Thank you so much for the reviews! ^.^

Here's another early update!

Summer of 2010 – Continued

Itachi finally gets a phone for himself during the summer break.

Which is also how Itachi keeps in contact with Sakura throughout. Their texts are constant to the point where Mebuki has to tell Sakura to do something at least five times before Sakura finds the motivation for it.

One day, when Sakura is in their small backyard, watering the grass and the plants lining the fence, her phone buzzes four times in her pocket. It's Itachi. Again. Feeling exasperated and pleased, she keeps the can aside, wipes her hands on her pants, and opens the chat box.

So I was thinking that we should meet.

I find it weird that we've never met outside of school.

Shika says that he wants to try the ramen stall on Pokebi Street but I just think he wants to drive by Temari's house to see if she's free.

What say, Haruno? Wanna join?

Sakura grins. She's actually never hung out with anyone from school outside of school. It's an exciting prospect, more so, because she's itching to see Itachi without his school uniform. She replies instantly.

Yes.

His reply is instant, too, as though he was waiting for it.

I think I like that word now.

Send me your address. Shika got his license. We'll pick you up.

Sakura sends it, abandons the watering can, and runs inside, yelling that she's going to go out with a couple of friends. When Mebuki questions, Sakura says that they're friends from school, and that she'll be back soon. Mebuki doesn't seem entirely happy with the prospect of sending her daughter with an inexperienced driver, but she lets it go, even though Sakura knows that she'll probably call Aunt Guren within the next ten minutes.

Finding something to wear had never been this difficult before.

Sakura finally settles on a pastel green top and blue denim pants, she runs a comb through her hair, tying and retying it in a high ponytail a couple of times, and then finally just letting it flow down her back. It's not long, though, just a little below her shoulder blades, and wonders whether Itachi's is longer now.

Mebuki is pacing around the living room, phone in her ear. Kizashi winks at Sakura as she passes by the couch.

"…ramen somewhere," Mebuki is saying. "She's never gone out like this before."

"I can hear you," Sakura says loudly, feeling annoyance creep up her toes.

Mebuki ignores her and continues. "I've never met them before. She's going out with two boys. I can't say I'm too surprised. You know how she can get – with her constant meet-ups with the boys in our neighbourhood. And they're all bad boys, you know. I've told her a million times to stay away. She just doesn't listen. Look what has happened. Going out with two boys during school break."

Sakura's skin flushes and she tries to breathe deeply. It doesn't work.

"I can still hear you!" she snaps at her mother. "And I'm not stupid to go out with just anyone! They're my friends!"

Mebuki holds the phone to her shoulder, levelling a look on Sakura. "If you're going out, then just go out. I'm trying to talk to your aunt here! Don't be so disrespectful."

Sakura swallows the string of angry words down.

When she's waiting outside her house on the tiny street, Kankuro is passing by and stops to chat. He goes to a different school than hers but loves to spill the beans on everyone over there. Sakura thinks she probably knows at least half of his batch mates by now. In the middle of his storytelling, Riichi joins them, who is a year older and a permanent soccer captain whenever they play.

Itachi is late. Sakura keeps checking her phone every two minutes, wondering if she should text or call, in case they cancelled and he forgot to inform her.

Fifteen minutes past, she finally dials his number. He picks up after three rings.

"Hey, we're like two minutes away," he informs directly. "Shika turned out to be a terrible driver. Come outside."

Sakura's insecurities vanish in an instant. "I'm outside."

"Okay you'll see us any second now." There's a pause. "Oh, is there anyone else with you?"

Kankuro and Riichi are discussing to meet up for a late night game. Itachi seems to have noticed it when Riichi asks Sakura if she's free.

Sakura nods at him, and says in the phone. "Yeah. My friends."

There's another slight pause. Then, "I can see you."

Sure enough, there's a car coming up the corner of her street. Shikamaru is driving so carefully that Sakura wants to snort, and drag her mother outside just to show her that her friends are responsible upstanding individuals of this country.

"You're going out?" Kankura asks mockingly. "With who?"

Sakura frowns at him. "Why else did you think I was standing here for?"

Kankuro shrugs. "I don't know. You can be weird," he cackles and then gives a high-five to Riichi.

Itachi steps out of the car and comes to stand beside her. He offers a hand to the boys and introduces himself. Sakura wants to say this isn't really necessary, but holds her tongue.

"We'll see you later, yeah?" Riichi says. "Don't be wearing that to the game."

Sakura looks down at herself. Of course, she won't be wearing sandals to play soccer. And then Kankuro extends the invitation to both Itachi and "the dude in the car". Itachi doesn't promise anything and then drags Sakura away by her hand. She settles in the backseat, throws a greeting at Shikamaru, and finally realises that there's someone else in the car, too.

"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaims, surprised. He's practically hidden himself behind the passenger seat. "Hi."

Sasuke is Itachi's younger version in appearance but more notorious skin-deep. Unlike Itachi, though, Sasuke doesn't bother sneaking around to play pranks. He surprisingly cool about the fact that he might be expelled from school one day if Sarutobi decides he's had enough.

She's never spoken with Sasuke before, she suddenly realises. He rarely stays with Itachi himself in school.

Sasuke shrugs back. "Hi. You're Haruno, right?"

"Haruno Sakura, yes."

"Aniki calls you Haruno."

"You can call me Sakura."

Sasuke smirks, as though he's caught a juicy fish. "Right. Hi, Sa-ku-ra."

Sakura decides that she really doesn't like him all that much. And she doesn't care he's Itachi's baby brother, either. So she ignores him and takes a moment to notice Itachi's attire, instead.

He's wearing a regular fit light blue denim pants and a black T-shirt that brings out his eyes all too well. Hair tied in a bun. It suits him.

The drive to Pokebi Street takes twenty-five minutes instead of ten minutes, during which Itachi keeps throwing exasperated looks at Sakura in the back alternated with showing her his new phone and all its features. Sasuke is glued to his phone, typing furiously, and Sakura wonders why he bothered coming along.

They do pick up Temari on the way, so Sakura is squeezed between her and Sasuke. Temari calls up Ino, who says that she'll cycle to the place.

Pokebi Street is crowded. It's filled with vendors throughout, and Shikamaru drags them all to the ramen stall he wants to try. Itachi grabs Sakura's hand and Sakura notices Sasuke is still on his phone without a clue of his surroundings, so she quickly tugs on his elbow.

"Hey! Haruno!" Sasuke complains, his phone almost slipping from his fingers.

Sakura glares at him over her shoulder. "Are you coming or not?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You don't have to dislocate my shoulder for it."

Sakura smiles sweetly. "Oops. My bad."

Itachi notices their exchange with an amused face. He tugs Sakura harder so that he can lean down to talk in her ear. "You're feisty today."

Sakura blushes. "Don't be so surprised."

Itachi chuckles. "Let me rephrase. You're visibly feisty today, and not in the subtle way like usual."

"It's your brother," Sakura sniffs. "He's so rude."

Itachi laughs loudly. "He's just Sasuke. You'll get used to him."

She doesn't. Sasuke turns out to be a little shit who deserves to be deep-fried in bubbling oil.

First of all, he keeps calling her Sa-ku-ra with so much deliberate pronunciation of each syllable that she wants to throttle him. Temari doesn't react at all. But Ino seems to think he's such a sweetheart so Sasuke keeps flirting with her throughout, telling her how blue-eyed blondes are totally his type. Apparently, it's a regular thing for them. That's how they bond. For some reason, though, he doesn't bother Shikamaru all that much and when Sakura questions Itachi over it, Itachi laughs so loudly that he almost topples his ramen bowl over.

"Sasuke has never managed to prank him," Itachi reveals. "He's tried so many times, it's ridiculous."

"What did he do?" Sakura asks curiously.

Itachi sighs happily as though they're some of his best memories. "Shika has this habit of munching on oreo biscuits so my mom keeps a supply of them especially for him. Usually Shika just goes to the kitchen himself to get them but Sasuke suddenly started offering to bring them to him. So to gain his trust, he brought over the real biscuits. For two weeks. And then he brought the fake ones."

"Fake?"

"Toothpaste between the chocolate biscuits."

"Ew."

Itachi snorts. "Yeah. But Shika figured it out somehow and he kept pretending to eat them and Sasuke would get this look of pure expectation and then Shika would lower his hand once more and it would crush Sasuke's heart. Shika did that for two hours."

When Sakura reflexively turns to Sasuke, giggling uncontrollably, he's glaring back, fingers clenched around his chopsticks. It must be painful to fail so epically.

So of course – of course – Sakura insists on listening to more of them.

Itachi steps out of the car outside of Sakura's house. They walk to the kissing gate, pause, turn to each other.

"Thanks for inviting me," Sakura says with arms folded across her chest.

Itachi shrugs, hands in pockets. "Get used to it."

Sakura's skin warms.

Silence.

Then he says, "Don't you have a late night game plan?"

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. I don't think I'll go, though."

Itachi nods. "Okay."

Silence.

Sakura swallows. "I should go. Text when you reach home?"

Itachi smiles, doesn't smirk, but smiles. "Yeah. Will do."

She raises her eyebrows. "Drive safe."

That makes him laugh. "Catch you in a bit, Haruno."

And so it continues. Sakura is in the bed, lying on her stomach, elbows propped up, as she replies to Itachi's text of It's not that I hate summers, I just prefer not sweating is all.

Winter 2020 – Present Day

Sakura is staring at Onoki with disbelief.

He's in the middle of another of his meetings, explaining how teachers are slacking off and they're all under two-week strict observation. They are not to talk about anything else but work on school premises. More than two teachers are not allowed to be seen together. A table and two chairs will be placed on every hallway where teachers can sit, finish their work in silence, and go about their day.

"I will be watching the cameras very closely," he warns them. "Principle Tsunade has been kind enough to lend me her office for the time-being for this purpose. If I see anyone stepping a toe out of line, you have my word, I will not pause to throw you out of the school."

To be fair, Principle Tsunade looks as though she's already regretting her decision. Kakashi is sitting beside Sakura for the meeting, and she can feel him tense up at Onoki's words.

"We have received many complaints from the parents," Onoki continues in his usual angry grunt. "That our teachers are incompetent. They lack knowledge about their own subject. The kids do not understand the homework. The communication line between them and the management is non-existent. We cannot run a school like this. If I don't take such stringent actions now, we will lose all the kids before the year ends."

Naruto catches her in the breakroom later that day, making a show of how he's there to drink coffee and not socialise.

Sakura takes slower sips, feeling as though they are in prison, trying to squeeze in some secret plan when the guards are on a break. Not that Onoki is on a break. Sakura can acutely feel the location of the camera in the right corner, and tamps down on the urge to look straight into it.

"You're right. We have to do something."

Sakura exhales. "Thank you."

"Let's meet everyone over the weekend. For lunch or dinner. We can sort this mess out."

"What about Kakashi?"

Kakashi is the person you go to if you can't approach your immediate superior for some reason. He's the Executive Assistant to the Principle, and Sakura knows that he is in the running for the Vice Principle position, which is currently empty.

Naruto takes some time to respond. "We can't. Rather we shouldn't. I don't want him to put him in a spot. Or even Tsunade. This is about us, anyway."

Sakura promises to spread the word since Naruto does really have a full schedule on almost all days.

Sai, Lee, and Hinata come over for dinner later that day, and Sai wastes no time in telling them about his encounter with Itachi. Sai had only known what the others had told him, and he had dismissed Itachi entirely when Sakura had started dating Yakushi Kabuto.

"I mean, you can't blame me," Sai says after taking a long sip from the bottle. "Sakura was totally into Kabuto."

"Yeah, she had me fooled, too," Hinata agrees, lazily sprawled over the couch. "One time, I bumped into Itachi when I was with my school friends. He was really nice to me. He didn't bring up Sakura, though."

"What? When?" Sakura asks, surprised that Hinata hadn't told her this before.

Hinata shrugs. "Like two or three years ago? I'm not sure. He was there with his girlfriend. Maybe that's why he didn't talk about you."

"I see."

Sai sighs. "He was really nice to Sakura, though. It didn't feel like they had any grudges against each other."

That is true. It felt surprisingly normal to talk with Itachi when she wasn't focusing on their history. It could be because they're all too familiar with each other, or it could be because they've both moved on from what they had. Either way, Sakura is glad that she doesn't have to worry about it.

"He isn't seeing anyone right now?" Hinata asks.

"Nope," Sai answers for Sakura. "He's single and ready to mingle."

Sakura snorts loudly. "He did not say that."

"No," Sai concedes. "I liked his friend. Konan."

"She's dating."

Sai rolls his eyes. "I know that. I can still crush on her. Besides, you know my latest rule. Only sex."

Hinata giggles. "Right. Because that's going to go so well."

Sai spends some time in defending his decision as Hinata continues to laugh at him. He gives up when Sakura interrupts him to ask if he wants another bottle of beer.

"Yes."

"Perfect. Get one for me, too."

"Tell your lover to get it."

Sakura raises one pointed eyebrow. "I am."

Sai shrugs coolly. "I have the hair and the skin and the eyes," he smirks. "I'll just go buy myself thick-rimmed glasses and – what was it? Ah, right. And one Uchiha Itachi."

Lee is getting to his feet, stretching out his back. "Can we please stop talking about that man?" he complains. "Sakura, you've already wasted a lot of your time on him. I can't believe you haven't learned anything at all."

Sakura knows that Lee is right, but she still feels irritated at his annoyance. "I've learned my lesson, okay? Chill the fuck out. It's not my fault that Sai decided to talk about him."

"Hey!" Sai rebukes loudly. "Don't drag me into this."

"You did start it!" Sakura shoots back at him.

Sai sighs in exasperation. "I was just making conversation. How was I supposed to know Lee is still jealous of him?"

And then Lee is defending loudly. "I'm not jealous of him! If anything, I'm glad that I at least dated Sakura! He couldn't even do that!"

"LEE!" Hinata raises her voice, and everyone shuts up instantly. She's sitting up straight on the couch now, eyes furious, and the air around her practically crackles.

"What's gotten into you?" Hinata continues, and Lee cowers a bit under her voice. "You're being very insensitive right now. Get it together."

They sit in uncomfortable silence for some time, before Sai breaks it, trying to sound casual and failing miserably.

"Wow, I didn't know he's such a sore topic for everyone."

"Sai, that's enough," Hinata warns him.

Sai raises his hands in defence. "I'm done. But seriously, what is this?"

"Sai!"

Sakura is trying to breathe deeply, to think happy thoughts, but Lee knew where it hurt and he didn't hold back. Lee isn't usually such a dipshit of a person, Sakura reasons with herself. He's hurt, too. Sakura has hurt him, and maybe she deserves at least some form of retribution.

Hinata tries to direct the conversation to safer topics by sharing her latest project where she has to translate an English erotica novel to French, which breaks the tension abruptly when she starts to give examples.

After they all leave, Sakura is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling in complete darkness.

When she can't take the restless thoughts any longer, she gives up, grabbing her phone from the side table and sending a text before she loses all her courage.

It's not that I hate winters, I just don't like shivering is all.

He doesn't reply immediately. Sakura goes through the five stages of grief at least five times, and when she's on Anger during her seventh time, her phone chimes loudly in the silence, the screen brightening up in the darkness.

Which is why you develop the taste for alcohol.

And then the texting increases quite a bit over the next few days.

It's not that she wakes up to his texts. No, they text through the day with odd titbits. Such as on Wednesday when Sakura is having her lunch, Itachi texts her:

What is up with the weather! I'm shivering like a loose leaf.

Sakura snorts loudly at the mental picture and her spoon slips through her fingers to clank on the plastic tray. Naruto raises his eyebrows at her.

Dance through it. Wiggle, wiggle, giraffe.

After you, ma'am.

Sakura rolls her eyes, grinning like a madman.

And then on Thursday when she gets free after work, she texts him:

I feel like drowning in sugary goodness.

He replies ten minutes later when she's driving home:

You're going to lose all your teeth before you turn 40.

Sakura responds when she's cooking dinner.

I'll put in fake teeth.

His answer comes immediately.

You'll be one of THOSE people. I never knew you had such high ambitions.

Cheers to that.

Please review! :)

Update cycle is one week. Although I will update if I can manage early.