Itachi's genius mind remained unconvinced, but Itachi found that he really couldn't give a damn. With his eyes shut and a tiny, somewhat smug smile on his lips, Itachi drifted off into the best sleep he'd had in nine years.


The first thing Sakura noticed was the warmth. In fact, she was really hot. There were layers of blankets covering her, immediately causing her alarm. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in that shitty cabin and-

Oh.

Her eyes flew open as her foggy memories returned to her. Was it a dream? she wondered. There was just no way that Itachi could have turned up there as well…

It was then that she noticed the familiar fluorescent lights and stark white walls. The Konoha Hospital. She'd know that smell of antiseptic anywhere. The place was basically her second home.

"Sakura-chan! You're awake!"As if to reinforce his point, Naruto shook her excitedly. "Thank god. You didn't look so good earlier."

"Volume, Naruto!" she hissed, his loud voice piercing her head and reinforcing her migraine.

"Ah, sorry!" Naruto whispered. His whisper voice, though, was a normal person's speaking voice. "I'm just glad you're up now. You've been out for hours."

Hours? Sakura was unimpressed by her own body's fragility. If she added in however long it took her to get back, plus however long she'd been passed out at the cabin, she would have had to be unconscious for a day at the very least. How the hell did that happen?

Sasuke entered the room a moment later, seemingly unsurprised that she was already awake. "How are you feeling, Sakura?"

"Like absolute shit. My head is throbbing. How did I get here…?"

Sasuke hesitated, and Sakura saw a flash of something akin to suspicion flash through his charcoal orbs before he hid it away. "…Itachi brought you back."

So it wasn't a dream, she thought. "That..." she trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"How on earth did you end up with the teme's brother?!" Naruto blurted. Sasuke shot him his best death glare, and Naruto faltered sheepishly. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the duo; the only time they interacted like this was when they agreed to hide something from her.

"You must be hungry. I brought you dango." Sasuke cut in, and to reinforce his point, he dangled the paper bag of promised goods in front of her face. As if on cue, her stomach growled. Her boys watched her awkwardly as she chewed on the sweets, but the silence lasted only a minute before Naruto felt suffocated.

"So baa-chan said you had a really bad flu. Man, when you were brought in your fever was like 42 degrees! You need to take better care of yourself, Sakura-chan. One mission away from us and look what happens!"

"What are you implying, Naruto?"

"Er-"

"Naruto just means that as a medic, you should know the importance of keeping your health in order. You take really shitty care of yourself because you always prioritize everyone else before you." Sasuke cut in, the role of mediator falling onto his shoulders.

This was part of their routine too; when two of them were in danger of getting into an argument, the third always naturally sorted things out. In that way the three of them fit together perfectly, balancing out the yin and the yang and the precious line in between. When one side pulled, the other gave way naturally, and their affection for each other ensured that no one ever tugged too hard.

Sakura sighed. "I know, but it's my instinct. How can I focus on myself when I could be spending that time saving others?"

"How can you expect to save anyone if you've collapsed? Who is going to save you?"

"But-"

"No buts, Sakura. Not on the subject of your health." Naruto nodded his head vigorously in agreement.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! Every time you overwork yourself it really worries us. Baa-chan said your immune system wouldn't have gotten so weak if you hadn't worked yourself into chakra exhaustion so often!"

"…Sorry."

"Eat. And rest. Naruto and I are going to meet Kakashi. We'll be back later though." Naruto looked slightly confused, but after a stern look from Sasuke he nodded his agreement.

"Right. Kakashi. We'll see you in a bit, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura didn't miss their suspicious behaviour. The two of them had never really mastered the ability to be subtle, but she would wait and see this time. "Alright, I'll be as obedient as a lamb today. Shoo, shoo, have fun training."

"See you later, Sakura-chan!" Naruto waved as the two of them jumped through the windows. Sakura smiled wryly, wondering why shinobi establishments even bothered with doors in the building plans.

All in all though, Sakura's head was swimming with just under a billion questions, starting with what the hell was going on? The last thing she remembered with any certainty was sniffling rather pitifully in the cabin by herself, cursing her bad luck and that accursed mission. Then she'd laid down on the futon because she'd been so, so, so extremely tired, and when she woke up, she was here. There was this foggy, dreamy memory of a concerned looking Itachi shaking her awake, and as much as she wanted that to be reality, it just couldn't be. Even though Naruto had claimed that Itachi had been the one to bring her home.

None of that made any sense.

Itachi…

The thought alone of the elder Uchiha brother was enough to bring a shy blush to her cheeks and a slight frown to her features. Ever since her birthday celebration a few weeks back, her mind and heart had been in turmoil. The memory of his lips first brushing against hers, then with more urgency, as if he'd wanted to explore every inch of her, devouring her, always sent her heart aflutter.

Although she'd always secretly believed Itachi to be a very gentle person and more than his stoic exterior made him to be, she'd never really had any evidence other than her own faith until that day. In that one kiss, and the one, lingering kiss that followed, she'd sensed in him a hidden fragility and humanity that made her heart lurch and swell simultaneously. There was this sense that Itachi was like a book, waiting to be opened and understood by the right person and that perhaps, just maybe, she was that person.

Then again, she might be completely delusional and romanticizing the hell out of the situation. Sakura wasn't entirely sure. After he pulled away from her, leaving her breathless and brainless, his twin pools of ebony smouldering her with its intensity, he'd smiled slightly, all amusement and satisfaction.

"There is no turning back now, Sakura." He'd brushed away a wayward cerise strand as he'd said this, his actions so painfully gentle that Sakura's heart nearly stopped beating. Then, as casually as ever, he placed a gentle, lingering kiss on her forehead before disappearing, just like that. Even minutes after he'd left Sakura could feel the heat from where his lips had marked her, and she heard the constant echo of his words in her mind. No turning back. Sakura must have stood there in shock for a good ten minutes after he'd disappeared. Only after that much time had passed did she realize that at least for tonight, Itachi wasn't coming back.

What. Just. Happened? Were the three words her mind repeated on hyper-drive, as it worked to process the situation. Sakura was rarely caught off guard by men these days, but she was beginning to realize that wherever Uchiha Itachi was concerned, no part of her life would be normal. The days following this incident Sakura had been slightly in shock and slightly in a state of bliss, but the happiness quickly wore off when she realized that Itachi was nowhere to be found. A few days later she found out from a slightly peeved Sasuke that Itachi had been sent away on a solo mission the day after her party, and wasn't due back for a while to come. The nagging feeling that she'd been toyed with tugged at her, but she worked her best to quell it. Itachi wasn't like that. He couldn't be like that; she wouldn't allow it.

That didn't mean that Sakura wasn't miffed all the same. She'd worked her whole life so that people would respect her and take her seriously. Even if he was Itachi, the man who'd held a precious spot in her heart for as long as she remembered, he would not be an exception to her rule.

Since then, Uchiha Itachi had become a slightly touchy subject to the pink haired woman.

Sakura chewed thoughtfully on another piece of dango. Just as she placed the delicious stick of goodness into her mouth, the man of her thoughts materialized before her. She had been so caught up in her own confusion and thought process that she'd completely missed his presence, and the abruptness of his appearance left her with a stupidly surprised expression, dango dangling from her mouth.

Quickly, she removed the sugary stick. "Itachi!"

"How are you feeling?"

"Better. Itachi…" There were so many things she wanted to say, so many questions about everything that were vying their way for importance that in the end, she couldn't decide on what to ask first. She just stared, wide-eyed at the man in front of her. It took her two moments longer to gather her thoughts than she would have liked. "Explain. Everything. All of it. Now."

Normally she would have been too polite to take such a demanding tone with the elder Uchiha, but in this situation, she felt like she had the right.

He shrugged. "I found you."

Sakura didn't miss how he'd blithely ignored the subtext of her question. "You…You just left."

It wasn't until she uttered those words that she realized how angry and hurt she'd been by his sudden disappearance. Once the floodgates opened, though, there was, like he said, no turning back. "You just left," she repeated, her eyes shining with all the emotions tumbling through her system.

Irritatingly enough, Itachi just quirked a brow in response. "I had a mission to prepare for, and have just returned from said mission."

"You can't just leave after doing something like that!"

Suddenly, Itachi was next to her hospital bed, so dangerously close again. Although Sakura was mentally unprepared for the proximity, her body remembered his warmth, and every fibre of her being yearned for his touch again, leaving her heart beating at a thousand beats per minute once more. "Something like what? Like this?" And just as suddenly his lips were upon hers again, capturing her in his intensity.

It took every ounce of willpower in Sakura not to surrender to him and melt into the kiss. Instead, ignoring the mental voice yelling that she would regret it, Sakura pushed him away. "Yes, that! I don't know what kind of girls you're used to dealing with, but I'm not someone that you can just push around."

"If I thought you were that type of girl, I would not be interested in you, Sakura."

Her treacherous mind lulled and swooned at the deep baritone of his voice as he spoke her name. Even worse than his alluring voice was what he had said. Interested in her. Itachi was interested in her, Haruno Sakura! Again, it took all of her willpower not to start jumping around with unbounded joy. Somehow, she schooled her features into an image of calmness.

"You can't just leave after doing that with no explanation whatsoever."

The small, amused smile that Sakura was beginning to recognize as Itachi's trademark smile was beginning to irk Sakura. It was the kind of smile that suggested he knew something you didn't, as if he were privy to the most interesting information in the world. It was the smile he currently wore as he gazed at her. "I thought I was very clear in my intentions."

"Not to me."

"What do you think I meant, Sakura?"

"I don't know exactly what you meant. That's the problem! You just…you just…You can't just kiss me breathless and then leave without a trace for weeks."

Itachi must have heard the hurt in her voice, because he suddenly seemed very solemn. "I apologize. I was not aware that we were not…on the same page. I had thought that you understood my intentions perfectly."

Sakura was exasperated. "What I think of your intentions might not have been the same as what you actually intended. Even if they were, I had no way of knowing. See the problem now?"

"I apologize."

Sakura sighed. Genius or not, everyone of Uchiha decent had major problems understanding acceptable social norms. Really, Sakura should have been well accustomed to this by now, but the Uchihas' misanthropy was a gift that just kept on giving. "It's okay, Itachi. This talk helped clear things up. Kind of."

A tentative smile crept its way onto her face. Now that the initial emotional surge had passed, Sakura felt a lot calmer, which brought her mind back to the other question plaguing her mind. "How on earth did I end up back here? Naruto said you brought me back? How?"

Surprising Sakura was the flash of reproach and disapproval in Itachi's eyes. "I found you. Unconscious. In one of the Sandaime's emergency cabins."

"Ah I remember that, I was hiding out from the storm there. I must've fallen asleep on the futon."

"Not asleep, Sakura. Unconscious. And with a very high fever. Alone."

Was that concern she discerned in his voice?

"Yeah I had a little bit of a cold before, and being out in the storm must have been the clincher."

"Hokage-sama said that your immune system should have been able to prevent you from becoming so ill. If you didn't overwork yourself so often, that is."

"I don't overwork myself, really. I just work until I finish everything that needs finishing-"

"You are a medic-nin, Sakura. Not a miracle worker. It isn't your responsibility to save every lost soul. The weight of the world is not on your shoulders."

It wasn't as if Sakura didn't already know everything that Itachi was saying. She knew she wasn't God. Enough patients had died on her watch for her to know that. But there was something in the way he had said it, something in the sincerity behind his words that penetrated her very core. There was a difference between her trying to convince herself of the fact and a third-party, someone she respected so much absolving her of any and all guilt. Guilt that she hadn't even realized she'd been keeping bottled up within. Guilt that had been slowly but surely eating away at her for years now.

And just like he said, miraculously, Sakura felt the weight of the world lift from her shoulders. She felt liberated, which was entirely bizarre to her because she hadn't even realized she'd been trapped. "Thank you," she whispered.

Itachi nodded, not just for her gratitude, but for the understanding that now existed between them. Unbeknownst to Sakura, Itachi was merely returning the favour to the little nine-year old girl that he kept locked away in his memory. That child had so easily dissolved the crushing weight of guilt from him, freeing him from his own mental prison. It crushed him to see the grown up, future version of that optimistic girl trapped in the same torment.

To Itachi, though, this trade-off meant much more than that. There was an undeniable bond that existed between that nine-year old girl and his tortured fourteen-year old self that led to where the two of them stood today. That bond, though, had faded into the shadows of memory, existing now solely as a piece of the puzzle that comprised their history together. It was an essential block to their foundation, something that they would be nothing without. It was an offer of friendship and absolution, an innocent offer of forgiveness that freed him to become a man capable of wanting, maybe even needing someone else. It was something to go forward from, something to build off of and to branch away from. It gave them the potential to grow and to perhaps even create something beautiful between themselves.

Itachi had every intention of doing just that.


tbc


Notes: Wow I'm so incredibly sorry for how overdue this is. I kind of lost interest in everything to do with these fics for a while, but I'm back now and my muse is alive and kicking. Hope you all enjoyed this one! Drop me a note! Your reviews honestly make my day!