Dreamcatcher
By Airyo
A Missing Piece - 2
It was a mission much like any other.
In between the waiting and waiting, there was a lot more waiting. Being a ninja wasn't half so glorious as the storybooks made it seem, since it was much easier to pass the time in fantasy than in actuality. After spending three days crouching in the grass with the mosquitos for his first assassination mission, the novelty had run out very quickly, right along with his bug spray medicine.
Yet again, Itachi thought of how comfortable his own bed was. Or even sitting in the field with Hinata. Anything surpassed this.
He sighed softly, barely more than a simple exhalation through the nose.
"I never thought there would be the day I would witness Itachi-sensei pining."
Itachi looked up at the tree that offered him such paltry shade. Sakura was seated on a low branch, swinging her legs in a girlish way that belied her jounin status. But nothing of her image matched the winning smile of a gossip-monger prying for dirt.
Maybe he needed to make that appointment with Ibiki after all.
"A guilty conscience seeking absolution?" he asked. Sakura scowled, well aware of the fact that he was referring to her girlhood crushes and consequential bouts of whining to her sensei. And neither of them will ever talk about that phase when she got it into her head that the elder could make a less hostile replacement for the younger brother.
"I'm just observing," she huffed, clearly undeterred by his attempt at redirection. "The great Uchiha Itachi doesn't sigh lightly."
"Perhaps not," he said. "Though I only started sighing after passing you and your teammates."
While veiled insults and threats worked for Sasuke and Naruto, dealing with Sakura always required a gentler manner. Not because of any sort of sexist misconceptions of weakness, but a more primal caution regarding someone who possessed the frightening combination both a horrid temper and inhuman strength. (Not that he regretted coercing Tsunade into taking Sakura under her wing. Itachi prided himself in being unfettered by his ego. In the aftermath of the Sound attack, Team 7 wasn't one he could successfully manage while juggling additional responsibilities in tracking down Orochimaru.)
He didn't need to look to know that Sakura was sticking her tongue out at him.
"Mean," she declared. "I'm just trying to catch up with my beloved teacher like a good little student. Who was it that taught us that we stand stronger in harmony than in disarray?"
"Irrelevant," Itachi dismissed. "You are twisting my words as an excuse to dig for gossip."
"A little bit," she admitted truthfully. "But I haven't seen Hinata since my Academy days, but she's always treated everyone kindly. I've wondered what happened to her since graduation. She isn't on the ninja roster - but she was ranked first among the kunoichi in our class, regardless of family ties."
Itachi glanced at Sakura, who was watching him with intelligent jade eyes. Clearly, she had noticed the discrepancy. Despite remaining largely outside social intricacies of the noble clans, the medic nin was too smart not to pick up a few things after having representatives from both the Namikaze and the Uchiha clans on her genin team.
"She is not the roster because she didn't pass the genin exam," he said quietly. "That is all I can confirm for you." Whether the rumors were true or not, Itachi found himself oddly protective.
"Because I would have never guessed that one on my own," Sakura said sarcastically, though with no venom.
She fell silent too easily. Itachi waited, wary of the sly glint forming in her eyes. "But it's telling how careful you are protect her reputation...now the reason why you are such good buddies with Tsunade-shishou comes to light."
Then she grinned in a positively evil way.
"I never pegged you as a breast man, Itachi-sensei."