I'm honestly a little baffled by the amount of attention and love this story received. Just... wow.

Thank you for all your support!

11. Hand

He was sitting on the doorsteps of her house, fully dressed in his ANBU uniform. A white mask with red markings covered his pale face, but she was completely aware of his identity.

"Sakura," he quietly said.

"Itachi," she responded in a whisper.

It was obvious by her tenseness that she knew already what he intended to say, and he couldn't help but grimace, questioning for the first time his decision to see her before his departure.

"I was assigned to a long term mission," he stated.

Sakura was standing before him, and as she took a deep breath, he almost reached for her hand. He wanted to reassure her with gentle touches that he would be fine, but he was afraid.

She slowly seated by his side on the porch, sighing in defeat.

"I know… Tsunade told me this morning." she played nervously with the hem of her medical apron. "How long…" her quiet voice broke.

Itachi turned his head to look at her.

"Months, maybe years." he kindly answered her question, hoping she would turn to look he in the eyes and just see all the things he couldn't possibly say.

But she kept staring at her lap, to her intertwined fingers.

Getting up, he reached inside his pockets for his standard black gloves and put them on. He turned his back to her and started to walk away, dragging his feet with every step, feeling utterly miserable.

"Come back," she whispered, and he stopped dead. "Come back to me."

Itachi suddenly smiled, raising a hand to softly wave her goodbye.

"I will."

12. Distance

She worked her shifts at the hospital, taking doubles whenever she could and solemnly ignoring Shizune's warnings that someday her body would collapse from stress. But she just wanted to keep herself as busy as possible, her mind completely numbed and tired to even think properly on anything that wasn't medical related.

She helped Tsunade with paperwork in her free time as well, and even if her shishou did a great job pretending she didn't notice what Sakura was doing, she casually let slip too much classified information about a certain ANBU captain to not be really on purpose.

She trained with her teammates every day until exhaustion made it impossible for her to even walk home by herself. Sasuke always accompanied her patiently and sometimes even carried her in his strong arms, threatening to stop sparing with her if she kept showing up with her chakra half drained every night. She only smiled then, feeling too tired to argue with him.

And when Sakura was all alone in her bedroom, sitting on her windowsill and staring at nothing in particular, she couldn't help but wish the distance between her and Itachi would simply disappear.

13. February

Itachi had lost count of how many mission reports and letters he had written for Tsunade over the last year, and every time he dispatched another one he inevitably thought about the only piece of paper he could never find the strength to send. It was always in his back pocket though, just in case he decided to send it one day.

It was a letter, for her.

He had sat down months ago to tell her about the winter storms of February and spring rains of March. Of the white fluffy blankets of snow all over the city he was staying at and the beautiful flowers that bloomed on his way to Iron Country. About how he thought of her almost every single day, of how much he actually missed her and only her.

Now, heading to a different location and praying it would be the last of his assignments so he could return home, he thought that maybe the letter was still in his pocket to give him a little faith.

14. Fill

"There you are," Sasuke said when he noticed her.

She slightly turned on her stool to greet him and almost fell face down when the world whirled for a moment. She laughed and emptied the cup in her hand before waving for him to seat down next to her. She pretended not to notice his frown.

"Were ya lookin for me?" she asked when he was already by her side, dragging the words more than usual.

He looked at her and then to the bar counter, where she knew he could see at least three emptied cups of whatever she was drinking. She bit her lip.

"Having fun?" he asked with a hint of amusement in his soft-spoken voice.

She laughed again. "Yes, it's yar birthday after all."

Sakura called the bartender and asked for two more drinks. Sasuke tried to order his favorite since her taste was so girly and all, but one of her intoxicated smiles convinced him otherwise.

"Why are you here by yourself? Naruto is downstairs with everybody else."

"Ino is seated on his table," she said, rolling her eyes. "And I'm hidin from her."

"Why?" he asked, slightly curious.

She blinked and tilted her head, choosing her words as carefully as a drunk woman could.

"I had my fill of her pesterin me 'bout yar brother."

The bartender put their drinks on the counter and Sakura eagerly reached for her cup, but Sasuke was faster and grabbed her arm before she could even touch the glass. In response, she turned to stare at him.

"What r u doin?" she asked, a little outraged.

He frowned, unconsciously hardening his grip on her.

"Do you miss him?" he questioned, his voice oddly blank.

She blinked a couple of times and stared right at his beautiful black eyes; they were so similar to Itachi's that her chest began to hurt, her vision got blurred and her drunken mind immediately lost control of all those emotions she had been keeping to herself for almost two years.

"I do." she breathed.

15. Hold

Itachi took a deep breath and fully concealed his chakra, stepping foot on Konoha through one of his clan's secret passageways. The Uchiha district was the same as he remembered, and his chest constricted almost painfully. He wanted to talk to his mother and hold his brother after nearly three years.

But he was also desperate to see her.

He jumped at the rooftops and used the night to hid his short sprint to a yellow-colored house in the middle of a civilian district. He could only assume she still lived in the same place, and when he dropped to the ground and raised his hand to knock on the wooden door, it shook uncontrollably.

He heard footsteps approaching the front door and for a long second, he prayed for everything and nothing at all. When the door opened up to reveal Haruno Sakura, his heart almost stopped. She was older, her pink hair a lot longer.

The most beautiful woman he had ever seen was right in front of him.

"Sakura," he said automatically.

Her breath visibly caught in her throat and her bright green eyes widened. Sakura stared at him for a while, completely flabbergasted. When she finally managed to take a small step towards him, so quietly he could see she was afraid he would disappear like a ghost, Itachi decided to meet her halfway.

It wasn't a surprise when she snapped out of her shock and all but jumped on him. He raised his arms to hold her and smiled against her hair, feeling his breath falter and her tiny hands twisting in the back of his shirt. Her body began to tremble with unshed tears as Itachi hugged her reassuringly.

"I'm home," he whispered without even notice.

Sakura shifted in his embrace to meet his dark eyes, a shaky smile on her beautiful lips.

"Welcome back." she breathed.

And the world seemed to stop.

16. Fire

Naruto was practically beaming when she entered her kitchen with a stack of dirty dishes on her hands. He was humming a song she had never heard before, pausing sometimes to laugh for no apparent reason, and even though she was facing his back, she was one hundred percent sure he had that infectious smile on his face that was oddly strange even for him.

She tilted her head in curiosity and approached him by the counter. He jumped slightly when she dropped the plates in front of him, looking at her with genuine surprise in his eyes.

She raised an eyebrow in response.

"Distracted, aren't we?" she mocked, turning on the sink tap.

He chuckled, so embarrassed at being caught that his cheeks began to redden. Sakura had to smile at that. He was acting suspiciously for the whole evening and he hadn't even realized that.

"Just a little," he responded, trying to shrug it off.

Sakura, however, knew better than to be fooled.

"What happened?" she casually asked, pretending to be holly focused on her dishes.

"Ah," he exclaimed, glancing at her. "It's silly."

She bumped her hips onto his leg.

"Spill, Uzumaki. I won't ask again," she said half-joking, half threatening.

And so he did.

"I kissed Hinata." he quickly said, almost vibrating with excitement. "It was... I can't explain it, Sakura-chan. She is so sweet, but kissing her was like actually kissing fire." he said dreamily, looking at her with those big and sparkly blue eyes of his. "Not that I have kissed fire before..." he amended.

Sakura gave a little shriek and turned to face him fully, grinning from ear to ear. He pulled her to a hug and she giggled like a little girl.

"I might be in love with her," he whispered in her hair after a while. "I don't know what to do."

She leaned her head against his chest and sighed knowingly.

"I'm far from being the best counsellour available," she laughed, closing her eyes. "But love is a leap of faith. When you're ready, all you have to do is jump."

17. Tomorrow

"You did an excellent job, Itachi," Tsunade said when she finished reading the written report of his latest solo mission. She minutely glanced at him with pride before passing the scroll to Shizune, who promptly put it on a pile next to the window to be stored later.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Itachi said as he deeply bowed.

He straightened in time to see her dismissing his gesture with a hand, lazily reclining in her chair while watching him very closely.

"Sakura," she called, the slightest of smirks on her painted lips.

The pink-haired woman, who was currently seated by a tiny desk near the door, looked up from the papers she was reading and stared at Tsunade.

Itachi frowned inconspicuously, suspecting already what the Hokage had in mind.

"Do you have anything scheduled for tomorrow?" Tsunade asked.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw how Shizune shot a strange look to Tsunade and immediately coughed to suppress a laugh. When she noticed he had been seeing her reaction, she only smiled embarrassedly.

"At the hospital?" Sakura asked, pausing a moment. "No, I don't think so."

"Good," Tsunade stated, her smirk widening wildly. Itachi closed his eyes momentarily, feeling a headache coming. "Itachi needs to redo his physical."

18. Closer

He had cut his hair ridiculously short during the years he spent away from Konoha because his overall appearance was described in every possible bingo book and he needed to stay lowkey back then. Even after six months of his return, his hair wasn't even close to being shoulder length yet because he kept redoing his cut.

Sakura was, of course, very guilty of staring at him every time they met outside professional environments. Itachi did a pretty good job pretending he didn't notice her newly found interest for his hair but she always ended up blushing furiously when his lips curved a little too knowingly to be innocent.

"Do you prefer it longer?" he asked one day when they were walking side by side through Konoha's empty streets.

His question surprised her so much she would have stumbled on the ground if he didn't have his godlike reflexes and hadn't grabbed her arms to keep her on both feet.

Wasn't he pretending to be oblivious just a minute ago?

She felt a familiar warmth crawl through her chest and color her cheeks a beautiful pink when she noticed how much closer they were now. She could see those gray hues to his irises that made his eyes look so especial up close, but most importantly, she could see how comfortable she was with his touches, his constant proximity, and how she still blushed after all this time just because he was outstandingly handsome.

Sakura looked more than once from his eyes to lips before remembering she had yet to give him an answer.

"I..." she started before clearing her throat. "I think it suits you, this haircut..."

He hummed in agreement, smirking only slightly.

"However..." he said, probably sensing she wasn't finished.

"However," she continued, giving him a tentative smile. "I do prefer it longer."

They stared at each other for a moment. Surprisingly, Itachi was the one to break eye contact and slowly drop his hands from her arms. When he started to walk again at a slow pace, Sakura automatically followed after him, biting her lips.

She immediately noticed that he stopped cutting his hair after this encounter.

19. Heed

"Mother, what do you think of Haruno Sakura?" he calmly asked one morning, siping his tea without a hurry in the world.

His mother looked up from the sack of potatoes she was peeling off and shot him a strange look, almost as if she wasn't at all surprised by his inquiry.

"She is a sweet girl." she started, putting on one of her secret smiles. "Very hard working as well. She was a little too... enthusiastic of your brother a couple of years ago but I'm glad she got over it."

Itachi put his cup down on the coffee table and smiled in amusement when her mother turned back to her vegetables to hide her not so subtle intentions.

"Indeed," he murmured. "And she is also a wonderful kunoichi," he added.

"Yes." she agreed, tilting her head to the side. "She rejected your brother, you know. When they were eighteen," she said as a matter of fact.

His smile only widened.

"I know. She told me."

Mikoto slightly smirked, setting her peeling knife and sack of potatoes on the wooden table. Now his mother was interested, he noticed, now she would heed the little details he was purposefully giving away for her to pick up.

"I guess you know her better than I do." she pointed out.

"Perhaps." he said, "I spend a lot of my free time with her."

"Oh". she exclaimed, a little surprised with his blatant statement. "She must be really special then."

"She is," he said, nearly whispering. "Sakura is incredible."

20. Heart

Whenever he wasn't on a mission, Itachi had the habit of showing up in her workplace for a reason or another.

Sometimes he passed by to giver her one of his surprisingly healthy but delicious bento that made her eyes almost tear in gratitude. Sometimes he knocked on her office door to drag her to a restaurant of her choice, claiming she needed a break.

When the air shifted and the rain began to pour, she knew he would be at the Hospital's entrance with a big umbrella on his hand, waiting for her shift to end. And when there was no excuse at all for his visit, she would only smile and feel her heart flutter because deep down, she already knew.

She wasn't dumb, after all. A little too dense and oblivious, yes, horribly slow to understand the obvious, yes again, but she still could see things with some sense of clarity when they were right under her nose.

"We are dating, aren't we." she suddenly stated more than asked one night when he was escorting her home.

His steps never faltered and he didn't look at her.

"Yes," he said, sounding deeply amused.

She had to bit her lip to refrain herself from grinning like an idiot in the middle of the street, and when she felt the slight brush of his hand on hers, her heart skipped a beat.

Deep down, she always knew.

So, peachandbetty (author of A Book Worth Reading. Go check it out!) recommended MitsukiShiroi's Labyrinthine to her readers and I'm absolutely obsessed. It's my (not so new) drug.

Now, I feel like I have the duty to recommend something to you guys as well so I'll start with Amaryllis by silverfootsteps.

See you next chapter!