Heyyyooo. Omg. I just found out that FF has an app. Am I slow or what hahaha


Chapter 3


Things were calm for the first three years, mostly due to their conflicting schedules with Itachi's grueling missions and Sakura's taking over the hospital. Their interactions and meetings were minimal and even at those rare opportunities, chaos was well controlled due to Mikoto's presence.

Sasuke saw an entire new side to his brother's personality. Gone was the quiet, reserved, mature (annoying) brother he knew. Never would he think Itachi could be so childish.

Things started off relatively small. Itachi would intentionally take the last tempura that Sakura was eyeing. Sakura would bounce onto one side of the couch Itachi was resting on, or steal his favorite designated spots in the house.

Then, it escalated.

Itachi started intentionally tripping the pink-haired girl while she was cleaning up the dishes. Being behind her, Sasuke immediately caught her and the dishes; it was his mother's favorite after all. Sakura, being Sakura, threw the remaining dishes in her hand to the older Uchiha. Sasuke gawked.

"Oopsy, my apologies Itachi-san. I was tripped by something."

"Not at all, Sakura-san. You are quite prone to accidents." Sakura was not a happy girl.

Things started to go out of hand. One time, when the Uchiha brothers and Shisui returned to the village from a mission, a tree exploded. Corrections, a chakra trap for Itachi exploded; the tree was just an innocent victim. While off-guard, Itachi escaped unscathed. His prowess is not to be underestimated, being one of the most powerful ninja in the village. Shisui was luckily farthest away from the target, while Sasuke was the unfortunate man right behind Itachi, missing the timing to jump away. He was gonna kill someone. One free trip to the hospital, to be directly healed by the evil doer herself.

Sakura was waiting expectantly as her trap set off… only to find a porcupined teammate. "Sasuke-kun? What happened to you?" To which he replied with a "Hn." Sakura guiltily looked at the splinters. Surely, it wasn't from hers. "This is completely unrelated, but did you somehow see a tree explode?" Sasuke gave her a stunned glance in realization. "It was you, wasn't it?" So… it was her tree. "If it makes you feel better... it was meant for your brother." Silence. Sasuke proceeded to ignore her for one month straight, until she bribed him with a basket of sweet baby tomatoes.

Then two months later, Itachi proceeded to ink Sakura's entire office. The workspace turned completely black, a contrast from its usual pristine white, with her desk, documents, sofa, everything inked. Sasuke wasn't sure how Itachi managed it. Because how could one ink his own freaking younger brother? It was an unfortunate day to nap in Sakura's office.

Things didn't stop there and he wasn't the only victim. Shikamaru's shoji board split into two due to the two's aggressive play and now knows better than to host the two on the same day. Ino's flower shop almost combusted once when Sakura was visiting her best friend and Itachi, who happened to be walking by, insinuated that the pinkette was buying her own flowers. Lee's youth now had a limit when he somehow managed to rope the powerful Uchiha and the violent cherry blossom in a 'friendly' practice. And Shisui knows to shut up his stupid jokes or else risk getting punched to the other end of the village or worse, genjutsu-ed for three nights by his younger cousin. The severity depends on how loose his mouth gets. And Naruto learned to protect his precious ramen.

Sasuke was suspicious. It doesn't make sense that neither Itachi or Sakura ever got hurt from their own shenanigans in their childish revenge war. Granted, they were powerful shinobi in their own right. Sakura's dazzling smile and a happy go lucky personality hid an unexpectedly terrifying strength. While Itachi's calm facade obviously eluded dominance. Yet if anything, he's the main victim. The tree trap had an obvious delay, as if intentionally giving its target enough time to escape. Itachi's ink episode was done during spring cleaning, when all important documents were filed away. Even when he tripped the pinkie, the soft sofa was right in front of her. Sasuke squinted his eyes in disbelief. No, there was absolutely no way.

"Sasuke-kun, you okay? Did you crunch on something weird?" Sasuke looked up to Sakura's concerned voice. They were having lunch at home, just the three of them, Sasuke, Itachi, and Sakura. His parents were out when Sakura came over for a visit. Even now, with the spacious dining table, the two enemies decided to sit on the same side. Sakura's full attention was now on him.

Itachi frowned. Sasuke's head turned to give him a side glance. What got his panties in a twist? Sasuke thought.

"Hn. Nothing." Facing the four eyes that were staring at him, he guessed that he was expected to hold a conversation. "So Sakura, how's the hospital been?"

"Oh, you know. The usual. Although, as you know, I had a fun patient two days ago." Sakura grinned. Itachi gave an impassive grunt. "How are your hands doing, Itachi-san?"

Sasuke lowered his chopsticks and raised an eyebrow. "Aniki, you hurt your hands?"

"Ah. Just a small slice during a mission."

Sakura snickered. "Sure it was, I remembered someone's small wound dripping blood on my carpet. You even refused to shake hands with me." Sakura remembered vividly his less than impressed face having heard her request. Serves him right.

Sasuke shook his head. "You asked him for a handshake while his hand was dripping blood?"

"Well~, I thought it was a good chance to get reacquainted. But I still healed him though." Sakura innocently replied.

"Sakura-san, if your goal was to hold hands with me, I would be much obliged on a different day. There was no need to sneak around while slowly healing me." Itachi emphasized. Sasuke paused a bit, did Itachi just imply his willingness to hand holding? He tilted his head.

"Slowly?! You cornered me late at night after a draining hospital shift, right in my own living room. Do I look like your personal medic? How did you know where I live anyways?" Sakura bit back. Sasuke's brain was slowly spinning with the new information. Itachi went to Sakura's place? Alone? At night?

"It was simple enough. Your place didn't even have any traps." Sakura replied, "It's a civilian area. Count your luck that my parents weren't home that night. What were you thinking?" The phrasing got Sasuke's imagination turning. Why does it now sound like a rendezvous between lovers? A concerned boyfriend and an annoyed girlfriend… he shuddered.

"Hn. I know." Here, both Sasuke and Sakura gawked. Sasuke's imagination spinned further. Bad Sasuke!

Taking advantage of the silence, Itachi went and took Sakura's piece of chicken wing. It was the saucy crunchy type she loves. Sakura growled, "Hey! That's my chicken!" "And now it's mine." Itachi then placed a bitter gourd on her plate. "Here."

Sakura gave a grimace. She hated bitter gourds. "Eww, eat it yourself, asshole. Gimme back my chicken." "Since I cooked it, it's mine. Have some vegetables." Oh yes, Itachi made lunch today. Sasuke munched on a new piece of wing he just took. It wasn't Itachi's taste and not Sasuke's favorite thing in the whole world. Then, whose? He would have been more suspicious if he didn't start thinking about red, juicy tomatoes.

Sakura pouted knowing it was true. "Not my fault you only made bitter gourds." Itachi rolled his eyes and gave her a piece of bok choy that she oh-so-conveniently missed. Sakura pouted some more. Who was the doctor here? "But.. but I've been cravingggg chicken wings like crazy." With her food at risk, Sakura gave her best sad puppy dog eyes. Itachi signed but relented. Sakura happily picked the bitter gourd to Itachi's plate, but failed to transfer the bok choy due to Itachi's stern stare. She gave another pout, but Itachi stood firm. Sasuke was deciding if they were playing house.

Now that Sasuke really paused and observe, instead of avoiding them for his own survival, he could see the many glances Itachi gave in Sakura's way and his attentiveness. In contrast, Sakura rarely looked in the handsome Uchiha's direction, mostly stubbornly ignoring his presence. Sasuke would have been convinced by Sakura at least, if she wasn't pouting cutely to Itachi a moment ago. It was a little understandable with her food being threatened, but the dazzling smile she gave to Itachi afterwards was uncalled for… for a couple of enemies who're known to can't stand one another. His eyes rolled upwards. Please don't tell him it's what he thinks it is.


Will Sasuke's eyes get stuck at the back of his head?

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out, KMA