After the incident at Ichiraku, Sakura had given both Sasuke and Itachi a wide berth. She had embarrassed herself enough by slapping Itachi and going off on Sasuke, but then the moment on the bridge afterwards left her feeling more unsettled than she wanted to admit.
Her world would make a lot more sense if Itachi acted more like Sasuke and vice versa.
But that was not the case, and until she sorted out the weird feelings she was having, she decided it was best just to avoid them completely.
Of course, Sakura still had to treat Itachi's condition once a week. Though she was not cold with him, Sakura remained as clinical and professional as possible with her treatments, and Itachi, seeming to sense her hesitancy and confusion over the situation, made it easy on her by refraining from touching her or calling her pretty again.
Weeks went by, Sakura keeping herself busy with her work at the hospital and then with Yamato and Sachi in the evenings. Occasionally, at Itachi's request, Sakura would take them to the park where they could spend some more time with their favorite 'Uncle' Itachi.
If anyone noticed that Sakura and Itachi seemed to be around each other a lot, no one mentioned it. The only person who would likely have noticed such a thing would have been Sasuke, the only other person Itachi seemed inclined to spend any time with.
Sakura thought it was sweet that the two brothers spent so much time together and seemed to be getting along, but she could see that Sasuke in particular was growing restless.
The need for revenge had been burned so deeply into his psyche that Sakura was sure that he was gearing up for his future attack on Danzo.
Honestly, Sakura was all for it. Kakashi and Yamato had spent weeks searching for Sai and had come up empty-handed.
That is, until Sakura was called from her shift to report immediately to the Hokage's office. Sakura was nervous, of course. Tsunade wouldn't have interrupted her shift unless it had been something very important.
When she arrived at her mentor's office, she found herself standing huddled together with Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Yamato.
"There is no easy way to say this," Tsunade began. Sakura's heart sank. "Sai's body has been recovered. He was found dead by a team of ANBU in the woods just outside the village. He was hidden with a genjutsu."
Sakura's vision swam and she leaned her body against Naruto's for support. He held onto her arm tightly, but she could feel that he was also trembling.
"Cause of death?" Kakashi asked.
"Looks like induced coma," Tsunade said, a note of warning in her voice, though Sakura didn't understand what it was for.
Induced coma? How could someone have induced a coma without access to the drugs at the hospital? There was no way anyone would have been able to sneak any out of the pharmacy. She would have to check to logs to make sure, but she was certain that there weren't any missing.
"By what means?" Sakura asked, her voice cracking.
"The autopsy report shows a genjutsu that put his mind to sleep," Tsunade explained.
"The only genjutsu I've heard of that's capable of doing such a thing is produced by the Sharingan," Kakashi speculated. Five pairs of eyes locked onto Sasuke.
"I didn't do it," Sasuke defended.
"I know you didn't do it," Tsunade said.
Sakura swallowed hard, thinking of the only other Sharingan user she knew of. Itachi wouldn't have done something like this… Would he? He was capable of gruesome things, certainly, but he hadn't been the one to do this one. She was sure he wouldn't have done it.
And hadn't he warned Yamato and Sachi about another Sharingan user when they had been in Toyeiki? Was he talking about whoever had been responsible for this?
"I believe Danzo is responsible for this," Tsunade said, "I need proof of it in order to condemn him for the crime and have him removed from the council. That's where you guys come in."
Sakura's brow furrowed. How could Danzo be responsible?
"I'm assigning this mission to Team 7. Find me proof that Danzo did this," Tsunade continued, "Or find me proof that someone else did."
Sakura closed her eyes and pictured Ino. She would be crushed. She couldn't believe it – Sai was gone. It didn't seem fair. Just when she'd gotten one teammate back she lost another. Hot tears burned at the back of her eyes, but she took a deep breath and held them back.
"You're all dismissed."
Sakura didn't wait for anything else – she ran. She was gone before anyone could stop her, running, running.
She let her feet take her where they would. She didn't think, she ran. She wanted to find Ino, to seek comfort from her best friend, but she couldn't talk to Ino until she calmed down. She couldn't tell her the truth while she was so wrecked.
Instead, she found herself at the Uchiha compound, banging frantically on the door. She couldn't see straight through the tears that had streamed down her face, her neck, and into her shirt. Between knocks, she wiped furiously at her eyes. She was sure she looked like a red, wet mess.
She didn't care, though, because she knew that Itachi had answers. He knew the person with the Sharingan. He knew who had done this to Sai. And this time she wouldn't let him get away with keeping it a secret from her.
But when he swung the door open and looked down at her, his eyes were too concerned. "Sakura…" he said, his voice low. She didn't miss the worry in his tone. He should be worried, she thought. He reached out for her, placing a hand on her shoulder and pulling her toward him.
She let go – lost the will to resist him, to demand answers from him. She let him pull her against him. Her forehead collided with his collarbone. Her arms were crushed between his body and hers, so she fisted her hands in the fabric of his shirt. His hand came down on the top of her hand, holding her against him. The other found its way to her back and rubbed soothing circles there.
"What happened?" he whispered.
She couldn't answer right away because she was sobbing too hard, not caring that she sounded like a wailing child, not caring that her tears were soaking into his shirt (a shirt that she distantly noticed was one of the ones she had bought for him). He rested his chin on her head and let her cry. She didn't know how long she stayed there, taking comfort from him like he existed just to give it to her.
"What's wrong?" he tried again, forcibly pushing her shoulders back so that he could see her face.
She wrenched her body away from his and stabbed an accusing finger into his chest. "You told me in Toyeiki that there was another Sharingan user," she said, her voice trembling and angry, "Who was it? Tell me who you were talking about."
"Sakura, calm down first," he said, taking hold of her finger and curling back into her hand, "Tell me what happened."
"Sai is dead!" she exclaimed, yanking her hand away from his, "And whoever is at fault used Sharingan to do it."
Gently, he took her hand in his and led her through the door. She followed him into the kitchen, her chest still heaving and anger still burning in her chest. She was borderline hysterical, but she couldn't seem to calm down.
"Sit," he commanded, pointing to the kitchen table. She did as she was told and then collapsed herself on the table, burying her face in her arms. She stayed there, entrenched in her darkness, sobbing again into the table. Sai was gone. Sai was dead. And it was her fault.
"Drink this," Itachi said. Sakura pulled her head up and felt him press a warm mug into her hands. She took a sip – peppermint tea.
"I'm sorry about your friend," he said when it appeared that she was finished crying. She gave him an incredulous look, baffled that had both the gall to say that to her and the patience to deal with her. But she realized that he was serious. He knew what she was going through.
And it wasn't like she hadn't been prepared for a loss like this. She was a shinobi. Her friends were all shinobi. Sooner or later, they all would die. And shinobi always tended to die sooner rather than later.
She took another sip of her tea. He sat down across from her.
"Before the massacre," Itachi began, and immediately he had Sakura's full attention, "My cousin, Shisui, and I were aware that our clan was planning the coup. We were going to try to stop it. He had an ability he could use with his Mangekyou – Kotoamatsukami. He was planning to use it to convince our clan not to go through with the coup. But before he could do it, Danzo intercepted him. Danzo didn't want him to try to use his genjutsu. He didn't think it was a permanent solution."
Sakura inched closer to Itachi, listening intently. She had read the mission file and she knew the general idea of what had happened, but the details were lost. Itachi was the only one who knew them. And Danzo, too, she thought.
"He tried to kill Shisui. He took his right eye and would have taken the left had I not come back to save him," Itachi explained.
"You were talking about Danzo…" Sakura said in disbelief. "Danzo has a Sharingan. That's why he keeps his eye covered…"
Itachi nodded.
"We need to tell Tsunade," Sakura said, "She assigned a mission to Team 7. We're supposed to find proof that Danzo killed Sai. This is the proof we need."
Sakura stood up, knocking her chair over in the process.
"Hold on, Sakura," Itachi said, wrapping his fingers around her wrist, "That isn't enough proof. Danzo will never admit to having a Sharingan. He will pin the blame for Sai's death on either me or Sasuke."
"But—"
"The village would easily accept that I did this, Sakura," Itachi said, "They don't trust me. They would believe I did this, even if Tsunade doesn't."
Itachi stood up, too, and released Sakura's arm. She crossed her arms across her chest and shivered, though she didn't feel cold. It was too much information to process.
"Sakura, if Danzo killed Sai it was because he was snooping around for information," Itachi said, "He's the one who found my mission file, right?"
Sakura nodded, and blinked away the fresh wave of tears that brimmed in her eyes. This is my fault.
"He won't hesitate to kill you, either," Itachi said. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. "Or anyone else on Team 7."
"We have to stop him."
"Sakura, please," Itachi begged, and Sakura was surprised by the pleading tone in his voice, "Please do not go after him. I know what your orders are, but please let me take care of this. I will handle it."
"But—"
"I don't want you to get hurt."
She sighed deeply and pursed her lips together. She felt for him, she really did. He had lost his family – killed them with his own hands, in fact. She couldn't imagine how painful it must have been. And now he was afraid of losing her, too, and it broke her heart that he felt that way.
But he had accepted the mission knowing what he would have to do in order to protect the village and to protect Sasuke. Now she was facing a decision, too, albeit a much less terrifying one.
"I'm not going to defy my orders."
"At least let me help you."
She couldn't say no to that. "Okay."
"Let's go find Sasuke."
.
But they didn't have to look too far for him. Just as they'd set out to leave, the rest of Team 7 showed up at the Uchihas' doorstep.
What the hell, Sakura," Naruto demanded, pushing his way into the house, "You just ran away!"
"I'm sorry, Naruto—"
"I know you're upset, but that's what we're here for," Naruto continued, cutting her off, "He was our teammate, too. Didn't it occur to you that I'm also sad? I mean, come on, that's just inconsiderate."
"That's not why I ran away, Naruto," Sakura said impatiently. Of course she realized that Naruto was sad, too. She knew how precious Naruto's friends were to him. "I came to find Itachi because I knew he had critical information."
It was mostly the truth.
"You should have waited for us," Kakashi said, but he didn't seem upset.
"What information?" Sasuke asked.
"Danzo has a Sharingan," Sakura answered.
Everyone turned to look at Itachi.
"He stole it from Shisui just before he killed himself."
Silence descended in the room. Sakura was surprised to see Sasuke's eyes slightly glazed over. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides.
"So what are we going to do?" Sakura asked.
"Diplomacy will not work this time," Itachi said, "The Sandaime and Danzo were friends, in spite of their difference of opinion when it came to protecting Konoha, but Danzo doesn't trust Tsunade-sama, especially after choosing to allow me back into the village. There will be no peaceful negotiations."
"So you're saying that we will have to fight him?" Yamato asked.
"I'm saying that it doesn't matter if we find proof or not," Itachi argued, "Danzo thinks he knows how to keep Konoha protected. His methods are… cruel. Tsunade wants to remove him from the council, but that will not be enough. He will still try to control things from the shadows. He has the means to do so."
"That's true," Yamato agreed.
"So we have to kill him," Sasuke said.
"Our orders are to find proof of his crimes," Kakashi said, "Nothing more. Killing him is treason."
"If he attacks first, it's self-defense," Sakura argued.
"We can try to reason with him for appearances' sake," Itachi said, "But we will have to be prepared to fight him. He is not going to see things our way."
Silence fell again. Sakura could hear her heartbeat thudding in her ears. This would be the second time she hid something from Tsunade. It didn't sit well with her, but just like the first time, Sakura had no choice.
"So what's the plan?" Naruto asked.
"There's a council meeting two days from now," Sakura answered, "We should confront him after the meeting."
"We'll need to intercept him before he goes back down to ROOT's base," Itachi said, "We can't fight too many ROOT members at once."
"We can ambush him once he's outside the gates," Yamato suggested, "We can split into Team Ro and Team 7. One team can follow him after the meeting in case he catches on and tries to escape and the other can be waiting to ambush him."
"Team Ro?" Naruto asked.
"Me, Kakashi, and Itachi," Yamato answered.
"Tenzo," Itachi said, "You and I can tail him. Team Kakashi can be waiting to ambush him. Sakura can wait farther outside the gates to keep watch for ROOT members coming to back him up and to provide medical support where necessary."
Sakura pursed her lips in annoyance, but she didn't argue. It was a sound plan that played to all of their strengths.
"Tenzo?" Naruto asked.
"Yamato is a code name," he answered, "Tenzo is my real name."
"So we should call you Tenzo now?" Naruto asked, "That sounds weird."
"Call me whatever you like, Naruto," Yamato said. Sakura didn't think she could get used to calling him a different name now, but she wasn't thinking too hard about it. Instead, her eyes drifted to Sasuke who was staring at his brother with confusion.
"You three were on a team together?" he asked Itachi.
"Yes," Itachi answered, but he offered no more information.
"Alright," Kakashi said, his tone firmly ending the conversation, "We will reconvene two days from now. We'll meet back here when the meeting starts."
.
Later that night when Sakura arrived home, she wasn't surprised to find Ino sitting at her kitchen table. She was pouting and had poured herself a glass of wine.
"Forehead," she greeted.
"Pig."
"I came by the hospital to see you today," she said, swirling the wine around in the glass, "One of the nurses said you'd been called to the Hokage's office."
Sakura felt hot tears building up in the corners of her eyes. She was dreading having this conversation, but if she was in Ino's position she would want to know the truth. It couldn't be easy on her not knowing what happened to Sai. Sakura had felt the same way when Sasuke's was the one missing.
Except Sasuke wasn't dead.
"Sakura," Ino said, standing up and grabbing her by the shoulders, "Why are you crying? What happened?"
Sakura shook her head and steeled herself against the tears. She couldn't tell Ino the truth while she was crying. Ino began to cry, too, putting two and two together.
"He's dead, isn't he?"
Sakura nodded. Ino let out a garbled cry and fisted her hands in the sleeves of Sakura's shirt. The blonde collapsed into Sakura, letting the weight of her body fall into her chest. Sakura held onto her with a shaky grip and eased them down to the floor.
They clung to one another, both sobbing, both blaming themselves for the turn of events. Sakura wanted to choke out an explanation, an apology, anything – but the words wouldn't come out. The only sound she could make was the hysterical weeping that she couldn't seem to get under control.
It could have been hours or it could have been merely minutes that they stayed that way, crying and leaning into one another. No words were spoken. There were none that could be said.
Eventually, Sakura pulled Ino up to her feet and led her to her bedroom. She tucked Ino into her bed and the blonde allowed it, unable to resist much. Sakura didn't want to be there anymore. She didn't want to see Ino in her bed, already half asleep. She didn't want to think about whatever had been happening between her and Sai. She didn't want to think that it was cut short by their selfish actions.
Leaving Ino alone in her apartment, Sakura fled for the second time that day. This time, she knew exactly who she wanted to see.
Her feet carried her straight to Naruto's apartment. She knocked softly at the door, all of the frantic worry from before gone. She waited – it felt like it was taking too long. Surely Naruto could sense that it was her. Surely he'd understand that she needed him right now, that they needed each other.
When he finally opened the door, Sakura pushed herself inside, barely sparing a glance into his face.
"Sakura," he said. He sounded surprised to see her, which surprised her. Why shouldn't she seek comfort from him now? They had both just discovered that their teammate was dead.
But then she saw him. Sasuke. He was sitting in Naruto's living room, looking wholly uninterested in everything. She glanced back at Naruto and for the first time saw that he had been crying. His eyes were puffy and red. His cheeks were glistening with shed tears.
"Naruto," Sakura mumbled, pulling him into a hug, "Are you okay?"
"Where have you been, Sakura?" Naruto demanded harshly, though his arms were around her in a comforting kind of way, "I needed you."
"Ino needed me, too, Naruto," Sakura said into his chest. She held onto him more tightly than she ever had before.
"Why the hell would Ino need you more than me?" Naruto demanded, "Sai was my teammate. Our teammate."
"They were… They were together, I think," she answered, "I'm not sure. But I'm pretty sure that it's our fault that he's dead."
With the statement uttered from her mouth, Sakura felt tears come back. She didn't feel like she had any left in her. She couldn't even feel the dampness in her eyes anymore. She choked out a sob, and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands but found her face to be dry.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, "How is it your fault?"
"I have to tell you something…"
He grabbed her arm and led her through the entryway and into the living room where Sasuke was still sitting, albeit slightly more interested than he'd been before. Sakura took a seat on the couch next to him and pulled Naruto along with her.
"On my mission in Toyeiki—"
"The one where you fixed that disease?"
"Yeah," she said, "I met Itachi there."
"What?" she heard Sasuke snap. Her back was slightly turned to him and she didn't bother turning to face him.
"He was sick and I healed him," she said.
"What? Why? You couldn't possibly have known he was a good guy back then." Naruto said.
"I needed his help," she answered, "His illness was a special case and I needed to study him in order to find a cure. I knew it was dangerous, but I was desperate. I offered him a deal. I healed him in exchange for letting me study him to find a cure. He would have died otherwise."
"So you saved his life?" Naruto asked.
"I suppose so."
"I'm having a hard time understanding this," Naruto said, "You thought he was a murderer. He made Sasuke's life a living hell and you love Sasuke. Why wouldn't you have sent word to Konoha that he was in Toyeiki? We would have come to help you."
"Because he…"
Sakura trailed off and began to fidget nervously. Naruto was easy enough to talk to, even if he was confused and asked a lot of questions. But it was weird talking about Itachi in front of Sasuke. For all her adoration of the younger Uchiha during her childhood, Sasuke had never been easy to be around.
"Because he what?" Sasuke demanded.
Sakura turned to face him this time. His face was unreadable – as always.
"He was nice to me," she said, "I was openly hostile toward him. I hated him. And he was still always kind. Especially with Yamato and Sachi. He was unbelievably tender with them. It was difficult to reconcile his behavior in Toyeiki with what I knew about him. That's why when I got back here, I had Sai do some research on him for me."
"Oh," Naruto said.
"That's how he knew you," Sasuke said, "The day he told me the truth. He told me he was going to let me kill him, but you stopped him."
"After I found out the truth…"
"Sakura," Sasuke said, "You healed him when he was sick. And you stopped me from killing him. You saved his life twice."
"I couldn't let him die," she replied, "Not the first time because I couldn't let you lose your chance for revenge. And not the second time because I couldn't let you lose him after all he'd done for you. And he didn't deserve to die, even if it was what he wanted."
"Thank you."
It was the second time he had ever thanked her. The first time it had made her feel happy in spite of the direness of the situation. He had finally acknowledged her in some way and she had been over the moon about it.
This time it just left her feeling empty. She always longed to have Sasuke treat her with the same respect that he gave Naruto. She never expected that it would feel so hollow.
And the worst part was that she could tell he was being genuine.
"Sakura," Naruto said, "I know you want to blame yourself for Sai's death, but it wasn't your fault. It was Danzo's fault."
"We will avenge him," Sasuke said, "We'll avenge Sai and we'll avenge my brother. Danzo will not get away with what he put Itachi through – what he did to my clan."
She began to cry again. She leaned into Naruto who held her against his shoulder. They understood one another through those touches. They shared the pain of losing Sai together until it was manageable.
She was surprised when she felt Sasuke place a comforting hand on her shoulder, too. The gesture felt strange coming from him, but Sakura found it comforting anyway.
It was the push she needed to get herself moving in the right direction. Sai was gone and there was nothing that could change that. She would help take out Danzo. She would comfort Ino as best she could. And then things could go back to normal.