"Well there must be someone, Ita," Sakura pushed, her mouth full of dango. They were on their fifth "date" now, but it was friendly more than anything. They were growing very close, and since they weren't going in that direction, Sakura decided it was her duty to ensure her new found friend's happiness either way.

Itachi hesitated. There was only ever one girl...

"Do you know... Izumi Uchiha?"

"Oh, Izumi-nee san! Yes! What a coincidence, she's one of my regulars! Very pretty," Sakura beamed, wiggling her eyebrows. "Well then, thank you for that information. You have nothing to worry about now. Leave the rest to me!"

"And what exactly is it that you plan on doing?" He sighed, but smiled in spite of himself.

"Why, set you up, of course! Come visit me at the hospital Saturday after next, you'll see!"

"I don't know, Sakura-chan..."

"Itachi Uchiha you listen to me," she said firmly. "You deserve happiness and I will give it to you, simple as that! Hospital. Next next Saturday. Lunch time." She finished and stood up to stretch, before kissing him on the cheek. "Yes?"

"Yes, ma'am," he sighed, resigned as he watched her walk away.

"Sasuke."

"Nii-san."

"What are you doing out here? It's late."

"What does it look like? I'm training."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at his younger brother's tone. He watched Sasuke throwing multiple shrunken at the target for a while. His otouto was doing it perfectly, just like Itachi taught him. He smiled in spite of himself, proud that his little brother came this far.

"May I join you?"

Sasuke eyes his big brother warily as the latter threw six different shuriken at six different targets, first with his right hand, then with his left.

As his big brother walked over to the targets to collect the shuriken, he spoke.

"What are you doing here, nii-san?" Sasuke wondered why Itachi would join him when he usually spent his rare nights home reading or taking a break from being a Shinobi.

Itachi was taking his sweet time with collecting the shuriken, and seemed to hesitate.

"You... like her, don't you?"

"I—who?" Sasuke was thankful it was dark already, because his ruddy face would have revealed he knew perfectly well who his nii-san was talking about.

"Sasuke." Itachi faced his little brother, and the younger Uchiha was surprised at the red irises that greeted him.

"Nii-san, your Sharingan," he managed.

"Ah, forgive me. I am sad, you see."

"Sad?" Sasuke half asked, half stated.

"You used to tell me everything. When I went home from missions, you used to go up to me immediately and gush about what you did for the day, what mundane chore you helped okaa-san with, what shuriken technique you perfected, what you and Shiro did on your walks... and you would ask me how my day went and you would want to know all about my missions... I wonder," he paused, and Sasuke was shocked to see something glimmer on his big brother's cheek. "I wonder where everything went wrong."

"Well it's obvious, isn't it?" Sasuke hadn't meant to say it, but the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could do anything to prevent them from doing so. "You stopped coming home. So how could I have told you anything ever again?"

His fists were clenched and suddenly he was seeing red. Ah. Might as well.

"I waited for you at first, you know. Everyday. But you never came home like you did before. When you did, you always wanted to be alone. And I don't know when exactly that happened but it felt like I lost you. Like I didn't have a brother anymore."

"I... did not mean to make you feel that way, Sasuke," Itachi's face was pained.

"I know," Sasuke replied, and he was suddenly exhausted. Aside from the chakra-consuming use of his Sharingan, seeing his nii-san like this drained the life out of him.

"It's just..." He tried one last time. "When I was a kid, we were a team. And then we just stopped and..." His voice faded, not able to go on.

Itachi looked like the world crumbled around him. Sasuke sighed and was just about to take everything back when he felt his brother flash-step towards him. He tensed—

"—nii-san?" Sasuke was in shock as he found himself crushed into a hug.

"I'm still here, Sasuke. I never left," Itachi said softly.

"I... Okay, nii-san," Sasuke let out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding. His vision went back to normal as he felt his Sharingan swirl back in on itself.

"Will you let me try harder, Sasuke?" Itachi asked as he finally pulled away. His eyes were back to normal too, except for the ghost of the tears he shed earlier.

The younger Uchiha's instinct was to tell his big brother that he didn't have to, and that his duty was to the village and that he was a big boy and he could and should be able to handle this.

Instead, he nodded.

"She hasn't left you either, you know, otouto," Itachi said softly as they walked through the Uchiha district.

"Nii-san..."

"She set me up with Izumi. The only reason Sakura agreed to have a date with me was because she needed to explain that she would never stop loving you, but that she didn't want to push herself where she wasn't wanted. And also perhaps so I could pay for dango."

"What gave her that impression?" Sasuke couldn't stop himself again and mentally scolded himself for it. His mind was reeling with the information. Why was he like this, always bursting with emotion when it came to his brother and... and her?

"That... we could eat dango?" Itachi asked, his voice confused.

"What. No!" Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. "That she wasn't... wanted." He was avoiding his brother's eyes up to this point but he looked at Itachi and found him looking at himself with something akin to exasperation. Ah, he had manipulated him into saying the truth. Bloody Anbu.

"You did tell her it was okay to go out with your big brother, Sasuke."

"I only did it because you surpr—"

"So she is wanted?"

"What?!" His face felt hot now and he was half-chastising himself for talking with his big brother again. They were nearly at their home now.

"Sasuke," Itachi stopped and looked him in the eye. He had no choice but to stop too. "A girl like that, doesn't come along very often. Do something about your little crush before she realizes she's too good for—"

"—Little crush?" He muttered, utterly embarrassed now.

"But first," his older brother looked at him firmly. "You have to apologize."

He was at a loss.

"For treating her like her feelings meant nothing to you. For pushing her away and holding her at a distance because you were afraid she would 'leave' you like I did. For not letting her know how you really feel. For—"

"I get it, I get it!" He waved his arms as their house came into view. He didn't want his parents to overhear.

"Good," Itachi smiled brightly.

Sakura was telling him about her plan to finally lose it—only she could plan something like losing it—in front of Kakashi as they went on a mission to find yet another cat that she didn't notice they had become a two man cell for the time being and were alone together.

"Sakura," Sasuke finally said.

Sakura jumped, startled into looking at him. For a moment her eyes shifted around in panic before settling on him with a brave kind of determination.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?" She swallowed, and he nearly cringed at the fakest smile he's ever seen her wear.

"Sakura," he said instead, his eyes piercing into hers. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it properly. "I'm sorry."

Sakura's eyebrows rose up and she withdrew a breath suddenly.

"Sorry? For what?"

He thought about everything his brother said, and everything he did in between. He sighed, because he remembered them all, and he truly was, very very sorry—

"For everything."

They stood there looking at each other, Sasuke practically hearing Sakura's gears whir. He was embarrassed and wanted to look away, but he couldn't stop looking at his teammate's face.

For a moment he thought he saw her eyes grow a brighter green than usual, but she blinked and they were back to normal. The kunoichi's mouth turned upwards in a small smile. It was barely visible, but it was there and it was real. And it made Sasuke's heart skip a beat.

"You'd better be," Sakura muttered. "You idiot."

Sasuke smirked then.

"Ita told you?"

He frowned at the familiarity, but nodded.

"Well?" Sakura pushed.

"Well, what?"

"You aren't done," she replied with a sudden air of confidence.

"I—how—"

She was the one smirking now, but her expression was still soft.

"I... waswondrinifyouwantegedangowime."

"What, Sasuke-kun?"

He cleared his throat. "Would... would you like to get dango with me?" He was looking at anywhere but her now.

"No way!" He heard her say, and the sentence repeated itself over and over in his head.

"Oh," his heart was in his throat, he expected the worst but he didn't know she would be this adamant. He continued to look away.

"Why would I want to get dango with you? You hate sweets!" Sasuke looked up at that, and saw Sakura's expressive face was all contorted in confusion.

"But you don't," he muttered, trying to hide his relief.

"I would prefer if we got something we both liked," she moved closer and touched his arm. "Ne?"

"Oh," he said dumbly.

"Hmm. How about ramen?"

"Yuck! Come on, that's something you and the dobe would get on a date," he groaned.

"You jealous?" She teased. When Sasuke grunted, she continued. "Hmm. How about... takoyaki?"

"Ah," he nodded. He liked takoyaki. "That would be nice."

"Great!" He felt something soft and warm touch his cheek briefly and he looked up but Sakura was already far ahead of him, sneakily looking for Mr. Snuffles.

He felt his entire face heat up.

"Well you were right," Itachi told his best friend. They were hidden behind tall trees watching his little brother hash things out with Sakura.

"I always am, little kohai," Shisui said, and jumped away.

Itachi sighed and smiled at the distant figure of his little brother, and caught up with Shisui.