Sakura jolted when she felt the tug of chakra from one of her scattered hiraishin seals and recognized the signature as Itachi's. The low-level bandit she was battling took advantage of her minute distraction to slash at her with a kunai. She dodged, but not quickly enough to avoid it entirely, gaining herself a healthy slice across the top of her thigh. The man grinned at her cockily, thinking she was easy prey. Gritting her teeth against the pain in her leg, she planted a fist in his face, collapsing his nose and sending him across the clearing into a tree, where he did not get up.

Somehow I did not anticipate Itachi calling me this quickly.

It had only been two weeks since they had run into one another and agreed on a shaky alliance. As soon as she had gotten home that night, Sakura had worked with a single-minded intensity on a new hiraishin seal that could also work as a simple communication system. After several sleepless nights, she was satisfied with her work. It would require her to tattoo the seal on herself as well, but she figured it was a small price to pay for such large benefits.

It helped that I had nearly a decade to learn the damn thing. She was still grumpy at how long it took her to figure out the hiraishin sealing technique. Sakura valued her intelligence above all her personal qualities and it was embarrassing to admit being slow on the uptake, even to herself.

She absent-mindedly healed the gash on her leg just as the boys were running up to her with alarm on their faces.

Well, Naruto looks alarmed. Sasuke just looks constipated.

She did her best to keep the amusement off her face, though it was difficult when they were just so damn adorable.

Now I sound like Kakashi, with his cute little genin comments. I'm an old lady before my time.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay?" Naruto rushed up and scanned her with worried blue eyes. "I thought I saw you get hit! That never happens."

Sasuke didn't say anything, but Sakura felt his worry all the same. It was a gift, this ability to parse his silences and noncommittal noises, something Naruto and Kakashi had also mostly picked up over the time they spent together. Their teacher dropped out of the trees behind the boys, his demeanor relatively serious. "Naruto is right, Sakura-chan. You were distracted by something." He pointedly looked at the rent in her shorts that showed unblemished, healed skin.

"It's nothing to worry about, boys."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow at her. "I'd say one of my team getting hurt by someone who is entirely below their skill level is cause for concern."

The boys agreed, nodding their heads solemnly. Naruto said, "You're way too fast for that guy to get the drop on you!"

Sakura sighed and looked Kakashi straight in the eye. "I'm sure you don't want me to regale you with tales of my menstrual cycle."

Naruto and Sasuke blushed so red she was afraid they'd faint and Kakashi put his hands up defensively, starting to stammer. "A-ah, no, that's okay, Sakura-chan. We understand." He shooed the boys along the path they were traveling on before they were set up by bandits. "Just try to be careful, okay?"

She watched them shuffle away with amusement, wondering if they'd ever catch on that she used that excuse far too often for it to actually be true. Then again, she was the only one with medical training and it wasn't like they had any other female influences in their life. She just couldn't wait until Kakashi had to give the boys a talk about sex. It would be gloriously embarrassing for all parties and she hoped to have a front row seat. Given he was the only adult in their lives and sex could be used against them in higher class missions, she was sure it was only a matter of time.

Oh, it's going to be priceless. He'll probably use examples from Icha Icha.

Sakura followed her team at a more sedate pace, keeping to the back of the formation. She was glad they were so close to Konoha, so that she could sneak away hopefully unnoticed to meet with Itachi. She hated the necessity of using the seal within the bounds of the village, but she didn't think it was smart to leave through the gates by herself immediately after returning from a mission.

After they handed in their entirely uninspiring mission report, she waved the boys away. "Go find your own dinner, boys. I'm probably going to head to the library for a few hours."

Naruto pouted. "We always have a meal together after a mission, Sakura-chan! It's tradition."

She knew this and felt terrible about breaking it, but Sakura wasn't sure how long Itachi would be available to meet. The sooner she could get a communication seal on him, the better. "I know, but I'm just … not up to eating right now." She made a general gesture to her torso area and he backed off again. "I'll see you at the house later, okay?"

Sakura watched the three of them walk away, Naruto fiercely proclaiming the would go to Ichiraku's for dinner while Sasuke muttered disapproval of the food under his breath. Kakashi wandered behind them, looking lost in his book. When they were out of sight, she took to the rooftops until she made it to her sealed house and slipped inside, heading to her room.

With a quick breath, she henge'd into Misaki's form, masked her chakra as best she could and pulled on the seal she could feel attached to Itachi's chakra presence. After a dizzying second of feeling a larger than normal chakra drain, she tensely stood before him in what looked to be a small room of an inn. Sakura dropped her eyes and did her best to sense any other chakra-heavy presences in the area. Finding none, she sighed in relief.

Itachi's voice was dry. "I'm surprised you came if you expected to be attacked, Misaki-san."

She shrugged and stood, having appeared in the room in a defensive crouch. "I couldn't get away immediately and I was unsure of how long you would be available."

"And you took the chance regardless?"

She stared at his hitai-ate, assuming eventually she'd break herself of the habit of not meeting his eyes. "I want this to work, Itachi-san. The safety of my family depends on it."

"Family." He repeated it slowly, like it was an unfamiliar word.

"Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei. I would die for them." She considered what had probably happened to her adult body in her previous timeline and thought that maybe she had already done so.

"I see." He sat on one of the twin beds in the room, his stiff demeanor looking entirely out of place in the cozy surroundings. "We should discuss our arrangement."

"I agree." She looked around and grabbed a small chair that had been abandoned in the corner of the room, turning it backwards and sitting down. She leaned her arms on the back of it. "How long do we have?"

"Kisame is on a mission three towns over. Even if he is done and moves at his quickest pace, it will still take him two hours to reach this inn."

She would just have to trust in his knowledge of his partner's abilities. "We may be able to do the tattoo today, then. If you're still amenable."

His voice was level. "Tell me about your seal."

Cagey bastard.

"The hiraishin seal, as you may or may not know, is specific to the user. The Yondaime and the Nidaime had completely different patterns and arrays, despite the fact they had the identical purpose of teleportation." Sakura saw him nod, so she continued. "After a bit of work, I've developed something of a dual teleportation and communication seal, though the communication bit is mostly rudimentary. Light chakra pulses can be used to transmit a code we can hash out together."

"You've done all this in two weeks?"

She scoffed. "Making the original was the hard part, Itachi-san. That took … way too long." She had nearly said "seven years", but assumed that would be taken for an outrageous lie, as it would have her start at age four in this timeline. "I have a talent for patterns."

He shifted slightly on the bed, looking vaguely uncomfortable. The fact that she could tell meant that Sasuke and his brother were more alike than she had guessed. "So you will also be able to come to my location if I contact you?"

"Within reason." She grimaced. "Today, your summons caught me off guard in a fight, so we should use it sparingly."

Itachi sounded almost concerned. "I hope nothing untoward happened."

She shrugged. "Got stabbed, got over it. My fault for getting distracted." Sakura looked at his still form and said, "Sasuke was fine. He's a strong shinobi and the bandits were barely worth our time."

"And yet you allowed one to hurt you."

His tone annoyed her, but she tried not to show it. "I healed my wound and probably killed him accidentally, so it works out in the end."

"Probably?" Without looking at his face, she assumed by his voice he was raising an eyebrow at her mockingly. Maybe she was projecting.

She decided to get back on track. "Almost certainly dead. Anyway, the only way for this particular seal to work is if I also tattoo a corresponding one on myself."

"And will that allow me to come to you?"

"Hmm, no, because the seal is still not attuned to your chakra. I'm pretty sure the way I have it laid out allows me to pull you to me, but I'd rather not test it. Could get quite messy."

Itachi's mouth curled into a reluctant smile. "We'll leave it as a last resort."

She snorted and leaned forward, balancing the chair on only two legs. "Taking you out of a situation is the only help I can possibly give if you were ever to find yourself against someone even you can't fight." She looked pensive. "Though I'm not sure anyone like that exists, considering you killed Orochimaru."

"You seem to have a lot of faith in my abilities, Misaki-san. We barely knew each other before I left Konoha."

Sakura could only shrug. She had seen what he could in the future, to Kakashi and Sasuke and anyone else he chose to fight and if the timelines were the same, it was all with that horrible lung disease she could still faintly hear rattling around. "I've read your ANBU mission reports."

Now she had his attention. "How? Those are surely classified."

Sakura couldn't help but grin. "I was determined to find out why you distrusted Danzo and I have enough friends in the administration to make it seem usual for me to be where I was not supposed to be, even if I were caught."

"Which you were not." Another of his non-questions.

"Of course." She had only really looked at a few select scrolls to make sure the information she had from her past corresponded to the things in this timeline. She had snuck into the locked records room after telling Ibiki that she needed to use the bathroom. For such a hardened torture specialist, he really was a big teddy bear when it came to her and she milked it for all she was worth. Everything she did was for the betterment of Konoha, so Sakura didn't let herself feel too guilty about it.

"I did not tell you about Danzo so that you could do all that, Misaki-san."

"I know." Sakura wasn't going to apologize for it. "But I'm not the type of person to take information like that at face value."

At least I'm not anymore. Sometimes I wish I could be that little girl again.

"Know thy enemy."

She smiled slightly. "Something like that. Do you want me to tell Jiraiya?" About you, about the Uchiha, about everything, was left unspoken.

He was silent long enough for her to chance a look at his face and she saw that his eyes were once again dark. Itachi seemed to notice her glance but only said, "It may be best to keep my name out of it. If you are truly an unknown asset to him, he will not believe that your information is viable."

She frowned. "I see the sense in that, but I don't like it."

He appeared unconcerned, examining his fingernails. "There are many things to dislike about our situation."

Sakura huffed. "You have a talent for understatement, Itachi-san." She watched him for a moment. "I have a ridiculous question."

He looked at her blankly. "Yes?"

She waved at his hands and said, "Do you all actually paint your nails black? Because that seems … very frivolous for an association of incredibly powerful shinobi. I can't see Kisame sitting around waiting for his nails to dry."

"Ah." He was definitely amused now, she could tell by his slightly relaxed shoulders. It was like playing the advanced version of the 'how does Sasuke feel today?' game. "Consequence of the rings."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do they do?"

"The real meaning seems to only be known to Leader, but I have my suspicions it has to do with how the tailed beasts are extracted."

Sakura barely hid a wince, remembering Gaara's limp body after they had rescued him from Akatsuki's clutches. When she had run a diagnostic on him to see if there was any chance of healing, she was appalled at how blown his nerve endings had been. He had died in excruciating pain. "We'll have to talk more on that later. We should get the seal out of the way first."

She grabbed her storage scroll out of her leg pack and unsealed the blood-laced ink and brush she had created after years of observing Sai's techniques. Sakura would never be an artist, but it was exceedingly helpful in fuinjutsu. She held up the bottle for Itachi to see. "I will paint a seal on both of us and infuse it them each with chakra at the same time to link them together. It will burn the pattern into the uppermost level of the dermis." Easier said than done. Sakura figured the most unobtrusive spot for was going to be her unadorned wrist, so it was going to take some maneuvering to get it a hand on both simultaneously.

He looked only mildly curious that she was going to be permanently etching something on his body. "Where would you like to put it?"

She shrugged. "You know what would be the best spot, Itachi-san. You just need to be able to touch it easily for communication purposes."

He was silent for a moment and then said, "Torso would be best. I do not want to raise suspicion by changing gear or wearing bandages like you do." He stood and removed his stiff cloak, laying it carefully on the other bed, hesitating before he removed the tunic and fishnet shirt he wore as well.

Sakura was unmoved by his shirtlessness, though she noticed with some concern how thin he was. Considering he was a member of a very exclusive club, she doubted his appearance had anything to do with missing meals and everything to do with that damnable lung issue she had patched up last time. Promising herself that she would heal him more before she left, Sakura sat on the bed next to him and gently pushed him into a reclining position.

Over his left hipbone she carefully painted the concentric circles that she had refined over the past few days, its exact pattern burned into her memory. Itachi was completely still, barely even breathing as she dotted a single tomoe in the center and let it dry as she unwrapped the bandages on her left wrist.

She repeated the process on herself, making sure all her strokes were even and unhurried. Itachi stayed where he was and just watched her work. He made an amused sound when she started waving her arm around carefully in an attempt to dry it while packing her supplies back into the storage scroll with the other hand.

"Does that work?"

She gave him a self-conscious smile. "Probably not. Makes me feel better, though." After a few moments, Sakura placed her left hand on the seal she had painted on Itachi and her right hand over her left wrist. "This is going to hurt, Itachi-san."

He murmured, "I expected as much," but didn't move. Taking a deep breath, she rushed chakra into both of her hands, taking care to make sure her left hand was connecting to both the seal and Itachi's chakra pathways. Sakura grit her teeth through the interminable burning in her wrist, feeling it down to her bones. She concentrated on Itachi's pathways to distract herself from the pain, wondering how long it had been since he had seen a real healer. Did Akatsuki have medics?

Itachi had tensed when her chakra flooded his system, but didn't otherwise move. When the last array had been activated, her shoulders slumped and she removed her hands, grimacing when she saw the blood on her right palm that was leaking from her ink. She wiped it off on the underside of the tunic she was wearing and inspected Itachi's seal.

Itachi eyed her bloody hand dubiously. "Are you okay, Misaki-san?"

The skin around his seal was just barely pink, looking more like a partially-healed tattoo than something he had just gotten. She waved off his concern absently. "Hmm? Yes, that's expected."

She prodded her wrist with a finger tip and injected the tiniest amount of chakra into the seal, smiling when his eyes widened minutely. "Looks like it worked, Itachi-san."

He rose up onto his elbows. "Were you doubting your abilities?"

She snorted. "Not likely." Sakura was about to make a quip about her prowess when Itachi tensed again. She extended her senses rapidly and felt the enormous chakra presence moving through the building. She hissed at Itachi, "I thought you said it would be hours before he came back?"

Itachi was calm, though his eyes were slightly unnerved. "Something must have gone wrong on his mission."

She thought frantically. No doubt Kisame could already tell there were two people in the room, if she used the hiraishin to escape, she was unsure of what kind of situation that would leave Itachi in. Sakura looked down at Itachi and said, "I apologize for what I'm about to do. Play along."

She clambered on top of him to straddle his hips, covering his new seal with her body. She unbuttoned half of her shirt to expose her prodigious henge'd breasts and gently placed a hand on his bare chest, playing with his necklace with the other.

Itachi's eyes were wider than she had ever seen them, but before he could protest her actions Kisame had swung the door open with a murderous look on his face. "Yo, Itachi, that idiot wasn't-"

He did a double take as Sakura looked back at him with an annoyed look on her face and said, "I don't do doubles." She was hoping that Itachi would somehow forget that she was technically supposed to be eleven right now, because the situation was already awkward enough.

Kisame gave her a fierce grin and looked around at Itachi's blank face. "About time, kid! I'll take myself out again for a little while. You two have fun." He gave them a lascivious wink and shut the door firmly. Sakura could feel his chakra receding further away until it was moving out of the inn.

As soon as she was sure it was safe, Sakura nearly flew off Itachi, not meeting his eyes. "Sorry, Itachi-san. I figured he would know someone was in here with you and I didn't want to make him suspicious of a hurried exit."

He was still laying on the bed, looking vaguely flabbergasted. "It was … a workable plan, Misaki-san. Though I must admit surprise that you thought of it."

She winced. "It was the best I could do."

"Hmm, not what I meant, but I think you know that."

She busied herself with doing up her buttons again and sitting down on her abandoned chair. "About time, huh? Kisame is that concerned about your sex life?"

Sakura could see a whisper of a grimace on his face when he replied. "I am not about to discuss this with the eleven year old teammate of my little brother."

"Just pretend I'm the same age as I appear, Itachi-san." Mostly because it's true. "Unless you somehow encounter my team while with Akatsuki, you're never going to see me as anything but Misaki. It would be useful to use this guise as an on-again, off-again mutual relationship should Kisame ever catch us together again."

He gave her a decidedly unimpressed look. "So we should pretend as if you're a traveling prostitute and I'm a delighted customer."

Sakura shrugged, unbothered. "Like you said, a workable plan. My very infrequent visits to see Jiraiya would only cement the image. It's not like he's a paragon of virtue."

"I am uncomfortable with this idea." The way he said it did not actually indicate any sort of emotion whatsoever.

She squinted at him. "Because of my age or because of how it will appear to others?"

He sat up and grabbed his fishnet shirt and tunic, sliding them over his head without mussing his long hair somehow. "The former, though you certainly act more like Misaki's age."

"Eventually you'll see that I am who I am despite my paltry years."

"So you say." He tapped the seal on his hipbone thoughtfully. "We should determine a code now."

Sakura had already planned one out while she was creating the seal. She explained the amount of chakra needed to communicate via seal and what each tap would mean. He made suggestions and changes to her proposed code, which she tried to accept with grace.

"So like this-" he pulsed chakra through the seal for three seconds, stopped, one second, stopped, three seconds, stopped, "would indicate to you that I need extraction? Is this your last resort scenario?"

"Basically. Just use a single three second burst to indicate that you are alone and can report. I will answer back like this," she tapped her wrist for five seconds, "if I can come right away and like this," she tapped her wrist for a single second, "if I have to wait an extended period of time and will contact you again later to make sure it's still safe."

"Simple enough." He watched as she rolled up her coded notes and put them back into her storage scroll. "Is that scroll secure enough for such information?"

Sakura did her best not to be offended. Itachi was taking a great risk in trusting her with his secret when he could have easily killed her once she admitted her knowledge. "It's sealed to only open with my blood and chakra. You can kill me and drain my body over it, but unless I am willing, it will just remain an inert thing."

"That is a gruesome reassurance, Misaki-san."

"Just be comforted by the fact that I've made sure to close up any loopholes." She stood from the chair and he looked as if he wanted to do the same, but she gently put a hand on his shoulder and he stiffened. "Since Kisame assumes we're … busy, I think now is the perfect time for me to take a look at your lungs again."

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "I'm not sure what you can do, Misaki-san. I have many medications for this illness."

She wiggled her fingers at him. "I'm a pretty good medic, Itachi-san and I doubt you've seen a real one since Konoha."

She prodded him to lay down on the bed and pulled out her travel medkit quickly. Laying her equipment out in easy reach, Sakura put her hands on his chest, surprised at how easily her chakra was able to connect to his pathways this time.

Must be the seal's properties.

Sakura closed her eyes and allowed herself to become immersed, looking for damage to fix. She was determined to find the root cause of his problems, even if she couldn't heal it immediately. She murmured, "Has there been any hemoptysis?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Please remember that I am not a medic, Misaki-san."

She apologized distractedly. "Coughing up blood, Itachi-san."

"Ah," he said uncomfortably. "Perhaps some."

She sighed as her chakra moved through his body, realizing that Itachi was just as bad as Kakashi when it came to medics and hospitals. Stupid men and their stubborn pride.

Through her diagnostics, Sakura realized one of his kidneys was in the process of shutting down so she shunted her attention to that area. Her chakra was enough to slow the renal failure, but it would start again if she weren't able to get to the source. She was close enough to hear his stuttered breath and pressed her ear to his chest to verify the pleural effusion she had suspected. "Itachi-san, this is going to be a very uncomfortable few minutes."

He looked at her levelly. "I will trust in your abilities."

No pressure or anything. Damn Uchiha.

Inspired by her poison removal technique, Sakura started to pull the fluid from around his lungs out slowly through his skin. Itachi was as tense as a wire beneath her hands as she carefully manipulated her chakra. After a few moments she was able to determine that she had gotten everything and dumped the murky fluid into a pan next to her leg. He breathed quickly after she detached from his pathways, but it slowed to a normal, even rate. "Better?"

He quirked a slight smile. "Much. I did not realize how impaired my breathing was until now."

She tried not to preen, but her medical skills were something she was very proud of. Still, he wasn't healed yet. He was probably not going to like the next question she had to ask. "Itachi-san … this illness you have, I can't fix it right now."

His eyebrows knitted together. "I did not even expect this much, Misaki-san. There is no shame in not being able to cure me."

She frowned angrily. "I can cure you, but I'll need more information than I can get from a chakra diagnostic right now. I need a blood sample."

He stared at her face searchingly and Sakura did her best to project the image of someone who was totally trustworthy and wouldn't do weird things with his blood. "We have more important things to worry about. There's no need for you to spend time on this."

She got up to dump her pan out the window and started packing her medkit back up moodily. "We can't get anything done if you die of an illness that I can fix before I can punch the rest of Akatsuki in the balls."

Itachi said with some amusement, "That might only stop Hidan."

"Ugh, that man." She sat on the bed opposite of Itachi. "He's far too crazy to be that good looking."

Itachi gave her a sharp look. "You have met him?"

"He met me, but not this me." She indicated her Misaki henge. "I was simply minding my own business when he decided that I would do for the night and tried to convince me he was definitely worth it."

"May I ask why you were in yet another henge form?"

She shrugged and decided a vaguely truthful answer was better than a lie. "Meeting my summons in an unfamiliar place. My original coloring stands out and I felt safer appearing as an older woman." I felt more like myself, really. There were plenty of reasons a woman would be even less safe from some men than a child, after all. "So, blood?"

Itachi sighed. "Only if this will not interfere with our original mission."

"I am plenty capable of juggling responsibilities, Itachi-san."

He looked at her for a moment and nodded. "I believe it."

Sakura quickly drew his blood into one of the vials she had with her before he changed his mind and packed it away, mind whirling on how she would be able to get into the hospital's labs. Tsunade was fond of her, maybe she could make something up about genealogical research? She was a million miles away planning for her return trip when she felt Itachi's hand on her shoulder and startled.

I am not cautious enough in his presence. I'm lucky he's decided to work with me instead of kill me to keep his cover.

"Misaki-san, it might be best if you were to leave the inn the traditional way." His nose wrinkled in a patina of disgust. "If we are to maintain the illusion that you wanted to create."

She agreed readily. "Where are we?"

"Earth Country, near the border of Grass."

Sakura made a face. No wonder she had landed here already drained, with the sealing tattoo and healing not making it any better. She would have to jump multiple times rather than pulling on her hiraishin seal in her bedroom if she wanted to make it to Konoha without drawing on her yin seal. "I suppose I will be seeing you, Itachi-san."

He inclined his head and said, "We will have much to discuss next time, Misaki-san. Kisame's mission directly involved recruitment, but it seems to have gone amiss."

"Contact me when you can." It seemed better to leave without saying goodbye, so she just waved and made her way out of the inn, ignoring the ogles from the local men and walked to the outskirts of town in a casual stroll. She caught a glimpse of silver hair as she walked and her heart stuttered, though her stride didn't pause.

Itachi only ever mentioned Orochimaru.

Sakura shakily came to a grove a mile outside of the town and leaned against the rough bark of an elm.

There's nothing I can do right now. Itachi can take care of himself.

She reached into her own pathways to pull on the seal in Tanzaki Gai, her mind ablaze with the implications of Kabuto's survival. He was too intelligent to take on Itachi himself, especially with Kisame around so often. She had not seen the false-genin in the Konoha for weeks, which meant he was likely floating around much like he had been in her own timeline.

She came out of the hiraishin with clenched fists and a sinking feeling in her stomach. Things were about to change dramatically and Sakura wasn't sure if they were all for the best.

note: this story is gen. despite other people's attentions or apparent interest, sakura has way more things on her mind than romantic endeavors. i'm sorry if i haven't made this clear enough for any reviewers who are hoping for a shikasaku, itasaku, kakasaku, etc. endgame. maybe there will be an epilogue if i ever finish figuring out the actual plot.