and the scarry skies above
surrender everything
By the time Itachi is eighteen, he's out of puberty.
The aching joints are gone, leaving behind a lean body that is as strong as it is flexible.
He's matured in more ways than one.
His infatuation with his teacher, while previously filling him with shame, has blossomed into full-blown desire and he wants her so. fucking. bad.
In the rare moments they lie next to each other on missions, each in their separate sleeping bag, he sometimes wonders how easy it would be to just roll over and pin her beneath him. Too bad she'd thrash his arse for even thinking such a thing. Until, one day, she doesn't.
That one day, he's got her bent over on the training field, arm twisted brutally, and something digging into her back which he hopes she thinks is a kunai but definitely isn't. She's panting hard, chest pushing back against his with every breath, and for a moment he's distracted.
The next second, the back of her head connects with his jaw with such force his neck cranes back. She follows it up with a spinning kick delivered to his ribs that has him hurtling through the air, pain exploding behind his eyes, and then he's lying there, the soft summer grass warming his shoulders. She's straddling him, holding him down with years of expertise and the weight of her gaze alone – she's so small, he could push her off so easily and bury her beneath him if it wasn't for the iron grip she has on his neck. Chakra is tingling at her fingertips and he knows: one wrong move and she'll crush his throat. He knows his sensei, he's seen her do it before.
And so he lies there, his aching body communicating surrender even as his eyes plead silently – for what, he doesn't know.
A/N: What is this? An update? On a day that's not Friday? Ahead of schedule? Yes yes yes. Since this is a super short chapter and the last one was kind of mellow, I thought you guys might appreciate something a bit more ... I don't know, zing. Also, it's a holiday for me, so this is kind of my Christmas gift to you. Because you guys always write such kind reviews and always manage to make me smile, even if I'm having a bad day. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to drop a line. I really appreciate it!
I know the chapters are a bit short at the moment, but they'll get longer again, so please bear with me.
To answer TeenageCrisis' question as to the age gap: it's actually addressed in the story. In chapter 21 Tetsuo points out that Sakura is only 27. With Itachi being around 14 at the time, that would bring the agegap up to roundabout 13 years. I thought about making it less, since even I thought that was a bit much, but turns out I actually stayed relatively canon with the age difference. Kurenai, who's been mentioned to be the youngest of the jonin to be assigned a team in Season 1 (I think so, anyways), is around 27. The age difference to Hinata, Kiba and Shino would be about 15 years.
And now I just realised that I made a huge error in calculating all this, because while I was like 'Ah, 13 years age difference between teacher and student isn't too bad, seems kind of realistic, right?' I all but forgot about the fact that Itachi is a lot younger than his teammates. They would be around 12 by the time their team is formed, making them a mere 9 years younger than Sakura. Oops.
Let's just pretend she was assigned a team early on, since she's the apprentice of the legendary Tsunade. *scratches head guiltily*. Thanks, TeenageCrisis, for making me feel completely dumb^^. Still, I hope I managed to clear some things up. (Also, I guess Fugaku would be around 35-38, with Mikoto being five years younger, according to narutopedia.)
Thank you very much for your nice review, Louchette, your comments are always super kind and encouraging.
And thank you to all the others who reviewed! Merry Christmas!
(Also sorry for the ridiculously long A/N. As someone pointed out in an earlier review: My notes are just as long as my story. Damn, man.)
Lots of love,
planless