Chapter 24 - Playback
I do not kick puppies.
Sakura arrived on the scene just in time to hear Itachi's serious statement. For just a second she stared at the scene; furious Hana on her behind in the grass, affronted Itachi with a puppy in his grip. Then she started laughing.
It was so absurd. She doubled over holding her cramping stomach - being out of breath from rushing and then laughing definitely wasn't a good cocktail. Not that she ever expected Itachi to kick puppies, especially not the Itachi she'd come to know... No, not even Uchiha Itachi the mass murderer had she ever imagined kicking puppies, it seemed somehow beneath him. She snickered; he looked so deeply insulted.
Oo o oO
Hana quickly got to her feet and snatched Shiru back from Itachi who turned to Sakura with annoyance. Was it her imagination or was Itachi's cheeks turning slightly red? She squinted but couldn't see anything because his bangs were covering his face from the new angle.
"Sakura, you're late."
Sakura looked up her green eyes still full of mirth and a hand hiding her mouth. It was the first time Hana had seen her in person and she was startled to realize her hair actually was pink. She didn't really know what she had expected, but seriously what kind of shinobi had pink hair? It was way too recognizable. For once rumors hadn't been exaggerating.
"I'm sorry Itachi, there were some complications with my last patient."
Hana watched numbly as they easily, carelessly exchanged small talk when Itachi (Itachi!) asked her to go into details. Sakura would still occasionally work to fight off laughter which seemed to annoy Itachi slightly but otherwise they were completely comfortable. They were not the least bit awkward as a girl and boy their age should be. It was so unfair!
The Inuzuka absently petted Shiru still in her arms. It seemed they had completely forgotten she existed. She felt a weight on her leg and looked down to see Hagane leaning on her. He looked up and whined. Yes, she still had the three of them and she loved them with all her heart, it was just... Wait a minute: Shiru in her arms, Hagane by her right leg, where was Tatsu?
She spotted him immediately; tail wagging on his way to greet the newcomer.
Traitor!
Oo o oO
"And then we had to..."
The pink haired girl looked down when she felt something bump into her leg. She looked down and her heart promptly melted. The little grey puppy was all wagging tail and big brown eyes. How could she resist that?
Sakura crouched down and reached out to pet the soft-looking fur.
"Tatsu!" Her hand froze mid-motion at Hana's call as did the dog. His ears went flat and his tail stopped wagging. Retracting her hand Sakura looked up to see the Inuzuka eyeing her puppy sternly.
"What kind of nin-dog are you? You know you're not supposed to go to strangers," she scolded with her hands on her hips. The puppy, Tatsu apparently (Sakura wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between them), whined pitifully and gave his owner the kicked puppy look as he made his way back to her.
Sakura's green met Hana's brown and she was stunned at the intense dislike in the other's eyes. It lasted only a moment before it was hidden behind a cringeworthy false smile. Confusedly Sakura quirked her lips in her own sad excuse for a smile.
Annoyance or anger Sakura could understand. They had after all been rude not to do introductions earlier, but dislike indicated something personal. The preteen couldn't for the life of her imagine, what she could have done to warrant such feelings. They hadn't even met before!
While she'd hadn't had much to do with Kiba's older sister in her own time, she had never struck her as the kind to care too much about formalities. The still missing introductions couldn't be the reason then.
Itachi ever the polite one moved to correct the matter.
"Hana-san, I don't believe you've met..."
"No need for introductions," Hana remarked cutting Itachi off still smiling that sickly sweet smile. Sakura's eyes flashed to the boy to see his reaction, but the only sign he'd been rather rudely interrupted was the small crease between his brows.
"I doubt there's a soul in the entire village who hasn't heard of Sakura-san by no," she continued and glanced in the other girls direction, "and her looks are very characteristic."
Sakura's attention snapped back to Hana with a twitch of her eye. Was that a jab at her hair? The self satisfied smile assured her that, yes, it was a jab at her hair. Inner Sakura screamed bloody murder, but she couldn't exactly jump the girl after she'd waved off their own rudeness.
Still it served to cement the fact that evidently Inuzuka Hana hated her guts. Sakura could have accepted it if there were any apparent reasons whatsoever; like with the people at the hospital, she could understand why some of them would dislike her there, but this was unreasonable! She would not take this lying down.
"Well, I better get going," the Inuzuka said. "Nice meeting you. Bye Itachi-san."
Sakura quickly chorused her own sickly sweet agreement while Itachi nodded in acknowledgement. His brows were still furrowed in thought.
Sakura waited until Hana was out of normal hearing range but still quite within the range of her enhanced Inuzuka senses before clapping her hands together and turning to the Uchiha.
"Alright Itachi, I hope you had a good warm up."
Sakura's lips split deviously as she could practically feel the other girl tensing up behind her back. Sakura: 1, Hana: 0.
Oo o oO
Sakura and Itachi was walking leisurely home from their spar. The girl was starting to worry as the Uchiha had been more silent than usual today.
"What was that about?"
"Huh?" Was her intelligent answer as she looked up at the blank faced chunin.
"You and Hana-san, if you had been cats you would have been hissing at each other?"
Sakura sighed.
"Oh, you noticed. She doesn't like me."
"Obviously," Itachi deadpanned, "the hostility was so thick I could have swum in it. What I want to know is why?"
She froze in her tracks. The near accusation in his voice was like a stab to her heart; he thought she had done something. Irritation and anger rose to protect her vulnerability.
"I didn't do anything!" she lashed angrily feeling her her clenched fists tremble, "I've never even talked with her before today!"
Quickly realizing his mistake Itachi threw up his hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." He ran a hand through his bangs. "It's just that I've known Hana since we were both five years old. She's always been a very straightforward person. If she doesn't like someone she'll say it to their face."
He sighed, "I've never seen her act like that."
And he was very disturbed by it, Sakura mentally added. He was questioning what he knew of Hana and it was making him frustratingly uncertain of where he had her. She was obviously someone he felt he knew. Sakura hadn't missed his lack of honorific to Hana's name either. Itachi didn't have all that many friends and even fewer he admitted to himself were friends.
She hadn't realized because the only thing he'd displayed was a barely noticeable frown. Stupid boy, she thought fondly. For Itachi's sake she would play nice with Hana and try not to give the girl any real reasons to dislike her. Even if it would try her patience, it was the least she could do.
Sakura gave Itachi as small smile, telling him she understood and he gave a half smile in return.
The walked the rest of the way in companionable silence.
Oo o oO
May of the seventh year after Kyubi's attack came around. The weather was gradually becoming warmer and the operation rooms at the hospital were becoming unbearable. The sharp lamps gave off their own heat and the sterilized smock she had to wear on top of her own clothing did exactly help.
A friendly nurse wiped the sweat off her brow and Sakura focused back onto the open abdomen of her patient. This retired shinobi had colon cancer and chakra stimulated healing was banned on cancer patients. The sped up cell growth did after all heighten risks of mutations and eventually cancer development, so using something that heightened the risk of more mutations on a patient who already had known cancerous mutations in his body was just stupid, which was the reason why the patient had been scheduled for a more traditional open surgery.
It was a rather simple procedure. They just had to take out the section of colon that had the tumor and the nearest lymphatic nodes to determine if the cancer had spread and then sew the two ends back together. If all went well and the cancer hadn't spread elsewhere the patient was cured.
Simple procedure, but it still required more concentration from Sakura's side than she was used to. With her chakra she could have scanned the body and found the affected area within seconds, now she was relying on the faint black markings they'd made the day before with the colonoscopy. It wasn't helping that Fumio who was overseeing the procedure kept asking her personal questions.
"How did you come to be Tsunade-sama's apprentice?"
"I asked her," she grunted focused on the piece of digestive tract she was cutting out.
"You said you came from Rain, right?"
Sakura frowned and burned shut a bleeding artery before looking up seriously. She did not appreciate the interrogation.
"Look Fumio-san, this is not the time at all to be talking about my origin. Besides, I fail to see how it concerns you in any way."
That shut up the the overzealous Head Medic and Sakura was allowed to focus on the procedure uninterrupted.
Oo o oO
Sakura was just exiting when Mikoto stuck her head out into the hallway.
"Are you going to the hospital? I thought today was your day off?"
"It is, I'm just heading into the village." Sakura smiled, she was actually going to meet up with Naruto. Her crazy hospital schedule hadn't allowed much free time and she hadn't seen much of him.
"Oh," Mikoto replied and stepped fully into the hallway still holding and absently drying a dish from breakfast. "Perhaps you wouldn't mind looking after Sasuke then?"
Before Sakura had a chance to reply, the woman continued; "I'm really sorry to ask this of you. I know you've been terribly busy lately, but the leaders of the trading union are coming over for dinner tonight and I won't have time to look after him. Normally Itachi would help out, but he just came home from a mission early this morning and I'd rather let him sleep." She breathed in deeply having said all that in one breath.
Sakura nearly sweat-dropped. It had to be a rather important meeting to gear Mikoto up like that.
"Really Mikoto-chan, it's no problem," she assured.
Oo o oO
Sasuke was skipping beside her, not walking but skipping. She'd never thought she'd see that. While she really should be used to this Sasuke and shouldn't be surprised at the fact that he acted like a happy kid with excess energy, because that was what he was, she couldn't help it. The broody Sasuke she had known would always be in the back of her mind.
"Where are we going?" Sasuke piped up, interrupting her thoughts.
With a small shake of her head she focused back on the present.
"I'm going to buy a book and then I thought we could go to the playground."
"Playground?" the boy voiced uncertainly coming to a halt.
Sakura turned to him with wide eyes, surely that didn't mean...
"You've never been to the playground?"
The young Uchiha shook his head and for a moment the girl was at a loss. Then she remembered how sheltered Sasuke was. The boy spent most of his time in the compound. Mikoto was teaching him the basic reading, writing and math so he didn't even go to school (but then again most kids of shinobi parents didn't, they were home schooled until they were enrolled in the academy).
Mikoto was a busy woman with a house to keep and responsibilities of the clan leader's wife. Itachi did take Sasuke out of the compound now and then, but the chunin was unlikely to have been to a playground himself and Fugaku presumably hadn't either - it was difficult enough to imagine him as a kid, imagining him as a kid on a playground would be sure to give her an aneurysm.
She smiled at Sasuke. It would be good for him.
"It really is about time then."
Oo o oO
Sakura was met with a loud happy 'Sakura onee-chan' the moment they entered the playground. She braced herself for the oncoming full body tackle Naruto had a tendency to bestow her, but it never came. Slack jawed she stared as Sasuke intercepted the blonde with a shove that sent him sprawling to the ground.
"Sakura can not be your nee-chan, she is my nee-chan," the young Uchiha pout-glared.
Sakura slapped a hand to her forehead. She had not expected this. Foolishly the part of her brain prone to optimism had thought Naruto and Sasuke would get along, now that Sasuke didn't carry all that emotional baggage and was generally a happier person.
It was true. Sasuke was nicer, happier and more approachable, but he was also a spoiled brat used to getting his way. Being the only kid his age in the entire Uchiha compound he'd never really spent time with other children; the concept of sharing wasn't exactly part of the traditional Uchiha upbringing.
Naruto being Naruto would not take that kind of behavior, especially not when it involved his precious people. He would fight nail and tooth - and that's what he did.
Oo o oO
For a moment the blonde sat on his behind staring wide-eyed at the dark haired kid who'd come out of nowhere. He couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened. Then Sasuke's words registered in his brain.
Blue orbs glistened and he blinked back tears. He would not take this. His jaw clenched and his lips tightened into a thin line. A low angry growl was uttered before he launched himself at the older boy with the battle cry of; "teme!"
Sasuke not expecting retaliation got his air knocked out of him, when his back collided with the hard ground. Dazed he was too slow to avoid the first punch from the blonde on his stomach.
Pain brought his senses back and he let his instincts take over. Using his greater size to his advantage he quickly reversed their position and threw a punch of his own.
Sakura watched them roll around in the dirt contemplating absently whether she should stop them or just let them wear themselves out. They were Naruto and Sasuke - apparently doomed to the most demented friendship ever.
A sharp yelp from Sasuke pulled her from her musings. She turned to see Naruto with his teeth clamped down on Sasuke's lower arm - and he was not letting go.
Enough was enough.
Stepping forward she roughly pulled them apart by the scruffs of their necks. They were still trying to get back in the other's face! She shook them roughly to get them to focus on her.
"Alright Sasuke, apologize to Naruto right this moment," she scolded. The words felt almost strange in her mouth and it was such a weird contrast to what she would have said if she was her original 11 year old self.
Sasuke looked at her shock and betrayal written in his big dark innocent eyes. Such drama but he was not fooling her.
"He bit me," he protested scandalized showing off his marked arm.
"He wouldn't have done that if you hadn't pushed him in the first place. What kind of nonsense was that anyway about me not being his nee-chan? I don't think that is for you to decide, ne?"
Sasuke's face had gradually gone redder in embarrassment, while his lips were going steadily whiter as he pushed them together.
"Apologize," she repeated and gave him another firm shake to show she was serious. The fight went out of him, he could feel she was not relenting.
"I'm sorry," he said guiltily meaning it, and even though it was more directed at her than Naruto she let it go.
She snapped her head in Naruto's direction just in time to catch the smug expression before he managed to look innocent. Her frown deepened.
"Naruto apologize to Sasuke for biting him, that did cross the line."
The blonde immediately opened his mouth to protest, but then realized the futility of it and closed it again. He stared at Sasuke with a sour look, the other boy meeting it with a glare of his own. The preteen felt the urge to smack her forehead once more as Inner Sakura conjured up imaginary lightning between them to match the intensity.
Breaking eye contact Naruto looked away with a pout and grumbled; "sorry."
Three things happened in close succession.
One, Sasuke immediately pointed at him and yelled accusingly; "He didn't meant that!"
Two, Naruto stuck his tongue out rudely.
Three, Sakura smacked them both atop their heads.
Having gained their undivided attention she smiled saccharinely sweet.
"Now that everyone has apologized and made up, I will go over to that tree and read my book." Sakura pointed out a tree by the edge of the playground. Doing her best imitation of Yamato's scary face, she added in an ominous whisper;
"Play nice."
Getting back upright she ruffled both their mops of unruly hair lovingly as she left them staring frozenly at her back.
"Sakura nee-chan can be real scary sometimes, ne?" little Naruto whispered glancing at Sasuke when Sakura was safely out of hearing distance. The Uchiha nodded numbly. For a moment they just stared at each other, before remembering they were supposed to hate the other. With a simultaneous humph they turned their backs.
Oo o oO
Why had Sakura nee-chan brought that bastard along? It was obvious that he was completely unlikable and she expected Naruto to play with him?
Naruto's shoulders fell and he glanced backwards where the other had his back turned, shoulders stiff. It was plain the sour boy didn't want to play with him.
The blonde puffed out his cheeks before letting the air go. He clenched his chin stubbornly. He didn't need anyone to play with. He'd had plenty of fun by himself before. He didn't need anyone. Maybe if he repeated it enough times he would actually start believing it himself.
Setting his sight on a free swing he marched decidedly towards it.
Oo o oO
A momentary panic rose in Sasuke as the other boy started to walk away. The young Uchiha was never left alone, and definitely not in places he'd never been before. This place was crawling with foreign kids and he didn't dare go to Sakura with the mood she'd been in. It made Naruto the only remotely familiar person in the vicinity.
He'd only managed to walk a few paces in the same direction as the blonde, when he spun around accusingly. Sasuke's anxious features were quickly masked by indifference.
"Stop following me!" He pointed animatedly at the raven.
"Hn, as if I would follow an idiot like you," he replied smartly. Much to Sasuke's amusement the boy's face went tomato red and he almost chuckled (only almost, he had a facade to keep up after all) as he could practically see steam coming out of the other's ears.
Just as Sasuke thought the kid would blow into another attack on him, he just let out his breath with a small wave of his hand. Acting as if Sasuke wasn't worth his time he turned back around, stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked with long strides. A gait the Uchiha would probably have found hilarious if not for the fact that the other boy was ignoring him!
Nobody ignored Uchiha Sasuke.
Narrowing his eyes he promptly mimicked the other's motions and followed in his footsteps. He'd taken no more than three steps when Naruto halted again, Sasuke following suit. He promptly took a nonchalant stance, hands still in his pockets and looked to the side. Naruto looked back over his shoulder with a frown for a few seconds.
Almost experimentally he faced forward and took two steps to the right. He heard a couple steps behind him then looked over his shoulder again. Sasuke was still behind him, just two steps to the right from his previous position, standing the same way as before. Naruto looked ahead and couldn't quite hide the grin from his face. He didn't know it but Sasuke was grinning just as widely when he darted forward in a complicated pattern to challenge the Uchiha.
Oo o oO
Sakura sighed in exasperation from her position at the tree where she was pretending to read her new book. Everything between those two had to turn into a contest of some sort. They'd gone from their little mimic game to hide and seek, to tag to a combination of hide and seek and tag. Sasuke was faster than Naruto, but the blonde was surprisingly adept at hiding considering his bright orange shorts.
Still their tendency for rivalry just made their games feel that more right to Sakura. For the first time she really felt at home, her team was complete for the first time in years.
It was almost a shame that she couldn't grace her book (limited edition version of Medical Shinobi Issues of the Contradiction, just came out today and limited because the authorities drew it back due to the critical points it made about being both a healer and a killer) with the attention it deserved, but she'd much rather watch the two boys.
Naruto's eyes shone with a glee Sakura could never really put there by herself. He needed to spend time and play with kids his own age. The same could be said for Sasuke, who might have a loving family, but no experience with other children. Having an older sister figure, and in Sasuke's case an older brother, was all well and good, but they needed friends. Especially now that she and Itachi's free time was getting increasingly sparse.
Oo o oO
Casting a look at the position of the sun, Sakura realized it was time to get home and Sasuke cleaned up before the important dinner with the trading union leaders, Mikoto had been stressed about earlier. The formerly full playground was rapidly emptying as parents came to pick up their kids for dinner.
She found the two boys in the middle of a contest to see who could walk the longest on their hands. With devious smile, she appeared between them and grabbed an ankle of each before lifting. The boys spluttered and struggled in consternation, while Sakura tried to both laugh and keep them in the air so that they wouldn't fall on their heads.
"It's time to leave Sasuke-chan," she managed between giggles.
"Oh," Sasuke replied in obvious disappointment before glancing at Naruto who quickly turned his own distinctly crestfallen face away.
The girl gently set them down to the ground, feeling guilty for spoiling their fun. She embraced Naruto with a whispered promise she would see him soon before standing up and walking a few steps towards the exit.
Sasuke stood up and followed her a few steps before hesitating. Then he walked over to Naruto who was getting back on his feet as well. With a grim expression he punched the other boys shoulder lightly. The blonde looked up confusedly.
"That's for biting me," he announced before he slipped into a smile momentarily. The dark haired boy turned around quickly, missing Naruto's answering grin and ran to catch up with Sakura.
They were halfway to the exit when the jinchuriki's loud voice cut through the near abandoned playground.
"Goodbye Teme!"
Sakura pretended she didn't see how Sasuke's lips quirked a bit. He was doing his best to remain stoic and she thought it was cute. They were near the Uchiha compound, when Sasuke spoke in a neutral tone clearly mimicked from his brother.
"I wouldn't mind going to the playground again."
Author's note:
I shall use this space today to shamelessly promote a picture I drew of Itachi:
http : / / mokulule. deviantart. Com / gallery /9560076# / d3kfuto
Just remove the spaces and the link should be good to go. It's from a future scene in Wish where Itachi is smiling at Sakura. Personally I think he's extraordinarily cute in the picture, but alas you may see for yourselves.
Also, yay for two months worth of summer break! :D