Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto.

AN: Wow. Just... wow. We honestly don't know if we can get any more shocked at the level of response to this fic! Thank you so much! We regret the fact that we're not able to take the time to get back to each of you personally, but it's that or write more, and we figured we'd know what you'd pick. There have, however, been a couple of reoccurring questions which we really wanted to be able to interact with. For that purpose we have set up a frequently asked questions section at our homepage. If you're interested, please go on over and check it out. ALSO! MAJOR love and thanks to Nashy87 and Lauren Marie for sending us such awesome fanart. Seriously. The fact that something we wrote inspired others to create is just... wow. Thank you so much.

Less talking, more reading, yes? We hope you enjoy!

20 Years Ago
Uchiha Compound

Mikoto adjusted the weight of her three-year-old son on her hip and tried to smile politely at one of Fugaku's aunts. The woman kept reaching out to pinch Itachi's cheeks and making the most outrageous faces to see if he would smile. Itachi just watched her the way he watched everything else – wide-eyed and solemn. She wouldn't have minded setting him down to let him totter around, but two days before he had managed to set a trap that had caught his father in a shower of kunai.

As entertaining as it would have been to see what sort of devilment was going on behind his quiet stare, she would have to deal with the aftermath and the elders were already watching him with eyes that were too sharp. Thankfully, Itachi didn't seem to mind her holding him today, although she knew he would soon.

Best to extract him from the small gathering. The small, well-kept garden behind the house usually offered some distraction for her small son and he had stopped tearing the flowers off the stalks after she had explained the purpose of the pretty flowers. Now he used the garden as a place to hide and stalk small animals. Adjusting him on her hip again, she bowed as well as she could and made her excuses. As soon as she rounded the corner, Itachi looked up at her with a fairly curious expression.

"Was the crazy lady broken?"

Mikoto kept a straight face only by long habit. "No, she's just old. Sometimes old people see the world differently."

"Why?"

"Do you see things the same way I do?"

He looked at her for a long moment and then shook his head. "No."

She nodded and set him down. Smoothing his hair back, she put on her best stern face. "Stay in the garden, Itachi. Do not set traps for the gardeners and please do not scare your relatives."

He nodded. "Okay."

Smiling she kissed the top of his head. "I will return in one hour."

"Bye."

She had done all she could. Itachi would do as she asked, but she also knew he would ponder the exact meaning of her words before deciding exactly how they applied to him. Three-year-olds shouldn't be that intelligent. Even so, she knew she would come back and find him covered in mud and examining some new puzzle that had caught his attention. He was still just a little boy, after all, and took a great deal of interest in the world around him.

X

Itachi was certainly covered in dirt. There was dirt streaking his clothing and a smudge of it against one cheek. Tonight's bath would require a great deal of soap if the grime sticking to the bottom of his pants said anything.

But it was the collection of broken butterflies around him that made her pause. Itachi was sitting silently, fingers streaked with yellow and blue, holding what was left of the graceful bug between chubby fingers. His brows were drawn together and his eyes gleamed with an expression she hadn't seen before. Examining the situation for a moment longer, she walked in his direction.

Itachi looked up and some of the quiet confusion faded. His eyes were wide and his lips moved into a pout as he regarded her. "Not working."

Setting down next to him, ignoring her own skirts, she picked up what was left of one of the butterflies. Itachi had systematically shredded the wings of this one, leaving behind the small body. It was still alive.

"What's not working?"

Itachi blinked at her and sighed, pointing at the bug in her hand. Mikoto studied her son for a long moment. He was looking slightly frustrated and his eyes were unhappy. Running her finger along a broken wing, she considered what it was that he had been attempting to learn. Before she could finish that thought, he held up a wing.

"I don't know how it works."

Ah. She supposed she should have seen that one coming. Itachi's systematic destruction of the flower beds, his attempts to catch the fast, small mammals that lived in the garden, even the way he had chased the small lizards to pull their tails off. The way he had shattered a cup to study the pieces. Itachi tended to take things apart to discover how they worked. He didn't ask many questions, preferring to draw his own conclusions.

"Is that why you pulled the wings off? To figure out how they fly?"

He nodded.

Mikoto reached out and took the wing from him and set what was left of the butterfly in her hand down, squishing its head as she went. Reaching down she picked Itachi up. He didn't protest, but he scrunched up his eyebrows in displeasure. Walking quickly, she moved towards the bushes she knew her son had stalked to gather his collection. Sitting down on the bench, she sat him down next to her. He wiggled for a moment but then stayed still.

"Watch, Itachi." Mikoto said calmly, pointing at the butterflies.

"Why?"

Mikoto arched a brow down at him. The expression on his face wasn't defiance, but it was stubborn. She tapped his nose. "How well did you learn about how they flew by taking them apart?"

He crossed his eyes to stare at his nose and then frowned up at her, considering her words. His chubby cheeks puffed out and his eyes were serious as he studied her expression before he slowly nodded and turned his attention to the butterflies that were still alive.

She let him watch for several moments, noting the way his eyes tracked first an individual butterfly and then several. Smiling, she reached out and ran her fingers through his hair.

"Did you notice how light the butterflies were?"

Looking up, he nodded again.

"That helps them fly. They're made for it." He looked a little put out but nodded again. Now it was time to teach him that there were other ways to learn. "Do you see the way they push the wind with their wings? It's just like the way the wind pushes up falling leaves. Were you able to see that before? Sometimes, Itachi, it's important to watch before you do anything else."

"Why?"

"Because you can't always fix what you break." She said gently. "What if there was something important and you didn't know about it? Then, after you took it apart, you realized it was something you wanted in one piece, but you couldn't put it back together again. It would be broken forever."

His eyes widened in comprehension. Then they narrowed a little. "So I need to plan first?"

Mikoto decided that for a three-year-old, that was more than she had actually expected. "Did you plan before you examined the butterflies?"

"Yes."

"Then it's not just a matter of planning. You have to know what you looking for." She continued to run her fingers through his hair. "Do you try to take a trap apart before you examine it?"

"No."

"What you must decide, Itachi, is if you can learn more from watching something, studying it or if it's something that requires you to take it apart. If you do take it apart, you must do so carefully and in a way that you can put it back together." Unless, of course, you want to destroy it. But she didn't feel the need to plant that suggestion in his three year old brain. Itachi would be able to take that step on his own.

His mouth opened in a silent 'O' as he understood what she was saying, eyes lighting up as his brain quickly processed that bit of information and began applying it everything he knew. She wanted to tell him that only nonliving beings could be taken apart, that the only time he could pull it apart in pieces was if it was an unanimated object or a jutsu… but that would be putting an unnecessary handicap on her son. It would mean taking away a tool that he might need in the future as he grew as a shinobi, and then later he would resent her for it. Understand why she did it, but resent her for it.

So she wouldn't. Better to guide his feet carefully down the correct path than to block the path off and let him find it for himself. Smiling she stood and offered him her arms. He considered her for a moment before one of his rare baby smiles crossed his face and he let her pick him up and kiss his cheeks.

He was still a baby and he would always be her son. She had time.

X

Present Day
Konoha Village

Sakura pressed her face against her mattress and tried to suffocate herself. Reaching up with two hands she dragged her pillow over her head and tried to decide if Naruto and Sasuke would forgive her if she leapt off the Hokage monument. There was only one time in her life she could remember her head pounding this hard, and that had been during her early training with Tsunade and the fatal mistake of too much sake after a shift and no food.

This was worse.

Whimpering low in her throat she took a deep breath and somewhere between the sheets and the pillow, she smelled coffee. Cracking and eye open she worked up the energy to shift so she could take another less blocked breath.

Coffee. Life giving, blood capillary opening caffeine. It smelled real. Taking a third breath she slowly eased herself out of her blankets so that her head was resting in her hands. Carefully she began to catalogue her current predicament. Headache. One full body ache. The growl in her gut that said she hadn't eaten anything in at least the last fifteen hours. Chakra levels were ridiculously low. Cracking her eye open she stared at the clock on her night stand. It was close to six thirty in the evening which meant she had been asleep for the past seven hours, give or take.

She was in her bed. Both eyes snapped open and she jerked herself straight up and stared at the door that was just cracked enough to pick up the noises coming from her kitchen. Noises that suggested someone was in her kitchen and producing those life giving smells. Someone who…

Uchiha. In her kitchen.

Sakura groaned and let herself collapse back into bed. Not this. Not him. She was too tired to deal with him.

But still… coffee… and food… and if he was making it he would have no qualms about coming in to her bedroom and making her eat it. Her bedroom. Oh kami.

She rolled over and buried her face in her pillow once again. Had he been there since she came home? Where had he stayed? What had he done, unsupervised in her home?

Sakura's stomach tightened painfully, and the throbbing in her head increased with each thought. Well. She needed to eat if she was going to get any better. And if he was making food, she might as well eat it, if just to get the strength to throw him out. And if she was going to eat it, Sakura didn't want to have him feeding her in bed.

And the fact that that thought turned into a completely inappropriate direction Sakura blamed entirely on her exhaustion.

Besides, she was too tired for that anyway.

Using her arms as fulcrums, Sakura levered herself upright once again and vaguely noted that she was still fully dressed. Gross. But good. She didn't have the strength to kill him just yet either.

Running a weak hand through her hair, Sakura opened her bedroom door and made her somewhat hazy way into the kitchen.

He was moving a pot away from the heat of a burner when she finally located him. Adjusting the temperature knobs as he turned, his dark eyes scanned her face before slowly dragging down her body. Deciding to ignore him she let her eyes scan her kitchen for any signs of an explosion. Satisfied that things were still in one piece she swung her gaze back to him and was thankful her reflexes were too dead to jump.

"Sakura." He was standing close enough to hit if she had the energy.

"Why are you still here?" She was pleased her voice only sounded a little rough and was easily pushed off on the fact that she had just woken up. Never mind that she was almost squinting around the pounding in the back of her head. Warm hands settled on her shoulders and turned her around before she found herself ushered to the couch.

"Sit down before you fall down, Sakura."

"I am perfectly capable of standing, Uchiha-san." She glared up at him. He lifted a brow and didn't move. She narrowed her gaze and he watched her with an air of suppressed amusement.

"You could say please," she informed him before giving in and dropping onto the couch.

"Would you like one of your ridiculously numerous blankets?"

If she narrowed her eyes any further she would be squinting. "Are you making fun of my blankets?"

He didn't answer. Instead he slipped around behind her and she could hear him rummaging around in her cabinets. Reaching up to rub her temples she tilted her head when he appeared again.

He set down a mug of the coffee, a familiar vile, and a tall glass of water. "Water and medication first, Sakura. Then you may drink the coffee."

"I'm the mednin Uchiha-san," she informed him as she reached for the painkillers. "I know the drill."

His fingers closed around her wrist stilling her motion. Feeling huffy, she turned her eyes back to his and froze at the expression there. She was certain if she tried hard enough she could make out sparks of his sharingan behind his eyes.

"Sakura." He rolled her name on his tongue like honey and she swallowed. His eyes held her gaze before slowly lowering to her lips and she could feel his gaze like a touch and her lips tingled. "My name is Itachi."

Her mouth ran dry and she swallowed in the hopes to return some of the moisture to her throat. His touch was hot against her skin but his hold was light, so light she knew if she just twisted her wrist that he would release her. His eyes lifted to meet hers again and she just continued to watch him. She didn't trust her voice.

"Use it." He finished, releasing her wrist and standing smoothly. She watched him walk back into the kitchen. She wanted to work up the temper to inform him… she was too tired to figure out exactly what she wanted to inform, but she was certain it had something to do with his name and how she was not going to use it. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and returned to the medication. It was the stuff she kept in her pack for the field, which meant it would taste awful but it would work. She would need to eat a solid meal and drink plenty of fluids over the next hour, but her unwanted guest seemed to have taken care of that.

The medication was as revolting as she remembered. Pulling a face she washed it down with the glass of water before curling her greedy fingers around the mug of coffee and leaning back against her couch and taking a cautious sip.

Her fingers tightened on the mug when she realized he had added the perfect amount of cream and sugar. When had he seen her drink coffee? She usually preferred tea unless it was the morning after a mission or a particularly late shift! Closing her eyes she took another slow sip. She was going to strangle him as soon as the caffeine hit her blood stream.

Whatever he was making smelled… good. She wondered what he had managed to pull together from the meager ingredients she kept in her house. Like most shinobi, Sakura did her shopping for food on a day to day basis, and as a result the most she kept in her house was eggs, rice, a few vegetables, and some frozen meat. And, of course, ramen. But that sure didn't smell like ramen.

Her stomach rumbled embarrassingly and Sakura leaned her head back on the couch. Kami, she was tired. And hungry. If he hadn't been here cooking she probably would still be asleep…or on her way through her third protein bar as she stumbled back to bed. Or in the shower. Kami, she felt gross. She could practically feel the stench of the hospital, antiseptics and blood, clinging to her hair.

Another hunger cramp, and Sakura took a sip of her coffee to quell it. Breakfast was very nice and all, but if he didn't finish soon she was getting up and going for her protein bar stash after all.

She took another sip of coffee and the pounding in her head receded just enough for her to crook her neck and stare balefully into her kitchen. Why was he doing this? Her headache increased at the thought. Right. No thinking. Sakura took another sip and closed her eyes. She may have fallen back asleep or she might have just lost track of time, because before she knew it, breakfast was being set on the low table before her.

He had arranged it. There was stir-fry and rice balls and tiny little pickles which she had forgotten she had possessed, all artfully arranged by color. There were chopsticks placed on the side of the tray and…

And really the only reason she was staring at it was because she had not expected him to be so proficient. Sakura was almost scared to meet his gaze because, exhausted or not, she could still feel the smugness radiating from him.

"Thank you," she said as she set her coffee down and reached for her chopsticks.

"You're welcome," Itachi settled next to her and she felt the weight of his regard.

Picking up a piece of chicken she popped it into her mouth and carefully chewed. It wasn't until she swallowed that she felt Itachi move to dig into his own meal and she wondered at it. Twisting her chopsticks around some noodles she slowly worked through her food. Why did it seem that she was always eating around this man? She knew the older, traditional families saw meal times differently than she had been raised with but… clearly her exhaustion was getting to her and she was reading way too deeply into things.

She had no idea what to say him right now. He seemed content enough in the silence but the way she could feel his eyes sliding over her was starting to become irksome. Picking up a rice ball she chewed it slowly. Damn. He really was good at making them. She slid her eyes over to find him watching her, a half smile tugging at his lips.

He reached over and tucked the hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. "How are you feeling?"

Tired enough to want to lean into his touch, apparently. "Better," Sakura said shortly. He should know better than to interrupt her much-needed breakfast. Even if it was dark outside.

"Good," Itachi purred contentedly, moving his hand to fleck a speck of rice off her cheek. "Then how about you tell me what happened?"

She paused, chopsticks halfway to her mouth and then lifted then all the way. Chewing stubbornly she met his dark gaze head on and twirled another mouthful onto her chopsticks and lifted that when she had swallowed. His eyes narrowed just a little and she continued to watch him completely unconcerned at the growing gleam in his eyes.

She was not in the mood to be interrogated.

"Sakura," he started but she was grumpy and tired and she was eating.

Shoving a chopstick in his direction she glowered at him. "I know you weren't about to start interrogating me, Uchiha-san." Her tone was syrupy sweet and it made her teeth hurt but it was worth it to see the way his expression shifted. It wasn't startlement but it was damn close enough to assuage her irritation.

Then his head tilted and he was considering her the way she was fairly sure he looked at an enemy to take them apart. Except the gleam in his eye was warming her insides instead of giving her cold chills.

"Sakura," his tone was soft velvet. Gentle. "You are a capable, efficient kunoichi. Should I not be concerned that you stumbled home so exhausted that had the village suffered an attack you would have at the very least been unaware of it?"

Oh damn. He had to go and make himself sound all reasonable. Why did he care? She knew she wasn't hiding her confusion very well, but he was just watching her with that patient look all over his face and the sharp gleam in his eyes. Well, even exhausted she wasn't very fond of being backed into corners.

Setting her chopsticks down she straightened her spine and stared at him. When she spoke again, it was in her most formal tone. "Thank you for your concern Uchiha-san, but hospital protocol forbids me from speaking of matters that occurred inside the hospital walls."

His eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly at the corners and she saw something heat behind his gaze. She didn't see him move forward, but he took his sweet time in raising a hand to cup her face. "Sakura," he said in that tone. "I am concerned for you."

And the warm chocolate of his voice combined with the focused intensity of his gaze and Sakura felt her defenses slipping.

"Not only were your chakra reserves completely drained, which goes directly against hospital protocol you are clinging to, but you were emotionally depleted as well. You are not a person I would wish to see risk their lives so carelessly."

She stiffened at his words, but he continued in that same warm, calm tone, "I am not asking you to break a confidence. I am not asking for privileged information. I am asking you to tell me what upset you."

He was asking her to trust him.

She wanted to turn him down, she wanted to lean away and shut him out and keep herself from him, keep herself safe. But… but he had made her breakfast. He had watched her while she slept. He'd put her safely to bed. He protected Sasuke with all that was in him. He'd pursued her relentlessly, and since the moment he'd declared her as a goal, he'd begun to wrap her life around him. True, she hadn't always liked the way that he had inserted his presence into her life, but she had found their exchanges… challenging. More than challenging, she'd found them… enticing, electrifying, and… enjoyable.

There weren't many men who could keep up with her.

She didn't want to lose that. For however long he was going to be around, Sakura wanted to continue enjoy it. And this was far too much thinking for being so tired. It was enough to figure out that she didn't want to end this, and that is exactly what not trusting him would do. So she sighed and shifted further back into the sofa, removing her head from his grasp.

"I was called in for an emergency surgery last night." She murmured lightly. Something warm and then feral flickered through his eyes but she shifted it to the back of her mind to analyze later. "It ended up being the first of several."

He had settled back into half-crouch but his eyes never left her face as she spoke. It was a little disconcerting to have him so focused on every word she said, knowing that he was reading between the lines and interpreting everything she didn't say as much as what she was saying.

"It wouldn't have been so bad except several of the injuries were internal." She was for once thankful she didn't have to explain how much precision internal injuries required and the strain it put on her resources. "One required a great deal of organ restructure. With all the injuries we had coming in, many of nurses were pulling double shifts and some were even working on their third and we were still almost short staffed."

Reaching up she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Normally Shizune or Tsunade would have been called in to assist but they had been tangled up in Council meetings and had been going without necessary sleep. Tsunade herself had implemented the policy that surgeons not resting on at least six hours of sleep were forbidden from performing even emergency surgeries and the earliest they could have been of help was with Shizune's arrival that morning.

She lowered her hand and offered him a tight smile. "We had a breech in protocol. So I stayed until someone else could supervise."

"Any casualties?" He asked his voice still wrapped in melted chocolate.

She shook her head. "No. Although several of the patients were going to require intense scrutiny for at least today."

He nodded and just continued to watch her, eyes dark with something she couldn't read.

"When will you need to make your report?"

Sakura glanced at the darkened window. "Not until tomorrow. She won't even be in now. And I gave Shizune the necessary details."

Itachi hmmed thoughtfully and, to her surprise, settled back against his end of the couch. His focused gaze had turned speculative, and Sakura took the opportunity to eat another rice ball.

"I apologize," he said.

Fortunately, he had waited until after she swallowed, but it didn't help very much. Sakura managed to choke on air. She coughed a couple of times. "What?"

The light amusement in his eyes did not affect the sincere intensity of his expression. "You told me to leave and I did not. I apologize."

For the first time in a very long time, Sakura found herself speechless. It didn't stop him from continuing.

"Throughout this… exploration… I have sought to honor your wishes. I allowed my concern for you to over-ride this resolution. I apologize."

She blinked. In the back of her fuzz-filled head, Sakura could think of plenty of times when he had ignored her wishes—except, a small voice piped up, every time you've asked him to let you go, he always has. It might not have been immediate, but every time, even though she'd known he'd wanted to continue, he'd let her go.

That… that was interesting. But she couldn't think about that now because he had finished assessing her reaction with those eyes of his and was continuing to speak.

"If you allow our… association… to continue, I cannot promise you that it will not happen again. However, it is important for you to know that I will not proceed past the boundaries you have set until you wish it so."

Wha—what? Sakura shoved herself upright and stared at him, eyes wide. Itachi was—pledging to abide by her wishes? Apologizing because he had overstepped the line?

His pursuit of her had been honest; no one could ever say she hadn't been warned, and persuasive. Forceful. But if you considered the powers he had at his command, the sharingan, his psychical strength… He had also acted with remarkable restraint, especially after making it quite clear that she was something he wanted. Still, if this was him being respectful of the 'boundaries she had set,' she really didn't need to see him when he didn't feel like being respectful anymore.

And she had already decided she didn't want to lose him. So Sakura nodded, slowly.

He gave her a smile which warmed her all the way to her toes. "Good." Holding her gaze and reaching out, Itachi tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear before standing up. "Rest. I'll see myself out."

Still too tired to do anything else but discretely pinch herself—was she dreaming? Had Itachi really just apologized and then—left?

"And Sakura," he paused at her door, turning back to fix her with eyes that fairly burned with intensity. Sakura abruptly felt her stomach bottom out. "Fix your traps. Or I will."

No, she wasn't dreaming. He was still just as much of an arrogant bastard as ever. Sakura flopped back against her couch and picked up the remaining rice ball. But at least he could cook.

X

Shikamaru stared at the pile of papers in front of him. They hadn't moved in the past fifteen minutes. Neither had he, really. His eyes shifted to the gyoku piece resting next to his elbow and tapped his fingers against the desk. Really, this was so troublesome.

He wasn't entirely sure what was worse. Being forced to deal with pointless paperwork explaining actions that no one but Tsunade would ever have access to or waiting for Itachi to show up to receive a verbal report he wouldn't be satisfied with anyway. Sighing again, he stared at the wall and wondered how much longer he would be forced to stay in the tower.

He wondered if he could fit a nap in before his meeting.

It wasn't like Tsunade would even read the reports. She'd just call him in and have him explain it. Folding his arms on the desk, Shikamaru sunk his head forward. Itachi would come when he came. He was tired of doing reports.

It didn't seem like very long at all before some primal instinct woke him moments before Itachi's chakra signature entered the room. Shikamaru didn't bother lifting his head as he felt the unique hum of the silencing jutsu Itachi placed on the room. He was vaguely interested to see if Itachi would try to 'wake' him, but it was far more likely that the genius already knew Shikamaru was awake. And Itachi was on Shikamaru's list of Too Troublesome to Tick Off, so he stirred, straightened, and stretched.

Itachi was standing out of view in the window, half silhouetted in shadow. He didn't speak. Shikamaru blinked.

If this was going to turn into a contest of 'who was going to speak first,' he might as well go back to sleep. Except sleeping around the Uchiha had never been restful. It was more troublesome than it was worth to just ignore him. Sighing, he propped his chin up.

Before he could speak, Itachi beat him to it.

"What do your reports have to say about activity in the hospital for the last forty-eight hours?"

Shikamaru blinked and sighed, moving his head to glance at the endless reports that never stopped piling on his desk. There. Reaching out he yanked on the file with the blue tab and flicked it open. Better to just get this over with.

"Three ambushes. Two were ANBU units and one belonged to a team of genin doing minor field training. We have a few burns from misfired chakra."

"What breeches of protocol?"

Shikamaru arched an eyebrow. "Ichimaru Mai, nurse. Haruno Sakura had her turn in her badge and expelled her from the hospital. The details were covered in patient confidentiality."

Itachi just crossed his arms.

Shikamaru sighed. "Apparently, she tried to administer medication to a patient without consulting his chart. The patient was allergic, and the dose was large enough to kill."

"Ichimaru Mai is related to Ichimaru Michi, is she not? Danzo's assistant."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. He offered more information as a confirmation. "The patient was a Hyuuga."

Itachi's eyes flickered with something Shikamaru didn't quite catch. Over the years, he had learned to pick up a few of Itachi's tells and the relaxed, almost casual stance was worrisome. It didn't take long for Shikamaru to run through the possibilities behind Itachi's interest. Haruno Sakura had been involved and it appeared Itachi was taking a very active interest in the Kunoichi's life. He could already hear Ino's reactions to this and decided it would be in his best interest to avoid the blonde for the possible future.

Pushing aside the personal repercussions of the information, he leaned back. "You think there is a connection?"

"Mm," Itachi intoned in typical non-committal fashion, allowing Shikamaru to draw his own conclusions.

Shikamaru sighed. Yes, the fact that the victim was a main branch Hyuuga, some councilman's son, was interesting. Especially with the ties to Danzo and the fact that they were in a silent war with Cloud... Cloud, who never seemed to lose their interested in the Hyuuga bloodline. The death could have been written off as accidental, providing a glaring weakness in their defenses and potentially a fresh corpse for Cloud to experiment on. He could already feel the paperwork that was piling up somewhere and it was giving him a headache.

"You believe we have found our spies?"

"It is a distinct possibility. We already knew the breech was in a location not previously searched by ANBU. Her ties to Danzo are troubling."

"An ex-shinobi civilian with a grudge against the Hokage." Shikamaru said wearily. "While Danzo's loyalty is to Konoha, his agenda is skewed. It would not take much to find information about our weaknesses if his aid is trusted."

Itachi's eyes narrowed. "It looks like this will bear further investigation."

Shikamaru sighed again. He knew that look. It meant traps. "I take it you already have the bait in mind?"

Itachi inclined his head. "You will be apprised of the details."

So, he did have the trap in mind, and he was certain the Hokage would approve. Fantastic. Shikamaru brought up one hand to his temples and massaged with a groan. This just meant more work for him.

"You're such a bother," he dropped his hand and glared up at the other man. Itachi was just a walking paperwork trap. He narrowed his eyes, "Tell me, how was your picnic?"

The edge of Itachi's mouth kicked up and he leaned back. "There is a two hundred yard track of forest that has been… renovated."

Shikamaru hadn't really been expecting any details and wasn't sure he was happy with what he learned. His shoulders slumped. This was why he stayed out people's private affairs. "You can explain that to my mother."

Itachi looked nonplussed at the suggestion. Pushing away from the wall, he moved toward the window. "Upgrade hospital security as part of the new training procedures that our Hokage will demand after the breech of protocol. See what you can find on the Ichimaru's background."

Shikamaru sighed heavily as the Uchiha slipped out the window. More paperwork.

X

Sakura breathed in the fresh air of dusk and shoved her hair behind her ears. The evening market was her favorite time to shop. Early mornings were too busy, filled with the promise of the day and the need to hurry. Evenings seemed lazier, quieter, somehow more subdued. The smells of fried food and the laughs of young children mingled with the glow of lanterns as they were lit to combat the growing darkness. She hadn't been home often enough to catch the evening market in what seemed like months, and she was determined to take the time to get some air and time to herself.

Especially after the past few days, she deserved it. Clean up at the hospital was going to be a bit mind-boggling, but thankfully she wasn't going to have to do more than supervise the nurses. Well, once Tsunade took her off the imposed ban so she could rest and deal with the seals on the Akatsuki ring.

She still didn't know what she thought about Itachi. The fact that he had deliberately taken time out of his day to make sure she was all right… it was baffling. She had the slightly uncomfortable notion that whatever was between them was changing before she could put her finger on what it was they had in the first place.

Shaking her head, she deliberately stopped that train of thought. Tonight was to relax and to shop, and then later she would meet up with Ino. Then she could bounce what was going on off of her friend and figure out what she thought about the matter. Or at least get Ino's opinion. Her blond friend had a much better understanding of men (and men in clans) in general than she did.

Shaking her head, she deliberately stopped that train of thought. Tonight was to relax and to shop. Satisfied with her plan, she shifted the small bundles of packages she had already purchased closer to her body and strolled through the open stalls. She was very happy with her new brace of kunai. The herb bundles and small container of imported honey would make the experiment she was working on much easier. The hair sticks that doubled as senbon were more of a weapon than anything, but they were pretty and she had the coin.

Satisfied, she continued to stroll for food and keep her eyes open for anything in particular that could catch her attention. She had owned her apartment for almost two years now, but she was still looking for pieces that she could decorate with and there was the scroll stall that she wanted to hit and examine for anything interesting.

Since she was supposed to be meeting up with Ino at some point, she preferred to go ahead and get this part of her shopping done by herself. Ino would never let her shop for anything practical on open market nights. She maintained that these nights were strictly for the eccentric fun of the shiny baubles and exotic booths, but Sakura was a bargain shopper.

She moved along with the beat of the crowd, shifting along with the waves of people until she came to the scroll stall. Nodding at the elderly lady with the sharp observant eyes, Sakura knelt down and started perusing the scrolls from the bottom up. This woman had a habit of keeping the good stuff low to the ground, so people had to work to find it.

She was running her fingers along the scrolls, picking at the labels attached to the end so that she could read the titles when the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Her body tensed before she heard it, and she wondered if she should be thankful or worried that she was so attuned to his presence.

"Sakura."

Certain that letting the expletive which leaped to her lips drop was a bad idea, Sakura bit her lip instead. She wasn't sure she was ready to deal with him yet. She hadn't had time to think! She didn't bother to get up; she just shifted her head to glare at Itachi… and his mother. Shit.

"Uchiha-san, Mikoto-san. Nice to see you." Well, nice to see one of them, anyway.

"Sakura-san, I don't think I've had the pleasure of your company since the chunin exams. Sasuke doesn't bring you or that nice Naruto boy around often enough." Mikoto said with an open smile.

After recent conversations with Itachi, Sakura wasn't very trustful of those smiles. She was a bit distracted from Mikoto-san's comment by the way Itachi's body tensed. Watching him from the corner of her eye, she tried to smile.

"I think it was around then," Sakura agreed. She didn't really want to touch on the Sasuke comment. Her friend was quite aware of the reactions either she or Naruto would have the moment someone said something they didn't appreciate. He was smart enough to keep them from being able to directly confront the idiots in his clan. Pushing those thoughts aside, she felt the stirrings of unease at the way Mikoto's eyes flickered from her to her eldest and back. There was a gleam in her eyes that Sakura recognized from Itachi all too well. Curiosity.

Her train of thought was derailed as Itachi suddenly moved, settling next to her on his haunches, fingers brushing against the scrolls she had just perused herself. She slid her hand behind her leg and fisted it. She refused to respond to the silent challenge and faint brushes of his body against hers in front of his mother!

"Are you looking for something in particular, Sakura?"

"Are you, Uchiha-san?"

His eyes slide over her face, gaze gleaming with something wild. "Perhaps."

Sakura refused to respond to the soft heat in his voice. She didn't dare risk a glance at his mother; instead she turned her attention back to the scrolls in front of her. She would not be rushed and she gritted her teeth together as he leaned his body to follow hers, the clean scent of his soap mingling pleasantly with the faintly bitter smell of aged scrolls. What on earth was he doing?

"Do you have plans for the evening, Sakura?"

"Oh yes," Mikoto cut in a tone that sounded like Sasuke, the one that always made her very wary. "You should join just for our meal. It's just Itachi and I this evening."

Well, wasn't that just fabulous. Now not only was she being compared to his mother, she was being invited to have dinner with his mother. Itachi was practically radiating smug satisfaction and Sakura was sorely tempted to turn around and clock him in the head. And she would have too, if she wasn't absolutely certain she would find her back pressed up against the scrolls so he could kiss her in front of kami, country and mother!

Her second option was to sneeze and accidentally form the jutsu to vanish, but then she'd never get Uchiha Mikoto's rice ball recipe. And from the way his eyes were angled, gleaming with suppressed amusement, she knew he knew she was considering it. Damn him.

"Thank you, Mikoto-san, but I wouldn't want to intrude. It must be rare that you get a chance to spend some time alone with your son. I know he's very busy."

Something like approval gleamed in Mikoto's eyes, and it made Sakura uneasy. When she saw that light in Itachi's eyes, it usually meant she was about to be backed into a corner.

Mikoto's gaze flickered to Itachi.

"She likes tempura," Itachi said.

Sakura clenched her fists. How did he know that?

"Oh, tempura! Sakura-chan, you must come. I know this little restaurant which serves the best tempura. We'll go there tonight, all right, Itachi?"

The faint, underlying order in Mikoto's tone should not have given Itachi that smile. That sort of satisfied smug should have been illegal. Before she could work out an excuse – any excuse! – Mikoto was smiling and talking again.

"I need to make a quick stop over at the tag stall for Sasuke. I shall meet you there in say, ten minutes?" Mikoto asked, her eyes smiling at Sakura before settling back on Itachi. Reading something in his face, her smile widened and she moved around them back into the crowd.

Leaving her with an entirely too smug Itachi.

"That was totally uncalled for."

Itachi eyes gleamed. "Was it?"

She leveled him with a disapproving frown. "I didn't tell you I liked tempura."

His eyes flickered with something hot. "I know."

She managed to keep from responding to that expression with force of will. Narrowing her gaze at him in warning, she turned back to the scrolls. He turned with her, and hot air brushed against her ear and the side of her neck with each breath he took. There was little chance that she would be able to concentrate enough to find something she wanted with him so near, so she stood with a suppressed growl.

Before she could step away from him, Itachi settled his hand under her elbow, holding her close.

"Was there a scroll that you wanted?"

"No."

His eyes were gleaming again, and when he shifted his hair slide against her bare arm. Goosebumps broke again along her skin. His fingers slid along her the line of her shoulders to her neck, and down her spine before the palm of his hand settled in the small of her back.

"Is there any place you like to stop, Sakura?" The warmth in his tone startled her into looking up at his expression. His face was set in familiar, neutral lines and his eyes were scanning around them so she couldn't read his expression.

She subtly shifted away from him, and his eyes lowered to hers. She froze at the expression there. Licking suddenly dry lips, she squared her shoulders and narrowed her own gaze.

"I am afraid I don't know where we are going, Uchiha-san."

His fingers brushed up her spine once, mouth curving into a half smile at her challenge. "You'll enjoy it."

Thank you so much for reading! Please comment!

And if you're interested don't forget to check out the questions and answers posted at our LJ.