Sakura almost jumped at the sight of Itachi, he usually lasted thirty minutes on his checks. She was about to question him when he spoke, "we have a problem." His voice was calm, but even as he spoke he went to organize Sarada's belongings, the ones he bought her (now in his rush he noticed he did buy her too many things), and began to pack.
"At least elaborate, before you pack up Sarada's things."
"Sasuke is here," before her hope could get too high he quickly added, "my little brother Sasuke, not your husband Sasuke." Ignoring how weird the words felt in his mouth Itachi continued to pack, struggling with a dress he bought for Sarada, Sakura took pity on him, took it and folded it up for him.
"And you think leaving is the best choice?" Sakura's tone implied that she did not agree.
Sighing Itachi replied, "it is the safest choice, which is what matters, keeping you two from any danger is my responsibility."
"Getting away from here is more dangerous! The further we get away from where you found us, the harder it will be for Sasuke to find us!"
"Sasuke is looking for you. The crow was leading him to me, your chakra was still in the crow, if he sees you I don't know what he will think. You are not a fool, if Sasuke sees you as you are, there two assumptions he can make. The most possible is that he will think Sarada is my child, which puts her in great danger. He will hurt her, to hurt me." By the look in her eyes Itachi could tell Sakura had considered this, however he went on, "the second choice is that he figures it out. Which let's face it, you are recognizable, and he concludes that Sarada is his, the fact is you have spent a lot of time with me. You have let me be close to her, you trusted me, and for him that would make you unworthy of keeping her. In his eyes, you would have been placing Sarada in danger. To be perfectly honest, I don't know which possibility is worse."
"I agree that keeping your Sasuke from finding us is the better choice. I also understand that you cannot tell him the truth about the massacre, it can change too many things, and they can't change. However, I am not leaving, I already agreed to come to this village, I wanted to stay in that cave, I am not leaving! I can protect myself, you can leave. You do not have to protect us as some kind of redemption for your past actions!"
Sakura regretted her choice of words the moment they were out, but she didn't get to see Itachi's face as her shouting scared Sarada. Unable to look at Itachi, she went to Sarada, completely overdoing the attention, she knew, but was more surprised when Itachi continued to fold Sarada's clothes and put them away. He knew that Sakura was right, protecting them, not leaving them, was a form of redemption for him, it was selfish to keep them near him under the circumstances. He was a risk to them, his involvement alone could draw the Akatsuki's attention, and by his actions they had already drawn in his younger brother. He needed to think of this objectively, not in a personal manner.
When Sarada grew silent again, Itachi was the one to break the silence, "I am sorry." Sakura was surprised, in her eyes she owed him the apology, "you are correct that a part of me is seeking redemption through my actions. By protecting you two, I protect Sasuke, however you are not just Sasuke's family, you are mine." Almost regretfully he added, "my brother being close however changes things, if your husband does not show up before the week is up, I will personally escort you to Konoha. You'll be safer there, the Hokage knows you, she will keep you hidden and safe, I will look for your husband personally. No crows, this time."
"I'm sorry too, shouldn't have said it like that. As if you are unworthy of being redeemed in your brother's eyes. You are." The silence that followed the room was filled with a question neither wanted to ask out loud, too afraid of the lack of answer, now what? They had no way of predicting Sasuke's movements, of either of their Sasuke's, as far as Sakura and Itachi knew, her Sasuke may not even know how to get her back.
"You do not owe me an apology, Sasuke, you and Sarada should never seek forgiveness from me. Know that no matter what, there is nothing to forgive." The rest of the evening they spent playing cards, apperantly he carried them with him simply stating "criminals get bored too." She accepted his answer, besides they both needed a way to get rid of their stress even for a minute, taking advantage that Sarada was being good (not crying, just had a change of diaper, not hungry), as they played they asked each other questions about Sasuke.
A/N: to be honest I'm stuck, I know what to write next, and have an idea of the ending, but the problem with creating the story as you go along is that you change your mind so much, I kind of want to back away from this story, but I know if I do, I will never finish it, and it is a personal goal to finish this story.. this story never really had a goal though and that's the struggle in writing it now, because I can't decide how long it needs to be because I can't decide on aspects of the story, its just a general non committed idea as to how the story will progress... I have different routes I want to take this story... basically some writing advice, have an idea of what you want to say, and aim for that as you write... I failed miserably at that.. oops... anyway enjoy, and excuse the bad grammar... I plan to eventually fix it... when the whole story is done though...