Additional tags: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Team 7, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi, Orginal Characters, Uchiha Clan, Action/Adventure, Drama, Slow Build, AU-Canon divergence, No Uchiha massacre.

Chapter 1

The crowd was cheering at the dancers swirling swiftly on the scene like unpredictable flames. The place was full of stalls, vendors and people dressed in all kind of fashion. There were warm colors everywhere, decorations all over the street, and music echoing through the whole village. Konoha was celebrating the annual spring festival and as expected everyone was honoring this particular day.

Itachi Uchiha was no exception, although some of his kinsmen favoured the private celebration in the clan's compound, mostly the elders who couldn't handle masses anymore. He wasn't that different from them when it came to his distaste for crowds, but he had made a habit of not going against his mother wishes. He had suspected she had good reasons for insisting about his attendance this year, and indeed, his suspicions had turned out to be true when he had caught her mother chatting with an old couple and – presumably- their daughter.

He was now leaning on the fence of some attics towering over the festivities. But his attention wasn't quite on the recent meeting with his possibly future fiancée, instead he was quietly watching a group of young kids gathered around a woman. There were cheering words at her, grabbing the flank of her yukata, while she screamed back at them, probably similar funny words. They finally disappeared when she threatened them her right fist.

"Isn't that your brother's teammate ? " asked a familiar voiced who came by his side, and leaned on the wood, a bottle in hand.

The woman was rubbing out dust out of her garment when a blond guy suddenly appeared behind her, and put his hands on her eyes in a childish manner. She smiled as she removed his hands and turned around only to hug him tightly.

"I guess freaks attract each other !" continued the intruder. "And I gather your brother must be back from his anbu training if his pet is here too."

The pair sat on a white bench near them, while the kunoichi was still palpating the whole body of her friend, as if she was looking for any abnormalities. It seemed then more clear, when some green light started glowing from her hands, that she was really looking for wounds, and since the Jinchuriki was known to have quick recovery abilities, it was unlikely she found find any.

"He came back four hours ago."

Itachi kept looking at the couple, as his cousin started to explain how disappointed he was by the festival and its lack of novelty – for instance, the dancers who didn't bother learning a new choreography- he wasn't really paying attention to him. Instead he was slowly recalling one his cousin's remark and the behavior of his brother's teammate.

"Are they together ? " he asked.

"Who ? "

"Uzumaki and–"

"Oh yeah, they live together," he quickly answered. "By the way, your mother was looking for you !"

An unknown and indescribable bitter taste suddenly made his way into his mouth, so abruptly he had to look away from the scene.

But even though he had already felt such thing before, he wasn't ready to acknowledge what it meant – not just yet.

Turning around in her bed, Sakura couldn't sleep, she was still excited from the recent festivities and the return of her flatmate. But if she was being honest, sleeping had actually become an issue throughout the last months. She looked at her alarm clock on her bedside table, somewhat relieved to learn the night was still quite young, and decided to get up.

It didn't take long before she reached her best friend's door. Careful not to wake him up, she made her way in, looking at the tidy state of his room – not that it would last long – and jump on his bed's bottom. He initially looked deep asleep, but she quickly realized he wasn't when she felt his feet nudge her knee in an attempt to make her move.

"If you think you're going to get rid of me that easily, you're very wrong," she murmured.

He pushed harder as a response, "Actually, I wasn't sure you would forgive me Sakura-chan."

"You're stupid if you think I have." She grabbed his ankle this time, and started squeezing lightly. "But I'm not angry anymore if it's what you want to hear. It's not like it would have made a difference in your choices, right ?"

"You were pretty pissed off," he remarked, moving back his feet towards his side.

She sighed, "I know. Anyway, what's done is done now and you still need to show me your new Anbu outfit !"

She lay down next to him, and felt a strong arm slide behind her neck, reaching her shoulder and nudge her own body toward the furnace that Uzumaki Naruto was. It reminded her of the past, of times when they had naively tried to be lovers and how it had ended up in an awkward disaster. She had almost thought their friendship wouldn't have survived. But at least, she had learned, their love wasn't of a romantic nature, but a brotherly nature.

Sometimes, she couldn't help but wonder how things would have turned out if they were still together. But since she couldn't recall any good memory from that one month during which they were dating, it was probably better not to wonder of ifs.

"I'm not a Anbu yet," he said and chuckled nervously.

She stared at him, surprised. "What do you mean ? You've been out there for eleven months already ! Wasn't it the point to–"

"There is one last stage we need to complete before being approved," he explained. "And since we were being called back to Konoha, they had no choice but to postpone it."

She shook her head. "It doesn't make any sense."

Naruto shrugged off his shoulders. "Besides, see the good side of it, we get to see each other again ! And we get to go on a mission together, just like the old times !"

"What the hell are you talking about Naruto ?"

"What, you don't know ? Weren't you told about the mission ? We're leaving in five days."

"I wasn't aware, no."

It simply couldn't augur anything good, but she reminded herself to run to the kage tower the following day to learn more about the mission she didn't know anything about.

The mission turned out to be a regular escort mission, which consisted in bringing one target to a specific place – or at least that was how it looked like on paper. The target was actually a newborn, accompanied by an old man and a woman – presumably the nurse- and thus there were three target to protect, but the main requirement to completely succeed the mission was to keep the baby alive. It appeared to be easy, and again that was only in theory, Sakura suspected there was more to it. It seemed quite excessive to require a team of three shinobi to shepherd them

The woman was holding tightly the target and didn't seem really incline to talk much, meanwhile the man had been asking her question at every chance. More ahead, she could see Naruto who was uncharacteristically quiet, and behind the whole group, her other teammate, who hadn't said a word throughout the beginning of their trip.

She didn't need more clue to understand something was up between them. As expected, when she had mentioned her suspicions to Naruto, he had acted like everything was perfectly fine. And when it came to Sasuke, she didn't bother asking him anything, since he hadn't even managed to greet her like a decent human being. But she knew he was brooding, and she also knew that when he was, it didn't matter who you were, he would give the silent treatment to everyone, no matter how childish it looked.

She was already too tired of them and sick of pretending this whole charade made any sense. Tsunade had refused to give her any explanation regarding her enrolment to the mission, all she had got was a "don't go against my order or I will take away all your precious books !" A sufficient threat to make her stop asking questions. After all this time, it only felt like a punishment, she wasn't a field kunoichi anymore, and however straightforward and uneventful that mission was, Sakura felt like she was wasting her time. She could certainly do more fruitful thing in her office at the hospital – surely Naruto and Sasuke didn't need her for such a simple task.

She had a feeling there was more to it, something didn't click, something wasn't right, and she would discover what it was sooner or later, but in the meantime she would try her best to act professionally.

Five hours had passed, since they had left Konoha, Sakura could see a bridge toward the end of the path. She was also sensing something different, chakra prints from people who weren't hiding and definitely wanted to be identified. As they neared the bridge, silhouettes became more distinguishable, two strangers that were standing against the wood of the bridge's borders. Naruto caught them first, since he had been walking ahead of the group, and judging by the lack of action, she concluded that they probably were friendly.

Once they finally reached them, she immediately recognized them as shinobi of the leaf, which would have come as a relief if it wasn't for the fact one of them was her teammate's brother, Uchiha Itachi. She had never been properly introduced to his brother – nor his family- she thought bitterly, so naturally, she was feeling uneasy.

"We've been asked to assist your for the rest of the mission," explained the tall kunoichi dressed in a Anbu outfit to his right. She had midnight hair tightly tied and snow eyes that were a common feature within members of the Hyuuga Clan. "I'll be taking charge from now on."

Naruto was looking at her with a somewhat undumbfounded face, clearly sharing Sakura's view on the odd situation. Reinforcements were probably the last thing they needed to make this boring trip even more boring than it already was. And yet, they seemed really serious about joining them.

"Alright," grunted Naruto, making a gesture with his hand, indicating he was allowing their new captain to take the lead. It was odd to see him so lenient, but maybe his Anbu training made him more obedient.

"Are they Anbu ?" asked the lady to her side, once the newcomers were far enough.

Sakura nodded, " Yes."

"Shouldn't they wear masks ?"

"They only need them when they plan to kill someone."

The lady looked at her with a horrified expression, which made Sakura chuckle, "Don't worry, if anything you should be reassured."

As a response, the woman gave her a weak smile. Sakura glanced a bit behind her back, catching her teammate and his brother walking together and whispering worlds she couldn't hear. She had never understood why he refused to make her and Naruto meet his family, although she was pretty sure the blond had interacted with his older brother before. But still, it was probably in a formal context, which was completely absurd considering they were Sasuke's closest friends.

She used to invite both of her teammate at her house, and they both had met her parents. Naruto had obviously good reasons for not sharing informations about his family with them – since he was an orphan and therefore didn't know much about his origins. But Sasuke, he had no reason, no good reason at least. She knew it was best not to ponder on it, she had actually her theory, which wasn't exactly a theory to her, but the truth. However, getting the cat out of that bad was another story, and she wasn't ready to create even more friction in their dysfunctional friendship.

She suddenly heard the baby doing some strange noise, possibly interested in getting food, which made her stare at him in return.

"Do you have children ?"

She laughed, a bit taken aback by her question. "I'm too young for that, Lady."

"She is lying," interrupted the old man with a grumpy voice. "Shinobi breed selectively. They practise eugenics to make the best soldiers they can. So if this young lady is unmarried, her genes are probably not strong enough."

Sakura had to think twice before snapping, remembering she just couldn't bash the head of a client into a tree, however how much she wanted to at the moment.

"I meant to say," she started firmly, "I wasn't interested in having children, Sir."

He dismissed her with a grunt, while the nurse looked lost in thoughts. "What are you interested in then ? I've never met a kunoichi before, so I must admit I'm quite curious about their lives."

Sakura didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing. It's not the first she had encountered civilians behaving strangely around shinobi, like they were another species. This woman, on the other hand, was a noble, which meant she was even more ignorant about the world.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Haruno, a word." Out of nowhere, her new captain appeared at her side and instructed Sakura to follow her. "Keep your distance with the package, no chatting."

She disappeared just as quickly, leaving a white smoke, without even letting Sakura answer—to her disappointment. Sakura decided to joining her blond teammate, since distractions were apparently not allowed anymore.

Once she reached him, she just whispered to him, "What a bitch."

"You know she can hear you, right ?."

It was going to be a long trip.

The attack came unexpectedly in the middle of the second night, the quietness replaced by total chaos. They quickly identified ten figures, which gave then a few second to elaborate a plan. Their Captain swiftly ordered both of her teammates to go east, while Sasuke's brother had already disappeared in another direction.

Sakura was then left with the civilians, as the Hyuuga took another direction.

"Move, this way !" she ordered, grabbing the lady by the shoulder to hide her into the bushes with the old man. The baby was crying loudly, which wasn't helping the situation. "You have to calm him down."

She knelled down next to them, all of her senses on high alert, trying to anticipate any threats that could come. With ten assailants around, one of them was bound to find the civilians before her teammates could stop them.

A sudden big explosion resonated through the forest, followed by the noise of snapping branches and the smell of burning. She turned her body around, still sheltering the woman by holding her tightly by the shoulder. Her guts made her then take a premature decision, and as she shifted, she felt fingers grab her wrist."Where are you going ?"

"Please, stay here," she whispered, without looking at her. "I need to be out there to see them arrive. Just make sure to keep quiet and everything will be alright."

Before the lady could plead, Sakura left the bushes and stood at guard, glancing nervously around her. They have been trapped, the unknown shinobi coming from all direction, which made the chance they could find the civilians even higher. Her teammates had all taken a different direction to intercept them. But they had been caught of guard, and she feared she would have to face some of them – alone.

She couldn't remember the last time she had a proper fight, what she was sure of was that she wasn't ready for anything that would happen next. The only reasons that made her take her fighting stance right know, were her principles and her honor. Of course, she wouldn't chicken out and let the civilians die. But was she really up to the task ?

She looked up, her focused eyes scanning the trees for any sign of disturbance. It only took one second, one moment to make her realize she had missed the most critical detail. Before she could do anything she felt her breath leave her lungs as her body went straight into a trunk.

When she opened her eyes, right after the impact, she met the furious gazes of two individual, dressed in an attire she had never seen before. She couldn't tell to which nation they belonged to, only that it was really likely they were part of some rogue group, possibly renegades.

"Where is the child ?" yelled the tallest one.

The child choose that perfect moment to start screaming, at the same time, she felt the air leaving her lungs again. There was a rope around her neck, her rope of light merely burning her skin, and tightening more and more. She started coughing as she watched one of the man wander near the civilians'hiding place.

Her hands clasped on the rope, ignoring the pain on her palms, but despite her efforts, she couldn't remove it, not a single leap of strength inhabited her.

She suddenly heard a scream. The lady. They had found the baby and the smaller assailant was now holding the crying baby while his left hand was squeezing the woman by the neck. He then pushed her into the ground, making her loose consciousness. Sakura tried to move in a desperate attempt to reach the child, however, the man was already gone, which only left her with the tall assailant.

"It's time to die kunoichi," His fingers clenched into a fist and as he did so, the rope started tightening even more around her skin, he then reached for a short dagger.

The air was leaving her, she couldn't breathe nor think and could only watch in horror the weapon descend on her. But as suddenly as this whole mess had started, blood came crashing on her face. A silver blade had pierced the body and heart of the man. Sakura started coughing violently, the air coming back to her. The rope, the burning, the turmoil and rogue-nins were all gone. It was over at last. But the man,he was...dead. She had sworn she'd never take a life ever again, and yet, because of her...

A firm hand reached for her arm and she gasped, "Sasuke-kun!"

"The woman needs care."

She nodded and walked to the lady, trying her best not to look at the dead man on the ground.

Don't think.

The lady's body was still warm, which reassured her.

"You were not supposed to come here brother," started the voice of Uchiha Itachi. He gave a quick glance at the lady's unconscious body. "It's no wonder you failed the Anbu examination if you have to babysit your teammates."

"Naruto was–"

"What the hell's going on!" interrupted a newcomer, sligthly out of breathe. It was Captain Hyuuga. "You,"she said, while looking at Sasuke, "You will go back to Konoha at once, the contract needs to be reassessed."

"Are you saying we are liars !" roared the old man, coming forward. "You are the people who weren't able to protect a child, you are the incompetent ones, you are the ones responsible for this mess. So go fix it right now or Konoha won't get any compensation ! I thought Uchihas were the best shinobi around here, but clearly the rumors were exagerrated."

She expected the Uchiha heir to snap, like Sasuke would have done, but he didn't. Instead, he literally ignored the civilian's tantrum, she had seen that kind of typical Uchiha response before and I thought it was mostly a pride thing. With such context though, in looked more like a way to establish who was on the top of the chain, and clearly Uchihas believed they had more value than civilians.

She felt the need to intervene and said without thinking, "We're going to get him back, Sir."

"How dare she–"

"Take her with you, Sasuke."

She turned around, ready to explain why the lady shouldn't travel that far yet. She might be okay, but her body had still been shaken and she could as well suffer from minor concussion. The hard gaze that met her made her froze instantly. It was the first time he was actually looking at her, and expectedly, it felt as uncomfortable as she had thought it would be, especially because she couldn't read anything in his eyes, nor his face, nonetheless what she needed to understand right now was crystal clear.

She took something out of her pockets and handed it out to the old-man. "This should help with the pain. No more than four per day."

Without looking back, she walked towards her teammate as if she was walking toward her own death sentence.

Sakura was starting to feel a pain creeping through her legs, a direct consequence of the fast pace both her and Sasuke had been travelling at for the last hours- not that she could tell whether her teammate was actually running at a normal pace or not. In any case, she was most certainly the one who couldn't keep up with such rhythm, which was yet again a reminder of how much she had been unprepared for the mission. She would curse the Godaime soon enough, she promised herself.

"Sasuke-kun," she called out.

As expected, he didn't answer. She had a feeling he was really pissed off. If he had been brooding before, now she didn't have any word to describe it. She couldn't help but wish Naruto was there, at least he would still be the epicentre of Sasuke's anger. But at the time, she knew she was responsible for the aftershock and that he was definitely angry at her too since the recent events.

She sighed, "Sasuke-kun !"

And since he didn't seem to be willing to acknowledge her yet again, instead of jumping on the next branch, she headed for the ground, and walked toward the first tree on her path. She then put her backpack down and just laid against the trunk of a conifer.

A long couple of minute later, he suddenly appeared in front of her.

"What are you playing at ?" he hissed.

To think those were the first words he had said to her since his return from his one-year anbu training, annoyed her more than she would have thought. But because she didn't want to fight him, especially while he was in such childish state, she decided to not let her frustrated/angry self get the better of her and keep to the facts.

Her hand grasped her knee. "I need a few minutes."

Before she knew it, he yanked abruptly her arm to make her stand, which made her loose balance as a spike of pain flared in her knee.

"What's wrong with you !" she screamed, forgetting everything about not letting her temper take the lead.

"What's wrong ?" his grip on her arm tightened. "You've humiliated me in front of my brother Sakura. Both you and the stupid dumbass. All you had to do was keep to the orders, but even that was too hard for you. You just couldn't make things work, as always."

She didn't know whether she should laugh or cry, but she stood her ground, long gone were the times when she would always agree with whatever was coming out of his mouth. She had worshipped him long enough to know he was the last person anyone should worship.

"Of course, out of all the thing you should worry about," she started, looking straight at his angry eyes," such as how a baby got taken away from his mother, all you care about is yourself."

The air suddenly left her lungs as she felt her body slam against the tree. She gasped, more from surprise than pain and looked up worryingly at her teammate who stood frozen over her body, both of his hands still holding her in place.

He let her go at once, like being close to her was suddenly akin to touching fire. It seemed she had underestimated what was going on with him. Even though it was difficult to do so, she reminded herself she wasn't responsible for his issues.

"Five minutes," he finally said, before turning around and leaving her by herself.

Team seven, she thought bitterly.

"How foolish of them !" Tsunade cursed, as she read the letter. "They thought they could trick us that easily, fools ! I knew something was up, and that's exactly why I had to send words for the nearest team available around your travelling path."

Sakura couldn't help but frown at her sensei's tantrum, meanwhile Sasuke remained quiet, standing still, like the good soldier he was.

" Is it your way of saying team seven couldn't have handle whatever was going to happen Shisou ?"

"The nerve of those civilians ! Sadly, the contractor has ties with the Damyou, which removes the possibility of aborting the mission."She looked up from her letter to her student. "I have no doubt Naruto could have handle two dozen of shinobi by himself. But protecting some civilians, it seemed unlikely, this report speaks for itself."

And that was the only nudge she needed to finally speak the thoughts that had been tormenting her since they had reached the kage's tower."I want to be discharged from the mission, Shishou."

"I'm afraid you'll have to retrieve the baby. Alive." She put the letter down and grabbed a piece of blank paper. "I might send more reinforcements if the mission proves to
be more troublesome than it already is. Make sure to remind all of your teammates that failure isn't an option, the last thing I want is the Damyou's ministers on our back."

"Did you hear what I just said ?"

"Uchiha, out !"

"He can stay," protested Sakura, "I don't have anything to hide !"

"Out !" she roared again.

Sakura had her arms crossed tightly on her chest, as she watched her friend leave the kage's office. When they finally were alone, Tsunade slammed her hands on her desk. "Have you gone mad ?"

"I should ask you the same !" retorted Sakura. "Two years ago, I told you I was done doing missions, and you accepted my choice. Why are you doing this to me now !"

"You're such a stubborn ungrateful brat ! It doesn't matter what happened years ago, right now I need you on the field, and because I'm your Hokage, you'll do as I say."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Don't you understand ? I'm a liability for the team. The kid got caught because of–"

"I don't care whose fault it is Sakura." She sighed, "But I can guarantee that I won't allow you to keep doing your research at the hospital, if you refuse to do to your duty."

"I'm more useful at the hospital, and you know it. I don't understand why–"

"This isn't the topic," she hissed. "Out of my sigh now, I'm not arguing with you."

" This isn't fair Shishou," she murmured.

Tsunade laughed and just stared at her, shaking her head in disappointment, Sakura understood then that there was nothing else she could do or say, and walked trough the door, without forgetting to slam it as strongly as she could.

The road back to the meeting point, also known as Kayotaki village, went shorter than expected, they had to hurry after all, since there was a lot at stake. They were now greeted by the unguarded wooden gates of Kayotaki, being a crossroad for travellers the place was generally peaceful, which was perfect to lie low for a while.

Sakura hadn't uttered a word to her teammate since his unforeseen outburst. She nonetheless felt she had to do something before they went past the gate. She was convinced she wouldn't have any other opportunity to be alone with him after that.

"Sasuke-kun," she said firmly, looking straight ahead.

They both kept walking as they went through the entrance of the village.

"I want you to know that I'll do my best to impress your brother, and I'll also talk to Naruto. Even tough you're an asshole."