She woke up screaming. Itachi jumped up from the chair he had been sleeping on beside her bed and tried to catch her flailing arms as Shisui and Obito crashed through the door to her room.
"Nightmare Sakura, you were having a nightmare. I'm here, I'm right here, you're safe." Itachi was sitting on her bed holding her to him, her head on his shoulder, her arms around his waist clinging to him shaking. His grip around her tightened as she cried, anger cut across his face. He was going to make Sasori pay for this.
Obito and Shisui left them alone once they saw she was going to be okay and went back downstairs. Fugaku, Mikoto and Madara had just shown up a little while ago and they were going over the painting and the note Sasori had left Sakura.
The note read: My Living Doll, you are a masterpiece. I will come to claim you soon. Until then keep this, a token, a promise. It is fate.
-There was a lock of bright red hair in the envelope folded in with the letter, tied with red and pink thread.
Downstairs….
"Itachi said the thread represented the threads of fate, from ancient literature and old tales. The message was clear. Sasori thought he and Sakura were destined to be together, that it was fate. He had taken a cutting of her hair and had left her one of his." Shisui updated the rest of the family present.
"He is obsessed." Mikoto looked disgusted as she looked at the painting Sasori had left in Sakura's studio.
"He is a dead man. I will not be dragging him before a court, this one dies by my hand. He threatens her, he threatens the family." Madara growled.
"He met her at school though, I don't think he knew she was connected to us. We took her to the gallery with us that night, he didn't know she would be there. His first attempt was too sloppy, it was almost like he hadn't planned it, it was...impulsive." Obito said scratching his chin. He hadn't had time to shave.
"I agree ." Said Fugaku, hand thrown wide encompassing the note and the painting. "Clearly a lot of thought and planning went into this, he had to have been watching her house to know they had left to go to the store. This was well thought out, unlike the attempted kidnapping at the gallery."
"The address, on the envelope. He addressed it to her like she was part of his family, he wrote it like she was his wife." Madara's teeth hurt. He had been clenching them since he had gotten the call from Shisui earlier.
"She must marry. Itachi." Mikoto spoke. "If she is no longer available, he may lose interest in her. Making her an official Uchiha and the future matriarch of our clan, maybe he will let it be. Right now she is single, clanless, and even though she has ties to many people in high places, she is not herself an heiress or of any political or military importance. Linking her to us by marriage and not just any marriage but to Itachi our eldest son might be the only way."
"He is still a dead man," Madara growled.
"I am counting on it." Mikoto looked him dead in the eye. "An Uchiha must be the one to kill him, don't let anyone else get there before us, we have our pride to protect."
All the Uchiha men around her nodded.
Upstairs….
"Ita, I'm sorry." Sakura still clung to Itachi shaking. "When I close my eyes all I can see is that horrible painting, how could he, I didn't want to believe it was true. He seemed so normal, so I don't know, not crazy?"
"Sasori of the Red Sand is anything but normal but I swear, he will not touch you. I am going to make sure of it. I will protect you with my life." Itachi kissed the top of her head and she pulled back a little, her arms still around his waist, tilted her head back to look at him.
"You don't know what that means to me, this is so messed up, it's like it isn't real. I feel like I'm floating. Like I can't stay fixed to the ground, it is...scary."
Itachi watched her face as she talked, worry was written there, fear and terror. He kissed her lips and held her with one hand and another ran up her neck to the back of her head, gently moving her head to the side so he could kiss her more firmly. "If you feel like you are floating and can not ground yourself, hold on to me. I promise to never let you go. Sakura, I...I know you don't think of me as, like that but, you gave me the bracelet back and I …" he was floundering.
She took his chin in her hand and kissed him, tilting his head down while she tilted hers up. "I knew what the bracelet meant, I lied."
"What?" he said surprised.
"I took the bracelet knowing what it was, knowing what it meant to accept it." She admitted and blushed. "I left it in the fort because I wanted it to be there when I was ready. I thought...you never really tried after that, you were the same, we never grew any more than friends or closer than a brother or sister, I thought, maybe you changed your mind, so I gave it back to you."
"You knew? What about Sasuke? You dated my little brother." He was looking at her a bit hurt.
"Yes." She chewed her lip. "I love you. I have since we were kids, but you, you never showed any interest in me after that, I thought, I thought you changed your mind."
He kissed her then, full and passionately. He broke the kiss to reach into his shirt and pulled out the ornate wooden box.
"I never changed my mind, I'm sorry. It was my fault, Sasuke was my fault." He said, guilt written all over his face.
"You kept it on you?" Her eyes went wide.
"I kept it close to my heart like you are." He opened the box and took the bracelet out, undoing the clasp and holding it out in front of her, questioning her with his eyes.
Sakura lifted her hand and held her wrist over the bracelet and Itachi closed the clasp and kissed her again. "I promise, I will protect you, love you, I promise."
" Ita, I love you," Sakura whispered into his lips.
'Soooooooo, someone didn't come back downstairs last night." Shisui grinned at Itachi over the breakfast table the next morning.
Sakura blushed and refused to meet anyone's eye.
"Shisui pass the eggs darling." Mikoto told him, " and leave your cousin alone, they just got officially engaged."
"What?" Madara looked up from his bacon.
Everyone had stayed the night at Sakura's house.
"I proposed last night and she said yes," Itachi told the table and smiled a little smile.
"Congratulations!" Shisui clapped him hard on the back making him drop the egg off his fork and into his lap. Itachi picked the egg up and threw it on Shisui's plate.
"Thank you."
"It's about damn time." Fugaku smiled at them, "Welcome to the family officially dear." He got up and hugged Sakura.
"Publicly, It needs to be made public, put an announcement in the papers, don't wait for the usual two weeks, make it official today." He told Obito and Obito left the room presumably to do just that.
"We will have an engagement party, a huge publicized one, one to make the front page," Mikoto said eyes bright with planning.
"I can make sure it gets into the papers!" Shisui said with an evil grin.
"That's actually a good idea." Said Madara, " no damage to public property though Shisui."
Shisui saluted and left the table.
"Um, are you sure that's a good idea Madara, I mean subtle isn't exactly in Shisui's vocabulary." She giggled.
"That's what we need, we need all five nations to know that the heir to the Uchiha clan is getting married. Mikoto have a guest list made and I will add all the politicians later, this will be the biggest wedding the Land of Fire has ever seen." Madara got up and hugged Sakura again and left.
Sakura smiled over the table at Itachi. She hadn't been this happy in weeks. Mikoto smiled at Sakura and her eldest son. "I am so happy right now, so proud."
Fugaku got up from the table, "So, who wants to tell Sasuke?"
'I will father." Itachi said.
"Be nice about it, he will understand eventually." Fugaku patted Itachi on the shoulder and smiled at Sakura again on the way into the kitchen.
"Why don't you let me clear this up, you two go on back upstairs and rest.' She smiled a knowing smile and pushed them out of the room.
Itachi took Sakura's hand and they walked back up the stairs together. Mikoto watched them from the hallway smiling. "You deserve to be happy Itachi, this is good for all of us." and she went into the kitchen to join her husband.
One week later…..
Blood dripped from his one hand as he held up the paper with the other. Sakura and Itachi looked out at him smiling from the photo in the Society section of the newspaper for announcements. He dropped the scraping knife from his bloodied hand, it fell to the floor in his studio with a clatter, drops of blood flew off of it onto the floor on impact. She was getting married to the heir of the Uchiha clan…no, he would not let that happen.
He walked downstairs taking an ancient collectors katana from the wall on his way to the smaller bedroom. He kicked the door open surprising the young girl on the bed. "Sakura, you have betrayed me." Sasori swung the sword in a graceful arc and cut her through the middle, he swung it back, flipping the hilt in his hand and swung it up cutting across her face.
"My last Doll." He dropped the sword by the bed and walked out of the room. "Sakura, you always make me feel so impulsive. I didn't want to have to do that."
The next morning…..
Fugaku was at the table eating breakfast with his wife and his youngest son when he got the call.
"Chief, another doll, only no lines attached, and she is cut up pretty badly, used um roughly too." A voice spoke over his phone.
"How do you know it is Sasori then if it doesn't fit the MO?" Fugaku asked.
"He left his card. We're waiting for you at 5th and Main." The voice said and then the call ended.
"I have to go." Fugaku put his fork down. "Sasori killed another girl and it is different than the others, he is angry, he left his card. He wants us to know it was him and that he is pissed." Fugaku left dialing his phone as he went.
"Sasuke, go tell Itachi and Sakura to come to the house for a time, I want us all in one place," Mikoto told her youngest son.
Sasuke got up and left.