Author's note:
I got an anonymous review this morning, it went like this: "This has gone too long! I demand an update!"
Seeing the truth of that statement I decided I better update with something.
Chapter 25 - Notebook
Itachi studied the large setup of glass tubes and containers in interest. A greenish tinted gray liquid was bubbling over a small blue flame and sending fumes through the pipe network. Sakura moved from the desk at the far wall to look closer at the liquid, inadvertently blocking his vision. The boy quirked his lips just slightly as she absently tapped her pencil on her forehead before jotting down something in a red notebook; she hadn't even noticed him in the doorway.
She moved around the impressive structure adjusting a few valves as she went. Dark eyes immediately honied in on the open notebook left invitingly on the table. Unable to help his curiosity and deciding it was her own fault for not noticing him, he quietly stepped over to take a peek.
Looking down he frowned momentarily in confusion; for one Sakura would do well with a less hurried handwriting as for the other...
"I don't think this will be a very good cake."
Glass shattered and Itachi winced inwardly at Sakura's shouted exclamation of 'shit!'.
"What the Hell, Itachi?" she asked as they eyes met through the glass contraption, her tone of voice (angry) reassured him that whatever had been smashed had not contained anything dangerous, otherwise she'd have saved it for later when they'd vacated the room. She was just annoyed he'd surprised her. Inwardly reveling in how his next words would throw her for a loop, he said:
"There's not even any sugar in it."
He was not disappointed. The girls face went from annoyed to entirely uncomprehending. Her mouth opened and closed, not unlike a fish out of water.
"Huh?" she voiced very intelligently and he was quite enjoying himself. He could vividly imagine how the gears in her head backtracked to make sense of context. Patiently he waited the five seconds it took her to come to the correct conclusion; her glance down into her notebook and back up at him was the signal and she snickered walking back around to his side.
"Really Itachi, you and your sweet tooth." She snatched up her he notebook with a roll of her eyes and gave him a solid rap on the shoulder with it for good measure.
The boy gave a good natured shrug in return, it wasn't like he could deny his sweet tooth (he much preferred indulging it in the first place).
"What are you doing here anyway, I thought you were on a mission?" she remarked offhandedly over her shoulder as she was already back on her page scribbling away.
"We just got back, my team is upstairs getting cleared."
That gained her attention and she spun around worried, her gaze already running down his body in search of injury.
"Are you okay? What happened?"
"Not a scratch." He held up his hands in a placating manner, "I wasn't even there at the time of the ambush. I'd been sent ahead by the jonin to procure rooms for the night. Nothing too bad happened, the client reached his destination safely and the genin were just a bit roughened up."
Oo o oO
Sakura tried not to be annoyed with the team leader's decision (for one it was stupid being annoyed at someone you didn't who was), but sending off the guy with the doujutsu just seemed plain stupid.
Itachi obviously sensing her change in mood decided to distract her:
"So about that cake, don't you think you should add sugar?"
To his credit it worked.
"Not unless I want it to explode," she deadpanned looking back down at her notebook and what looked like a simple strawberry short cake recipe at first glance, but was in reality a poisonous project of hers. She wanted something that would paralyze but not kill, without risking a halt in breathing due to error in dosage. She looked back up at her amused friend.
"Stop playing dumb Itachi, you know just as well as I, that it's a code." One of Tsunade's personal codes in fact with slight modification.
"The only difference is that I know what it means and you don't," she teased sticking out her tongue.
He merely raised and eyebrow and remarked:
"How juvenile, are you sure you're mature enough to have your own personal laboratory?"
Sakura frowned in surprise.
"How'd you know?" It wasn't like it had been announced anywhere and the door didn't even have a nameplate yet. How had he even found her?
"Miki-san told me," he responded his lips quirking upwards at the answering grimace she made.
"I don't understand how you can speak with that woman, much less get any information out of her without the aid of the torture and interrogation department."
"She's not that bad."
"oh no," Sakura chuckled darkly, "she's worse. She purposefully gives me the patients filed in the top most drawers every time because she knows I can't reach them. I have to waste chakra by hanging from the ceiling to get my bloody patient records!" She took a deep calming breath, feeling grateful that with her introduction into the research department she didn't handle regular cases and was only on call, if they needed her for something specific.
"Isn't that dangerous?" Itachi frowned, "I thought medics were supposed to save chakra."
"They are," Sakura agreed with a small smile. "But luckily the hospital doesn't stand or fall with my chakra levels." Her presence was more of a bonus in case of emergency anyways, both in view of the time-traveling and now that Fumio had placed her in research. She had not taken the place of any other medic and it wasn't like unusually poisoned chunin teams (which was where she really shined compared to other medics) trickled in at a steady rate.
Being dispensable was a sobering thought.
She wondered, why the head medic had put her in the research department. The man hadn't expressed any complaints towards her work, quite on the contrary; he'd been just as enthusiastic and easy to please as usual. He was curious leaning on the obnoxious and if he wasn't busy doing random pop quizzes on her knowledge and past, he would gush about his dearest Kabuto. To tell the truth she's at first dreaded her changed position, as she'd thought it meant even more of Fumio's backseat driver presence, but had been pleasantly surprised at getting her own personal laboratory.
The young girl didn't really know what to make of the situation, but she wouldn't sit idle down here - not with all that lovely equipment beckoning.
With a few blinks she came back from her thoughts and met Itachi's dark eyes; knowing to her great embarrassment that he'd just watched her the entire time while she stared into space like a dimwit. She struggled to remember their string of conversation.
Oo o oO
The Uchiha had known it the very moment Sakura's mind had left the conversation. Her green eyes had taken on that faraway look and her usually animated face had blanked in a way she struggled to manage when trying to do it on purpose. She would be back eventually and entertainingly flustered by her lapse, so he opted to just observe.
Her skin had gotten paler lately from all the hospital work. His eyes moved from her facedown to her clothing. Tilting his head the slightest bit thoughtfully he couldn't quite decide whether her lab coat made her look more professional or like a child playing dress up with the way it was several sizes too big; the edge of the coat nearly reached the ground and the sleeves had been rolled up numerous times.
Sakura came to with a blink that brought him back into focus. The tips of her ears turned red in embarrassment and her mouth opened before closing again. Green eyes darted momentarily to the right, a subtle indicator she was trying to remember, if he'd said something, she needed to reply to and his continued silence and stare were more or less a confirmation - except it was actually his subtle way of teasing her, but he'd rather keep that fact to himself.
When he'd had his seven seconds of amusement, he took pity on her.
"Are you hungry?"
She quickly pounced on the new subject and guessed his implication that they should go grab lunch, but then she frowned.
"Yes I am, but what about your team, don't you have a debriefing?"
"Luckily the debriefing doesn't stand or fall with my presence," he answered in a perfect mimicry of her earlier tone of voice. She giggled and he found that it seemed a much more pleasant sound, when it was an effect he'd sought purposefully.
Seriously though, the jonin takes care of it. It's not like I was even there when anything happened." He tried to keep his tone neutral to hide how much it really bothered him - no one should have been hurt at all, not even the three annoyingly childish genin, who he wasn't really sure of the reason why they annoyed him so immensely (jealousy perhaps?). He should have been there to prevent the ambush from becoming such - but somehow Sakura knew anyways and she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
It was just that and the look in her eyes that told him she understood. She somehow knew the moment he started to feel uncomfortable with the touch and gaze and drew back. It was something that had disturbed him at first, this relative ease she had when it came to reading him, but as she'd gained his trust that had changed.
Expressing himself towards Sakura was so much easier than anyone else their age; she didn't expect him to smile or wave his hands around in violent eye-risking gestures all the time while talking. Throughout his childhood other children had shied away from him or tried to bully him because they thought him strange. Hana was an exception but even she had runaway from him once and looking back it was with rather good reason, but he hadn't understood that at the time and it had taken years literally for him to open up even remotely to her again.
In the mean time Sakura had fetched a broom and a dustpan, she glanced at him as she passed and sent him a grin.
"You're paying."
He frowned, "why?"
"Because you made me drop this poor vial," she answered and bent down to sweep up the sad remnants. Itachi just shrugged and conceded. He could have tried to argue, but Sakura was insanely persistent in this kind of discussion, even if she was in the wrong and her argument made no sense, somehow she would win anyway.
Oo o oO
The Hokage looked up from the reports at the knock on his door and asked the person to enter. It was one of the chunin under Ibiki Morino's department. He went to the desk and bowed before stating his business:
"I'm here to report on the inquiries we've made on the red cloud on black cloaked figures."
Now very interested he leaned forward, it had been so long he'd nearly forgotten.
"It has taken quite some time."
"Indeed. It seems while most people in the underworld are aware of their existence, they are very reluctant to talk." It went unsaid, that now said reluctant people probably wished, they had just come out with it - Ibiki usually had that effect on people.
"They are a mercenary group consisting of various high-profile missing nin. They hire to relatively cheap prizes when comparing to their skill level. For many they are a good alternative to the more expensive hidden villages. Several countries and even some hidden villages have been hiring them."
"The identities of the members are kept secret, though considering their missing nin status that is not too surprising."
The old man leaned back in his chair thoughtfully.
"So the only members we know for sure are Sasori of the red sand and Orochimaru," he affirmed, not that they weren't bad enough in themselves.
"Hai, there are rumors that Hoshigaki Kisame has been sighted in such a cloak, but nothing confirmed."
"For now lets just go with the assumption, that he's another one. He's very recognizable after all and if people think they've seen him in such a cloak, it could be dangerous to presume otherwise."
"As you wish, Hokage-sama. If that was all?" he asked and when he got a smile and a nod, he left the written report on the growing stack. With a quick bow he left the leader to his work.
As he was leaving his eyes couldn't help but be drawn towards smallest person standing in line to hand in his mission report to the secretaries. It was not something you noticed ordinarily when faced with the Uchiha heir, because he had a way of using his presence to radiate authority - something the twenty year old could be envious of at times, they held the same rank, yet in a pinch, he knew, surrounding people would naturally turn to the boy - but as he stood now in between two grown men twice his height, it was obvious how young he was.
Soon to be twelve years old and already he'd been chunin for more than a year. It was easy to envy the glory, but would he really want to trade places with him?
Oo o oO
Since that first day Sasuke and Naruto hadn't had a real fight; there was of course some roughhousing and they still pretended to hate each others guts, but overall their time together consisted of plentiful throwing of insults and friendly competition in whatever crazy discipline popped into their little heads. From the overall smugness of the little Uchiha, she guessed Sasuke won the majority of their little contests, yet even so she could tell Naruto was the happiest she'd seen him since team 7; losing of course made him angry and demand rematches, but the fun he had during their contests shone clearly in his eyes.
She was therefore rather surprised that afternoon, when she came back to the playground to find the two rolling around on the ground seemingly aiming to break the other's nose. This was no game, a bruise was already forming on Sasuke's cheek and unshed tears were glistening in Naruto's angry eyes.
Sakura armed herself with the sternest voice she could produce.
"What is going on here?"
The result was almost comical. Immediately the two small boys froze and as one their dread filled faces turned in her direction. Sasuke recovered first and got to his feet pointing at the blond.
"Naruto is a liar and then he hit me!" he accused.
"No way! You called me a liar and then I hit you."
Sakura was inclined to believe Naruto on this one, the fact that he admitted to starting the punching was rather telling.
"And why did you call Naruto a liar Sasuke?"
"He says he already goes to the academy, but he can't because I'm older," Sakura mentally added the 'and better' she knew he wanted to add, "and I don't go yet."
Naruto glared fiercely at the other boy before looking at Sakura pleadingly, obviously not used to people believing him in an argument.
"But I'm not lying," he sighed.
"When did you start at the academy Naruto-chan?"
"Last year."
"I believe you," she assured the nervous blonde and promptly ignored the young Uchiha's melodramatic outrage. For one she really doubted Naruto would lie to her, secondly she knew it was true. He had been in her class only the last year of the academy and it was common knowledge the reason was that he'd failed the exam (not once, but twice). Considering he was actually one of the youngest in their graduating class, the only way that was possible was if he'd started early.
With Naruto's penchant for mischief she could understand why the Sandaime had allowed it; the boy would have had even more spare time if not, but she couldn't help but think it was a setup, that didn't allow for many friends to be gained.
Sakura turned her attention to the grouchy little Uchiha.
"Honestly Sasuke, do you think Naruto would dare lie to me?" That did the trick and he flinched shaking his head.
He looked guiltily at the Uzumaki and the bloody nose he'd served him. Sasuke reached out a fist, it was as much of an apology as the Uchiha would give without Sakura forcing him too, but it was enough for Naruto; he grinned and bumped a fist of his own against it. In two seconds flat they were off again.
Sakura sighed, boy's had it too easy. They just fought it out and then no hard feelings. If only Sakura knew what was Hana's problem in the first place.
Oo o oO
Itachi entered his home and breathed in the welcoming smell of delicious food. After his rather tiring mission today, it was just what he needed.
Maybe the Hokage thought it funny to give him temporary command over genin teams, but he certainly didn't, especially not the 15 year old kind, whom the Hokage wanted to know if there was any hope they would make chunin within the next few years.
Lazy, arrogant teenagers, just happy with the fact that they could wear the hitai-ate and call themselves shinobi. Sadly that was the norm among shinobi with civilian heritage. They only got serious in their twenties when realizing genin wages weren't enough to support a family, resulting in them maybe passing the chunin exams after several tries between the ages of 25-30 or they just quit being shinobi taking on regular jobs.
The worst thing was that the ones with the actual potential to become chunin would have passed the exam earlier if only they'd been serious in their training. Which was where Itachi came in; he was provocation in raw form, especially after wiping the floor with the cocky teenagers in a three on one training session (without using the sharingan).
It was rather effective, he had to admit, but because he was by nature one who avoided conflict, it left him extraordinarily mentally drained.
For a moment he just stood there in the entrance, feeling vaguely like something was missing. He realized it almost immediately; where was Sasuke? The boy would usually have assaulted him before he got this far.
He got his answer when his mother came to greet him with that small smile she always gave him, the one tinged with sadness. It only bothered him, because he was so tired, he told himself.
"Welcome home Itachi, I hope your mission went well."
So very formal, he thought. Out loud he said, "it went as could be expected."
"That's nice. We're eating dinner early today, would you mind fetching your brother and Sakura? They went to the playground."
Itachi who had bent down to take off his sandals quickly abandoned the action. With a polite nod in his mother's direction, he went back out of the door.
The playground once again? Those two had gone there an awfully lot lately. It seemed that whenever he was not around, they would go there. He wondered, if he should be feeling jealous.
What was so special about that place anyways? The children there were exceptionally noisy and nothing productive ever came out of the place. It was a place parents dumped their children into for hours on end. Quite frankly it seemed to him as if the place existed for people who didn't have time to spend with their offspring.
Oo o oO
"Aniki!"
Sasuke's happy exclamation made Sakura look towards the entrance to the playground with a smile, as the young boy dropped all the rocks he'd gathered and ran towards his older brother.
A sudden urgency assaulted her mind when she looked to the young blonde. Uchiha Itachi and Naruto spelt trouble in the deeply ingrained part of her that was shinobi. Before she knew it, she stood protectively in front of the boy eyeing Itachi with mistrust.
It was an instinctive reaction. Naruto was a jinchuriki. Itachi was part of Akatsuki. Their months of friendship was pushed to the back of her mind in face of a fear she'd faced for years before traveling to the past.
The chunin easily picked up his brother and advanced eyeing Sakura strangely. She stiffened when he noticed Naruto peeking out from behind her and a look of understanding crossed his face. Sasuke was uncharacteristically silent having obviously sensed the strange atmosphere.
Sakura felt an odd sense of deja vu when Itachi crouched down to Naruto's height and let Sasuke go. He smiled softly as he greeted the hesitant blonde. Naruto had been alarmed at Sakura's action and looked up at her uncertainly.
She suddenly realized where the deja vu came from, it was the exact opposite from when Itachi had introduced her to Sasuke. It had been Itachi who was mistrustful then. She looked down at Naruto and smiled reassuringly. She was being silly, it wasn't like he was going to kidnap the boy.
The blue eyed boy once again eyed the older Sasuke, before stepping out from Sakura's protection.
"Hello," he mimicked the other's greeting and studied the dark eyes intently. There were no veiled disgust or anger and the blonde found himself instantly liking the stranger.
"You must be Uzumaki Naruto."
The boy's mouth dropped open in surprise.
"How do you know my name, mister?"
Sakura found herself curious at the answer herself. As a chunin it probably wasn't too farfetched, that Itachi already knew, who and what Naruto was, but considering the ban, she wondered, how he would explain himself. His reply only served to further pique her curiosity.
"I've actually met you before, but you wouldn't remember as it wasn't long after you'd been born. There aren't that many blonde boys your age around so it was a rather easy assumption."
Naruto's mouth formed an O.
"But then what's your name?"
Itachi didn't manage to reply as Sasuke piped in.
"He's my big brother Itachi and he's super strong!"
He said it with a roll of his eyes, as if it was something everyone should know and said brother poked him admonishingly in the forehead.
"I am capable of introducing myself Sasuke."
Naruto snickered and the little Uchiha glared at him. Itachi shared a glance with Sakura and she shook her head in exasperation, telling him wordlessly that was just the way they were.
The blonde was obviously sad they already had to leave, especially now that he had found another person who didn't dislike him from the get go, but he was getting better at saying this kind of temporary goodbye. He would see them again; Sasuke and him hadn't finished today's rock collecting contest after all.
Oo o oO
They walked in companionable silence back towards the compound with Sasuke in the middle. He could feel Sakura was itching to ask him to delve deeper into what he knew of the blonde, but was refraining because of Sasuke's presence. Itachi himself had something to ask her.
It was obvious she knew the boy was a jinchuriki from her protective actions - if he was honest with himself he was a little hurt she'd thought he'd hold it against the boy, but couldn't really fault her as he'd seen normally kind villagers do a 180 turn when faced with Naruto - but the question was how she knew it?
"Why don't you run ahead Sasuke?" Itachi asked, feeling safe in doing so now that the compound was within viewing distance, "I believe Mother brought fresh tomatoes today."
He didn't really know that, but it would be rather uncharacteristic of their mother not to do so, when they'd run out the day before. As Sasuke leaped ahead eagerly, he turned his attention towards Sakura, but she was faster with her question.
"There's more to that story you gave Naruto?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Of course there is. You know he is a jinchuriki," he stated.
"I could just have noticed people disliking him for some reason, you know?"
Itachi gave a her triumphant smirk.
"But you wouldn't have stopped until you discovered why. People are forbidden to speak about it, so that leaves the question how?"
She looked at him in annoyance, before sighing.
"I've seen the seal."
Itachi nodded in understanding, it did explain it and she was telling the truth, but still he had this strange feeling. Like sometimes when Sakura was looking at Sasuke, it was a if she was seeing another person. He had gotten something of the same vibe when she had looked at the young blonde, but he was too tired to really analyze it now.
Instead he felt his lips curl deviously.
"I knew his father," he stated in response to her earlier question and smirked when she whirled on him.
"Really?"
He nodded amusedly at her reaction, but before she could even ask, he stated in a monotone, "classified."
She promptly sent him a death glare, but it didn't work on the stoic preteen. He was an Uchiha after all. As a wielder of the sharingan he could be described to have a literal death glare.
He smiled inwardly, he had been correct all those years ago; the little blonde's eyes had turned out to be blue, just like his father's.
Oo o oO
The spy walked carelessly down the white hallways of the hospital basement. He had no reason to worry, after all the research department was not off limits to him. In fact it would have seemed mightily suspicious if he was seen sneaking around.
He stopped in front of a door with a new nameplate. the inscription simply read 'Sakura'. Now came the slightly dangerous part. For obvious reasons he couldn't just borrow the spare key, all keys and who carried them were kept under strict control. He would have to pick the lock and no matter who he was he would be in big trouble if someone caught him in the act.
Carefully he extended his senses. It was not unusual for nurses and medics to take a shortcut through the basement and tests were being taken to the labs for analysis around the clock. Luckily the bare corridors worked in his favor, footsteps resounded greatly and would warn in in time.
Bending down he picked the lock in a matter of seconds. He felt vaguely disappointed, she hadn't added any other measures of security; no traps, no little pinpricking needle covered in poison, nothing. She must feel a great bit secure, but who was he to complain, it just made his job that much easier.
He closed the door softly before flicking the light switch. It was on after a few a hesitating flashes and it threw the spotless laboratory into sharp relief. The table against the far wall held a selection of vials and he went there first. They were just numbered, there was nothing that could tell him what it was. He looked around and his eyes quickly honed in on the red notebook on a shelf between various chemistry books. He'd hit jackpot.
Eagerly he pulled out the book and opened it and stared for just a moment. He couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him; 'well played Sakura-san, well played.'
Author's note:
Yeah I'm sorry not much happening, I'm setting up some stuff, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway.
As of this chapter I'm officially no longer religiously working within the limits set by the canon and yes it has to do with Itachi and the Yondaime (or more precisely a flashback I wrote long before Kushina appeared in the manga and flashbacked the time around the Kyubi attack)
On a completely different note I managed to poison myself with cereal yesterday^^ I blame grammatical mistakes on that :P