AN: Here's chapter 9. So I work in retail, and it's almost August, meaning I will be a walking, talking zombie for the next month. Don't expect too much out of me when it comes to updating for the next month. I apologize in advance.

Oh, and let me apologize for the horrible spelling and grammar mistakes in my last chapter. I went through and tried to fix the ones I could find. Additionally, seeing as I just completed a ten hour shift, I apologize for any mistakes in this chapter. I will go back and catch them when I can see straight in the morning. Thank you for your patience.

Please review! They inspire me, and they make me write more. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

The First Time

Chapter 9: Skies are Gray

"And even though she moved away, we always get calls from our daughter
She has eyes just like her father's, they are blue when skies are gray."

Time passed slower than usual.

But that was to be expected when one returns to the village to find out that his very best friend had been attacked and nearly killed. It didn't help that he had been sitting in the very same spot for the past eight hours without moving much. How did surgery last eight hours? What could they possibly be doing to him for eight hours? His Sharingan was activated, staring at the lone door that hid his cousin and best friend.

Naruto and the Inuzukas had left hours ago. Naruto had a small solo mission in the morning, and after promising to visit the moment he returned, left for the night in order to get some rest before he reported for duty in the early morning hours. Hana had been declared stable about two hours after Itachi's arrival at the hospital. Her family couldn't visit her until morning, so they left to get some rest.

Oh, how he wished he could do the same. He had raced home from the borders of Ame since he was already late returning home, so he had been short of sleep as it was. There was no way he could sleep now that his cousin's life was in very real danger.

At some point after Naruto left, Sasuke dozed off into a light slumber. Mikoto had also fallen asleep against her husband's shoulder, and in one of his few moments of filial candidness, Fugaku allowed her to stay there, surprising Itachi, who had expected his usually cold father to lightly remove Mikoto. It was possibly the most affectionate gesture Itachi had ever seen his father and mother share in public. They even kept their physical contact in front of their sons to a minimum, even though Itachi had seen them share small moments in privacy when they thought no one was looking – a kiss here, a hug there, an affectionate touch of the shoulder or the face. His father had a newspaper splayed on his lap, but Itachi could see that his eyes weren't focused on the page. Instead, they were fixated on his younger cousin, Shisui's father. Uchiha Kagami was staring at the door that hid his son from his view with startling focus and determination – as if his will alone would keep his precious only child alive.

But he didn't need to rely on only his will, Itachi knew. He had Sakura fighting for Shisui as well as the Godaime Hokage, and her other trusted apprentice, Shizune. The Godaime's older apprentice had taken a fairly short break after finishing her work on Hana, and then ran into Shisui's operating room after Sakura sent another medic, a male this time, out of the room crying.

Itachi's eyes focused on the door again. He could feel Sakura's fierce, determined chakra in the room, pushing, coursing through her veins as she fought hard for the life of his dear cousin. It was rather mesmerizing. The flow of her chakra was tightly controlled, pushing out of her in even bouts. Every once in a while, most likely when there was a particularly difficult wound to be healed, she would push out a little extra chakra to move everything along. However, her stores were dwindling to dangerously low levels because of her over use. No one, not even the Godaime, could work for eight hours while using chakra constantly without taking a break. But Sakura had, and she was going to pay for it dearly if she continued the way she had been for so long.

It was another twenty minutes before Sakura's chakra dropped off completely, startling everybody in the room out of their thoughts and slight slumbers. Sasuke grunted as his eyes opened, obsidian orbs flying wildly throughout the room as if they were under attack all of a sudden. He reacted quite strongly, which wasn't surprising, due to the deep connection between the younger Uchiha and his pink-haired friend and teammate. Itachi was apparently not the only one focusing on the young medic's chakra. Not long after, though, there was a loud bang as the Godaime Hokage pushed the door to the waiting room open.

"Uchiha!" she hollered as she looked decisively into the waiting room. Five pairs of onyx eyes watched her attentively. "Oh, there are five of you. Well, this has never happened before," she commented wryly, a mirthful smile on her lips from the small irony. "Little Uchiha, it's happened again. Take her to her office."

Sasuke glowered at the woman, a disgruntled scowl crossing over his brooding features, clearly not approving of her choice of description, but he stood and slunk into the operating room anyway with a knowing look on his aloof face. Only seconds later, he reappeared with a crumpled heap of pink hair, and thin, frail body in his steady, muscled arms. Itachi watched as Sasuke carried the unconscious kunoichi out of the room and down the hall towards her office with a grudgingly annoyed look on his face. Sakura had clearly put her all into that surgery. His thoughts of his girlfriend, unconscious only for the sake of his best friend, were interrupted by the Hokage giving a wary sigh.

"She's going to feel that in the morning," she commented. The remaining Uchihas stared at the Godaime, waiting for the news. "Shisui is very lucky. I don't think I could have saved him, and you're lucky it was Sakura who had taken over as the head surgeon because she's obstinate to the point of insanity. If not for her, Shisui wouldn't have survived. I would have quit, rightfully so, on him long ago. But Sakura is determined, and she nearly killed herself in order to save him. You owe her a great debt of gratitude, and, if I'm not mistaken, this isn't the first time."

Itachi knew she was alluding to the instance where Sakura had fought through the night to save his own life, causing her to pass out in the process, a few years back. That particular attack had led to a several week stint in the hospital.

"You're saying he'll be alright?" Kagami asked; the hope and disbelief in his voice was palpable, as if he was afraid that he was hearing his Hokage wrong. Tsunade nodded her head in an affirmation. To everyone's shock, tears began to slide down Kagami's face slowly. They were silent tears of relief, but he wouldn't make a scene of them. Quickly, he slid his hand over his face. "When can I see my son?"

"The nurses who were able to survive Sakura's torture for eight hours are cleaning him up and transporting him to the ICU's holding wing. You will be able to visit him after ten a.m. tomorrow morning, but I don't we'll be waking him up for a few days," Tsunade replied evenly, but Itachi could see that there was a certain glow in her honey colored eyes from the thrill of a strenuous, impossible surgery. However, Fugaku didn't seem to be as impressed.

"What did you mean when you said you would have quit on my nephew?" he asked gruffly. His deep, baritone voice was gruff from lack of use over the past eight hours, but the high amount of disapproval was impossible to miss. Tsunade wasn't fazed. Waving her hand dismissively, she stunned everyone with her next sentence.

"I couldn't have saved your nephew if I wanted to. I'm not that good."

"Are you saying that the little girl that was carried out of here by my son has surpassed you?" Fugaku asked disbelievingly. Once again, Tsunade didn't seem intimidated by his rough tone, and, once again, her answer left the Uchihas in a stunned silence.

"It was bound to happen eventually."

The quiet silence that ensued was both tense and uncomfortable, forcing Mikoto to intervene before her husband began to argue with the Hokage over how an eighteen year old girl surpassed one of the legendary sannin.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama, for your time and energy that went into helping our nephew," she said earnestly, her entire body posture exuding a silent gratitude that radiated from her emotionally and physically exhausted form. "I'm sure you did everything you could to keep him alive, and for that, the Uchihas are eternally grateful to you."

She stood and bowed lightly in reverence for their leader, prompting Fugaku to do the same or else seem rude and impolite – not that he wasn't be slightly discourteous and arrogant before. Kagami followed suit, his thanks so painfully genuine that it discomfited the normally brash woman who ran the village. Itachi finally stood and bowed politely before excusing himself from the room.

Instead of heading home, where his parents and uncle were surely going to retire, he took a right out of the small operating ward and walked casually down the hall to the office of his most precious girlfriend. Sasuke opened the door quietly when Itachi approached, having sensed his brother's arrival. The deep black bags under his eyes were more pronounced now, the stress lines that were usually only his aniki's face now beginning to mar his own, much to his silent dismay.

"I'll let you look after her," Sasuke muttered gruffly while letting his older brother slide into the room gracefully. Sakura's petite, exhausted form was crumpled in a small heap on the love-seat couch that was pushed against the wall in her office. "Here," Sasuke continued, thrusting a small bucket into his brother's awaiting hands, finishing his brief, blunt explanation, "She'll need this when she wakes up."

Itachi took the small plastic trash bin and walked further into the small office, allowing his brother to leave quickly and quietly behind him. Sasuke was no longer obligated to stay here, and now that Itachi had returned from a mission, he now had a short vacation that he would use to look after both Shisui and Sakura, if she would allow him to do so.

The woman, who he was so infallibly, utterly infatuated with, spent all of her time taking care of others. Her natural proclivity to take care of others before she would even consider herself was perhaps, besides her exotic beauty and fiery, feisty personality, one of his favorite parts of her being. It was, when he was in the hospital for weeks on end, what attracted him originally. Bright, cheerful verdant eyes would be so helplessly maternal and expressive that he couldn't help but be enamored with the woman who was currently under his care.

Pulling her chair around her desk and sliding into effortlessly beside her, he took a few moments to truly appreciate the woman before him, the woman who had, after months and years of denial for their feelings, had fallen into his life suddenly. He was, for lack of a better term, socially awkward, and he both knew and accepted this fact.

From the time he was a young child to now, Uchihas were taught to be stoic, impassive individuals, devoid of emotions in order to be the perfect shinobi. Therefore, his social skills were barely intact, but slowly, he was learning how to respond properly to his comrades, friends, family, and most importantly, the woman lying in a petite heap on the couch in front of him.

Without understanding why he was doing it, his hand reached out and stroked back the stray locks of bubblegum hair that had fallen into the face of the beautiful woman before him. The affectionate gesture was so foreign to him that he didn't recognize the bubble of warmth that had risen within him, bursting at the seams, when the rosette underneath his large, calloused, war-torn hand leaned into the unexpected heat, sighing in pleasure at his soft ministrations.

He could never, not once, understand how he had suddenly become so lucky, but now that he had the caring woman in his grasp, he was determined to hold onto her for as long as he could keep her. A small frown etched his impassive features, dragging the small stress marks further down his pale face and darkening his already midnight orbs, as he realized that he would never and could never deserve the fragile, lovely creature that he had somehow managed to sneak his tainted claws into.

She was purity, innocence, and springtime all rolled into one pink-haired, bright, cheerful, sometimes insanely strong and volatile human being. By contrast, he was a deep-seated darkness that slunk in the shadows, a murderer, an assassin, a tool to his clan. He was the emotionless child prodigy who worked for his village, his people. Once again, he marveled at the fact that the gods had given him this piece of brightness. He wasn't going to question it, though, and he wasn't going to let his light ray of sunshine out of his life. She was the hope in his, up to this point, pitifully lonely and empty existence.

A large, calloused hand ran over his face in exasperation and slight despair. His self-loathing was at an all-time high right now, he mused, because of the predicament Shisui was in. Usually, his rather infallible self-esteem would not bottom out to thinking such pathetic thoughts, but all he wanted right now was to be punished for putting his most precious best friend in harm's way, even if he was a ninja and that was both his duty and his job.

What was Itachi thinking?

Shisui had been on a mission. Ninja died on missions all the time, every day, somewhere. People from his own village died on a semi-regular occasion, and death was, unfortunately, part of life. But there was something so horribly different about being a shinobi when it was your own friends and family being slaughtered.

Once again, before he could understand the demonstrative action, he ran a finger across the pale face of his girlfriend, the only light in his life at the moment. His rough finger ran slowly from the top of her brow, down the expanse of her cheek, leaving goose bumps rippling in their wake, and ended by rubbing her soft, cupid's bow lips with the pad of his thumb. Sakura sighed a bit once again, happily leaning towards the light touch of the man looming above her. Itachi felt the same flutter of warmth swell within him. He could get used to this, he decided.

And that's how he sat for the remainder of the night, carefully touching the beautiful woman that he called his, easing her into slumber as she recovered from saving the life of his best friend.

X

Reasons why she hated waking up after passing out from chakra exhaustion:

Headache. Migraine was more like it, she thought, as her mind slowly returned from the world of perfect, wonderful, blissful sleep to dive back into a painful consciousness. The last vestige of sleep left her and was replaced by a blinding, pulsating pounding that began right behind her eyes and moved back on the top of her scalp, throbbing and ending in the base of her neck. She tried, in vain, to crack her eyes open, but the blinding sunlight that was streaming into wherever she was, was enough to cause her to quickly clench her eyes shut once again.

Exhaustion. Time to go back to bed, she figured, shifting lightly to bury herself further into the warmth that encompassed her. However, before she could fall asleep, the third and final component to chakra exhaustion overcame her…

Her entire body lurched up, heaving in a wave of nausea to empty whatever contents she had in her stomach. A trash bin was thrust quickly into her arms, and to her eternal gratitude, lithe hands wrapped carefully into her pink locks, pulling them back from her face as she heaved yesterday's lunch and snacks into the plastic bin in front of her.

Nausea.

She hated chakra exhaustion.

Once she was sure that she wasn't in immediate danger of another bout of nausea, Sakura put the waste receptacle down next to the couch and swung her legs off the side. Belatedly realizing that she was in her office, she looked up to find whoever was in the small office with her and the savior of her hair. First, though, a water bottle was placed gracefully into her hands along with a little white pill.

"This helps combat some of the side effects of chakra exhaustion," a stoically quiet voice said from somewhere behind the water bottle. Sakura chugged the bottle, rehydrating herself, and took the small white pill appreciatively. After taking another moment to compose herself, Sakura looked up at the man who had probably been sitting with her all night, a small smile gracing her tired features.

"Shisui?" she asked first, before she could think of anything else. It was most likely that Sakura would be sent home for the day after the hard surgery the night before, so she wanted to make sure her patient was alright.

"He's fine," Itachi commented quietly. Sakura realized that the deep lines that ran down his cheeks were deeper, the bags under his eyes a little more pronounced, and he was still dressed in his ANBU uniform from his mission. Immediately, she wanted to fret over his sleep-deprived, exhausted condition, but her rant was quickly quelled by the strong arms that circled her arms, pulling her off the couch and into his warm, engulfing embrace.

"Thank you," he whispered quietly into her mop of ruffled pink hair. "He's only alive because of your hard work, determination, and abilities. Thank you."

Sakura circled her arms around her boyfriend, hugging his waist tightly in quiet reassurance. This was why she had to work so hard last night – for him. Shisui was one of her precious people, yes, but it was because of the man currently encompassing her in his arms as to why she fought so long and so hard.

She could not let him down. She could not take away his cousin and best friend, and she would be damned if that exuberant Uchiha died on her watch. What would she do without the happy, peppered kisses to her cheeks, the loud, boisterous appreciation for her cooking, the young man calling her Cupcake? If she would have been so profoundly affected by the death the young man she had worked so tirelessly to save last night, then how would his best friend, cousin and teammate feel?

No, she had to protect him from that, but as her entire being began to slump a bit, she realized a nap was in order first. Itachi chuckled lightly in her hair, patting the top of her head affectionately with one hand while rubbing small circles into her shoulder with the other.

"You need more sleep," he commented quietly. Hot breath tickled her scalp as he breathed deeply into her hair, reveling in her warmth.

"You should sleep more," Sakura commented to his chest balefully. The concern in her groggy voice was unmistakable, and Itachi got the feeling that he would not hear the end of her concerned mumblings until he was the one tucked into bed. A small idea popped into his head, and in a moment of uncharacteristic impulsivity, he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend once again. As he used his chakra to transport them both, Sakura let out an alarmed squeak, clearly not appreciating the sudden change of location when she hadn't been warned about it.

They were in her apartment then, standing in the middle of her small living room wrapped in each other's embrace.

"Go get cleaned up and we'll go to sleep," Itachi promised quietly. Sakura nodded into his chest, squeezing him one more time before slipping out of his warmth and trudging exhaustedly towards her small bathroom. Brushing her teeth and rinsing off in the shower quickly, she was in and out of the bathroom in a matter of minutes, excitement at the prospect of cuddling up to her usually undemonstrative boyfriend bubbling up within her for a few moments.

Sure, she and Itachi kissed, but up until the other day, they had been light and chaste. But other than that, the dance on her birthday, and the two nights that he held her while she slept, Itachi kept the physical contact to a minimum, so she had a right to revel in the attention for a little bit, right?

She knew that Itachi was relatively stoic by nature; Sasuke was the same way. The Uchiha clan was very stern with the children that were born into their family. They were expected to be cold and emotionless. It made her wonder, as she pulled on a fresh change of clothes – a flourescnet orange t-shirt (Gee, I wonder who I got this from, she thought mirthfully) and a pair of black shorts, how they ended up with Shisui of all people in their family – one of the most affectionate, boisterous people she knew. He really was a diamond among rocks. But the Uchiha family had a lot of diamonds, she mused affectionately, thinking of Sasuke and Itachi – two of her most important people.

They were just different shapes and colors. Shisui's diamond would be large, bright, and shimmering in any lighting. Sasuke's would be just as large, but not as blatantly flashy or gaudy, for that would be much too annoying as he would say. His shine would be more reserved, showing off to those people who got close enough to see. And Itachi? He would be smaller, but much more refined and elegant than his other two counterparts and just as shining. Sakura could not help but let out a small chuckle. She was comparing three of her closest friends to diamonds. Sasuke would have a conniption fit if he found out.

Sakura glanced at herself in the mirror, deemed herself presentable, with her wet pink locks and gaunt figure from not having eaten and then throwing up whatever she had in her stomach. She rolled her eyes a little. Sometimes she had to admit it when others were right, and she hadn't been taking care of herself the past day or so, clearly.

Slipping out of her small bathroom, she found Itachi in the kitchen making tea. His tall form swallowed her small kitchen as he moved about gracefully, like he had every right to be there. Having taken off his ANBU uniform in exchange for a black, high collared shirt and a pair of black ninja pants, he looked much more relaxed than he had minutes before. A sidelong glance her direction was the only indication she got from him, telling her that he knew she was there. She glided into the kitchen behind him, her exhaustion beginning to overtake her once again as she thought about the prospect of her large, comfy bed sitting all alone in the other room.

Itachi handed her a finished cup of tea, just the right amount of honey and sugar, and she smiled up at the man in front of her. Really, he would probably much rather be by Shisui's side right now, but instead, because he was Itachi, and he was so caring and worried, he was here, making sure she got enough rest.

"This will help to rehydrate you and regenerate your chakra stores," he said quietly, sipping his own cup as he did so. Sakura giggled a bit as she affectionately wiped some tea that had dribbled onto his chin.

"I know," she replied fondly, smiling up at the man who was giving her the oddest of looks, "I did buy the tea, you know."

There was a pregnant pause to the conversation as Sakura's hand dropped from his face when she went back to drinking her own tea. Standing in the kitchen was beginning to make her tired, so she moved slowly into the living room and sliding into the couch as gracefully as she could with an almost full cup of tea in her hands. Itachi moved silently behind her, walking with practiced, even footsteps that were barely audible in her small apartment.

"Do you do this often?" Itachi finally asked once he had settled himself. Perhaps she was just too tired, but she didn't understand exactly what he meant. Sakura quirked a brow at her boyfriend, who gave the smallest sigh, seemingly in exasperation. "You have chakra enhancing tea to combat exhaustion. Do you run yourself into the ground like this on a regular basis?"

Sakura gave him a wary smile in response.

"Sometimes," she admitted. "Not as much as I used to."

Itachi's lips pursed into a thin line as his obsidian eyes darkened as he looked down at her from his perch next to her, his face filled with disapproval and reproach; it was a look she was all too used to getting from Uchiha men, so it hardly phased her when his eyes glinted with the critical emotions.

"You will take better care of yourself from now on," he finally commanded. For a moment, Sakura bristled at the order he had just given her, but she quickly quelled the feeling, seeing as it was most likely a result of her fatigued state. To be honest, he was being much kinder than Sasuke who called her a whole slew of rude names when this happened. When really, Sakura knew, it was their way of caring for her physical being when she was being to obstinate or foolish do the same. It was, in short, one of the ways that the Uchihas showed that they cared. So instead of yelling at him for ordering her around like some genin, as she was wont to do with Naruto and Sasuke, she just gave him a pacifistic smile.

"Alright," she conceded. Drinking the last of her tea, she put the cup down on the coffee table in front of her couch. Itachi was giving her a disbelieving look, one that said: You've never been this easy, what are you up to? But she ignored it and stood up anyway. "Ready for bed?"

He nodded his head. Long black locks fell over his right shoulder at the slight incline, and Sakura felt the overwhelming desire to run her hands through the silky raven tresses, but she refrained. Itachi had been overly affectionate today, but she shouldn't get used to the outward displays of affection. It had been both an emotionally grueling and sentimental day, and that was the reason for his sudden change of personality.

"Sleep sounds nice, ne?" she asked sluggishly as she drudged down the hallway. She heard an amused huff from behind her, and it was nice, she figured to herself, to know exactly what look was on his face without having to turn around. Lips tugging ever so slightly at the ends, dark midnight black orbs that spoke of much more pain than his twenty-three years should have aloud, but there would be a little bit of amusement playing in those obsidian depths at her childish comment. Yes, she thought with a smile, knowing these things were nice.

"Indeed," he finally commented quietly. "Sleep sounds nice."

X

"Sakura will be the leader of this mission," Tsunade stated calmly, easily, as she laced her fingers in front of her face. Team Seven, sans Kakashi who was out on other duties, stood in her office. It had been over twenty four hours since ANBU Squad 4, or what remained of it, was brought to the hospital. Sakura had more than enough time to recover from her chakra exhaustion, and this mission shouldn't be terribly difficult for the likes of Team Seven. "Inuzuka Hana says that they were attacked fifty miles outside of Konoha to the west. You will go investigate and gather as much information about the attack as you can gather. Then you will report your findings and input back to me. If you see an enemy ninja, you will not engage if you can help it. You will do what you can to retreat or get an alert back to me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the four members of the infamous Team Seven chorused; although, Naruto's response did sound like a grumble. Of course the brat would complain about not being able to engage the enemy. Sakura, Sai, Sasuke, and Naruto all left the room and separated to prepare for the short mission that they would embark on in a matter of hours. Naruto wanted one last serving of ramen, so Sasuke went with him while Sai smiled and went to pack his belongings.

It was the first time Sakura had been the captain of a mission. If it wasn't Kakashi or Yamato-taichou, then it was Sasuke, so she her nerves were automatically beginning to work up at the pressure. This would be her chance to prove herself. If she could do this, then she was much more likely to do well in the ANBU exams. Leading a group of disrespectful boys would be a challenge, but she knew how to work with her team in order to function the best. Off the field, her group of boys were the most annoying brats in the world, but during a match, there was no one she would rather have her back. They were a seamless unit – united in working together.

They could do this together. But…

Could she do it?

Was she qualified to lead? Sure, she had been in charge of medics before, but that was when they were all under her. Her skills and place as Tsunade's apprentice ensured that she was at the top of the totum pole when it came to leading surgeries and the hospital. But this was a mission, and Naruto and Sasuke already had trouble listening to direction, even from Kakashi or Tsunade. Would they even listen to her?

The mission was relatively simple. Most likely, they wouldn't find much of anything and then return home with a mission report and an educated guess as to what happened during the battle. Once Shisui woke up, they would be able to glean more from the horrible fight.

Sakura was already prepared for the mission, and since Itachi had left early this morning for clan meetings, stating grouchily – in his own, stoic, unflappable way, of course – that he would be in them all day, she made her way to the hospital to say goodbye to her favorite patient. The trip to the hospital was short from the Hokage tower, and she also wanted some weapons from the SWPD downstairs. Making her way there first, she found that the small lab where she and her two best friends worked was oddly empty; then again, everyone was out on missions these days. Sakura smiled to herself and procured her items.

A few extra herbs for healing, some extra weapons, and a few soothing bandages might all come in handy, she thought to herself as she grabbed the items she wanted. There was something nice about being in the lab by herself that she really enjoyed. Of course, she loved it when her friends were here and they could chat, gossip, and work all they wanted, but there was always a soothing quality to being by herself that she enjoyed. It was what made her so good at what she did. She was focused and meticulous when she needed to be, even when Ino was loudly boasting about the boy she went on a date with the night before.

Sakura could practically feel her eyes roll when she thought of Ino, but her smile was fond as she tucked the last of her items into her satchel. If she wasn't ready now, she would never be, she thought as she made her way to the last stop of the day.

Climbing her way up the several flights of steps, Sakura made her way to Shisui's room quietly. To her surprise, the door was already open. In the chair next to Shisui's bed, a man sat holding the younger ninja's hand. His head was bowed and the middle aged man was talking to Shisui quietly. Sakura went to leave, obviously aware that she had intruded on a personal moment, when she was stopped by the man.

"You're Haruno Sakura," he stated easily, having noticed her presence when she'd tried to sneak out of the room. Sakura turned back and smiled at him, bowing politely.

"I am," she replied straightforwardly, taking a few steps into the darkened room. Although she had never met this man personally, it was rather obvious who he was. There was no mistaking the broad nose, long eyelashes, or boyish quality to the face. "You must be Shisui's father."

"Uchiha Kagami," the man introduced, standing up and bowing deeply. "I am forever in your debt. You are the one who saved my precious only child."

If Uchihas could cry, because Sakura thought it physically impossible for them to do so, this man would be doing it. Her cheeks tinged pink at the compliment while she waved her hands passively.

"Shisui is important to me, sir," she finally managed to speak, completely embarrassed. This was the most emotion she had even been shown by an Uchiha – well, except for Shisui. "He's one of my good friends. I would do anything to protect those that I love."

The man was looking at her rather oddly now, but his hand never left his son's. As if sizing her up, contemplating something, he finally smiled at her when he had found whatever it was he had been looking for in her. If it were possible, he looked even more like Shisui when he smiled, the same boyish gait sprawling on his round face. Sakura half expected him to call her Cupcake, and the fact that he wouldn't almost made her sad. It was time for Shisui to get better, she thought bitterly to herself. She was beginning to miss the big, boisterous oaf.

"You are an angel, Sakura-chan," Kagami finally stated almost seriously, snapping Sakura abruptly from her musings. "I'm sure of it. You are an angel. My son and nephews are so lucky to have you in their lives."

Sakura blushed most becomingly once again. How does one respond to such a compliment?

"You give me too much credit, Kagami-san, but thank you. I'm so much happier knowing that Shisui is alright," she responded bashfully. Sinking into a bow, she began backing out of the room. "I have a mission now. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I will be back to check on Shisui in a few days."

He smiled at her and waved goodbye happily.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sai were all waiting for her by the village gates when she returned from the hospital. After a few minutes of bickering, the quartet finally left the village at a sedate pace. There was no rush for this mission since it was a simple informational mission. Sakura mused that she could possibly pick some herbs on the way that would be useful in medicines. The group of incredibly powerful ninjas walked slowly into the woods – into a place that was like a second home to them.

However, as they finally reached outside the twenty-mile marker of Konoha where the patrols no longer were on rotational duty, they failed to notice the dark presence lurking behind them. They failed to notice that someone was watching them as they argued, ate, and slept. They didn't notice that someone was after them.

No, after her.

"Alright, princess," the man said with a low growl, throwing his sword over his shoulder. The Samehada purred eagerly, waiting for a fight. He was still a fair distance away from the group of Leaf shinobi, but he bared his teeth into a small smile, his black eyes twinkling with the prospect of a good fight. The ring wasn't in Suna, and therefore, there was only one other person who could have it. He needed the Akatsuki off his back if he ever wanted to get away from them, and this was the only way to do it. Reaffirming his resolve, he began to stalk towards his unsuspecting prey.

"It's time you gave Sasori's ring back."

AN: There you have it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I don't think I would ever have the heart to kill of Shisui. Also, if Itachi seemed a little 'emo' in this chapter, it's just because he's subconsciously blaming himself for Shisui. I hope I didn't have him come off too self-depricating.

In that case, that's everything!

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