Dreamcatcher
By Airyo
A Missing Piece - 6
Itachi knew there will be questions. There were already too many hypotheses regarding his abrupt request to defer his next mission by a day. He finished his current mission in record time, breaking his own by nearly 24 hours. He listed "unusual circumstances" the mission report for the reason of their speed, and Sakura only gave him an understanding look even though she couldn't possibly understand.
Nightmares changed people, after all.
He hadn't let himself succumb to a bad dream in years. A common problem with genjutsu users was letting the trappings of their own mind overwhelm them. Ruthless compartmentalization and regular meditation fixed that, both of which Itachi was a master of.
But he hadn't been prepared for the dream to be unrelated to combat. Instead, it was only the suffocating feeling of helplessness, as he heard her crying for help. Something was chasing her, but he couldn't even see or move or do anything at all. Even worse, her distress disturbed him on such a level that made it hard to think straight. The vague impressions he'd felt from her mind during their experiments rushed forward, swallowing him whole.
He woke up tense and pale, with hardly a hitch in his breath. But even that was a stark difference to the way he would normally ghost from deep slumber to sharp awareness in moments. It was the civilian equivalent of screaming and flailing blindly against the sheets.
Sakura noticed.
"We can finish early," she suggested, wisely saying no more on the subject. Itachi generously decided to halve her impending time with Ibiki. (And transfer it to other two scoundrels on her team when he discovered them tag-teaming Hinata. Return percentages, his foot.)
But Itachi quickly forgot about the rest of Team 7 as he studied Hinata. The dark circles were not too noticeable and she even giggled over the ridiculous actions of his students. But it wasn't relief he felt, but only a cold loneliness that made the world seem a little more gray. His panic was meaningless. She was fine without him.
So when Hinata admitted that she'd missed the experiments, implying that she'd missed him as well, Itachi let the lead ball weighing in his stomach melt away.
"Me too," he replied.
She smiled, turning back to her ramen in embarrassment.
He wondered if it was the warm lighting of Ichiraku, or if he had never noticed just how lovely she was.
An: Yes, I'm rushing this arch a little. I've got some interesting stuff coming up for you. :D