Chapter 21 – In Death We Found Each Other

"Won… I've won! HAHAHAHAHAAAA-!"

The light in Sasuke's eyes dimmed and he fell flat onto the concrete slate next to Itachi's body, sending a cloud of dust into the surrounding. While Itachi's vision was all but darkness and he could no longer feel himself, his little brother's laughter reverberated deep into his core.

He had spared his brother the harshest brunt of the Mangekyo Sharingan, and he had paid with his life. He was content with that.

You have grown, Sasuke, and as much as I'm undeserving of this, I'm proud of you, my little brother. You've fought well. Thank you for releasing me out of this nightmare. And sorry for everything.

Sakura.


Zetsu, who had been discreetly observing the showdown from afar, cursed as he shed his right arm before the boiling hot lava could spread and harden his entire body. He had been patiently waiting for this moment to claim Itachi's body and present it to Madara, and was so enraptured by their showdown that he had not noticed the intruder.

He took a longing look at their battered bodies and followed after the ninja, not wanting the lava to damage the Uchihas, the last of their species.

Once Zetsu was lured far enough, Kisame snuck in, claimed Itachi's body, was out and heading towards the opposite direction in no time. His body felt cold, hollow, and small in his arms, these very descriptions foreign and left a weird aftertaste on his tongue.

Reckless was also the last thing he would call Itachi, yet that was the only explanation he had for this dying man.

"Itachi-san, don't die, you hear me? Don't you dare die in my arms…" Besides how much he had spent to hire that mercenary to distract Zetsu, he was not willing for his partner to die just yet. He tried not to think about this misplaced affection he had unknowingly developed for this quiet and aloof man. He concentrated more chakra into his feet and sped through the darkening forest, as dusk drew its unforgiving curtains against the cloudless orange sky.

It was just as she feared. Itachi was barely alive by the time Kisame dropped his body off at the granny's compound where Sakura occasionally traded precious herbs. Since the granny's daughter-in-law gave birth, she became a full-time babysitter and was hardly home, making this the ideal refugee hideout. It was roughly ten miles from the Uchiha Hideout where the conclusive showdown occurred, just far enough to be undetected.

"Over here!" She directed in a hushed whisper to the makeshift operation bed, a desanitised dining table lined with a pale pink bedsheet. Kisame carefully lowered Itachi's battered form like he was handling a new born, and if the patient was not her beloved, she would be seriously impressed by his unexpected delicacy.

Sakura tore apart his top and hovered her hand over his chest, where she extracted the slug that she had hidden within his body during the time she made him swallowed a 'soldier pill.'

"Is that your Summon? You really had thought things through huh."

"This was the only way to keep him from dying while appearing dead. Here, gently spray this over the surface wounds to remove the debris," She instructed and Kisame tentatively took over the needleless syringe. The slug was set to work the moment Itachi's chakra dropped below two percent, its job being to maintain it at that level, pausing and concealing the chakra flow to avoid detection. Unless one was medically trained to locate the inner chakra barrier, he was effectively dead to the world.

She peeled his eyelids apart and shone her penlight to both eyes, releasing a breath of relief when they constricted.

"It's faint, but I can finally sense his chakra," Kisame remarked in a low voice, expertly applying the gauze over the cleaned wounds.

"That's because I just got his chakra system flowing." Sakura placed both palms on his chest and they began to emit a luminescent green chakra. "I'm going to begin transferring my chakra reserves to him. Kisame, thank you for your help, I owe you one. You can go now."

Some time had passed and when she still sensed Kisame's chakra, she forced opened her eyes and saw him lounging by the living room sofa, both legs resting crossed on the soft armrest.

"Why are you still here?"

"You really expect me to leave the both of you here, defenceless, and have a peace of mind?"

"…I do not wish to owe you any more than…necessary."

"When I agreed to help, it was on my terms, remember? I decide where to stop." Sakura licked the wary sweat off her lips, her browns furrowed with uncertainty.

"This was beyond what was agreed upon." Kisame shrugged and crossed his arms behind his head.

"Since I'm already in hot waters pulling off this stunt, might as well see to its succeed."

"Let's have a rolling good time working on our first mission together, Sakura-chan," Kisame chipped in behind Pein.

"Go get ready. You two will be departing in an hour." Sakura gulped back her anxiety and meekly nodded, for she was clearly powerless to decline.

"Kisame, I'm counting on you," Pein added as Kisame lightly shut the door behind them. Itachi's eyes remained trained on the door until he could no longer sense their presence. He could not get the image of Sakura's longing backward glance out of his mind, knowing how much he wanted to reach out and substitute Kisame's place.

"Hey, how close are you and Itachi?" Sakura asked from behind once they were out of the hearing range.

"Already seeking intel of your lover?" Kisame chuckled at his own wisecrack.

"I know Itachi trusts you, so I'm willing to put aside my skepticism and do the same," She ignored him and continued. "Kisame, I need your help."

"Seriously? Are you sure you're asking the right person? We're only going on our first mission, and that hardly make us acquainted..."

"I know that! Urgh, let me rephrase my question." Sakura forced herself to take a deep breath, regained her composure, and continued calmly, "You need to help Itachi."

"Surely if he needs 'help,' he would ask me…" At Sakura's gravely expression, the easy grinned gradually slipped from Kisame's face. "What kind of help?"

"He's going to fight his brother, Uchiha Sasuke, and he's going to kill him."

"I wouldn't doubt that; you should have seen the way Itachi mercilessly took him down..."

"No, the other way – Sasuke-kun is going to kill him, and he's going to be killed willingly!" Kisame stopped in his tracks.

"Itachi-san wants to be killed? You're joking."

"He's going to die thinking he deserves it; you've got to help me... Help him!"


Till the moment he held Itachi's fragile body in his arms he had refused to believe Sakura's words. Although he had doubts, there was no reason for Sakura to lie about this, so he agreed to work with Sakura and made the necessary preparations.

Akatsuki members came and left, joined and died, so no member would particularly question him as to how he had lost track of his partner's body, or where his body went. He just had to make sure Zetsu could not trace it to Sakura for her safety, hence the diversion.

"Ah, looks like I'll be going solo starting today huh?" Kisame announced woefully and was startled by a thud from the kitchen.

Sakura had collapsed on the floor, her body like a ragdoll, slack and lifeless. Kisame was next to her in a second, checking her pulse and air under her nose. He carried and deposited her where he had lay moments ago, the sofa still warm from hours of body heat contact, shaking his head at these star crossed lovers.

He wondered with despondence, when, if ever, he could find a partner who would go such lengths for him.


The familiar embrace of chakra. The cooling sensation surrounding his still figure. His mind was finally free from encumbrances, and his body released from the chains of mundane routine. He had not realized how tired he was just trying to stay alive with all those memories, haunting him, clawing at him.

Even though there were some regrets (Sakura), he felt it was a small price to pay for Sasuke's closure.

Darkness had never felt this comforting.


Sakura had not seen Kisame since that fateful day.

It had been seven weeks since they relocated from the granny's quarters to a rented cottage along the river of Waterfall, away from the hustle of the streets. It was enough time to gather the essentials and revamp what was once a sparse and basic space into a nature themed home. To draw in the clean air, Sakura had potted plants decorating shelves and corners of the room, hanging planters with vines cascading next to the window, leaf shaped pillows strewn over the navy blue sofa, and geometric printed rug lying over the living room wooden floor. She hoped that when Itachi decided to wake up, he would feel at ease, and at home.

It had been a month since Sakura's "funeral." In the midst of the cynamide explosion after Shikamaru had evacuated, Suigetsu had slid in a preserved body bearing a similar physique to Sakura, not so subtly stolen from Orochimaru's laboratory. Her heart clenched in regret whenever she thought of Shikamaru, how he must have blamed himself for leaving her to her death, even when it was not his fault.

The brown envelope she had passed to Shikamaru had contained her farewell letter to Ino, her eternal rival and best friend. She hoped that Ino would never forgive her for making this decision, as the only person in Konoha who knew she was still alive.

A week before her departure, Sakura had swapped her existing dental and health reports with the preserved body's (again courtesy of Sasuke) to quash all doubts that the unidentifiable charred body was indeed Sakura's. She just prayed that her mentor Tsunade did not store any extra copies of her health reports unbeknownst to her knowledge. My Mentor. Urgh, she squinted her eyes and pushed away the raising guilt.

There were even rumours that Sakura was assimilated by Akatsuki, which was concerning as further investigation might reveal her short-lived "collaboration" with them. However, that was the thing with death – she could only concede her reputation to speculation.

She had chosen this life, she would not look back, she reaffirmed with resolve, slamming the door and locking her past firmly behind her. While she was forced to relinquish everything, nothing could replace what she had found, who she had found, or who had found her.

She paused at the entrance to sense for any lingering chakra and entered when she was satisfied to detect none. After putting away this week's groceries, she grabbed a paperback and slid into the cozy spot next to Itachi, the mattress springing gently under her weight.

"Hey, I'm back," She started with her usual greeting, smiling at his unmoving form, the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest the only indicator that he had not left this world. In an effort to spend therapeutic time with him, she had developed a habit of reading aloud whatever books she could get her hands on that she thought might interest him.

"You know, whenever I'm with you, I often wonder why time flies so quickly." Sakura flipped a page and continued without waiting for a reply. "According to this author, time can be perceived as horizons. For instance, in the previous book, I anticipated the horizon at the end of each paragraph, rather than end of the story, and because the horizon kept arriving, time passed very slowly!" She smiled almost forcefully and leaned against the headboard, resting her eyes.

"When I'm with you, I… I push the horizon waaaay back, not wanting to reach the end of it. Before I realized, it was time to leave." She slid down next to him and brushed the back of her palm against his pale and unmoving cheeks, the salty tears slipping past her lips.

"But lately, I kept waking up in the middle of the time, thinking you might be awake. The horizon of anticipation has kept me up with false hopes, and you carried on to sleep, and sleep, and sleep…" She snapped the book shut and left it on the bedside shelf, coiled her arms tightly around his arm, and pressed her face against his sleeve. She bit down hard on her trembling lips, tried so damn hard to push away the negative thoughts that was haunting her with each passing week when he continued to show no signs of waking up.

"Why don't you wake up? Is the thought of living so unbearable?" Admitting that he might never wake up was as good as exposing her attempt at creating normalcy that was never there.

This was not a home, not without him well and awake next to her.

This was not life. She might as well be dead.


The sobbing sounds cut right to his guts. He chided himself for making her cry.

It was not that he could not wake up.

He simply chose not to, at least, for the moment when he finally gained consciousness.

Under normal circumstance it would be a herculean task to fool a medic-nin, especially one of her calibre. However, this was Itachi.

It was not his intention to conceal the fact that he was awake, it just so happened that… The first thing he saw as his eyelids peeled apart – clearer than ever since Sakura's healing sessions – was Sakura peeling off her lingerie and standing in front of the window's morning beam in her underwear. She was doing her morning stretch and the sight of her breasts sticking out from that arched position, her head thrown back exposing her bare neck, was enough to send Itachi's mind racing down the dirtiest gutter. Sakura must have sensed the stir in Itachi's chakra for she suddenly twisted around and locked eyes with a frozen Itachi.

The genjutsu casted in a panic reflex drew a frown to Sakura's face, who was once again looking at Itachi's comatose form, and she made for the shower in her almost naked glory.

Seeing his illusion worked, it was safe to assume he had not landed in Heaven.

As the sound of splattering water filled the background, he lay motionless and waited for his mind to return to its civilised state, clenching hard at the bedsheet and willing the excitment to wear off. Once he cleared himself for the safety check, he drank in the unfamiliar surroundings. Before he could make out head or tail, he was overcome by a wave of dizziness and was forced to lie back on the pillow. He mentally shook his head at his pathetic form, whose body gave up from a mere genjutsu.

When the dizzy spell had subsided, he once again opened his eyes, and raised his hands to catch the sunlight filtering through the gaps in his fingers, feeling in awe.

He was alive.

Thankfully, Sakura was fully clothed when she stepped out of the shower. When she announced she was heading to the market, he waited until he could no longer sense her chakra and got up.

His eyes were immediately drawn to the calendar hanging next to the dressing table. He released a breath of disbelief – he had been sleeping for almost two months? He peeked out of the window of the second floor bedroom and recognized the Waterfall riverfront. They had made a full circle and ended up here again, or rather, he had, but with a different woman this time, he noted with dry amusement. Since when was his life about women?

A crow spotting Sharingan cried out ahead and he raised his arm, welcoming his companion. Since Pein had assigned Sakura and Kisame the dreaded "mission," he had his personal summon keeping tabs on Kisame's actions should he try anything funny.

"So Kisame played a part in this huh? Looks like I owe him one." He was part surprised and alarmed by the faith Sakura had placed in Kisame. He sent the crow on its way and made a mental note to introduce Misao to his ex-partner.

Not wanting to scare Sakura should she come back and find him gone, he meekly went back to his bed and lay down, and waited.

.

.

.

Sakura snapped the book shut, left it on the bedside shelf, and snuggled next to his still body, her arms coiled tightly around his. The sobbing sounds cut right to his guts. He chided himself for making her cry.

"Why don't you wake up? Is the thought of living so unbearable?"

He had kept her waiting for too long, and there was no reason to prolong her suffering. Gently, he released his control over her chakra. Her body stiffened and slowly, she turned her bloodshot eyes towards the all too familiar Sharingan smiling tiredly down at her.

He raised his hand and wiped the relentless tears under her eyes with the knuckle of his index finger, not once breaking their eye contact.

Sakura blinked once, twice, washed by a look of disbelief. She shifted her palm to his chest and sucked in a deep breath at the strong and steady heartbeat of a non-comatose person. A well and awake person. Alive and smiling at her.

"…How long?" She began at last.

"Just this morning."

"Why would you do that?" He tried not to flinch at the raw hurt radiating from her emerald eyes. "Do you know how worried I was? I am?"

"I'm sorry." She started throwing weak punches against his chests. He let her and watched on sadly.

"I-I was… So scared… So afraid that you will never wake up, that you have given up on life, and I'll be all alone…" Her words trailed off as another torrent of sobs hit her and she abruptly turned away, her cries stifled by her hand.

He reached around her and gently buried her against his chest, neither moving nor offering words of comfort.

"I'm sorry," He whispered again, gently kissing her hair.

As her hiccups faded into sniffles, she discreetly wiped off the remaining tears, pushed herself off his embrace, and looked him dead in the eyes.

"Do you know who I am?" He cocked his head to one side in curiosity.

"Of course, you're Haruno Sakura of Konoha, and my lover," He added softly.

"Y-Yes." She cleared her throat and evaded his sincere gaze, unable to hide the creeping blush. "And do you know who you are?"

"Uchiha Itachi." She nodded, the omission of his home nation remarkably pronounced.

"That's right. And you're a free man now. You're no longer a part of Akatsuki. You do not have to mindlessly kill if you do not have to."

"It doesn't matter what happen to me," He said after a minute pause. He was supposed to be dead, after all. It had also just been hours since he woke up and was still adjusting to his newfound status. "Have you not been back to Konoha all these while?"

"About that… My connection with the Akatsuki was discovered, I fled the village and became rogue," She shrugged offhandedly while holding eyes with him, not betraying an ounce of emotions.

He still did not know about her status in Konoha, and she planned to keep it that way for as long as she could. The last time she wanted was to add her "death" to his list of guilty crimes.

"…That's unfortunate. I'm sorr-" She planted a finger against his lips.

"Don't be, it was only a matter of time. Besides, you're awake and that's all that matters now." Even though this was the last thing he intended, he felt consolation in knowing they were somewhere far, somewhere safe from causal detection, and at somewhat of a home…

"What will you do now?"

"I'm working at a private family clinic for now, saving up till I have enough to start my own research clinic," She answered and waited for a beat. "I-I realized I have taken it upon myself to assume we will stay together," She carried on while avoiding his gaze. "Now that you've recovered-"

"I'm content with the current arrangement."

"Y-You are?" He hid his smile as she blinked in surprise with an openly delighted look. He cupped one side of her face with his cool palm, brushing his thumb along her cheeks, reeling in the warm and silky sensation of her skin. Then, although something just hit her, the smiled faded from her face.

"Wait a minute... When you said you were awake this morning, was it when I was...?"

"I didn't see anything," He answered appropriately, albeit too quickly.

"...Y-You totally saw me naked!" Sakura's face was heavily blushed, her eyes desperately looking for a wall, a spot, to focus on. "And you casually casted a genjutsu like it was nothing-"

"Oh it was something all right," He interrupted gravely, his eyes finally catching hers and flashing snippets of what he had in mind for her.

"O-Oh..." She felt the heat travelling through her body and a fresh longing in the south that mirrored his, confirmed by a sneak peek at his region. He caught her drifting eyes and pushed her down onto the mattress and hovered above her, his lips inches from where she wanted them, those long locks of hair teasing her cheeks and intensifying her desire.

"Will you continue to stay by my side, Sakura?"

"R-Really? You want me to?"

"Yes."

"Can I?"

"You saved my life. You have every right to, that is, if you want to," He added softly, his eyebrows furrowed with a hint of doubt at his own presumptuous thoughts.

"….I would love to." His heart swelled at her abashed look. He leaned down and kissed her softly on her salty lips, just the way she loved it.

"Then this will be our new home," He declared with a gruff voice, his hands already unclasping her bra.

"You and me," Sakura murmured against his lips, smiling her first smile in months as they slid under the blanket, forgotten to the rest of the world.


There was no one left but you. And sometimes, just 'you' is enough. - I

I may have died just to be with you, but you're 100 percent worth dying for. - S

THE END


At last! Please let me know how you find the ending. I just want to give Itachi what he deserves (and Sakura is the best vessel to fulfil that fantasy ~.~)