Standard disclaimer applied.

Written by Vesper chan

Next Chapter~

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ReCaP

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The darkly clad man shrugged turning away.

"I have waited thousands of years, I will wait a few more days." A darker cape hung from a stuble branch nearby. Madara pulled the cape free and swung it around his body to cover him. "Tobi, make sure she gets that letter we left her. I don't want her harboring any lingering attachments to a dead husband she never once needed."

Obito nodded, responding to his code name. "I will."

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"You do not need to force yourself to work so soon. It would be wise to let the body rest until it is fully recovered," Itachi said, staring through her with unseeing eyes as she prepared herself.

"My chakra is as good as it is ever going to get so we might as well start now. I don't have to do bench presses for something like this so don't worry about the condition of my body." She scooted her stool closer to the couch he was sitting on. "And besides, it's not like you can see how badly I was hurt, so how do you know I'm not already better?"

He humped, sounding a little too much like his younger brother from when Sasuke and Sakura were 12 year olds. "I do not need eyes to know your breathing is still labored and your steps are still sore. Do not take me for a fool, Sakura. I have had plenty of time to prepare for a life without my eyes."

"Yes," she murmured, placing her hands on either side of his face, itching them up till the ends of her fingertips ran through his raven locks. "Well, let us hope that in this case, those were times ill spent. I don't want you to have to lose your sight if you can help it."

A moment long enough for him to swallow and exhale passed. "Why?"

"Pardon?" She didn't understand his question.

"Why would you care if I am able to see or not? I do not see how this would have any impact on your wellbeing. I do not fully understand, explain."

"You look at things so oddly, Itachi. I don't see things the same way you do. There really is nothing for me to gain if I heal your eyes, or at least nothing to gain that I know of. But my wanting to help you has nothing to do with personal gain. I want to help you because that is who I am. I am a healer, that is my nature, it's how I think and act."

Her hands sagged against his face a bit, threatening to fall away as she deflated, and he could feel that well enough. He frowned. "Sakura?"

She smiled sadly to herself and shook her head. "No, it is nothing. I... I have just changed a lot these past few years and I had almost forgotten some things in that time. I am a healer, but more than that I have had to become a fighter; a survivor. My nature has been diminished by necessity, I'm afraid."

Itachi reached up and grabbed her hands on either side of his face, lifting them further up and holding them suspended against his temples. She didn't say anything, and she didn't protest, so he rubbed his thumb against one of her pinkies in affection. "You have the hands of a healer. They are warm. Thank you, Sakura."

She smiled to herself, shaking her thoughts free and regaining focus. Itachi would need her help, and she didn't want to let him down, but more than that, she wanted to regain her old self. She wanted to go back to being the healer she had run away from when she left the Fire country. She would still fight, and she would still create those weapons for enemy countries, but that would not be what defined her.

"I am going to begin now. You might feel something like a fog behind your eyes, that is going to be me, just assessing the damage so far. I need a better view of what I am working with before I start any reconstruction. It might be a while before you actually see anything."

"That is fine."

"Okay, hang on a sec," she whispered, closing her own eyes and letting the energy that glowed green flow out of her fingertips and into the Uchiha man with damaged, ruby eyes.

Itachi stiffened a little bit once he felt her inside of him, assessing him on such an intimate level. She was somewhat like a fog, but she was a warm fog filled with sunlight. More than fog she was a tangible light in his mind, warming and nurturing him from within. Like feathers her chakra seeped over the nerve endings and inner workings of his eye, observing and exploring. It was not weird at all, in fact, he found it pleasant, just like a relaxing massage almost.

He relaxed against her hands and breathed out, deflating like a tired child against the side of his mother. He didn't want to leave, and he didn't want her to finish.

"Okay, now open your eyes slowly and tell me if anything has changed," she instructed, pouring more of her warm, sunshine-like chakra into the damaged areas of his eyes.

He lifted his lids slowly, not expecting anything more than the murky black and gray world of muffled lights and formless shapes. But this time there was color at least. Slowly, shapes came into focus, and then lines. He looked up and saw her face, and nearly stopped breathing.

"Can you see anything?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

"…You have dark bags under your eyes."

She frowned instantly. "You're so very kind, Itachi. Do you really want me to keep going or should I stop?"

"You are tired. Sakura, you should not be pushing yourself if you need rest."

Grumbling, she pulled back from the damaged areas and just like a dimmer being turned down, the vision in front of his eyes began to fade into a colorless, shapeless, blob of gray and black. The warmth of her hands left his face as she dropped her arms and sighed.

"Very well, that is enough for one day. I learned a lot more than I was expecting to and your eyes seemed to respond well to the treatment if you were able to criticize my appearance."

He waited a while till the tingling sensation behind his eyes faded away before responding. "I am sorry, I did not mean to insult you, especially when you have been so kind to me thus far. I am only concerned now that you might be pushing yourself to care for me. It should be the other way around."

"Have you forgotten who the doctor around here is?" she asked with a soft chuckle as she stood from her stool to stretch, popping a few bones along her spin with a pleasant cracking sound that made her feel more flexible afterwards.

"You may be the doctor, but you are also the one who sustains our life force. You are the one we should be protecting, the one I should be protecting. I already owe you my life."

Sakura frowned, taking a few steps towards the kitchen till she was in the light from the window over the sink. Outside she could see the distant figures of Kisame and a few of the other boys, out in the cold, cutting down trees for lumber before constructing the rest of the framework. Their project was coming along nicely, even if it was something that was not so necessary. Maybe it was their way of repaying her? Maybe they viewed themselves as in her debt…which they were. Yeah, the more she thought about it the more it made sense.

"I wish you wouldn't think like that Itachi," she finally replied, turning around to face him even though she knew he wouldn't see the gesture or appreciate it any. "I don't want to hold you in any debt for…recent events. Don't' feel like you have to stick with me or pay me back."

"That would hardly be fair," he said, turning his face towards her general direction, but missing the sight of her. "I do not see how I could sleep at night with that sort of mindset."

"All the same…" she thought back to Sasori and his words last night. How he came for her and called her his god like some devoted servant. It felt wrong. "I wouldn't want you getting too attached. I'm not planning on housing you forever."

"Of course."

A moment without speaking passed between them.

Finally, Sakura spoke. "Wait for twenty four hours or so, and then come back here for another session. I don't think I can do as much as you or I would like, but at least I can partly restore your vision as long as you are not using your bloodline trait. If the Sharingan is not being used, then it is just the same as any pair of eyes, as far as I can tell."

Itachi swallowed, unwilling to ask the question they were both thinking about.

Sakura looked back at him and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but any good I do will only be undone if you were to use your Sharingan again. However, seeing as how you cannot use chakra anyway, I don't think that is really too much of an issue, right?"

"Kakuzu seems to believe that our inability to control or use chakra…is only temporary," Itachi softly stated.

Sakura frowned, not exactly comfortable with the idea of so many powerful individuals in her house, stronger than her and not unwilling to use force for what they wanted. True, many were now on semi friendly terms with her, (She didn't know how else to think of Sasori), but they were still criminals with the same pasts she feared. They were not good people, just like she was not a good person.

"If your chakra does return, Itachi," she began, forcing her mind to return to the present conversation. "Then it will be a decision you will have to make for yourself, if you want to trade your eyes for that power or not. I can't be the one to decide that for you."

"If it did return…What would then happen?" he asked, still staring through the wall without seeing anything.

"You ask a lot of silly questions for an Uchiha," Sakura sighed.

"Humor me."

Sakura ran a hand through her bangs, combing them. "Like I said, that would have to be a decision you make for yourself. As for your condition, if you are able to leave that I won't stop you, since that is probably what you want, along with everyone else."

"And if I didn't?"

She turned to look at him and saw that he was staring at here, dead in the eye, almost as if he could see her and was watching for her reaction. She felt exposed under his gaze, but didn't exactly dislike it. No, it was almost pleasant, if she thought about it. "I told you," she began, careful with her words. "I wouldn't force you out."

"But you are still not comfortable with my presence," he finished, frowning slightly.

"…I don't do well with other people anymore. I'm sorry."

"Would this have anything to do with me, personally, or is it more because of your husband?" She saw him react to her change in breathing, so aware of even her smallest movements. "Yes, I know, as do the others, I am afraid. I am sorry for not letting you know sooner."

"How did you…"

"A photo album, Deidara found it in a spare room. There was a wedding he said, though I could not see it."

Sakura swallowed and then nodded weakly. She knew it had only been a matter of time before they knew. "To be honest, I hadn't given him, I mean, given Kakashi much thought these past few days…or I try not to. He…he's overdue for a letter or a check in or something that lets me know he is alive and he normally is late, but this is beyond late for lateness and that really isn't like him when it comes to the important things."

"You are uneasy about something else then." Itachi was not questioning her.

"It doesn't feel right in my chest and at first I thought it was because of you guys, but…I don't' want to talk about it Itachi. If you want to continue to live with me that's fine as long as you stay out of my way. To be honest I would feel bad if I chased you, personally, out after knowing your history with my old village. I don't see you as I once did."

Itachi nodded. "I will stay then.

"If that is what you want," she replied, watching him rise to leave.

He did that thing where he looked at her again, seeing her without seeing her. His eyes were cold and dark and beautiful and absorbing jewels sunken in his face. He spoke with firmness and conviction, rocking Sakura back on her heels a bit.

"It is."

She watched him leave, unmoving from the place where she stood. He was sort of beautiful.

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Shrugging, Sakura turned from the kitchen and made her way towards a hall closet where she kept some weights for working out with, as well as some ankle weights she could wear when running. They were not unlike the kid Lee had worn once upon a time.

Still in the late recover stages, Sakura took a few of the lighter weights and made her way to the sun room where should hoped to be able to do some working out in peace. Hidan had set up his stupid alters in the same room, but it was large enough to give the both of them enough space to do their own thing while not hindering the other.

All the same, the only reason Sakura was using that back room was because Hidan was absent. For some reason, she didn't want to run into the overly religious serial killer.

Rolling a yoga mat out, Sakura began to work, straining her body and pushing it to grow stronger. It was stressful at times, mostly because she knew she should have been stronger than what she was, but peaceful at the same time. She was doing something she knew how to do, and she was doing it well.

"Oh."

Her weights fell to the ground with her arms, where she left them when she straightened up and turned around to see who had entered. At no surprise, Hidan stood in the doorway.

"I was finished anyway," Sakura answered, wiping sweat from her brow and breathing deeply. "I'm gonna leave so feel free to use this room however you want."

"You don't have to leave. This is your house, you know," he replied, surprisingly polite, if not a bit gruff in his tone of voice. At least he wasn't swearing and cursing at her like she expected him to.

"Do you not have prayers today?"

Hidan shook his head. "They wouldn't be worth anything. My god has abandoned me and refused to respond to my sacrifices or prayers. He is upset with my death and resurrection."

"That is…a pity," Sakura answered, looking over towards the alter where his cryptic triangle symbol shared the center of the table with her own Haruno circle. It was a bit creepy to see the two together in comparison. She had heard that Hidan's god was started form a bastard branch of the Haruno family line, but that was all talk and nothing more, she assumed.

"I choose not to dwell on it. There are other, stronger, forces at work now." He reached into his shirt and pulled out the charm she had always remembered seeing him with. The rosary had been altered since she last saw it. No longer was there a triangle in the center, leaving behind only one plain, white circle.

"How cute," Sakura sarcastically bit, not really appreciating how her family's long forgotten past was being dug up and revisited by someone as crazy as Hidan. What did that make her family if freaks like Sasori, who turned humans into puppets, and Hidan who murdered for his religion, were looking into her ancient histories. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

"You disapprove."

"I do not follow the family ways, I'm afraid, so I can't really be excited for you. I won't stop you, though, if that is what you want to do now with your time. Never mind that she never answered the prayers of my family…" Sakura stopped herself before she went any further. "I should be going."

"Wait," he called, reaching out and catching her by the sleeve. "You can't just say something like that, when you've seen what has happened. Didn't we all die? Didn't you bring us all back to life? Are you not a descendant of the goddess herself? You can't say she has never answered any of your prayers."

Sakura swallowed, looking the silver haired man in the eye. He had beautiful eyes, if nothing else. His whole appearance, actually, was quite pleasant now that she considered it. The shape of his face was shown off with his slicked back hair and vivid, lilac purple eyes. Still, he was too crude a man for her to consider.

"Why have you stopped cursing, Hidan?" she asked suddenly.

He blinked, a bit taken aback. "Cause I'm not pissed. Is that a problem?"

"It's…odd," she admitted, pulling her hand free. "I'm not sure I am used to it, but I'm not going to say I dislike it."

"…Oh…okay…then," he murmured, not really sure what to say next.

Sakura looked down at her arm and grimaced. She stank and was sweating enough to show a shine when she moved through the light. "Whatever, I need to get going. I can't stay like this for much longer," she said, leaving her weights where she set them and walking past Hidan towards her room.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him turn towards her, but he made no move to chase her or stop her in any way.

Down the hall she turned into her room, closing the door behind her as privet thoughts began to take over her mind. She mused and contemplated and remembered things she thought she would never have to think about. The grief of her mothers, and shame of her father...it was all coming back to her in grim detail, despite how much she did not want to see any of it.

But...was it really such a big deal? No, of course it wasn't.

She almost laughed to herself at how much though she was giving something that wasn't worth the bat of of an old woman's eyelashes. and honestly, it wasn't in her nature to worry about such stupid things that were out of her control. Important things that were out of her control, life the safety of her loved ones far away, and important things that were in her control, like the bleeding body on her medical table, were what she worried about. Things like her family shame and history had no place in her mind, no place at all.

Ignoring the static of her thoughts, she grabbed the door handle to her bathroom and walked in, looking down at the shelves where her towels should be.

"Shit!"

She turned real fast, eyes wide, to see Deidara in her shower, holding up a damp towel, and nothing else.

Nothing else

"Fuck," she hissed to herself turning and making for the door. She reached for it, but her mind was in such a scramble she banged it with her foot and then ran into it before she could grab it, sending her back onto her but in a blushing mess.

"Sakura are you-"

"OhmygodI'msosorry!" she blurted, turning her face away and covering her tightly closed eyes. "I didn't know anyone was in here and I wasn't paying attention when I walked in. I didn't mean to do that, I'm really not a pervert, I swear."

"It, um, it's okay' I have it on now, un." He sounded a little less rattled than here, but still stiff. "And it's not like you've never seen anything before. You are a doctor, right?"

Sakura just groaned and buried her face deeper into her hands, bending over in shame on the floor. "I'm so sorry."

He chuckled, kneeling down behind her. "Don't worry, I understand, it is only natural after all that you would want to sneak a peak after having to live with me for so long without any action, un," he joked, purposely sounding extra cocky and ridiculous. "I'm just flattered you went after me when you could have easily sneaked a peak at Itachi, him being blind and everything."

She snorted into her hands, finally cracking. "Don't let it go to your head. I honestly didn't know anyone would be using my shower."

Deidara chuckled a little in reply. "Yeah, that might be a bit of my fault. I didn't tell you or didn't think I needed to since everyone else was using the other showers. We're all nasty from working outside and everything, even if it is cold."

Sakura shivered. "Now I am a little thankful it was you I walked in on and not Kakuzu. I don't think I could ever look that guy in the eye again."

"And you can with me?"

Sakura let her hands drop to the floor and turned her head to the side, preparing to look back. "Are you decant? I'm going to try leaving again."

"I would like to think that I'm better than decant, but I guess I could say yes for now. Sure you don't want to try for another peak?" he laughed.

"I've had enough for one day, thank you. "I'll leave you to change."

"Wait!" he reached out and slammed the door closed just as she managed to get it cracked open. He was incredibly close to her in proximity, so much that she could feel the heat from his still warm body, rolling off and over her. She would be lying if she said she wasn't tempted to open her eyes a crack.

"What is it?" she didn't trust herself to say anything more.

"I...don't have any clothes in here. I was planning on just going to my room for them, actually."

"What?" she nearly whirled around to face him full, but caught herself and managed to keep her eyes from wandering when she planted them on his face. His hair was damp, clinging to his face, and out of the traditional ponytail she remembered him with. The change made him seem older and more mature, especially when his blond eyelashes hold water droplets so carelessly. She swallowed once before continuing. "You were planning on running around my house in the buff, with nothing but a scrap of towel to keep you covered?"

"We used to do it all the time back at the base, Konan, the only girl, was never around so..."

"I'm around now!"

"I know, I forgot that you might mind, I'm sorry."

"Are any of the others going to think the same?" she asked, sounding a little sick. Kakuzu really freaked her out.

"Probably not, but I can't say for sure. I mean, it's not like we thought we had anything to hide-"

"Oh God, too much information!" she squealed, trying to fight the mental images. (This was so not appropriate for a married woman.)

"Sorry, un," he replied, blushing a bit at his embarrassing words. At least he had that much decency. "I won't forget next time, but it sort of doesn't matter now if you look at me or not, now I mean. that you look at me now when I'm wearing a towel, not that I would mind if you were to look at me when I wasn't, which you did, but I'm not cause I don't, I mean, because you would have a right in a way, not that I'm a freak for thinking like that but you did revive me and it's not like you oh Kami,...I'll shut up now."

"Yeah, that might be a good idea."

He nodded and followed her out, noticing how she never looked back at him even as he sneaked by to go out into the hallway. He did, however, stop in her doorway and turn around, still holding onto the fully white material that bunched around his waist and stopped before his knees. "Sakura?"

"Yeah?" she asked without looking back.

"Can we have a bonfire Thursday night? We'll be done by then and have leftover wood so we were thinking we could dig a pit or something and have a little fun."

"It's freezing outside."

"It is actually a pretty mild winter, we though, and there isn't going to be any snow soon. Plus the fire is going to be there to keep us warm, right?"

Sakura rubbed her face and turned around a little bit to peek at him from behind the edges of her fingers. If she though his face looked good when he was wet than his body looked beastly with the accenting gleam of shower water to complement every little divit and bulge she wouldn't have expected from someone as slender as he. But he had been working out with Kisame, and building the house addition without chakra was demanding work. All in all, the finished product was a little to fine for Sakura's tastes. It was as if she couldn't find anything wrong with him. Not good.

"I won't stop you if you want to do something like that, just make sure you're careful and keep it contained."

"We will."

Sakura swallowed and then nodded her head. "Yeah, okay then, that's fine."

The blond grinned wide, showing off how rakish he could look with just the right smile and loose hair. "Thanks, and don't worry, I won't let the others know you're a pervert."

she sputtered. "D-Deidara!"

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AN:/Holy cheese sticks on fry bread! I love you guys, There were so many helpful and encouraging reviews that made me smile and then feel bad for not updating this three months ago. This was overdue and I'm sorry for that. I wanted to get this out sooner. Itachi is always one of my favorite men to play with, er I mean, write about. Yeah. Umm...I like him and Sasori and Deidara a ton, but Sasori got his time in the last chapter so I had to make my rounds somehow. I guess no one was expecting something like that though. Poor Dei-kun, getting creeped on like that. Ahahaha...well, I hope you all enjoyed this.

Please REVIEW! It makes it worth the trouble and effort.