Two and a half years ago
Sakura's bare feet were sore against the linoleum entryway of the ryokan, ironically the same one where they had been forced to wait for Agent Weasel six months ago. She was exhausted, mentally and physically. Being the stand-by medic for Captain Crow's ANBU team was not what she had expected. The village had yet to find a more permanent solution, so still, she was here. Half of the time, she felt Captain Crow resented her presence, but he had yet to say anything outright.
"You only have two rooms?" he asked the receptionist at the front desk.
"Yes sir, just the two. Would you like them?"
Crow sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He did that a lot when he was frustrated. Time and time again, Sakura had felt she'd seen the motion before from someone in the village, but as soon as she thought she had made the connection, the idea vanished.
Bear threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in tight. "I'll share a room with you, sweetheart, don't you worry about it."
Weasel made a clicking sound between his teeth and shook his head. "She won't be sharing a room, she will share with the captain, as is procedure."
"Unless we're a couple. So what'd you say? Wanna bang?"
Crow stared him down, and Bear slipped his hand off of her shoulder. "We will be sticking with policy. Besides, no woman trusts you enough to spend the night in your bed."
Sakura could practically hear the smirk in his tease and was envious of their closeness. Over the last few months it was apparent these three knew each other, and knew Kakashi. She had guessed that Agent Bear was Genma. When she had asked him, he called her a crazy kid and walked away. The behavior was so completely at odds with the flirtiness of Agent Bear, and so firmly denied, she felt it was confirmation by itself. Agent Weasel was Itachi. Like Kakashi, he had long given up trying to conceal his identity. And still, Captain Crow remained an irksome mystery with his broad shoulders, straight-laced demeanor, and…
"Did you hear me jounin-medic?"
Sakura shook her head.
"Leave the medic alone," Agent Weasel said in a rare objection to Captain Crow's brusqueness. "She spent all of her chakra trying to heal those two prisoners."
"She grew careless."
It stung, but it was a fair assessment. She had grown careless with the prisoner. In the split instant it had taken for her to take her eyes off their hands, they had had theirs around her throat, a knife to her neck, holding her hostage while the three men on her team had watched. Captain Crow teleported, or blurred - there was no other explanation - across the distance and slammed the man into the ground hard enough to leave a small crater.
Crow handed Weasel a keycard despite Bear's protests and picked up the remnants of her fallen gear from the floor, adding it to his own.
"Come on."
Sakura didn't think she had ever seen someone kill like that before. It was like watching a strange bastardization of her own techniques. Truth be told, she was angry at herself. She hadn't been so reckless since she was a kid. She felt like a statue as she walked down the corridors, trailing behind Captain Crow. Her legs felt like lead encased in concrete. The long hair she had been proud to grow out felt silly now, as though she weren't worthy of that level of arrogance anymore.
Captain Crow held open the door for her and signaled something to the other two men in the team. She didn't look back, didn't really care to, and so she just stood in front of one of the hotel beds as Crow set down their gear.
He sighed and gave a cursory glance of the room. "Sit down, Haruno. Drop the mask and henge."
"I…" He wasn't supposed to use her name, or even know it. It was against protocol.
"I wasn't asking."
His tone was kinder that time, softer, and bordered on the edge of a memory. On the edge of exhaustion, she felt her body comply without her permission. Nondescript brown hair melted back to pink, and she could feel the indents in her face that the ceramic mask left behind.
He dropped down to a knee in front of her and took one of her feet in his hands. She jerked back out of instinct, but was stopped by his firm grip. He waited a moment until she relaxed, watching him curiously instead of distrustfully.
"Good girl," he muttered. "That's a nasty blister. You should have said something before we moved." He set her heel between his knees and reached into the cargo pocket of his pants.
"I don't like being weak. I'm not normally like that, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"Hmm." He nodded, and she felt her mood sink lower than it already was. Gauze was lightly placed against the open wound on her foot, and he began to wrap a bandage around it.
Sakura winced as the cool cloth tightened around the open sore. Twiddling her thumbs together, she tried to focus on his sure movements, the clean and crisp way he tightened the bandage, especially for someone who wasn't a medic. She was beginning to wonder what he wasn't good at.
"What happened out there wasn't your fault. It was mine. I didn't assess the situation properly. For that, I am sorry."
Sakura blinked, then slowly nodded in confusion. "You…I…You don't have to lie to make me feel better."
"I don't lie to my teammates." He split the end of the bandage neatly into two and tied it into a small bow. "At least not on missions. There's that done."
Present Day
Dawn had arrived far too early the next day for Shisui's taste. One last night with Sakura hadn't been enough. Gods knew how he had coaxed her back to their bed after she was so determined to stay in the guest room. He laid next to her in the morning light, memorizing the planes of her face. The clock by their bed glowed red as it ticked to five a.m. Tugging the comforter up around her shoulders, he kissed her lips.
He would have to leave soon, before she woke up. Careful not to wake her up, he held her close against him, his forehead against hers, their lips a breath away.
"I love you," he mouthed in the dark.
She smiled in her sleep, snuggling closer against him, as though she'd heard him speak without a sound.
"...love y…" she mumbled under her breath.
It wasn't a surprise; she had been saying it in her sleep for months now. Every morning when they woke up together, it killed him to pretend he hadn't heard it. This was for the best, leaving like this. The Hokage had said as much. Leave in mystery in the early morning; he was only complying with orders. For the good of Konoha, for the reputation of his clan, for Sakura's own safety. He hoped whoever was hunting her would lose interest when they realized they weren't together anymore.
"I love you," he repeated in a whisper, with the faint hope her subconscious would hear him and keep the memory of them alive until he came back—even if it took him years.
Quietly, he rolled out of bed and tucked the covers more firmly around her. With a pulse of chakra, he strengthened the new seals on the windows he had placed that evening after waiting for her to lay down. No one would be able to get in without his or her permission, or Itachi's, gods willing.
The morning air was a stark contrast to Sakura's warm embrace and their shared covers. Not even ten steps out of their apartment, and he already missed her.
Itachi's apartment door down the street was bare, black, and bland. The apartment itself was even more sparse. Sterile, even. He was never sentimental enough to collect tchotchkes, or really any kind of clutter. Shisui never said anything to him, grateful that his own apartment felt like a home. He supposed there was a time when it was just as bare as Itachi's, though he hadn't thought about it in years, all the ways that Sakura had turned his place into a home.
It was almost six in the evening now. He wasn't sure how long he had spent reading the note that had been pinned to his dresser. A crow was watching Sakura, the largest of his summons, and that would have to be enough. For now.
"Are you going to stand there all morning?" Itachi asked, the playful shadow of a smile on his lips.
"Ah, no. Actually, I need your help."
Any joviality he had shown disappeared as though it hadn't been there at all. "Of course, come in."
Shisui closed the door behind him and sealed it.
"An old Konoha-nin is back from the dead and has been hunting Sakura for months… because of me. An Uchiha."
"Because you are an Uchiha, or they are a deserter?"
"Both? I don't know. It's personal. I just… I can't let her know. I have to protect her." Shisui pulled a carefully folded pile of paperwork from his pocket. Pulling Itachi's hand up and holding it in his own, Shisui placed the papers in his hand. "It's the lease to the apartment. Receipts. I paid the rent up front for three years; she won't have to worry about it. Banking information for the bills, utilities, insurance, and such. My will."
Itachi raised his eyebrows, nodding for Shisui to continue.
"Fuck, I love her. And I know you think I'm crazy."
There was a minute nod from Itachi, Shisui shook his head in response.
"Fine. I'm crazy. But I will protect her, and take care of her. She never has to know. I just... I can't be near her, I can't risk her life like that. It's not right. I need to find this man."
"I assume you won't be returning with him to face justice?"
"No. Not if I can help it. He forfeited that right when he messed with her. Tsunade agreed."
"Did she now?"
"I…I need to leave now. Keep an eye on her for me?"
"Are you certain you don't want me to accompany you?"
"I'm certain. I need someone I trust here who's strong enough to keep her safe."
Two and a half years ago
Sakura shifted on the edge of the bed, rustling the comforter below and the throw blanket. She looked down at the bandages on her foot, then back toward Captain Crow who was monopolizing the only table in the room and writing a mission report. Without his cloak, she could see more of his figure. He was broad-shouldered, much broader than most of the Uchiha men. Broader than Sasuke, anyway. The vambraces on his arms left red indents where he had unbuckled them and placed them in his mission bag.
She realized she was staring as his forearm flexed with the motion of the pen against the page. Still, an hour had passed, and he hadn't removed his mask. The glamor seal inscribed on the inside made every memory of who he could possibly be fuzzy.
"You can take it off, you know. I won't tell anyone. I have clearance from the hospital to see an ANBU agent's face."
"I like the anonymity. It enables me to do my job better."
"Seems a difficult way to live."
"Living is what I do when I'm in the village. Working is what I do when I'm outside it."
Terse, professional, yet fair. Cynical, maybe. With a profile like that, he could be any number of men in Konoha. The guessing game for his identity kept her from mourning the loss of her supplies, including the gifted copy of Icha Icha with it. The last time they had shared a room, they had waited for Agent Weasel for one week. She wasn't sure Captain Crow had bothered to take off his mask in the shower. It made her wonder if he even used soap.
He didn't smell, but strong enough deodorant could mask any number of deficits in men. Plus it had been far too long since she had been with one, and her hormones were wreaking havoc on her mind. He was probably married at the least. He seemed old enough—late twenties, early thirties, perhaps. About five years Kakashi's junior, or so she thought. Kakashi spoke highly of him, though with a touch of melancholy. Which was rare for a man who kept his emotions well in check at all times.
"Stop that," Crow said, staring at her.
Sakura leaned against her hands on the bed. "Stop what?"
"Thinking so loudly."
She could feel the blush heat her cheeks and looked toward the open window. As if on cue, the curtain billowed out from the cool breeze.
"So. I hear Agent Cat will be off maternity leave soon," Sakura ventured.
"Negative. She opted to use her husband's parental leave as well."
"That must make things tight financially."
"Doubtful. She made decent money before she went on leave, and he has a good position in the village. They're well set."
The dismissive scratch of his pen on the paper was beginning to irritate her.
"So you two are…close?"
"Very."
Sakura blew her bangs away from her forehead. She watched as he leaned his chin against his fist and crossed out a word. Every word from the stilted conversation was like blood from a stone, the kind she'd like to throw at his head. Six months with nothing from him except carefully measured phrases and anonymity.
"I'm pretty sure I know who everyone else is on the team."
He hummed thoughtlessly and tapped the pen against the lips of his mask. "Do you?"
"Yup."
"Except for me. That is interesting."
Sakura frowned. The stone would be excellent right about now. "Yeah. Except for you." She mumbled under her breath, "Asshole."
She could have sworn she heard a choked off laugh from the other side of the room.
Present Day
Another week had passed with few leads until at last Shisui came on a familiar sight. The old ryokan was thriving under Konoha's patronage. The browns and muted brick reds of the building seemed to have grown from the ground itself, nestled in the heart of the northern forest of the Land of Fire. Ferns sprouted along the stone path, water dripping down their stems to the ground below. Trees pressed in on its sides as though the forest would swallow it whole.
Lanterns attached to the ceiling of the covered walkways between the building at the hot springs were already lit in the fading twilight. In the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw Sakura's shadow, the glint of pink hair, her head on his shoulder as they walked to the hot springs together.
She'd been flirting with him all those years ago, before they even started their arrangement. She would tease him at the end of their missions when need or rain would force them to seek accommodations. Though he would never mention it in an official report, sometimes the team would choose to use their mission funds to decompress here before returning to the village.
He hadn't lied when he told Sakura he preferred the anonymity of the mask. But he preferred her company much more. He liked the guessing game. He would be lying if he said it didn't stroke his ego a little bit that he was the last person she would unmask on the team. The challenge, and her rise to it had been sexy. He liked it when her brows were pinched in concentration, the pulse of her chakra from across the room in a vain attempt to diminish his genjutsu seal on his mask.
A year after they started this, when Yugao felt comfortable enough to try for her second child, Sakura returned to his team.
Shisui stood in front of the Ryokan entrance for another moment, imagining the sound of Sakura's laugh. He could practically hear the sweet moan when she was too lost in passion to even realize it was bloodlust from the fight. Or her sounds of enjoyment over the food served at the Ryokan, the primary reason it was a favorite of several ANBU teams. Maybe it was weird, or maybe it was some buried primal instinct, but he enjoyed watching her eat.
His heart hurt, and he felt hollow with every sullen step toward the receptionist who raised her eyebrow at him.
"Room for one please," he said.
