Bitter Intrusion
"Now, now Sakura." Kakashi raised his hands up placating and slowly edged away from Sakura.
"I don't need a babysitter, Dad. I can take care of myself." She was a grown woman, and he knew that. And while she was used to the overprotectiveness of her team it didn't mean it made her happy.
Kakashi sighed. "I know that Sakura, but you're dealing with a lot right now. I'd feel better leaving if I knew someone was here with you."
Sakura knew a manipulating tone when she heard one. She narrowed her eyes at the man and shifted Raiden on her hip.
"Ask Naruto." She said flatly.
:::
Kakashi shrugged. "You know I asked him first. He can't do it. I wouldn't put you in an uncomfortable position if I didn't have to."
What Kakashi didn't want to say was why Naruto couldn't do it. Naruto felt like he had failed Sakura. He thought Sakura hated him for allowing Sasuke to die. He thought Sakura didn't want him around. Kakashi had tried to explain to him that wasn't the case at all, but all of his team members were entirely too stubborn. He didn't try to explain that Sakura wasn't accepting that Sasuke was dead. And he honestly felt like putting the two of them together was a fight waiting to happen, so Kakashi was glad Naruto turned him down.
However, it only left him with two alternatives. Itachi and Shisui. Shisui told him to ask Itachi first. Itachi had agreed.
:::
Sakura ran a hand over her face, and Raiden began to fuss, and Sakura knew she had to feed him soon. She bounced him a little to distract him.
"Please, Sakura. Just for my peace of mind. Humor me?"
And just to put the final nail in her coffin Kakashi lowered his mask and gave her the most adorable pleading face ever. It shouldn't have worked.
It did.
:::
Kakashi left a few days later. Itachi didn't immediately show up, but Sakura found herself on edge waiting on his arrival. She jumped at shadows and expected him around every corner. Sakura was well aware that Itachi had access to her home. She didn't know when it happened, and it wasn't something she had to opportunity to talk to Sasuke about it, but once she did know she couldn't count the number of times she had peeked in Raiden's room expecting to find him there.
In the end, Itachi didn't just waltz in like he owned the place like she expected. He behaved like a decent human being and knocked on the door.
Sakura gnawed on her tongue and moved to her lower lip the closer she got to the door. Nighttime had fallen, and she could hear the crickets outside chirping incessantly. An unease settled in her chest because she thought it was too quiet. Raiden was asleep, and it was just her alone in her large home. It had never seemed large before.
She realized that it was her first time she had been alone in her home since Kakashi returned from that fateful mission. It had been Shisui that stayed at her side until Kakashi took up residence with her. Sakura paused on her way to the door. Why hadn't Kakashi asked Shisui to resume his vigil?
Sakura scowled to herself. It was a question she'd have to ask once he came back. Sakura reached for the door and opened it slowly until she revealed Itachi standing there with a duffle bag draped over his shoulder. He stared at her silently, and Sakura thought he looked awkward standing there. Her mind couldn't recall a time where the words awkward and Itachi belonged in the same sentence. It was like he expected her to slam the door in his face the moment she saw him. She wouldn't do that. She was only rude when she was angry and right that second she was only extremely uncomfortable.
Sakura stepped aside and allowed him to come inside. His steps were slightly hesitant but became sure when Sakura didn't demand to know what he wanted and why he was there.
"Hatake spoke with you?"
Sakura felt her eye twitch. "If you mean did he tell me you were staying then yes, he did. Come on. I'll show you to your room."
It would have been inhospitable to put him in her pit of despair for the remainder of his stay, and she didn't want to put him in Kakashi's room. There was no alternative but to put him in the room right next door to Raiden's which was also right across the hall from hers.
Itachi remained quiet, and she was grateful that he was taciturn by nature. She wasn't feeling up to making stimulating conversation. However, right before she closed the door and exited his room she heard him utter the words, "Good night Sakura."
:::
When Kakashi Hatake approached Itachi with his request that he stay with Sakura while he was gone, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was a bad idea.
Yes, he wanted to help out with Raiden. Raiden was his son-and very much, beloved. Anytime he got to spend with him was precious. And yet staying night after night under the roof that his brother once lived in with the woman Itachi loved—he worried that it was something beyond him.
At two o'clock in the morning, Itachi was certain that he had just fallen asleep when he heard a noise. Instantly his senses were sharp, and his eyes scanned the room looking for an intruder and finding none. He heard the noise again and realized the sound was not coming from inside his room.
Intruder.
Cautiously and silently he slid out of bed and made his way to the door listening to it for a minute before opening it slightly. His immediate thought was to get to Raiden, but when he slid into the hallway, he realized the sounds were coming from inside her room.
Listening at her door, he realized that he was hearing Sakura crying. Presumably for his brother. They were heart-wrenching sobs full of despair, and it wasn't until right then that Itachi fully believed that Sakura had loved his brother.
Itachi found himself sliding down to the floor and silently weeping for his lost brother and the love he had lost.
