Chapter 25 – Something New

Something she was beginning to really love?

Being utterly vulnerable around Itachi.

It was something Sakura just couldn't get her head around and she loved it. She loved how he made her feel, how he truly listened to her when she spoke, how she felt so small and fragile when he held her. Another thing Sakura adored, was the way Itachi had started to look at her. Usually he kept his features and eyes impassive, but when it was just the two of them, he looked at her like she was the most precious being in his life. If the hopeless romantic side of her was taking over, Sakura would even say that he looked at her like he lived only for her. That was quite a stretch, though.

"Tell me something about yourself that I don't already know," Sakura whispered against his chest, eyes closed with content.

The night had been incredibly long for the both of them. After the funeral, Itachi had taken her home where they both took a quick breather, before getting in the shower and redressing for the meal with his parents. Only, it hadn't just been Fugaku and Mikoto there. There had also been Sasuke as well as a few of the elders. Itachi hadn't known about it until Sasuke met them at the gates of the district, warning them about the elders being there, too. He'd even asked Sakura if she wanted to leave it for another night, to which she'd replied with, "What's the point? They'll probably be there another night, too. Let's just get this over with". Itachi had smiled at her.

It had been a decent enough night. A bit too tense for it to be comfortable, but what else could she have expected? There had been many questions and Sakura had quickly learned to only speak when spoken to, which was something Mikoto had quietly pulled her aside and told her the moment Sakura stepped through the door.

"I have not celebrated Christmas since the age of eight."

Sakura's eyes snapped open. "What?"

Running his hand through Sakura's hair, Itachi sighed. "After the age of eight, due to how many missions I was and still am being sent on, I have never been home for Christmas."

Which would also explain and be another reason for his lack of relationship or love life, considering the fact that Christmas Eve was thought of more as a romantic day shared by couples, where they exchanged gifts and spent time together. Sakura had only spent one Christmas Eve with a partner and that had been Gaara, and he hadn't really believed much in the holiday, as well as not in Christmas Day (it didn't really count, anyway, as it had been the night they discovered the attraction between them).

Sakura placed her elbows on either side of Itachi's body and used them to push herself up and lean on, so she could look down at him. "Did you ever wish that it could be different?"

Silence, until, "I had never truly thought about it. If I was on a mission, then I was on a mission. It is always imperative to complete your mission, even if it is Christmas." There was a pause, one where he watched Sakura's eyes as she looked at him sadly. "It wasn't until we told each other of our feelings that I have had other thoughts on the matter."

That was something Sakura had picked up on. Whenever Itachi was unsure of something, he spoke much more properly, or sometimes even eloquently. Probably a habit of his, as it made little sense to do such a thing. "I think you'd really like spending Christmas in Konoha again, Itachi," she told him softly. "There's a big festival on Christmas Eve, one where it's all games and dancing and festivities for children and as the night goes on and the children go home, it becomes more intimate, more for couples." Sakura shook her head and smiled gently. "It's beautiful, especially if it's snowing."

His little lover was such a hopeless romantic.

"I think the best part about it is when the festival begins to quiet down as the night goes on, and the couples get to see their lovers when it turns midnight. They're the first person they see on Christmas Day, so even if they don't spend Christmas Day together, they still see each other for a short while."

Itachi held back his sudden urge to chuckle at the love-stricken look in Sakura's eyes and instead settled on smirking up at her. "If I were to make sure I am free for Christmas Eve and Day, would you like to spend those days with me?"

Sakura's look faded away and she bit her lip, looking down at him impishly. "Hm, I don't know. My suitors won't be too happy about that."

"Neither would my fan-girls."

She leaned closer to him, her smile more obvious and harder to fight back as she did. "You would have to put up with me all day on Christmas Eve, even though I'll be extremely hopeless and lost in the romance of it all."

Once more, Itachi smirked. "I wouldn't mind putting up with you for not only Christmas Eve, but also Christmas Day. Even if you are extremely hopeless and lost in the romance of it all." Her smile widened, as did the warmth in both of their eyes. "Is that a yes?"

"What do you think?" Sakura smirked, brushing her lips to his.

He thought that that was a very good answer.

They were on a break from missions and other duties due to how hard they had been working.

Sakura inhaled deeply and fell backwards onto the grass, staring up at the sky. To say that winter was fast approaching, it was awfully bright and warm. Maybe not as warm as it was in summer, or sometimes even spring, but it was definitely warmer than it should be.

"–and that's that."

So, after their argument several months back, Ino had gone off to be by herself for a while, to think about her life and where she was going with it. What decision did she come to? It was that Kiba was not the guy for her. Yes, they had chemistry and yes, he was a great lover, but they were not suited to each other. Kiba needed a woman who didn't mind the seduction missions, while Ino needed a man who would be one hundred percent faithful to her. It was kind of sad, Ino had told her. According to the blonde, Kiba had been sad about the break up, too, though took it like a man. The only part that got really emotional for them was the goodbye kiss, where Kiba had kissed her softly and told her that he hoped she found the man she was looking for.

That was what Sakura liked most about Kiba. He accepted things. Perhaps not the small things like the fact he lost to Naruto in the chunin exams, but the bigger things. Like his relationship with Ino. In the end, he only wanted her to be happy and to feel loved. If he wasn't the guy who made her happy and feel loved, then Kiba accepted it and let go. He let go for Ino's sake, yet would always be there to protect her should he need to.

"What now, then?" Sakura asked, turning her head to the side to look at Ino. "Are you going back to dating?"

Surprisingly, Ino shook her head, a small smile on her lips. "No, I think I'm going to take a break from all that for now. Focus on more important things, you know? Choji went by to see Shikamaru this morning… Apparently he's a total mess and hasn't stopped looking at his shogi board since last night after he trashed the room. His dad's saying he needs time to think, but is that really such a good idea?"

"Shikamaru…" Sakura shook her head, looking back up at the sky. "Don't take this the wrong way, but he was so much closer to Asuma-sensei, wasn't he?"

"…Yeah," Ino whispered but cleared her throat a second later. "Yeah, he was. They always played shogi together when we weren't on missions or training. I'd say Shikamaru spent more time with Asuma-sensei than me and Choji put together." There was a pause. "Is… Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all," she told her quietly. "Sasuke-kun has spent so much more time with Kakashi-sensei than Naruto and me put together, too. I think it's more to do with their personalities, you know? Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei can be so similar sometimes that it freaks me and Naruto out, since we can't understand that bond. Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru… Their bond was through shogi. I'm sure it went much deeper than a board game, but you get what I mean, don't you?"

Ino smiled sadly. "It was their thing."

Sakura had the same smile on her lips. "Exactly. It's like Naruto and Jiraiya-sama, or me and Tsunade-shishou. I'd say you and Ibiki-san but I think that might be going a bit too far." Both girls chuckled. "And besides, people handle grief in different ways. Shikamaru just needs some time, Ino. He'll let you know one way or another when he's with you again."

"Is that what happened with you?"

Since seeing her memories and hearing her thoughts yesterday, Ino had been more inquisitive about the things she learned and Sakura, reluctantly at first, gave her the answers she wanted. "Kind of. I opened up to Itachi first. He was the one who I reached out to."

Sighing, Ino closed her eyes. "That's what I don't understand. Sasuke-kun is the one you've always gone to, so why the sudden change? Why did you stop going to him?"

That was something Sakura was still trying to work out herself. "Honestly? I don't know. Itachi just… He…" She grimaced. "It's hard to explain. With Itachi, I just… I feel like I finally belong somewhere. Yeah, I guess I kind of felt like I belonged with Sasuke-kun, but not in the same way as I do with Itachi. Sasuke-kun is more like a brother to me."

"A brother who fingered you on top of the Yondaime's head."

"Ino–"

"During a very steamy make out session."

Sakura sat up and glared down at her. "I told you to leave memories like that alone, Ino. Things like that… I want them to stay in the past and so does Sasuke-kun. Neither of us enjoyed it."

Also sitting up, Ino smirked at her. "Sasuke-kun enjoyed it."

"His body enjoyed it. He didn't," Sakura snapped angrily. "You know what it's like for boys at that age. Anything can give them an erection! It doesn't mean that they actually want to be turned on. And if you remember correctly, it was Sasuke-kun who pulled away first."

"Because you asked him to."

Oh, she didn't like this. Sakura didn't like how Ino was making that ugly, disgusting worm of doubt wiggle its way inside of her head. "No, we both agreed on it." It had been the look in the other's eyes. They hadn't truly wanted it to happen. Yes, maybe a part of them had, the horny adolescent part that was intrigued and curious about what was happening and what it could possibly become, but it didn't go any deeper than that. They had talked after it happened and told each other how they really felt. "Stop messing with my head, Ino."

Seeing that she was really beginning to bother Sakura, Ino called it quits and fell backwards once more. "I don't see what the big deal is. It doesn't seem like Itachi-san's bothered by the history between you both."

"That's because he's not. Itachi knows us both well and knows that we don't have feelings like that for each other."

Ino nodded thoughtfully before sitting up again, smirking down at Sakura. "This is the last question on the subject of Uchiha men, I promise."

Why was there a twisting in her gut at Ino's question, one that was warning her to run away? "Go on…"

"Well, I know you've seen them all naked – not all Uchiha, but definitely Itachi-san and Sasuke-kun–"

"Get on with it."

"Are they really circumcised?"

Was it possible to choke on thin air? Sakura coughed violently, trying to calm herself down, but it wasn't until Ino patted her harshly on the back that she managed to catch her breath once more. "W-Where the hell did you hear that?"

The blonde shrugged, a mischievous smirk on her lips. "I have my ways. So, is it true?"

In her defence, Sakura didn't actually answer the question. Ino simply knew her that well.

"Oh my God," she gasped, a hand covering her mouth. "I've never been with a guy who's been circumcised. Is it any different to a normal guy?"

"Just because they were circumcised at birth, Ino, it doesn't make them not normal."

"You know what I mean!" the blonde snapped, not liking the accusation. "I mean, does it feel any different? Does it make them smaller?"

"I'm not answering that."

"Okay… So do you know why they were?"

Rolling her eyes, Sakura gave Ino a weak glare, indicating that she wasn't only exhausted, but also losing her patience. "Why do you want to know so badly? I don't want you spreading this around Konoha with all the other gossip. It's really private, Ino. Remember that they didn't have a choice to be circumcised. You see it in the hospital more and more often nowadays."

Since the two Uchiha men were very special to Sakura (not to mention the fact that she would pulverise her if it happened to be heard around Konoha), Ino decided to let the piece of gossip slip just this once. "I won't tell anyone, as long as you tell me the reason why."

She sighed. "Itachi said that…" Another sigh. Why was this so hard to talk about? She was a medic. "When he asked why his parents were taking Sasuke to be circumcised, they told him that it was simply something that had happened in the head family of the Uchiha Clan for generations. They merely don't want to break the tradition."

Ino frowned. "So… It's not something to do with their religion? It's really only that boring old reason?"

"Yeah." Were members of the Uchiha Clan even religious? Sakura knew that Itachi and Sasuke weren't, but what about the others? "It doesn't really bother them, you know? Itachi only told me because I commented on how it was becoming more common at the hospital now. Other members of the Uchiha Clan have been circumcised, too. It's just something they've done for generations and don't want to break it."

"That clan is so weird," Ino muttered. "Why not have a more normal tradition? Like their fire jutsu. That's something they shouldn't break, not this stupid…"

When Ino trailed off with a shake of her head, Sakura sighed again. "It's only stupid to you, Ino-Pig."

"Shut it, Forehead."

"And I mean it, Ino! You better not tell anyone about that."

"I won't, I won't." She waved dismissively along with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, I heard that all men in the Hyuuga Clan are circumcised and, had they not all been such lazy asses, those in the Nara Clan would be too."

Sakura deadpanned.

She didn't even want to know how Ino had researched for that.

Being on a break was amazing.

Sakura panted hard and clutched a tighter hold of Itachi's hair, her back arching so that her hips and shoulders were pressed to his.

They had so much free time now, and what did they do with it?

She smirked as lips brushed against her jaw, kissing and nipping at her skin. They spent it in the best way they possibly could – bringing each other some of the most intense pleasure either of them had ever experienced.

They'd been locked up in her apartment for over seven hours now. It was like they just couldn't stop! Of course they took breaks, but it wouldn't be long until they were at it again. How long had they had the last time? Sakura had just about finished a pint glass of water, munched her way through a packet of crisps and gone to the toilet and washed before Itachi was on her again, ready for more. His stamina and sex drive were amazing and definitely something Sakura couldn't get enough of. In a way, they were making up for all the times they'd had to refrain from such activities at the base camp. Four months worth of activities.

The rhythmic pounding of his hips came to an abrupt stop as they slammed into hers a final time, enough to undo the pair of them and throw them head first into their orgasms. Hand falling away from his hair, Sakura clutched the counter before her tightly, eyes squeezing shut and thighs trembling as she tried her best not to collapse, while Itachi held onto her tightly, barely holding back his groan as he pressed his face into her neck, keeping Sakura pinned to the kitchen counter.

"We should probably move back to the bedroom," Sakura told him hoarsely, feeling so much more relaxed than she had in a while. "Just in case somebody comes barging in."

Seeing the sense in her statement, Itachi reluctantly detached himself from her, but pulled her against him a second later, guiding Sakura back to her bedroom. He wasn't too sure as to what was up with him, all Itachi could understand was that it simply wasn't enough. He needed more of her. Even after just taking her, even now, his body was heating up at just the thought of having her again. If only there was a way to 'recharge' a little more quickly. Then again, his little lover had to take a break, too.

Collapsing on top of Sakura on the bed, Itachi shifted closer to her, enjoying how she held him. His face was against her neck once more, but she was facing him this time and returning the hold lovingly.

"I think that that…" Sakura smirked and brushed Itachi's hair off his face. "It has to be our second best."

"Second?" he questioned quietly.

"Our first time was definitely the best and outranks all others."

Thinking about it for a moment, Itachi eventually let out a deep breath and nodded. "It was raw."

It was. "And passionate."

Feeling her squirm beneath him, he smirked tiredly. "Already?"

"Remembering it…"

His smirk widened. "I know."

Suddenly, like she could see into the future, they both heard banging on her front door a second before it was slamming open.

"Sakura-chan!"

"I'm going to murder him," Sakura groaned, tightening her hold on Itachi as he went to pull away.

"That depends on whether or not you get to him before I do."

She smirked, pressing a tender kiss to his cheek, but then once more groaned when the bedroom door was next to take the pounding of Naruto's fist. "Go away, Naruto!"

"It's important!"

It was always important with him, however, since he genuinely sounded like he was worried, Itachi moved away from Sakura and grabbed his pants from the chair at the desk not too far from her bed, pulling them on while Sakura pulled on her bathrobe. It was only seconds later when she opened the door a crack. "What is it?"

Not understanding that she was keeping the door shut for privacy, Naruto barged in and began to pace, only pausing to look at Itachi questioningly before shaking his head and continuing, already knowing what had been happening all day due to the strong smell of sex lingering throughout the entire apartment. "They've gone after them, Sakura-chan."

Deep breaths. She wasn't allowed to kill Naruto, no matter how many times she'd wished she could. "You have ten seconds to be more specific before I throw you out of the window."

"This is serious, Sakura."

The voice had her tensing and reluctantly looking over her shoulder at the man stood in the doorway. That was one of the many differences between Sasuke and Naruto. Unlike the blond, Sasuke could actually sneak around and not be detected, though considering the fact Itachi was relaxed, Sakura was guessing that he had known his brother was around.

"Yeah? And we were kind of busy."

Sasuke pinned her with a serious look. "Team Ten has gone after the Akatsuki members who killed Asuma."

All air left her as the flush covering her body drained away, leaving her pale and cold. "W-What?"

Naruto nodded quickly, still pacing. "And Kakashi-sensei has gone with them!"

She couldn't move. Or breathe. Fear had made her immobile, so all Sakura could do was stare at Sasuke with wide, horrified eyes. Kakashi had gone with… Team Ten had gone to… She couldn't decide which was worse. All she knew, was that her precious people had gone straight for Akatsuki, the ones who were strong enough to bring a man like Sarutobi Asuma down.

"We're being sent as back up."

And not even a second later, Sakura was darting around her room, ripping open drawers and pulling out her uniform, leaving on her robe and getting dressed under it. Her movements were rushed, hurried, and her hands were trembling out of fear. It had only been five months since she went up against Sasori and Sakura could still feel everything she felt when fighting him – and apparently, the guys who had defeated Asuma were just as powerful, if not more so. There were two of them.

Team Ten was a team that was better at stalling opponents, in gaining information. Not battling! Sure, Choji was a strong man who could do quite a lot of damage, but the others? Were they relying completely on Kakashi? Oh it made Sakura feel sick.

"Leave us."

The voice was cold, leaving no room for arguments and hearing it, Sasuke grabbed Naruto and dragged him out of the bedroom and out of the apartment, muttering that they would meet Sakura at the gates. When they were gone, Itachi made his way over to Sakura and turned her around, grabbing her wrists and holding her still.

"Calm down, Sakura."

"But they–"

"What have I been teaching you during training?"

It took a lot of effort to calm her racing heart, her quickened breathing. It took even more effort to try and fight back the sudden need to scream. "To… To…"

"To keep calm and think things over clearly and carefully," he finished for her, watching her with hard, serious eyes. "You will be backing Team Ten up and going up against two members of Akatsuki, so you need to be thinking clearly and you must be extremely cautious."

"I could ask Tsunade-sama to send you and–"

"The fact that I haven't been ordered to back them up already means that I am needed elsewhere," Itachi told her, softening his eyes somewhat for her. "And I cannot be there every time you or Sasuke go into battle, Sakura. What did you tell me in the beginning?"

She thought back, her eyebrows knitting together before her features smoothed out and she exhaled slowly. "That I want to be independent, and that I don't want to have to rely on others' strength."

Itachi gave her a small smile, releasing her wrists and cupping her cheek, his thumb stroking it softly. "I will admit that I am not comfortable with you going up against these two particular Akatsuki members, but you will learn from this. Just like Sasuke and Naruto-kun will."

Nodding quickly, Sakura bit her lip. "I'm… I'm kind of… scared."

"I know."

He was too.

"That was kind of… anti-climatic."

Sakura sighed, refusing to look at anyone. She felt so embarrassed with how she had been acting yesterday, being so flustered and frightened, when it turned out it wasn't even necessary. Okay, maybe it partly was, as Team Ten and their temporary leader, Kakashi, had been more than a little roughed up, but still. She, Sasuke and Tenzo hadn't even been needed – Tenzo especially! He was sent with them for precaution, as a just in case.

Most of all, Sakura was pissed. Pissed with Ino. With Choji. With Shikamaru. And definitely Kakashi. Actually, Kakashi and Shikamaru were about the same level on her list right at that moment in time. Why? Because out of the entire team, those two should have known better. Kakashi knew that revenge got you nowhere, while Shikamaru was smart enough to understand that, too. But they'd all let their emotions get the best of them, let their anger and grief take control.

Oh, who was she to say that? Sakura thought with a sigh. Saying, or even simply thinking something like that made her such a hypocrite! Her emotions were always getting the best of her. Just look at what happened yesterday.

Really, all they had needed Sakura for, was her medical skills. All they had needed Naruto for, was his new jutsu (she wasn't even going to get into that for fear that she may actually explode with anger). Sasuke and Tenzo… They hadn't been needed at all, and Sakura could tell that it pissed Sasuke off.

"Sakura."

"Don't."

Ino had been trying to talk to her all of last night and during the travel back to Konoha. It wasn't working. "Will you at least look at me?"

No answer. All she got in return was Sakura speeding up so she was side by side with Sasuke instead of her. He didn't look her way, understanding perfectly just what was up with her.

"What the hell is your problem?" Ino snapped, ignoring the warning Kakashi gave her to keep quiet. They had already reached the base camps, stopping there overnight for a much needed rest before heading out in the morning. That didn't mean they could throw caution to the wayside, though. It was imperative that they didn't give their positions away, especially considering they had not only Naruto, but also Sasuke with them. Those two were to be protected now. "Why are you allowed to fight Akatsuki, but I'm not?"

Sakura whirled around quickly, forcing them all to stop as she stopped abruptly on the branch she landed on, making it shake dangerously and threaten to snap. "I didn't have a choice in fighting Akatsuki and I barely even made it out alive. Why the hell would you pursue psychotic monsters like them? Hidan and Kakuzu… They were monsters! Even Sasori wasn't as bad as them!"

Fists trembling with anger, Ino glared viciously at her best friend. "And what? You think I'm weaker than you, so I wouldn't stand a chance?"

"You didn't stand a chance," she practically screamed, her vocal chords protesting horribly. "If Kakashi-sensei hadn't been there, you would have died. You all would have died!"

"Sakura–"

"Shut the hell up," Sakura snapped at Naruto, shaking her head. She was still angry with him too, for the damage his stupid jutsu had done to his hand and arm. "Why are you all acting so recklessly with your lives?"

Kakashi sighed. "Sakura, it's not that we're acting recklessly."

"Then what the hell do you call what happened? You had your head chopped off!"

The look he gave her was blank, serious. "Are you questioning not only my abilities, but my authority?"

"No, I'm questioning your sanity."

"Like you can talk," Ino spat in return, her eyes narrowing. "You see–"

"Shut up," she muttered.

"–Aiko all the time!"

Silence.

Ino raised an eyebrow, hands going onto her waist. "Oh? So you really did only tell me? Kind of a hypocrite, aren't you? Here you are questioning our sanity, when you're the one who's seeing and hearing Aiko all over that base camp!"

Her teammates all looked to Sakura, silently demanding answers.

She refused to give them.

"Ino, that's enough," Shikamaru told her seriously, his voice and eyes hard. "What we did was reckless and dangerous, and I told you all many times that there were a lot of risks. There's no point in being so defensive and saying things you're only going to regret later."

"I won't regret it." She shook her head with annoyance, eyes never leaving Sakura's. "You lost a little girl you only knew for a couple of weeks."

"Ino," Sasuke growled with warning, as did Naruto.

"We lost our sensei, the man who protected us and taught us so many things from the age of twelve. Who are you to tell us things like that? You don't even understand. You still have your sensei."

"We almost lost him because of your selfish need for revenge," Sakura screamed, face flushing red with anger. "Yes, you know how much that hurts and how much it breaks your heart, yet you almost took our sensei to his death!"

Kakashi may not have always been around, but he was still Kakashi-sensei. He was still the man who had saved her life more times than Sakura could even count. He was still the man who would place his hand on her shoulder and smile, telling her everything was going to be all right, even if it wasn't. Growing up, that had been one of the most important things in her life. Having Kakashi there.

Ino simply shook her head. "You don't understand."

"I understand enough to say that, had it been the other way around, I would have never asked the same thing of Asuma-sensei," she told team ten, her eyes hard. "Team Seven would have never asked him to help us with something like this. Yes, we'd want revenge, but we would have taken our time until there weren't so many risks. Our lives aren't something to be thrown away so recklessly. Asuma-sensei wouldn't have wanted you to be so reckless with your lives. He cared so much about you all!"

Choji looked away with his features trying so very hard to frown, already knowing that, whereas Shikamaru stared at her with an expression she had never seen him wear before.

Ino lunged.

"You didn't even know Asuma-sensei!" she yelled, knocking Sakura from the branch she was standing on and onto the ground harshly, uncaring of the way the breath was knocked out of them both viciously. "You have no fucking right to say that to us!"

Just as Ino went to punch Sakura, the latter quickly reversed their positions and put her in a restraining hold, unwilling to hurt the blonde yet able to do so should it need to be done. "Stop thinking everything is so black and white," Sakura muttered to her. "The world is made up with so many different shades of grey."

Thrashing beneath her, Ino spat in return, "Let me guess, that's something you heard your perfect boyfriend say, right?"

No, actually. It wasn't. It was something she had learned herself.

"Sakura, let go of Ino."

She ignored the others as they dropped around them. "Are you going to attack me again?"

"Let me up!"

"Answer me!"

"No!" the blonde snapped, continuing with her thrashing.

Naruto stepped forward, putting his hand on Sakura's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Come on, Sakura-chan. It's not worth it."

Not worth it? Trying to make her best friend see sense because Sakura didn't want to lose her, wasn't worth it? Oh Sakura felt so stressed and angry that she almost wanted to cry. "Let go of me, Naruto."

Seeing that he was doing no good, Sasuke instead stepped forward and shoved the Uzumaki out of the way, giving Sakura a certain look before looking at the others. "We're going to go and spar."

Tenzo frowned. "Hokage-sama will–"

"She can wait," Sasuke snarled, looking at them with disgust before grabbing Sakura's arm and lifting her up, effortlessly breaking the hold he knew to be one of his brother's. "You think it's a good idea to have Sakura stuck in a small room with someone like Tsunade when she's so wound up? It'll only cause more trouble."

What Sakura needed right now was to let out her frustration. Sasuke had seen her when he gave her the news of Kakashi and Team Ten going after Akatsuki and since then, he'd watched as the stress and the fear and the anger piled up, higher and higher until she could just about breathe. And now, after holding it all in for so long, Sakura was finally snapping. He'd seen it happen many times before and it was nothing an all-out spar couldn't fix. That was how he always managed to calm her down in the past.

Naruto nodded quickly. "I'll–"

"Be going straight to Tsunade-sama," Sakura said seriously, narrowing her eyes on him. "You can't do anything with that arm in the state that it's currently in."

Before anybody else could argue, Sasuke roughly turned Sakura in the direction he knew the training grounds to be in. "Move."

She utterly stunned them all by doing so without another word.

"You've been seeing things?"

Sakura blocked the punch aiming for her midsection and spun around, raising her leg in hopes of kicking Sasuke in the shoulder, but he caught it effortlessly. "Ino made it sound worse than it actually it."

"Does Itachi know?"

Faltering as Sasuke knocked her off balance, Sakura quickly recovered and dodged the attack waiting for her. "He knows enough."

Grabbing her arm, Sasuke stopped her movements. "Which means no."

"Sasuke-kun–"

"Are you hiding anything else from him?"

"No."

"If it's not so serious, then why haven't you told him?"

With her eyebrows knitting together and her body relaxing, Sakura sighed. "He's already done so much for me. Besides, I didn't see her at all last night. It's just the stress getting to me, I swear."

He let go of her arm and took a step back. "Tell him."

"Sasuke-kun–"

"Tell him, or I will," Sasuke told her. "You don't want this reaching the elders of the clan, Sakura. They accepted you, yes, but just the smallest of things and you could lose that acceptance. Trust me."

"And Itachi can just magically stop them from finding out, or stop the acceptance from–"

"Yes," he stated bluntly. "The elders are scared of him. If Itachi wants something to be his way," and Sasuke meant really wanted it, "then he'll make his voice be heard and they'll have no choice but to go with it."

It had been that way ever since the very close call of The Uchiha Massacre.

A/N - For the person who asked for some fluff, is this okay? :-D

I think that the short hiatus did me some good, because I've just got my results back for my online-screening exams (you get the results much sooner than the paper exams) and I got an A* in finance, and three marks off full marks in maths. Apparently I got the highest scores out of all those who took the exam! I was so shocked at that, because in school, I was awful at maths and originally got an E in the exam.

Quite proud of myself to be honest! Hahaha.