Prompt: Love at First Punch
Ita/Saku Week 2021 🌸🍡
Sakura had survived her first week at shinobi academy and through a stroke of luck managed to ask the Uchiha Sasuke if he would show her his shuriken jutsu and he said yes…
They arranged to meet at the river with a red bridge near the Uchiha district on their day off at 8 am sharp.
She was so excited and determined that she picked out her big red bow to tie into her hair, she even braided it so it would stay out of her face.
For if she missed anything vital, she would probably never get this chance again, and lastly picked out some flexible clothes for more movement. They could even spar if she was lucky.
Breakfast was served at 7 am sharp, if you were home and not on a mission or other important business and Itachi was munching on some omelette when Sasuke arrived late and sat down grinning.
"What's got you so happy this morning little brother?" He asked intrigued, thinking that he must have mastered a new jutsu or perhaps learned something of interest at the academy.
"Oh, nothing…" Sasuke replied, grin fading abruptly.
Itachi got the feeling to pester further.
"If it isn't some kind of new jutsu, I'm not sure I know of what could make you grin so big" he prompted further.
Sasuke started to frown before admitting his misdeed.
"Just some annoying girl in my class, begged me to show her shuriken jutsu and I agreed to meet her this morning, but I was actually planning on ditching her for training elsewhere, I was grinning… because I thought it was hilarious that she thought I was serious, I don't have time for girls, I need to catch up with you" Sasuke explained.
Itachi frowned, disappointed in him, even though she might be annoying to Sasuke that there was no way to treat a female.
He finished his side dish, before cleaning up and quietly walking out of the house.
Sakura huffed again, she was sure she left at quarter to and some time had already passed since she arrived on the bridge, where they agreed to meet, and no Sasuke still…
She would wait a little bit longer before thinking he had ditched her, put a brave face on, he wouldn't want to see her cry if he decided to show up…
Itachi walked through the Uchiha district, waving and smiling at relatives that called out to him while he walked by and thought of where Sasuke would have thought of meeting this girl. He decided to try the bridge on the river just outside the complex…
When he arrived he only saw a girl with bright pink hair in braids with a cute red ribbon tied into a bow standing, facing away from him, as he neared her, he heard her crying quietly staring at the water below her.
"Were you perhaps waiting on Uchiha Sasuke?" he asked.
Sakura meeped and turned slowly before staring at him shyly.
"Yes… is he running late by chance?" she inquired, wiping her misty eyes.
"No… unfortunately, he misguided you and was planning on training alone this morning, and as his older brother, I thought that was really rude so I came instead" he explained, hoping she had some reason before getting upset…
Sakura stared wide-eyed at him in shock.
Itachi innerly grimaced but decided to introduce himself.
"We've never met before but I'm Uchiha Itachi and you are?" he said
"It's nice to meet you Uchiha-san, I'm Haruno Sakura" she replied with a small smile.
*10 years later*
If someone had asked her when she was a child if she knew she would be fighting in the next great shinobi war, she would have told them no way in hell she expected so many of the crazy things that had happened in her childhood to have occurred...
She ended up at the top of her class at the academy, minus some taijutsu, her weakness, on a genin squad with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, being taught by Hatake Kakashi.
Barely surviving a rogue nin on her first C ranked mission, which was technically an S-rank but the client lied to pay less for their services, going through the Chunin exam and being targeted by a rogue Sannin class ninja Orochimaru who wanted Sasuke's body for himself and his unique abilities.
Having that whole event being sabotaged by an attack on the village by the Sunagakure and a new Hidden Sound Village… and then having Sasuke turn dark and abandon them for power…
Fast forward to 3 years later when Naruto and she finished their respective training with the other two Sannin legends, the 5th Hokage Tsunade and Jiraiya, who taught the 4th Hokage…
Going on adventures pursuing the dangerous organization Akatsuki and trying to bring Sasuke back… then having Akatsuki declare the next great shinobi war, all to prevent some crazy Uchiha who wanted everyone under his complete control, when in fact it was the manipulation of an ancient god who invaded them eons ago for their lives.
... thus having them save the world by sealing the ancient god who wanted to suck the life from them.
Out of all that, Sakura was surprised when Sasuke decided to not seek revenge against Itachi and brought peace back to the village…
Itachi was Sakura's first sparring partner and someone she thought dearly of in her young years, before the Uchiha massacre of course...
Sasuke had filled Naruto and her in on the whole truth of why that whole part of history happened and that Itachi had just wanted a future for him and was willing to sacrifice it all for his little brother…
Sakura avoided Itachi after the war, she couldn't face him and wondered if she was the only one who felt that way? Was she being silly?
They had so little history with one another that she probably didn't make an impact on him from the past.
Out of nostalgia, Sakura went to the training grounds they used on that first day, where he showed her how to use shuriken jutsu, she never used it around team 7 for she didn't want Sasuke to know that Itachi had taught her something precious that he had always wanted from his brother…
But that day she had mastered it in no time, of course, it wasn't exactly perfect for she didn't have the stamina Itachi did but over the years, she had perfected it, even without the Sharingan.
She went through the motions of very calculated throws and timing for her kunai and when she heard multiple thuds against wood, she went to check on her aim…
Rounding the tree stump, this was an indicator that she had hit a bullseye, but no kunai was left. Suddenly on her guard, she retreated to the nearby clearing, she sensed around her for nearby chakra and smirked, who was dumb enough to come at her from below…
Cracking her knuckles she placed a well-thought-out punch and crumbled the ground beneath her…
The dust cleared and there was an immobilized Itachi who was scratching her head awkwardly.
Sakura was shocked, he could have easily avoided her attack… By helping him out of the hole she decided to confront him finally.
"Why didn't you dodge my attack?" she asked, perplexed.
"You've been avoiding me since the end of the war" he accused
Sakura pulled back and began to walk away.
"Sakura!" he called out to her.
Ignoring him, she escaped using a new teleportation Jutsu she created using cherry blossom petals.
That night Sakura decided to drag Naruto and Sasuke out for a night on the town.
Sasuke had briefly returned from his redemption quest to guard Konohagakure against another attack, they had just rescued everyone from the moon being pulled into the planet because of an Otsutsuki cult that seemed to want Hinata's Byakugan to control the people of the earth, besides saving the world again, Naruto finally realized Hinata's feelings and had fallen for her as well.
They are dating now.
"Sakura-chan! I had a date with Hinata tonight, couldn't you have just taken Sasuke out by yourself?" Naruto complained loudly.
"You forget that she cancelled on you because some clan thing came up, be grateful your friends even want to drink with you" she possessed back at him smoking, knowing she was right.
Sasuke didn't say anything, he has forced along when Sakura reminded him he owed her a favour.
Drinks began at the BBQ backhouse and wandered over to a club where they had the biggest dance floor in Konoha.
Naruto said at the bar, nursing his drink as he waved at the two of them to go dance and relax.
Sasuke was blushing as he awkwardly tried to figure out what dance move to utilize as Sakura laughed, he was something else underneath all the cold front he hid behind.
What she didn't notice was when she was spun around by Sasuke, he was pushed out of the way by Itachi who took his place, relieved from the embarrassment, Sasuke took the chance to escape back to the bar with Naruto.
Sakura looked up and winced when she met the eyes of the Sharingan, before hitting him she thought was Sasuke in the chest.
"Oie, what's the big idea Sasuke-kun?!" she complained aloud.
"You keep avoiding me" a deep and not Sasuke's voice responded…
Sakura's eyes widened, Itachi held her in his grasp. He whisked them off the dance floor and out into the street where he then teleported them away.
"Sasuke, if you want to date Sakura-chan, you gotta stop letting other men capture her," Naruto teased him, downing another drink.
"Sakura is already spoken for, loser... Itachi's in love with her" he replied not affected.
"Wha?!" he replied, spilling his next drink onto him.
"IEEE! Watch it!" yelled Sasuke.
Letting her go, they had arrived at the same bridge where they first met.
"You look beautiful tonight," Itachi commented, hoping to lighten the mood.
Sakura was wearing a tight black dress that hugged her curves crossed over her chest with lighter fabric on her shoulders, she had braided her long hair with a red hair comb and smaller clips that held her bangs back and some standard ninja heels.
Sakura's eyes misted over in frustration before she decided to just punch him, make him hurt a little, but not kill him…
Itachi let her and stumbled back a few feet before laughing.
"When we first met, I expected you to punch me when you noticed I wasn't Sasuke, even though he deserved that punch"
Sakura blushed at the reminder, that this all started because of Sasuke tricking her.
"You didn't have to come here in place of your brother, who deceived me, you didn't have to show me what kind of person you were, making me fall for you and then killing your entire family and leaving all the trouble behind you" Sakura raged as she began to cry with all her regrets from the past.
Itachi walked over and caressed her face, meeting her forehead with his.
"Well I didn't have any of that planned but it was love at first punch… my dear," he told her, admitting his feelings aloud.
Sakura blushed at his admission.
Itachi stepped back and presented her with a magnolia envelope.
Sakura scrunched her eyebrows together in suspicion, what was this?
"I've been trying to find the right opportunity to ask you but you have been avoiding me," Itachi said, motioning her to open it.
Sakura opened the fold and slowly picked out an elegant cream page that read.
"You are coordinately invited to the Kazekage's wedding to… " she read at the top.
"Gaara's getting married?" it was news to her, glancing at the bottom she noticed she wasn't the recipient… Itachi was.
"Would you be my honoured guest at Gaara-sama's wedding, Sakura?" he asked.
She should have said no, not even getting to reply to his abrupt love confession but she awkwardly agreed to accompany him. It was the beginning of their new relationship.
A/N: Happy Sunday, This is it for ItaSaku Week 2021, and it was a bunch of fun and deadline stress but I managed to write one prompt for each day and I'm super proud of myself for sticking with an actual deadline :) Out of all the prompts, this one is my favourite as it starts with a young Sakura pining over Sasuke who could care less and she met someone better ;) As always feel free to review, comment, fav, follow kudos, bookmark, fav, and like on either platform or both. (Yes it's like 12:05am for me as I post it because I know that I will not wake until afternoon soo i thought I would allow you all to enjoy for longer as you will have all Sunday to enjoy :) while I sleep ZZZ)