Chapter 14

The Truth

After Kisame left them and the weather cleared, the party of two continued on their journey towards the village, where their target was supposedly located. They traveled mostly in silence much to Itachi's enjoyment, neither wanting to ruin the peaceful atmosphere between them.

Sakura commented on some random things every once in a while: how glad she was that it wasn't raining anymore and how good the forest smelled after the rain.

Itachi didn't mind and hummed at whatever she said, her easy to pleasure nature was very pleasing to him.

"If we run for a bit, we should reach the village before it gets too dark," Sakura murmured in thought and looked up at him in question. Itachi glanced down and nodded. He wanted to spend the night under a roof as the weather seemed to change rather rapidly, if the earlier rain storm was any indication.

"Hn," he grunted, making Sakura giggle at his short reply and set an easy pace for them to travel.

"You know, that grunt you do reminds me a lot of my old teammate. It was so hard to get a sentence out of him, but now that I think about it, it seems kind of funny," Sakura said, lost in the early memories of Team 7. If Sakura had been looking, she would've seen how Itachi almost tripped.

"Is that so?" Tachi asked after clearing his throat.

"Hmm, Naruto and I tried so many times to get him to talk more; we had little success, but he did open up somewhat towards the end," Sakura said.

"May I ask what happened?" Itachi had to act like he didn't know about his brother, as far as Sakura knew, he had been on a long mission away from Konoha. He noticed that it was a difficult subject for the pinkette, but time seemed to have helped with the pain of his brother's betrayal.

"He left, just like that, to gain power to defeat his brother," Sakura said, clearly the memory still left a bitter taste in her mouth. He had been shocked to learn of his brother's move himself, he didn't expect Sasuke to leave his home village to gain powers like he had.

"I... haven't told this anyone, but since Tsunade-sama had been, apparently, grooming me as her follower, which I was NOT aware by the way, and TOTALLY not happy about… I have access to some of the scrolls that are not supposed to be seen by anyone's eyes," Sakura started, somewhat skeptical about revealing this to anyone, but it has been bothering her for some time now.

"I was cleaning some important scrolls in the lower parts of the storage rooms, in the area where very few have access to and on accident bumped into one of the shelves. I was just going to clean them away, afraid that someone might see me going over them, but the Third Hokage's seal captured my eye," Sakura told as they walked onwards. Itachi was, at this point, almost afraid to interrupt her, wanting to hear what she had found out.

"The Uchiha had been planning a coup," Sakura said bluntly, making Itachi freeze. Sakura didn't notice, she was in too deep in her thoughts.

"I had to place the scrolls back in their place when I heard someone entering. But afterwards at home, I went over the dates that I managed to see and they fit perfectly before the massacre," Sakura mumbled, Itachi saw that she had been thinking about this for some time now, he could see she was relieved to get it out of her mind.

"It was no simple massacre, they made a child kill his own family! Just because they didn't know how to clean up their own mess!" Sakura fumed, angry tears shining in her eyes. Her sympathy for the young boy, who lost it all in one night almost overwhelming her motherly nature.

Itachi was speechless, how had she figured it out? Just like that? It had been years and no one was none the wiser and she had figured it all out in one day's time? It was almost downright ridiculous! He was glad it was him who she told this, anyone else and in the worst case, she'd be executed in the spot if the Elders found out.

"Tachi?" Sakura asked, apparently he had stopped their somewhat speedy traveling in his shocked state.

"Sakura, who else have you told?" Tachi asked and took a firm grip on her shoulders, making her look into his eyes. To her, he sounded like he was almost panicking.

"N-no one!" Sakura said, alarmed on how strongly the usually calm man reacted. The angry tears from earlier sliding down her somewhat pale cheeks. Itachi reached his thumbs up to swipe them away, feeling touched that she would shed tears for his ruined childhood.

He placed his hands back in her shoulders after her face was dry from tears.

"Never tell this to anyone in your village, if the Elders find out that you know…" he let it hang, but Sakura got the idea. This was a carefully kept secret and for a reason.

"My… village? What do you mean?" Sakura asked, not missing the fact that he said hers, not theirs.

"Sakura, promise me," he said firmly, not caring about his slip up in the slightest at that moment. Her safety being the priority in his mind. He only relaxed when Sakura nodded her head, her eyes told him that she understood how important this was.

Only then did he loosen his hold on her shoulders.

"Never let them see that they get to you," he whispered and turned around to continue on their way.

Sakura wondered why he never answered her question.

…

Beta Notes:

Hajimemashite minna-san! (I'm taking a Japanese class so I'm just excited to be able to use what I learned for once hehe) I'm so excited to finally be able to read (and help edit) Courtship. It's been a while. Hopefully you've all been well. Itachi slipped up a bit there, oops! Can't wait to see where this leads!

-Nicole

Hey you all dear readers of mine! (Don't kill me!)

It's so good to be back! I know you have waited forever for this chapter and I'm sorry for that.

As some of you know, I had to have my arm operated twice, so I was in no condition to write in these past… few months? I'm a horrible person!

Please be patient with me!

P.S I apologize for any writing errors, it's been a while since I could last write…

And as always, thank you for reading and have a nice day!

R&R

TY

-Hana