The smile didn't fit the face; the face of a supposed murderer. The constant red eyes didn't look quite so threatening either. All the year that have past, and he still looked the same. It was like looking into a looking glass of the past and Sakura was caught completely off guard by it, leaving Itachi's smile to only grow more.
"Are you that surprised?" he murmured, staring into her green eyes before dropping them, walking calmly around the apartment.
Catching her breath that she struggled to get, Sakura whirred around to follow him. Her mind was in jumbles.
"S-Surprised?? You… You aren't suppose to… You can't… I-" She tried to breath deep as she pressed her hand over her throbbing head only to pull it away, startled by the sound of a chair scrapped across the floor.
Itachi made his self comfortable before her, leaning nonchalantly back, one arm draped over the back and his heels spread in front of him.
"Calm down before you fry your brain, you silly girl." He chuckled and turned his gaze back to her.
This attitude was new to her and his cool velvet voice just knocked her over more. Who was this person in front of her? It wasn't the infamous Itachi, killer of his clan. No, this was weird and very different. Sakura grabbed the small table against the wall for support while she tried to put the pieces together. This new Itachi, and Sasuke's return, and… and… That was it! The realization hit her then and Itachi nodded as if he could read her thoughts.
"That's a good girl, always the smart one."
"But, I'm lost. What's going on?" She question, frustrated again.
With a small pause, Itachi sighed and stood causing Sakura to step back into the wall to be able to look up at his face clearly, knocking the table back. Itachi ran a finger down her arm, stopping at her scar on her wrist, watching his finger as he went, before looking her in the eye and sighing.
"Time will tell. You have a guest."
And he was gone, as silently and as quickly as he had come, leaving Sakura puzzled and lost by his parting words until her door shook with one booming knock just moments later. The noise startled her into the table again, knocking over the lamp sat on top. The knocker heard the noise and hit again, harder
"Sakura? Hey, are you okay?" It was Naruto, of course and Sakura didn't have to even open the door to know he'd barge in anyways, and he did. His face worried, looking around the room until he found her kneeling now on the ground to put up the broken shards of the now ruined lamp.
"Oh, wow. Did I scare you that badly? I'm sorry." He apologized instantly, moving to help her.
"No, no. Its okay, Naruto, it was my fault. Don't worry—Ow!"
One of the smaller pieces was now stuck into her pointer finger as a rosebud of blood blossomed just beneath it. Sakura stared at it a moment, dazed, only to be distracted by Naruto's now frantic and overdramatic cries.
"Oh, No! Sakura, you're hurt. It's my fault. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have scared you in the first place. Okay, Okay. Relax. I'll help. I'll help!" He declared as he swooped to lift her clean of the ground, carrying her into the Bathroom.
Sakura trashed around.
"Naruto! It's not even serious. You'll make it sink in more. Stop! "
Naruto ignored the protests until he had her standing next the sink, her hand over the sink while he leaned close to her finger, inspecting it. Without taking his eyes off her finger, he pulled back and drew his large, bulky fingers to the shard. With a quick, gently move, the shard popped out allowing a small creek of blood to leak down Sakura's finger into her palm that Naruto stopped and cleaned up with a tissue. He smiled at her as he tied the tissue around the cut and clapped his hands together in completion.
"You know I can't stand the sight of blood," he chuckled and turned his back to her, returning to the mess.
Sakura hung her head. She knew the truth to his freak out. She knew better than anyone that Naruto wasn't disturbed by any old blood, just hers. The flashes that Sakura tried to keep buried deep down bubbled up. The sight of her blood leaking wrist, the Kunai, the soaked rags, then Naruto's eyes appear. The pain, hurt, anger, and betrayal; It was all packed into those broken down blue eyes as they stared down at what she had down to herself. She hated to admit it but Sasuke's disappearance, along with their brief return meeting and the small fight that resulted in Naruto and herself being stabbed, left her in a state of depression. The empty emotion that left her hollow only seemed to be subsided when she harmed herself and racked her body with physical pain to mask the emotional. The whole thing seemed to be just as hard on Naruto as it was for her. The way Sakura saw it was she was weak. Weak to where blood and pain seemed to be the only way to deal and that seemed silly now. Naruto had a hard life, more than most, but he never went to the extremes she had, making her feel selfish and she knew this hurt Naruto to be subject to watch her and be helpless. It shows why she always envied Naruto so much. He was strong; stronger than he'd ever admit.
Now, Naruto was on his knees cleaning up the mess when Sakura discarded the tissue and walked behind Naruto, leaning forward to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders from behind. She nuzzled against his cheek, closing her eyes.
"Thank you. Thank you for watching out for me." She whispered softly.
Naruto relaxed with a sigh and used his other hand to touch her arm tenderly.
"It's not problem. You know that. Now Scoot over, I'm almost done," He joked as she released him and he finished picking up the larger pieces, standing to throw them away.
"Big pieces are done. I'll sweep if you'd like."
"No, its okay. I'll do it myself. Did you come to check on me or what?" She inquired, going for the broom.
Naruto then cleared his throat, serious now. "Yeah, I wanted to let you know what we decided at the meeting."
Sakura was all ears as she stood with the broom in her hand. She swept the mess while watching Naruto, waiting expectantly. Naruto cleared his throat and stalked to the opposite side of the room. This can't be good. That, or Naruto just didn't know if he should share. Sakura was never wrong twice. Naruto was hesitant to share not because it was bad over all, only that the answer may affect her. Good or bad, Naruto wasn't sure so decided to just dive into it and deal with it.
"We decide to let him stay. Sasuke hasn't posed as a threat yet and we need to learn why he's here but he's under heavy security in case it's on bad terms."
"Yea, I noticed…" Sakura muttered, returning to her work, grabbing a dust pan and sweeping the glass inside.
Naruto tilted her head confused but let it go. "Uh, yea. Anyways, that's what we chose. Tsunade assumed it was the wisest thing right now so Sasuke could be monitored and watched instead of turning him away. Uh, and another thing. Sakura?"
She cocked her head towards Naruto's now masked expression. Turning, Sakura emptied the dust pan, setting her cleaning supplies aside to face him, curious now.
"What is it?"
"Well, I got to, uh, talk to Sasuke, you know. And, well, he kind of said something. Something important."
"Just spit it out," Sakura snapped to hide the fast pace of her heartbeats. Nothing is by coincidence and she felt Sasuke appearance, Itachi's breaking in, and now Naruto's run in was all connected.
"Um, it's kind of the reason I'm here. He said that you should be checked on. That someone was coming and you had to be protected," Naruto said, watching Sakura closely look for something but not sure of what. It's a good thing Sakura learned to protect herself ages ago so he could read the spasm that just ripped across her heart. Instead, stone faced, she stared back looking unflustered but threw in a confused look for his sake.
"Really? Did he say who?"
"No, no. He didn't say," his reply was too quick and he cast eyes down to his left. He was lying, for what reason, Sakura didn't know but Naruto caught her questioning look and tried to cover up his mistake. "But he said you could be in danger so I came as soon as I could and, well, I scared you. Sorry again. I'll buy you a new lamp if you want."
Letting it go, for now, Sakura smiled lightly at him, "Don't worry about it. Its okay and I'm okay."
"So, no one has been here?"
"Not that I know of. When I came home it was empty like I left it."
"Are you sure?" he pushed. He must have caught something in her expression. Sakura quickly arranged her features again and shrugged.
"As positive as I can be. You can check if you want," she joked but Naruto wasn't sure if she was really offering or not. His eyes ran over the room they were in, every nook and cranny, checking the shadows when he noticed something on the floor and picked it up causing Sakura to tense, not even breathing. Had Itachi left something behind?
Naruto resurfaced with her Kunai in hand, holding it down to her. It was the one she had in her hand with her unexpected visitor appeared.
"Careful where you leave your weapons. Don't want to trip over it or hurt yourself," he grinned at her, teasing as always.
Sakura's cheeks flared semi-insulted. "I'm not that clumsy."
"Ha, yea, okay."
"BYE, Naruto!" she declared, shoving him now towards the door. Despite him being larger, she managed to get him into the hallway, pushing him into the wall because he was still laughing at her. Just as she was about to slam the door, Naruto grabbed it and stuck his head in once more.
"Okay, I'm gone. But, promise me you'll be careful, okay? For me?"
Wanting to reply with something sarcastic, Sakura bit her tongue when she saw in Naruto's eyes that he was really concerned about her. "Fine, I promise."
And, with that promise, Naruto poked her in the forehead once, and darted down the hall before she could fight. "Bye!"
Sakura growled, tempted to chase after him but didn't have the energy. She shut the door and walked to her room, flopping onto her bed as she tried to calm the raging questions that ran through her mind. What a busy day! But why? Was today some great day or what? All it contained worth interest was a measly festival for some Hokage thing, or whatever. Sakura had forgotten the reason and didn't care to try and figure it out and instead, got cozy and drifted to another dreamless sleep.
As the sunlight bathed into the dreary apartment, a crow rested next to the window tilting its head curiously in Sakura's direction with a blank beady stare until it saw fit to break the silence, cawing loudly, startling Sakura awake. Her eye met with the crow's causing her shriek and stumble offs her bed that she had already been hanging half off of. Cursing under her breath, Sakura pulled herself up onto her feet and made her way to grab her clothes and take a hot shower.
As she emerged from the bathroom dressed, with a towel draped over her shoulders to dry her hair with, Sakura sat at her bed to look outside. The day was sunny, of course and the people on the streets all enjoyed it with kids playing tag and adults shopping, looking for any good sales. Sakura shook her hair, letting her bangs fall and frame her face as she combed out the knots and let the rest air dry while she packed her weapons and other essentials for the day into her waist pocket and walking to the door. Opening the door to step out, she tripped over a package placed right in her path as if on purpose. These surprises are going to kill me, Sakura thought bitterly as she eyed the package scornfully. It was a small, typical box wrapped in brown paper, held close by a piece of yarn and a neatly folded paper tuck underneath the string. She picked it up with a sharp look around and ducked back into the apartment, closing the door to look at her unwelcome gift starting with the note. She flicked the folded letter open in one hand while she balance the box in her other hand. The paper an off-white color and the handwriting was neat and beautiful. The light handwriting read:
Hope you like this.
-S
Skeptically, Sakura snorted and tossed the paper on the end table and tore the paper open and lifted the lids to the box and glanced inside. Nuzzled in dark red tissue paper, laid a small locket on a thin silver chain. The locket itself was an oval shaped silver locket with a Sakura flower outline etched in pink with light green swirls around it and as the border. The inside contained the Japanese characters for her name on one side and a pressed Sakura petal on the other. It was perfectly preserved, the ends didn't even have a chance to dry out or lose its color. Sakura was in a daze by it, grabbing and re-reading the card over and over until the words burned into her mind. S? Sasuke? She thought before shaking her head to disregard his name. He was being watched, how could this possibly be left by him? Unless he snuck away. Sakura scoffed. That wasn't beyond his abilities; she could give him that but for him to leave her a gift? Especially one extravagant as this? That was ludicrous… but not completely admissible.
Not wanting to ponder this anymore, Sakura cast the box and note down onto the table and reached for the door before stopping short and staring at the locket. She left out a short breath of air and grabbed the necklace, clasping it around her neck and tucking it under her shirt. She'll figure it out later but for now, it was a beautiful gift that she figured ought to be appreciated.
Outside on the streets, Sakura once again stuck to the side of the foot traffic, avoiding getting in anyone's way and made her way to finding Naruto or any of the others when she saw Ino's family shop and decided to stop in to find out what her rival was up to. The shop had a few costumers browsing around. One was an elderly lady that lived down the hall from her and the other a strange younger gentleman with short shaggy black hair who wasn't from around here. Sakura dodged him, glancing at him curiously and made her way to the cashier desk. Ino leaned with one elbow on the desktop while her other hand thumbed through some new movie magazine that was coming out soon. It was the rave among girl around here since the lead was a total fox and it was a love story, as per usual. Ino lingered on one of the pages that featured the boy's family with their golden eyes staring directly at the camera as if looking at you. The boy with the sort of brown buzz cut hair seemed to be holding her interested until she flipped the page, finally noticing Sakura hovering near by. She stood up straight and smiled.
"Hey Sakura. What brings you around here?"
Sakura shrugged. "Eh, just looking for something to do to pass the time. Anything new?" She asked nodded at the magazine.
Ino glanced down before shutting the magazine and turning it to show her the cover. "That movie I told you about is in theatres now. We should go see it. I swear you'll like it." She had been pushing her to go with her ever since it was first announced it was in production. She just hasn't been in the mood to go see a movie right now.
"Maybe some other time. Why don't you go see it with Shikamaru?"
It was Ino's turn to shrug while accompanying it with a snort. "Yeah, right. Like Shika could even sit down that long without whining, 'How bothersome. Is it done yet?'" She mimicked him using his same bored tone while she placed the magazine under the desk and pulled up a chair, sitting down comfortably. Sakura leaned one arm next to her and glanced around the shop. The elderly woman had now left, not buying anything but the man remained. Still fascinated, she stared at him until his eyes flicked to match hers and held them a good moment before returning to the flowers. The look startled her momentarily. He looked at her like he knew her or something! Trying to remain unbothered, Sakura turned her look back to Ino to make conversation.
"Uh.. S-slow day, huh? The streets aren't that busy either."
"Well it is 6am, Sakura. No ones really up except for the early birds," she replied, raising an eyebrow up at her. "You okay? You're acting kind of funky. Did something happen?"
"Er, no. I guess I must be still tired. I didn't get that much sleep," she answered quickly.
"Really why?"
"Nothing. Just Naruto barging in, as usual, breaking my lamp."
"Aw, not that that pretty blue one," Ino muttered, half interested.
Sakura didn't feel like arguing or anything so she let her friend slide with her lack of interest. That and because her mentioning that night brought up Itachi again along with his estranged visit. Immersed in her thoughts, Sakura failed to notice the man approach the counter until Ino shot up cheerfully.
"Hello, sir! Did you find what you were looking for?" She chirped happily making Sakura jump and step back from the stranger quickly having just realized how close he came near her. Ino shot her a look while the guy merely gave her a short smile and returned his attention to Ino.
"Yes, I did, in fact. I'd like to purchase these Lilies if you wouldn't mind," he murmured sweetly, his speech well-mannered.
"Not at all! Let me just ring you up."
Sakura stared at him again. Not intentionally. Only because he had this aura about him that made you take notice. Like he held a secret and was proud of it. He caught her staring looked back at her, not ashamed. His eyes were dark and somewhat familiar and they studied her with a dull hint of familiarity. That look again, as if he knew her already and made her wonder if she should know him too.
"I, um, I'm sorry but… Have we ever met somewhere before?" Sakura stuttered out, now embarrassed until the man smirked at her with one small chuckle and look down at the counter.
"I doubt we have," he stated matter-of-factly, now with a cold demeanor, making Sakura pull make, lost. Ino glance in between the two as Sakura stepped up to him, not liking his change of attitude.
"But--"
"All done!" Ino butted in, more excited than anyone should be about selling flowers, irritating Sakura even more. "That'll be 10.95."
The drifter handed over a bunch of bills already set in his hand.
"Keep the change," He replied before she could count and turned to leave.
He gave Sakura one more look along with a short nod.
"It was nice talking to you, Miss," His eyes dropped down to her neck for a moment before flicking up to her eyes again. "Nice necklace, by the way. Good Bye. Oh, and Thank you," He said to Ino, holding up the flowers before vanishing out the door.
Sakura was frozen as her hand flew to her neck, over the locket. It was still tucked in her shirt. How did he know it was there? Even Ino was confused.
"Were you trying to flirt or what? Because you flopped, big time," She jeered as she looked at her neck too, curiosity getting the best of her. "What necklace, anyways? You never wear jewelry."
Sakura glanced at her although she wasn't really looking at her but spacing out lost in thought. Her expression in confusion, Sakura pushed off the counter and headed to the door.
"Sorry, I got to go. I have something I need to do."
"Wait, Sakura! Where you going? Hey! Saku--" And she was gone, the bell chiming behind her as the door closed. Ino sighed, resting her head in her hands once again.
"Always on the run, that girl. Geez."