From the comfort of the hospital bed, Itachi was able to fully prepare himself for the impact of Sakura as she crashed her body into his. She was not gentle. In fact, Itachi mused, he had never been hugged quite so angrily before. He felt her chakra invading his system, so similar to Shizune's. He knew she wasn't supposed to be doing that, but he said nothing.
She buried her face in his neck, practically sprawled on top of him. She was breathing quite heavily and seemed more upset than the situation probably called for.
He assumed she would be upset with him. From the first moment he saw Danzo, he had already formulated his plan. Get Sakura out of there. Find Sasuke. Kill Danzo. It was simple. And simply executed. In fact, Itachi felt rather good about the way things had gone. Even the fight itself, in spite of his serious injuries, had gone well. He had even let Sasuke deliver the final blow.
But he could see how such a plan would have upset Sakura.
And, well, he wasn't above groveling. Whatever he had to do to get her forgiveness – he'd do it.
"Sakura?" he asked when it seemed that she didn't want to move. Her weight had settled on him in a way that was both concerning and little enticing. "Sakura, are you okay?"
She pulled her face away from his neck and he saw that her eyes were dry. For some reason he had assumed that she had been crying. Instead he found that her expression was totally unreadable.
She reached out her hand and ran the pad of her thumb over his eyebrow. "I love you," she said. "Did you know that?"
Itachi had thought he was over the heart explosions at this point, and though this one felt different than the previous ones, it wasn't any less intense. He tried to suck in a breath of air, but he couldn't get his lungs to fill up properly. He felt Sakura shift on top of him and she looked concerned.
"I didn't know that," he said with a cracked voice.
"I hope that killing Danzo brought you peace," she said solemnly. "Because I want you to be happy."
Itachi swallowed a lump in his throat because this was really not how he had imagined this situation going. He expected a bit of admonishing, a general relief that he was okay. He had not expected a declaration of love, an expression of her desire for his happiness. It felt oddly dreamlike.
She even looked like a dream. She was wearing a red one-piece swimsuit with her white medic coat over top. It was an interesting outfit choice, to be sure, but Itachi wasn't complaining. Her hair fell down in damp, loose waves that tickled his bare chest. She looked lovely and he wanted to crush himself into her and kiss her over and over again.
"I am happy," he said, and slipped his fingers behind her neck to pull her into a kiss. It was chaste, but tender. "And I love you, too."
She grinned at him, biting her bottom lip. Then she punched him not so gently in the arm. He winced, though she hadn't used any chakra in her punch.
"That's for dragging me back to the village instead of letting me fight with you," she said. Then she leaned forward, the tips of her hair tickling his chest again, and kissed his cheek. "And that's for winning."
"I'm sorry," he said, but he was smiling in spite of his actual sincerity.
She returned to his chest, resting her cheek against his bare skin and settling warmly against him. He tucked her against his body with his arm, holding her against him should she try to get up.
He felt her chakra in his eyes, trailing through him from where her hands were curled up against his chest. It never ceased to amaze him – the magic she could perform with her healing chakra.
His eyes were in pretty bad shape. He had used his Mangekyou, of course. It had been necessary. And this time he had used it for quite a long time. But the soothing flow of Sakura's chakra was helping to relieve some of the pain in them now. He clutched tighter to her.
She asked him to activate his Sharingan, so he did. Then she asked him to activate his Mangekyou. With utter fascination, he realized that she was drawing idle circles on his chest while she worked on his eyes. Looking down at her, he saw that her own eyes were closed.
"If this is how you treat all your patients, I can see why you're so popular here," Itachi said with a smirk.
"Just you," she said, withdrawing her chakra from his body. "You're the only patient I've had to come heal twice now on my days off."
"To be fair," he said. "I thought you were supposed to be working today."
"So you would have waited until tomorrow if you had known I would not be working?" she asked with a knowing grin.
He chortled, but realized that he probably should have made sure she would be around to heal him first. It appeared to violate some sort of code they had at the hospital for her to work on him, but he could always go directly to her.
"No, I would have gone straight to your apartment instead of the hospital," he answered.
"I'm not your personal medic, Itachi-san."
"Yes, you are, hime," he insisted, kissing the top of her head.
She pulled away from him, giving him a stony glare. He grinned back at her, thoroughly amused.
"You interrupted my plans for the day, Itachi," she said, the corners of her mouth quirking up slightly, betraying the sternness in her tone. "So now that you're stable and your eyes have been tended to, I have to go."
She moved to get up, but he held onto her arm. "Don't go."
She smiled at him a little too warmly and then pulled her arm out of his grasp. "I'll see you later, Itachi-kun. Try not to get into any trouble, please. I don't like worrying about you."
He sat up, throwing the thin blankets onto the floor. "Where are you going?" he asked, instantly regretting the pleading, almost whining tone in his voice. She didn't owe him that information, of course. And if she was still mad at him for bringing her back to Konoha, he couldn't blame her for that.
"I've got a hot date," she said.
"With me?"
Sakura laughed, and Itachi felt his cheeks warm because it seemed to be at his expense. "Not you," she said.
"Who, then?" he demanded. "Is that why you're dressed like that?"
"Hey, Itachi-kun, I'm only teasing you," she said reassuringly, though he detected a hint of irritation in her voice. "I was with Yamato and Sachi today. We went to the brook for a swim."
"Oh."
"Yes, oh," she replied with her hands on her hips. "Do I have your permission to leave now?"
"Sakura," he said sharply, taking a step toward her. He didn't miss the way her eyes lingered on his bare chest before they came up to meet his eyes. "Don't be that way. I wasn't trying to upset you. I just wanted to spend some time with you."
"You were jealous."
"You were teasing me," he said flatly. "You like it when I'm jealous."
"I do not."
"You said I'm cute when I'm jealous."
"I have no recollection of that."
He rolled his eyes. "But it's true, isn't it?" he asked. "Didn't I look cute just now when I thought you had a date with some guy?"
She flashed a demure smile. "You always looks cute, Itachi-kun," she replied. "Jealousy has nothing to do with it."
"You like when I'm jealous because you like knowing that I want you," he said. "That I don't want anyone else to have you."
She shrugged nonchalantly, but he knew he spoke the truth.
"I wonder if you would be jealous," he continued. "If I told you I was going on a date with another girl."
"She wouldn't hold a candle to me."
Itachi laughed. "I'm sure she wouldn't."
"Do you want to go on dates with other girls, Itachi?"
There was an unmistakable tone of wistful sadness in the question – one that told Itachi exactly what he needed to know. She would be jealous. Not just jealous, but sad. The revelation didn't reassure him like he thought it would. Instead he just felt guilty for making her sad.
"No," he answered truthfully.
"That's good," she said. "Because I don't want to go on dates with other guys either."
"I kind of figured," he replied with a knowing smirk.
She scoffed. "Did you?"
"Yeah, when you told me you loved me," he said. "I assumed that meant you loved only me."
"That's a bit presumptuous of you, Itachi-kun," she said.
"I've always been good at reading people," he answered.
She rolled her eyes.
"I have to go, Itachi-kun."
"I'll come with you."
"To my parents' house?"
"Anywhere," he answered. "Wherever you're going."
She looked down at her feet and then back up at him skeptically. "Okay," she finally said after a moment of silence. "But if you're going to meet my parents you'll have to put a shirt on."
.
Itachi was pretty close to cloud 9. Remarkably close, in fact. Just shy of it. He had just defeated his greatest enemy with the help of his brother. The woman he wanted to marry had just confessed her love for him. Everything was perfect.
Except the tight ball of nerves roiling in his stomach.
"God, could you loosen up a little?" Sakura asked as they neared the front door of her parents' house. "Why are you so tense?"
"I'm not tense."
He was lying and he knew she knew he was lying. Sakura's parents were civilians and civilians usually did not like Itachi. They knew what he had done and they didn't understand. Hell, it was hard for him to understand it himself – he couldn't blame them for being cautious around him.
But these were Sakura's parents and he wanted them to like him. They were also Yamato and Sachi's adopted parents. He needed to make a good impression on them.
"Just relax," Sakura said as she opened the door.
No sooner than the door had been open did Sachi come bounding into the entryway. She shoved her way past Sakura and jumped onto Itachi who managed to catch her and hoist her up onto his hip.
"Itachi-san!"
He held her close against him, smoothing his hand over her wild curls. He had seen Sachi a handful of times since his return to Konoha, but he hadn't gone far out of his way to see her. It somehow seemed inappropriate to do (though he had training sessions with Yamato pretty frequently). But now he realized how much he had missed her.
"Sachi, don't be rude," he heard a voice say. Peering around Sachi's wild hair he saw who must have been Sakura's mother.
"Mother," Sakura said, greeting the woman with a warm hug.
"Sakura, dear, we didn't know what to think when Yamato and Sachi came back on their own," she said, shaking her head. "What happened?"
"Emergency at the hospital," Sakura explained flippantly. "Everything is fine now."
Itachi didn't know why she had avoided telling her why she had gone to the hospital, but he was a little relieved by it.
"Mother, this is Itachi," Sakura said, steering her mother toward Itachi.
"Itachi, this is my mother, Mebuki," she said to Itachi.
Mebuki took Sachi from Itachi's arms and shook his hand with a warm smile. "Sorry about her," she said to him. "She's usually very shy. I don't know what's gotten into her."
"I'm surprised she remembers me," Itachi said, smiling. "It's been so long since I've seen her."
Something akin to confusion flashed across Mebuki's face and Itachi wondered if maybe he shouldn't have said that. But then she smiled at him.
"Come on, Itachi-san, let me make you some tea," she said, leading them all into the kitchen. "What kind of tea do you like?"
"Whatever kind you have is fine."
"He likes peppermint," Sakura supplied.
Itachi flicked his eyes over to Sakura, who was bounding up the stairs without so much as a glance in his direction. Alone with Sakura's mother and Sachi, Itachi felt a little uncomfortable, but he managed a smile and took a seat at their kitchen table.
"So, Itachi-san," Mebuki said, filling a ceramic cup with boiling water. "What brings you to the civilian district? Just visiting with Sakura?"
Itachi nodded, but he understood the layer beneath her polite questioning. At this point it was no secret that Itachi Uchiha needed a wife. It was also no secret that Itachi Uchiha had a pretty major thing for Sakura.
"I happened to run into her at the hospital," he answered. "She invited me to join her here with Yamato and Sachi."
"Ah, I'm afraid Sakura's father took Yamato out fishing," Mebuki said. "So you'll have to make do with just Sachi."
Hearing her name made Sachi squirm in Mebuki's arms a little. After a moment of struggling to both hold her and make tea, Mebuki set the child down on the floor. "Goodness, Sachi, you are in a mood today, aren't you?"
She ran to where Itachi was seated and pulled herself into his lap. "Read me a book," she said to him quite sternly.
"Sachi," Mebuki admonished. "That's not very polite."
Itachi felt a grin spreading across his face. "If you go fetch one then I will read it to you," he offered.
She jumped out of his lap and took the stairs at an impossibly fast pace for a civilian child. Itachi watched her shove past Sakura as she descended the stairs, earning herself a confused glare.
Sakura had changed from her swimsuit into a large sweatshirt and hopefully some shorts underneath it. He couldn't tell.
"Sakura, put some pants on," Mebuki chided. "We have company."
"I have shorts on, see?" she said, lifting the hem of her sweatshirt to reveal a pair of black spandex shorts. "These are the only clothes I have here. It's better than the swimsuit."
Mebuki gave her a disapproving look but said nothing else.
Sakura looked over at Itachi and gave him a wry smile before joining him at the table. Sitting across from him, she lifted her foot and ran her toes over his calf muscle. Quickly, he jerked his leg away from her. She giggled and bit her lip, but thankfully retracted her leg.
"Where are father and Yamato?" she asked, propping her elbows up on the table and resting her chin on her hands.
"Out fishing," Mebuki answered, setting two cups of tea down on the table in front of them. She took the seat next to Sakura.
"Aw," Sakura said with a frown. "Father won't get to meet Itachi then."
Mebuki pursed her lips together. "Maybe that's a good thing," she said. "Because I think we might have something to talk about."
Inwardly Itachi winced because that could only mean one thing. Her father didn't approve of their potential marriage.
Feigning obliviousness, Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Are you two getting married?" Mebuki asked bluntly.
Itachi felt his ears burning. In his head, this scenario had gone quite differently. He would have been introduced to her parents as Sakura's lover. They would have been proud to see their daughter marry one of the top ninja in the village.
Instead, he was a criminal known to be in need of a wife within a fairly short time frame. He had to admit it didn't look good from an outside perspective.
"We have no plans to get married as of right now," Sakura answered darkly.
"I don't mean to pry, Sakura," Mebuki began. "But don't you think it's unwise to be in a relationship with someone who needs to get married so soon? It seems like a recipe for disaster. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"What makes you think we're in a relationship?" Sakura demanded.
"Sakura, it's all over the village," Mebuki said. "You know how people like to gossip."
"You can't believe everything you hear," Sakura quipped.
Mother and daughter stared blankly at one another for a moment, neither seeming to be willing to concede on the issue.
"We are in a relationship, Haruno-san," Itachi said, leaping in with both feet. "I don't want to see Sakura hurt any more than you do. I assure you that is not my intention."
Sakura and Mebuki both fixed their eyes on him, making a shiver run down his spine. The heated look in both their eyes looked so bizarre – Itachi could see the resemblance between them.
"What is your intention then, Itachi-san?"
He took a sip of his tea, flinching as the hot liquid burned the tip of his tongue. He set the cup down with a barely audible thump. He glanced at Sakura and saw that she looked very curious about his answer, but he didn't have the fortitude to let his gaze linger on her.
"My intention is to do everything in my power to make her happy," Itachi said to Mebuki. "I will not force her to get married if it's not what she wants. We will do things on her time."
"And what about the pressure on you to get married?" Mebuki asked. Sakura threw her a dirty look. "What will you do about that?"
"There is nothing that can be done about it," Itachi answered regretfully. "But I will not marry someone just to appease the council. And I will not force Sakura to do something she does not want to do."
Mebuki looked effectively mollified, much to Itachi's relief. Sakura, on the other hand, had her brow furrowed and a deeply curious look in her eyes.
Sachi, having chosen her book, bounded back into the kitchen and waved her very pink book in front of Itachi's face. He glanced up at Sakura with a raised brow, a silent question. She merely shrugged in response, but there was something curious about her expression – something that made his heart clench up in his chest.
He looked at Mebuki, hoping she would have the answers that Sakura did not, but she only returned his slightly confused gaze.
"Come on, Sachi," he said after a few seconds of contemplative silence. "I'll read this to you outside."
He scooped her up and excused himself politely so he could carry her into the backyard.
Truthfully, he was grateful for the escape. They probably knew that as well. He had been right to be nervous. Her parents didn't seem all too fond of him – or at least the situation their daughter was in. And he was a little bit on their side, quite frankly. Sakura could do better.
He sat down on the wooden deck, holding Sachi in his lap as he read her book to her. It felt comfortable and familiar, though he had done it only a handful of times before. The images in the books, the words, the way Sachi melted into him and sighed, pointing at pictures she liked – it was like déjà vu.
But there was something different this time, something about Sachi that didn't feel quite the same. She didn't seem to be enamored with him this time. He wondered if she had been scared before, if she understood what had been going on around her. She was so young. It didn't seem like she had aged at all, but it had been nearly a year since they had parted ways in Toyeiki.
Eventually, he felt her breathing become slow and even. He turned the last page and read it anyway before shutting the book and setting it down beside him on the deck. He didn't know how long he sat out there like that with Sachi asleep in his lap. It felt like it had been hours, but it could have only been minutes.
Mebuki and Sakura entered the backyard – he heard the screen door slide open and two distinct sets of footsteps on the deck behind him.
"I'll go put her in the bed," Mebuki whispered to him, holding her arms out to retrieve Sachi. Itachi obliged, gently switching the girl into Mebuki's arms. He felt Sakura sit down next to him on the deck. Once Mebuki had gone back inside and screen door had slid shut again, Sakura sidled her hand underneath his where it lay on the sun-warmed wood.
Sakura had often given him small gestures of affection – a kiss on the cheek, a warm smile. Itachi appreciated them, but he never felt their weight. This was something different. It was minute, but he understood that there was comfort and reassurance in the way she linked their fingers together. And it worried him.
"You talked to your mother?" he asked, squeezing her fingers gently.
"Yes," was all she offered.
He didn't press her for more information. She scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He leaned against her, pressing his cheek into her pink hair. They sat in silence for a while, enjoying one another's company, each of them lost in their own thoughts.
"Itachi?"
"Yes, hime?"
She pulled away from him and met his gaze. Her cheeks were pink and she looked amused by the affectionate pet name.
"When was the happiest you've ever been?"
He blinked a couple of times, blindsided by the question. Was that what she had been thinking about? When she had been the happiest she'd ever been?
He didn't even know how to formulate an answer. His life had been one disaster after another, dangerous missions, the massacre, Akatsuki. Had he been happy at any point during that time?
Only before, he supposed. Before the massacre. He had been happy walking through the village with his father, seeing the respect everyone gave him. He had been happy eating the homemade dango his mother made him just because she knew it was his favorite. He had been happy holding his newborn baby brother in his arms, happy taking walks along the river with Shisui.
But when had he been the happiest? Did Sakura want that answer to have something to do with her?
"Why do you ask?" he said, watching her expression carefully. She looked a little offended that he would ask her that, but she pressed her lips together and swallowed a lump in her throat.
"You said you would do everything in your power to make me happy," she said. "And it seemed like such an immense thing to say, to feel about me. That you care that much about me."
He nodded because he agreed. It had not been a light statement.
"And I care about you that much, too," she continued, not meeting his eye but staring at the blades of grass beneath her feet. "And I feel very selfish because you seem so interested in keeping me happy, specifically with regards to marriage. But I want you to be happy, too, and it just occurred to me that I have no idea what you want. I want to know what would make you happy, and if I'm capable of doing it."
"I don't know what would make you happy either, hime," he said, using the nickname to soften the harshness of the conversation. "I only know that I don't want to hurt you or rush you into marriage."
She fidgeted a little bit and he could tell that she was nervous for some reason. It made him feel apprehensive, too, so he pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand in a comforting gesture.
"If you tell me the happiest you've ever been, I'll tell you the happiest I've ever been and we can go from there," she suggested. "We can figure out what to do next."
And then he felt truly nervous, because if there was something that needed figuring out, then there was a problem. Maybe during her conversation with Mebuki she had discussed that she didn't want to be married or have children – that she couldn't give up her career or take time away from all the side projects she was working on.
"Okay," he agreed, trying to calm his nerves about. He could just feel that she was about to break up with him, to tell him that being the next Uchiha matriarch was too much for her and that she needed some space. "You go first."
She gave him a reproachful look. She wanted him to go first, and he supposed that was fair because she had asked him first. But she didn't argue.
"When I was fourteen I saved my first patient," she said. "I had just learned the mystical palm technique from Tsunade and she was so impressed with my quick progress. It felt really good. And then when an injured ANBU squad came in to the hospital, she let me take the reigns. I felt so in my element – everything was so perfect and right. I saved the patient with no hitches and Tsunade was so proud of me. I felt like I had finally figured out life. I knew what I wanted to do, what I was good at and I had so many people supporting me. That was the happiest I'd ever been."
He regarded her with eyes that were almost cold because that story seemed trite, and he didn't really believe her. But he watched the warmth in her features, the light in her eyes as she spoke. Her personal achievements in healing really did mean a lot to her.
He could tell her a very similar story. He was a prodigy, a genius, an Uchiha. His achievements were vast and innumerable.
But they did not make him happy.
"The happiest moment of my life," he began. "Was when I told Sasuke the truth about everything. When he didn't reject me or hate me anymore. I thought I would die by his hand, but what I got instead was more than I had ever hoped for. I remember that feeling, sitting in the grass with him outside Konoha, the way the weight of the world just melted off of me."
Sakura smiled at him, a shy smile that denoted a hint of hesitancy.
"But being with you makes me happy, too, Sakura," he said. "Not in the same way. That was a specific moment where I was so happy and relieved I thought I would burst. It was like fireworks. But with you… You're like the sun. You spread warmth everywhere; you are constant. I think it would be very hard for me to be happy without you."
The look of immense relief on her face almost made him laugh. Had she been worried that he would reject her? She settled her head against his shoulder again and threaded her arm through his.
"You don't have to worry about that, Itachi-kun," she said softly. "I'll do anything to make you happy. No one deserves happiness more than you."