when the darkness falls under your hair, there i'll be.
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Uchiha Itachi & Haruno Sakura
Prompts: 27. violion & 005. discovery & 227. starved for affection
Word Count: 3730
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Warning: Content not suitable for children.
Notes: Part 10/31 of a mini-series. Sequels/Prequels can be found here at CHIAROSCURO. Written for 50_shinobi & lover100 & 500themes.
-
Itachi realized a little belatedly that he knew next to nothing about her. Haruno Sakura, as he was beginning to discover, was an enigma of many layers and surprises, each as pleasant and unexpected as the last. Though their acquaintance and pseudo-friendship had spanned more than a decade, she was still as much a stranger to him as that first meeting, still an unknown, still a variable to be solved.
Itachi could not be positive of it, but it was obvious that she knew much more about him than he did her. This alone was a disconcerting thought, because Itachi was by nature a very private person, shielding and protecting the very secrets that encompassed him. It baffled him that anyone outside of his immediate family would care enough to take the effort to gather and shelter information about himself, especially since, and he didn’t loath to admit, he wasn’t a particularly interesting person. The entirety of his life since his very birth had revolved around being a shinobi. It was drilled into the very core of his being so completely that sometimes, Itachi felt that there was simply no room to encompass anything else. Anything else would be extraneous, and would somehow work to lessen him.
Seeing the variability that made up Sakura, Itachi was beginning to rethink his theory.
“Yeah, play for us! Why practice so much and not perform?” A very drunk Ino slurred to the crowd, and the others, some as intoxicated as the blonde, hollered their pleasure. Sakura, who was oddly sober blushed a furious pink and shook her head.
“No no, I only started a few months ago. It’s nothing presentable yet.”
“Bullshit!” Ino yelled, voice shrill and slurred. As an afterthought, the boisterous girl slammed her hand down on the table. “Play for us! Play for us! Play for us!”
Around her, the drunk Genma, Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke and other indistinguishable faces started to join in on the chanting.
“Sakura-chayaaaaan,” Naruto whined as he staggered over to the pinkette. “The teme and I have heard you play before. It’s amazing. I mean, it’s your birthday, so you should definitely do as we say!”
Sakura raised a brow. “You’ve lost what little sense of logic you have, Naruto.”
Sasuke appeared next to his blond teammate, squeezing through the flood of people in Sakura’s tiny apartment. The alcohol seemed to have done wonders for his misanthropy as he turned an admonishing glare on Naruto. “Naruto, stop nagging Sakura. Clearly, she doesn’t want to play.” Sakura was beginning to feel touched by Sasuke’s caring words, when he continued, “We can’t help it if she’s too scared to play. Or too embarrassed. We shouldn’t blame her…”
This was as good as waking the tiger, as Sakura hesitated not a moment before whacking Sasuke particularly hard upside his head. The younger Uchiha didn’t even have time to react before Sakura marched through the crowd, voice booming. “All right listen up you demanding, drunk children. I’ll play one song and one song only.”
Ino started the round of cheers that followed this demand, and Naruto, in his excitement, fell off the chair he’d managed to scramble onto, effectively crushing the poor Kotetsu and Izumo under his weight. Sakura could only smile fondly at the blond’s antics as she unpacked her instrument.
Although Itachi vaguely recognized the shape of the case, he was still surprised when Sakura produced a violin, held delicately within her hands. Ino applauded again when the instrument came into view, eliciting a holler from some other drunken guests. Sakura gave a teasing bow, slightly flushed as she went on to tune the instrument. Out of nowhere, Naruto appeared next to Itachi, all smiles and with a beer bottle in hand.
“You’ll love this, Itachi! Believe it. Sakura-chan’s amazing.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s right! She said she’s been practicing for someon-” Naruto stopped as his cloudy gaze caught sight of something over Itachi’s shoulders. “Hey! Chouji, man, you still owe me that drinking contest!”
As suddenly as he had appeared, Naruto staggered off towards the bigger man, waving the glass bottle dangerously above his head. Itachi watched with mild amusement as the blond barrelled over an unsuspecting couple before turning back to the focus of everyone’s attention.
Sakura cleared her throat. “Well then. It’s not much. So don’t expect much.”
Then, she lifted the spruce instrument to her chin, heaved in a deep breath, and brought the bow down to the strings.
Itachi half expected a squeak, squeal or otherwise unpleasant noise to permeate the air, but he had never been more mistaken in his life. A soft note struck through the air around them, and seemed to gather with it awe and inspiration as it passed through the ears of its audience. From Ino to a smirking Tsunade, that first note, and the many that followed it compelled its audience into silence and wonderment as it brought them through a coaster of fortes and pianissimos, largos and allegros, until finally settling on a delicate, light e minor that left its listener’s hearts at bay and dancing across thin glass.
For a moment after Sakura’s performance ended, no one dared breathe, lest their exhale shatter the spell of her song. At the dumbstruck expressions on the faces of all the elite shinobi gathered in her cozy apartment, Sakura was at a loss. A reaction, any reaction, really, would have been good. All of a sudden Sakura was all nerves, embarrassed that her performance really had been awful. As a habit, she started fidgeting with a stray hair on the bow.
“Holy shit,” Ino finally breathed out, sobered by the illusion she had just been transported into. “Holy mother of shits. You are absolutely amazing with that thing, Forehead! Where on earth have you been hiding this talent of yours?”
Ino’s compliment brought the others out of their respective dazes, and soon, Sakura was swarmed by a group of people, each full of praise and amazement. Itachi caught some of the words that were yelled at a higher decibel than others - Naruto’s, for example - as he boasted about his dear Sakura-chan’s accomplishments. Yet, for all his own pleasant shock, and, he was surprised to admit, amazement at her skill, Itachi did not approach the smiling woman.
Itachi stood at his place by the small leather couch, behind an unconscious Shikamaru, nursing the one beer he’d had all night. The barrage on Sakura didn’t cease, and didn’t look like it was about to any time soon. Itachi had never been one for unnecessary attention, so the best he could do was raise his glass in her direction when their eyes clashed across the space, and indulge secretly in the smile that was her reply. Her attention was stolen a second later though, slicing that moment into memory as she smiled and laughed at whatever was said to her next.
It was a little fanciful, but Itachi opted to think that the smile he’d gotten was one she reserved especially for him.
- - -
“Thanks for coming!” Sakura yelled into the night after the last of the departing guests. After her little performance, another two hours had passed them by, during which time everyone simply decided to become even more intoxicated. Most of the shinobi had managed to leave, either by their own devices or on the shoulders of another. Those teammates of hers, however…
Predictably, Sasuke and Naruto were passed out in her living room, a mess of bottles and glasses around them. Sakura wanted to groan despite the good mood she was in. Her apartment was absolutely trashed, and she still had to move those drunkards of hers. But when she reached the two men, she couldn’t help the smile the found its way onto her face. She was nineteen now, and they were both very nearly there, yet they were still as adorable and lovely in her eyes as the first day she laid eyes on them. Thankfully for them, these good natured memories found her heaving them onto her shoulders gently, intent on letting them have a good night’s rest. Usually, Sakura would leave them to crinkle in their awkward positions as punishment for not being sober for cleanup, but today was a good day. Her good nature lasted until she reached the spare bedroom, at which point she dumped them rather unceremoniously on the bed, not giving much thought to their tangled limbs. For good measure, she flicked open the blinds, leaving them a nice good morning hangover present for when the time came.
When she returned to her open kitchen and living room area, Sakura very nearly had a heart attack.
Standing smack in the middle of the two rooms was Uchiha Itachi, looking for all the world as if he belonged there.
“Itachi!” she gasped, stepping back once. The night and alcohol had dulled her senses, and she immediately blushed at her fatal error. Had he been an enemy, she would have already been dead five times over. “What are you still doing here? Don’t worry about Sasuke - he’s dead to the world for now.”
Itachi nodded, despite already knowing Sasuke’s condition. He paused here, realizing his next words would seem rather odd to the birthday girl. But he forged on regardless, heedless of the consequences. “I will help you clean up.”
“Oh,” she blinked, not quite expecting that declaration, of all things. “Oh well, you don’t have to. It’s late and you must be tired.”
To Itachi, though, the word no simply was not one that he accepted as an answer. As she was spewing out her protests, he had already begun to pick up the bottles that littered her hardwood. Realizing that her protests had been blatantly ignored, Sakura realized that this Uchiha was just as stubborn as the other one currently passed out in her guest bedroom.
Resigned to the fact that he would be here until her apartment was cleaned, she allowed herself the small treat of simply watching him work away, his movements graceful, light and delicate. The fluidity of his movements were so ingrained and effortless that he looked like water flowing through her apartment, grazing by the world, leaving just enough behind to carry no attachments.
It was this refinement that set him apart from anything else she had ever known, this and the aura of impenetrable sadness that guarded him closely. The latter, Sakura thought, was probably something Itachi himself did not consciously acknowledge. This subconscious denial only added to his melancholic appeal. Itachi was a package of such conflicting emotions that Sakura’s own heart was torn by heartbreak over his solitude and attraction to the mystery. It was nothing she could adequately explain away with logic or sense, but Uchiha Itachi tugged away at her heart as nothing else in the world could.
Sakura returned to her senses a moment later, realizing that she had been gawking at the elder Uchiha for the past minute. Blushing a sweet pink, Sakura joined Itachi in picking up the litter. Not much conversation passed between the two as they worked to clean, but Sakura was satisfied. It felt awfully domestic, cleaning her apartment with Itachi. The feeling made her ridiculously giddy inside, no different than the butterflies that plague teenage girls. On the few occasions where they had managed to end up cleaning the same area, or when their fingers had perhaps grazed, Sakura had nearly felt her heart pop. She tried to blame in on the teensy bit of alcohol she’d had earlier, but her treacherous heart couldn’t stop its intense beat as long as Itachi was here with her, in such an intimate setting.
In the end, they ended up finishing the clean up much faster than Sakura had anticipated. It was a little over three o’clock when Sakura wiped down the last of the glasses, handing it to Itachi to put away. Sakura didn’t really know whether to be excited that they finished so soon or upset that her little cloud nine moment had also ended so soon. When Itachi returned to his spot next to her, they elapsed into an awkward silence. With no work to distract the air around them, everything was so still, including them.
Surprisingly, it was Itachi that broke the silence a minute later. “You are very skilled at playing violin.”
Sakura shrugged. “Not really, I only started four months ago. Hopefully I’ll become good enough to perform one day,” she paused and smiled sheepishly. “At least, that’s the plan.”
“Why the violin?”
“No particular reason. I’ve always found the sound pretty, so I decided to give it a shot.”
Itachi let her words soak through him. Her nonchalance caught him off guard, though he didn’t quite understand why. “That is one way to choose a hobby, I suppose."
“Yes, well, actually-” Sakura cut herself off as she considered her next words. When she finally decided on her words, she couldn’t help the light rosy tint that spread across her cheeks. “You can’t laugh when I tell you this, but if I’d have to name a hobby and just one, I’d probably have to say that it’s my habit of trying everything.”
Itachi quirked a curious brow. “Everything?”
“Yes,” Sakura heaved a defeated sigh. “Everything. Remember the time Sasuke and Naruto had me taken off the roster after that mission? I tried my hand at knitting, which, incidentally, did not turn out so well. I also have a coin collection lying around here somewhere, probably with the telescope and a few paintings….”
If Itachi was not amused by her odd hobby, he was certainly amused by her rambling. “It would seem to me that a more appropriate name for your hobby is hoarding.”
“Hey!” Sakura said with mock outrage, slapping him playfully on the arm. “I said you couldn’t laugh.”
“I do not recall agreeing to said condition.”
Sakura paused, but beamed up at him a moment later. “Touche, Itachi,” Sakura thought she saw a flicker of amusement pass through his eyes, which warmed her heart. Sobering up, she continued, “So what about you, Itachi? What do you do aside from kicking-ass?”
A stagnant silence followed her simple question, breaking off the smooth flow of their conversation. When Itachi didn’t reply after a minute had passed, a rather nasty thought occurred to Sakura. Had she somehow offended him with that one question?
It was not, however, offense that Itachi was feeling. He had, in the simplest explainable term, been caught off guard, though he could not quite explain why. Her question had been the next logical one in the course of their conversation. After a long pause, Itachi replied, quietly, “I do not have any hobbies.”
Sakura’s mouth dropped to form a slight ‘o’ at his unceremonious proclamation. Curiously, there was no embarrassment or insult in his reply…it was simply a statement of facts as they were. Itachi seemed neither upset at not having any outside interests nor delighted. He seemed simply at peace with the fact as something immutable and indefinite. Sakura loved her life as a shinobi, but she couldn’t imagine living without breaks from its harsh demands. Without her numerous hobbies, Sakura was sure that she would have gone crazy long ago from the stress. How on earth did Itachi manage to stay sane?
A memory burst through the forefronts of her mind then, a slipping image lost to the thousand others she had gathered throughout the years. Through the rose-coloured eyes of her nine year old self, the image of a younger Itachi appeared in her memory. It was little more than a passing glance, as Sakura was passing through the area with her mother. He was young by his frame but ancient by his stature as he sat at the base of the large elm. Sakura’s innocent eyes blinked curiously at the enigmatic boy, who she quickly recognized as Sasuke’s brother, the very same boy who she’d met on the road just a few snowy months before.
Immediately upon seeing him, young Sakura’s heart sank. There was such a melancholic, sorrowful aura surrounding him that just one glance at him saddened her young heart. The girl squinted, trying to get a closer look at the thing dangling between his tense fingers. It was a bottle of some sort, shaped in a rather curious way. The little girl racked her brain for anything it might be. A water canteen? Juice? Medicine? None of her conjectures made quite enough sense to the smart girl, but her investigation was cut short as her okaa-san suggested they finally go eat dinner. In her excitement and mirth, the blissful young girl forgot all about the inexplicably heart wrenching scene she’d just witnessed.
As this memory replayed in Sakura’s mind, her heart sank again, mirroring that same feeling from ten years prior. Those rose-coloured lenses had long since shattered, and Sakura knew now without a doubt what that bottle was. Alcohol, the poison that so many shinobi turned to, consciously drowning themselves until there was nothing left to feel.
Is he still self-medicating? she wondered, a little sadly but even more worriedly. If he’d been drinking to that extent for all this time, his liver would surely be ready to give out any time soon now. And since he was never one to show up for routine check-ups at the hospital, Sakura feared she might never find out. A sudden urge, inexplicable and probably wildly inappropriate seized her then, compelling her to surge forward, closing the stagnant space between them.
Her action was so unplanned and uncharacteristic that it surprised them both, with Itachi’s eyes widening ever-so-slightly at her movement. A little nervous now, Sakura stalled, unsure of what to do. Thankfully, her body came to the rescue of her heart as it pumped a wave adrenaline through her system. Along with the extra beats of her heart, Sakura raised a delicate hand to his face, slowly, but steadily. Though Itachi’s gaze was trained on her face, Sakura felt surreal, as if she was watching the entire thing as a third party.
Sakura watched, entranced, as the suddenly brave and probably crazy Sakura let her hand rest on his face, caressing it softly, an expression of absolute empathy on her face. Itachi bristled under her touch at first, but the bravado-Sakura didn’t seem to be deterred, as she continued. Eventually, he relaxed under her touch, like a child being coaxed. Her own gaze seemed glazed over, as if entranced by her actions and the intensity of his gaze.
She paused in her action as suddenly as she had began and with unknown courage she locked the intensity of their gazes together. “You’re not alone, you know,” she began, softly but firmly. “You don’t have to carry all those burdens alone. You don’t have to lift the weight of the world alone. Don’t try to forget by harming your body.”
Itachi looked surprised by her declaration, his unshakable composure stirred by her words. Sakura, however, was not finished. “You can share those burdens with me. Please don’t drink anymore.”
If Itachi was surprised before, he was even more so now. How does she know about the alcohol? Itachi wondered. It was a secret he kept closely guarded to himself - not even his family knew. No one knew. So how did she know? It must have been a time of the past, though, because the night of their first encounter was one of the last times he’d used alcohol to dull the ache. There had been a few other times in the following months when he’d once more reached for the bottle, but that had been the end of his self-destruction.
The hopeful expression on Sakura’s face, he decided, was endearing and altogether moving. “I do not drink anymore,” he said. “I have not used that method of…unburdening myself in ten years.”
“Oh,” she breathed, evidently relieved, if the broadening smile on her face was any indication. Itachi waited to see if she would draw a connection between his years of sobriety and their history, but nothing changed on her features. She had no reason to suspect, though, that their insignificant meeting had such a profound impact on him.
The adrenaline and bravado was gone now, but their proximity remained, and for the first time since her speech, Sakura realized the awkward placement of her hand. It was still there, hovering over his face awkwardly, not quite touching and not quite apart.
“Right. That’s good. I’m happy you’re not drinking any more,” she said, starting to ramble. “You can always tell me anything that’s troubling you. If you want, I mean. You don’t have to…Well I’m sure you knew that. What I mean is-”
Sakura’s eyes widened into saucers as she felt his iron grip on her receding arm. She had realized that her bumbling speech was the best opportunity to remove her hand unnoticed, though even then, it was a slim chance, considering the man standing before her. Itachi grabbing her wrist before she’d even lifted her hand a few centimeters away though, was something entirely unexpected.
And just as suddenly as his he’d grabbed her arm, his face was before hers, just inches away. When he spoke, his voice was low and if Sakura dared think, dangerous. “Do you know what you’ve just offered to do, Sakura?”
Sakura’s heart was beating at approximately 1000 beats per second as she breathed out a quiet yes, though she unconsciously understood that she’d probably missed the sub-subtext of his words. Before she could sputter out her next words though, Itachi had closed the remaining minuscule amount of space between them, swooping his face down to capture her lips within his.
For the second time within a minute, Sakura’s eyes widened to an impossible size as she soaked in the situation. Sirens were blaring in her head and nothing was registering because this situation was absolutely bizarre and unreal - then, she just stopped thinking altogether, and allowed her eyes to flutter shut. If this was just some fluke of the alcohol or a sweet dream, Sakura decided that overthinking it was the worst possible way to waste the experience.
With her eyes shut, Sakura gave in. Gave into the kiss, melted into his embrace and just surrendered to this beautiful assumption of reality.
Characters: Uchiha Itachi & Haruno Sakura
Prompts: 27. violion & 005. discovery & 227. starved for affection
Word Count: 3730
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Warning: Content not suitable for children.
Notes: Part 10/31 of a mini-series. Sequels/Prequels can be found here at CHIAROSCURO. Written for 50_shinobi & lover100 & 500themes.
-
Itachi realized a little belatedly that he knew next to nothing about her. Haruno Sakura, as he was beginning to discover, was an enigma of many layers and surprises, each as pleasant and unexpected as the last. Though their acquaintance and pseudo-friendship had spanned more than a decade, she was still as much a stranger to him as that first meeting, still an unknown, still a variable to be solved.
Itachi could not be positive of it, but it was obvious that she knew much more about him than he did her. This alone was a disconcerting thought, because Itachi was by nature a very private person, shielding and protecting the very secrets that encompassed him. It baffled him that anyone outside of his immediate family would care enough to take the effort to gather and shelter information about himself, especially since, and he didn’t loath to admit, he wasn’t a particularly interesting person. The entirety of his life since his very birth had revolved around being a shinobi. It was drilled into the very core of his being so completely that sometimes, Itachi felt that there was simply no room to encompass anything else. Anything else would be extraneous, and would somehow work to lessen him.
Seeing the variability that made up Sakura, Itachi was beginning to rethink his theory.
“Yeah, play for us! Why practice so much and not perform?” A very drunk Ino slurred to the crowd, and the others, some as intoxicated as the blonde, hollered their pleasure. Sakura, who was oddly sober blushed a furious pink and shook her head.
“No no, I only started a few months ago. It’s nothing presentable yet.”
“Bullshit!” Ino yelled, voice shrill and slurred. As an afterthought, the boisterous girl slammed her hand down on the table. “Play for us! Play for us! Play for us!”
Around her, the drunk Genma, Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke and other indistinguishable faces started to join in on the chanting.
“Sakura-chayaaaaan,” Naruto whined as he staggered over to the pinkette. “The teme and I have heard you play before. It’s amazing. I mean, it’s your birthday, so you should definitely do as we say!”
Sakura raised a brow. “You’ve lost what little sense of logic you have, Naruto.”
Sasuke appeared next to his blond teammate, squeezing through the flood of people in Sakura’s tiny apartment. The alcohol seemed to have done wonders for his misanthropy as he turned an admonishing glare on Naruto. “Naruto, stop nagging Sakura. Clearly, she doesn’t want to play.” Sakura was beginning to feel touched by Sasuke’s caring words, when he continued, “We can’t help it if she’s too scared to play. Or too embarrassed. We shouldn’t blame her…”
This was as good as waking the tiger, as Sakura hesitated not a moment before whacking Sasuke particularly hard upside his head. The younger Uchiha didn’t even have time to react before Sakura marched through the crowd, voice booming. “All right listen up you demanding, drunk children. I’ll play one song and one song only.”
Ino started the round of cheers that followed this demand, and Naruto, in his excitement, fell off the chair he’d managed to scramble onto, effectively crushing the poor Kotetsu and Izumo under his weight. Sakura could only smile fondly at the blond’s antics as she unpacked her instrument.
Although Itachi vaguely recognized the shape of the case, he was still surprised when Sakura produced a violin, held delicately within her hands. Ino applauded again when the instrument came into view, eliciting a holler from some other drunken guests. Sakura gave a teasing bow, slightly flushed as she went on to tune the instrument. Out of nowhere, Naruto appeared next to Itachi, all smiles and with a beer bottle in hand.
“You’ll love this, Itachi! Believe it. Sakura-chan’s amazing.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s right! She said she’s been practicing for someon-” Naruto stopped as his cloudy gaze caught sight of something over Itachi’s shoulders. “Hey! Chouji, man, you still owe me that drinking contest!”
As suddenly as he had appeared, Naruto staggered off towards the bigger man, waving the glass bottle dangerously above his head. Itachi watched with mild amusement as the blond barrelled over an unsuspecting couple before turning back to the focus of everyone’s attention.
Sakura cleared her throat. “Well then. It’s not much. So don’t expect much.”
Then, she lifted the spruce instrument to her chin, heaved in a deep breath, and brought the bow down to the strings.
Itachi half expected a squeak, squeal or otherwise unpleasant noise to permeate the air, but he had never been more mistaken in his life. A soft note struck through the air around them, and seemed to gather with it awe and inspiration as it passed through the ears of its audience. From Ino to a smirking Tsunade, that first note, and the many that followed it compelled its audience into silence and wonderment as it brought them through a coaster of fortes and pianissimos, largos and allegros, until finally settling on a delicate, light e minor that left its listener’s hearts at bay and dancing across thin glass.
For a moment after Sakura’s performance ended, no one dared breathe, lest their exhale shatter the spell of her song. At the dumbstruck expressions on the faces of all the elite shinobi gathered in her cozy apartment, Sakura was at a loss. A reaction, any reaction, really, would have been good. All of a sudden Sakura was all nerves, embarrassed that her performance really had been awful. As a habit, she started fidgeting with a stray hair on the bow.
“Holy shit,” Ino finally breathed out, sobered by the illusion she had just been transported into. “Holy mother of shits. You are absolutely amazing with that thing, Forehead! Where on earth have you been hiding this talent of yours?”
Ino’s compliment brought the others out of their respective dazes, and soon, Sakura was swarmed by a group of people, each full of praise and amazement. Itachi caught some of the words that were yelled at a higher decibel than others - Naruto’s, for example - as he boasted about his dear Sakura-chan’s accomplishments. Yet, for all his own pleasant shock, and, he was surprised to admit, amazement at her skill, Itachi did not approach the smiling woman.
Itachi stood at his place by the small leather couch, behind an unconscious Shikamaru, nursing the one beer he’d had all night. The barrage on Sakura didn’t cease, and didn’t look like it was about to any time soon. Itachi had never been one for unnecessary attention, so the best he could do was raise his glass in her direction when their eyes clashed across the space, and indulge secretly in the smile that was her reply. Her attention was stolen a second later though, slicing that moment into memory as she smiled and laughed at whatever was said to her next.
It was a little fanciful, but Itachi opted to think that the smile he’d gotten was one she reserved especially for him.
- - -
“Thanks for coming!” Sakura yelled into the night after the last of the departing guests. After her little performance, another two hours had passed them by, during which time everyone simply decided to become even more intoxicated. Most of the shinobi had managed to leave, either by their own devices or on the shoulders of another. Those teammates of hers, however…
Predictably, Sasuke and Naruto were passed out in her living room, a mess of bottles and glasses around them. Sakura wanted to groan despite the good mood she was in. Her apartment was absolutely trashed, and she still had to move those drunkards of hers. But when she reached the two men, she couldn’t help the smile the found its way onto her face. She was nineteen now, and they were both very nearly there, yet they were still as adorable and lovely in her eyes as the first day she laid eyes on them. Thankfully for them, these good natured memories found her heaving them onto her shoulders gently, intent on letting them have a good night’s rest. Usually, Sakura would leave them to crinkle in their awkward positions as punishment for not being sober for cleanup, but today was a good day. Her good nature lasted until she reached the spare bedroom, at which point she dumped them rather unceremoniously on the bed, not giving much thought to their tangled limbs. For good measure, she flicked open the blinds, leaving them a nice good morning hangover present for when the time came.
When she returned to her open kitchen and living room area, Sakura very nearly had a heart attack.
Standing smack in the middle of the two rooms was Uchiha Itachi, looking for all the world as if he belonged there.
“Itachi!” she gasped, stepping back once. The night and alcohol had dulled her senses, and she immediately blushed at her fatal error. Had he been an enemy, she would have already been dead five times over. “What are you still doing here? Don’t worry about Sasuke - he’s dead to the world for now.”
Itachi nodded, despite already knowing Sasuke’s condition. He paused here, realizing his next words would seem rather odd to the birthday girl. But he forged on regardless, heedless of the consequences. “I will help you clean up.”
“Oh,” she blinked, not quite expecting that declaration, of all things. “Oh well, you don’t have to. It’s late and you must be tired.”
To Itachi, though, the word no simply was not one that he accepted as an answer. As she was spewing out her protests, he had already begun to pick up the bottles that littered her hardwood. Realizing that her protests had been blatantly ignored, Sakura realized that this Uchiha was just as stubborn as the other one currently passed out in her guest bedroom.
Resigned to the fact that he would be here until her apartment was cleaned, she allowed herself the small treat of simply watching him work away, his movements graceful, light and delicate. The fluidity of his movements were so ingrained and effortless that he looked like water flowing through her apartment, grazing by the world, leaving just enough behind to carry no attachments.
It was this refinement that set him apart from anything else she had ever known, this and the aura of impenetrable sadness that guarded him closely. The latter, Sakura thought, was probably something Itachi himself did not consciously acknowledge. This subconscious denial only added to his melancholic appeal. Itachi was a package of such conflicting emotions that Sakura’s own heart was torn by heartbreak over his solitude and attraction to the mystery. It was nothing she could adequately explain away with logic or sense, but Uchiha Itachi tugged away at her heart as nothing else in the world could.
Sakura returned to her senses a moment later, realizing that she had been gawking at the elder Uchiha for the past minute. Blushing a sweet pink, Sakura joined Itachi in picking up the litter. Not much conversation passed between the two as they worked to clean, but Sakura was satisfied. It felt awfully domestic, cleaning her apartment with Itachi. The feeling made her ridiculously giddy inside, no different than the butterflies that plague teenage girls. On the few occasions where they had managed to end up cleaning the same area, or when their fingers had perhaps grazed, Sakura had nearly felt her heart pop. She tried to blame in on the teensy bit of alcohol she’d had earlier, but her treacherous heart couldn’t stop its intense beat as long as Itachi was here with her, in such an intimate setting.
In the end, they ended up finishing the clean up much faster than Sakura had anticipated. It was a little over three o’clock when Sakura wiped down the last of the glasses, handing it to Itachi to put away. Sakura didn’t really know whether to be excited that they finished so soon or upset that her little cloud nine moment had also ended so soon. When Itachi returned to his spot next to her, they elapsed into an awkward silence. With no work to distract the air around them, everything was so still, including them.
Surprisingly, it was Itachi that broke the silence a minute later. “You are very skilled at playing violin.”
Sakura shrugged. “Not really, I only started four months ago. Hopefully I’ll become good enough to perform one day,” she paused and smiled sheepishly. “At least, that’s the plan.”
“Why the violin?”
“No particular reason. I’ve always found the sound pretty, so I decided to give it a shot.”
Itachi let her words soak through him. Her nonchalance caught him off guard, though he didn’t quite understand why. “That is one way to choose a hobby, I suppose."
“Yes, well, actually-” Sakura cut herself off as she considered her next words. When she finally decided on her words, she couldn’t help the light rosy tint that spread across her cheeks. “You can’t laugh when I tell you this, but if I’d have to name a hobby and just one, I’d probably have to say that it’s my habit of trying everything.”
Itachi quirked a curious brow. “Everything?”
“Yes,” Sakura heaved a defeated sigh. “Everything. Remember the time Sasuke and Naruto had me taken off the roster after that mission? I tried my hand at knitting, which, incidentally, did not turn out so well. I also have a coin collection lying around here somewhere, probably with the telescope and a few paintings….”
If Itachi was not amused by her odd hobby, he was certainly amused by her rambling. “It would seem to me that a more appropriate name for your hobby is hoarding.”
“Hey!” Sakura said with mock outrage, slapping him playfully on the arm. “I said you couldn’t laugh.”
“I do not recall agreeing to said condition.”
Sakura paused, but beamed up at him a moment later. “Touche, Itachi,” Sakura thought she saw a flicker of amusement pass through his eyes, which warmed her heart. Sobering up, she continued, “So what about you, Itachi? What do you do aside from kicking-ass?”
A stagnant silence followed her simple question, breaking off the smooth flow of their conversation. When Itachi didn’t reply after a minute had passed, a rather nasty thought occurred to Sakura. Had she somehow offended him with that one question?
It was not, however, offense that Itachi was feeling. He had, in the simplest explainable term, been caught off guard, though he could not quite explain why. Her question had been the next logical one in the course of their conversation. After a long pause, Itachi replied, quietly, “I do not have any hobbies.”
Sakura’s mouth dropped to form a slight ‘o’ at his unceremonious proclamation. Curiously, there was no embarrassment or insult in his reply…it was simply a statement of facts as they were. Itachi seemed neither upset at not having any outside interests nor delighted. He seemed simply at peace with the fact as something immutable and indefinite. Sakura loved her life as a shinobi, but she couldn’t imagine living without breaks from its harsh demands. Without her numerous hobbies, Sakura was sure that she would have gone crazy long ago from the stress. How on earth did Itachi manage to stay sane?
A memory burst through the forefronts of her mind then, a slipping image lost to the thousand others she had gathered throughout the years. Through the rose-coloured eyes of her nine year old self, the image of a younger Itachi appeared in her memory. It was little more than a passing glance, as Sakura was passing through the area with her mother. He was young by his frame but ancient by his stature as he sat at the base of the large elm. Sakura’s innocent eyes blinked curiously at the enigmatic boy, who she quickly recognized as Sasuke’s brother, the very same boy who she’d met on the road just a few snowy months before.
Immediately upon seeing him, young Sakura’s heart sank. There was such a melancholic, sorrowful aura surrounding him that just one glance at him saddened her young heart. The girl squinted, trying to get a closer look at the thing dangling between his tense fingers. It was a bottle of some sort, shaped in a rather curious way. The little girl racked her brain for anything it might be. A water canteen? Juice? Medicine? None of her conjectures made quite enough sense to the smart girl, but her investigation was cut short as her okaa-san suggested they finally go eat dinner. In her excitement and mirth, the blissful young girl forgot all about the inexplicably heart wrenching scene she’d just witnessed.
As this memory replayed in Sakura’s mind, her heart sank again, mirroring that same feeling from ten years prior. Those rose-coloured lenses had long since shattered, and Sakura knew now without a doubt what that bottle was. Alcohol, the poison that so many shinobi turned to, consciously drowning themselves until there was nothing left to feel.
Is he still self-medicating? she wondered, a little sadly but even more worriedly. If he’d been drinking to that extent for all this time, his liver would surely be ready to give out any time soon now. And since he was never one to show up for routine check-ups at the hospital, Sakura feared she might never find out. A sudden urge, inexplicable and probably wildly inappropriate seized her then, compelling her to surge forward, closing the stagnant space between them.
Her action was so unplanned and uncharacteristic that it surprised them both, with Itachi’s eyes widening ever-so-slightly at her movement. A little nervous now, Sakura stalled, unsure of what to do. Thankfully, her body came to the rescue of her heart as it pumped a wave adrenaline through her system. Along with the extra beats of her heart, Sakura raised a delicate hand to his face, slowly, but steadily. Though Itachi’s gaze was trained on her face, Sakura felt surreal, as if she was watching the entire thing as a third party.
Sakura watched, entranced, as the suddenly brave and probably crazy Sakura let her hand rest on his face, caressing it softly, an expression of absolute empathy on her face. Itachi bristled under her touch at first, but the bravado-Sakura didn’t seem to be deterred, as she continued. Eventually, he relaxed under her touch, like a child being coaxed. Her own gaze seemed glazed over, as if entranced by her actions and the intensity of his gaze.
She paused in her action as suddenly as she had began and with unknown courage she locked the intensity of their gazes together. “You’re not alone, you know,” she began, softly but firmly. “You don’t have to carry all those burdens alone. You don’t have to lift the weight of the world alone. Don’t try to forget by harming your body.”
Itachi looked surprised by her declaration, his unshakable composure stirred by her words. Sakura, however, was not finished. “You can share those burdens with me. Please don’t drink anymore.”
If Itachi was surprised before, he was even more so now. How does she know about the alcohol? Itachi wondered. It was a secret he kept closely guarded to himself - not even his family knew. No one knew. So how did she know? It must have been a time of the past, though, because the night of their first encounter was one of the last times he’d used alcohol to dull the ache. There had been a few other times in the following months when he’d once more reached for the bottle, but that had been the end of his self-destruction.
The hopeful expression on Sakura’s face, he decided, was endearing and altogether moving. “I do not drink anymore,” he said. “I have not used that method of…unburdening myself in ten years.”
“Oh,” she breathed, evidently relieved, if the broadening smile on her face was any indication. Itachi waited to see if she would draw a connection between his years of sobriety and their history, but nothing changed on her features. She had no reason to suspect, though, that their insignificant meeting had such a profound impact on him.
The adrenaline and bravado was gone now, but their proximity remained, and for the first time since her speech, Sakura realized the awkward placement of her hand. It was still there, hovering over his face awkwardly, not quite touching and not quite apart.
“Right. That’s good. I’m happy you’re not drinking any more,” she said, starting to ramble. “You can always tell me anything that’s troubling you. If you want, I mean. You don’t have to…Well I’m sure you knew that. What I mean is-”
Sakura’s eyes widened into saucers as she felt his iron grip on her receding arm. She had realized that her bumbling speech was the best opportunity to remove her hand unnoticed, though even then, it was a slim chance, considering the man standing before her. Itachi grabbing her wrist before she’d even lifted her hand a few centimeters away though, was something entirely unexpected.
And just as suddenly as his he’d grabbed her arm, his face was before hers, just inches away. When he spoke, his voice was low and if Sakura dared think, dangerous. “Do you know what you’ve just offered to do, Sakura?”
Sakura’s heart was beating at approximately 1000 beats per second as she breathed out a quiet yes, though she unconsciously understood that she’d probably missed the sub-subtext of his words. Before she could sputter out her next words though, Itachi had closed the remaining minuscule amount of space between them, swooping his face down to capture her lips within his.
For the second time within a minute, Sakura’s eyes widened to an impossible size as she soaked in the situation. Sirens were blaring in her head and nothing was registering because this situation was absolutely bizarre and unreal - then, she just stopped thinking altogether, and allowed her eyes to flutter shut. If this was just some fluke of the alcohol or a sweet dream, Sakura decided that overthinking it was the worst possible way to waste the experience.
With her eyes shut, Sakura gave in. Gave into the kiss, melted into his embrace and just surrendered to this beautiful assumption of reality.