Sorry for not updating last night, I got drunk at the gay bar and got hit on by the cutest guy! 3 Only I could get hit on by the one straight guy at the gay bar! 3

It's fun either way, though.

Disclaimer- STILL not mine! I sent the request in an email, but Kishimoto Masashi hasn't responded yet.

Chapter 10

"I must have ripped the stitches." Diedera gasped through the pain. Sakura grabbed his shoulders, pushing her chakra into him to dull the pain. "Itachi! Hurry!" He was there in a second, grabbing Diedera as his hands clenched, his eyes clenching. "Sakura..." He murmured, tears pushing into his eyes. Itachi turned to her and shook his head.

"I can't just let him suffer like this!" She pushed more, causing Diedera to bite his lip, grasping to Itachi's hand and looking to be on the verge of screaming. "Sakura, what you're doing to him is causing a different type of suffering! I heard what he told you!" Sakura froze, wondering how much he heard. "Trust me, that's not what he needs." Itachi reached down, closing his eyes, shoving his own chakra into him. "This is why I never needed the pills, I know what to do." He looked over as Diedera fell limp.

Sakura nearly screamed as Itachi caught him. "He's fallen asleep. I may have picked up the pain thing, but I don't know the medical stuff. Sakura, it's time to work." She nodded as Itachi laid him on the couch again, Sakura scooting closer.

She worked hard. After his confession, she knew she needed to heal him as much as possible.

She worked through dinner, finally stopping her work when he was so far healed that his stitches couldn't pull again. She was nearly completely dead on chakra, sliding to the floor. Sasuke was there in a second to catch her. She looked up and smiled.

"Sorry I didn't get to say hi." Sasuke looked down at her surprised.

"I've never seen you so determined before." She fought to sit up, barely being able to see straight. "I'm always like that here. I have the boys here, and If I don't take care of them they'll break themselves to bits." She joked, looking over at Diedera's sleeping face. She smiled at him and leaned forwards, laying her hand on the couch. She tried to stand and fell forwards, being caught again. Itachi was there shortly, a plate at the table for her. He reached down and lifted her, pulling her up. "Come on, you need to eat before bed." Sakura nodded as Itachi surprised her, sitting her on the recliner. He leaned her back carefully and brought her food over. "Hold out your hand." Sakura did, her hands trembling terribly.

"Sakura, I'll feed you. You couldn't hope to hold chopsticks like this." Sakura nodded, her head spinning. "Itachi, Sasuke, how are you?"

Sasuke smiled at her, leaning down and shaking his head. "We're fine, but I think we're more worried about you." Sakura looked at him, her face suddenly soured. Itachi looked at her and tried to hide a giggle, knowing her talks about Sasuke enough to know what the face was for. "What's up?" Sasuke asked.

"You look fake. Don't smile like that. It's odd." Sasuke faltered, standing.

Itachi fed her slowly, constantly worrying about dropping food, while Sasuke caught her up with Konoha. It was odd, the three days Naruto had been there she hadn't even noticed he didn't give her any knowledge of the current situations in Konoha. "Shikamaru was promoted again. He's a second class jonin now. From what I understand Hinata was about to ask Naruto on a date when he left, she was pretty upset when I left."

Sakura smiled, nodding politely. Itachi frowned, seeing the darkness creeping into her eyes. "Sasuke, shut up."

Sakura looked up at him, a little light returning. "Itachi?"

"What's up, Aniki?" Sasuke looked over, a little taken back by the bluntness of the comment. "You're giving her updates on her friends, people she cares about. She hasn't seen them in over seven months, she misses them terribly and you're ranting, going from person to person so lacking in any individuality. Please take into effect how she feels with this."

"It's alright, Itachi. I want to know what's happening. As you said, I care about them." She smiled weakly and Itachi stilled for a second before nodding.

It was a few hours later that Sasuke stopped talking, the general knowledge, ranks and deaths eventually turning to couples and missions, random stories about things that those she cared about.

Sakura eventually realized that Sasuke was avoiding one person. She noted, story after story, no mention. She eventually smiled at him. "What's happening with Ino?" Sasuke winced, looking down. "She's been my best friend forever. How's she doing?" Sasuke nodded and looked quickly towards the door before sighing.

"She's furious. She wanted me to stay, when I got the picture I couldn't, but I needed to come. She was talking about divorce when I left." Sasuke smiled sadly. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me, because you were coming here where I am?" Sasuke nodded.

"She's worried that you'll finally steal my heart. She didn't know you already had." Sakura smiled and nodded.

"What else? Has she gotten a promotion? Is she alright?"

Sasuke looked at her, the look on his face reminding her of Sai. "She was on a mission a month ago and was attacked. It was a good assassin. She barely made it back. She was torn to bits, Kakashi carried her for a day solid to get her back. It's a good thing you're a med nin and he's Kakashi. He used the techniques he'd seen you use to patch her up enough to get her back alive. She's badly scarred now, she wears high necks and long sleeves and pants. She's so worried it's unattractive."

Sakura stared, surprised for a while. "Oh my god. Ino." Her eyes were locked with the younger of the two, while Itachi sat nearby, watching with soft eyes. "Sasuke, you should have told me that first! She's alright? She's not too mentally damaged by it?"

"She has post traumatic stress disorder. She wakes up sometimes and screams, I don't think she's slept well without help since the incident." Sakura shook her head, trying to think of Ino like this.

She was always a flower, beautiful and delicate, the thought of her screaming at all was too foreign to seem possible. "I'll send her a letter." Sakura frowned, looking for paper. She started to stand and Itachi held his hand before her chest, keeping her in the chair. "Sakura, hold out your hands."

"I know. I'll stay here. I can write the letter later, I guess. You're going to be here for a day or two at least, right?"

Sasuke looked at her with a smile and nodded. "Sakura, I'll stay here as long as you want. Ino knows I've chosen you, that's why she was so mad about me coming out."

"You know how I've been head over heals for you forever? How when I was six I started trying to get you to notice me? I tried so hard, I did everything possible to get you to see me."

Itachi remembered when she got the notes, she'd said she had just wanted him to see her. He looked over, suddenly saddened, the look on her face was so unlike the Sakura he knew.

"You abandoned me. I hunted like hell for you, forcing Naruto into impossible promises, working as hard as possible, I ended out in on missions with Jaraiya and Naruto because there was some hope. Some hint, whisper that you were somewhere. For five years I prayed for you to come back. When you did it was as if you'd forgotten about me. Naruto was the important one. I was devastated all over again. Sasuke, please understand, a major thing I had to overcome out here was you. It took me months, I thought I'd succeeded, but when I got the letter from you..."

Her eyes shifted guiltily. "I realized two things that day. If I was so quickly replaceable, with Naruto talking about maybe having me back in a year, and you couldn't wait for me, you couldn't really care. You never really had a crush, someone who you loved back. I guess I should have seen it. It's not your fault, it's mine. I know this. It didn't make it any easier."

She finally looked back up, looking right into his eyes. He stilled, not used to the simple communicative action. "Second, I'm not alone here. I was never alone there, but no matter what, I always felt lonely. I never felt that any of you were really there for me, everyone was there for you."

Sasuke looked down, now slightly angered. "Sakura, it was never like that."

"Even if you didn't see it like that, save Naruto, everyone was more worried about you than me. That's why I became a med nin. I wanted to be more useful to everyone, especially you."

Sasuke looked up, surprised. "Naruto was more worried about you than me?"

"Naruto always truly loved me. As long as I loved you, he loved me. Sadly for him, I was so caught up on you that it didn't phase me." She smiled, looking down. "That's the one thing I feel the worst about in my life. Well, it's nearly tied now." She smiled, giggling at Diedera, still asleep on the couch.

The brothers both looked up at her, curious. She looked around, seeing the eyes on her and smiled. "Hey, I'm allowed some secrecy." She laughed. Sasuke looked at her, the release of so much tension broke her, she would smile for the next while, she'd be so happy, if only for a little bit...

He smiled at her, sighing. He knew why she was talking like this. She was telling him that she couldn't wait for him like that, if she wanted to feel free from the suffering she carried there she'd have to give up on him. She'd have to let him go forever.

"I understand." Sasuke lowered his head, shaking it gently. "I can't say I understand, but if you really felt like that, I couldn't imagine you still caring about me now anyway. Knowing you, I'm lucky you don't hate me." He sighed and stood, looking over. "In that case, I'll be here a few days, see what's going on around here. If I don't report back to Tsunade and Kakashi about that photo, they're going to kill me. What am I supposed to tell them?"

Sakura smiled at him brilliantly, her eyes shining. "Tell them that Itachi says hi and Diedera is watching over me like an angel. Since Itachi's situation was due to a mission, they can't really go against him, he's a missing nin by default. Diedera is like Naruto, only without the fox thing."

Sasuke remembered their fight, tooth and nail till only one was left. That was like Naruto?

Well, nowadays...

"They'll send all of Anbu after him. The world wasn't ready for one Naruto, let alone two." Sakura stared for a moment before smiling.

"I don't think I've ever heard you joke before." Sasuke looked at her, his smile nearly as fake as Sai's. "I've been doing a lot, trying to get out a little from the darkness of Orochimaru. I'm learning to do things like that." Sakura shook her head. She fell forwards slightly and Itachi reached out, ready to grab her.

She reached out and touched his arm, after a moment yanking down his haori sleeve. Her smile reached further into her eyes and Sasuke realized through all this her smile was just as fake as his.

"Itachi didn't tell you?" Sasuke looked over and Itachi shook his head. "Sasuke, I thought she would have known as long as that mark was there you weren't getting back into Konoha."

"I knew. I was there the day it was put on him." Sakura reminisced, looking up, nowhere specific. Sasuke nodded. "We were on the chuunin exams. We thought he was from another squad, he nearly killed us all, except you. We protected you fiercely. I panicked and Naruto had to kick me around a little." Sakura nodded.

"Then he turned into the Kyuubi, but just a little."

"I thought I was hallucinating. A genjutsu or something." He chuckled, his smile gaining more and more truth to it.

"And then he bit you. Naruto was unconscious, after what Naruto did I would have died before giving over that scroll. I almost had to prove it." Sakura looked down, remembering staying up all night, no food or water, just standing there, guarding her two team mates, her best friends.

"It was Orochimaru's men. They attacked us and you took on all three of them. When I finally came to, I saw you and I just lost it. I couldn't believe, your hair, you were bleeding everywhere. I was scared to death that you were too far gone, that I wouldn't be able to save you in time. Lee was even down. He could kick my ass easy and he was down, leaving you there like that..."

Sasuke's look fell dark and Itachi nodded. "You actually did have feelings for her back then, didn't you?"

"I tried to kill them. It would have been my first kill, and I was happy to have the ability to do it, but she ran up behind me and..."

His hands reached up to his collar and he stilled, looking down. He stood quickly and walked over to the door. "I'll be back soon. I just need some fresh air."

Sakura watched, shocked as he left the building. Itachi looked at her with a soft smile. "Sakura, just remember, do whatever your heart tells you to do. Don't follow your head. If you want to go with him, if you would like to leave us, we'll live. We've done it for years, alright?"

Sakura looked at him and smiled sadly. "I won't go with him. He can stay here if he wants, but it seems that if Naruto or Sasuke is around I feel so... dark all the time. I miss last week." She looked at Itachi and he just stared, not expecting those words from her. "You would choose us over him?"

"If I chose him, if I left you two I'd never be able to forgive myself for it." She smiled, again, even more depressed than before. "Sakura?"

"Hn?" she looked down, tilting her head away from him. He reached out, grasping her shoulder as she shuddered. Itachi had his arms around her in a second. "Sakura, what's wrong?"

"I never wanted this, Itachi. We were supposed to grow old together, weekends on the patio of a house in the new Uchiha district, drinking sake and being senile. We were going to be the successful version of the sannin, but we weren't any more successful. No one really seems to be able to truly hurt us except each other." She cried softly and Itachi just rocked, not asking her to stop, not trying to get her to talk more, just whatever she said, he listened.

'If after all that time, all those years you didn't know how he felt...' Itachi sighed. "Sakura, I think you need to go rest. You're still so tired from Diedera."

"I don't want to be alone." She looked up at him and Itachi nodded. "That's fine, I'll go with you." He carried her in, looking for a chair when she scooted back on the bed. His eyes drifted from her hand to her face, knowing what she'd wanted.

He smiled softly before laying down beside her, closing his eyes. "You rest well. If Diedera needs anything, he has his bell, and it should wake me." He smiled and Sakura nodded. She closed her eyes, burying her face in his chest and she was asleep in seconds.

Itachi laid his arm over her and drifted off as well.