"Cripes, Forehead. Did you really give all these fools chocolates?"
Ino shook her head in disbelief as she looked for an empty spot for Sakura's latest floral arrangement. "I mean, not that I'm complaining. The White Day orders we get for you alone probably offsets any losses we'll have for the month."
Sakura shot her a dry look. "Don't exaggerate, Pig. And before you run off starting rumors, no. I didn't give all these people chocolates. I think most of them are former patients who just wanted to say thank you for treating them."
"Yeah, whatever. What about your grouchy, prosaic ape. What did he get you this year?"
Sakura narrowed her eyes at the insult, but slumped into her chair all the same. "I haven't gotten his gift yet. Although, I don't know..."
"Don't know what? Are you finally dumping him? I mean really, could he be any less romantic?!"
"Calm down. And stop shitting on him every chance you get. Sasuke-kun… he might not be one for grand gestures, but he's sincere and loving in his own way. Except – "
Ino triumphantly smirked. "I knew it! Who could blame you if you kicked his boring ass to the curb? Sage's balls, when's the last time he took you out dancing, or to the movies, or on any kind of actual date date?"
"Shut up, Pig. I'm talking about something else. He's been so… I'm just worried. I don't know what's gotten into him lately."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… he ambushed my patient at the onsen earlier this week when I was supervising a hydrotherapy session, and before that – "
The girls were interrupted by a message from the hospital's main reception desk.
"Haruno-sensei? We have a delivery for you. May I send the courier to your office?"
Sakura leaned into her intercom. "Sure Minami-san, thank you."
Ino wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and answered the quiet knock on the door a few minutes later. Sakura signed for the box and waited for the courier to leave before eyeing her package.
She carefully removed the satin ribbon and lifted the lid to find a pile of lightly scented tissue paper secured with an elegant gold sticker bearing a familiar logo.
'Six Senses Lingerie'
"Look at that, Forehead... niiiice!"
Sakura pursed her lips, but couldn't hide her excitement as she carefully removed the gold sticker and sifted through the tissue paper…
Only to gape at the gifts she found underneath.
When Sasuke reached the hospital, he immediately sensed his girlfriend's chakra fluctuating abnormally.
He knew she couldn't be in the middle of surgery. No matter how difficult a procedure was, Sakura was a seasoned professional – the best of the best. Even in the throes of combat, she wasn't one to let her immaculate control falter.
In fact, it took a lot for her chakra to pulse erratically like this.
Ironically, she only ever got this way when she was sad, or distressed… like when she watched those dumb soap operas on television, or cried while reading her stupid romance novels.
What the hell…
As soon as he reached the floor of her office, he caught a glimpse of her sprinting towards the nearest elevator. They made eye contact for a split second as she brushed away a tear and jammed the elevator buttons to close the door on him as quickly as possible.
Why was she trying to get away from him?
Sasuke didn't know what was going on, but his confusion devolved into a sense of dread at the sight of Ino stomping out of Sakura's office.
When she noticed him in the hallway, she pointed an accusatory finger at him with one hand, while fisting her hip with the other.
"You're a real piece of work, you know that? What were you thinking, dumbass?!"
Sasuke blinked hard before finding his voice. "What are you screeching about?"
"Oh please. Don't act like you don't know! Would it kill you to act like a normal boyfriend for once?! And treat her to a little bit of romance? Of all the things you could have gotten her… Of all the things you could have written!"
Sasuke tried to appear unaffected, but it was difficult when such a loud and nasty troll was wagging her finger in his face.
He clenched his jaw and swiftly moved around her. It only took three long strides down the hallway to reach his destination. As soon as he stepped inside Sakura's office, he was assaulted with the sight of endless white flower arrangements, to his immediate irritation.
These fucking fanboys… always with the flowers, and the cards, and the –
His internal tirade was interrupted at the sight of an opened white box on Sakura's desk. He leaned over and sifted through the mess of perfumed tissue paper when he noticed the gold sticker.
Six Senses Lingerie… This was it.
Did she not like it? What was the problem?
Sasuke rubbed the back of his neck as he wondered what he could have possibly done wrong this time, when he noticed a small glint of metal peeking out from one corner of the box.
Curious, he picked up what looked like a chain and realized that it was snagged onto some sort of… netting.
What?
He picked up the mysterious chain and the netting it was attached to, and immediately felt all of the blood drain from his face.
Upon closer inspection, what he'd lifted from the box was a pair of raunchy, crotchless white fishnet stockings along with a matching cupless underwire bustier that was clearly several sizes too large for Sakura's 32C bust.
And if that wasn't bad enough – the pieces came with two white tasseled nipple clamps attached to a metal choke chain.
Sasuke's shaking hands stilled at the sight of a small open envelope next to the box. He snatched the card and read the message with trepidation and horror.
Hey Baby,
You're definitely my main bitch.
xoxo, S
LATER THAT NIGHT…
Itachi felt a strong gloved hand on his shoulder.
"Well, if it isn't the man of the hour. Shouldn't you be looking a little more enthused, Fukucho–sama?"
The Uchiha heir looked up to find the imposing form of none other than Hatake Kakashi. The older jounin looked at him with a droll smirk, before pouring him a shot of whiskey.
"Thank you for coming, Taichou. I know this must be a significant imposition of your time."
Kakashi grimaced. "Mah, someone had to drag those two along." He gestured at a table behind him, where a confused looking Naruto and a clearly agitated Sasuke were deep in the throes of a heated conversation.
"And what did I say about calling me that? I haven't been your Taichou in ages; it makes me feel old."
Itachi lightly huffed as he rotated his glass between his thumb and middle finger. "If I don't get to call you Taichou, you certainly don't get to refer to me as Fukucho-sama."
Kakashi arched a silver brow before shrugging. "Fair enough."
As the men clinked their glasses, the Copy Ninja took his alcohol in a single shot, while Itachi opted to sip his poison slowly. Mercifully, Kakashi didn't give him a hard time about it and peered out into the crowded bar instead.
"Why do I get the sense that this was really planned to be more of a fun little diversion for Shisui than your actual bachelor party?"
Itachi curled his lip and moved to pour his former captain another shot in lieu of responding verbally.
Sitting at this familiar bar with Kakashi brought back old memories for the Uchiha heir. He remembered having his very first drink here with Team Ro, and the many nights they'd spent crouched over these well-worn tables in silence… trying to shed the aftershocks of their bloody missions with every shot of liquor they pounded.
In many ways, Itachi was grateful to the man sitting beside him: for having his back and believing in him despite his young age; for always reminding him that despite the violence they carried out for the sake of the village, there was intrinsic value in holding onto one's humanity... and never forgetting that one always had choices; that it was imperative to look underneath the underneath...
And that no comrade, under any circumstances, should be abandoned or left to struggle with something all alone.
Itachi valued Kakashi's unapologetic honesty. He knew that the older man spoke from his own tragic experiences, and always emphasized that while isolation might seem like the easier path -it was never the right one.
The Uchiha heir thought back to the clandestine missions he was assigned during his early days in ANBU; how he was just a child when he first joined. He recalled how the abject brutality of his life as a shinobi could have warped his fragile psyche and twisted his impressionable mind into something dark and unsalvageable… had it not been for the friendship, guidance and stabilizing influence of Shisui and the silver haired nin sitting beside him.
As if reading his thoughts, Kakashi gave Itachi's shoulder a firm, reassuring squeeze.
The young Vice-Commander looked to his former Taichou with rare familiarity. "You know, Senpai… I could not have imagined entrusting Sasuke to anyone else."
Kakashi snorted. "Funny you say that, when he's been walking around with a busted face for the better part of the week."
If Itachi was any other man, he would have laughed. He remembered seeing a very panicked Sasuke in his room earlier that evening, clutching his hair in a death grip whilst mumbling something incoherent about a White Day gift gone horribly wrong.
Both men exhaled deep sighs. It seemed Sasuke was genuinely in dire straits with his female teammate, and they wondered how he planned on getting out of it this time.
Towards the end of the night, after Itachi had taken the time to greet every friend and colleague that came to his bachelor party – he, Kakashi and Shisui finally headed to the back table where Sasuke and Naruto were drinking themselves into oblivion.
"Ne neeeeeee Itachi-nii… Congratulations on your wedding and all… but Hinata-chyaaaan is the prettiest girl in the world! She looks just like Princess Gale dattebayo!"
The older nin smirked at Naruto's slurred but enthusiastic gushing over the shy Hinata, while Sasuke shot his best friend a thinly veiled look of disgust.
The idiot was always blabbing about his girlfriend in public. Didn't he know how unseemly that was? Nobody needed to hear that sappy shit.
"I knit Hinata-chan a scarf for White Day and she was so happy she cried! I also got her a gift card to Ichiraku, the best ramen-ya in the world!"
Kakashi thoughtfully scratched his masked chin. "Oh? I didn't know you could knit, Naruto."
"Sakura-chan helped me! And she fixed my face!"
Sasuke wanted to chidori himself in the head. Noticing his baby cousin's despair at the mention of his estranged girlfriend, Shisui decided to give him a break for once and quickly shifted the conversation.
"Whatever, blondie. My White Day gift would've topped yours for sure, if that stupid store hadn't fucked up my order."
"Ehhh? What happened, Shisui-nii?"
"I ordered my girl some hella freaky crazy hot shit from their catalog, but they sent her this boring teddy thing instead." Shisui rolled his eyes before downing another shot. "Still sexy, I guess, but definitely not as exciting as the stuff I picked. I called the store to complain, and apparently they had multiple orders under the name 'Uchiha-san' so the shop mixed them up. It's some fancy place, too. What the fuck, man."
Sasuke's tired eyes suddenly shot open at hearing his cousin's story.
Shisui ordered some "hella freaky crazy hot shit"… but the shop mixed up his order and delivered a teddy instead?
"WHERE."
All eyes turned to Sasuke, and his one-word demand. "WHERE, Shisui."
"Where what?"
"WHICH STORE are you talking about," Sasuke tried to keep his voice level, but between the alcohol coursing through his veins and the mass panic solidifying in his gut - he couldn't help gritting the words through his teeth.
"Six – uh… six something?" Shisui's own inebriated state didn't help, but Sasuke heard enough.
"Six Senses?"
"Yeah! That's it, the lingerie place." He winked suggestively at Itachi, who palmed a hand over his face as he quickly pieced together what happened.
Naruto blinked hard once, twice, and then again for a third time. Clearly still confused, he was trying to figure out what was going on when his best friend suddenly lunged over the table towards his older cousin with a fierce growl.
Both of Sasuke's hands clutched the high collar of Shisui's shirt with a vengeance.
"Shisui… you fucking… How could… and – YOU… the CARD – !"
Kakashi clucked his tongue before turning a detached gaze towards his former kouhai. "Shisui, what exactly did you order from this store?"
As Shisui enthusiastically described the items he purchased and the 'affectionate' card he included "because I'm good like that", the men of Team 7 and the groom-to-be sat in stunned silence.
"You called your girl your main bitch?!" Naruto's eyes bugged out of his head and his mouth fell open at hearing what Shisui wrote in his card.
He'd been thoroughly educated in the strict rules of what men were and were NOT permitted to call women by his female teammate, and he was pretty sure calling any woman your 'bitch' was a reliable way of ensuring one's swift (and painful) demise.
Did Shisui-nii have a death wish?!
Itachi turned to his heaving brother. "If there was a card included in the box, then surely Sakura-san would know that this... gift, was not from you."
Sasuke turned to his Nii-san with wild eyes. "The card was signed "xoxo, S".
All of the color drained from Naruto's face as he finally understood the implications of this mess. He turned to his best friend with a bleak expression and whispered,
"Teme… Sakura-chan's gonna KILL you."
Given that Kakashi took it upon himself to haul a blacked out Naruto back to his apartment, Itachi and Shisui found themselves carrying a very drunk Sasuke out of the bar.
"Ne, Itachi. When did our chibi grouch get so big? I don't remember him being so tall and heavy."
Itachi smiled wryly over Sasuke's shock of hair sticking out all over the place.
"Oba-chan's gonna flip if she sees him like this. We gotta sober him up first." Shisui stopped in the middle of the road and cocked his head towards a narrow alley. "Yamashiro's?"
Itachi nodded and they moved in the direction of the late night izakaya.
Immediately recognizing their illustrious Fukucho-sama, the hostess seated them in a small corner room separated from the main floor by a shoji to afford them a bit more privacy.
When they finally got Sasuke situated, Shisui muttered, "I knew we should've gone to a strip club instead."
He huffed at Itachi's sharp eyes.
"What? Excuse me for wishing I was in the company of a beautiful woman instead of lugging this lump around." He jabbed a finger at Sasuke's cheek.
"I mean seriously, who knew? I've seen little pinky hot stuff skip through the gates with him slumped over her shoulder like it was nothing."
"S'not… pinky."
The cousins looked over at a heavily inebriated Sasuke, who was trying his best to glare at them through half lidded eyes.
"What?"
"Name's not 'pinky'… it's SAKURA, and she's my girlfriend."
Shisui gave Itachi a knowing smirk. "Is that so?"
"Yes, it IS. And don't talk about her like she's just another pretty girl with a tight ass."
Shisui bit his cheek, trying hard to keep a straight face despite his baby cousin's heavy slurring.
"Oh? What is she, then?"
Sasuke straightened his back as best he could and gripped the edge of the table. "She's - the chief surgeon at… Konoha General, and… and –"
The young jounin slumped back onto his heels and cradled his pounding head. "… and she – and… I… I don't – "
Itachi took a long look at his little brother's tortured expression, and caved. He placed a comforting hand over his otouto's back, much like he used to do when he was little. He spoke in a gentle tone, but immediately cut to the chase.
"What do you want from her, Sasuke?"
His otouto looked up at him with bleary eyes, but didn't hesitate to answer.
"Everything, Nii-san. I want… everything."
The older nin at the table were momentarily stunned, but not at all surprised by Sasuke's slurred confession.
"But it doesn't matter now… she - she's gonna leave."
Itachi raised a brow at Shisui, who just shrugged in response. "What makes you think that?"
"I'm a shit boyfriend… and Mad'ra… dances with her."
Shisui raised a brow, amused by this stilted rationale. "Uhhh, so what? Madara's fucking old, kid. He's gonna kick the bucket, like… any day now."
"S'not about him," Sasuke growled in frustration. "It's just - now she's... gonna leave and find someone to…"
Sasuke looked pained as he struggled to speak, "– to dance with, and picnic with and… and – all that other shit girls want."
The youngest Uchiha grumbled, stifling his words with a palm over his face.
Itachi heaved a deep sigh. "Foolish otouto…" He took hold of Sasuke's wrist and pulled his hand away. "Do you really have so little faith in your bond with Sakura-san?"
"Yeah, use your head, doofus. We're talking about the Hokage's apprentice. She can have anyone. Don't you think she would've dumped you by now if she really wanted all that other shit?"
Itachi narrowed his eyes at their cousin. He was starting to get a better sense of where Sasuke's insecurities about his relationship may have come from.
The youngest Uchiha had a look of defeat that neither of them had seen before. "Said so herself… she's dis'ppointed in me and... I fucked up her gift…"
Sasuke recalled the last time he saw Sakura - the hurt in her eyes because of that disastrous White Day gift and even worse card; the tear that she hastily wiped from her cheek as she closed the elevator doors on him…
His heart clenched just thinking about it.
"That unfortunate blunder surrounding your gift was the result of an error that you had no control over, and it wasn't Shisui's fault, either. It is only one White Day, Sasuke. Just one of many holidays that you and Sakura-san have shared over the years."
Itachi refilled Sasuke's water glass and poured him another cup of tea as well.
"I recall, a very brave little Haruno Sakura about this tall," Itachi leveled his hand a few feet off the ground, "…who came to the compound all by herself one Valentine's Day many years ago."
Shisui snickered remembering a tiny six year old Sakura standing squarely in front of the compound guards. He pitched his voice comically high to try and sound like a little girl.
"Konichiwa, Guard-san. My name is Haruno Sakura, and I am here to deliver something to Sasuke-kun!"
Itachi couldn't help smiling at Shisui's ridiculous impersonation and turned to Sasuke once more.
"Did you ever wonder, otouto, how intimidating it must have been for such a small, civilian child to approach the gates of our clan district all by herself, and seek an audience at the main house? Yet, she did so, for you."
Sasuke said nothing, but the softening of his expression prompted Itachi to continue.
"She walked all the way to the opposite end of the village to deliver a small tomato plant. She was the only one of your classmates who not only bothered to learn what you disliked, but took the time to learn what you favored the most. Sakura-san politely knocked on our door and asked me to give you the plant as her Valentine's Day gift.
She asked me to let you know that she loved you with all her heart, and even if you did not return her feelings, that it was alright. She only hoped that you would nurture her gift and enjoy its fruits, the same way she hoped to nurture your friendship."
Shisui thoughtfully chewed on a toothpick before giving Sasuke a wry look.
"Oba-chan said you refused to say thank you for the plant. She also said you threw the White Day gift for Sakura-chan that she prepared for you in the trash. But for whatever weird reason, none of that changed her mind."
Itachi rubbed his tired eyes with his thumb and index finger. "What Shisui is trying to say, is – despite the past hurts you may have caused, Sakura-san has never wavered in her devotion. She has only ever wanted for your happiness, and has always been attuned to your every need."
The Uchiha heir lowered his tea cup. "So the question is, otouto – what makes you think such a tried and true attachment forged through over a decade of shared history could be so easily swayed?"
Sasuke peered down at his glass of water and let his brother's words seep in.
Itachi was right. When had Sakura ever wavered in her love for him and their team? Hers was a selfless kind of all-encompassing devotion, like the way his mother loved their family.
He suddenly felt a firm grip on his shoulder, and was surprised to find Shisui looking at him with an affectionate smile devoid of its usual teasing.
"You know what would happen if I ever met a smart, compassionate, beautiful woman who'd give her life for me without a second thought?"
Sasuke froze as all the air left his lungs.
Shisui chuckled softly before taking a sip of tea. "I'd marry her, Sasuke… in a heartbeat. And spend every waking moment of my life trying my best to be worthy of her."
A/N: It's not White Day, but it is Sakura's birthday! Happy Birthday to our cherry blossom Queen! :DDD Also, I wanted to share that ever since I read Kuriquinn's "The Girl Who Waited" - I've adopted the headcanon that Sakura gave Sasuke a tomato plant as a child for Valentines Day, so that's where the idea came from! :D (If you haven't read The Girl Who Waited yet - PLEEEEEEEASE give it a read as soon as you can!)
And finally, as always: Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to everyone who took the time to write a review on the last chapter. I am always thrilled and grateful to hear from my beloved regular readers, new readers and Guests alike. I don't write for myself, and your feedback is what motivates me to try and get out new chapters as soon as I can.
For everyone else: if you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know through your reviews! Kindly remember that clicking a favorite and/or follow button is no substitute for leaving feedback. Thank you for your understanding, and I hope to hear from more of you in the future! (P.S. if you're on tumblr, I hope you'll swing by and say hello! I'm birkastan2018 over there as well~ :D)