Why, hello again! Wow, I can't believe I am back already. I was feeling a bit guilty at the slow updates and...kind-of-very excited to get to some future chapters, so I thought I'd churn out something! :D

Also, a reviewer requested that I include summaries of previous chapters with each update, so I guess I will start posting some one-sentence summaries up here from now on. (Just on the most recent chapter, I think? Or the last several? Probably not all of the previous ones...because that would get really long...)

Chapter 7 summary: Sakura visits the Nara compound for dinner and meets the Ino-Shika-Cho families.

As always, thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story! You've all been so kind and supportive, I am super lucky to have you :)

Chapter 8

Sakura wakes to a gentle knocking on her door. Half-believing it to be a dream, she sits up and rubs drowsily at her eyes. But no-it comes again: three steady raps, and then silence.

'Is it Shikamaru?' She wonders, stumbling out of bed. No one else had visited her house in months. Did she forget something at his place last night?

Approaching the door, she unlatches the lock and pokes her head out curiously.

Nothing.

'Huh?' She thinks, blankly. She blinks. And then staggers backward with a squeak.

"I-Itachi-senpai!"

The older boy inclines his head, all elegance and grace and poise, as if appearing suddenly out of thin air is a completely normal thing to do. "Ohayo, Sakura-san. Pardon the intrusion. May I come in?"

"Of course! Ah, I'm so sorry-where are my manners? Would you like some tea? Fruit?" Sakura babbles as she leads him inside, relocking the door behind him.

"I am fine, thank you," he murmurs silkily. "I will not stay here long. I just did not want to...bother any neighbors by staying on your porch."

"Ah, okay," says Sakura, still quite befuddled by the unexpected arrival. Well, her street is pretty quiet…makes sense. "What is the matter, then?"

He is quiet for a moment, considering her. "Shisui's mission is taking longer than expected. I came to tell you he will likely not be back until next week."

"Oh." Sakura tries not to look too disappointed. She had really been looking forward to her next lesson, had studied hard for it. "Oh, that's perfectly fine. Thank you for letting me know! I hope the rest of his mission goes well."

"I will relay the message," he nods, and pauses again. "If you happen to be free, however, I do have some time today."

His inky eyes are indulgent and warm, and Sakura slowly smiles as she processes the meaning of his words. "Yes, of course!" Excitement begins to bubble in her gut. "What time works best for you?"

"How about you meet me at training ground six in half an hour?" He smirks, slightly. "So you can get ready."

"Oh!" Sakura's eyes widen as she remembers her garb: faded green pajamas covered in cartoon elephants. She probably looks like a plant. A blushing, monster plant. Meanwhile, Itachi is looking as impeccable as ever: hair neatly swept over one shoulder as usual, loose sleeves wrinkle-free.

Satisfied that he's embarrassed her enough, the older male gives her another polite nod and steps back a little. "See you soon," he says, all neutral, and then vanishes without a trace save the fluttering of the window curtains in his wake.

"Oh, curses." Sakura glares at nothing in particular as she rushes to the bathroom, patting her cheeks to cool them. How rude. Combing her hair with her fingers, she brushes her teeth and gets ready as quickly as possible, throwing on the last set of fresh clothes she has. Today is laundry day; hence the unsightly sleepwear.

A quick glance outside informs her that it is nearly noon-no wonder Itachi had thought it amusing that she had still been asleep! Dinner at the Nara's had really tired her out, especially with all the thinking she had done after returning home. Sleep had been hard to find.

Well, training now and thinking later! Grabbing an apple and slipping on her sandals, she proceeds to trip out the door as quickly as possible, anticipation powering her down the street as she munches haphazardly on her breakfast.

Training ground six is deserted, as usual. In fact, Sakura has never bumped into anyone there before. It is almost enough to make one question the work ethic of Konoha shinobi. Dropping to the ground beneath her favorite oak tree, she scans the field with a sharp eye. Memories of her last meet up with Shisui are still fresh in her mind and she does not want to be caught by surprise again. Itachi seems to be the more serious of the two-but, well, better safe than sorry.

Leaning back against the rough bark, Sakura takes another bite of her apple, running a hand haphazardly through her hair as she chews.

"Sakura-san."

Jumping in surprise, Sakura drops the rest of her apple. "M-my breakfast!" She glares up at the boy. "Itachi-senpai!"

"My apologies. It was not my intention to startle you," he murmurs with a smirk that says it was completely intentional. Sakura retracts her previous statement-he is exactly like Shisui. The jerks.

"Alright, so what are we doing?" Sakura grouses as Itachi silently sits down beside her. She tries not to sound too excited.

"Since Shisui has been teaching you the basics of genjutsu theory, I am going to let him introduce you to illusion casting." Itachi gives a little smile. "Instead, I want to show you a bit about detecting and dispelling genjutsu. I trust Shisui has already taught you about the three orders of genjutsu?"

"The three types of genjutsu correspond with the three main stages involved in our perception of the external world," Sakura recites. "The mind, the senses, and the world itself."

Itachi nods. "Exactly. The closer the target of the genjutsu is to the mind, the more difficult it becomes to implement the genjutsu. But the increasing proximity also makes it harder to detect and dispel the illusion." Reaching into a pouch strapped to his thigh, he pulls out two gleaming shuriken, perfectly whetted into four wickedly sharp points. "We are going to start today with genjutsu of the first order, since area-targeting genjutsu are the easiest." He carefully hands the weapons over to Sakura. "Which one is real?"

Sakura looks down at the pair of blades, one in each hand, and lifts her right palm without hesitation. "That one." The other is clearly fake-it isn't reflecting sunlight at the right angle.

The boy gives her an approving look. "Good." With a speed her eyes cannot follow, he switches the two shuriken for another pair from his pouch. "What about these?"

Sakura lifts her right hand again. It is less obvious this time, but the outline of the illusory blade quivers minutely, the razor-sharp edges intermittently becoming fuzzy.

Itachi switches the blades again. "Now?"

"This one." There is a patch of roughness on the fake blade that is at odds with the flawlessly polished surface her eyes see.

They continue this way for a while, each exercise more difficult than the last as the flaws in the illusory shuriken become increasingly small-but never impossible to spot. Sakura can't help but smile.

"Hm." Ebony orbs regard her thoughtfully, and then the boy switches the shuriken again. "Try this."

Sakura turns the two blades slowly in her hands, careful not to nick herself with the corners. This time the two blades look and feel completely identical, and even sound the same when she lightly clinks them together. 'Hmm,' she thinks, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. She is not going to be licking any shuriken today, okay, so there must be another way…

'That one,' her mind whispers, and an instant later Sakura feels it too. Not with any of her senses, but with her chakra. The imitation shuriken emits a faint aura, a slight vibration that isn't there when she examines the blade with her senses alone-only when she feels with her chakra can she perceive the slight humming of the genjutsu.

Sakura holds out her left hand.

Itachi's expression does not change, but it seems as if the air around him shifts slightly, then stills. He replaces the shuriken. "Again."

So Sakura chooses again. And again. Now that she has felt it, the once-difficult task becomes easy. No matter how perfect the illusory weapon is, the tell-tale trace of chakra allows Sakura to pick it out immediately every time.

"Hmm." Itachi finally pauses, and looks at her with narrowed eyes for a moment. Then he takes out two more shuriken.

'Again?' Sakura wonders. The boy seems to notice her thoughts.

"One more time." He murmurs.

"Alright." She examines the two blades. Then examines them again. This time, not even her chakra can pick out the fake blade. Neither weapon emits any trace of chakra and the two blades are identical in every other way, save for a few superficial differences-a scratch mark here, a small nick there. But nothing to signal a genjutsu.

Sakura scrutinizes both shuriken for a few more minutes, slight disappointment swirling in her gut. This time, she is really stumped.

"I don't know," she admits, handing the pair of blades back to Itachi. She tries not to frown. "They both seem real to me."

Carefully stowing the weapons back inside his pouch, the boy considers her for a moment with an unreadable expression. Then, he smirks at her. "They were both real."

Sakura sputters, and tries really hard to school her face into an expression that does not make it obvious that she really wants to smack him. She does not succeed. "What was that for, then?!"

"Sorry, Sakura-san. I just had to confirm that luck had not been a factor in any of your previous attempts." The boy at least has the grace to look a bit contrite, although amusement still dances in his gaze.

But his face quickly becomes serious. "The last few illusions I showed you were some of my highest caliber genjutsus. And yet you still maintained a one hundred percent success rate." His mouth twists slightly downwards. "Moreover, you were able to detect the fake weapon instantly. I do not believe even Shisui could have done it so quickly, every time."

Sakura listens quietly, simultaneously burning and frozen. Based on what Itachi is saying...she's good. In this one area of the shinobi arts, she...has potential. She involuntarily clenches her fists.

"While it is trainable to an extent, the ability to detect genjutsu is largely dependent upon one's natural affinity to the aura of a genjutsu's chakra. Clearly, you are already exceptionally sensitive to these chakra ambiences." With a flick of his wrist, a perfectly formed shuriken materializes in his hand. A genjutsu. "So instead, we are going to work on honing your instincts-instilling in you the inclination to always be on the lookout for illusions, to be able to instantaneously detect a genjutsu even when you have not been forewarned of its existence." He hands her the shuriken. "But first," he smirks, "I am going to show you the basics of dispelling genjutsu."

Fingers tightening on the illusory shuriken, Sakura nods. "I am ready."

And Itachi begins.

"At its most basic, you can think of a genjutsu as a balloon wrapped around the target of the illusion. When the target is your mind, the 'balloon' is around your mind, and the genjutsu plays on the inner surface of the 'balloon.' When the target is the senses, the 'balloon' is around your body. In this case, the 'balloon' is around the space that shuriken seems to be occupying, and the illusion is displayed on its outer surface to reach your senses." Motioning towards her illusory weapon, he continues: "Every balloon contains points of weakness: patches where the material is stretched thin, minuscule fault lines. A genjutsu is equally fragile. Open up a single tear, and the entire illusion will unravel. Unlike with a balloon, however, you cannot rupture a genjutsu anywhere you would like; you must locate one of its weak spots with your chakra." He leans back. "Try it with the shuriken."

Closing her eyes, Sakura concentrates. Feeling the familiar vibration of the genjutsu's aura, she dives deeper into the illusion, fingers tingling as the details of the genjutsu's surface begin to emerge like the features of a rapidly approaching terrain. She spreads her chakra out more, sweat starting to run down her nose. Closer, closer, closer…and then the shuriken lights up, in her mind's eye, an intricate web of crisscrossing cracks, a minefield of fault lines.

"You see them."

"Yeah," Sakura gasps, eyes still closed as she actually sees the genjutsu for the first time.

"Now break it."

So she does. A quick strike of her chakra into one of those tiny cracks, like a sharp blow from a chisel-she opens her eyes just in time to watch the illusion seemingly rip apart, and fade into nothingness.

"Good." Itachi nods approvingly. "As you can probably see already, the process of dispelling genjutsu takes some time to get used to, regardless of your ability to detect them. Let's try it again. Faster."

He drills her until she is tearing through the illusory shuriken instantaneously, decreasing the number of weak spots present in the illusion each time.

Then, he repeats the exercise, this time with multiple layers of genjutsu instead of one. Now, merely breaking through one layer of genjutsu does nothing to the illusion, since a replacement layer merely swells up beneath it. To make the exercise even more difficult, each layer sports different locations for its fault lines, so Sakura has to regard each layer as a completely new illusion. Sweat courses down her cheeks in slow streams as she concentrates.

"Alright. That is enough."

The final shuriken vanishes. Leaning back on an elbow, Sakura wipes the sweat off her face and inhales several deep lungfuls of air.

"You are learning quickly."

"The last few were very difficult," Sakura pants.

"Well the last few were very high caliber genjutsu," Itachi responds. "They were multilayered and each layer only sported one flaw."

"It...still had a flaw…"

"Every genjutsu possesses at least one flaw. In the future you will learn why that is, and how to hide it." Pulling out a water bottle, he offers it to her. "For now, though, you should rest."

Taking the water gratefully, she tilts back her head-and freezes. The sky...

Quickly, she glances down at the grass beneath her palms...at the tree behind her back...at the water bottle in his hands.

The field...is vibrating…

With a gasp, she whips back around to face Itachi at the same time that the field wavers, then melts away before her eyes.

Itachi smirks. "Welcome back."

Everything is the same. The grass, the trees, the wind, his infuriatingly perfect hair-he's even holding a water bottle out towards her.

"You put me in a genjutsu!"

He gives an elegant shrug of his shoulders. "I told you we were also going to work on detecting unanticipated genjutsu. You should train to be more aware of your surroundings. It took you a while."

"Since when?" She demands. "When did you-?"

"The same moment I created that first shuriken." He smirks again, and she remembers-a twitch of the wrist, a flick. "As you can see, in most cases-on the battlefield, at least-a genjutsu is actually most dangerous to the practiced shinobi before detection. Unless the genjutsu caster is extremely advanced, dispelling a genjutsu is comparatively straightforward. But if you do not detect the illusion quickly enough, you might find a kunai through your chest before the chance to dispel it even arises."

He sets the water bottle down by her knee and glances at the sun. "But enough of that for now." It is getting into late afternoon. "I meant it when I said we have already finished a sufficient amount of material for today."

Reaching into a bag Sakura only just noticed, he procures two wrapped bento boxes, one in black cloth and one in green. "Are you hungry?"

Sakura's stomach chooses that moment to emit a loud, long, ferocious grumble. Blushing all the way to the tips of her ears, she chuckles awkwardly. "Uh, yeah." No use lying now-plus, the only thing she's eaten all day is-half-an apple.

He hands her the box wrapped in green. "My mother gave me two this morning." He rolls his eyes with something resembling fond exasperation. "I happened to mention that I was going to meet a friend today."

Something warm and vaguely painful trickles through Sakura's chest at those words-a feeling she's been feeling quite often recently. She lets out a breath and carefully unwraps the neatly tied cloth, pulls off the wooden lid.

Her jaw drops.

"Wha-" Little flower-shaped vegetables and star-shaped fruit, sausages cut up to look like octopi, onigiri molded to look like bunnies. Sakura's heart melts a little. "Wha-?"

"Oh." Itachi actually looks a bit sheepish. "I forgot that I mentioned you were female. I was slightly suspicious when my mother vehemently insisted the green box be yours, but I did not realize that my earlier disclosure would have such...consequences." He holds out his own bento. "Would you like to trade?"

"No, no it's fine!" Sakura blurts out hastily. "Actually, it's...quite adorable." She blushes with a tiny grin.

"Alright." The boy concedes with an answering smile.

The first bite is heavenly. The vegetables are perfectly pickled, the rice soft and chewy. Sakura's eyes involuntarily slip closed. The taste of something crafted with care and thought...mouth watering from the delicious food, Sakura quickly inhales her meal, then sets her chopsticks down with a satisfied sigh.

"Okay."

Itachi dips his head in her direction and begins to pack up his own empty box. "Okay."

"Thank you for the meal." She watches as Itachi returns the two boxes to his pack.

"It was no problem."

But as he turns back towards her, his gaze becomes inexplicably intense. Sakura swallows slightly, confused and a bit apprehensive. "So, what now?"

"So," he says, in measured, even tones, "Sasuke told me yesterday that a classmate fainted during a chakra meditation exercise."

Oh. Realization dawns in her, sudden and warm. Oh.

She nods, slowly. "Yeah."

His face grows serious. "Tell me about the blackout."

So she does.

"You saw other students' chakra and it hurt?" Itachi looks vaguely concerned, which in turn makes Sakura concerned-the boy's face is usually so neutral.

"Well, it wasn't just due to the chakra," Sakura quickly amends. "It was really bright-like staring into the sun, if the sun had crashed into the Academy field. It was everywhere."

"You mean you saw light from all around? Even the trees?" Itachi's eyes sharpen.

"Yeah, and the grass, and everything. The entire field was aglow. I think I even saw a squirrel, and bugs, like raindrops dotting every surface. I don't know," Sakura falters helplessly, motioning with her arms. "I don't know how to describe it, really."

Itachi is quiet, simply gazing at her with that awful intensity. Sakura tries to quell the slight panic that is starting to brew in her gut. At least he no longer looks concerned.

"Um…"

"Can you try it again?" He asks, gently.

Sakura blinks, and involuntarily recoils. "Oh. I-I don't know. It really hurt. I mean. I mean sure." She pauses, inhales. "Alright. Alright, sure."

"Just focus on me, okay? Don't reach any farther. Just me." He shifts closer, until his knees are brushing hers, and lets his fingers lightly rest on her leg. "You'll be okay."

"Okay." She lets out a deep breath, runs a hand through her bangs, closes her eyes. "Okay."

Slowly delving into her chakra, she concentrates on relaxing the tightly spinning mass, softening the tense coils. Then, mustering up her courage, she begins to shift her senses outwards, hesitantly feeling and absorbing.

Waiting, waiting...there. Itachi's chakra, muted and cool, a steady, calm fire radiating light towards her, in the darkness. Familiar, like an old friend. Sakura slowly relaxes. Allows her chakra to slowly unfurl and bask in the the comfort of this friendly flame, like a sunflower beneath the sun.

'This...feels nice.' Sakura decides, wonderingly. Maybe her last experience was a fluke-perhaps the newness of the experience had overwhelmed her.

And then the soft glow of a butterfly flutters by her cheek, and her concentration wavers.

Light-blinding light-the grass-the trees-every leaf comes into focus-a blazing glare-every bird-every worm-with a choked gasp, Sakura's eyes spring open.

"Are you alright?" Dark eyes bore into hers, worry evident in their gaze. Sakura pants mutely. Sweat trickles down her back.

"Sakura-san?"

She screws her eyes shut again, inhaling lungful after lungful of air.

"Sakura."

"Even the air was glowing." She finally forces out in a whisper. "Even the air was glowing." Strong hands grip her shoulders. "Itachi."

"It's alright. Just breathe. I got you."

"O-okay." She manages, between pants. "Okay."

After what feels like forever, her breaths finally even out a little. Itachi lets go of her shoulders, and motions for her to lean back against the tree trunk. "Did you feel my chakra?"

"Yeah," Sakura smiles, faintly. "It was warm."

Itachi nods. "I have a theory."

"You know what's wrong with me?" She bites her lip. 'Is it curable?' She wants to ask. 'Can you fix me?'

To her surprise and relief, Itachi breaks into a small smile himself. "Nothing's wrong with you. If I am correct, you are simply hyper-sensitive to chakra." He looks thoughtful. "By which I mean you are extremely sensitive. I was cloaking my chakra, and you still felt it."

"Oh." Sakura lets out a sigh, feeling some of the tension in her shoulders slowly unwind. "So it's pretty normal?"

Itachi shakes his head. "No. In fact, I've never encountered this before. But it does not seem to be anything harmful. It probably explains why detecting the presence of genjutsu comes so easily to you. Does this ever happen unexpectedly, like when you are not meditating?"

"No. At least not yet." Sakura furrows her eyebrows. "It's only ever happened twice, actually. When I tried sensing chakra outside of myself."

"Good. If it ever happens when you are not meditating, let me know and visit the hospital immediately, understand?"

Sakura nods. "So...is hypersensitivity a good thing?"

"On one hand, it is an unparalleled ability." Itachi frowns. "It theoretically allows you to see anyone you desire to find, whether or not they want to be found. No one can hide from you." His brows furrow. "But it is clearly a double-edged sword. Your heightened sensitivity seems to bring immense pain, at least for now, which is likely due to the sheer volume of information that batters your chakra every time you extend those receptors. Until you figure out a way to mitigate or adapt to the pain, it is unlikely that your ability will be very useful to you in practice."

Swallowing, Sakura nods again, the memory of that searing fire licking its way down to her fingertips. "Alright."

A warm hand moves to rest on hers. "I will look into it." And his eyes are so firm, so full of conviction, that she cannot help but trust him.

"Alright," she repeats, voice small. She cracks a faint smile.

He squeezes her hand gently, and lets go. "In the meantime, perhaps we can temporarily suppress your hypersensitivity so that you can sense your surroundings without the overexposure. You won't be able to see as much, but hopefully it will also hurt less."

"And the glow in the air?" Sakura wonders.

"Inert chakra, I believe. Even harder to sense than active chakra, which was what you saw in the trees and grass. There are normally only trace amounts in the air, remnants of active chakra leaked from the surrounding flora and fauna and people who cannot control their chakra strictly enough, which then becomes deactivated over time. It also accumulates in the air when a shinobi uses too much chakra to perform a ninjutsu-so the training grounds likely have more of it than you would see in the village."

"So I probably wouldn't see it anymore if we dull my hypersensitivity?"

"I would say almost definitely not."

"Okay."

Looking out over the field again, Sakura thinks again about the light, the life, the matter that exists all around her. Invisible to her eyes, but there all the same, floating inches from her face. She imagines losing that sight. To no longer feel the pain...in exchange for a landscape of stars where once a sun had blazed.

"We'll find a way," she decides. Because in spite of the agony, it had been beautiful. The world had been beautiful. "Thank you, Itachi-senpai."

"Aa." Itachi gives her another one of his half-smiles. Then he pins her with a serious look. "It would also be best if you kept this ability to yourself. I do not exaggerate when I say it is a priceless ability, and one that many would like to exploit if came to be known to exist. In ways you would not desire."

It is the way he says it, even more than the words themselves, that brings a shiver down Sakura's spine. Whatever he means, she is certain that she really, really would not want to know.

Lapsing into a pensive silence, she fiddles with her fingers, mind lost in thought, the boy beside equally still. They both wait.

"Ano...is that why you came over today?" She pokes at the grass by her ankles.

"Partly." He flashes her a tiny smile. "I also just wanted to see how you were doing."

Another pause, this time more relaxed. Companionable.

"I saw you yesterday," Itachi unexpectedly shatters the quiet. "After class."

Sakura remembers. After class...with Sasuke. His unspoken question rings in her ear, waiting.

"You seemed busy," she manages. She begins to braid together a few strands of the grass she had been playing with.

"Not at all."

"With Sasuke, I mean." She starts another braid. "I don't know him that well."

"I would have introduced you," he patiently replies.

"I-" She stops. "I don't know, okay?" She finally mutters.

"Sakura-san."

His voice is so calm, and so understanding, that Sakura can't lie anymore. Because she knows. And she knows he knows. That she had felt like an outsider. That she didn't belong. That she did not want to, could not bring herself to observe their bond, to learn about it, to starve in the penumbra of its warmth.

And he is inviting her to tell him. To be part of it.

"I-," she opens her mouth, then closes it again in defeat. She can't. She fights back the warmth beginning to pool at the corners of her eyes. "I-."

"Sakura-san..."

"Who is Sasuke to you?"

And his face changes, softens, blooms in a way that has Sakura's breath catching, throat thick with an emotion she cannot name, breaking, breaking-

"My foolish otouto."

He smiles, and in that moment Sakura is so, so jealous of Sasuke, this boy she doesn't even know-because what wouldn't she give, to be loved like that by someone, with the weight of their entire being. 'My foolish otouto,' he said, and a little part inside her starts to cry, because what she hears is 'my most precious person.'

"And what does that mean?," she asks, because she has to know, has to hear him say it.

He closes his eyes. "It means," he murmurs, his voice so terribly gentle, "that whether he knows it or not...whether he wants it or not...I will always be there for him."

"And," Sakura whispers back, equally gentle, "if you die?"

Because no longer does she believe in fairy tales. Promises are made to be broken, and 'forever' does not exist.

He is silent for a moment. "Then," the wind rustles softly through his bangs, "he will have Shisui." He casts his gaze towards her. "And he will have you."

Sakura blinks in shock. "I-I couldn't."

"You can." And his eyes are so certain, so confident. She has to look away.

"Itachi-senpai-"

"You think you have no one, but you are wrong. I choose my friends very carefully, Sakura-san." His eyes bore into hers. "I would trust you with my life. And I would trust you with his."

The words echo in her ears, ringing, ringing. 'I would trust you with my life,' he had said. 'I would trust you with his.'

So Sakura opens her mouth and says the only thing she can say to an admission like that: "Tell me about him."

Itachi emits a sigh that is almost a chuckle, eyes slipping closed again, and accedes. And his gentle lilt continues until the sun begins to dip towards the trees and the grass begins to melt into a dream.

"...He's silly. Always running around. And his favorite food, oddly enough, is the tomato. He calls me 'aniki' and is always asking me to train with him." He glances over at her finally, a wistful light entering his eyes. "I am rarely able to entertain his requests, unfortunately. I am seldom home."

Sakura bows her head. "You are a good teacher."

"Thank you," he sighs, "but a part of me, perhaps selfishly, does not want to introduce him to this reality just yet." An undeniably sad expression drifts across his features. "The life of a shinobi is...binding. The things he would like to learn now...he will learn anyway, in due time."

"Then," Sakura finally decides, throat dry, "I'll take care of him. If you ever need me to, I'll take care of him."

"Thank you."

And then, he reaches out and lightly flicks her on the forehead.

"Itai," Sakura mutters in surprise, flinching from the slight pain. "What-"

"I must go. I have a clan meeting," he sighs.

"Oh!" Sakura remembers, "Shisui mentioned you were at one last time as well. Is everything alright?"

Itachi is quiet. "Yes," he says, finally. "The clan is just addressing a misunderstanding, right now. It is a small matter."

A sensation of unease washes over Sakura, and she recalls a conversation at the Nara compound that had given her a similar feeling...a 'situation.'

'Uchiha.'

She stays silent.

Itachi stands up, and offers a hand down to her. "Are you heading home?"

"Yeah." Letting him pull her up, Sakura quickly dusts herself off and falls into step beside him.

"We can walk together, then. I am going in the same direction as your house."

"Aa. Thank you, Itachi-senpai."

"It is nothing." Dark eyes smile at her, warm once again. The pair fall into a relaxed silence.

"Ano," Sakura begins, one more question buzzing in her throat, "Itachi-senpai…"

"Yes?"

"So…" She kicks at a stray rock, 'Sasuke' bouncing around in her mind, "the reason you decided to train me…"

She trails off. 'Am I already living this reality?' She wonders. 'Am I already...bound?'

A gentle hand lands on her head, and she looks up at a fond smirk. "It is because you needed a special kind of teacher."

Sakura blinks. "What does that-"

"It's getting late." Itachi cuts her off, smirk widening. He cast quick glance at the sleepy sun. "Would you like a ride?"

"A...ride?" Sakura echoes, now completely befuddled. How is that going to speed things up? "Umm…"

"Here, get on my back."

She does, arms loosely circling his neck as he grips her firmly and straightens. For a second he is completely still, and so Sakura is too, the wind rippling through their hair. Starting to feel a bit ridiculous, Sakura opens her mouth hesitantly.

"Itachi-senpai…?"

And then he chuckles, the sound tingling all the way down to her toes.

"Hold on tight, Sakura-san."

Until next time, Reader-san! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)

Responses to reviewer comments/questions:

xXWinterRoseXx: Hello! A question about your pairing comment: I actually have not denoted any pairings or non-pairings yet for this story. Are the main character tags supposed to be used for pairings? Sorry, I am new to this so I hope I haven't been doing everything wrong! Thank you and I'm glad you enjoy it so far! :)

Sunny ver 2.0: Your wish was my command. ;P