Sakura eyes her opponents dubiously through her porcelain mask, weaving and dodging their attacks with ease. As someone who has trained with the likes of Rock Lee and, on one memorable occasion, Uchiha Itachi, her current opponents' attempts to land a hit on her are almost comically slow even with the two of them attacking at the same time.

With another quick burst of chakra, she launches herself backwards and takes the opportunity to check on her teammates. Genma and Shisui are each battling three enemy shinobi, while Itachi takes on four. Sakura takes a moment to pity their opponents, because whoever hired them was clearly looking for quantity rather than quality, and lands lightly on a branch.

One of her opponents speeds towards her from the right, but she steps aside at the last moment and, with Inner Sakura's roar of "Shannaro!", sends him flying into a neighbouring tree with a chakra-enhanced punch. Her teammates, she notices, are close to finishing their own battles, so she turns back to her own fight. The remaining enemy shinobi pulls out a chokutō and advances on her wearily.

Unfortunately for him, Sakura is well trained in kenjutsu but she still hesitates to unsheathe her own tantō. Her concentration broken for a moment, she is almost too late to evade his first blow – almost, being the key word, because training with Tsunade-shishou meant you avoided her hits at all costs. With a curse, Sakura jerks her body backwards, out of range of his blade, and dips a hand into her pouch, intent on flinging a kunai into his face or something equally damaging. The other shinobi jumps into the air and bears his blade down, aiming to carve through her torso.

Sakura prepares to dodge, then finds herself stumbling sideways, and instead of whistling through the empty space she'd occupied mere moments ago, the chokutō slices deeply into Uchiha Itachi's arm.

For a moment, Sakura can only gape at her captain's sudden appearance – for once, she is thankful for her mask – before she snaps back to reality. Her former opponent crumples to the ground, presumably under genjutsu, and Itachi turns to face her. "Are you alright?"

"Taichou!" Sakura blurts, and if her tone is borders on accusatory, it's because Itachi has interfered with her fight (again) and in doing so, has gotten himself injured in an attack he could have easily avoided if he hadn't been defending her.

"All enemy shinobi have been neutralised, taichou," Genma calls and at his words, Itachi relaxes, just a fraction.

"Taichou, sit down," Sakura orders, and pulls off her mask so she can see. Itachi pauses, but doesn't say anything as he settles obediently on the ground and holds out his arm. She can't help but frown; the ANBU uniform includes metal arm guards and a flak jacket, both of which would have provided adequate protection against the chokutō. Itachi had somehow positioned himself in a way that meant the blade had sliced through his exposed upper arm.

It had gone quite deeply as well, Sakura notes, judging from the heavy bleeding, but at least the edges are neat. She kneels and summons healing chakra to her hands, making them glow green, and presses them gently to Itachi's arm. It's a simple healing and shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, but Sakura can't help but feel unnerved; even though Itachi has his mask on, she gets the feeling he's staring at her.

"Taichou," Sakura says carefully. "Why did you interfere with my fight?"

His eyes, still Sharingan red, glitter behind his mask. "You are the medic, and must be protected," Itachi answers smoothly.

The ease in which he says the words – as if he's said them before a hundred times – sparks her temper. "Taichou, I am more than capable of fighting my own battles and protecting myself," Sakura says hotly. "I have performed my duties as a medic nin without fail on every mission and have avoided direct combat as best as I could, yet you still feel the need to interfere."

"Yes," Itachi says coolly.

"Are you implying something, taichou?" Sakura demands, looking up from his arm to glare at him. "Do you think that I'm weak, or in need of protection?" She drops her hands to reveal smooth, unblemished skin, albeit stained with dried blood.

Itachi says nothing, only watches her. It's impossible to even guess at his thoughts, not when he has that mask on.

"Sasuke put you up to this," she says accusingly, then mutters, under her breath, "Interfering asshole."

They both stand, and even though Sakura is acutely aware Itachi is her superior in many ways, she continues speaking. "Taichou, if you're interfering because you think I'm weak or because Sasuke put you up to this, please stop. I can take care of myself." She gestures to his arm. "I could have avoided that attack. You could have avoided that attack. It wasn't even meant for you, but you got injured. Next time, that kind of carelessness could cost you a lot more."

"As long as the medic is uninjured, they can heal me," Itachi points out, his voice calm.

"It's better to not be injured in the first place," Sakura counters, meeting his gaze squarely. "No matter what you or Sasuke thinks, I can take care of myself. I'm not weak, and I don't need your help."

"Haruno-san, I did not mean to imply that you were weak," Itachi says, after a short pause. "Regardless of your strength, it is my duty as captain to protect you, especially as you are not an actual member of ANBU and also because you are the medic." Before she can interrupt, he adds, "My motivations for interfering are my own, not Sasuke's, and I apologise if my actions have caused you offence."

"Thank you," Sakura says quietly. "Protecting the medic is understandable, but today, you intercepted a hit that I could have easily avoided; it was unreasonable for you to interfere."

"Aa," Itachi says, apparently at a loss for words.

Sakura blinks up at him until understanding dawns, then tries to hide her smirk. "So you do agree, that it was stupid of you to interfere today," she presses, stepping closer to him. "So why did you do it? Are you sure Sasuke didn't put you up to this?"

Itachi hesitates again and ignores the heat rising in his cheeks at her close proximity. She was right to call his actions unreasonable – he knows that she is more than capable of taking care of herself, as she has pointed out numerous times today, but when he saw the enemy shinobi bringing his sword down on her, his body simply moved on its own. He found himself pushing her out of the way to intercept the strike, even though it would be far more rational to attack the shinobi from behind while he was focused on Sakura.

Rational does not apply to him when it comes to Sakura, it seems. He has noticed this on several occasions now, where, upon seeing her in danger, an instinctive need to protect her stirs and he finds himself interfering with her battles. He is not the only one to notice this, it seems – his remaining teammates, Shisui in particular, have been sending him meaningful looks, and now Sakura herself has confronted him.

Itachi can't bring himself to regret his actions, not when Sakura stands in front of him, alive and unhurt. Ignoring the relief that accompanies this thought, he resumes his neutral façade as Genma drops to the ground. "Taichou, we should probably leave."

"Yes," Itachi agrees instantly, ignoring the way Sakura narrows her eyes at him because he has avoided answering her questions completely. "Haruno-san, mask."

"Hai." Sakura puts her mask back in place, blinking a few times to adjust to her new line of sight. Quietly, so only he can hear, she adds, "Taichou, I appreciate the fact that you're looking out for me, but at least try not to get injured if you're going to interfere. You need to look after yourself as well."

Itachi turns and looks at her appraisingly; even with the mask on, her sincerity is obvious. "Very well," he says, and beneath the porcelain mask, his lips curve into a small smile. "Let's move out."

After a year or so of lurking in the Naruto fandom and having all these ideas, I finally wrote something! I'm a sucker for AUs, so I couldn't resist writing my own non-massacre fic. Sakura is not ANBU here, but I think she would be assigned to other teams and ANBU squads on higher-ranking missions as a medic-nin – she wouldn't take part in the mission, she'd just provide support. I do intend to write more in this universe but they will be separate oneshots. Hope you enjoyed reading, all feedback is appreciated :)