Thank you for the wonderful words! 3

Summer of 2011

Sakura shuts her eyes, breathes deeply, and counts down from 5 at a slow, steady, sane pace.

When she opens her eyes, the scene in front of her hasn't changed all that much. Except for when at first Itachi was merely leaning down at Shiho, now he's put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, and she's red-faced and giggling behind her hand.

First of all, what kind of a name is Shiho? What does that even mean? Second of all, is blonde Itachi's type? Blonde, shy, and a blushing mess of a person? She's part-timing at a library near the school, and Sakura wants to see how difficult such a job could be. What does she even do? Shelve the books? Any third-grade student can do that. How is Itachi even impressed with such a thing? Moreover, as far as Sakura knows, Shiho has never stepped a toe out of line in her life. She's the embodiment of a perfectly nice girl who is smart and an absolute nerd and can he just pull away from her already–!

Everyone gets it, Sakura wants to scream at him. He likes her. She is flattered. Everyone gets it so stop flaunting it!

Sakura has really started to hate lunch breaks.

She thinks she was happy when she was alone, occupying a small space in the huge cafeteria. Open grounds were fine, too. She would sit on the bleachers, watch Itachi play, and he would come over at times to tease her more. Then when she joined Itachi's friends that was fine, too. Even though she felt like she was missing some point, some secret, something, it was still fine because Itachi was at least speaking with her, trying to make sure she didn't feel too left out. And yes, she does appreciate that – of course, she does. Only now, she's made genuine friends out of Temari and Ino, too.

And Itachi seems to have lost all interest.

No, that's not true, Sakura reasons with herself. He hasn't lost interest. He's just developed a crush on Shiho, that's all. Which is fine. Itachi was going to like someone eventually. It's just how it is. They're going to graduate next year, and even Shikamaru seems a bit frazzled to be leaving Temari behind. Not that he'll ever say it, but Sakura has witnessed the looks, the effort of trying to get her attention, and the subtle glares thrown at whoever bothers Temari a little too much.

So yes, it's fine that Itachi is flirting with some girl. That he might be kissing her. That she might have brushed her fingers through his hair. That Itachi might not be a virgin, either. It's none of Sakura's business, anyway.

When Itachi suggests vandalising the student notice board after school, he makes sure to ask Shiho if she wants to join.

Shiho becomes a stuttering mess of no, how could you even-! That's just dangerous! What if you get caught? They might punish all of us!

Temari smirks, exchanges a look with Ino, and turns to Sakura. "Hey, what about you?"

And before Sakura can say anything, Itachi interrupts. "Why are you asking her? She's just going to say no."

And Sakura feels her irritation snapping like a whip crack in the air between them. "You don't know that."

Itachi sort of freezes in surprise, Shiho apparently forgotten, and focuses on Sakura with this look and raises one eyebrow. "Okay. What do you say, Haruno? Wanna join?"

Sakura gulps discreetly, now regretting having snapped. She'll really have to join now, wouldn't she? Otherwise, she'll lose whatever integrity she just tried to build. Besides, she has to prove Itachi wrong. Not that he is wrong. She wouldn't have joined, to be honest. But he doesn't need to know that. What he needs to know, instead, is that he doesn't know Sakura as well as he thinks. Sakura can still surprise him. She just has to prove it.

"Yes."

Temari cheers loudly and Itachi gives his patent slow smirk, eyes amused at a joke only he understands.

"This is very risky, Itachi," Shiho clutches his forearm tightly. "Don't do it."

Itachi tears his gaze away from Sakura and Sakura feels like she can breathe again. He spends the rest of the lunch break convincing Shiho that nothing will go wrong, that she doesn't need to worry, and to stay quiet about it.

When the bell rings to signal that lunch is over, Sakura is getting to her feet, trying to ignore Itachi and Shiho as much as possible – which is why she doesn't realise it when Shikamaru corners her just before they are about to enter their class again.

He grabs her elbow and pulls her aside. Temari looks over her shoulder, but Shikamaru merely gestures at her to go ahead. Sakura is too surprised to speak.

"Haruno, listen," Shikamaru begins seriously. "Itachi is … he's very impulsive. Which is not always the best thing to be. As far as I know you, you're not. You always think of the consequences, and you try to be prepared for them. I can't tell you what to do or what not to do – it's not my place. But here's an advice. Try to ground Itachi rather than getting carried away with him. Otherwise, it won't end well for either of you. You understand me?"

Sakura doesn't. She knows that Itachi can be impulsive. It's not breaking news. But where is she being carried away? Merely saying yes to one prank after three years of persistence doesn't mean she's been carried away. It's only this one time. Just to prove him wrong. Then she can go back to saying no.

But that will prove him right. And Shiho said no. And how can Sakura agree with her? If she agrees with Shiho, then she will have to agree with a lot of things that Shiho says. Such as how handsome Itachi is. Which he isn't. Maybe a little, but that's just because it's obvious. Sakura doesn't believe that anyone could look at him and believe him to be anything but handsome. It's practically genetics. Practically a fact. And how does one argue with facts?

"I'm not doing that," Sakura says as firmly as possible. "I am very much interested to … er, vandalise the … board."

Shikamaru snorts. "Student notice board."

"Yes. That."

"Right," Shikamaru shakes his head. "Maybe you're just as stubborn as him. Might work out, too. Who knows?"

"Work out what?" Sakura frowns.

"You both. You know."

It's not really funny but Sakura finds herself laughing at the notion. "He likes Shiho, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru rolls his eyes, tucks his hands in the front pockets of his pants, and shrugs. "For now. I thought we just agreed that Itachi can be impulsive."

"With this? I don't think so."

"Itachi can be full of surprises, too, you know," he grins, and then wraps his arm around her shoulder, pulling her to the classroom door. "And call me Shika."

They vandalise the student notice board and surprisingly don't get caught.

For Sakura, it's a heart-pounding, exhilarating, terrifying experience even though they hardly spend a total of ten minutes in the "actual" operation.

At first, they wait until the whole school is empty of students. Temari leads them to a secluded spot on the school grounds, explaining to Sakura how the housekeeping staff will be cleaning the classrooms and the hallways currently, so they can't risk being seen inside the school building. The secluded spot turns out to be behind the large water tank where – Ino reminds her – Darui and Tayuya were caught.

"Why are we here, then?" Sakura freaks, tense, and ready to turn around at any moment.

"Relax!" Ino laughs, clutching Sakura's elbow as though reading her mind. "That was a fluke. Darui was being careless."

Sakura still doesn't feel entirely convinced, so Temari takes over. "Look. There's a time schedule for all the workers. Darui and Tayuya were here during lunch break when everyone knows that some of the housekeeping staff is bound to check the tank for whatever purposes. Make sure it's working fine and all that."

"Oh … okay. So no one will be coming here now?"

Itachi smirks at her. "Are you chickening out?"

Sakura flushes. "Of course, not! I'm just making small talk."

He smirks wider. "Right. Of course."

To prove him wrong, Sakura ends up dragging Ino instead and settles against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, challenging eyes on Itachi.

Shikamaru face-palms.

Itachi settles across from her in the small space. Sakura tries to focus on Ino and Temari's chatter as much as possible and not on the fact that Itachi is dating Shiho. Or the fact that Itachi is dating someone else. Not that Sakura wants to date him. She thinks it'll be horribly strange to be doing that.

Because for starters, she'll have to kiss him. Not that she thinks he might be bad at it. Not that Sakura knows anything about kissing, anyway. But to be kissing him of all people … she can't even breathe properly when he fixes this look at her, kissing will be so – so –

She gulps. And okay, there's also the matter of being alone with him. Which sounds really unhealthy if her pulse rate is anything to go by. And then there's also the matter of getting to know each other beyond friendly intentions. Such as about his mother, and Sasuke is still such a little shit. Sakura can't imagine being at Itachi's place and hanging out with Sasuke. Sakura has met Itachi's parents a few times when Itachi had invited everyone over at his house during school breaks.

Mikoto and Fugaku turned out to be typical traditional parents who apparently don't really care all that much about changing times. They're orthodox to a t, and Sakura understood why the brothers find such excitement and joy in breaking rules on a regular basis.

Has Itachi introduced Shiho to his parents? Probably not. Sakura can't see that going down well.

Not to mention the fact that her mother and Aunt Guren will probably find some fault in her choice. Sometimes it feels as though they exist in Sakura's life just to contradict her, just to make sure that she has to fight harder for the things that she wants. Either fight or let it go. And after a point, fighting doesn't seem worth it anymore.

Anyway. So yes, Sakura has zero interest in dating Itachi.

He's on his phone currently, clearly texting someone. It's probably Shiho. Sakura shouldn't find that surprising. He's obviously going to be texting his girlfriend. Telling her what they're upto. How he wishes she were here –

Sakura's phone buzzes. She fishes it out of her skirt pocket. One look at the screen and she finds Itachi's amused gaze at her.

You look scared shitless right now.

Sakura types back, trying not to think about how Itachi is not texting his girlfriend. You need glasses.

Itachi chuckles, shrugs at her, and pockets his phone once more.

Turns out, Itachi knows the schedule of teachers as though it were muscle memory for him. When it's time, he leads them all inside the school building, through empty hallways, but never takes the straight route to the notice board. Sakura follows behind Ino, trying to keep her anxiety at bay in a continuous loop.

When they finally reach the notice board, Shikamaru brings out coloured pens and pencils, markers, and crayons out of his bag. Temari starts doodling a moustache and beard on all the photos, and Ino quickly follows it by scribbling chat boxes. Itachi nudges her, hands her a pen, whispering a quick come on! and proceeding to utterly destroy one of the announcements by drawing large flames on it.

Sakura ends up adding the words "Our education" above the flames, and Itachi laughs softly, quickly hugging her side in delight.

And so when Itachi breaks up with Shiho two weeks later, settles beside Sakura with his arm on the back of her chair, and leans down to whisper in her ear how Temari's got broccoli stuck in her teeth –

It feels like a win.

Winter 2020 – Present Day

Itachi's workplace turns out to be the eleventh floor of a high-rise glass building.

Sakura knows this because on Friday, Itachi invites her over after she gets free from her own job. Sakura still can't believe that he did that. She replays the conversation over in her head as she waits for the elevator in the lobby of Itachi's office building, trying to make sure for the hundredth time that she sensed the tone right.

Sakura had called him to ask if he was free to meet-up. Itachi had said that he was okay with meeting but he won't be getting free for another hour or so. Sakura was in the middle of saying goodbye, because she wasn't really ready to wait around for him, when he interrupted and asked her if she was open to "hang out at the office with me." He said that there will be a few of the other employees still finishing up but it should be okay since the "asshole boss" leaves exactly at 5.30 every evening.

And now here she is.

When she gets off on the eleventh floor, turns right according to his instructions, and sees a glass plate with Gaka written on it, she sort of slows down until she's standing five feet away from the doors.

What am I doing here?

Lee was right in what he had said. Sakura has wasted a lot of her time already on Itachi. This is not a joke. This is not casual. This is not school anymore. She's not the girl who was once enamoured by him and his larger-than-life presence. No, she has a whole different life today, an independent one that she built for years, and he is not a part of it. And she cannot let him become a part of it.

But then again … she is not doing that. She is merely meeting up with an old friend. There's no need to blow it out of proportion.

Right?

The inside of the office consists of a small lobby and then branches off in the left towards an open space. There are multiple open cubicles divided by six feet high glass panels. Sakura notices two closed cabins in the end and assumes that's where the "asshole boss" must sit. The other one is clearly a conference room.

What she genuinely likes about the office, though, is how it is exploding with colours. If Sakura had to use one word to describe it, she would call it "funky". There is a multi-coloured geometrical and abstract mural on one wall, old-fashioned wooden spot lights hanging from the ceiling, huge drafting tables cluttered in one corner, framed photographs of various artwork, and in the middle of this chaos is Itachi, leaning over one of the drafting tables with a concentrated frown, a long-sleeved red sweater, glasses perched on nose, sketching with a pencil.

She notices three other employees working on desktops, who glance distractedly at her once as she passes by the space.

When she's close enough, she notices that Itachi is actually colouring in a large sketch of what looks like the inside of a bedroom.

"Hey."

He kind of jumps slightly, snapping up his neck. "Oh. Hey. You're here."

Sakura walks around the table to stand beside him, peering down at the sketch. "This is pretty good."

And it really is. She honestly hadn't known that Itachi might be a good designer. She just assumed that he knows things since he's gotten a degree in it. From the looks of it, though, he's good at what he does.

"Thanks," he smiles. "You want something to drink? We have a machine in the back."

Sakura says that she'll go check it. She takes a camomile tea for him and a latte for herself. Itachi laughs when she hands him the tea.

"I've gotten over my tea phase by now," he tells her, taking the tea anyway, sipping at it happily. "I usually have coffee here."

Sakura shrugs. Itachi's so-called tea phase was entertaining at best. He would order a different flavour every time they went out, and even started stocking up at his own house. Sakura had tried only a few of them, complaining that it doesn't have any sugar in it.

Itachi asks her to drag a chair over until he finishes up. The other employees still don't bother them, focusing on their own work. When Sakura asks about it, Itachi explains what the company does.

Gaka is an interior design company at its core. There are ten employees currently working under the Asshole Boss, out of which five have a proper interior design degree. Then there is Itachi and Deidara who are graphic designers, two are furniture designers, and one is textile designer. Itachi's job does not require him to furnish a layout but work on other aspects such as colour composition, material selection, wall painting, and so on.

He also says that the mural is going pretty well. He already has a basic draft in mind, and the clients have approved of it, too. He just needs to start organizing his time in a way wherein he can visit the site to work on it without letting his other projects into ruins.

When prompted about her own work, Sakura fills him in about the latest management fiasco, how she and Naruto are planning to take a stand before things become too unhealthy to deal with, how she's genuinely happy with being a teacher even though that wasn't the plan, and she tells him about some of the notorious kids whom she absolutely adores.

Itachi barks out a loud laugh at that one, teasing her that she was a dormant notorious kid all her life.

"Yeah, yeah," Sakura tries to dismiss it because no, Sakura wasn't a dormant notorious kid, she just liked notorious kids such as Itachi himself.

They spend rest of the time talking about inane things, and when Itachi finally gets done, he offers dinner in exchange for her waiting for him.

"Oh," Sakura fumbles. "No. I mean, thank you? But I have dinner plans. With Sai. Sorry."

Itachi shrugs. "Some other time, maybe."

Sakura fidgets nervously as Itachi packs up his belongings, bids goodbye to the other employees, and then leads Sakura out of the office to the elevator.

"I like your office."

"Thanks. It's temporary, though."

"What do you mean?"

The lift doors open and they step inside. It's entirely made of polished metal so Sakura watches his reflection as he presses the G button.

"I don't plan to stay here forever," he says, watching her in the reflection, too.

He's still significantly taller than her, which, granted, is a stupid thing to think. Of course, he's still going to be taller than her. Humans don't shrink like that.

But something should have changed. How has it not? Itachi shouldn't still be tall. Shouldn't still be handsome. Shouldn't still be so dedicated to his task, however inane or important they might be. Shouldn't still be smiling at her as though this gaping hole between them never existed.

It did exist. Sakura can't be forgetting that. Shouldn't be forgetting that.

"Right," she says in the silence, too long of a pause later, and Itachi doesn't respond, and it feels suffocating to be near him all of a sudden.

The doors of the elevator split open, and their eye contact breaks. Sakura watches his reflection move further away until it disappears inside the elevator frame.

Summer of 2011 – Continued

Sakura starts to date Takeshi.

He's a senior in their school, keeps coming over to talk about mundane things, and offers help with studies. Sakura refuses his help, though she participates in the conversation enthusiastically. Takeshi is a decent person from what she knows, and he asks her out after one month of subtle flirting and frequent texting.

Which means that Sakura doesn't always sit at the usual lunch table with her friends. Takeshi's friends are loud and obnoxious, and Sakura wishes that she could have Itachi beside her, so that they can make fun of Jugo's orange-hair-experiment-gone-wrong, or share an exasperated look at Noira's various boring sexcapades that she keeps boasting about, or even how Shikamaru would have enjoyed Fuin's complaints about the school education system in general just because he was too lazy to make real efforts.

Of course, she tells herself, of course she can just share these titbits with Takeshi instead. But she doesn't.

Their first kiss – Sakura's first kiss – happens when Takeshi offers to drop her home. And knowing that Mebuki might ask questions, Sakura makes him stop around the corner, saying that she needs a little bit of a walk, anyway.

Takeshi kills the car engine, turns to her, extends one arm to the back of her seat.

Sakura stares back, studying the blue eyes, brown hair, and the soft smile. She thinks that maybe she can get used to it. Get used to not seeing the tell-tale signs of an incoming smirk. She just needs some time, and it will be fine. Everything will be fine.

"You look very pretty today," Takeshi tells her, smile firmly in place.

Sakura smiles in confusion. "I look the same. The school uniform hasn't exactly changed in years."

Takeshi chuckles. "You know what I mean."

She doesn't. But she shrugs in acceptance anyway. Her phone buzzes.

"I want to kiss you," he tells her directly, honestly. "May I?"

Sakura's heart hammers inside her chest. This is it. Her first kiss. She hadn't really envisioned as to how it would go, but she had a vague idea that it would be unprompted, unexpected, out of the blue.

Her phone buzzes again.

Sakura nods at Takeshi, nervously leaning forward to assure him that she means it. Takeshi grins, meeting her halfway, and his lips are slightly rough due to the heat, and Sakura reminds herself of all the things that Ino and Temari have taught her –

It's over before she knows it.

Takeshi moves back, grins again, and Sakura bids him goodbye, promising to text later at night. When she's walking to her house, she finally checks her phone.

Have you reached?

Cherry, I swear if that asshole took you anywhere but home, I'm going to be driving you everywhere myself.

Sakura laughs, her heart still pounding in her chest, shaking her head at Itachi's dramatics.

He dropped me home. Relax.

And you don't have a car yet.

Itachi's reply is instant.

Shika does.

We will never get anywhere with him driving.

Hahaha true. But at least I can keep an eye on you.

Everything is fine. Takeshi is not a bad person, you know.

He is a high school guy. I know how they think.

You mean how YOU all think?

Same thing.

Sakura rolls her eyes, replying that she needs to freshen up and study. Their exams are right around the corner now.

Which also means that Takeshi will be leaving for college. Sakura is pretty sure that they will probably break up when the time comes. She is okay with that, she thinks. Takeshi might be a good person, but there is absolutely no reason to attempt long distance.

It isn't worth it, anyway.

Please review! :)

Update cycle is one week.