The Deal

Chapter 11: Her Story

Sakura's shoulders slumped in defeat, even though she was now the lucky owner of the dainty aquamarine hair pin that was only awarded to a perfect score on the ring toss game. She was happy that she got the beautiful hair accessory, but sadly, it was not she who won it.

"Thank you for the gift," she said, albeit grumpily, to Itachi, who was looking at her with a gentle smile.

"It was my pleasure, now about my favor," Itachi leaned in towards the pinkette and whispered, "Can we take a walk to the lake? Without my little brother and your guest?"

Sakura would have been nervous if it was anyone else who asked to take a stroll to the lake, during the Autumn Festival, because that was one of the prime locations for confession. However, since it was Itachi, she doubted that it was that. She was rather certained that he simply wanted to spend some time catching up, since they were not able to do so in a long while.

"Sure," she nodded. Then she turned to Sasuke and Sasori, who were both curious about the older Uchiha's request. "Itachi and I are going to the lake for the favor that he got. Sasuke, I trust that you can take care of Sasori while we are gone?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows while Sasori had a small scowl on his face.

"We will be back shortly," Itachi said in a no nonsense tone. He placed one hand on Sakura's back and slowly guided her away.

The pinkette waved at her teammate and ward, then returned her attention towards Itachi. The pair conversed quietly as they disappeared into the crowd.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Well, that was anything but subtle. What do you want to do, Sasori-san?"

Sasori's eyes did not leave the direction where his favorite medic had vanished with his most formidden rival.

Sasuke looked at the red head's forlorn expression and let out a long sigh. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, "I honestly don't care if Sakura ends up with my brother or with you."

This caught the Suna-nin's attention and he shifted his honey orbs towards the younger man.

"As long as Sakura is happy, that's all that really matters. Naruto and I always have to chase away those guys who are not worthy of her, because we know she is too kind to do it herself. But that only leads to false hope and worst consequences later on."

Dark onyx glared into warm honey and Sasori was reminded of how eerily beautiful all Uchihas' eyes were.

"If someone hurts our teammate, Naruto and I will retaliate. Doesn't matter if it's my own brother or a ninja from a different village."

A brief silence passed between them until Sasori finally spoke up, "Can we go back to the area where they sold trinkets? There was something that I wanted."

While Sasuke lead Sasori back into the crowded streets, Itachi guided Sakura towards the quiet lake. Their walk was slow and leisurely. A comfortable silence enveloped the pair as they strolled towards the lake by the Uchiha compound. Itachi was glad that there was no one nearby.

Sakura giggled when a piece of leaf fell onto Itachi's hair and she reached out with her free hand to brush it off. He smiled at her briefly before releasing her arm and beckoning her to sit with him on the deck that extended over the lake.

"I feel like you hustled me," Sakura said with a small grin.

Itachi shook his head playfully, "I never said I was bad at the game. You were too confident."

"Ah, and I thought I put that behind me when I nearly died during that first chunin exam," she laughed, "guess I still have much training to do."

A gentle silence passed between them. Dark onyx stared at viridian green as a light warm breeze whistled by. Sakura could see an endless depth of something special gleaming in Itachi's eyes. For a moment, she wondered if it was a reflection of her feelings or it it was his own hidden emotions rising to the surface.

Sakura blinked, breaking the moment. She stared at the moon's dancing reflection. "Did you want to talk about something?"

Itachi did not look away from her face, but the kunoichi feigned ignorance. "What made you think that?"

"I just know," Sakura reached out and splashed the cool water with one hand. A small spark of chakra sent a small ripple towards the moon's reflection.

The Uchiha took a long, deep breath. "Remember the first thing you asked me when I told you that I was going to be the next Hokage?"

"Of course," Sakura did not look at him, "I asked, 'What about your clan?'"

"Now you know Sasuke will take care of the clan."

Sakura finally faced him as she nodded; she was confused at where he was going with the conversation.

"That means I will no longer be responsible for the clan as its leader. I am a free man," he stared into her eyes. His dark irises diving into her soul.

She could not breathe for a moment, but it was not a refreshing sense of breathlessness. Something in the back of her mind made her nervous and a wave of foreboding washed over her. Something was screaming for her to get away - to run - before someone got hurt.

Sakura swallowed heavily, "I am happy for you. With everything that you did for your clan and for Konoha, you deserve to be free."

"I want to share that freedom with you," he said calmly. He had saw the apprehension wavering in her eyes and his usual confidence dampered. But a small part of him did not want to give up on the small chance that she would reciprocate his affections.

The medic tried to side step the question behind his statement in the same way that she had seen him do many times, "I will be given a lot of responsibilities at the hospital once Tsunade-shishou retires, so I will definitely be there for you."

Itachi did not like what she just did. He shook his head firmly, "I don't mean as a comrade. I meant as my other half, Sakura."

The way he said her name sent a shiver down her spine.

He held one of her hands and a small static shot up her arm. "I know you once held affections for me and I would have returned them if not for the clan. I have no doubt that you could have handled it yourself, but you know how some of the clan members could be. That was why I took matters into my hands."

Itachi knew Sakura and she was a kunoichi with a big heart. Often, she placed her family, her friends, and her village above her own needs. It was selfish of him to use that to his advantage when it came to matters of the heart, but he did not want to lose her. "We can take care of Konoha together."

Sakura swallowed heavily. The way that he was looking at her was not much different than usual, but his deepest affection was no longer suppressed - he was showing her everything - and it was taking her breath away. The fluttering that she had long chased away came back. It was a weak sensation, but it was a heart skipping sensation nonetheless.

But something - that something that told her to run earlier was back. It squashed down the rising butterflies with no hesitation.

The pinkette drew away and the ANBU let her.

"You know I am a patient man, Sakura," Itachi smiled softly, "take your time and think. Let me know when you are ready."

He brushed her loose bangs behind her ear and it was obvious to them both that his fingers lingered along her cheek.

"We should go back," Sakura said quietly, "They have been waiting for a while."

Itachi nodded and helped Sakura stand up. He held out his arm and after a brief moment of hesitation, she linked hers with him. "I promise I will let you know soon."

"There is no rush."

Both Sasuke and Sasori immediately noticed the change in the atmosphere when they reunited with the older Uchiha and the pinkette, but they kept the observation to themselves. Sasuke decided that he would watch over his teammate quietly while Sasori knew he would find out exactly what happened when they get home.

"Have Shisui and Izumi-san returned yet?" Sakura asked Sasuke with a light smile.

"They came back earlier, but Shisui had a bit too much to drink after they bumped into Genma. Izumi took him home," Sasuke answered.

"It is getting pretty late, maybe we should leave, too," the medic said as she looked at the dark sky.

Sasuke nodded and looked at Itachi, who was looking at Sakura with a strange gleam in his eyes. "Let's go, brother."

Itachi finally tore his eyes away from the pinkette. He nodded at Sasuke, then turned back to Sasori and Sakura, "Good night, Sakura, Sasori-san."

The medic waved goodbye as the Uchiha brothers disappeared towards the direction of the Uchiha compound. She looked at the Suna-nin who smiled at her and they began walking toward the civilian residential district.

The walk was rather quiet. The pinkette was still thinking about Itachi's confession while Sasori was glaring at the new hair pin that made its way into the bun that he had crafted earlier that evening. When they entered the apartment, the Suna-nin immediately reached for Sakura's hair and in one smooth motion, undid all the twists and removed the purple flowers and the bothersome hair pin.

Sakura gave him a confused look.

"Can I know what happened?" Sasori asked lightly, "You didn't seem like yourself when you came back."

Sakura loosened the sash around her waist and sat down on the couch. Sasori plopped down by her side and set all the hair accessories on the coffee table.

"It's a rather long story," she said and smiled bitterly at how that statement felt so familiar.

Remembering the same conversation that she thought of, Sasori smiled warmly, "For you, Sakura, I have all the time in the world." He parroted the same reply.

That was how Sakura began the full, detailed version of her story - of her first love that she knew - thought - would not bear fruit.

After becoming Tsunade's pupil, Sakura was slowly discovering herself. She rekindled her friendship with Ino, got over her measly crush on Sasuke, and was even the first to become a chunin in Team 7. She had many people to thank and one of them was Uchiha Itachi.

When she first got to know him, the real him, was during the Uchiha gathering. She was rather tired of all the festivities, since she had a busy morning at the hospital. When she saw the heir sitting by himself, she honestly just wanted to rest and compliment him for being a compliant patient. But as their conversation went on, she realized how similar they were.

Then came the genjutsu lessons, in which he helped her unleash her potential as a kunoichi with the affinity for genjutsus. Next came her first S-ranked mission. At this point, both Sasuke and Naruto, despite both ranking in at chunins like her, had been on one or two S-ranked missions. They worried that she would get hurt, but Itachi was adamant that she joined his team for a special mission that required her skill. Needless to say, the mission was successful and Sakura was one step closer in getting the promotion for jounin.

Not long after was her first solo A-ranked mission to Iwa and the revelation of her feelings. She still acted relatively normal towards him, since she did not want things to become awkward. But deep down, and with Ino's encouragement, Sakura felt that Itachi would return her affections one day. She just needed to get stronger so she could stand as his equal.

However, everything changed when she met the Uchiha kunoichi, whom she recalled was named Chuya. The kunoichi was also a chunin like her and around the same age. She was on a B-ranked mission with a team and got a fairly nasty cut on her shoulder from an enemy's katana. Sakura was asked by some of the nurses to heal the kunoichi since she demanded that whoever healed her did not leave a scar and there was no medic better than Sakura at fixing a major wound seamlessly.

When Sakura was healing her, the kunoichi realized the pinkette was on the same team as one of her cousins and began to make small talks. Sakura was fairly certain that many things she said were exaggerated since she could feel the girl radiating fan-girl aura like she once did when she was a genin. She supposed that the Uchiha kunoichi just had not grown out of that phase yet.

But when she began to talk on and on about Uchiha Itachi and how she had the best possibility of becoming his wife, Sakura felt her heart plummet to the bottom of her stomach. She knew Itachi and how much he loved his clan. His clansmen would always be his number one priority, which meant that he had most likely prepared himself to marry one of the many Uchiha kunoichis that fawned over him. That realization stung, so Sakura quickly finished her work and excused herself to sob in her office.

It took much effort for her to pull back from falling further for the Uchiha and he did not help by always being so kind and caring, and encouraging her whenever she was down. When she learned that he was one of the shinobis who recommended her for her application to become a jounin, she nearly went mad. This man was not good for her heart nor her sanity.

Sakura tried to move on and she even took Ino's advice to date other men. But most of them either did not show up for their date or went missing shortly after one date. She suspected that Naruto and Sasuke were to blame, but there was never any proof. In the end, she gave up.

Her busy life was enough to keep her occupied and she slowly accepted that being one of Itachi's closest friends was all she really could be. She was thankful for that.

She was eighteen when she thought she had completely freed herself and the last two, almost three, years had been relatively eventless. There was one incident when hope did resurface, it was when he told Naruto and herself that he was to become the next Hokage and Sasuke was to become the next patriarch of the clan. Her question had slipped out of her mouth before she could consider what it implied. There was something sparkling in his eyes when he answered her, but there was no time to ask him about it since Naruto threw a mini tantrum.

After that, they did not have much time to meet due to all the peace and treaty meetings, and her curiosity faded to the back of her mind. Less than a month later, she was assigned the three month exchange mission to Suna. With the mission taking priority in her mind, Sakura put much of Konoha - including him - behind her.

But now, a mere few months, not even half a year later, Itachi decided that it was time to confess the truth. To tell Sakura that he actually did reciprocate her feelings, but could not act until he settled things with his clan.

Sasori's heart hurted as he listened, but he kept a straight face. "So… are you saying that you don't love him anymore? Or are you saying that you do love him?"

Sakura blinked, "I… I am confused."

"Why is that?" there was nothing but sincerity in the honey eyes that were staring right at her - only at her.

"I… I don't know," Sakura tried to laugh, albeit awkwardly, "that's why I am confused!" She did not have the courage to tell Sasori that perhaps the something that told her to run away was her growing attachment to someone with a pretty face and red hair.

Sasori looked at Sakura quietly. He did not know whether her confusion was a good thing or a bad thing. Plus, he sensed that the pinkette was hiding something from him, but before he could speak, Sakura suddenly asked, "Have you ever been confused with your feelings, Sasori?"

The Suna-nin gave an incredulous look to the kunoichi.

Sakura puffed up her cheeks in a small pout, "Hey! Just because you are known as a cold-hearted ANBU in Suna doesn't mean you are incapable of having feelings for someone!"

A small voice in the back of Sasori's mind was telling him to grasp the opportunity and confess to the kunoichi, but her eyes, gleaming with curiosity, were making it difficult for him to breathe. Cold sweat was slowly trickling down his palms and the moment his left eye made an almost undetectable twitch, Sakura's eyes widen, causing Sasori to panic.

"I have never been confused with my feelings once I recognized what they were," he finally bit out. The memory of discovering his feelings, under the guidance of Maki, suddenly became vivid in his mind.

Sakura blinked.

Originally, she only intended to tease him. From what she knew of Sasori, she did not expect him to "like" anyone. He never mentioned anything and she never met anyone that seemed special back in Suna.

"That person must be very lucky to have your affections," the pinkette said softly.

A quiet moment passed between them as Sasori debated with his inner self whether he should confess then and there, but before his courage fully charged up, Sakura gathered all the hair accessories on the table and stood up. "It's getting late, we should turn in. Thank you for listening to me, Sasori."

Sasori blinked numbly as he watched his chance slip away, but he quickly snapped back to earth. "'Good night, Sakura."

Hello all! Sorry for the wait! I was rather busy this past month. I think this story will wrap up fairly soon. Thank you for being with me all this time! I plan to finish before the end of next month!