"Listen to me, Sakura," Itachi's eyes seemed to deepen in colour, her gaze magnetised to his, "You do not feel any pain."
And it was true, suddenly her neck didn't hurt at all. She reached up to touch the wound in shock, but he covered her hand with his own.
She could see Orochimaru and Kabuto staring over at them.
Her head felt heavy. She tipped it back, looking straight up at the sky.
Heat seared her throat, a sudden splash of agony. Fire licked at her throat and chin. Sakura knew the agony was there, but it didn't seem to matter all that much. Her limbs were heavy like her head, but the rest of her was floating.
"There. I've cauterised your wound. Stay here. Do not move."
"Get away from her!" Sasuke shouted, his voice ragged with emotion.
Itachi stood up, leaving Sakura kneeling on the ground, still wobbly from blood loss.
Sakura noticed Naruto, Anko and Kakashi in the distance, both jounin holding the boy in place and talking in urgent, low voices to him. His gaze was unfocused and filled with rage.
"Sasuke, he's just trying to help." Sakura wheezed, clutching her throat.
Itachi whipped round to glare at her, "Do not try to talk."
"Don't look in his eyes!" Sasuke shouted a warning, "He's not here to help, Sakura, he must be with them!" He pointed at Orochimaru and Kabuto, both watching the exchanges going on between the three of them with keen interest.
"No, Itachi and I cut all ties a while back, didn't we?" Orochimaru said silkily, "It was not the most pleasant of partings..."
Itachi did not spare him a glance, his eyes firmly on Sasuke. His younger brother glared back defiantly, his own eyes red, tomoes furiously spinning.
"If he is here for anyone, it must be the girl..." Orochimaru said, glancing between the brothers, his smirk becoming gleefully amused.
Sasuke's face drained of all remaining colour.
There was a long moment of silence as Itachi calmly surveyed the situation. Sakura could see Sasuke's entire body thrumming with contained tension, the desire to attack obvious in every inch of him.
Although the pain was nothing, she could feel her body curving forward, like a tree being battered by strong winds. Her palms hit the earth and she focused on staying mostly upright – balanced on her knees – rather than falling flat on her face.
Her breathing was strange, it felt as though there wasn't enough air no matter how deeply she breathed in. Her lungs ached. Her heart was pounding.
There was a strip of heat across her neck.
"Is this your answer for your lack of power, Sasuke?" Itachi nodded towards Orochimaru, his voice stripped bare of all emotion, flat and lifeless.
Sasuke's fists trembled, "You still haven't said why you're here."
"Not for you," Itachi said, coldly dismissive, "Why? Did you believe yourself important enough to warrant my attention? At the level you are now... weak. Pitiful."
Naruto growled. Sakura felt the hair on the back of neck rise. That angry, bestial sound was coming from Naruto? And Itachi was being so cruel... Sakura wondered briefly if there was a doppelgänger of Itachi running around. Nothing else made sense.
The growl had caught all of their attention, but Kakashi urgently spoke into Naruto's ear, a hand pushing down against his chest, and the growl quietened, sounding distant but still alarmingly present.
"Why. Are. You. Here?" Sasuke snarled.
"It appears one of my tools has been misused." Itachi said blithely, as one would talk about a pencil being blunted in their absence. His head slowly turned towards Orochimaru, whose smile became slightly manic in his attempt to appear unafraid. "I warned you once. I let you live. I believed you would not attempt to take what is mine again. Was I mistaken?"
Orochimaru made an attempt at a cocky smirk, "I did not come for the girl. Sasuke-kun interests me... another subject you and I disagree on, it seems."
"Do what you want with him." Itachi replied at once. Sakura couldn't help letting out a small gasp. "His life is of no consequence to me."
Sasuke stared down at his feet. He looked much younger than he was, his sadness and confusion laid bare on his face. Sakura could not stand the sight of how lost he looked.
Orochimaru's smirk flourished, "And the girl?"
"You claimed you did not come for her, and so she is of no consequence to you."
"That is true." The older nin nodded, licking his lips, his tongue only a fraction longer than average.
"However -"
Sakura blinked.
Kabuto was sprawled on the ground.
Itachi was in front of Orochimaru, holding him up by the neck and glaring straight into his frightened, glazed-over eyes.
Barely a second passed before Itachi dropped Orochimaru and returned to his place in front of Sakura.
" - You damaged my property." Itachi finished, an icy chill creeping into his tone. Sakura could not see his face. His body language was, as usual, unreadable.
Kabuto held Orochimaru up as he sagged, released from whatever genjutsu Itachi had held him in.
Orochimaru looked up and glared, enraged hate and agony on his face.
"You left Akatsuki without permission," Itachi said, "We have tolerated your defection, as you well know. If you do not interfere in our business, we will not interfere in yours."
For some reason, Orochimaru glanced at Naruto.
"If you intend to interfere, state it now and I will address the issue."
Orochimaru sneered, "Akatsuki's goals have never interested me. They lack... permanence. I underestimated you once, believing you were no more than a talented teenager. I will not make that mistake again."
"Then you are aware that I can, and will, kill you, should the need arise."
Orochimaru actually hissed. It should have been comical. It set Sakura's teeth on edge.
"I think, if that were case, you would have done so already." He replied.
"The need has not yet arisen." Itachi shrugged one shoulder carelessly, "That may change very soon. I suggest you leave."
"I need another host body soon, Itachi. Sasuke-kun needs power. I won't hesitate, when he comes to me." Orochimaru said balefully.
Kabuto's glasses flashed in the sunlight and then the both of them were gone, smoke rising from where they had stood. Instant transportation. It struck Sakura that Kabuto had not spoken at all in Itachi's presence. Perhaps he was cleverer than he looked.
Sakura thought Itachi might follow suit, vanishing into a puff of his own smoke, now that the danger had passed, but he simply turned to face her and put a hand under her chin, tilting her head up to examine her neck.
"Ah ah!" Anko called admonishingly, letting one hand slip from Naruto's shoulder, "Sasuke, get over here."
Sasuke had lunged forward, but at his sensei's warning tone he halted, his jaw working furiously.
"I should have been neater," Itachi murmured, red eyes scanning the burns on Sakura's neck, "This may scar."
"Sensei," Sakura said, her voice nothing but a hoarse whisper. She licked her lips and tried again, "Sensei, thank you, but – but you need to leave -"
With Orochimaru gone, Itachi seemed to have almost relaxed. It was as though Sasuke, Anko and Kakashi's threatening presences meant nothing to him. Let alone Naruto, with that sinister chakra flowing from him in waves.
After a hurried, quiet discussion with Anko, Kakashi broke away from Naruto and headed slowly over to Itachi and Sakura.
"What brings you here, Itachi?" Kakashi asked smoothly.
"I have no orders to kill you, Kakashi-san," Itachi said indifferently, "Walk away and you will keep your lives."
"What orders do you have?"
"That is not your business."
"Alright," Kakashi said affably, hands in pockets."So none of us are your targets and we aren't interfering in your mission. It stands to reason that we can all leave without a fight."
"No!" Sasuke burst out, "No, I'm going to kill him!"
"Sasuke, a smart shinobi learns to pick his battles," Kakashi said lightly, "You won't gain anything if this turns uglier than it already has. You might put us all in danger."
"He still hasn't said why he's here!"
"I made it clear enough. I asked you once to keep Sakura safe. She almost died in your care." Itachi looked up, meeting Kakashi's eyes. The older man flinched. "That is not going to happen again."
"Of course not," Kakashi said diplomatically, "We were not prepared for Orochimaru to show up, but next time we'll -"
"You misunderstand. Sakura will not be returning to Konoha with you." Itachi said, his tone brooking no argument.
Kakashi's friendly, amicable demeanour slipped for a brief moment. He stared down at Sakura, still kneeling on the ground, and his gaze hardened.
Sakura barely noticed his attention, her eyes fixed on Itachi's back.
What?
What was happening here?
"Itachi?" She whispered.
He didn't look back at her.
Sasuke was rooted to the spot, his eyes wide and afraid.
"Just try and take her," Anko's smile was all teeth, bared and pointed Itachi's way, "Two Sharingan-users, me, and this guy over here might have a thing or two to say about that." She had an arm slung around Naruto's neck. His red eyes were on Itachi.
Raban was sitting in a nearby tree, Sakura noticed. Merle wasn't with him.
"Interfere if you must," Itachi said coolly, "It will not matter."
"This is where I'm forced to disagree, Itachi," Kakashi said pleasantly, "Sakura has been very cagey about what happened to her whilst she was in your care for four years, but we've all drawn our own conclusions and some of us," He indicated Sasuke, who was clearly on the brink of apoplectic rage, "have good reason to believe that it is not in her best interests to repeat the experience."
Itachi shook his head.
"I did not spend so many years training her only to leave her in incompetent hands now."
"Why did you train her?" Kakashi asked, jumping on the opening Itachi had left him.
Itachi shot forwards, kunai inches from Kakashi's throat. To his credit, the older man was only a fraction too slow to block, his own kunai flung up to meet the blow a second later.
"Itachi!" Sakura tried to shout, managing a loud croak.
"Leave," Itachi said slowly, "or die. It is your choice."
Kakashi let out a quiet chuckle, "I'm sorry, but... I believe those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."
Then he angled his head, closed one eye and glared straight into Itachi's with the other, "So threaten me all you like. If you try to take Sakura, I will kill you or die trying!"
"A pity." Itachi commented, sounding truly regretful, "I dislike waste."
Sakura couldn't move. She felt unbearable tension welling up inside her. It was like waiting for a blow to connect. Itachi wouldn't do this. He wouldn't kill Kakashi.
She opened her mouth, tears dripping down her face. She strained hard, yet the only noise that issued from her throat was a hoarse rattle.
NO! Itachi, please, no!
She raised her shaking hands up to her throat.
"Focus your chakra and pump it to your hands." Ryouta had said, smiling.
"You aren't trying hard enough." Tsunade had sighed, disappointed.
Sakura breathed. Her chakra flowed. Her hands tingled.
"Itachi – don't – don't you fucking dare, I will kill you!" Sasuke roared.
Naruto bucked and strained against Anko's grip. She grimaced and pushed back.
Sakura touched the sticky, bloody mess of her throat and focused.
Breathe.
"It's all about careful transference of energy." Tsunade had advised her, "A little more and you've got it."
Itachi's eyes began to spiral dizzingly.
Sakura reached beneath the wound and smoothed what she found. Her vocal cords. She imagined reversing the damage, and the process began to unfold beneath her fingertips.
"Well done." She imagined her sensei saying proudly, giving her a rare smile.
Sakura let out a sob, fresh and new.
Naruto broke forward -
Sasuke's face contorted in rage -
Sakura got to her feet and flew towards Itachi and Kakashi.
"NO!" She screamed, reaching out for Itachi's cloak.
He turned slightly and she seized the material and pulled, augmenting the movement with chakra.
Itachi was caught off balance by her unexpected strength, but he twisted, regained his footing and threw her to the ground.
Anko caught Naruto by the neck and planted her knee in his back, toppling him in the middle of his enraged surge forward.
Sakura sprawled on the ground, between Kakashi and Itachi.
"Sensei," She said clearly, staring into his red, furious eyes, "No."
Sasuke appeared next to her and threw his arm out.
A swarm of snakes shot forth, colossal, writhing creatures all snapping and hissing. They wound around Itachi at once, some sinking their fangs into his flesh, others binding his limbs tightly.
Itachi met his brother's eyes, then erupted into a puff of smoke as the snakes constricted around him.
Sasuke tensed, eyes darting around.
Kakashi pulled him back at the last second as Itachi reappeared, fist nearly clipping Sasuke's face.
The snakes vanished and Sasuke leapt backwards.
Kakashi covered him, facing down Itachi.
He formed a seal and the river rose up, forming two dragon heads.
Itachi tilted his head.
In a flash, a different section of the river flew at Kakashi's dragons, the jutsu identical to Kakashi's.
The ground broke beneath Itachi's feet and Kakashi's hand reached for his ankle -
Itachi dodged almost lazily, releasing his jutsu just as Kakashi did, the river crashing back down in both places.
"A sloppy execution of misdirection." Itachi commented.
"Oh?" Kakashi smiled, his eyes crinkling.
The sun glinted off wires surrounding Itachi's feet.
And suddenly Anko was in the fray, breathing out an enormous burst of fire. It spread across the wires, racing towards Itachi.
Sakura felt a hand on her collar and the world lurched around her.
Itachi held her loosely, one arm around her middle.
"Sloppy." He repeated.
Anko let out an annoyed tch sound.
Sprays of fire shot towards them. Itachi's arm tightened around her and he evaded them all with ease.
Shuriken flew at them, partially-concealed by the flames.
Itachi threw a barrage of his own so quickly Sakura's eyes could not follow what happened, she could only hear the sound of metal clashing against metal.
And then Sasuke was right before them, eyes blazing with righteous fury.
Sakura kicked out at Sasuke on instinct. He blocked the kick and threw a investigative punch, his eyes searching her own. She looked away and dodged the punch.
The fight was short and half-hearted. Sakura got the feeling Itachi was allowing it to happen.
"Sasuke, I'm fine. None of you need to fight, so stop." Sakura said firmly, shoving Sasuke away, a little rougher than before.
"I told you I would kill him," Sasuke said angrily, "Get out of the way. This is something I have to do!"
"I would have died for your freedom!" Sakura said sharply, her voice ringing out.
Sasuke flinched, his eyes dropping to the marks on her neck.
"Orochimaru slit my throat because I refused to be leverage against you. I chose that! Listen to me now – you can't kill Itachi. It's stupid to even try. If you, if all of you," She looked up, glaring at Sasuke, Kakashi and Anko, "are fighting to stop Itachi from taking me, stop right now. I don't want any of you to get hurt because of me. So stop."
"You expect us to just let him take you?!" Sasuke snapped incredulously.
"No, but -"
Itachi's hand wrapped around her mouth.
Sasuke shot forward, his passage immediately barred by a clone of Itachi.
Itachi gently pulled her head backwards, her neck straining. His mouth touched her ear.
"You implicate yourself, Sakura," He breathed, barely audible, "You expect to bargain with me regarding your right to return to Konoha, but if I were to capitulate easily to your demands, you would make our relationship clear. You would be mistrusted by Konoha even more so than now."
His other hand slowly caressed her stomach, an implicitly sexual move. Sasuke's hackles raised.
To the others, it looked as though he was whispering in her ear whilst stroking her creepily. He didn't want her to force him into an impasse in front of them, he wanted to look like an abusive mentor attempting to take back his student.
Sakura shook in anger. The hand against her mouth was bad enough, but did he have to add a sexual edge to this farce? Was he mocking her feelings for him?
"You will ask me to allow you to stay. I cannot." Itachi whispered.
A squawk of outrage sounded above them as Merle flew at Itachi's face. He released Sakura and dodged the crow.
Merle shouted something, her voice faint in the wind.
Itachi moved to pull Sakura back, but she retreated, glaring daggers at him.
Before she could blink, Itachi seized her wrists and yanked her towards him. She collided with his chest.
"I have no choice." He murmured.
She replied, her voice low and ragged, "You could trust me to make my own decisions."
"If you cease to be of use to me, Sakura, I will kill you." Itachi said coldly, his voice loud enough for the others to hear.
Despite knowing Itachi was bluffing, Sakura couldn't help but flinch. He said it so easily... without any reservation or hesitation...
Anko pulled the kunai out of Naruto's shoulder. The sudden burst of pain made him howl and snap at her.
Itachi glanced at him.
Sakura punched Itachi in the face.
For his threat, feigned or otherwise, and for stubbornly trying to rule her life even at the expense of others.
He must have seen it coming the second she had decided to do it, and yet he had allowed it.
His head snapped back under the force of her blow.
Sakura shuddered under the weight of the bloodlust she sensed rolling towards her. That wasn't... that couldn't be Itachi...
A red-black blur knocked her to the ground.
Sakura gasped as a burning, growling mass of malevolent chakra pinned her down. She could see claws digging into her arms, but the pain was nothing.
The head of the creature was pointed towards Itachi and it was growling loudly in his direction.
Two snakes wound their way around the creature's middle, gently lifting it into the air. Its jaws snapped angrily, its nails ripping through the snakes. It landed on Sakura, face close enough now its breath seared her skin.
Sasuke cursed, his snakes disappearing. His eyes were on Itachi even now.
The older man calmly knelt down next to her head and met the creature's eyes.
"No! Naruto!" Sasuke yelled.
Itachi's clone blocked his way once more.
Naruto?
After a moment, the bloodlust faded and Itachi moved back.
Sakura wriggled out from under Naruto, who was changing back to normal rapidly. She could see his blue eyes blinking confusedly.
He looked up and noticed Itachi. His face slackened in shock.
"What?" He rubbed his face, "What's going on?"
"What did you do?" Sasuke stared at his brother.
Itachi silently took Sakura's hand and gently pulled her closer to him.
"No! You aren't leaving, with or without her!" Sasuke snarled, "You're gonna tell me why you took her in the first place and – and why you killed our clan!"
"You know why," Itachi said slowly, "To test my strength."
"Why take Sakura, then?!"
"I found a young girl who seemed to be attached to you. I believed she might one day be important to you, so I trained her to keep her alive. Then, if you ever showed your face to me whilst lacking hatred, weak, I would have a tool to break in front of you. In the meantime, I used her as I saw fit."
Sasuke lunged for him and this time, no one impeded him.
Itachi effortlessly dodged his fist and slammed his knee into his chin. Sasuke cried out, blood spewing from his mouth.
Sakura made an aborted move to intervene, cut off when Naruto snarled and joined the fight.
Neither of them could lay a hand on Itachi.
Naruto landed painfully on his side after Itachi kicked him in the chest. Sasuke stepped back and blew fire in Itachi's face. Itachi instantly copied the jutsu and blocked the fire with his own.
Kakashi and Anko circled, watching for openings.
Sakura couldn't catch her breath. She felt winded, broken open.
Blood from his last fight with Orochimaru still coated Sasuke's mouth and chin, dried and flaking now. Fresh blood dribbled from his lips.
"This is all you have to show for your years of training?" Itachi taunted, sinking his fist into Sasuke's stomach, "If I believe you are too weak, you know who will pay for it..."
Sasuke made an incoherent noise of rage and tried to tackle Itachi.
Sakura was focusing on breathing in and out. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she was suffering from losing too much blood. Her heart was violently pounding.
Itachi knocked Sasuke down in front of her and froze as he met her eyes accidentally.
Sakura slowly, deliberately, stood over Sasuke's fallen form and stared up at his brother defiantly.
Itachi lowered his fists.
She swayed on her feet, hands out for balance and to indicate that no, she was not going to tolerate Itachi hurting his little brother.
"Go home, Itachi," She panted, "Y-you might be able t-to fight me, but I know... I won't fight you. S-so I won't defend myself. I'll j-just stand here and t-take it."
Kakashi and Anko closed in on them, both looking wary.
Sakura was on the ground before she knew it.
She pushed herself back onto her feet with some difficulty.
"This isn't real." Itachi said quietly.
There was nothing but darkness spreading out for miles all around them.
"Genjutsu?" Sakura asked.
Itachi nodded.
"There are so many things I want to tell you," He said, sounding tortured, "but I can't. I shouldn't even be using this technique to talk to you... Three times in one day is more than my limit. I will suffer for this."
"Why hurt Sasuke?" Sakura asked, her voice very small and quiet.
"I can't tell you."
"Do you not love him?"
"I can't tell you."
"What can you tell me?" Sakura snapped, frustrated.
"I love you." Itachi said with utter sincerity.
Tears pricked Sakura's eyes.
"You can tell me that," Sakura laughed, wiping her eyes, "I don't understand you."
"I know."
"I didn't know you... well I didn't know you felt that way. I mean I guessed, with the face-touching and – and -" Sakura couldn't quite look him in the eyes.
He took her hands gently and laid a kiss upon her tear-stained cheek.
"I am sorry for what I had to do today. I wish I could have spared you the sight of me like that. I needed to save you and I prized that above all else."
"You have to leave me behind, Itachi," Sakura said quietly, everything inside her rebelling at the decision, "I abandoned them all once. I can't do it again."
"And yet, you abandon me." Itachi sighed, but he was smiling, "I hope you know the consequences of this choice."
"If you leave me behind after I asked you to, it will look as though we are allied in some way. Konoha will be suspicious of me. I understand."
"If they hurt you at all, you will send me a message." Itachi ordered, stroking her hair, "And I will take you back and that will be the end of it."
Sakura nodded.
"I don't want to undo the command I gave you not to feel pain," Itachi said, sounding a little sad and regretful, "It's hardly something I wish for you to feel."
"If it helps, I still feel it, but it just doesn't register."
Itachi's smile was wry, "That does not help."
His forehead touched hers and he wrapped his arms around her.
"You are going to wake up now." He said quietly.
And she did, tears in her eyes, the warmth of his touch still in her skin.
Fun fact:
The little page dividers I do manually, carefully tapping x eight times. I live in fear that I have miscounted.
The chapter titles are all John Green quotes. They're running out! Say more stuff, John!
This was a very, very difficult chapter, but I feel if I rewrite it any more I'll never publish it, so here it is!
At first I was plotting hard, thinking of how Orochimaru and Itachi were going to fight. But I did my research, and apparently Orochimaru and Itachi have fought before and the last time they did, Itachi tortured Orochimaru mentally and cut off his hand, forcing him to get a new host body. I thought it would be suicidally dumb of Orochimaru to attack Itachi, and so the two of them barely came to blows in the end. I toyed with the idea of Itachi killing Orochimaru, but I figured he had spared him in canon for a reason, so I left it be.
Anko and Kakashi are somewhat frustratingly passive in this chapter. That's mostly because of their struggle to keep Kyuubi!Naruto from rampaging (a bad idea all round) but also because I wanted to show the difference between them and the genin/chuunin. They stepped in when necessary and tried everything to get a peaceful solution, unlike the kids rushing in and getting their little arses kicked. All of them are still shaken and wearied from their nasty bout of Orochimaru's genjutsu.
I believe Itachi could have picked Sakura up and vanished with her from the start.
But her consent is important to him and he did NOT want to leave Orochimaru and a Kyuubified Naruto alone with Sasuke. He does still love him. So he stuck around until they were dealt with.
In the manga, when the Kyuubi starts taking over Naruto, Sasuke uses his Sharingan to travel into Naruto's mind, then forces the Kyuubi back into his cage. I assumed whatever Sasuke could do, Itachi could do better, so he did the same thing in this fic when Naruto got a little handsy with Sakura.
He beat Sasuke up because he didn't want his suspiciously tender behaviour around Sakura to alert Sasuke, and also to reinforce his desire for revenge.
I accidentally wrote that Itachi killed Merle rather than dodge her, then seriously considered leaving it in. I don't write all character death like that I SWEAR
She had only just arrived, furiously winging it over, only to see Itachi holding Sakura in a somewhat painful-looking position, so she zoomed in to deliver some feathery justice.
Itachi's Villain Speech to Sasuke is paraphrased from the original story.
I also considered writing this chapter from Itachi's perspective.
Sakura's dizziness, racing heart and general icky feeling are all the result of blood loss.
Too much blood loss pushes the body into shock.
Shock can kill.
Very bad.
Burns can also send you into shock.
Sakura's neck is not very pretty right now.
Not feeling pain might seem a bonus, but like it or not, pain is the body's way of highlighting damage. Wouldn't want Sakura to get drunk one night and then hobble home on a broken leg without realising it!
The dubious sexual connotations in Itachi's behaviour with Sakura were his attempts to 1) piss Sasuke off even more and 2) make it obvious that he was not kind to Sakura.
Hello, I'm Itachi and I am so very fast. So fast, in fact, that I canonically can fight so quickly that my movements CANNOT BE SEEN BY THE NAKED EYE. NO. NOT EVEN BY SHARINGAN SOMETIMES. This made for a lot of 'Sakura could not see the movement' moments.
Gah.
Just wanted to point out, in the original story, Sakura cuts Itachi's throat.
NOW LOOK AT HER.
KARMA.
I don't know science, medicine or anything, so if it seems I got ANYTHING wrong regarding injuries or healitude... I'm wrong.
You know what I love?
Itachi, in canon, didn't want to fight Gai.
Gai is such a goddamn badass.
Too taijutsu for YOU, Uchiha.
He was also reluctant to fight Jiraiya, and believed if they did fight, they'd only succeed in killing each other.
I love Jiraiya.
Quick poll for fun: Imagine you were a shinobi (or just a citizen!) in the Narutoverse and describe yourself!
I would WANT to be a Hyuuga, for the all-seeing eyes and pretty kimonos, but they'd kick me out for being clumsy. Also the hierarchy kinda freaks me out.
I'd probably end up an Inuzuka, if only because DOGS DOGS DOGS I LOVE DOGS
I'd fail the Academy and end up working at the library or something.
And then die in Pain's invasion.
Goddammit.
P.S. Itachi finally told Sakura he loves her.