TH: Long chapter ahoy! Sheesh, Itachi, every time you're in the scene it becomes 150 percent more cerebral.

Also, it is hard to type when a kitten is attacking your fingers.

Going Sideways

Chapter Twenty-six

Theme:: Eager

"Hha—Ha…shhh… Hachhhhi." Sakura fought the sounds, forcing them out of her throat, twisting her tongue and lips around them. Pakkun and the rest of the pack listened, nodding encouragingly. "Kyuu."

Her lips peeled back from her teeth. Juu was always the hardest. The 'J' sound just wasn't easy for a fox to vocalize. "Y-yuuu—argh!"

"Yeah, that one sucks," commiserated Shiba. Eyes narrowed, Sakura glared at the ground in front of her, then spat:

"Juu!"

"Good," Pakkun said.

"Good," Sakura growled, disbelieving. Pakkun shrugged.

"I told you it took a long time to learn human speech in your current form. You may be frustrated, but really, you're right where you should be."

Sakura grumbled foxily. "I guess I thought that, since I already knew human speech it'd be easier."

"Learning how to shape the sounds with a different mouth is probably just as hard as learning the language itself," Pakkun pointed out, keeping his speech human even when Sakura reverted to fox. "But you are making progress, don't forget."

"I haven't forgotten," Sakura sighed. "It's just…"

"Yeah," Akino said. "We understand."

"Thank you, guys, for teaching me," she said sincerely. "I'm really grateful for your efforts. And your patience."

"It isn't a problem," Pakkun said gruffly. "Now, do it again. From the top."

Sakura nodded. "Ichi. Ni. Sssssan… Ssan. San."

She paused when she realized the pack's attention wasn't on her anymore. She blinked, and then turned around, and blinked again, this time in surprise. Itachi was standing behind her, a little hesitantly. His high-collared shirt reminded Sakura of Sasuke, pre-Orochimaru. Her heart hurt a little at the memory. But she forced that pain back, and chirped, as cheerfully as she could: "Hi!"

He looked at her, and then at the pack, and said: "Are you learning how to talk?"

"Yes," she said, careful of her pronunciation. It came out clear enough.

"Ah," he said, and he was young enough that he wasn't as skilled at hiding his emotions, because Sakura caught the slight hint of disappointment as he pulled a scroll out of his pouch. "I brought this because I heard you didn't speak."

Sakura looked at Pakkun, who interpreted her look and cleared his throat. Itachi's dark, flat gaze moved to the pug, who said: "She's not fully fluent yet. For now, she does prefer to communicate through writing."

"I see," Itachi said slowly, looking at her. She waved her tail at him, trying to not seem too eager.

"If it's all the same to you, Sakura, we'll be going back now," Pakkun said. "No more lessons today."

"Okay," she said. The pack poofed away.

"I didn't mean to interrupt anything," Itachi said. Sakura shook her head, and waved a paw at him. Obligingly, he spread out his scroll on the ground, and uncovered a pot of ink.

"It's fine," she wrote. "Was there something you wanted to talk about?"

"I wanted to know what you wanted," he said. Surprised, Sakura tilted her head. He met and locked gazes with her. "There was no reason for you to be at the Academy the other day. You purposefully went there, and lifted yourself to a visible location. And I wasn't the only one who saw you, looked at you, yet you singled me out of the crowd."

:Damn genius Uchiha,: Sakura thought, chagrined. She hadn't realized she'd been that obvious. But of course Itachi would notice. By all accounts, he was brilliant, and a caliber above and beyond even the most skilled ninja.

She was rather lucky his preferred response right now was simply curiosity, rather than violent paranoia. He wasn't angry; he just wanted to know why.

Sakura hadn't intended to tell Itachi that she was anything more than a summons; it was the 'official' story. She hadn't intended to do anything more than plant a seed, like she had with the Hokage and Kakashi. But… Knowing the future Itachi, knowing his story… She felt a very strong need to tell him.

"First thing you need to know," she wrote in a very formal tone, imparting the importance of what she was saying, "is that I was not always a fox."

Itachi didn't react in any visible fashion, but merely waited patiently and intently for her to re-ink her paw and continue: "I was human, a kunoichi, before an accident with fuuinjutsu and natural chakra gave me this body."

At this, Itachi's eyes narrowed, and he said, thoughtfully: "Does this have anything to do with the Kyuubi attack and its sealing?"

Sakura nodded yes, and refrained from saying anything stupidly patronizing like 'you're very observant.' She was sure Itachi was sick of people treating him like a well-trained puppy, as adults tended to do with intelligent children. When you had all the pieces—that Sakura had been human, was recently changed into a fox because of a sealing accident and natural chakra, and that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had recently been sealed—and applied any modicum of thought, it was the obvious conclusion.

"I was tracking Uchiha Madara when he came to this place and unleashed the Kyuubi," she wrote, and watched Itachi closely. She knew that Itachi had suspected Madara was alive—in her time, he had gone to Madara for help with the Massacre. She wasn't sure if he had those same suspicions this young, or if this situation was something else that had changed in this place.

His eyes narrowed; he recognized the name at least.

"Madara," he said without any particular inflection. "The same Madara from the time of the Shodai? The Exile?"

"That's the one," she wrote, and let her body language make the tone wry.

"He should be dead," Itachi said. So that was a no, then, to her wondering.

"Don't fall for that trap," Sakura warned. "'Should be' is NOT the same as 'is'. Orochimaru found some ways to extend life, and was researching immortality. And he is nothing compared to Madara."

"Why are you telling me this?" Itachi asked after a long, thoughtful pause.

"Madara engineered the Kyuubi attack, with the hope that either Konoha would be destroyed or at the very least that it would lose most of its strength. He also took steps to try to make it look like the Uchiha Clan was behind it."

"Why tell me?" he asked again. Sakura paused. Great. She hadn't expected him to confront her like he had, so she wasn't prepared with stories or lies or anything for the questions he asked.

"I don't know," she wrote finally. "Maybe because you are the son of the Clan Head, and said to be a genius… I suppose I thought I could use you as a sounding board, instead of going straight to…"

"Instead of going straight to the Clan Head. My father intimidates you," Itachi observed. Sakura twitched her tail.

"Well, yes. And he's awfully… prideful."

"You are being very frank," Itachi said.

"I apologize if I've offended you," Sakura wrote hurriedly. "I just feel… like I can trust you."

The shadow of surprise passed across his face, and was gone. If she hadn't seen it, she would have believed his indifferent tone as he said: "There aren't many who do."

Sakura faltered, and looked at him a little sadly. She supposed it was probably his genius that made people wary of him, that and the fact that his quiet nature and his confidence in his skills could so easily be misconstrued as aloof arrogance. But he was so painfully loyal—to the Village, yes, but mostly to peace. It kind of bothered her that his character had been so misjudged.

"I think the Hokage does," she wrote presently. "I think he trusts the Uchiha; he knows about Madara, and doesn't want the actions of the Exile to hurt the Clan."

"Did you tell him about Madara?"

Sakura shook her head and paused, because the scroll had become full. Itachi used the same trick Minato had, clearing the ink with chakra. Her eyes widened a bit; the ink was supposed to be special for the Intelligence Department. She was a little surprised the Itachi had access to some. But that was unimportant. She wrote swiftly: "Hokage-sama knew already. He will probably be angry with me for telling you this; it's classified, but I really do believe you are trustworthy.

"Madara attacked when he did because Minato-sama's wife was giving birth. Kushina-san was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and it's documented that the act of giving birth weakens the seals that keep the Bijuu imprisoned. Madara knew this, and wanted to take advantage of it. Minato-sama and Kushina-san wanted the birth of their son to take place in a secret place just outside of the Village, for safety reasons. Madara also took advantage of this. He confronted them just after Naruto was born, and tore the Kyuubi from Kushina-san, killing her. Minato fought him, and so saw enough evidence to convince him of Madara's identity."

"But Madara had not shown himself to anyone else, and intended for Hokage-sama to die fighting the Fox, which would leave only the evidence that an Uchiha had caused the attack," Itachi filled in. Sakura nodded.

"So what now? What do you expect me to do with this information?"

Sakura looked away, then back, and hesitantly wrote: "I hope you will not be offended…"

Itachi's head tilted, and Sakura went for broke. "Madara's plan was to create a schism between the Uchiha and the Village, and even though we found out his plan to create suspicion against the Uchiha, you can bet that wasn't his only plan. I need to make sure he hasn't made contact with your clan. Hasn't started manipulating them."

"How do you know he hasn't corrupted me?" Itachi asked. The kid really did ask questions from every angle.

"You aren't old enough to be of interest to him yet. You may be hailed as a genius, but you haven't even graduated the Academy yet. You have no power. Your father, however, happens to be Clan Head of the Uchiha. If Madara were to start the seed of corruption, he'd plant it in rich soil. As Clan Head, your father could spread Madara's vitriol on his own and minimize the risk of Madara's hand being revealed."

"That does make sense," Itachi allowed. "I suppose you want me to tell you if my father has been acting suspicious."

Sakura nodded. Itachi thought a moment, then said: "No, I can't say that he's been acting any different than usual. He often speaks about Uchiha pride and our place in the Village, but he hasn't been saying anything with true malice."

"That's reassuring," Sakura wrote, truly relieved. "Still, I'd like it if you kept an eye on things in your family. The Hokage is trying to reach out more to the Uchiha, to preempt any bad feelings but it's also important to know if Madara ever tries to make contact with his former Clan."

"I will be sure to tell you if anything develops," Itachi said.

"If you can't find me, you can always go to the Yondaime."

"I understand," Itachi said, and clearly his curiosity had been sated because he turned to leave. He paused a few feet away, though, and said over his shoulder: "Thank you, Sakura-san."

As soon as he was gone, Sakura sagged, feeling wrung out. She'd never much interacted with her time's Itachi, obviously. The only interactions they'd had had been on opposite sides of the battlefield. Now she understood everything everybody said about him—he really was a genius, and even with a diminutive stature and cherubic face he was intimidating. It was something in his stare, and it had little to do with his Sharingan. He seemed to see too much when he looked at you. It was uncomfortable. Not to mention his propensity for stabbing straight at the heart of a matter. Somehow, Sakura had negotiated the turns his questions had introduced in their conversation without revealing too much.

She supposed she could count the conversation a success, even if she felt like she'd just gone fifty rounds with Tsunade-shishou, taijutsu only. And even though a small voice at the back of her head was wondering if she was doing the right thing, embroiling a six-year-old in the situation. Even if that six-year-old was Uchiha Itachi.