It's so good to see you again, jerkbound27! ^.^

Summer of 2008

Sakura is trying to get her homework done during their free lecture when she hears someone falling into a chair beside her, and instinctively knows it to be Itachi. As always, he's not bothered to wear the school blazer, and the tie has been promoted to his wrist.

"We're planning to sneak into the library. Wanna come?"

Sakura spares him one unimpressed glance. "No, thank you."

Itachi nudges her elbow. "You know…" he says conspiratorially. "Too much studying is bad for the brain. It's science. Read it up."

Her pencil slips from the book, crossing over half the page. Itachi's hand comes into view with an eraser.

"Thanks."

"Sure. So… let's go?"

Sakura snorts. "As if."

Itachi grabs her wrist, and Sakura has no choice but to look him in the face. He's amused and full of mischief, and smirking at a joke that only he understands.

"Haruno, it's the library. If someone does catch us, just grab a chair and sit. Pretend as though you belong there. Which, of course, you do."

Sakura's eyes narrow and she lifts her chin in the air pompously. "You don't know that."

He gives her a challenging look. "You're finishing homework while the world around you is in chaos." Apparently not being satisfied with only saying the words, Itachi gestures around them with an elegant wave of his tie-hanging-on-the-wrist-hand.

He is right in those regards, she'll give him that.

Their classmates have opted to have pen fights, loud conversations, and sliding across the classroom in socked feet. All the teachers have been called for an emergency meeting, which means there is no one to supervise any of the students.

"Nope."

Itachi sighs as though she has offended him on a personal level. "One day, Haruno. One day, I swear we're going to do something about that unadventurous streak of yours."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "You don't have to do anything."

Itachi is getting to his feet already though, retying his messy ponytail, and speaks around mouthful of a scrunchie. "Ofcose, I do."

Sakura stares at him, wondering why she likes the prospect of it a little too much. When he's done with his hair, he doesn't leave immediately. He studies her face, dark eyes flicking between her green ones, and she thinks of starry nights and long drives and his smile.

Not really wanting him to leave yet – why would she, they're friends now – Sakura raises her eyebrows, keeping her voice as casual as possible.

"What a role model you've become for Sasuke."

Itachi blinks in surprise, and then laughs warmly. "Trust me, Sasuke is more trouble than I ever will be. Just last night, he sneaked into my bedroom under a white blanket and a torch. Scared the shit out of me."

It's Sakura's turn to bark out a surprised giggle. "You get scared of ghosts?"

Itachi's chin props up and he folds his arms across his chest. Classic defensive stance. "You don't?"

"They're not real."

"That's not what I asked, Haruno."

"I don't because they're not real, Uchiha."

And Itachi gets this look on his face, the amusement slipping away until he's more wry than anything else. "People can get scared of things that are not real. Things that don't exist."

Sakura doesn't know how to respond to that. Her mind whirs dizzyingly, speculating over different scenarios that might have prompted Itachi to drop this sudden tragic piece of wisdom on her.

But now he's slowly smirking again, leaning down so that their faces are on the same level. His eyes wander to her pink hair before he catches her startled gaze.

"I'm coming for you, Haruno. You better watch out."

Winter of 2020 – Present Day

Sakura wakes up with a sudden jolt.

Her heart is hammering like a woodpecker, and her palms are sweaty. The clock signals that she still has a few hours before she needs to get to work.

But it feels impossible to sleep now, not when her mind has somehow decided that Uchiha Itachi's presence in her life again means a trip down memory lane in the form of dreams. She had forgotten about that day. The day when Itachi promised those strange words, sneaked into the library with a bunch of other students, got caught, and had to stay outside in the hallway for the rest of the school day as a form of punishment.

As if that would have worked.

Itachi has always had this tendency to constantly move, constantly do something, never sit still in one place. He used to get into a lot of trouble during their school, and then later in college. She remembers this one day when they had decided to catch up during their first year of college, after weeks of only texting, and Itachi called her one hour before their rendezvous that he's ended up in the Dean's office.

It had made her understandably mad. Apparently, he was caught vandalizing the wall painting on the college compound.

"It was horrendous," he had said with exasperation. "I had to change it."

Sakura wanted to say that he really, really didn't, but held her tongue because she knew it would be pointless. Instead, she had asked him when he might be available to meet, and he had said he's not sure.

Feeling restless at the thoughts, Sakura grabs her phone from the nightstand. Knowing that Lee might be awake at this hour, she dials his number.

Lee picks up, sounding breathless. "Sakura?"

"Hi. Sorry, I couldn't sleep."

"That's alright. Want to join me?"

"Yes."

Sakura drives to Lee's gym. He has three early morning customers in the place, but he comes to her as soon as she walks around the corner of the lobby.

"What do you feel like doing today?" Lee grins, hands on hips.

She can't do much per se, but Lee is too kind to point that out. "Just the treadmill."

"Okay. I'll join you in five."

Sakura dumps her bag and gets ready, tying her shoes securely, and putting her hair in a high ponytail. When Lee takes the equipment to her right, she's already broken out a sweat, and feels the early breathlessness slipping away slightly.

"Didn't you sleep at all?" Lee questions, matching his pace with hers.

"Bad dream."

Which isn't entirely true, to be fair.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. Sorry."

There is nothing to talk about, anyway.

Sakura changes the topic to Lee's current business status. He opened the gym after their college graduation, and it has seen some good and some bad days since then. Currently, he's having trouble attracting more customers due to a new gym that has been opened two blocks over by a Chinese woman called Tenten. Sakura hasn't met her or even seen her yet, but from what Lee has filled in, she likes to play dirty.

Lee has outright refused to stoop to that level, declaring that his rates match the quality of his service, and he can't compromise on either of those fronts. He now tells her that he's directed more capital into marketing instead, and he is planning on visiting nearby workplaces to promote his gym offers before Tenten sinks her claws into them.

When Sakura feels confident that she has worked through her pent up, swirling, confusing mess, she offers breakfast to Lee. Lee hands over the reins to one of his other trainer employees and they visit a nearby café, wherein Sakura destroys everything by ordering a tall glass of chocolate milkshake with extra chocolate.

Lee looks as though someone killed his dog.

Naruto tells her Onoki is going to be tailing his ass today.

"So he said to me that I have a decent output, as in my students have the highest scores during the latest mid-terms, and he wants to see what I do. And I told him that I don't really do anything special, just that my students are smarter than what you give them credit for. And he was like, of course but still. What a guy."

Sakura languidly sips at her coffee.

"I don't really have anything personal against him. But Sakura, Math is Math. There is a right answer and there is a wrong answer, and there are rules you follow. How hard is that to teach? And my students are smart as hell. I just hope he doesn't interfere too much, though. Or intimidate my kids. That'll be super uncool."

"You'll be fine," Sakura assures him. And he will be. Naruto is the teacher who made Math cool. "Onoki has no reason to find any faults in your teaching methods."

Naruto has that puppy look on his face, the one when he's hearing something he desperately wants to believe to be true. "Yeah?"

"Yes."

"What about your classes? Is he going to be in them?"

Sakura shrugs. "I'm not sure yet. I spoke with Anko yesterday. She said he hasn't been in any of the sports classes."

"But our school is known for it. How can he not be in any of them? It doesn't make sense to skip those."

Naruto is right. Senju Academy has a long lasting streak of competing in a variety of sports leagues and winning almost every one of them. They say that Senju Hashirama, the Founder of Senju Academy and grandfather of the current Principal Senju Tsunade, firmly believed in giving a proper well-rounded school experience.

Sakura wants to laugh. That did not age well. Onoki is here today focusing on exam outputs, and wanting to know whether teachers are cramming the syllabus down the kids' throat in a way that he approves of. He's old enough to know that times have changed, but seems too stubborn to change with them.

After school, Naruto offers to go for a pint to which Sakura points out, "We can get trashed if you want."

Naruto's cheeks warm. "I can't."

"Of course, you can," Sakura says, confused. "Tomorrow is a Saturday. You are aware we don't have work, right?"

Naruto flushes even more. "I have a breakfast date, actually."

Sakura blinks and then grins. "With a guy?"

Naruto fiddles with his beer bottle, takes a long sip, and then meets her gaze almost embarrassingly. "Yeah."

He tells her it's the man from his apartment building who fixed his TV for him. Apparently, Naruto bumped into him two days ago in the lift and ended up blurting that he'd like to go out.

"He was so nice about it!" Naruto regales, red-faced and delighted. "I told him that I'm not entirely sure about being gay, but that I'd really like to find out. And I made it clear that I don't wish to use him or whatever for my sake, but he just said that it's fine. That he thinks it's cute that I'm a schoolteacher. And that even if it turns out that I'm not really gay, he'll still get a date out of it."

When Sakura asks him about Onoki, though, all his energy seeps out and his face significantly falls.

"He kept interrupting," Naruto frowns. "I didn't like it. Like, he'd just introduce some other method to solve the equations – which is fine, because it's important to know all of them – but not when you're teaching sixth graders and you tell them a way that is apt for eighth graders. You'll just confuse them. And I don't want any of them to think that they're not good enough. I mean, Sakura. There's a growth pattern to school kids, that's why we have grades. I don't know what this man is hoping to achieve here."

Sakura traces the rim of her bottle thoughtfully. "Do you think if we have enough teachers, we can sort of take a stand?"

"Against Onoki?"

"Against the management."

Naruto exhales. "I like Tsunade, though. And I like Kakashi. They're part of management."

"It's not personal, Naruto. I like Tsunade and Kakashi, too."

Naruto nods, bites his lip. "It feels too soon, though."

"He fired two guards today morning."

Naruto rubs his face tiredly. "Yeah. I heard. What happened, exactly?"

"He had instructed them not to let any kids inside after 8.30. Some of the parents were arguing that it's only been five minutes, and how they can't have their kids to lose an entire day over five minutes. So the guards called Onoki. Instead of defending his own instructions, he fired the guards, apologized to the parents, and let the kids inside."

Naruto stares at her. After a few moments, he says, "Give me a few days. If it really comes to it, we can talk about going against the management."

"Sounds good."

When Sakura is in the middle of preparing her lunch on Saturday, she gets a text from Naruto.

We kissed! And it was awesome! Oh my god. I told you this is my quarter-life crisis!

Sakura laughs, spills some boiling pasta on the counter, and types back with her free hand.

That's awesome! Chances of second date?

100%

;-)

Hey, he has a friend who might be perfect for you.

Sakura stares at the screen, feeling conflicted. She hasn't really given dating a thought after her break-up with Lee almost seven months ago. Not that she's hoping they might get together again, of course. It just never occurred to her that she could date.

Show me your date's face first haha.

Naruto takes some time. She's scooping out a portion to eat when her phone buzzes on the dining table. Sakura settles on the chair with her plate.

But it's not Naruto yet. It's Sai, asking her if she knows someone who'd be interested in no-strings-attached sex.

Nope. Find your own.

You're a terrible friend.

Yes, I am. Now don't bother me.

Naruto finally sends a photo when she's putting the dishes in the dishwasher. It seems that he clicked a selfie with his date on the go and sent it to her.

The man is cute. He has wild brown hair, brown eyes, and a sharp smile.

Nice. What's his name?

Kiba.

He said his friend Sasuke is a good match for you.

Haha, okayyy. I'll keep that in mind.

:-)

Sakura is at her cousin's house on Sunday as promised.

Haruno Mebuki is in the middle of explaining how her husband is still addicted to ordering apparently useless things when they've been struggling with money already. Kizashi has opted to laugh it off rather than defend his actions, and Sakura is just so done with their passive aggressiveness. She leaves the adults to their devices and chooses to play catch with the birthday girl instead.

Matsuri is seven years old and wants to be a soldier.

Sakura coaxes her into the backyard with a promise of a large piece of birthday cake for dinner. Matsuri shoots across the patio in a blur of blue feathers, her Angry Birds theme shining in all its glory. Sakura follows her at a more steady pace in her overcoat of red feathers. And then all of Matsuri's friends are running in circles and Sakura pulls out her phone to record it quickly.

Turns out, Uchiha Itachi's text is waiting for her.

Sakura doesn't bother reading it yet. She clicks open her camera and cheers the little kids on, and Matsuri is giggling uncontrollably in the centre of giggling Angry Birds.

When they're sitting for dinner, Sakura is subjected to the list of expected questions from her relatives. There's Aunt Guren, Mebuki's elder sister, unintentionally cold and aloof, who creates ice sculptures. She's married to Uncle Yukimaru who is typically quiet, but whenever he speaks, it feels as though someone came from behind and draped a soft quilt upon your shoulders in a surprisingly tender manner.

Aunt Guren has always had a large influence on Mebuki. When Sakura was little, Mebuki would consult Aunt Guren over the smallest issues possible, such as when Sakura would injure herself while playing or whether it was time to buy the training bras yet, or whether it was okay to use pink salt for so and so dish instead of Kosher salt?

Sakura grew up believing that Aunt Guren was the answer to everything, until she learned the hard way that just because you're told to blindly have faith in something by an adult doesn't mean you should be doing it.

You can get scared of things that are not real. Things that don't exist.

Her phone is lying beside her glass of water quite innocuously. She tells herself that it's not because it's Itachi but because she doesn't want to answer another round of Why didn't you go into Marketing? There's so much more money in it than teaching! or even What's the career graph here? or Sakura's most favourite No one marries a teacher anymore!

Hey! I have news.

Sakura smiles into her piece of chicken. What's up?

Itachi takes a few minutes to reply. Cool to call?

Sakura's flicks her eyes across the dining table. Mebuki is now whispering into Aunt Guren's ear, and Kizashi is discussing the latest real estate rates with Uncle Yukimaru. Matsuri is sitting on a different table with all her friends, and they seem okay for now.

Sakura excuses herself from the table. She slides open the patio door, steps outside, takes a moment to enjoy the cold breeze on her warm face.

When she calls him, there's loud music booming in the background and Itachi yells into the phone, "HOLD ON ONE MINUTE!"

Sakura quickly moves the device away from her ear. Only when she is confident that the noise is tolerable, she gingerly says into the phone, "Hey?"

There's a moment when the music suddenly drops down to almost nothing, and then Itachi is back. He seems to be smiling. "Hey! Sorry about that. I'm with a bunch of friends at the club."

"Oh, we can talk later."

"No, no! Okay, you ready?"

Sakura grins. "Yes?"

"Not only did my boss give me the windows, but the client requested that I paint a mural for their living room!"

"Oh my god, that's so great!"

"I know! Thank you so much. I owe you one. Name your price, Haruno."

Sakura laughs. "You don't have to. Besides, you got the gig because you're good at it."

Itachi's voice turns amused. "This is not the time to be modest, Haruno. Tell you what, I'll buy you chocolate shake with extra chocolate tomorrow after work."

"Fine, fine. Enjoy your party."

"Yeah. Hey, where are you, anyway?"

Sakura groans. "At my relatives. I have to get back to the stifling dinner and listen to more crap about my life choices."

There's a brief pause, and when he speaks next, he sounds serious. "What's wrong with your life choices?"

Sakura sighs. "Nothing. It's … never mind. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Itachi lets it go. "Alright. I'll call you. Don't stand me up."

Sakura laughs softly. "I won't. Bye."

When Mebuki asks her why she would leave dinner, that's just rude, Sakura rolls her eyes, and remarks how their definitions of "rude" must be fundamentally different.

Please review! :)

The update cycle is one week.