Pain's eyes were so cold. "Those who live life as martyrs always get their wish. A sacrifice, heroic or otherwise. Either way, the cycle continues, and pain goes on without them."

Sakura took one rattling breath and spat blood at his face, in such complete agony she couldn't even form coherent thoughts, just thinking it hurts it hurts it hurts I want to die.

Pain wiped the blood from his cheek, expressionless, moving the sword upwards roughly, still trapped in Sakura's chest.

She screamed, her eyes rolling up into her head as she fainted.

Itachi shoved Pain away from Sakura, catching her when Pain removed his sword in one pull, gathering her in his arms, her head lolling on his chest.

The Hokage was just watching through the chaos, ninja running around her, occasionally blocking his view of her face, but her expression never changed as she stood stock still in the middle of the crowd of Anbu, her skin white from shock and tears rolling down her cheeks, her mouth gaping open stupidly.

Itachi sank to his knees, holding Sakura tightly enough to bruise.

He looked up at the impassive face of his leader, cruel in his complete incapacity to feel remorse or mercy.

"That was a very, very stupid thing to do." Itachi breathed out, his hands stemming the blood flow from Sakura's chest, sickened at the warmth and sheer quantity of the liquid slickly pouring through his fingers.

Pain gazed at him, eyes tracing his face, searching for answers, "Was it?" He asked carelessly, not understanding Itachi's meaning.

Itachi nodded at someone behind Pain.

The leader of Akatsuki turned around slowly.

Hatake Kakashi's Sharingan was spinning around uncontrollably, his hand ignited with the flaring light of his chidori, birds beginning to shriek as he powered up his jutsu, pointing it towards Pain.

"Ah." Pain said in understanding.

Anko slowly and calmly came to stand next to Kakashi, wordlessly offering her support. Her venomous glare was fixed on Pain.

"Naruto!" Kakashi bellowed, light flickering in and out of existence as his lightning blade crackled.

The kyuubi container stood on the other side of the base, flanked by some other teenagers, Hyuugas, facing away from them. The group turned around as one at Kakashi's hoarse shout.

Itachi witnessed the very moment that the world's strongest jinchuuriki saw one of his best friends bleeding out and dying.

The air whispered the coming storm that threatened, the wind howling the boy's fury.

Uzumaki Naruto's eyes widened painfully, veins bulging in his temple, bright blue giving way to blood red, teeth snapping in his mouth, sharpening to wicked fangs, fingernails snapping and claws growing in their place. A thin line of drool oozed out of his mouth as he stared at them, only seeing Sakura's pale face, her eyelids trembling shut, her brows drawn together sharply in pain.

He roared, the sound otherworldly and terrifying. The shinobi fled from the noise, certain a monster was near, fearing for their lives.

A young woman, one of the Hyuuga, put a hand on Naruto's arm. Itachi winced when he sent her flying with a slap, red chakra beginning to swirl around his body. Another Hyuuga, a male with long dark hair, broke the girl's fall and pulled her away.

Itachi remembered what Mitarashi Anko had said to him in the woods, about Naruto, 'He will destroy you if Sakura ends up hurt or dead.'

"Sakura…" Naruto growled, his voice carrying even from beyond the other side crater, a wild, bestial growl that must be the Kyuubi's own voice speaking through the young man, "Is she alive? Can she be saved?"

Pain had been staring down Kakashi and Anko but the moment he sensed the beast's chakra pouring out in enraged waves, he looked up, his eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly.

"Yes!" Tsunade's voice broke forth strong, "Calm down, Naruto, remember you can't keep her safe when you're out of control!"

Naruto took a step forward and then –

He was in front of Itachi, looking down at Sakura, the sound of his instantaneous movement snapping out like thunder rolling round the crater, his chest rising and falling quickly as his heartbeat quickened at the sight of his friend.

Itachi fought the urge to pull Sakura away as Naruto bent down, ignoring Pain, who stood only a few feet away.

The claws dragged across Sakura's neck as whatever was still human left in Naruto clumsily attempted to check her pulse. Itachi watched his red eyes narrow and dilate, his breathing coming in fast gasps.

"Heal her," His voice rumbled out, directed at Tsunade. He looked at Itachi, who felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise under the direct stare of the Kyuubi himself. Naruto bared his teeth, "Was it you?"

Kakashi's lightning was still singing out. Raban flew overhead, cawing his mourning cry, joining in the chidori's song.

"No." Pain said tonelessly, seemingly unbothered when Naruto's head snapped around to face him, "I did it. Come, take your vengeance…"

He burst through the chakra wall, leaving it crackling, a gaping hole in its side.

Naruto's chakra exploded from him as he sprinted after Pain. Itachi could see his form stretching and changing even as he disappeared from view, hot on Pain's heels.

Kakashi shouted something and charged after them, the Hyuuga teens and a few others following him.

Itachi felt someone gently touch Sakura, and he ripped her away from them, snarling in anger.

Tsunade stood before him, her expression a complicated mixture of sorrow and exasperation, "I need to heal her," She said quietly, dropping down next to them, "You need to let go."

Itachi realised his fingers were cramped from holding Sakura so tightly for so long. He released her reluctantly, eyes on her unconscious face as the Hokage took her from him.

She was watching him silently. She drew Sakura across her lap and put her hands on her chest, "Kishō Tensei," She said wryly, "It's a forbidden technique my damned rival Chiyo cooked up. She gave her life for the Kazekage with this technique."

Itachi stared at the woman, did she plan to –

She noticed his stare and smiled, the seal on her forehead beginning to glow, "I won't die performing it. I have plenty of chakra stored up. Sakura's still alive, if only barely."

Her eyes hardened as she gazed at Sakura, "I promised myself I would never lose another precious person if I could help it."

Her hands beginning to emanate a pale blue glow, her chakra gently thrumming into life-giving energy. The change began at her hands. The skin started to wrinkle, liver spots appearing. She was aging slowly as she poured chakra into Sakura's chest.

"Sakura told me how Chiyo saved her life when they fought Sasori and I thought of how furious that old cow would be to see me using her own technique, so I studied it." She said breathlessly, concentrating on regenerating Sakura's flesh, bone and blood.

She suddenly looked up, locking eyes with Itachi, her shrewd hazel eyes penetrating, "If you care for her at all, shield us now while I heal her."

Itachi felt the words go through him like a dagger. Must protect Sakura… Sakura.

She lay in the Hokage's lap, her hair spread about the ground, her mouth slightly open. The Hokage's chakra lit up Sakura's face until it glowed eerily, her skin a pale blue, the dash of blood in the corners of her mouth, deep purple. Her arms dangled at her sides, her knuckles scraping the floor on either side of Tsunade. Itachi looked, really looked, his Sharingan whirring to life, and saw a tiny, healing scar of an old burn. A burn in the shape of the Uchiha insignia, written in Sakura's skin.

He did this.

Sakura lying half-dead, Konoha a burning wreck, the Kyuubi likely to be the jewel in Pain's collection.

This was his fault.

He stumbled backwards, clumsily ripping off his Akatsuki cloak. No longer would he wear this, no longer would he live a lie.

Pain's forces still remained in Konoha.

He flew up, barely feeling the jump, throwing a barrage of shuriken in seconds, each one striking an enemy dead-on in seconds.

He landed without a sound, already looking around for another person to fight, when the felled enemies each hit the ground with thuds next to him, shuriken embedded in their hearts.

A man standing a few feet away from Itachi cried out as a snake sank its fangs into his neck, falling to the floor, convulsing violently as the venom spread through his system lightning-fast.

Anko stepped around the man, shaking the snake back into her sleeve. Her light eyes fell upon Itachi and her scowl hardened. She swiped at her mouth with her fist, wiping a streak of blood away.

She looked at Sakura and for a second her tough persona slipped and Itachi caught a glimpse of the worried friend buried underneath the professional shinobi.

"If she dies, I'll kill you." She said to him, her voice icy with hatred.

"If she dies, you won't have to kill me." Itachi said quietly, "I'll do it myself."

Anko stared at him, her face incredulous, "Are you really only a few years younger than me? What a fucking childish thing to say! Stop being so fucking morbid. You and Sakura have a little problem with wallowing in misery, self-loathing and wanting to die. Buck the fuck up. This is a war. You think she'd want you dead because of her? Don't be so pathetic. You aren't the only person here who cares about Sakura. I do. But if she dies I'll kick your miserable ass till I beat the martyrdom outta you. Then I'll toast her for being a damn good ninja."

Itachi felt numb, even with her chastising words he couldn't break through the flood of melancholy that had swept through him since he had caught sight of the Uchiha insignia he himself had burned into Sakura's flesh.

"I love her." He said helplessly.

Her scornful expression softened. She let out a sigh, looking around at the dwindling numbers of Pain's shinobi either fleeing or dying. She messed up her spiky ponytail, her hair sticking up under her rough touch.

"If you love her, you'll have to live without her. For her sake," Anko told him bluntly, "I promise you, she'd want you to live."

Itachi laughed shakily, "All my life I've been planning to die selflessly, restoring the Uchiha's reputation, and now, suddenly, to die would be selfish."

Anko winked at him, "That's called being human, not a selfless pawn."

The Konoha shinobi had gained the upper hand against their attackers. A man who could only be a member of the Nara clan judging by his jutsu took control of a large group of Pain's forces' shadows, all of them falling under his shadow hands. Another man with tanned skin and a scar over his nose fought the shinobi near Tsunade, every now and then casting the woman anxious looks.

A middle-aged Hyuuga male guarded the gap his relatives had charged through to follow Naruto, with protective ferocity, his hands sending multiple enemies flying in spinning attacks. A young girl with the same Byakugan copied his attacks with calm savagery, felling enemies without a trace of hesitation.

Itachi saw the girl's viciousness and flinched, thinking of what he had feared Sakura would become – what made him think he had the right to judge her? What a massive hypocrite he'd been, wanting Sakura to remain as innocent and sweet as she had been aged six, when he killed people on other people's orders.

Anko was saying something, he slowly realised.

"…Get your head in the game, Uchiha!" She snapped, dispatching an enemy who had been sneaking up on Itachi whilst he'd been deep in thought. Now when had that ever happened before? Never. He was always so focused, so 'in the game' as Anko had put it, that he never switched off. He was always on the lookout for danger.

Anko let out a breath, bending over to touch her thighs, seeming winded.

Itachi glanced around.

It was as though all of the colour had drained from the world. Everything seemed faded or blurred. People moved slowly, dragging bodies away at an achingly slow pace, reaching up to stem the flow of blood from wounds, running to reach someone on the other side of the crater, taking an age to get there.

Shaken, he looked back at Anko, who was staring at him questioningly.

"Are you alright?" She asked, looking pained to be inquiring after his health, "You really do care about her, don't you? You look devastated."

She came closer, reaching out to touch his face, the touch dispassionate and clinical. He reared back nonetheless.

She showed him her hand, the light reflecting off the moisture gathered at her fingertips.

"Do you even know that you're crying?" She asked him, her expression curiously sympathetic.

Itachi touched his face, looking away after feeling his cheeks were wet.

"I want to live," He told her, feeling numb and strangely light. He was vaguely aware of the possibility that he might faint, "But I won't have anything to live for if she dies."

He fell to his knees abruptly, shaking as emotion spread through him. Anko bent down to maintain eye contact, placing a hand on his back.

"Is the fight over?" He asked, his words seeming disjointed and too loud to his ears.

Anko patted him on the back, "Fight's over. Where've you been? You seem kind of out of it."

He felt like he was dreaming. Maybe this whole thing had been a terrible nightmare, thought up by his worst fears.

"Is she alive? Is she alright?"

He looked up, not wanting to hear the answer but needing to know.

Anko's mouth formed the words, but Itachi could already feel the rushing darkness coming towards him and he sank towards it, his mind barely registering the words she had spoken.

She had said, "Yes! Yes!"

Itachi fell into unconsciousness, feeling Anko catch him before he could hit the ground, his last thoughts before oblivion were: She is alive.

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Birds were singing. Chidori, she thought, muddled, and then: it's really a shame Raban can't sing.

Her eyelids were painted gold and her body felt hot. It was like luxuriating in a bath, it was soft and warm and it was the best she had felt in a long time.

Her chest ached hollowly, but she felt her heart beat steadily, thump thump, inside her ribcage, and remembered that it was a good thing to feel that thumping beat, it meant she was alive. Being alive was a luxury she hadn't expected.

She remembered pain.

It was liquid agony being poured into her veins and she'd felt that heart beat slow down, its beat sluggish and confused.

But now she was alive and strong, lying on something soft, listening to that sweet song of her heart with a faint smile on her face.

It occurred to her that she should wake up.

She tried to move her arms, but they weren't there. If they were, they were like lead.

Of course, she realised, I should just open my eyes.

She did so slowly, wincing when her sight was immediately flushed with sunlight.

She was in a hospital room filled with flowers. She lay in a bed with pure white sheets and she was resting in a patch of sun that was pouring through the open window. She looked at the window and thought, Naruto.

Pink carnations and peonies filled vases on every surface.

Little explosions of colour decorated the room thanks to the flowers, but their presence hit Sakura like a blow, remembering, realising, Ino was gone.

She cried quietly for a while, thankful for her solitude, listening to the birds singing.

When she felt slightly better, she turned her head and saw someone standing in the doorway.

Itachi, clad in a hospital gown, leant against the doorframe, smiling weakly.

"Itachi!" Sakura cried out, nearly jumping out of her skin, "What are you doing here? What if you get caught? Why are you in a hospital gown?"

But Itachi was staggering forward and Sakura was swept up in a hug. He held her tightly, breathing in deeply, "I thought you wouldn't wake up."

"You pessimist." Sakura chided, provoking a laugh from him.

"The Hokage," Itachi said, moving back slightly to get a good look at Sakura's face, "She pardoned me. I'm no longer a missing nin."

Sakura gazed at him in disbelief. He laughed again, "And I'm in a hospital gown because I was stupid enough to faint in front of your friend Anko, who apparently carried me to a stretcher on her back."

"Wait, the hospital… How long was I unconscious?" Sakura demanded.

"This isn't Konoha, we're in a neighbouring village's hospital. They've begun rebuilding Konoha's."

"Why did you faint?" She asked, worried.

He looked sheepish, "Apparently, I was under great stress and anxiety at the time… seeing the person you love get stabbed can do that to you, you know. And after being ill for so many years, my body is a little weak, so they made me stay for longer than I would consider necessary."

Sakura put her head in her hands, frustrated, trying to remember if there was anything else she needed to know. Her mind was wreathed in fog.

Her head snapped up, "My family? Are they OK?" She demanded, eyes wide and alarmed.

"Both alive and well, your grandmother is in this hospital, I met her, explained who I was and she hit me with a lamp," Itachi said, deadpan, "Your mother is staying with Kakashi, as far as I know."

She let his words sink in, feeling immensely relieved.

"Tell me who didn't make it." She asked slowly.

Itachi hesitated.

"Tell me." She insisted.

"I don't know anyone's names." He admitted, "I only know the Hokage's assistant was injured and paralysed, but the Hokage is determined to fix her… I'm not the person to ask. Not many people have bothered to fill me in either, Sakura."

"Who gave me all of these flowers?" She asked, gesturing at the ridiculous amounts of vases.

"The Yamanaka family sent them here, apparently," Itachi said casually, "I heard them bringing them all in. Anko told me they were thanking you with them, and wishing you well. Do you know them well?"

"Since I was little." Sakura said vaguely, "I knew their daughter very well. She was my best friend."

"…Was?" Itachi said, glancing around the room, at the flowers, at her face.

"Ino," Sakura said quietly, "She died in the war. I avenged her death quickly, so I guess that's why her family thanked me."

Itachi held her hand, stroking it gently, offering his wordless support.

She smiled at him wearily, feeling the ache in her heart beginning to gradually recede. In time, maybe thinking of Ino wouldn't cause a great spike of pain to go through her, which would be nice, because she planned to never forget her.

She lay back, her head cushioned by the soft pillows. They felt like clouds.

"How am I alive?" She murmured.

"You can thank Tsunade for that. She did some kind of forbidden jutsu, saved your life, at the price of some of her lifespan."

Sakura closed her eyes. How can you thank someone for giving up some of their life to save your own? She owed her a very big bottle of sake and a new set of cards to gamble with.

"Is Pain…?" She asked, her face screwed up at the thought of the frighteningly emotionless Akatsuki leader.

"Dead." Itachi said with no small sense of satisfaction, "Naruto killed him, with the help of a few others, so I gather."

"I don't remember doing it." Naruto's voice came from the doorway.

Sakura jumped, but Itachi seemed unsurprised. Damn elite shinobi skills.

She went to get of bed, beaming, but Naruto stopped her by waving his hands wildly, "Hey, no, Sakura-chan! Stab victims stay in bed! And you, get off the bed, right now."

He pointed at Itachi, his expression utterly serious.

Itachi sighed, standing up and moving away to stand next to the window.

"Naruto, you must know Itachi's innocent." Sakura glared at him.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean I have to like it." Naruto said flippantly, "I thought he'd kidnapped you. I can't just forget everything he's done just because it turns out he was ordered to kill the Uchihas, it doesn't change the fact that he still killed them!"

"Look," Sakura said, beginning to get annoyed. Itachi's body language was stiff, a clear sign that he was getting upset, "I understand that it's really difficult to adjust. I didn't exactly take the news well myself when I first heard. But Itachi isn't evil, Naruto. He's a loyal shinobi, he doesn't deserve to be treated like a criminal. That was just the role he played."

"Yeah? Well he played it really well. Killed a lot of people, screwed a few up. Made it very convincing. That's very noble, shows how loyal he is."

"Grow up!" Sakura said, her voice ringing through the room, "We've just been through a war, we've lost people and our village is a smouldering wreck, can you please just understand that Itachi is just another shinobi, please? He's my friend too, Naruto. You are all about the loyalty, you expect nothing less, so why can't you recognise that Itachi was just following orders? Yes, he had to horrible things, yes, Sasuke suffered a lot as a result –"

"You suffered too." Naruto interrupted, glaring at Itachi's back.

"Yes, I did. And I've forgiven him." Sakura said sincerely.

Naruto stopped glaring and turned to her. He looked frustrated, "But Sasuke –"

"Didn't deserve any of the pain, no. But… he made his choice. I still miss him, I'll miss him until the day I die, but I think that if he knew why Itachi did what he did, he'd understand." She said, biting her lip and hoping she could sway Naruto with her words. Itachi was very important to her, without a shadow of a doubt, but she still needed Naruto in her life. Any piece of Team Seven she could salvage from the wreckage of their youth was highly valued.

Naruto sighed, looking uncharacteristically tired.

He shook his head and glared at Itachi once more, "Oi," He said.

Itachi turned his head, his expression politely irritated.

"If you hurt Sakura, I'll kill you." Naruto said calmly, but with weighty conviction.

Itachi looked back at him, expressionless, then nodded, "I won't, but I can accept those terms."

Naruto snorted, "You won't get the chance, you mean."

"I might have something to tell you." Sakura suddenly piped up, having been psyching herself up to say it for a while. Itachi looked amused, as though he knew what was coming, "I'm a tiny bit in love with Itachi." She said quickly, covering her face with blanket in embarrassment.

She still heard the loud, emphatic, "WHAT!" Naruto roared, and Itachi's dry chuckle.

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Itachi placed the last of his weapons on the Hokage's desk.

The hazel-eyed woman looked at him, unreadable. She now had extremely faint laughter lines and crow's feet.

"Is this a joke?" She drawled, "I work incredibly hard to get you reinstated as a Konoha shinobi, and now you say you want to quit?"

"No joke, Hokage-sama." Itachi offered a bow, "I wish to be discharged from your services as soon as possible. I do not feel I am cut out to be a ninja."

She laughed, "I'd say, power-wise, you are about as strong as Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Three. Not cut out to be a ninja? Maybe so. The Sannin didn't have a happy ending, after all. You are loyal to a fault. Your psychological assessment came back reporting that you have self-sacrificing tendencies, a massive guilt haunting your every thought and a chronic hero complex. These all add up to a fantastic weapon. But I'd say, yes. It's time for you to stop being used. But you aren't quitting, you're retiring, so I'm afraid you'll have to accept a monthly payment to compensate you."

Itachi smirked, "I will do my best to endure this indignity, Hokage-sama."

"Good, good. You may go now." She said, shuffling the papers on her desk.

He turned to leave, opening his mouth.

"Don't tell me," She interrupted dryly, "Sakura plans to quit too, but is too afraid to do it?"

Itachi laughed, then nodded.

"Tell her she's retired as well." Tsunade signed something absently, "But also that I still expect her to come out for drinks every now and then."

"Very well, Hokage-sama."

"And stop acting so servile, it gets on my nerves."

"As you say, Hokage-sama."

"Out of my office."

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The monument for fallen heroes looked a little smaller, maybe, but it hadn't changed much since Itachi had last seen it.

Rain slid over the polished stone, washing away the dust that had gathered, each name now clearly engraved for all to see.

Sakura stepped forward, watching the man with the chisel work, her expression making it clear she was holding back tears.

The man straightened up, blowing dust away from the new name he had just engraved, admiring his work with a proud nod.

Uchiha Sasuke was now written with the rest of his family, in between Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Obito.

Around the back had already been written, Yamanaka Ino.

Itachi pulled Sakura into a hug, tears in his own eyes as he looked down at his little brother's name in stone, proclaiming and celebrating him as a hero.

"He's finally atoned." Sakura murmured to him, returning the hug.

"He never really had anything to atone for." Itachi said quietly, "Not in my eyes."

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Perchance in the words of Daughtry….

IT'S NOT OVER!

Epilogue! Probably! SOON!

Man I'm tired, gotta stop writing in the wee hours of the morning.

What Itachi suffered in the battle is called depersonalisation, great trauma can cause a person to lose their grip on reality temporarily, entering a sort of dream-like state, which is why everything slowed down and went grey. It's also why he didn't realise he was upset until Anko pointed it out.

Today is the anniversary of something very shit that happened seven years ago, so I'm a bit not-OK at the moment, but I'll be fine when the day's over. It's just nice to know I have a lot of people to talk to if I need them :)

Tell me what you want to happen with Itachi and Sakura's future, with everyone's future.

Would you believe, a very nasty virus attacked my computer, locked me out of it and locked away all of my files too? It took an incredibly techno-savvy acquaintance FOUR HOURS to fix. FOUR HOURS! I spent the whole time believing my files were gone, my fanfiction could not be salvaged!

But he fixed it so it's cool.

Can you believe that, though?

Katlou303 would have been no more!

The horror.

OK, love to you all :) Bye bye.

Quick poll for fun: Tell me your favourite band and why, please :)

If not band, then singer!

If not singer, then… um…

Vocaloid!

God, I love Miku.