AN: Heya, how's it going.
I don't have much to say here, so I'll just pass it on.
Onto the chap-
Tsunade felt it in her bones when something was off. Call it intuition or a foreboding sense of doom, but the drop in her stomach when she entered her office was unmistakable.
Her feet stopped right past the threshold of her study, door slid shut behind her. Amber eyes trailed over every nook and cranny of the room with piercing attention, hand still placed on the frame of the door.
Everything seemed normal at the first glance; every scroll placed exactly where it was, the stack of books beside her table kept the same, even the haphazard mess of parchment on her desk looked the same too, and the incense burning on the windowsill.
But someone had definitely been there.
Tsunade slid the door of open and peeked out both ways in the hallway, seeing nothing but the steady light from the oil lamps mounted on the walls. None of the guards were around. She slid the door shut again and looked at the window that looked out right beside her desk. It was sealed shut. No cup of tea on her desk either, no mysterious envelope, not a paper amiss.
Tsunade frowned, cautiously stepping about the room, staying a foot away from the things placed around the room. When nothing seemed amiss, her eyes went straight to the drawer on the shelf, just as unassuming as the rest but that was the point. She pulled open the drawer and reached to touch the smooth and cold metal door at the far back of the compartment. It was locked, the way she had left it.
A breath left her lips but it only left her more confused. She stepped back from the drawer and over to her desk, bending down to swipe a finger along the surface of the table. No dust.
'No, it's not right.' She rummaged through the drawer below to fetch out the thinnest of the papers, dipping a thin brush into the ink beside it. 'I need Obi to check the study, someone has definitely been here.'
The brush swiped on the paper as Tsunade focused on writing down her order first, but then something swam in her vision.
'Huh?'
It happened again and the brush fell from her grip. It was probably the haze of her vision swimming that made her brain feel fuzzier that she didn't put two and two together. The spotless clean table, the shut window, and the incense burning the closed room.
Her glossed eyes widened at the sudden stroke of awareness and the paper fluttered away from her. She needs air, now. And with that, she threw herself at the nearest source, the window.
Her knees buckled underneath her weight as she slammed against the window, clammy fingers fruitlessly fumbling against the latch that suddenly seemed too tightly locked. It will take way more force that she was capable of applying in her current state.
She stumbled back, slamming against her desk and steadying herself like a drunkard stumbling in the dark. Her legs were giving out, so was her vision, and her airway was closing up. Airway poisons do that to you when ingested long enough.
With a last ditch attempt, she pushed herself away from the edge of the desk and stumbled backwards until she crashed against the door, catching the frame, and with the last bit of energy against her darkening vision, she pushed it open and fell out of the doorway, lying on the cold wooden floor.
As the last bit of consciousness faded and the world danced around her, she only had one regret; not finishing off that son of a bitch the last time.
Distantly, she felt light vibrations in the wood under her cheek and the weight in her eyelids forced them shut.
Sakura hasn't rested since she received the letter from Shizune about how she found the queen sprawled on the cold floor outside her study, and whatever little sleep she could've gotten also vanished the same night when blades struck the tree behind her, inches away from her head.
Sakura belatedly realized that maybe coming out on a night stroll through the woods to clear her head wasn't the best idea, especially with nothing but a measly dagger to defend herself with.
She barely had time to prepare herself before a figure jumped down from a branch above, pouncing on her like a leopard on a gazelle. In the dark of the night, it was hard to see his moves let alone his features, Sakura played on pure instincts.
She grunted under her breath, blocking the arm that was coming down at her face with a knife in its grasp. The unexpectedness of the situation as well as the unpreparedness made Sakura slower than she would have liked, but she was clear headed enough to not get impaled right on the spot.
A dark voice spoke low from above her. "I was thinking I'd have to hunt you down again. But you just made my work easier."
Sakura's temper was quick to flare as she looked up at the face covered by white porcelain mask, the expression painted on it in red was both devilish and deadly. Sakura glared at the masked face, attempting to overpower the arm she was still trying to keep at bay. Another arm shot out and Sakura kicked him in his shin, rolling out from under him before the blade could nick her again.
The attacker shot up fast, the knife in his hand swiping toward her again and she skid back, reaching for her own dagger hidden behind the folds of her yukata to parry the attack. The iron of the blades clashed against each other and she tried multiple times to throw in a kick or a punch in between, but another strike would always interrupt her.
She grunted under her breath when a kick slammed against her stomach, but she managed to grab a hold of his knee and flip him down in a slam that was guaranteed to bruise later.
Sakura jumped away from him and he gave chase, slashing at her again with the ferocity of a cheetah. She continued to dodge the attacks as best as she could but she knew it would have to come to an end somehow. This one was much deadlier than the last one.
The clang of knives rang in the silent air before Sakura found herself being flung against a tree by a swift kick, knocking all the wind out of her lungs. She needed a distraction to get him.
Just as she slammed against the tree, she managed to kick a rock toward a distant bush. The rustle made was enough distraction for Sakura to reach forward toward the assassin, but not enough for her to successfully catch him. Instead of grabbing him by his hair to slam his face down on her knee, she only managed to grab the edge of his mask, and as he moved away, the porcelain fell off.
When the man picked his head up, Sakura felt her blood freezing in her veins when she looked into his eyes. They were blue.
Blue like the ocean, like the paradise sky.
She knew those weren't the same eyes, those eyes have been gouged out long ago. But the shade was familiar and close enough for her to get weak in the knees. His hair too, that could've been dark brown at best, under the moonlight, looked like the color of burnt brick.
That moment of weakness was all it was needed for a knife to get lodged in her stomach.
Sakura hacked in pain, grabbing the second arm that was heading for her heart this time and then the arm that was trying to pull the knife out of her stomach. Being stabbed, it was best to keep your wound lodged lest you want to end up bleeding out to death.
She had him. Granted, she was bleeding out herself, but she had him for the moment. Against the throbbing pain in her gut, she delivered a swift kick to the most vulnerable part of a man. He groaned against the pain, his hand on the knife going slack and Sakura would not miss out on the opportunity.
She reached for her own dagger and in one motion, stuck it deep in the man's throat.
Within the second, all life left the blue eyes she feared so much, and the sight of the irises going lifeless shook her enough to drop the man in an instant.
One last bloody groan left the body before it went slack and Sakura knew she only had so much energy now. She had to get moving before the adrenaline wore off and she would be found outside the compound gates with a knife in her body.
She staggered on her feet painfully, holding her sleeve against the wound to stop as much of the bleeding as possible as she trudged toward the backdoors of the quarters. Her vision waned, black blotting the corners and her hands left bloody handprints on the tree trunks as she leaned on them for support.
She could see the lanterns, a hazy, floating orb of light in her swimming vision. She could feel the draw, the slug in her step and her limbs. The adrenaline was wearing off.
'No… no, not right now! Just a little bit more!'
She stumbled into the training ground behind the quarters and with just the last of her energy left, she opened the doors of her engawa and slumped inside the room. In her ungraceful entry, she managed to knock over two empty glass jars off the side table and the crash was loud enough for the door of her room to slide open a minute later.
"Lady Sakura! I heard a-"
All words left Ayame when she saw the red pooling under Sakura's slumped form. "Lady Sakura!" She rushed forward, kneeling by the pinkette to slip her over to lie on her back. Sakura groaned low in pain, the dulling sense still only registering the constant pain in her belly.
She felt the knife being pulled out carefully and the slice of the blade against her skin shot a searing pain through her body. Her lips bled from biting it so hard to keep from wailing out. She felt Ayame quickly work the top of her yukata open, all sense of shame lost in the emergency, and plugged a rolled ball of cloth in the wound, wrapping the obi of the yukata around her torso to keep it wrapped.
Ayame closed the yukata in the front before getting Sakura to stand up on her own, but a string of curses from Sakura made her pause in her attempts. "Lady Sakura, we need to get you to the physician!"
"No." Sakura grunted out, laying down on the ground. She weakly pointed toward the small trunk beside the table with a bloody finger. "Get my first-aid bag…" She managed to croak out against her drying throat.
"But how will I-" Ayame started to protest, but one more command from Sakura shut her up.
"Do. It."
The younger girl scurried toward the trunk, propping it open and pulling out a brown bag from inside. Sakura swallowed against her hastening breaths; she would need to plug it now. "Do as I say. Take out a cotton role."
Ayame did just that, pulling open the cotton and ripping off almost half of it at once. "Role it and plug the wound." She followed the instructions, before taking a deep breath and opening the drenched obi from the torso. The cloth stuck to Sakura's skin wetly but Ayame pulled it off, swallowing thickly and looking away from the bloody sight.
"Wet the cotton in alcohol." There was a bottle of alcohol in the same bag and Ayame drenched the cotton in it before taking out the rolled cloth and replacing it with the cotton ball.
Sakura had to grit her teeth against the sharp sting that swam her vision even more. Tears brimmed against the pain, head spinning and vision blackening. She followed with more through her teeth. "Clean the area with alcohol."
When the skin around the wound was cleaned with more alcohol and a soothing salve was applied generously and Sakura was sure it wouldn't get infected until she could stitch it up later and wrapped securely, she couldn't stay awake any longer.
Before her vision fully blackened, she gave Ayame one last instruction. "Don't tell this to anyone."
Ayame stayed by her side the whole night, changing the wrapping when they got drenched and wiping down her face and neck when the temperature seemed elevated. Though the wound clotted up and the bleeding stopped a few hours before sunrise, Ayame stayed by her bedside until she woke up right around noon.
When her eyes opened, the room was dark with the curtains still drawn and doors closed. There was a pleasant smell coming from the table beside her bed and she realized it was the herbal incense. She sluggishly looked down at herself and saw the fresh robe she was in.
On the other side of the room was Ayame, wrapping up another roll of bandage to put it inside the trunk. She didn't seem to have noticed her awoken state yet. But that didn't stay long.
"Lady Sakura! You're awake!"
She winced slightly against the high pitched sound and soon the worried face of the brunette invaded her vision. She looked positively worn out with red eyes and limp hair. "Lady Sakura, you almost made my heart give out. What happened to you?"
She wanted to say something but a harsh cough hacked her throat raw when she opened her mouth. She soon found the edge of a cup being pressed to her lips and without a thought, she greedily gulped down the whole glass of water. When her throat no longer felt like it would close in on itself, she was again presented with another cup.
"It's just some ginger chamomile tea. It should help with the pain." Ayame told her while looking the other way. Sakura took a grateful sip from the cup, the warmth from the tea washing down her throat.
After she had laid back down, Ayame spoke up. "Can I now ask what happened to you, lady Sakura?"
Sakura didn't feel like saying much, so she just answered the quickest way. "Ambush. In the forest."
Ayame's eyes widened in shock and she was covering her gaping mouth. "We need to inform the king!" Before she could make a dash to the doors, Sakura stopped her with a hand to her wrist. "No."
"N-No? but lady Sakura, this is really serious!"
Sakura closed her eyes against her loud voice but opened them a second later. The balm around her wound was making her drowsy but it wasn't enough to completely subdue the pain. "Ayame, since I've come here, have I asked anything of you."
Ayame looked a little taken aback but she managed to stutter out. "N-No." Sakura made sure to look into the girl's eyes when she spoke. "This is the first time I'm asking for something, a favor. Please, don't tell this to anyone."
Ayame looked wholly opposed to the idea, but nodded her head after great reluctance. Sakura stayed in her room for the rest of the day and Ayame gave the excuse of her being busy with work when Itachi came around later looking for her. She really owed that girl one.
It had been just a day and a half since the incident, and Sakura had kept Ayame glued to her side every time she drifted off to sleep. She felt a little bad for holding Ayame back from her duties for such selfish reasons, but she couldn't take chances.
She also couldn't take chances of letting the news of assassination on her get out to anyone else. If Danzo is moving slow right now knowing he's hidden, he'd undoubtedly double, triple his efforts if the words got out that people know of the assassination attempts on her.
And she knows why he's only sending knives after her. With the food being personally handled by Ayame, it would be near impossible to poison her. And sending men after Tsunade at the same time too? That snake was working overtime.
Sakura sat in the engawa with a cup and a pot full of ginger tea; ginger helps with healing, she's read. For the first time since the attack, she felt okay enough to move. But that was only physically. Mentally still, she was haunted by the burning blue eyes. Every time she closed her eyes, they would flash wickedly in her mind, as if taunting her with their existence.
She shook her head, ridding herself of the thought before her hands started to shake again. She took another sip of the tea, deciding on her next plan of action. An intervention was in order, but what can she even do while sitting in a completely different kingdom? Weeding off the pests, only Tsunade can do that. She doesn't even know what Danzo has been up to for the past three months. She couldn't do anything and it was positively driving her mad with frustration.
With an agitated sigh, she took another sip of the tea. All she could do was protect herself until Tsunade could somehow eradicate the threat.
A distant squeal was heard as Sakura picked up her head, soon followed by rustling of leaves and grass and within a minute, a small figure came barreling down the courtyard.
"Sakura-chan!"
Sakura blinked at the bright face, chubby cheeks stretched in a wide grin and arms stretched in the air. "Prince Tobi?" The little prince skidded to a stop in front of her, catching his breath even though his grin never faltered. "What are you doing here?" Her lack of proper greeting seemed to have ruffled the prince's metaphorical feathers if his pout was anything to go by. He huffed, crossing his arms and giving Sakura a half hearted disapproving look that looked like a child's mimicry of an adult's disappointment.
"It has been so long since the last time I've seen you! Why do you never visit me?!"
Now that Sakura thought about it, it really has been quite long, at least a couple weeks since the last time she has seen him. She has been neglecting the little boy. She tried to give him her best abashed expression.
"I'm sorry, prince Tobi. I should've come by sooner."
The pout didn't stay on his face for long and soon he was bouncing around again. "Say, Sakura-chan, do you want to go somewhere? I know a place!" Normally Sakura would've agreed with him, but with her torso still sore and muscles weak, she would have to decline. She gave him an apologetic smile over the rim of her cup.
"Sorry, prince Tobi, I'm not feeling too well today."
In an instant, his eyes widened almost comically, brimming with worry as he ran up to her. "What happened?! Are you okay Sakura-chan?!"
Sakura couldn't help herself when a laugh slipped past her lips as she drew him in her arms like one would do with a stuffed toy. He really was too adorable. "Yes, Tobi-chan, I'm okay. Just a little under the weather."
Tobi didn't seem satisfied as he looked at her with all the seriousness a six year old was capable of having. "No, Sakura-chan, you need to go to the doctor. I'll take you to the doctor that sees me when I'm sick, he's nice. He'll help you." Tobi seemed resolute to provide her with the best care as he kept tugging on her hand to get her to stand up.
A low chuckled rumbled inside Sakura as she pulled him to a stop. "Tobi-chan, I'm a doctor. I told you, I'm alright."
He seemed unconvinced, but let it go with a pout before something lit up in his eyes. "I know what would make you feel better!" And before she could ask him or make him stay put, he went bounding down the courtyard toward the gardens. She shook her head with a fond smile before sipping on her cold tea.
Somewhere in the silence, her eyes drifted toward the blank notebook lying near the door. She was supposed to write her thoughts in it, like any normal journal, but she hasn't started yet. Maybe she didn't find anything worth mentioning yet, but now she does.
She dragged the notebook toward herself, opening a clean page and laying it flat on her thighs. She dipped a thin brush in the ink and held it over the paper.
'Now what?'
She thought back to the terror that seized her being that night, the ice in her veins and the freezing of her bones. Without even her thoughts in order, her hands began to move.
The words were jumbled, letters messy and some sentences didn't even make sense, but they made perfect sense to her. She wrote the man that attacked her, how she countered him, how his mask slipped, and when she faltered that ultimately lead to her injury. She only filled one page, not even a sheet, but that was enough for now. She kept it inside the room, the page open to let the ink dry and bowed her head to look down at her stomach, hidden behind the fabric of the robe she donned.
She needs to get a grip; it was just a guy.
Just then, the footsteps came running by again. And this time, something occupied the little boy's hands when he came bounding by. His hands were hidden behind his back, face so alight with joy when he stopped in front of her.
"Sakura-chan close your eyes."
Sakura raised an eyebrow at him but seeing he was practically vibrating with excitement, holding him down anymore might just cause him to burst. Her eyes fell shut and not even a second later, she felt something sit on her head.
"Open your eyes!"
She opened her eyes and her hands went straight to her hair and felt a smooth, velvety touch on her fingers. She felt along the ring that sat on her head and plucked it up, looking at it in confusion before it cleared up. Tobi's face was split in a smile.
"I made you a flower crown!"
Sakura looked at the crown in wonder, though the long stems of the white flowers were tied together messily, under hazard of falling apart at the slightest rough treatment, it warmed her heart. She carefully placed it back on her head and looked at the boy that was now smiling bashfully at the ground. "You said you liked daisies. I thought it would make you feel better."
She didn't feel that better, physically, it still hurt to move and her muscled were sore. But that didn't matter in the least, not with the flower crown on her head that made her feel lighter than a cloud.
Tobi yelped in surprise as she drew him in a bear hug, burying her face in his fluffy hair and he laughed under her face. "I'm already so much better now."
"We need to stop meeting like this."
Itachi raised his eyebrows as he looked at the person standing by the doorway in front of him, pink hair in a disarray and clothes that looked more like training attire. He tilted his head to the side, "Whatever do you mean by that?"
Sakura glanced outside into the hallway, catching sight of a pair of housemaids giggling behind their hands. The second they caught her eyes, the maids ducked away into the hallway with rushed steps. 'This is definitely going to be talked about…'
"Well," Sakura looked back into the crown prince's dark eyes, "The crown prince showing up at a maiden's door every other day, isn't a very good look for the matter."
"I thought you didn't care about those things."
She didn't, normally. Who or what the town ladies gossip about is generally none of Sakura's concern, but when it involves her, she would rather stay far away from the bandwagon of tea time gossip. It was their fifth session in the last two weeks, but it was five sessions too many to be witnessed by the palace maids when Itachi came knocking at her door.
God only knows how they'll spin the tale and somehow, the story of the crown prince showing up to the doctor's room will end up with them fornicating in the bushes.
Itachi brushed past her to step inside the room, and Sakura huffed at his attitude before looking out into the hallway again, checking for anymore spectators before sliding the door shut. Itachi comfortably sat down on the plush cushion by the chabudai like he's so familiar with the place but still held his very regal posture.
She'd had the time to tidy up her place a bit more today. There weren't as many papers thrown around, her bed wasn't as messy either. It looked presentable enough. She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck as she moved around the room to take out the supplies she regularly uses for his treatment.
"How has it been since the last time?" The last session was six days ago, one day before the attack and the longest they've gone without another session. It was advised against to go more than two days without coming to her again, and Itachi has held the advice up without fail until she told him to give her a break without an explanation.
Itachi nodded stiffly at her and she could see the slight glossiness in his eyes from the strain on them. "It was okay for the first three days, then it started bothering me again. But still, the clarity in the images hasn't significantly improved either way."
Sakura nodded along with his words, grinding the aloe and mint inside her mortar until it was one slimy paste. "It wouldn't improve significantly until we get you those lenses. But message and the medication will relax your eyes, which helps with your vision a little bit, but mostly with the stress and pain. Do they still hurt?"
"It didn't for the first couple days."
"Then the lack of medication and excessive stress are your culprit." She looked up accusatorily at the prince, her hands still working on the mortar, "I told you to take it easy on yourself."
Itachi resisted the urge to look away from her stare like a petulant child. It was sometimes a little unnerving how the doctor commanded him, but then he was reminded, he was her patient. Of course, she'll command him, and of course he'll listen. "There are matters that require my attention way urgently, and I can't ignore them."
Sakura looked down at the mortar before he could see her rolling her eyes. 'He'll never get better at this rate.' "But if everything takes higher priority over your health, then I'm sorry to tell you my prince, but you'll be visiting me for the rest of your life."
Itachi didn't reply and she found him admiring the scene outside her engawa, perhaps purposefully ignoring what she was telling him. For a crown prince, he had a surprising immature side.
Sakura shook her head before looking back down but the Itachi's voice made her glance up again. "Has Shisui bothered you again?"
"No, he hasn't." Sakura couldn't hide the relief in her voice when she answered him. She has seen him around the compound frequently, and every time she tensed up whenever he was in her vicinity. But to her pleasant surprise, he had stood three feet away, wished her greetings, asked about her day, and then stood pleasantly calm until he was needed away.
The first time it happened, she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. But then when it happened again, she started thinking that maybe, he wasn't the worst person around anymore.
She heard Itachi hum in satisfaction, folding his arms over his chest. "That's good to hear."
The pestle stopped grinding when the aloe vera starting foaming up and she poured it into a small bowl and seeing her actions, Itachi laid down on the ground with his head propped on the cushion. Sakura put the bowl near him then filled a basin with cool water and dropped a cloth in it before sitting down near him with his head near her folded legs.
Itachi repressed a shiver down his back when the cool aloe gel poured around his eyes. Then he felt the familiar pressure on his skin, spreading the gel before messaging his skin in circular motions and he felt his muscles melt instantly. This was what he waited for in his appointments, when he will be just able to close his eyes, relax his muscles and let his mind be filled with just the blissful buzz from the doctor's ministrations.
He came to her two weeks ago with his worries, only half expecting to get any actual help from her. He had been desperate, both to get better and to hide it from everyone. But now, under the gentle fingertips and blissful haze, he felt there wasn't any better way.
The fingers rubbed circles around his eye sockets, stretching the muscles around them until he couldn't even remember the tension he felt in them. But then all too soon, it ended again, and the fingers were replaced by a cool cloth put over his eyes.
The first time, he had wanted to leave right after the message and catch up on his work, but the doctor had resolutely pinned him down and commanded him to stay put. 'Just keep your eyes closed and try not to think too hard.' She told him to catch up on his rest for a few minutes, so he had listened, and then woke up nearly an hour and a half later.
But it was the most refreshed he had felt in a long time.
So he stayed put without her prompting, laying there in her room in silence with nothing the gentle noise of her alchemy in the background and the scent of the herbal incense. That was something else he found out he liked during their sessions together; Sakura could just stay quiet.
Where he had to be subjected to Shisui's near incessant talking on a daily basis, as well as the nobles he would rather stay away from, he found out he enjoyed the peace and quiet he could get in her room. Something about the doctor's presence just felt so… calming.
Sakura looked at the prince laying by her table, hands folded on his stomach and face peaceful under the cool, damp cloth. She tried not to let her eyes linger too long on his face and focused back on her work. Absentmindedly and with nothing better to think of, she mused, it was kind of intimidating how the Uchihas looked.
Even back at home, she had heard too many noblewomen gushing about the absolutely "sinful" looks of the Uchiha men from the times they would visit Hiraisumi, since Kuroshima has always been in frequent trades with the capital. She hasn't always shared their feelings then, but she could appreciate them now.
Izuna was perhaps the only Uchiha she is in contact with to point where she could comfortably call him her friend, and she would admit, she has had to shamefully look away from him many a times when she would catch herself staring too long at his strong jaw and dark eyes. Even the ones she didn't get along with, she begrudgingly admitted, looked too handsome to feel real and not some magical elf.
Sakura found her eyes drifting toward the prince again before she shook her head and stopped grinding the dried fruit, shaking the fine powder on a small dish and moving toward Itachi again, lifting the damp cloth from his eyes. His eyelashes fluttered open and Sakura was reminded that she not only felt it was intimidating, but also unfair. What use does a man has of such pretty eyelashes?
"Nap time is over." Sakura sang from above him, dropping the part-dried cloth inside the basin before pushing it away. Itachi sighed long as if he was just waking up from a deep slumber but started sitting up, only to be gently guided by the pinkette to keep laying down.
Sakura dragged a small copper dish toward herself and Itachi saw something that smelled strongly herbal and cool. "What is that?" That was new. Their treatments until then considered of messages, eye washes and concoctions that tasted worse than they had any business being. But this seemed like some kind of paste.
"It's a collyrium." Sakura held up a short copper stick with a blunt point and dipped it into the paste, rolling it around until it was well covered in the paste. "Close your eyes, and try to not move too much."
Itachi dutifully closed his eyes even when doubt lingered in his mind, but he wasn't about to question her. He felt her finger pull the lower eyelid down and swipe the copper stick inside the waterline. It felt cold and thick, and uncomfortable, but he stayed still just as he had been told to. She repeated the same thing to his other eye and then covered his eyes with the same damp cloth again.
"Why did you apply that?"
"It's supposed to strengthen your eyes. Also protect them from drying out or infection, which can also weaken your eyesight further." Sakura leaned down to reach for the container to put away the paste when a stinging pain shot through her stomach, cruelly reminding her of the still unhealed wound. It was still inflamed and red and hurting, and it was making Sakura lose her mind to not even move without it temporarily paralyzing her, hunched over in pain and unable to move for a good couple minutes.
Itachi hummed in front of her, fingers drumming on his stomach. "I've never heard of such a treatment in our kingdom. Where did you learn it from?"
A chuckle left Sakura as she put away the collyrium, a little more careful this time. "Let me tell you that this technique isn't something they teach in my kingdom either, or any land in Konoha, as far as I know."
A noise of surprise left Itachi. "Then where did you learn it from?"
"A traveler." Sakura smiled to herself as she looked at the pile of notebooks at the corner of the room, eye going to particularly one of them. Unassuming and worn well out with thin pages and the spine falling off. "A pilgrim, he was coming from a far away land from beyond the seas and oceans, a place called…" Sakura thought back to the name he had told her, sounding too foreign to be anywhere near Konoha. "Bharata."
"Bharata?" Itachi mused out loud, "I don't recall ever hearing of such a place."
Sakura shrugged, even though he couldn't see it. "Like I said, it's really far away. But he told me about techniques I've never even heard of before, but I guess that's what you learn when you go beyond borders."
"That's truly wonderous." Itachi told her quietly as she stirred the dried powder into water with honey. Hearing the spoon stir inside the cup, his face twisted slightly at the reminder of the chalky taste he knew he would be tasting in a few minutes. "And what's that that you always make me drink?"
Sakura hummed in thought as she continued stirring the water. "A concoction of three dried fruits." Itachi didn't question her further, but she could hear the question hanging on his lips. "A mixture of two types of myrobalan fruit and a foreign type of gooseberry. Dried and grinded. Be grateful that I'm adding honey to make it at least palatable."
Itachi didn't stop his face from twisting this time but Sakura ignored it. She lifted the cloth from over his eyes and thrust the cup under his nose, staring at him pointedly. He looked distrustfully at the mirky brown liquid and then resigned himself to gulping it down in one breath.
When she was satisfied with the result, she turned away from him and Itachi stood up, stretching his limbs with a sigh and glanced down at the doctor who was scraping the last of the powder into a jar. He watched her work for a long moment, following her moving hands and the concentrated pull of her eyebrows.
"Take this with you."
Itachi blinked out of his stupor as a small jar was placed in his palm, full of the same disgusting brown powder. Some of his less than pleasant feelings about the medicine must've showed on his face when Sakura looked pointedly in his eyes and then started shooing him away.
"That's out session for today. I'll see you again in two days."
Before he could reply with anything, the door was slid shut on his face. Itachi sighed, shaking his head and started walking down the hallway, eyeing the pair of maids that were giggling too much and walking too quickly away from the hallway to be innocent.
Many people in his kingdom seemed to have a preconception about his image. They seemed to regard him as one of the most level-headed, intelligent, and patient members in his family, and as the second in command. But the truth was, he was actually quite an impatient man. Impatient for success, impatient for getting what he wanted, and also impatient for getting rid of what he wanted. And right now, that already slim patience was wearing thin.
Izuna tried to keep his expressions as civil as possible and not let his eye twitch when the woman in front of him refused to make herself scarce. Anko Mitarashi was a cunning, sly, unnerving woman, and she was acting too comfortable with him for him to feel comfortable.
"… and what can I say, the last time I visited this compound, I heard that you were on some expedition. What a waste that was…"
Izuna tried not to sigh or turn away from her. He was the second in command, he couldn't display such rudeness even when he felt like doing just that. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he looked at her from head to toe. Dusty mauve hair, slate eyes that reminded him too much of a snake, and a mischievous smile.
Anko showed up a couple days ago and Fugaku introduced her as the new weaponry craftsman he had started business with, and while she had done absolutely nothing to warrant his suspicion, he did not trust her immediately. Now it could be just him reading into things too much, but his intuition has seldom let him down when it came to character of people.
"…Am I holding you up, my prince?"
Izuna wanted to nod and walk away, but again, he couldn't. So he reluctantly, and forcefully, shoved down his budding agitation and gave her a convincing smile. "No. Not at all."
He was on the way to the gardens, looking for his pinkette friend, when he was stopped by the swordsmith with a bottle of sake and too much free time on her hands. Anko grinned at him, her teeth glinting in a way that reminded him of a dagger.
"Say, prince Izuna, I've been hearing from a lot of nobles about your relationships with women, or lack thereof-" Izuna instantly wanted to groan at the direction that conversation was headed toward, "- and couldn't help but agree with them. Have you decided on anyone who you'd like to get married?"
"I… haven't." Izuna replied, "I don't know yet." He probably should've, given his age, but he couldn't find anyone. Izuna has rarely ever bothered to think of his future with someone with the uncertainty of his lifespan hanging over his head.
Someone he could see himself trusting, see himself loving, was a novelty he didn't dare indulge in. But he could also sense the budding loneliness when he laid in his bed at night and found no warm body next to him that he could hold. He could be like his nephew and cousin and indulge himself when he felt like it, but that was the problem. He didn't feel like it. Intimacy wasn't something he took lightly, and being naked and vulnerable with someone he held no warm feeling for felt… wrong.
Though, he would greatly prefer the men of his clan and the nobles of his kingdom stop meddling with his romantic life. He would like to not have to take antidotes for aphrodisiacs in teas and shoo away half naked women that just happen to be magically present late at night in guest rooms during his visits.
Anko sounded disappointed when she hummed. "That's a shame. None of the princes of Kuroshima are interested in marriage, or so I've heard." Anko took another swig of her sake, eyes affixed to his face. "But I would fail to believe you if you said that there's no one who caught your eyes."
Izuna started to shake his head, ready to deny her, but then a picture flashed in his head. A flash of colors, like spring personified, manifested inside his mind. Hair like the petals of cherry blossoms, eyes like the lush forest around his home. Unwittingly, his mind painted a picture with those colors and something jumped in his chest.
Something must've shown on his face when Anko's lips stretched into a dangerous smile. "Ah… I see." What she saw, he wouldn't know.
And as if his mind manifested the reality, he saw the flash of pink and red in the corner of his eye. Even in the approaching darkness of the evening, her colors shone in a distance.
He wanted to call out her name to draw her attention, but hesitated when he noticed Anko looking at him with too much attention. He debated excusing himself and then meet up with Sakura away from her eyes, but as his luck would have it, she noticed him standing just as she turned her head. Their eyes locked for a moment, and then she was walking toward him.
"Prince Izuna." She greeted him formally, noticing the woman standing in front of him. Izuna couldn't stop the slight smile from spreading on his face as he looked at her face. "Am I interrupting something?"
Before he could answer, Anko dismissively waved her hand. "No, no. I was just holding up prince Izuna with my mindless chatters, though I'm pretty sure he would much prefer the company of a pretty woman such as yourself."
Sakura smiled at her, tilting her head to the side. "I don't recall seeing you around the compound."
Izuna took that initiative to introduce the two. "This is one of our new weaponry craftsmen, Anko Mitarashi. Lady Anko, this is our guest from Hiraisumi, Sakura Haruno."
Anko chuckled under her breath while looking over the pinkette, her sharp eyes trailing over head to toe in a fashion that made goosebumps rise under her sleeves, in the worst way possible. Sakura smiled at her, lips pulling tight in a saccharine smile that felt more wooden than human. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Izuna noticed that smile and the hollowness in her greeting, and couldn't help but feel validated in his unease around the woman. He looked back at the woman and gave her a much more convincing smile that he gave to most of the aristocrats. "It was a pleasure talking to you, lady Anko, but I have a commitment to my friend here-" He felt the surprised glance Sakura threw him from the corner of his eyes, "-that I would like to get to."
Anko grinned at the pair while raising the half-empty bottle of sake in a toast, "I won't hold you up any longer, my prince."
Izuna nodded at her as she turned away, giving him one last mysteriously knowing look. He watched her walk away until she was out of their vision and then turned to his companion. "I was just about to go looking for you." At Sakura's questioning look, he shrugged, "No particular reason. I haven't talked to you in a while."
Sakura let out a breathy chuckle, folding her arms under her chest. "I would've liked to go out and socialize more myself, but alas." She reached inside of her robe near her belt and drew out a sake bottle, shaking it slightly while giving him a smile. "Care to join me?" She knew he would say yes even before she asked the question.
The pair walked side by side through the torch-lit path circling the lake inside their compound. The still water glistened under the moonlight, pure white water lilies glowing like they were touched by silver. Sakura sat down on the bench, gently putting down the ceramic bottle next to her and felt Izuna settle down beside her, leaving just enough for a respectable distance between them.
She fetched two sake cups from inside her robe as well, putting them in front of the bottle and smirked at Izuna. "Please do the honors." She looked back toward the lake as the sound of sake pouring inside the cups filled the air. When it stopped, she reached beside her, feeling along the rim of one cup and picking it up. She tipped it on her lips, letting the warm liquid wash down her throat.
She heard Izuna sigh from beside her and reached for the bottle, filling up her cup again. Silence enveloped them in a peaceful cocoon, the air filled with just the sounds of the gentle breeze and crickets croaking in the bushes. Izuna glanced at the pinkette from the corner of his eyes, following the cup as it was grabbed between her fingers to being pressed against her lips to her throat bobbing as the sake poured down it.
The skin of his nape warmed up traitorously and he averted his eyes before Sakura looked his way, tipping down his whole cup at once before refilling it. "It's been a while since I've had some sake."
"Hm?" Sakura looked at him before taking another sip, "Is that so? Why?"
A sigh escaped past his lips, a slight buzz inside his head even from just two cups of sake. "My physician forbids me drinking any kind of alcohol. Which is… such a bother. You cannot even go to an event and have a drink, which just makes dealing with everyone so much worse."
"The physician?" Sakura questioned in surprise, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him. "I don't generally see physicians involved that much in anyone's health, even imperial families." She took another swig from her cup, smacking her lips and leaning back against the stone bench. "People back in my kingdom certainly didn't. By the way, what were you and Lady Mitarashi talking about, if you don't mind me asking. You looked like you would rather be inside a volcano than there."
Izuna groaned into his cup, leaning his head down toward his lap. "Don't remind me. She was asking me about my romantic life, or as she was saying, the lack thereof." He uncharacteristically grumbled out, "As if I don't already have enough nobles hounding me about it."
"But you'll have to agree that it's a valid curiosity. Because you're like, what… almost thirty? People have at least a couple children by this age." Sakura chuckled out, but she knew that that was something even she thought about a lot. Maybe not of Izuna, but herself.
"I know." He sighed again, "I just hoped they would keep it to themselves and stop pestering me about it." He looked at her again, internally debating whether to ask her a question that has been rolling inside him for a while. Whether it would even be appropriate to ask her that was a different matter. But his want for answers was for more than just satiating his curiosity.
Sakura has been in his kingdom for a while, almost four months, and he has taken the initiative of calling her his friend for just about the same time. And where she reciprocated his offer at a friendship, there was always an invisible line that seemed to be present between them. Not always seen or felt, but always present the same. It was like the pinkette was living inside a soap bubble; a clear, thin soap bubble that she could see through, he could talk through, he could hear through, but he can never cross. And while it didn't bother him before, it was starting to disgruntle him since a while ago.
And while thinking about it the night before, he came to a startling realization; he doesn't know one thing about her life. He knows about her name, her kingdom, her occupation, but not her life. Just those things are not her life. And even if he set aside the very large gray area that was the definition of their relationship, friends did not just not know anything about each other.
Izuna took in a long breath and decided to put it out before he thought about it too much and then just ended up not saying anything and then simmering over it for another week. "Have you ever thought about marriage?"
Sakura hummed in thought while looking up at the sky where the moon hung in a wicked smile. "Not in a while, but definitely thought about it when I was younger." Something made her chuckle, but not the light, airy chuckle he likes hearing, but something darker, angrier, sadder. "It's been a while since marriage and kids have been at the forefront of my mind."
Something about the laugh made him want to stop the question but then her face smoothened out again and he looked toward the lake too. He wants her to be able to trust him, be it with her actions or with her secrets, and he can't do that if they don't talk. He thought back to one conversation he had with an instructor when he was just on the cusp of adulthood.
'Trust is a bridge and you need both sides of the stream to make it. But to build a bridge, you must start from the banks. Whether you extend a hand from your side and build it over to the other, or build it up from both sides and meet in the middle, is up to you. But if you want the trust to reach you, you must be the one to offer it first.'
It was a lesson he lived by, something that helped him in countless negotiations and also the reason why Fugaku always called up on him whenever there was a new treaty or alliance to sign. It was also the reason why his nephews came to him first if they ever found themselves stuck. It was about time he put that lesson to use for himself.
"Have you ever had anyone in the past who made you think about marriage?"
Izuna held his breath with his eyes affixed to the pale face, watching every fleeting emotion cross her face within seconds before it went blank. He looked down and closed his eyes, releasing long drawn breath before tipping back the rest of his drink and being instantly hit with the buzz that loosened his lips.
"I always wanted to be a knight." Sakura looked up in surprise at her companion, seeing him speak with his head down and eyes distant, "I've trained in knighthood since I could remember standing on my feet, along with my brother. He was supposed to be the clan head, and Fugaku would be the king. That left me with my will to train as a knight, maybe even rise to higher positions and take on a military commander position."
Sakura listened with rapt attention even when his voice barely rose above a whisper. His cup was empty and has been so since the beginning of their conversation but he seemed really interested in looking at the bottom of the vessel. She heard him suck a breath, as if without doing so, he would collapse on himself.
"I travelled a lot too, with my troops, quite like you. I fought alongside my brother in the cold war between Iwagakure and Kuroshima when I was eighteen, even though I worked more as a strategist than a warrior." A breath of a laugh escaped past his lips, bittersweet in its sound. "My brother used to say that I should just stay in the camp and work my brain instead of my body, since that was what I was the best at. And perhaps, our enemies thought that too." The sudden chill that creeped in his voice made a shiver wrack up her spine.
And then, he was looking at her, eyes forlorn and hollow as if weighed down under a thousand years of burden. "You were saying that no physician would take that much interest in someone, even for imperial families." Sakura could only mutely nod, "You would be right, if letting me die instead was an option."
"It was the last battle we had with Minozuka of Iwa before we retreated for the night. We had everything to triumph the battle, the arsenal, the manpower, the strategy. Everything. And for that night, I took my troops and retreated to the old compound by the border, and my brother took his to stay at the camp to look out."
Izuna picked up a stray dry twig from the ground, inspecting it in his fingertips. "The other troop knew this too, and by the time we were deep in sleep, we couldn't smell the scent of gunpowder. No strategist in your army, no strategy to play by. And one match was all it took before the whole compound went into flames." The twig snapped in his palm, "Forty seven of my men dead, countless more injured. I was supposed to die that night too, but God was perhaps feeling merciful when he only took my lungs."
Izuna went silent as Sakura continued to watch him, slowly, one by one, all the pieces started falling in place. Him not being able to go too far away, running out of breath even after a short horse ride, her never having seen him training in the compound, skin too soft and devoid of scars.
And she realized what a dangerous man she was looking at.
She had heard of the strategist from Kuroshima who turned the tide of the battle even when Minozuka had greater manpower, deadlier arsenal, stronger fighters, but she didn't realize who the strategist was. But she saw now, and she also saw the absolute lethality of such a man. Izuna was like a snake that stayed curled inside a flower, away from eyes and waiting until the right moment. And that was way more dangerous than someone who attacked like a predator.
Armed with a disarming smile and soft eyes with the mastermind behind it, no wonder the enemies wanted to get rid of him first.
"I…" Sakura started before falling silent again, looking down at her hands, "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be." Izuna smiled at her, but even in the darkness of the night she could feel, if not see, the strain in it. "The life of a knight is seldom lengthy for many. I was fortunate that I survived, many of my peers didn't." Some had parents waiting for them, some had wives and children, some had their siblings, some had their lovers. None of them could give their parting words laying inside a casket.
Sakura stared at the still water, eyes following a dragonfly as it hopped from one water lily to the other. He had told her something of his past, it was up to her now. She could just not tell him anything, and he wouldn't push her for it. But after hearing him out, she felt like she owed it to him.
She sucked in a large gulp of air when the ocean eyes flashed in her mind again, her throat bobbing when she swallowed thickly. Maybe it was the silence of the night, maybe it was the sake in her cup, or maybe it was the warmth radiating from the body next to her that made her lips loose, she felt courageous enough to voice out what she had avoided even thinking about too much.
"I… I did have someone in the past, someone I loved dearly enough to promise a forever with." Sakura pursed her lips before leaning back, eyeing the twinkling stars that dotted the sky. Was he somewhere among them? "He was the assistant herbalist in our court, and that was perhaps where our friendship started. He wasn't very fond of fighting or training or going into the military, so our interests largely surrounded medicine."
"He was sweet, he was caring, he was bright. He was everything I wasn't, maybe that was what drew me to him." She still remembered the brighter than the sun smile when he presented her with a rare variety of hydrangea he found, carefully carrying it with him for over a week until he could present it to her, shyly ruffling his burnt red hair when she teased him about it.
'The locals said it symbolizes good luck, so I thought to get it for you.' Then he would blush and look away, muttering under his breath, 'Well, it also means adoration, but that's beside the point.'
She felt the heavy gaze draping over her from her side as a breath of 'what happened then?' rose between them. "We grew up, we grew closer, then I was off to war."
She could still remember the stars caught in his eyes when they laid side by side on the barn roof, promises of forever and happy ever after lost between their gazes. Their love was as immature as they were at the age of fourteen, but it was sincere. And then within a week, she was waving him goodbye from Kouro's back, promising to always come back to him.
"I didn't hear from him for almost a year and a half. But I had hope. Then the war ended, and I came back." She took a breath and the next were just a whisper of words, "He never did."
Izuna's eyes were wide and dark when he looked at her, as if just as shocked as she was when she heard the news first. "I thought he was out on another one of his tours to the next kingdom, so I waited, a day turned into a week, a week into two, and so went three months before I saw him again."
"But you are not with him right now…" he whispered out, "Did he abandon you? Married someone else?"
Sakura felt her lips pull into a bitter mockery of a smile as something stung behind her eyes and before she could stop it, they were brimming wetly. "He did abandon me." Her voice cracked when she said that, "I saw him laying in a box, stiff, cold, lifeless." She heard the breath Izuna sucked in, mouth falling open in shock.
"He died a week ago in the next kingdom with fatal wounds, but the wounds looked months old, infected and unsalvageable. But the most fatal one was the missing eyes." Bile rose in her throat when she remembered the bandage wrapped over his face, hiding the gruesome empty sockets. "And then I found a box on my room's table after the funeral. His eyes were inside that box."
Something burst inside her chest and there was no stopping the trickle of teardrops down her face. She hung her head and shielded by face away from his wide eyes with the curtain of her hair. A hiccup rose inside her throat but she forced it down.
Warm ocean eyes that she loved so much haunted her dreams ever since. If the scenes from the battlefield wasn't enough to break her mind, those eyeballs sitting inside the wooden box sure were.
When the ceramic of the cup threatened to break between her fingers, she felt a warm weight over her shoulders and she didn't have to open her eyes to know that it was his Izuna's arm, draped over her shoulder in a comforting blanket.
"You are so strong to have survived that." His words reminded her of Ino on the night of the banquet. It was like another such play scene, sitting by the water at night, drunk on painful memories, and a comforting weight on her to draw her out of the swamp.
Sakura swallowed the incoming onslaught of tears and tried to wipe her eyes clean. "I-I tried. I tried to move on, I tried to survive it. But I couldn't." She's all but living manifestation of her nightmares, troubled and disturbed by the same memories over and over again. Her childhood, the battlefield, the loss of her friends, her love, her life.
"But you did." Izuna was suddenly in front of her, kneeling on the ground in front of knees, tentatively putting his large palms over her clenched fists. "You continued living, you helped people, you saved lives. You did everything in your power to not succumb to that pain, and that was much more than what a lot of people have done. You are the strongest person I've ever seen."
There was not a sliver of lie when Izuna said that, he wholeheartedly believed in it. "I won't pretend that it was easy, or you would ever truly surface from that grief, but you survived in the way you could. And I'm so thankful for that."
A wet laugh broke through her tears at his words. "You say that like I'm something that happened to you that you should be thankful for." Izuna didn't comment about how right she was, instead holding her clenched hands in his own.
"I am thankful for you. I found a competent helper in you, a brave soldier, and a trustful friend." His words made her look up at him and he saw the glistening jades of her eyes. He could see the grief, the pain, the anguish that broke his heart. But in between everything negative, he saw hope. Enough to make him risk it. "I found you, Sakura. And I'm thankful."
Sakura continued to stare at him with her welled up eyes, his words echoing and ricocheting off the silence between them, before a small smile before out on her face. A sniffle later, she was wiping her face with her sleeves. "God, this is embarrassing."
Izuna smiled too seeing her reeling herself in. "No it's not. But if you feel so, I'll forget that I ever saw you crying."
"Please do." Sakura chuckled slightly under her breath, "The king appointed a physician from his court for my mental evaluation, but I feel like he should've sent me to you. You're quite good at this."
"So I've heard. If you don't want to go to that doctor, remember that my doors are always open for you."
Sakura smiled as she managed to rub off the last of the dampness, suddenly feeling a lot bashful with the prince sitting in front of her. She can't believe that she just said all that. But no one can deny the feeling of weightlessness she felt when the tears drained. Like years worth of steam trapped in a jar finally escaping through a slight crack.
"Izuna…" Izuna looked up at the doctor with her lips pulled in a sincere smile, so full of hope and gratitude that it made something stutter in his chest. "Thank you."
Izuna laughed breathlessly, sitting down fully on the ground in front of Sakura before something of color caught his eyes. It was a morning glory plant growing at the base of the bench, with the dark pink flowers sprouting proudly under the moonlight, and a memory made him reach forward to pluck one such flower off of it.
He knew it was not the right time, not when Sakura was so broken in front of him, but the vulnerability he felt with her made him draw out a small amount of courage from deep inside him and reach forward to tuck the flower in her hair.
"Huh?" Sakura felt the petals sticking out of her hair and Izuna smiled at her, hoping the darkness of the night would be enough to conceal the burning of his skin. The splash of deep magenta against the light rosy hue of her hair made their color shine even more, along with the glossy green eyes and wet plump lips, she looked like a vision for sore eyes.
"It's a morning glory." Izuna told her while smiling, "It looks nice on you."
His mother once mentioned receiving a morning glory plant from her father before their engagement, and how she blushed when mentioning it. And while he felt brave enough to tuck the flower in her hair, it wasn't enough for him to tell her what it meant.
Affection.
AN: Ah there's that. See y'all next chapter.