Two years ago, the Sandaime Hokage died and the Godaime had risen into power. Tsunade was her name, and she was a strong, beautiful woman had Sakura under her tutelage. Sakura was thankful that she was able to learn under the Hokage. It greatly improved her speed, strength, stamina, and had given her the ability to heal. At fifteen years old, Sakura Haruno had become one of the most powerful jounin in the village.

She didn't feel that her achievements were shared because both Naruto and Sasuke weren't here. Kakashi stayed, though, and the two of them would have lunch together every Saturday. They had grown very close and had developed a relationship like and uncle would have with his favorite niece. During one of their outings at a quiet little tea shop on the outskirts of the market district, a thought passed through Kakashi's head.

"You've finished reading the Icha Icha series, haven't you? What did you think?"

"Well, I'd have to give you some credit, sensei. Icha Icha isn't all porn like I thought it was. The plot was actually really good! But Tactics was better than Paradise." she said. Kakashi gave her an exasperated look as he leaned over the table.

"How can you say that? Tactics was good, but Paradise had a more developed female lead."

"By more developed, I think you're talking about her cup size because the female lead in Paradise was complete bitch."

Kakashi gasped.

"She was a sweetheart!"

"She was a hoe."

He calmed himself over the injustice of his favorite character before his face became serious. There was something he needed to know because all the careful research he had put time and effort into had proved fruitless.

"Sakura..."

She looked at him.

"That day ten years ago... I didn't save you, did I?"

Itachi was aware about how much his partner care for his deceased daughter. Kisame didn't talk about her much, yet he always took the time to visit her grave and put fresh flowers when the old ones grew brown and wilted. Itachi understood the pain of losing someone you loved. He killed his family and abandoned his younger brother, for Kami's sake!

He was walking in the forest with really no set destination. He went on these walks often to clear his mind or to enjoy solitude for as long as he could. His feet carried him down a rocky path to a small, familiar clearing.

"... Ah. So I ended up here."

Itachi stepped off the path and sat cross-legged before the headstone. He knew that there was something special about this particular grave despite him never meeting who it was for. Most, if not all, the Akatsuki members came to this grave to voice out their thoughts or to verbally let out their pent up anger or frustrations. He scoffed silently. Itachi sat there for about an hour in meditative silence.

His peace was short lived, though, when he was shocked out of it by images of his clan's murder. Letting out a shaky sigh, he uncrossed his legs and leaned back against the bark of a tree.

"If you were actually here, I imagine you're wondering why I stopped meditating. Would you believe me if I said I just felt like opening my eyes?"

Silence. Itachi let out another sigh.

"I suppose not."

He heard directly from Deidara and Hidan that if you really let your feelings out in this particular area, you'd feel better later on. They described the feeling as having an enormous weight being lifted off their shoulders. To Itachi, there was no way for him to ever take the blood of his entire family off his shoulders. Ever.

"I'm a terrible monster." he said, "My clan has been destroyed by my own two hands. Nothing I can do will ever amount to my sin or wash away the guilt I carry with me day to day. Though I feel that there is only one way for me to be forgiven. It might not seem like much, but I deserve death. Death to its highest degree. Actually, I deserve nothing. Death is too much of an easy punishment for me."

Itachi reached into his cloak and pulled out an old photo. It was a picture of him holding a newborn baby boy.

"This is my younger brother, Sasuke. He was the only one I wasn't able to kill. I couldn't do it. The look on his face screamed betrayal and desperation, and I just couldn't bring myself to kill him. I loved him too much."

He stashed the photo back into the recesses of his cloak.

"The only way I truly believe I can atone for my wrongdoings is to have Sasuke kill me himself. I have already caused him pain and suffering the world knows he doesn't deserve. My only hope is that I can survive until that day."

This time, Itachi reached into his pocket and pulled out a transparent green medication bottle.

"A disease is killing me slowly, and one day these pills will fail me. Maybe Kami will look upon me one last time and grant me a person to heal my ailment just enough so I can finally meet my fate."

He could hear the crashing of the waves in the distance and sighed to himself.

"Sakura, was it? Although I've never met you, you remind me of Sasuke. The both of you had lost everything at such a young age even when your futures looked so bright."

Birds chirped overhead as the sun reached its highest peak. The clearing Itachi was in stayed blissfully shaded, which he was immensely thankful for. Itachi's eyes had begun to become even more sensitive to the light, and he preferred not to damage them more than he needed to.

"From the start, I knew I had no real future. I was the clan's prodigy and I was expected to act as such. My life was a painful routine of wake up, train, go to school, train, sleep. I had made no friends, as my father deemed companionship unnecessary for one such as myself. But there was a clan member named Shisui who became my only true friend, and eventually became more than that."

Itachi allowed himself to smile.

"I remember that there was a small lake that only me and him knew about. We'd meet each other at 2 o'clock precisely on the days we weren't slated for missions. I'd always bring a normal bento and he'd always bring something peculiar, like lemon bread with octopus filling or something of the sort. Every now and then, he'd bring me his homemade dango. They were oddly shaped, but I ate them anyways. Then he'd grin that wide, inviting grin that I only see him give to me."

His hand raised to his necklace as a glazed look shot over his eyes.

"He knew what I was going to do, yet he wasn't mad at me. He knew that I was going to kill him, yet he smiled at me before entrusting me with the eye he had left. I killed him for this cursed mangekyo sharingan and now I can never bring him back."

A single tear slipped down his cheek. Itachi closed his eyes and turned away from the grave as if he were ashamed to look Sakura in the eye.

"I didn't understand." he hissed, "How could he look me in the eye when he knew that the family was to be slaughtered-every last one of them? How could he look me in the eye when he knew that I was the mole in our clan meetings? How could he look me in the eye and say that he loved m-!"

He shut his mouth and stood up, taking calming breaths as he turned his back to the grave.

"... They said that if I let my feelings out, the world would be lifted off my shoulders... it didn't. It only made me remember what I tried years to forget."

Sakura leaned back into her chair, giving her sensei an even stare. There was silence between them for a few, long seconds before she sighed and looked down at the table.

"You didn't." she replied softly, "I was hiding from the attack. My father told me to hide in the closet, but you found me instead and mistook me for a hostage."

"Don't think I don't trust you, Sakura, I really do. Please tell me the truth- who is your father and what were you doing with those dangerous criminals?"

She lifted her head, a pained look in her eyes.

"I am the only child of Kisame Hoshigaki, and I was raised in the Akatsuki."