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16 Years Ago
Uchiha Compound

Itachi stared at the small body that was his little brother. Sasuke was all right for a baby he supposed. Not nearly as annoying as Hana's little brother and Sasuke occasionally hit what he was aiming at with rice balls. Itachi had tried to give him some helpful suggestions, but besides chewing on his fist or gurgling out what sounded like "Ini," Sasuke hadn't exactly proven to Itachi that he was worth any time. Ka-chan had promised that he hadn't said or done a lot when he was Sasuke's age either, but he sincerely doubted he was as slow developing rice ball attacks as his brother. At the least he was certain that he had managed to say the names of those around him fair quicker than Sasuke.

Still, Ka-chan had said that Sasuke was important and she smiled every time she saw them together. So Itachi made sure that he spent some time daily with Sasuke, preferably when his mother could see it. However, today, Sasuke was trying something new. It was the first time Itachi had actually understood why his mother was so fascinated with Sasuke.

Fugaku had taken Ka-san out to get some time away from the baby. Well, he was pretty sure Ka-chan had threatened their unfortunate Oto-san with bodily harm if she didn't get a break, and so Itachi found himself watching the baby. The baby that was staring at him with big, adoring eyes as he kept pushing himself to his feet when he was supposed to be taking a nap. There was something about watching a very small person try something for the first time that was fascinating. A newness that couldn't be defined… and if Sasuke kept going, Ka-chan was going to be very disappointed that she didn't see his first steps.

"If you do that when Ka-chan isn't here to see, she is going to upset." Itachi warned Sasuke, but he hunkered down and held out his hands anyway. There was something about watching Sasuke try something new, his balance unstable as he teetered on his feet that brought a smile to his face. He wanted to see if Sasuke could do it. He would just make a point to not mention it to Ka-chan.

"'Ini!" Sasuke said, smile lighting up his round face. Shifting his weight, he took several steps forward before falling back onto his well-padded bottom with a surprised look. His little brows bunched together and he looked like he was torn between crying and trying again.

"Come here, Sasuke." Itachi said calmly. Sasuke stared, shoving his fist in his mouth before grinning widely and pushing himself up, nose wrinkling as he tried again. This time he reached Itachi's outstretched hands just as his balance gave out, small body planting itself firmly in his firm grip.

Sasuke stared up at his brother, blinking those large eyes before grinning widely. "'Ini!'

Itachi blinked down at the very happy baby in his arms, the way the one small fist clenched his shirt and the thumb now firmly planted in his mouth as he leaned forward so that his head rested against his chest.

"'Ini," Sasuke murmured before shoving his thumb even further into his mouth and relaxing, clearly content where he was. Itachi hesitated before settling one hand on the baby's back, the other sliding under his bottom and lifting him against his chest. Sasuke snuggled even further against him, seemingly content to be held.

Itachi held Sasuke for long moments, brows furrowed in thought. Sasuke had taken his first steps to him. While not exactly the wisest idea, since his mother was going to be very displeased if she ever learned about this, it was clear that his baby brother had made the choice himself.

Ka-chan was always telling him that there were people that every individual was meant to protect. That sometimes you were chosen to protect them and sometimes you chose to protect them. Sasuke had walked to him, of all the family he could have chosen to make his first movements in the world with.

Him. His brother. Aniki.

A slow smile curved the young Uchiha's mouth. Reaching up, he ran a hand down the now sleeping baby's back.

"I'll protect you."

This was his baby brother, and Itachi made the decision that no one was ever going to hurt him. Because Sasuke had chosen him to walk to, because his mother had trusted him to watch Sasuke and then his brother had chosen him. Because of the way that he was so limp and warm against his chest as he sat against the wall, guarding the baby as he slept.

'This one is mine.'

X

Present Day
Uchiha Family Restaurant

Shisui had obviously thought the last of his sanity had cracked over the last few weeks, and Itachi hadn't bothered to correct him. Usually when Itachi wasn't out on missions, he was rarely seen around the compound. He preferred to train, meditate, or hunt down that Nara kid for a challenging game of shogi. But since their trip to the hospital, Itachi had made a habit of being out and about town.

Since it was unusual for him to be seen, he'd made sure to randomize his appearances so it would not appear to be connected to any particular catalyst. How he satisfied his curiosity was his own business. There was no reason to speak to anyone of his pastimes, not to Shisui, not even to his little brother who he had caught giving him unusually confused looks when he thought no one else looking.

Perhaps one day Sasuke would learn the art of subtleness, but he wasn't holding out for it. No, there was no madness coloring his thoughts; just a niggling curiosity that wouldn't quite settle to the back of his mind. One he'd had every intention of dealing with in the most… efficient manner possible. Amusement curled through him at the thought.

And it was why he was currently sitting at a family food stand with his brother, ignoring the activity around him; because the best way to approach your prey was through their own habits. Whether she admitted it or not, his brother was a habit and habits lead to patterns. And it was her patterns he was most interested in.

"You're not going to tell me why you're here, are you." Sasuke growled at him.

Itachi turned his gaze to his brother. "No."

"Dammit, aniki, you're about as conversational as…"

"Sasuke, I know you weren't about to complain about your brother's ability to talk when you're about as conversational as a pile of rock." She slid into the booth next to Sasuke, nodding at Itachi before offering the man behind the counter a bright smile.

"Sakura," Sasuke growled. "You're late."

"You're impatient." Sakura said sweetly as she studied her menu. "Some of us actually work around here, you know. Can't exactly tell death, 'Excuse me, I'm late for a meal with a very annoying teammate, can you come back around three?'"

Habits. Watching them from the corner of his eyes, Itachi was bemused to note that Sasuke had actually relaxed with her approach. It appeared his younger brother had completely failed to notice the faint sheen of sweet on the back of her neck, or the way her chest heaved just a little. Her hands were steady but there was a slightly glazed look to the back of her eyes that suggested she hadn't eaten properly for her chakra use, and her sass was apparently an effective weapon is distracting Sasuke.

The levels of his brother's obtuseness had actually increased since puberty. Turning back to his own meal, he kept a careful ear on the conversation next to him.

"How would you know?" Sasuke asked, shoving some of the fried noodles the proprietor had placed on the bar as an appetizer over towards Sakura. "Did you try?"

"No," Sakura said, absently dipping a noodle in the sauce and sticking it into her mouth without looking up from her menu. "I prefer to take the more direct approach and beat it back."

Itachi followed her movements with clinical interest. She was relaxing more into her position, leaning her elbows onto the bar in front of her. She was still more tense than he had expected—a possibly by-product of his presence, perhaps?—but the way her hand had automatically gone to the bowl at the same time his brother pushed it towards her spoke either of great familiarity or of significant perception. Her eyes hadn't once flickered off the menu in front of her. In fact…it didn't even look as if her eyes were moving.

Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly.

Sasuke snorted, "You would."

Sakura didn't blink; she just flicked a noodle at Sasuke's nose. His brother caught it in his mouth.

"That's cheating Sasuke."

"If you don't want me to eat it, don't throw it at me." He suggested.

Her eyes finally moved on the menu. "I can always use my fists, if you prefer."

Itachi twisted his noodles along his chopstick and chewed slowly, making a deliberate move to appear more interested in his food than what was going on around him. To his internal amusement, the stiff line of her shoulders relaxed just enough that her posture seemed almost slumped. So she was uncertain what to make of him outside the roles of his role as Captain and hers as a medic. How interesting.

"Is Naruto coming?"

"He had a mission," Sasuke said with a shrug. "Won't be back until later."

She slid her eyes over. "So you brought your brother?"

Sasuke snorted. "He brought himself."

Sakura cut her eyes over to Uchiha Itachi and gave him a quick assessing glance. She had rarely seen Sasuke's older brother outside of official assignments or when they had occasionally passed by each other in the Hokage's tower. There was, of course, that one time in the forest of death, but if Sakura hadn't been convinced that Uchiha Itachi noticed everything, she would have been convinced that he hadn't even seen her.

Sakura would be lying if she said she never thought of that time in the forest. The feeling of helplessness, that she and her teammates were going to die and there was nothing she could do about it…and then the way Itachi had come in, stood between them, between Sasuke and that monster like some sort of dark angel and protected him the way she couldn't…

It was something that had gnawed at her, driving her forward. Sasuke might be Itachi's little brother, but he and Naruto were her teammates. She'd be damned if anything happened to them on her watch. Ever. Again.

But for all his prowess as a shinobi, Uchiha Itachi was never the most…sociable of men. All and one, everyone agreed that there was something a little 'off' in the way he was so proficient. There were still rumors going around at how early he could have graduated from the Academy if Uchiha Mikoto had not put her foot down and demanded that her son be allowed a normal childhood. Well, as normal as it got for shinobi, anyway…

Sakura blinked, suddenly becoming aware that she had been staring. And he had been…ignoring it? Why? What on earth was he doing here?

Well, Sakura didn't run from her problems. She ran through them. "I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Uchiha-san. I was under the impression that you were eager to get back to taking on missions. I hope you're enjoying your rest."

Sasuke apparently swallowed wrong. Sakura ignored him and found herself meeting the too dark eyes of Itachi instead. His expression was as unreadable as ever and if it wasn't for the faintest, almost nonexistent gleam of challenge in his eyes, she might have thought she'd insulted him.

"I have just returned. It was a short mission." Itachi told her in that mild tone of his.

Sakura told herself the way she let her eyes scan his upper torso was completely professional. That she wasn't hoping for a chance to break some of that unflappable clam. She ignored the way Sasuke was still coughing. "Nice of you to remain uninjured."

There was an edge to his expression she couldn't put her finger on; something that made the tilt of his mouth and the slant of his eyes dangerous. Reaching over, he slapped Sasuke between the shoulder blades, his eyes never leaving her face.

"Your concern is noted."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at his tone. She set her menu down on the bar in front of her with studied casualness. "It's always nice to keep the hospital beds for the ones who really need it, instead of the ones too stupid to rest."

"I like to learn from my...oversights." Itachi murmured, tone deepening on as he finished his sentence.

Sakura stared at him. Surely Itachi wasn't… flirting…

Feeling flustered, she turned back to her menu and decided the best option was to just ignore Sasuke's brother until he left. Refusing to gulp, she determinedly searched for something that looked appealing.

Sasuke had caught his breath and was flicking his gaze back and forth between them, like he was trying to put together a particularly challenging puzzle. Itachi ignored his unsettled expression and finished his noodles.

It was clear that Haruno felt the conversation was over. He didn't bother to cover the amused expression on his face as he paid for his meal. Standing, he let his eyes scan the small stall before turning back to the pink haired medic. Moving silently, he leaned over the shoulder furthest away from his brother and tucked a strand of bright hair behind her curiously small ear.

Bending forward, he pitched his voice so only she could hear it.

"Have a nice evening, Haruno."

Straightening, he nodded at his brother's slack face and left, satisfied.

"Sasuke…" Sakura's voice was strained. "What the hell was that?"

"I…" Sasuke planted his hand on the bar between them and cleaned close, not moving his lips, "what the hell did you do?"

"Me!" Sakura squeaked. "I didn't do anything! The only time I've ever even talked to your brother had been—"

"Shut up," Sasuke said abruptly. "You're an idiot if you don't realize that he's got to be somewhere around here listening. There's no way he would go through all that trouble to shake you up and not stay around to watch."

Sasuke withdrew, running a shaking hand through his hair.

Sakura's jaw twitched, "To shake me up?"

"Shut up. Talking about it is what he wants. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction."

Sasuke was saved being pounded into the street when the proprietor of the bar came to take Sakura's order. "You're paying," she said to Sasuke.

"What? Why?"

"Because," she turned to look at him with an evil grin. "He's your brother."

"Don't remind me," Sasuke said with a groan.

X

It was an old hospital superstition that the minute anyone mentioned 'it was a quiet night,' all hell would break loose. But it was a quiet night—so quiet that when one of the new nurses had mentioned it in the break room, Sakura hadn't given it a second thought.

She was sorting through some papers in between her office and the ICU. All of her patients were stable, but Sakura knew that in some of their cases, they would only stay that way through careful monitoring.

But she wasn't too focused in her task to look up, eyes narrowed, before she turned a corner in the hall. She recognized that chakra. What was Uchiha Itachi doing here?

…leaning on the wall, apparently. Staring straight at her.

"Uchiha-san. This is twice in one week. I'm starting to detect a pattern."

"Haruno."

She narrowed her eyes at the way he ignored her earlier comment, his dark eyes studying her with an expression she couldn't read. Determinedly stiffening her shoulders, she picked up her clipboard and then turned to him with her best frown.

"Do you need medical attention?"

Those eyes blinked at her, the corner of one mouth kicking up a little. "No."

Fingers clenching around the papers in her hands, she took a deep breath and offered him her best smile. The one that didn't offer to pound him into the ground for taking up her precious time, when she should be helping patients!

"Well then, Uchiha-san, I have patients I need to see and visitors are only allowed between ten in the morning and eleven at night." She kept her smile as she glanced at her watch. "Since its nearing two A.M…." she let her sentence hang.

"I was unaware those hours applied to visiting medics," Itachi said. He shifted, moving like fluid until he stood directly in front of her. He made sure to step slightly closer to her than was socially acceptable.

He was curious. When she was tired, surrounded by her teammates, she let herself become snappy. When she was under pressure, if someone was wounded or if an enemy was standing in front of her, she rose to the occasion, consistently standing in the way of that which would harm anyone she vowed to protect. How would she respond with her routine interrupted? Where she thought she was safe? Where she thought she was in charge?

Sakura met his eyes with a wry twist of her lips. "Medics don't receive visitors at the hospital, Uchiha-san. They work."

She nodded at him and stepped to the side, making sure not to step too close or too far away from him. Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked away.

Itachi watched her, considering the way she held herself as she walked. Her shoulders were a little stiff, but her stride was relaxed and there was an efficiency all its own to how she moved, shuffling folders in her arms as if she was completely unaware of his eyes drilling into her back. Lips curving a little, Itachi was seriously beginning to wonder how much of an idiot his little brother truly was.

He watched her until she rounded the corner before moving for the nearest exit. Reaching down, he untied the mask at his hip and settled it in place. He had his own mission to complete. Hidden behind bone, his lips curved in into smirk. The Hokage had felt it necessary to keep him on light duty for the next week, so he would have plenty of time to consider his strategy.

He wondered how much pushing it would take before she began to push back.

X

Team Seven was good at tracking down rumors. Sasuke was a little less subtle than he needed to be occasionally, Naruto was somehow still as exuberant as he'd been in their genin days, and her pink hair was too much of a give away to be sneaky, yet; they managed to get the job done. Part of it was her skill with chakra, part of it was Sasuke's ability to see through lies, and the rest of it rested solely on the fact that as a team, they worked well together.

Sakura liked to think they were sneaky, and that their ability to move in areas other shinobi didn't care to due to their rather large and collective stubborn streak was helpful, but the truth was, as a group, they were about as subtle as a bull in a china shop. What they were really good at was beating the information out of whatever informant they managed to get their hands on. Unfortunately, thanks to Naruto's over excitement on these particular missions, Wave Country was the first real place they had had a mission after all, the beating had taken a little longer than they had anticipated.

Then the information they had been given led them straight into an ambush.

Sakura had recognized the shinobi attacking them almost before the ground blew up beneath their feet. They had run into Sound half a dozen times over the years, and it was becoming something of a grudge match between them. Orochimaru still wanted Sasuke's body and would be happy to give Naruto a one-way trip to the Akatsuki headquarters.

Snarling, she drove her fist into the torso of the shinobi who had been attempting to impale her with a kunai. The sensation of bones and muscles snapping under her chakra-enhanced punches had long since stopped being a conscious thought and she followed through, rolling over the body she had just decimated. The heat of Sasuke's Housenka no Jutsu was hot against her back and as she leapt to her feet she drove her fist into the earth, creating unstable ground for those attempting to dodge Sasuke's attack.

She had to shake her bangs out of her eyes to see. They were soaked with blood and sweat and she didn't have time to care. The heat of Naruto's back was her side and then Sasuke was there, completing their circle. It was the fleeting moments like this that she felt invincible.

"Sasuke." Her voice was taunt with adrenaline and the strain of battle.

"That was the last of them." His voice was as rough as hers.

"Remind me," Naruto said, voice strained with exertion, "why they keep trying to kidnap you? It's not like you're four anymore and the only person babysitting is your half-insane brother. There's gotta be idiots in your clan easier to turn into his next zombie."

"It's my 'half-insane' brother's fault." Sasuke growled as he continued to scan the area for another attack.

"What?" Sakura asked, shifted to bump his back with her elbow.

"He and Orochimaru have… issues. Itachi told Orochimaru that he would never let him touch me. Orochimaru took it as a direct challenge. Neither of them are going to give in until the other is dead." Sasuke said flatly.

"So Itachi and Orochimaru are fighting over your body…" Naruto muttered suggestively.

Sakura laughed, "I always knew you were too pretty for your own good, Sasuke-kun."

"Shut up," Sasuke snapped. "Someone is coming."

"Friendly?" Naruto asked, his voice almost cheerful as he settled his hands into the first seal of a familiar jutsu.

Sasuke was silent for a long time and then he swore. Sakura tensed. There were only two shinobi that could get that sort of reaction out of her Uchiha teammate and one had just turned tail and fled. That meant the other was…

A figure appeared to her left. The bone mask of a rat named him leaf the same as his ANBU uniform. She had only seen that casual grace in his posture twice in her life, but it named him as surely as Sasuke's hissed breath.

The mask was lifted and a pair of sharingan red eyes studied them. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him when his eyes scanned her, taking in her appearance slowly before moving back to his brother.

"Perhaps a little less mess next time."

Sasuke's shoulders tensed. He never had a response to his brother in situations like this.

She hated the way Sasuke would walk away from these confrontations defeated. He responded to Itachi's digs too personally, and he always beat himself up for it afterwards.

Well, not today.

With the rush of battle still flowing through her veins, Sakura flicked blood soaked hair out of her face, deliberately shifting herself between the Uchiha brothers. "I didn't think a little blood would bother you, Uchiha-san."

Itachi's dark eyes lit with some emotion Sakura couldn't define. He dropped his gaze from her and deliberately raked her body from the tips of her blood-flecked toes, lingering on areas where blood had marked her thighs, her stomach, and her chest. She felt his gaze stop for a long moment at her neck, on her rapidly increasing pulse, before he lifted his eyes to meet hers again.

He flowed towards her, each movement deliberate and graceful until he came to stand inches away, his eyes locked with hers. Slowly, he reached out to take a strand of blood-soaked pink hair between his fingertips. He held the hair out between them so she could watch him roll it between his fingers without dropping her eyes from his.

His voice, when he spoke, was low with a hint of a growl. "I think blood suits you, Sakura." Itachi dropped the strand of hair, his fingers stained with blood, and reached forward with slow deliberation to wipe his forefinger in a line down her cheek.

Sakura was unable to move, hardly able to breathe as he continued to watch her with that look in his eyes, half-smile curved along his mouth as his fingers curled against her jaw. His expression was almost feral and she vaguely had time to wonder what she had gotten herself into when a hand wrapped around her wrist and yanked.

"Stop flirting with my teammate, aniki." Sasuke snarled as he dragged Sakura away from his brother. "Orochimaru went that way."

'Flirting?' Sakura thought as she stumbled along after Sasuke. 'Flirting?'

"Fl-"

"Shut up." Sasuke hissed. "Not one word, Sakura."

"What on earth…" Naruto muttered as he caught up. "Your brother hasn't moved."

Stopping, Sasuke stared over her shoulder. "If we catch him first, we aren't leaving you any."

The faint, mocking laughter that followed them sent chills down Sakura's spine and the sudden silence in the forest was interrupted only when Sasuke let her go.

"That was very stupid, Sakura."

"FLIRTING?" She resisted the urge to reach over and shake him. "Explain."

Sasuke stared at her coolly. "My brother has been flirting with you. So that little scene was entirely your fault."

Her gloves were starting to make creaking noises from the strain she was putting on the leather. Snarling, she leaned forward.

"Sasuke."

The man had the audacity to flinch. "Don't yell at me. I didn't do anything. You're the one who caught his attention and then taunted him with blood!"

"I was trying to help you!"

"Oh boy," Naruto muttered, hand going behind his head. Looking heavenward he sighed. "It's going to be one of those days."

"I didn't need your help, idiot!"

"We'll you got it and now you can fix it!"

There was a long silence. "Excuse me?" Sasuke managed.

"You can tell your brother that I am not interested," Sakura growled at him. "And you can do it as soon as you see him again, or so help me; I'm going to start at your ankles, end at your neck and break every bone in-between. Twice."

Sasuke hesitated. "Promise me something, okay?"

"What?"

"Don't ever say that to my brother."

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