Disclaimer: If we owned Naruto, it would be a VERY different story...
14 Years Earlier
Uchiha Compound
Itachi moved silently over to the corner that would best guard his back – and Sasuke – and waited.
"Whata we doin?"
"Hiding."
Sasuke tensed and when he spoke again it was in a faint whisper.
"Are the bad nin here?"
"Yes." Itachi whispered back. "But remember, I won't let them touch you."
His little head moved against his neck and Itachi was thankful when he chose to be silent, letting him hone every sense he had on pinpointing the location of the intruder.
The skill it took to move through the Uchiha compound unseen made him wary. It wasn't just the traps and the occupants that had to be avoided, but the compound itself was a carefully designed maze of homes and blood jutsu that only someone with Uchiha blood could walk without with immunity.
Someone had taken a great deal of effort to move this far into the compound.
Carefully Itachi shifted his weight, leaning onto the balls of his feet so that Sasuke was balanced perfectly against him. From this position he could move in any angle he needed. The kitchen window was too obvious an escape and he didn't particularly care to rip through his parents seals and traps on the doors. That left the roof. Blowing a hole wasn't going to be much of an issue – if choosing between Sasuke and the roof, he chose Sasuke – and it was only an application of chakra against wood and tar…
Soft, broken footfalls reached his ears as a shadowy figure stepped through the doorway from the hallway coming from the bedrooms. Itachi narrowed his eyes.
Golden eyes locked on to his and unsettling laughter reached him before the intruder stepped further into the light. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"
The patronizing tone made Itachi grit his teeth. Excellent question. What did they have here? How much more would this enemy shinobi reveal before attacking? What did he want? And how could he use the man's obvious underestimation of him to his advantage? Itachi wasn't used to being underestimated, but he fully intended to make the most of it. He could feel Sasuke trembling as he pressed against his back.
This bastard was going to pay for frightening his younger brother. He'd have to work twice as hard to get Sasuke comfortable in the dark now.
"I came here for one Uchiha and I found two, all dressed up and ready to go like little lambs." The shinobi stepped further into the kitchen, deliberately walking into the beam of light from the window. Probably so Itachi could be impressed with his appearance. He wasn't.
His body was of the average build for an elite shinobi, and he moved with the same trained grace as hundreds of other jounin. Itachi's sharingan was advanced to the stage where he was able to determine the approximate amount of chakra his opponent possessed, and he had to admit that it was considerable. The nin's preening, however, the way he automatically expected Itachi to cower at his presence, sneaking into the Uchiha compound to steal one of their own all announced a certain… lack of intelligence that Itachi was going to take a great deal of pleasure in exploiting.
"Nothing to say, little lamb?" Those golden eyes narrowed and Itachi instinctively knew that if he wanted the shinobi to keep talking, he would have to play his game. For now.
"What do you expect me to say?" Itachi asked. "Aren't lambs supposed to be quiet before the slaughter?"
That laughter was really irritating. Itachi thought he would cut out the man's tongue before he killed him, so he could choke on his own laugh.
"So much is to be expected from the great Uchiha Clan genius, Uchiha Itachi."
So the nin had heard of him. And still thought he could just walk in and do whatever it was he wanted. That was just… insulting. Itachi's eyes narrowed. "You've heard of me, I see. Funny. I've not heard of you."
It was a mild blow, as insults go. And just like Itachi thought, the man's tremendous ego received it like it was much more direct. Those golden eyes narrowed and a faint hissing sound came from his throat as the missing-nin released his hold on his killing intent.
That was… significant. Itachi felt his heart begin to pound, the corner of his mouth twitching up into the beginnings of an insane smile. It would be fun to push this man, to see just what it would take to turn that killing intent into a weapon that would reverse and wound the owner.
Sasuke buried his whimper by shifting his head into the back of Itachi's neck. And Itachi was reminded of his priorities.
"Perhaps you have yet to match the face to the name, boy. I am Orochimaru."
Itachi's eyebrow twitched, half expecting a flash of lightening to follow such a dramatic announcement. Orochimaru. Yes, Itachi had heard of him. "Traitor," Itachi made his voice almost cheerful. "It's death for you to step foot back inside Konoha."
Subtly, Itachi shifted his weight, cueing Sasuke to tighten his hold around his waist. He was relieved when Sasuke was alert enough to comply. They were going to have to move. Soon.
That laugh again. This time there was something even more insane to it. "And yet, here I stand. The walls of Konoha cannot keep me out, boy. There is nothing you can do to stop me from getting what I want."
"And what is it you want?" Itachi asked quietly.
"Immortality!" Yes, that was definitely insanity lighting Orochimaru's eyes. "I will live forever and learn every jutsu known to man. I will become the most powerful, the most knowledgeable, the best, and I will live that way forever." Orochimaru took a single step towards them, waves of his killing intent increasing. "And your little brother Sasuke is going to help me."
Itachi barely restrained himself from activating his genjutsu and entrapping Orochimaru in it then and there. That bastard was not getting a step nearer to his younger brother. He forced himself to engage in a different way and draw out more information. "Immortality is a child's dream. But it does not stand to reason that you would need a child to help you accomplish it."
"Not just any child, no. But Sasuke… Sasuke is the cumulation of all the Uchiha potential. You may be the genius, Uchiha Itachi, but your brother has it within him to surpass you. And under my guidance, he will. And then, when his body has reached its peak," Orochimaru paused to lick his lips with a disgusting length of tongue, "I will take it for my own. With the sharingan, I will learn every jutsu, and I will be forever the strongest."
The illogic of becoming the strongest when you were not even using your own body was lost in the overpowering flood of pure anger. Orochimaru wanted to take Sasuke away. Forever. He wanted to twist Sasuke and use him and break him. And somewhere from deep inside Itachi, something in him quivered at the thought – not Sasuke. Never Sasuke. He would not allow it. His brother was crying silently, and Itachi could feel the hot tears drizzle against his neck. This interview had gone on long enough.
"You are insane. And you will never touch Sasuke."
"And who is going to stop me, boy, you? You're not even a genin. Your family will get here just in time to witness the cooling of your corpse. I'm one of the legendary sannin. You can't stand against me."
A wild grin spread across Itachi's face. "Sasuke is my younger brother. And I will never allow you to touch him. Mark the next time we meet, Orochimaru. You will die choking on your own blood and the world will be forever rid of your stupidity."
Itachi had no doubt that Orochimaru was fast, but he had allowed himself to fall back onto his heels, his muscles tensed with anger and arrogance. Snapping his fingers through the last of the jutsu, he let loose the hold on the genjutsu he had laid on the floor. He had no doubt that it would only take seconds for the Sannin to break through it, but it didn't matter.
Seconds was all he needed.
The roof exploded outwards in a shower of tile, sound and fire. It wasn't so much a jutsu as it was the application of his chakra and angle of pressure he had excluded. The fire was a jutsu, one that had taken half a dozen hand signals. Landing on the roof he checked his hold on Sasuke and leapt onto his neighbor's roof. The sounds of Orochimaru's howl of displeasure met with the shouts of his clan.
A satisfied smile curled his lips wildly before he was racing across the compound and into Konoha. He was certain it wouldn't take long before his parents were aware of the explosion and his mother would worry. He had no doubt that the Sannin would think twice before following him into the heart of the village. Already the vibrations of the alarm were ripping through the air and the lights in the village were flickering on rapidly. No, Orochimaru had lost his prey. Wind whistled though his ears as he raced through the village.
The window to the Hokage's office was open and he could feel the chakra signatures of his parents. His ka-chan's form filled the glass a heartbeat before he landed on the ledge. Her eyes were dark as she took in his expression and reached for Sasuke.
"Itachi?" she asked quietly once her arms were full of his crying brother. Sasuke had buried his face in her neck and was wrapped as tightly around her as he could manage with his short limbs. His oto-san was standing behind her, his expression tight.
"Orochimaru was in the compound." Itachi said calmly. "He wanted Sasuke."
Sarutobi was there a moment later, his expression grave. "Come in and shut the window."
Itachi slipped off the windowsill and did as he was asked. As he turned to shut the window he let a faint smile curve his lips as he saw the fire had been put out. Tonight was not the only time he would face Orochimaru. He would make it so.
Next time, it would end in the Sannin's death.
X
Present Day
Konoha Hospital
Sakura rolled her shoulders as she finished organizing the clipboards with the patient information she had spent the last seven hours doing rounds on. Running her fingers through her rather messy bangs, she glanced at her watch and sighed when she realized she had only another five minutes on shift. The midnight to seven wasn't her favorite time to work in the hospital but the staff had been short handed tonight.
Unfortunately, she had the sneaking suspicion that whatever Tsunade wanted to talk about in half an hour would keep her from picking up the same shift tomorrow. That meant staying up until at least dark before being able to sleep. Ah well, another reason to be happy for her training. Speaking of duties…
Her gut instinct promised whatever it was that Tsunade wanted, it was going to have to do with Uchiha-san. Frowning darkly, she shut the drawer she had been putting files into rather forcefully. It had been two days since she had seen the Uchiha and she was still mad at him. This just made her even more irritable. He shouldn't have the ability to get under her skin for two days, even if he had violated her personal space. He had seemed generally impressed with her cataloguing of the ring and the scrolls had been returned to her the next morning via Sasuke who had worn an expression clearly read, 'I don't want to know, don't tell me', on his face.
Rubbing her eyes, Sakura went to gather her things. If he had reported the ring to Tsunade, then odds were she was going to find herself dealing with the subject again at some point. It was almost giving It-Uchiha-san a free pass to harass her, but she doubted he needed such clear-cut reasons to invade her personal space. Her teeth clenched at the memory of his little 'promise'.
What was his fascination with her neck? Shaking her head to dispel the memory of his fingers against her throat, she marched her way into Tsunade's office. She was tired of thinking about him. Best to get whatever it was her sensei had cooked up over and done with as soon as possible. She might even survive the experience without any sort of an Uchiha encounter. Perking a little at the thought, she headed up the stairs.
She nodded at the guards outside Tsunade's door and gave it a sharp rap with her fist.
"Come," Tsunade called, and Sakura opened the door, stepped in, and shut it behind her.
"Ah, Sakura," Tsunade looked up from behind a pile of paperwork, an evaluating light in her eyes. "Well, haven't you been a busy little kunoichi. I've just received the most glowing report from Uchiha Itachi. And to think, this was the first I've heard of it."
Sakura refused to give Tsunade the response that she was looking for. "What, that Uchiha-san can give complements? It was a surprise to me too."
Tsunade smiled, "I'm sure it was. None of your sass, girl. You want to explain to me why you didn't include this ring I'm suddenly hearing so much about in your initial report?"
Well, she'd seen that coming. There was no way to get out of this without looking either stupid or disloyal and Sakura wasn't sure which was worse. "Truth be told, Shishou… I just didn't think about it. The way Uchiha-san gave it to me made it seem… irrelevant to our mission. And when I decided to research it, I did it with the mind of discovering as much as I could before he returned. I was still in the process of determining its importance when he came back."
Tsunade studied her for a moment before nodding. "We'll, since you are now part of a select group of individuals who Itachi will allow in his personal space, I have an assignment for you. It's going to keep you out of the hospital for an extended period of time I'm afraid, but you should find the challenge worth it."
Sakura had to work to keep from grimacing. She really did not want to be connected to the Uchiha in anyway form in her sensei's mind. "Oh?"
Tsunade tapped a finger on a pile of documents on her desk. "I want to know more about this ring."
Sakura blinked several times. "I don't know much about jewelry, sensei."
"But you do know about chakra control. Itachi has informed me that it would have taken some very precise work to create this piece of jewelry. Since your previous work was so satisfactory, and I need a distraction to keep Itachi from running off to kill Orochimaru, you both will be working on this. Together."
Sakura couldn't hold back her expression of dismay and Tsunade lifted a brow. "Would you like to say something?"
Sakura wiped her expression clean and swallowed. What she would like to say and what she could say always warred in moments like these. A mission, with Itachi? One that required close contact and long hours of research?
"No, sensei."
"Good." Tsunade said. "Then you can start now. Itachi will be joining you later this morning." She leveled Sakura with a stern glance. "I don't need to explain how important it is that you solve this. If we can trace the materials and jutsu to a particular village, we might be able to track the origins of the Akatsuki. Knowing their strengths will give us an idea of their weaknesses and if we are to defeat them, we must have this information."
Tsunade was making this about protecting Naruto. Sometimes it exasperated Sakura that her sensei could read her so well, but instead of commenting she nodded and bowed, accepting the mission scroll.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Tsunade snorted. "Make sure you eat something this morning, Sakura. I except to have a preliminary report on my desk in the morning."
Sakura nodded before moving out the door.
Gamabunta If she was lucky, and her luck seemed to have all but disappeared lately, this would be what the Uchiha needed to decide she wasn't worth his attention.
Maybe.
She really needed to talk to Sasuke.
X
She was partly slumped against the desk, a half eaten bento at her elbow and a faint wrinkle of displeasure between her eyebrows as she read something she was dissatisfied with when he found her. She was playing with the ends of her braid and his eyes were drawn to her long fingers.
"Uchiha-san, if you're just going to stand there you might as well come back later."
"So friendly, Sa-ku-ra," he moved away from the shadows. "Do you treat all your new team members this way?"
She sent him a brittle smile, "No, Uchiha-san. You're special."
He laughed and moved towards her. "Oh, Sakura. I knew you'd see the light one day, but I had not anticipated your precipitation."
"And I had not anticipated your obliviousness. I'll try to be clearer in my definitions in the future."
Itachi blinked. He wondered, vaguely, if anyone had ever been so bold to insult him as blatantly as the kunoichi in front of him. It was… a rather novel experience. He couldn't say he enjoyed it.
"Now, this is hardly getting the mission off on the right foot," he murmured, reaching over to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
She slammed the scroll in her hand down on the table and shifted so that she could glare up at him directly. "Uchiha-san, I believe I have been more than tolerant of your consistent invasions of my personal space. But as we are going to work together, I must ask you to remain professional. Keep your hands off me."
Itachi's eyes narrowed at her challenge. She was, of course, perfectly within her rights to demand such a thing, as his behavior had certainly not been the disinterested interaction of a colleague. 'Disinterested' was the last thing he felt towards Haruno Sakura.
"And I believe," he bent, placing one hand on the back of her chair and the other on her desk, framing her in. He leaned in so that his mouth was parallel to her ear, "that I have asked you to call me Itachi."
He moved slowly, his cheek close enough to hers that he could feel her heat, but refusing to touch her. Finally, he came face to face with her, the exact amount of distance between them that was necessary so he could see her face. "Is such a small request so very difficult for you, Sakura?"
Those eyes of hers narrowed, "If it is such a small request, then it shouldn't matter, should it, Uchiha-san."
Sakura clenched her fists, letting her short nails dig into her palms to keep from picking up a scroll and attempting to beat Itachi to death with it. Sucking in a deep breath, she worked to get a handle on her temper. Refocusing her gaze on him, she was startled to see that he had covered what little space there had been between them. Before she could react, he slid his hands along her jaw and tilted her chin up, his long fingers brushing the sensitive skin behind her ears a heartbeat before he settled his mouth on hers.
Sakura froze. The kiss was so soft she could barely feel the pressure of his lips. The heat of his hands held her in place as his mouth whispered against hers, her lips tingling with the almost-pressure before he pulled back and watched her from eyes that smoldered.
She stared at him in shock. Itachi had kissed her. The thought wrapped around her brain for several seconds before she could make sense of it, and then she got angry. Planting a foot on the floor, she shoved her chair as far away from him as she could manage without sending herself through the wall.
Itachi's mouth curled into a satisfied smile as he watched her chest heave with the force of her temper. Locking his gaze on hers, he deliberately ran his tongue over his lips, savoring the way her breath caught in her throat. Tilting his head, his eyes slowly scanned her figure. Returning his gaze to hers, he lifted a brow.
Sitting up as straight as her spine would allow, she obviously struggled with her temper before giving in and snarling at him.
"Personal. Space. Uchiha-san!"
This time, his smile was positively predatory.
"Call me Itachi. Sakura."
She got out of her chair and marched over to poke him in the chest, "Asking you to refrain from touching me is hardly on the same level as your request that I call you by your first name, U-chi-ha-san. One is a breach of protocol, and the other is asking you to respect common courtesy."
Sakura lifted her hand from his chest and clenched it into a fist between them, waving it slightly in front of his face. "And if you ever kiss me without my permission again, I swear I will knock you into next week."
One of his hands came up to catch her wrist as a slightly feral look lit behind his eyes, "I look forward to seeing you try it." His thumb traced along her pulse point, "I am growing to love your hands, Sakura."
She narrowed her eyes and told herself that having his full attention on her was not doing funny things to her insides.
His smile was positively predatory, and he brought his other hand up and eased it along the palm of her clenched fist, losing her fingers so that they aligned with his. "They're so delicate. Long-fingered and slender. But with them you have the power to crush mountains, to decimate your enemies. And these same hands hold the ability to remove poison, to bring life back when your allies have lost hope. They hold the lives of your friends and the lives of your enemies. All this found in such a delicate package."
He shifted his hand so that he could lace his fingers through hers.
Sakura had the terrifying, sinking sensation that this was no longer just a game to him. That somehow, despite her best intentions, she had underestimated him. Sliding her tongue between her teeth, she bit down hard to clear her head. She refused to think of how his fingers felt tangled with hers and the way he was watching her, all dark eyed and mesmerizing.
"Uchiha-san," she was proud at how even her voice was. "If you do not let go of me right this instance, then I will be explaining to Tsunade-sensei exactly why you are doing this mission alone, consequences be damned."
His eyes held hers for another second; thumb deliberately moving across her knuckles before he let go. His smile was faintly mocking now, as he took a single step backwards, giving her a little bit of breathing room.
"Ah, Sakura," his voice had a warm rumble to it that had her biting down even harder on her tongue. "I do admire your spine."
Sakura crossed her arms. "What do you know about the Akatsuki, Uchiha-san?"
"Hmm," he said as he pulled his chair up to the desk, his smile inviting her to relax. "I have been dealing with… let's call them 'components' of the organization, for some time now." His eyes danced. "It's all classified I'm afraid."
She stubbornly fell into her medic persona, refusing to be intimidated by the Uchiha. "Tsunade let me see a few of your reports on their activities. Your idea that they are using the rings as a source of communication is plausible."
"I'm delighted you approve."
She searched his words for a hidden taunt and decided to ignore it if there was one. The man was positively dangerous when it came to mind games. Best to deal with the ones she could and work out the rest later.
"Yet, you still haven't managed to report a workable theory on what they are doing with the Jinchiruuki." Besides, she was fairly decent at her own taunting.
His eyes burned for a moment, either with challenge or temper, and he laced his long fingered hands together, sliding a look out of the corner of his eyes that had the hairs rising off the back of her neck.
"Be careful, Sakura." He chided, tone curiously mellow. "I'm a man with only so much patience."
Point for her.
Widening her eyes in false innocence, she tilted her head. "Besides tracking the Akatsuki and stealing their rings, what can you tell me, Uchiha-san?"
"Why don't you have a seat, Sakura, and we can talk about it like you're not afraid to be near me?"
Sakura crossed her arms, "Painfully obvious, Uchiha-san."
He arched an eyebrow, "Perhaps. That doesn't make it less true."
Obvious, yes, stupid, yes, but Sakura couldn't help respond to his challenge. She walked over and pulled out the chair opposite It—Uchiha-san. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction even in her own mind.
"So what is it," she repeated the question, "that you can tell me about the Akatsuki?"
Leaning back against his chair, he studied her face for a moment before speaking. "The Akatsuki are basically a criminal organization created for purposes we are still attempting to gather. They have in their possession the one-tailed Shakaku and we can assume, are working to collect others."
Sakura nodded in agreement. She knew this.
"What we have suspected for some time now is that Orochimaru originally had connections to the Akatsuki organization and then broke away." He taped a finger on the desk. "He still maintains possession of the ring he was given, which suggests that there is some significance to the rings besides communication."
Sakura frowned, mulling over that piece of information. "Do we have any idea of how they extracted Shakaku from Gaara? I haven't had a chance to read Kakashi's report on what was found in the cave or his conversation with Gaara."
A flicker of something flared through his eyes and then disappeared. "Kazekage-sama has no memory of the steps that stole his bijuu, and it is unlikely that they would place such an important step into rings. However, they have not yet replaced Orochimaru."
Sakura's eyes sharpened. "Because they don't have his ring?"
"That is our assumption, yes." Itachi expression was almost gleeful. "They will want Sasori's back."
Sakura crossed her arms. "But why create the rings at all?"
"That Sakura is what Tsunade wants us to discover."
She snorted, reaching for a scroll. "I was able to trace a few of the kanji I didn't recognize. They are similar to some we had come out of lighting country several years ago."
Itachi's eyes sharpened as he mulled over her words. "Lightening country… do you have that diagram?"
"What are you thinking?"
"Clouds association with Sound might go back longer than we anticipated." He said mildly, eyes scanning a scroll. "We don't know how long Orochimaru was with the Akatsuki before he left. If the ring was created by someone from Cloud or materials were purchased there, it would be a start."
"Cloud and Konoha have been silently warring for years," Sakura pointed out. "Even if Orochimaru was claiming to be a missing-nin from our village, they would have been wary of him."
"You're assuming Orochimaru made the original contact, Sakura. It's possible someone else in the organization has roots there and it's likely that Orochimaru was brought in after the rings were made, not before."
"What evidence do you have to support that?"
"Bodies." Itachi said calmly. "We can trace Orochimaru's movements by the number of bodies he has left behind over the years."
"Oh."
"Jiraiya has done an excellent job tracking his old teammates body swaps." Itachi continued. "Taking that data, we can assume that it was a recent period of time that Orochimaru joined and left Akatsuki; near the time that he started to hunt Sasuke."
Sakura chewed on her lip before shaking her head. "I think the connection with Cloud is possible, but I don't think that whoever put that ring together would have depended so heavily on one village. Too easy for information to leak. If I was putting together something this complicated, I would have gathered pieces from different locations and melded them once I was sure none of the parts could be traced back together."
Approval from Uchiha Itachi could become very heady if she let it. There was a way he tilted his head, eyes warm with a mixture of approval and laughter, as if he was surprised and pleased all at once.
Her tongue was going to start bleeding if she kept up its rough treatment.
"True," he agreed. "However, I suggested it would be a beginning point, Sakura, not the answer to our questions."
And there went that warm fuzzy feeling. Relief was heady too. "I'll keep that in mind." Reaching under the table, she dropped a box in front of him. "Here, you can start with these."
He lifted a brow. "Start?"
"Let's see how fast you can read and still remember things, Uchiha-san." Sakura challenged lightly. "I plan to finish at least two boxes before my eyes fall out of my head."
"You shouldn't bait me, Sakura."
"Oh?"
"Hmmm," he replied, leaning forward so that his long hair brushed her arm. "I don't lose."
Tilting her chin up, she quirked an eyebrow. "Yet."
He laughed, full throated and open. "Oh, you'll see, Sakura. You'll see."
X
Sakura was not sure how she'd ended up here. All she knew was that her partner could be very persuasive when he'd set his mind to something, and Uchiha Itachi had decided it was time for them to get something to eat.
All she knew was that one minute she'd been bent over a scroll, trying to figure out the particulars of a kind of chakra collection module, and the next she was blinking in the twilight, being herded to a comfortable, quiet restaurant with ambient lighting and free bread sticks.
She picked one up, it was still warm, and began gnawing on the edge of it while she contemplated her companion. Ever since their last…'conversation' about it, Uchiha Itachi had been playing her personal space like a virtuoso. He'd made it so that no matter where he was or wasn't she was always aware of him. One moment he'd be skimming his fingers along the back of her neck, the other he'd have his brow furrowed in thought on the other side of the room, as if she wasn't even there.
You would think he made stalking reluctant girls a hobby.
She had moved on to her second bread stick and he was smirking at her like he could see inside her head. "All right," she admitted, hoping to distract him if he was in fact, psychic, "I admit it. I was hungry."
He somehow managed to look even more self-satisfied. She wasn't sure how he did it.
"Mmm," he said, timing his own grasp into the bread basket to align with hers so he could 'accidentally' tangle his fingers with hers in search of some more bread.
Sakura refused to give him the satisfaction of snatching her hand back.
"You don't have to be a medic to know that sort of thing happens when you skip lunch," Itachi continued, the light of faint challenge in his eyes.
She pointed her bread stick at him, "I had a bento."
His eyes dropped from hers to the bread stick. "You had a bento for breakfast, Sakura." He lifted his eyes back to hers and leaned across the table and took the tip of her bread stick in his mouth, biting it slowly before leaning back up. He chewed and swallowed before speaking in a low tone of voice, "You don't think I'd notice?"
Sakura swallowed before letting the bread stick drop from limp fingers onto the table.
"There'd better be another bread stick," she muttered, dropping her eyes and reaching over to the basket.
His eyes heated and he reached over to gently catch her hand in his. Sakura did not gasp at the contact, but she very much wanted to. She glared at him instead. He ran his thumb over her knuckles.
"First you repeatedly ignore my very polite request, now you won't even answer my questions? I would not have thought you capable of such rudeness, Haruno Sakura."
Her eyes narrowed, "I am capable of a lot more than rudeness, Uchiha-san." She tugged at her hand, but to no effect. His grip remained light but her hand wasn't going anywhere unless she used chakra. And she was seriously considering it.
Itachi tugged her hand forward, eyes intent upon hers, "I am consistently impressed with your capacity, Sakura. One day I hope you will demonstrate it to me in full." He pressed a burning kiss to her knuckles.
She was saved from her impulse of cracking a plate over his head by the appearance of their waiter. Itachi let her hand go slowly, so that each nerve was sensitized as her hand slid out of his calloused grasp.
"What can I get you two today?"
Sakura crossed her arms, removing her hands from his reach and safeguarding herself from the temptation of hitting him. She was sure he was going to pull a Sasuke and order for the table. In fact, just about every shinobi she'd ever been out with, with the exception of Naruto, who didn't care, and Kakashi, who also didn't care, and Shikamaru, who was too lazy or who knew better, she hadn't decided, always tried to order for the girl.
She was taken aback when Itachi finished his order and directed his gaze back to her, an inquiring tilt to his brows.
"And for yourself, miss?"
Sakura gave the waiter a smile. "I'll take the special."
"Grilled or blackened?"
"Grilled, please." She murmured. She was pretty sure she had ordered some sort of fish. The quick glance she had taken of the menu had been a curious mix of traditional and foreign foods.
The waiter nodded before disappearing, leaving her alone with Itachi again. Still, the small buffer had given her the time she needed to collect and stuff her temper back into a safer corner of her mind, to be taken out and used later. Preferably in a fight. Itachi eyes were gleaming with an expression Sakura was quickly starting to equate with being unhealthy for her mental well being, and she braced herself for another round of invading her personal space.
"Why a medic-nin?"
Sakura blinked at him. "What?"
Itachi smiled, his expression as close to being open as Sakura could remember. "Why did you choose to become a medic-nin? It's not the most common path for a kunoichi, even those with perfect chakra control."
She frowned at him, looking for some hidden motive. Besides seeming amused by her suspicion, he just watched her. Mentally trying to decide how much trouble she could get herself into talking about half of her profession, she reluctantly answered his question.
"I sort of fell into it, Uchiha-san."
"How so?"
Sakura lifted a brow. "Sasuke is your brother, right?"
Itachi lifted a brow. "Yes, he is. How does that play with your decision to be a medic-nin?"
Sakura relaxed a little. Sasuke and Naruto were safe subjects, and the most she would have to explain was her attachment to her team. Attachment that was common among all genin.
"When we were younger Sasuke and Naruto had the tendency to try to kill themselves. As creatively as possible. Kakashi gave me some scrolls to study about basic first-aid, because someone had to patch them back together. I found I was pretty good at it." She fiddled with a breadstick for a moment before continuing. "After the chunin exams, I decided it would be a good idea to get more training in that area."
"I wasn't aware that they allowed genin into the sort of advanced studies you had to have taken on without special permission." Itachi mused.
"They don't." Sakura responded wryly. "I enrolled in some basic courses to fill my time, and then started volunteering at the hospital. Team 7 had basically dissolved at this point. I managed to find some shinobi who'd let me train with them at night, but I needed something to do during the day. There weren't a lot of genin missions for a single kunoichi, so I spent the time at the hospital. After I met Tsunade-sensei, things just sort of fell into place."
Itachi studied her face, carefully making notes about all the things she wasn't talking about. It was obvious that the fact that her two teammates had left her had stung. That being in the hospital had given her a chance to find her feet. It appeared that for all her bluster, Sakura was very delicate in some areas. There were shadows in her voice and in her eyes, and he was vaguely surprised to find he didn't care for them.
So, Kakashi had left to train with his little brother and allowed Naruto to train with Jiraiya without making any provision for the kunoichi on his team. He'd always suspected the copy-nin to be a touch oblivious. Now he had proof.
"I see. Tsunade approached you, then?"
Sakura flushed, "Not exactly." She could still remember what had cost her, to walk into the Hokage's office and ask to become her apprentice. She hadn't been able to eat at all that day, and she had been shaking for hours even after Tsunade had said yes. "I asked her to train me. I'm still not sure why she just didn't kick me out of her office. But she gave me three weeks to learn what was, to me, an incredibly complicated jutsu. If I could learn the jutsu, memorize a list of common poisons and antidotes, and improve my sprint time by at least 2 seconds while keeping up with my regular duties, she said she'd consider it."
She shrugged, "According to her, she's still considering it."
"So you knew what you wanted and went after it. Tsunade recognized a valuable asset in you when she agreed to consider training you." His eyes lit with inner heat for a moment and they left her face to briefly take all of her in. "Do you enjoy your chosen path?"
Sakura fought down the warm flush that came with his blatant approval. Instead, she gave serious consideration to his question. Nothing about being a medic-nin was easy. Letting go of the first time someone had died on her table had almost killed her. You had to accept that there would be times that you would fail, and that there was nothing you could do about it, and that stung Sakura to the quick. Naruto had taught her that failure was not an option; being a medic had taught her it was inevitability. She wasn't kami.
But she still took satisfaction each time she pulled someone back from the brink, each time someone didn't have to hurt when she was there. She'd come to accept that no matter how strong she'd become, Naruto and Sasuke would always been one step ahead of her. It was a bitter taste in the back of her throat, but she consoled herself with the fact that even if she couldn't keep up with them, she could watch their backs by making them better. Her boys would not die on her watch. She had learned enough of Naruto's lesson to make damn sure of that.
The hours were long, and unlike most shinobi she was never really off duty. If she wasn't on the field, she was at the hospital. If she wasn't at the hospital, she was trying to improve. Lives of precious people were held in the balance of her knowledge and skill, and Sakura was determined that in this area, she would never be lacking. Death would have to pry her patients from her with an exploding crowbar, because she would not just let them go.
Her lips twitched upward. All shinobi danced with Death. She was the only one who got to beat it back. And every time she did, Sakura was filled with such a sense of purpose and accomplishment; it made it all worth it.
"I couldn't have chosen anything better."
There was a light in his eyes that told her she had let some of her emotion reveal itself on her face, but even though Sakura was wary about what Itachi would do with the information of just how much her profession meant to her, at the same time she couldn't care less. It was true. She wasn't ashamed of it.
Their waiter arrived with their food. She was relieved for the distraction and smiled as her meal was set in front of her. Steam was coming off the fish and the rice dish that made up her meal and she was suddenly reminded of how hungry she was. Carefully digging into her food, she waited until she had taken the edge of her hunger off before facing Itachi again.
Sakura looked up at him over her grilled fish with a bright smile. "So, Uchiha-san. What about you? Sasuke mentioned just how early you'd joined ANBU, and if rumors are to be believed you could have graduated from the Academy at six. Seems like you've certainly taken the way of the shinobi very seriously."
"My mother insisted I be allowed graduate at a normal pace. She wanted me to have as much of a normal childhood as possible," Itachi flashed a sharp grin. "She took on all the clan elders for me, and had to deal with my attitude when I was forced to remain behind. But she explained that it was more of a… opportunity than a handicap, and I've been grateful to her ever since."
Sakura took a bite of her fish and digested the information. He was certainly being more…open than she would have expected. "An opportunity? How do you mean?"
Itachi's eyes suddenly flooded red. "The Uchiha have a natural advantage over most other shinobi. It is a strength that can easily be turned into a weakness. There is a natural tendency to focus on what seems to be the quickest path to the most power." He let his sharingan fade out. "Ka-san taught me to observe my fellow shinobi, to see how they are strong, and to learn to incorporate that strength into myself. In this way, I have learned to perfect all aspects of combat so I am not dependent on a bloodline limit."
He sent her another one of his sharp grins, "Although the sharingan certainly does have its more… interesting properties."
It took Sakura a moment to process what he told her. "So… your mother convinced you to remain in the Academy so you could spy out the strengths and weaknesses the other clans while they were learning. This way you'd be able to see them at their weakest and what it takes for them to become strong." She shook her head. His mother had managed to protect him from being exposed to the horrors of shinobi life at an early age, all the while equipping her son against the most powerful clans of Konoha. Uchiha Mikoto sounded… scary. "I'm beginning to see where you get your sneaky streak from, Uchiha-san."
"I am pleased that you grasped the concept so easily, Sa-ku-ra," he caressed her name with his voice. "I would certainly say that is an advantage."
Sakura gulped. Why couldn't she have just kept her big mouth shut? The way he was looking at her…it was like he was hungry.
Distract, evade. She was a medic-nin, dodging was her job. She could do this. "You must love your mother very much."
Itachi's lips twitched upwards at the corners and his eyes caught and held her gaze. "She has set a certain standard when it comes to my dealings with women. It has been very hard to find anyone who could possibly measure up. You are very perceptive, Sakura."
A voice inside Sakura's head she hadn't heard in a very long time was screaming. 'DID HE JUST COMPARE US TO HIS MOTHER?'
A heavy feeling settled over Sakura. It was the weight of his appreciation, the intensity of his stare, and the utter certainty that she was doomed.
And the longest flashback ever is finished! We hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as we enjoyed writing it. Once again, we cannot thank you enough for the wonderful, positive feedback we have been getting for this little AU. We hope you continue to meet your expectations and that you enjoy our little retelling of cannon.
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