Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Rewritten: May 15th, 2020.

Oof this chapter is going to be a tough read I think. I know many of you are upset that Itachi is a 'cheater,' but he is a shinobi and even though it wasn't specified in the canon series, there probably were seduction/undercover missions. That's basically what he's had to do. I insinuated in a previous chapter that he wasn't sexually inexperienced because he had been sent on missions like those at a young age. Now he has to face what being a high-level shinobi means and how it affects his relationships.

I don't think this was ever stated, but this isn't a lighthearted fanfiction. I always intended for this story to take a darker turn and focus on the mental toll the difficult missions take on the characters. This is just the start.

Anyhoo, please enjoy. Quarantine is doing my updates a lot of good I think!

WARNING: This chapter contains sexual content.

Chapter 24 | Twenty-four | So Far Away

"Ready?" Obito asks as he nears him, opening his mismatched eyes. "Did you find the answer to your question?" The older Uchiha is seated on a rock, cross-legged as if he were meditating before Itachi disturbed him.

"Aa," Itachi answers, "Let's go. They're waiting for us."

Obito laughs. "You knew they were waiting but you still - " When Itachi gives him a look, he decides not to finish his teasing. He and Rin never got to this point, but he knows how it feels to pine after someone, to want to see them smile once more. He's been doing so for over a decade now and he probably will for the rest of his life.

As Obito opens a portal in front of him, Itachi resists the urge to look back at the town Sakura is currently in. He's glad that he saw her smile again, and he's glad that she's doing alright. He was worried but now he knows that there was no need. When he steps through the portal, Obito follows behind him. His sandal-clad feet touch the glistening silver sand of the Moon and he finally turns back to look, but the portal already closed.

"We have a lot of work to do," Obito reminds as he steps next to Itachi, "I'll leave you to it." Itachi only nods before Obito vanishes from beside him.

Spotting the Otsutsuki Clan's fortress, he starts towards it. Once he gets closer, he knows she'll sense him and come greet him, with a smile on her face and love in her eyes, not knowing that the way he looks at her is counterfeit and meant for another.

"Itachi-kun!" He hears her familiar silvery voice. He sees her matching silver hair catch the light reflecting off the sand beneath her feet as she runs towards him. If he didn't know any better, he would've thought she was just a normal, beautiful young woman. She doesn't look even remotely like the celestial being she is. In Konoha, she could pass for a Hyuuga with silver hair. She is a vision as the sand kicks up beside her, particles glistening in the light. But despite the beauty before him, he finds himself missing another even more.

Everything here is monochromatic in shades of black and white. He misses the color in his life that he had become so accustomed to – the color that Sakura brought with her wherever she went.

When the woman wraps her arms around him tightly, he fights the urge to push her away, an urge he always has to subdue. He doesn't think he'll ever get used to it.

"You're finally back!" She cheers. He looks down into her Byakugan-wielding eyes, forcing himself to pretend to love her yet again. "How are things in Konoha?" The name of his home village sounds weird on her tongue, maybe it's because, to her, it's just a string of syllables, sounds she threaded together because he taught her to, and not because she actually knows it.

He fakes a smile, pushing away the memory of Sakura telling him not to get used to doing so. "It's fine, Kikyo," he says before he wraps his arms around her back, wrapping her in his cloak, and places a kiss over her hair. "Let's go inside, it's cold tonight."

Taking his hand in hers, she leads him into her castle.

When he and Obito were tracking Kaguya and those of the Otsutsuki Clan, they had stumbled upon this castle within Kaguya's dimensions. There aren't many residents, but of the remaining members of the clan on the moon, Kikyo is the most highly regarded. Evidently, she is the sole remaining descendent of the royal clan members after Kaguya left and the rest of them died out. Despite her inability to fight or protect herself most of the time, there is no threat towards the clan – and even if there was, she is well protected by her remaining clansmen.

Since he had split up from Obito when they arrived in this dimension, she doesn't know the older Uchiha is here trying to figure out more about Kaguya on the outside and how to stop her before she even begins to wreak havoc in Konoha.

She said she fell in love with him at first sight because of his eyes. Throughout the centuries, with the strongest soldiers being sent to other dimensions to consume their chakra fruit and most not making it back as human civilization evolved, many of the abilities died out – the Sharingan being one of them.

"Such a beautiful color," Kikyo had breathed out as she stared into his eyes when he appeared before her for the first time.

He had intended on casting a genjutsu on her but decided against it when he sensed no ill intent from the young woman. She didn't look a day older than him and she is harmless. To his surprise, he finds out that her people adore her for her kindness.

As resources continue to run out on the moon, Kikyo shares her wealth and her food with her followers despite being the 'Princess.' She was not what he was expecting when he accepted this mission, but even though he doesn't want to use her, Obito said she's the best bet for gathering information on Kaguya. She had shown Itachi the relic that they had brought back to Konoha for further research to show him how much she trusts and loves him.

Too blinded by love, she didn't even notice it was missing.

Looking back, he finds that he can now relate to wanting to see something other than this bland, dusty world. When he first arrived, he had thought it was beautiful, but it had gotten old fast. He can't imagine being stuck here forever.

Walking past the guards, they bow to Itachi as he enters, not even perceiving him as a threat. Because he wields the Sharingan and has such dexterous control over it, they treat him like royalty. It also helps that their princess is utterly infatuated with him.

In the beginning, he was just focused on gaining her trust and becoming friends, but as time went on and she kept pursuing him romantically, he had to relent before she caught on to his deception.

So he gave in.

He slept with her and he hated every second of it, but he told himself that it had to be done for the mission, for Konoha, for Sasuke, and for Sakura.

To keep himself from suffering, he locked his emotions away for a year like the prodigious, dutiful shinobi he is. He succeeded in keeping his feelings at bay only until he saw Sakura again at the Chuunin exams.

When he laid eyes on her again after such a long year, his suppressed emotions hit him like a wave crashing into the shore. It was like he didn't even know what he was missing, even though truly, he did know. When she looked at him with those pretty, pretty eyes, he worried she could see right through him, see what he did, see how badly betraying her hurt him.

He told himself that he had to avoid her when he was in Konoha, that she could read him too well. He told himself that it was all for her, but he knew that he was just a coward. He could do almost everything, but he couldn't face her, couldn't have her find out the extent of what he has done.

Selfishly, he knew he wouldn't be able to take it if she left him, so he left her.

He doesn't hate Kikyo. He knows she's a good person, but while he does feel protective of her and occasionally manages to give into unadulterated lust for her and not someone else, he can't call it love.

(There's only one person he's sure he loves in the way Kikyo wants to be loved.)

As she squirms beneath him, he closes his eyes to pretend she's someone else. Sometimes he doesn't have to pretend, but he can't seem to get the image of Sakura in the field of flowers out of his mind - the wind in her hair, smile on her face, cherry blossom petals floating around her. He knows it's unfair to both Sakura and Kikyo to keep pretending - it's sick, even.

Just for tonight, he tells himself. Just once more, then he'll lock it away again.

He remembers how Sakura looked underneath him, her skin glistening with sweat, some strands sticking to the sides of her flushed face. He remembers how soft her skin and her hair were in his hands. He remembers the sounds escaping her pink, swollen lips. He remembers how she felt, wrapped around him. He remembers how she looked at him with lust and pleasure clouding up those bright green eyes he loves so much.

He feels himself get closer, the pressure in him threatening to release.

He remembers her little voice mewling for him to continue and he remembers how she looked as she trembled from the high his cock brought her, but despite all his perverted memories of her, it's the way her beautiful eyes crinkled and sparkled when she smiled at him and that pushes him over the edge.

Gripping Kikyo's thin shoulders tightly in his hands as he pours his love for Sakura into her, Itachi reminds himself to be gentler and not bruise her, but he knows she doesn't mind - she never does.

She gently combs her fingers through his hair, which had come undone during their 'lovemaking', as she would call it.

(He would call it something else entirely.)

He knows that she wants to move his hair out of the way to look at his eyes, but he pulls away and lays down beside her, unsure if he can even fake a loving gaze right now. Undeterred, she moves to hover over him.

"I love you, Itachi-kun," she whispers, trying to capture his lips with hers.

She doesn't mind that he never says it back. She never does. She believes that he loves her and that even though he can't say it, his gaze tells her so.

Kikyo doesn't deserve this. She deserves better too.

So to keep the way that Sakura looked and sounded as she cried when he left her out of his mind, he locks his feelings for her away, deep down within him so that no one can tell that he doesn't love the beauty in front of him and that he'd rather be with someone else.

~:~

Insatiable as she is, Itachi fucks her again in the morning, and weeks pass just like so. There isn't much that they do together aside from that. Occasionally, when she gets bored, she tells him stories of her clan, but it's rare. She enjoys his company far too much.

"Tell me about your clan, Itachi-kun," Kikyo coos against his ear, tracing hearts on his chest with a dainty finger, their naked limbs still tangled beneath the sheets.

"I'd rather you tell me about yours," he rasps as he twirls some of her hair around his finger, pretending to examine the rare color. He's only known few others with naturally silver hair.

When props her arms above his shoulders to lift herself off of him just a bit, she looks at him with her lavender eyes. "I should know more about your clan though," she protests, "When will you take me back with you to meet your parents?"

Never, he wants to say.

"I barely know anything about you..." She mumbles as she rests against him again. She sounds so disappointed that Itachi knows he has to say something.

"My mother passed away a few years ago," he tells her, suppressing the memory of the pink-haired kunoichi that his mother died to protect, "My father and my brother are doing well."

"You have a brother?" She all but raves, joy and surprise shown clearly on her small, fragile face. "Younger? Older? You seem like an older brother type."

A smile appears on his face. He tells himself it's fake. "He's five years younger. His name is Sasuke."

"That's such a beautiful name," she says before she tests it out on her tongue. "Sa-su-ke." She seems pensive for a second before turning back to him with her full attention. "Does he look like you?"

Itachi nods. "He looks more like my mother though."

She's silent for a few seconds. "...Will you tell me about her?"

He doesn't want to. "Maybe another time," he says as gently as he can.

When disappointment reflects in her features, he looks away. "My father is a stern man. My mother used to be the only one who could reason with him, but he's the leader of my clan and he's part of the Hokage's counsel now. Ever since my mother passed, he has been trying to connect with my brother and me." He looks out of the window that never changes from day to night. Around here, it's always grey out. "I wish I could spend more time with him."

"You could take me back to Konoha with you," she insists, "I'd love to meet your family." She's convinced that he comes here for her. He had managed to convince her that he is a traveler.

"Even if I were to go back, I'd be assigned on missions most of the time."

"That doesn't sound like a great way to live."

"It's my job."

"What do they think you're doing here then?"

He smiles again. "Research." That part's true at least. She just doesn't know what he's researching.

She giggles as she says, "You're terrible."

"So tell me more about your clan. It's much more interesting than mine."

So she tells him about how the power structure works, how they used to be trained as children to destroy other worlds. She tells him about their successes and their failures. Over the next year, she tells him everything she knows – known weaknesses, how she heard some of their clansmen failed, how they were taken down. She mourns her peoples' losses, but to him, he's just getting more leverage against them.

The day that Kikyo tells him about Kaguya, her ancestor, he figures his mission is almost complete. She tells him of how Kaguya fell in love with a human in a world wrought with war.

"My clansmen are born pacifists," she defends, "But some of us – them – they're misled. They believe that we need power to continue to exist."

She then says one of the saddest things he's ever heard, "But none of them ever return to look at what their thirst for power has done to us. None of them have ever stopped to think about what has happened since. We're a dying clan. We're lucky to even have survived the civil war a few years back. I bet they don't even know about it. I don't even know how many of them are still alive."

She draws a diamond on his hand. "Whenever one of us is killed, we can mark the one who dealt the dying blow."

"What does the mark do?"

"It marks them as our next vessel, to keep us immortal. Fragments of our souls are stored in the mark."

"Personally, I don't see the fixation on immortality is."

When she looks at him with a question on her lips, he tells her about Orochimaru and of the many men and women who have been enraptured by the idea of living forever.

"They think it's a sign of power. We can't do anything if we're dead."

"But the most beautiful part of life is how fleeting it is."

When tears touch her cheeks, he thinks he said something wrong, but she wipes them away quickly. "I think so too," she surprises him, "I've never met anyone who agreed with me."

He only smiles at her in response.

"My clansmen believe that they are gods, that they control the whims of humans. Many of them have taken humans as lovers. Some of us are now more human than we are celestial beings, yet they don't stop to think that the destruction they cause is anything different than what they say they're trying to stop."

"Our people are not so different after all," he says as he places a kiss on her cheek.

She raises a gentle hand to his cheek. "We call this place our home because it's all most of us have ever known," she whispers, "I'd love to see your home. I long to see those flowers you told me about."

"Someday."

"Why?"

"I have to go and discuss it with my Hokage first."

Though disappointed, she nods. Itachi places a candle at his window that night after Kikyo falls asleep. The next day, Obito appears when Kikyo is out fulfilling her duties as the clan's princess.

The older Uchiha tells him that they should consult the Hokage first before bringing one of Kaguya's descendants back to Konoha to ensure that their village is ready for their arrival, knowing that they don't have a choice. If they were to anger Kikyo and her people, their village would be in danger. They agree to leave in a few days and Itachi fills Kikyo in on it. She is ecstatic, knowing that she'll eventually get the chance to experience something new.

As he steps through the portal Obito creates, anxiousness stirs within him. It has been a year since he'd been back. Last time he returned after a year away, so much had changed. With how he left last time, he's sure things are going to be different.

When her face appears behind his closed lids, he wonders how she has changed. He's sure she has accomplished a lot since he's been gone. He wonders if she still thinks of him. Has she fallen for another? The prospect scares him, but he is ashamed of the fear. He doesn't deserve to be remembered by her, but another thought scares him even more – what if she's no longer there? She wasn't of this time. They never knew how much time they had together. What if her time had run out? He doesn't know what he'd do if she were no longer part of this world.

He was only able to last this long on this godforsaken mission because he was doing it for her – to help her change the future.

So as his body feels like it's being pulled in many different directions, a sensation he detests, he hopes that she's still in Konoha. He longs to see her again, even if she's no longer his Sakura. He knows that he doesn't have the right to keep loving her, but his world is a better place because she's in it.

He thinks of his family. He can't wait to see Sasuke – to spar with him and see how much he's improved. He can't wait to see his father, to see if he's become the leader his mother always wanted him to be, and Shisui, to see if he has finally grown up or not.

~:~

To his disappointment, he hears from the new Hokage that Sasuke, Shisui, and Sakura are out of the village. His father makes time to see him and share a meal despite their busy schedules. He finds out that Sasuke had only left recently because he had learned all he could from his father, Shiranui Genma, Sasuke's kenjutsu teacher, and Mitarashi Anko within a year and was sent to learn from Shisui, who had been in Amegakure for the past few months. He listens as his father raves about Sasuke's progress.

Itachi is glad that his father has become more of a father to Sasuke.

"I'll be back for a while after this," Itachi says as he takes a sip from the teacup in his hands.

"That's good," Fugaku adds, "Your brother will be happy to see you. Will you stay at home this time?"

"As part of my mission, I'm bringing back someone and she may have to stay with us."

"She?"

Itachi simply nods.

"As a councilmember, I have been privy to a lot of information." Fugaku closes his eyes as he holds his teacup in his hands for a brief moment before looking back at his son. "I know all the details of your mission already, so you can tell me who she is." With just one look, Itachi can tell that his father knows about his relationship with Sakura. He can tell that his father has been curious about what happened, but he has never been the type to pry.

"Otsutsuki Kikyo," Itachi responds, "She's the leader of the remaining clansmen on the Moon. She's one of Kaguya's descendants."

Fugaku nods. "Shisui and Hikari will be gone for quite a while, so no one will disturb your mission."

He tells himself not to ask more about their mission in hopes of more details of how they've been. He should be glad that Sakura won't be here to see him with Kikyo.

"That's good," is all he says instead.

The sad smile his father gives him lets him know that he knows how it feels to miss someone and not be able to see them.

Itachi wants to tell his father that it's alright, that he's fine with it because he can see her again someday, and that he is fine with waiting a bit longer, but he doesn't share that type of relationship with his father. He has been away more than he has been present. Their relationship has improved immensely, but it's still not what either of them would consider ideal.

He also doesn't want to admit that Sakura may not feel the same towards him anymore, not to his father, whose wife gave her life for her.

To escape the silence that overtakes them, Fugaku continues, "The sword Hikari gifted your brother was beautiful."

"What kind of sword?"

"She said her friend crafted it, but I can tell that it was welded with the utmost care and designed with your brother's abilities in mind, and I can't begin to fathom how much it must have costed her to commission a weapon like that." For the first time in a while, he sees a smile on his father's face reminiscent of how he used to smile when his wife told him something funny. "She's done a lot of good for us, that girl. If only your mother could see us now."

Itachi could cry, but he holds back his emotions like he's become so accustomed to. He doesn't think he could ever show any signs of weakness in front of his father, even though the older man has changed.

"I'm sure she's watching over us," is all Itachi says before Fugaku is called away on official business again.

Days later, he leaves with Obito again, without having seen anyone he truly wants to see, aside from his father.

On the moon, he introduces Obito to Kikyo, who marvels at Obito's visual prowess and invites him to stay with them in her castle. She swears to show him everything her kingdom has to offer as he recuperates from overusing his Mangekyou and Rinnegan and prepares to bring all three of them to Konoha.

When they arrive back in Konoha, he watches as Kikyo sees a variety of different colors for the first time in her life, and experiences how the grass feels under her feet. He introduces her to his Hokage and to his father. He shows her his family home and their last complete family portrait. He shows her the academy and the bookstore he frequented most. He shows her what dango is and takes her to Ichiraku Ramen. He shows her all of the touristy areas of Fire Country, but he keeps his the places that truly matter to himself.

(He doesn't show her his favorite dango spot. He doesn't show her the training grounds he spent most of his time, where he first met Sakura. He doesn't show her his favorite restaurant, where he took Sakura on their first date. He doesn't show her his childhood home. He doesn't show her the hospital, where he used to find Sakura passed out on patient records, carry her home, and tuck her in. He doesn't take her to the embankment where they all played once upon a time. These are all the places that he keeps close to his heart with happy memories of simpler and untainted times.)

But he watches as she falls in love with his home and his life here anyway, even though she can't see all of it and he doesn't really want her to be a part of it.

A/N: Also, not sure if any of you noticed, but I added ShiSaku to the description. Some of you might rejoice, some of you may barf, but can we all just appreciate how darling Shisui has been to Sakura. He has become one of my favorite people to write. The way that I depicted his relationship with Sakura was totally unintentional, but it just happened (like words literally just pour out of my fingertips) and I actually adore it.

Anyway, please let me know what you think in the reviews. See you next update (which will be up in the next day or two because I feel very guilty about this chapter). :'o