A/N: I have 14 chapters ready for this story. I don't know how long the story is going to become, though. I'll put up the chapters as and when I review them again.

Also, this chapter is focused on establishing the dynamics between Sakura and Itachi, hence the name. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 3- Itachi

A series of loud knocks at her door has Sakura shooting up in bed. She groggily checks the time and the clock blinks back 7.30 AM.

Muttering curses, she gets out of bed. Her head is heavy, her clothes are disheveled, and she is ready to kill someone. Sometime during the night, Sakura had woken up to pee and ended up brushing her teeth and changing into more comfortable clothes before going back to sleep.

She opens the door to reveal a smirking Itachi, holding up a mug of coffee. He's wearing a plain blue T-shirt and comfortable pants.

"I thought I would do the neighbourly stuff Sasuke keeps badgering me about," he drawls and smirks wider.

"Can you not do it on some other day?" she asks, annoyed and tired and sleepy. "Besides, if you're here for milk, you know that I still haven't bought any."

"I know," he says. "I thought a black cup might be beneficial for you, so don't worry about the milk. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Sakura steps aside. "You're a real pain in the ass."

"Thank you," he says warmly, moving towards her breakfast table. "Nice place," he comments.

It doesn't have anything other than the necessary furnishings, which is why she knows that he's just making another jab at her.

"Thanks," she says sweetly. "I prefer minimalism."

"If minimalism means that you don't have time to buy anything in your life, sure, let's go with that," he replies smoothly as he takes a seat.

Sakura sighs. "Don't you have anyone else to piss off this early in the morning?" She decides to make a cup of black coffee, since he's here and everything, and it really might help with her hangover.

"Sasuke is still asleep," Itachi says. "It's a Sunday." He shrugs as if that explains everything.

"Why aren't you?" she grumbles.

"I'm being neighbourly."

"Yeah, right." Sakura wants to point out that being neighbourly also entails letting the neighbours sleep after a night of drinking, exhaustion, and never to wake them up at the ass crack of dawn on off days.

She holds her tongue and takes a seat beside him.

"I have to go into work later," she informs him. Granted, she still has some time to take another nap, but he doesn't need to know that.

Itachi looks surprised. "Why? You already lived in the hospital for three days."

She shrugs. "I had to because three of the patients had post-op complications and needed second surgeries. I need to check on them again, and a few others who want to get discharged as soon as possible."

He nods thoughtfully.

"Seriously, why are you up?" Sakura asks him again. She remembers Itachi drinking at least three servings of his Cuba Libre last night.

"I don't take offs," he admits. "Sasuke is an employee, so he gets his designated holidays. I don't really have those."

"But you're the CEO!" she exclaims. "You can take them whenever you want, right?"

He smirks. "Not exactly whenever I want, but yes, I'm allowed designated off days. But as you said, I'm the CEO. It doesn't mean I get to slack, it only means I should be putting in the most work. Besides, I don't mind. The company is fairly new, and I need to keep up my game if I have to carve out a niche for good. If I slack now just because the company is doing well, I'll lose it before it even has a proper chance to flourish."

Silence.

"You're a workaholic."

Silence.

"So are you," he finally says.

She chuckles weakly. "I guess."

They sit in another bout of silence for a bit.

"Did you come over just to annoy me?"

Itachi smirks again. "Why do you think the previous neighbour left?"

She laughs. "I totally believe you."

Itachi leaves after half an hour or so. They talk a bit about their work in detail. Itachi tells her about some of his employees and Sakura fills in on some of the unforgettable patients she'd had to deal with in her life – without names, of course. Overall, it's a time well spent despite Sasuke not being present to interject them or reprimand them on their snarky comments towards each other.

She takes another nap after he leaves. The coffee might have helped with the hangover, but it didn't help with the lack of sleep. Sakura goes into work later that day with a fresh mind, ready to tackle the day with new vigour, the past three days' exhaustion having been dealt with. Probably.

xXx

"How was the get together?" Ino asks her during their dinner break. She's on-call for the night like Sakura.

"Good, actually. I had fun," Sakura says honestly.

"Details, girl!" Ino points her spoon at her threateningly.

Sakura rolls her eyes and tells her about the three friends, that they had drinks and pizza, before calling it a night. Ino already knows about Sasuke and Itachi, and she keeps insisting that Sakura should ask out Sasuke. He's clearly a decent man and since his relationship status hasn't been brought up, he is most likely single.

"On second thought," Ino says, "this Naruto guy sounds like fun, too. Is he single?"

Sakura shrugs. "No clue. Although, I think he might be, because Sasuke complained about Naruto talking about his exes. Apparently, it's quite a regular occurrence."

"A man who's been around," Ino smiles like a Cheshire cat. "I like that."

"I'm not introducing you two," Sakura declares firmly.

"Why not?" she complains, her smile melting away instantly.

"I don't think it's a good idea. Ino, you want flings. I'm not setting you up with my neighbour's best friend. If something goes wrong between you two, it might make things awkward for me."

Ino waves her arm dismissively. "Fine, fine. At least introduce me to your neighbours!" Upon Sakura's glare, she hurries to explain. "Not like a set-up. Geez. Relax. I mean a casual introduction. Friendly."

"Let's see," Sakura says vaguely. She likes Ino, she really does. Ino has been her only friend since they began their internship in the hospital, but Sakura still hasn't adjusted to her friend's way of living. To introduce her to Sasuke and Itachi surely would mean some intention of sexual encounter from Ino's side, no matter how much she denies it.

It's hard enough to maintain a social life with her work schedule, and she can't exactly afford losing any part of it. She's already grateful that her neighbours are people she can try and build friendly relations with, she's not going to mess it up because of the only hospital friend she has.

Sakura's rest of the social circle includes her high school friends that she's barely in touch with anymore. To be honest, calling them "friends" would be the overstatement of the century. Only two friends from her pre-med years keep in regular touch with her but both of them are doing their residency years in different cities.

That's about it. Her pitiful social life. She doesn't regret it, much, she supposes. She's happy with her work and tries to become better in it as much as she can. If she has to sacrifice some things for it, then so be it.

xXx

Sakura drags her feet out of the elevator and knocks on 10A.

"Coffee," she mumbles as soon as the door opens.

Sasuke snickers at her and moves aside to let her in. Sakura drops down on the couch and snuggles in. She removes her sandals and pulls her feet up, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

She hears Sasuke making her a fresh cup. She almost nods off when she hears Itachi's door open and close softly.

"What's wrong with her?" he asks from somewhere.

"Jus' came back," Sakura mumbles.

She feels the dip of sofa to her right and Itachi starts prodding her shoulder. "Are you going to faint?"

"Shut up," she says but there's no heat behind the words at all. They sound pathetic and sad.

He keeps prodding. Annoyed, Sakura grabs his finger and snarls another "stop it" that only makes him smirk.

"You're alive."

"Whatever," she says absently. Her eyes are closing.

She doesn't know what really happens next, but someone is shaking her awake.

"Sakura."

Sakura opens her eyes and realises that she fell asleep on Itachi's shoulder at some point. Sasuke is hovering above her with her mug of coffee.

"Sorry," she starts to get up but Itachi has his hand around her somehow and stops her from moving.

"We're going to your place. You need to sleep," he decides.

He moves his hand to support her back instead and they get up together, with Sasuke quickly moving out of the way. Itachi wraps his hand around her waist to keep her from falling and they slowly walk to the door, across the hall, to her apartment. She digs out her key from the purse successfully, Itachi opens the door for her, and accompanies her to her bedroom.

Sakura lets go of him once the bed is in view and promptly plops face down on it.

"You're such a slob," she hears Itachi complain.

Her bedroom is rather messy. She needs to do laundry very soon. She remembers not closing her wardrobe yesterday and the way her clothes were strewn about the room.

"Do I look like I care, genius?" Sakura manages to growl.

"It's a surprise the previous landlord wanted you out," he says sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want someone who doesn't even stay at home much, probably doesn't bother with any maintenance, and is rude to a boot."

"He got his rent," she reminds him tiredly.

He sighs heavily as if her tardiness is somehow personally offensive to him. She can almost hear his eyes rolling.

"Sorry, you're simply a delight, in that case," he says flatly.

"See? There you go," she mumbles, almost asleep. "Now go away."

"Thank you, Itachi, for bringing me over. And sorry that I came to your flat to pass out rather than mine."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll buy dinner tonight."

A moment of silence. "Fine."

The door to her bedroom shuts after a moment and Sakura is finally free to pass the hell out. The last thought before she sleeps is how she needs to stop passing out.

xXx

When she wakes up, it's already six thirty in the evening. She doesn't need to go to work until next morning. She takes a much-needed shower, and digs out comfortable pants and a shirt from the wardrobe, before making her way to 10A.

It's Itachi who opens the door this time, still wearing his work attire. It's a dark grey button down shirt tucked in light beige pants, and hair tied in a bun.

"I promised dinner," she greets him.

He smirks and lets her in.

"Where's Sasuke?" she asks, noticing the younger brother's absence immediately. Odd, since the CEO is home, you'd think the employees would be home, as well.

"Out with Naruto," he says and goes to stand near one of the work desks in the living area. The laptop is open and she can see something that looks like a bar graph from her place on the couch.

"I didn't know you were working," she apologizes. "Should I leave?"

"I'm always working."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "What do you wanna eat then?"

They settle on Chinese. Sakura orders the food while Itachi goes to take a shower and change out of his work clothes. Apparently, he'd only come home himself and sat on his laptop to clarify something that couldn't wait until after his shower.

Without anything else to do, Sakura wanders around the living area and ends up at Itachi's laptop to peer at the screen.

It is a bar graph detailing concepts from economics that she never bothered to learn. The screen suddenly goes black for a moment before the screensaver comes to life. It's a rather cute photo of Itachi and Sasuke from this apartment itself. They're wearing T-shirt and jeans and sitting on the couch side by side; Itachi has Sasuke in a playful headlock. They're both laughing into the camera.

Itachi's door opens behind her.

"Are you spying?" She turns to face him. He's wearing comfortable black pants and a plain red T-shirt. His hair is wet and he's left it open to air dry. Sakura realises that Itachi's hair is actually quite long, almost to his mid-back. It suits him somehow.

Sakura snorts in response to his question. "Hardly. I was checking out the diagram but it went over my head, and then the screensaver came up. It's a nice photo. When was it taken?"

Itachi sees what she's pointing at. "Ah, Naruto took that photo. I don't really remember what was happening. We'd actually just moved to this place."

"Where did you guys live before this?"

Itachi plops down on the couch. Sakura stays standing by the desk.

"Well, Sasuke was still in college, so he stayed in the dorms for all the years. Meanwhile, I was renting out an apartment with Shikamaru after we graduated. But that lasted for only three years until my brother's graduation and we moved here. Now, Shikamaru stays with his girlfriend."

Sakura's hand almost slips off the desk in shock. "He has a girlfriend?"

Itachi is thoroughly amused by her reaction. "Yeah, they met when we were in college. She works as a chef in this restaurant called Alessandro down by Jiji Street."

"Wow," Sakura mumbles in astonishment. "Never took him for a relationship kinda guy, let alone with a live-in girlfriend."

Itachi grins. "Yeah, he isn't exactly talkative."

"It's not that," Sakura protests. "I mean, that, too, I guess. Communication is the key and all that." Itachi laughs. "But he doesn't seem interested in anything at all," Sakura continues. "I'm surprised he was interested in another living person, you know?"

He continues to laugh. "Believe me, I was just as surprised when he told me that he likes Temari. I'd seen her a few times around the campus by then, and couldn't, for the life of me, understand how that happened."

"Aren't you supposed to be a genius?" Sakura teases him light-heartedly. "Hey, which reminds me. I wanted to ask why you didn't go for the fast forward programmes to graduate early."

Itachi sobers up enough to talk properly again. "My father wanted that, actually," he admits. "He even wanted me to graduate high school early on. But my mother put her foot down. She insisted that I should be brought up like any other kid, with all the delightful experiences that came with it."

"Do you regret it? I mean, graduating the traditional way."

Itachi gives a one-shouldered shrug. "I don't know. I can understand my mother's point of view just as much as my father's. Both had it right in their own way, I suppose. If I had decided to graduate early, I might have turned out differently. But it's a case of 'what if' and there's really no point in dwelling on it. It is what it is."

Sakura hms under her breath. Itachi seems to be handling things rather well. He can be arrogant and condescending, but she supposes that there might be merit to it at some point. Not to mention, he's clearly good at what he does.

"What about you?" he asks her. "Why did you become a doctor, anyway?"

Sakura bites her lower lip before letting it go. "Honestly, I was told that I'd be a good doctor. I didn't come up with it myself."

Itachi is highly intrigued. "Really? Who was it?"

Sakura shrugs self-consciously. She hasn't really delved into these details with her neighbours yet, so she isn't sure how it'll be received – considering that it's also Itachi who is … well, Itachi.

"Well," she drags out. "Kakashi. My father. He's actually very good at figuring out people fairly quickly and he told me that I'd be a great doctor when I was eight years old and nursed an injured bird back to health. And it worked out well for me."

"He sounds like a nice man," Itachi says politely. "What about your mother?"

There's a brief pause. "Actually, Kakashi isn't married. He's my foster father."

Instead of looking away in embarrassment, Itachi holds her gaze steadily. "What happened to your parents?"

Sakura sucks in a sharp breath. No one really asks her such questions, wanting to avoid a sore topic. She gets it, obviously. Nobody wants to talk about awkward things. Except Itachi, it seems.

He's already called her out on almost everything that he knows about her; it shouldn't really be a surprise that he's digging into her personal life unapologetically.

"I don't know," she answers him honestly. "Kakashi found me near a dumpster when I was two. He applied for adoption immediately. He said that I was the best thing that happened to him because when he found me and took me home to his girlfriend, Rin walked out of his life, not wanting the responsibility of a baby. They were only twenty years old, he said. But it opened his eyes that his girlfriend was a huge bitch."

Itachi laughs loudly and Sakura grins. "He really said that?"

She giggles at the memory, feeling a flood of affection for Kakashi. "Yeah, he really did. Kakashi's best friend, Uncle Obito, was actually head over heels for Rin. But Rin wanted to be with Kakashi and Kakashi only agreed to go out because Uncle Obito said that it was okay, and Kakashi didn't really understand at that point what liking someone actually means. And then when Rin walked out, Uncle Obito also realised that maybe she wasn't the right person to love." Sakura shrugs. "So Uncle Obito and Kakashi raised me together."

"They sound like a badass pair," Itachi comments. "I can imagine it right now. Two twenty year old clueless men trying to shut up a weird-haired crying baby."

"Hey," Sakura protests even as she laughs. "My hair is not weird."

Itachi stares at her incredulously. "You know your hair looks pink, right?"

Sakura touches her head self-consciously. "Yeah, yeah. It's supposed to be strawberry blonde."

"With the blonde part forgotten? Sure."

"Whatever," Sakura dismisses him. "What about your parents, anyway?"

The doorbell rings. Itachi puts up a finger and starts to move. "Hold that thought."

Sakura gestures him to sit back down. "I said it's on me."

Itachi pauses, thinks for a second, then sits back down.

Sakura takes the delivery and pays. She'd made it a point earlier to bring her wallet over.

They divide the food between them and decide to sit on the sofa rather than the breakfast stools. Sakura pulls her feet up to sit cross-legged.

"My parents," Itachi begins once they start eating their food, "live in a small town called Konoha. Sasuke and I were born there, in fact, and we graduated high school from Konoha Academy. I moved to the city for college and Sasuke followed later on. Currently, our father is retired, and our mother runs a small bakery. She hates to sit idle. She began the bakery right after she finished high school and it is still as good as it has always been."

"I'm surprised that you're not fat," Sakura comments, picturing miniature Itachi and Sasuke eating their mother's bakery goods every day after school.

"Sasuke and I were quite athletic," he says. "I think the only reason why our father insisted that we participate in sports activities was to make sure we don't risk our health." He snorts. "I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. Sasuke loves this cherry pie that mother bakes and he was quite stubborn. Not to mention, he always dragged Naruto to come over so that he can convince our mother with his charming smiles on our behalf."

Sakura chuckles. "Naruto does have a charming smile."

Itachi nods in agreement. "Have you always been in the city?"

"Yeah," Sakura answers. "I grew up in Doko district. Kakashi still lives there. I moved out when I went to college in Suna. I stayed with one of Kakashi's friends who is a local there. I applied for internships in this city more than anywhere else in the country, and thankfully, got one. I wanted to be near Kakashi as much as possible without actually staying with him. No offense, but he's still a bachelor." She winces at the thought. "And so is Uncle Obito. They're still each other's wingmen and love to bring girls over all the time."

"Uncle Obito stays with Kakashi?"

"Yeah. He moved in when Kakashi adopted me, you know, to help. And I guess it works in their favour, still, because he hasn't moved out since."

Itachi nods thoughtfully. "Maybe they don't even want to date at this point? I mean, the Rin woman seems to have done a number on their relation. Maybe they don't want that happening again."

"Maybe," Sakura allows, keeping to herself the long stares that the two men have shared with each other when they thought no one was noticing.

Sakura grew up learning how sexuality is fluid, how it doesn't matter whether you're straight or gay or bisexual. Despite not being a huge fan of the concept of love himself, Kakashi always told her that you love whom you love, gender or sex doesn't play that big a role in it. It's the person who matters, doll, he'd say, not what they're packing.

Of course, the latter part always managed to ruin the moment, but the message was driven home, nonetheless.

Sasuke finally arrives home when Itachi and Sakura are each having a glass of wine after dinner.

"Hey!" he greets her with a warm smile. "Are you feeling okay? I was really worried today morning."

He drops his bag down on his desk and joins them on the sofa, putting his feet up on the coffee table and snuggling comfortably.

"I'm fine," Sakura says awkwardly. "Sorry to have scared you. I guess I was more tired than I thought."

"I'd say," Sasuke chuckles. "Hey, Itachi, Naruto has this amazing idea for the next campaign. Remind me to tell you tomorrow."

Itachi rolls his eyes. "Remind yourself."

Sasuke tsks in annoyance. "You're not that good of a CEO, you know that? Aren't you supposed to be respectful of your employees?"

Sakura chuckles. "I'd say."

"I have better things to do than reminding you to inform me of an idea that your best friend came up with," Itachi frowns.

"Fine, fine, you asshole," Sasuke concedes rather colourfully. "Anyway, what did you guys do?"

"Dinner," Sakura says.

"She paid for it."

Sasuke groans. "I missed free dinner? And paid for two people, by the way. I don't know why Naruto never pays for anything! It's not like Itachi doesn't give him a salary."

"You seem to have a love-hate relationship with him," Sakura observes. It sure didn't take Sasuke long from praising his friend to cursing him.

"Don't remind me," Itachi mutters, wearing a painful expression. "It's always been the same. It took me a long time when we were kids to actually understand that they were friends. I had assumed that Naruto was his biggest enemy."

Sakura laughs and Sasuke stares at his brother.

"Don't blame me," Sasuke says. "It always took you longer to understand any social relation."

"True," Itachi concedes.

"You should have seen him when we were kids. I had more friends than he did, and I always had to categorize my relations for him to know what was going on."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asks.

"He means," Itachi cuts in before Sasuke can elaborate. "Since the concept of social relations is something that I've always struggled with, I had to keep asking Sasuke which person was his friend, his classmate, his acquaintance, his close friend, his rival, and his enemy. It helped me determine the social boundaries for myself as the brother, and to keep a better eye on him."

Sakura thinks back to yesterday when Itachi came knocking on her door, saying he was doing neighbourly stuff. A vague understanding fills her mind as she realizes why Sasuke is always the one interjecting or guiding or chiding Itachi over his social interactions. It isn't because Sasuke thinks Itachi is being a jerk, it is because Sasuke understands why Itachi would need his interference.

"Is it the same even now?" Sakura asks, utterly intrigued by the two brothers. "Do you still have to categorize everyone?"

"Yes," they both reply at the same time and then exchange smirks.

"Now the categories have broadened," Sasuke explains. "There's employee, employee and friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, friend with benefits, ex, ex who is a friend, ex who is an acquaintance, and so on, and of course," Sasuke pauses to smirk, "not to mention, neighbour."

"Wow," Sakura chuckles weakly. "I'm honestly surprised you even know how to put people in such categories. I only ever had friends and not friends, and family."

"What? No boyfriends?" Sasuke raises his eyebrows.

"I could have a girlfriend?" Sakura suggests lightly.

Sasuke just laughs. "As if. You're straight as an arrow, trust me."

Sakura doesn't know it herself, or maybe she never put a label because Kakashi always said there's no need for any labels anyway.

So she shrugs and doesn't say anything.

"And it's not so difficult," Sasuke continues their earlier train of topic. "Or maybe I learned how to do it because Itachi taught me it over the years."

"It was more for my sake," Itachi says coolly. "Otherwise, I believe we'd have more mishaps such as Naruto's."

"Definitely," Sasuke chuckles. "It's fun, though," he tells Sakura. "It helps me to maintain my boundaries, too."

"I suppose," Sakura agrees tentatively. She can see how it would benefit both of them, and then wonders what it would take Sasuke to categorise her as "neighbour and friend" for Itachi's benefit.

The thought does help because she realises that she honestly wouldn't mind being friends with the two of them.

A/N: Itachi's need to categorize everyone is actually legit. I have to do the same in my life, otherwise it becomes difficult to interact appropriately. It's not a big hindrance in life, but it exists, and it sometimes makes socializing harder than it is supposed to be. I don't always easily understand social cues because of it. Even today, I make it a point to keep updating myself on my friends' social lives at regular intervals – their friends, close friends, co-workers they like, co-workers they dislike, co-workers they are confused about, etc. I don't know if this is strange to hear since I don't really know anyone else who does the same as explicitly as I need to.

Also, I don't like canon-Rin at all. Just my opinion.

Would love to hear your reviews on the chapter! :)