A/N: before we start, I will say this. I DO NOT support Sakura/Itachi in any way, shape or form.

That said, this is Sakura/Itachi. Before you run, just give it a try. I am trying to portray this AU realistically, and Sakura has a giant crush on Sasuke. Now give her a guy who looks like Sasuke, acts like Sasuke, and is five years older, not to mentioned ANBU captain and fairly polite when cornered. You see what I mean?
Of course, it's only one-sided. But if you really don't like it in the end, come tell me that.

Sakura is too old for fairytales, but a girl's got a right to dream, right?

Prince Charming

She met him first on the bridge. Or rather, that was when they were first introduced, because Sakura (and everyone else in the village) has known about Uchiha Itachi and Sasuke-kun for a long time. After all, both of them are brilliant and tough and just… genius, she supposes, so it's not surprising everyone knows about them.

But she'd met Sasuke before, a long time ago when his parents were alive they had played in the park together for an afternoon. Or rather, Sakura had played and Sasuke had just sat there with his mother for two hours on the bench, frowning. She had thought he was a terribly boring kid back then, before she'd understood anything. He didn't even join the game of tag Ino started that day.

It was only later, when they'd met in the academy, that Sakura had finally understood why everyone praised Uchiha Sasuke. By then the war with the Cloud had taken her own father away, and in a way she'd felt sympathetic to the boy whose parents were both dead. She hadn't heard about the older brother, had just assumed that Sasuke lived on an allowance from the village like other orphans did.

Despite this, however, when she'd met him she'd immediately realized how far he would go. Sasuke had something about him that made her think he had a goal that was more than graduating into Genin-hood and finding a boyfriend before she got too old. He was quiet, sure, but that self-assurance which Sakura had and still is totally enchanted with was present even back then, when most of the kids were too young to even think of anything more than running away from Iruka-sensei's boring lessons.

Sakura still doesn't quite know what that goal is. When Kakashi-sensei had asked about it, Sasuke simply said that he wanted to become the best. He didn't elaborate and Sakura still hasn't asked about it. She doesn't think she will. Some things are just too private.

But, eventually she had meet Uchiha Itachi, and now she thinks she might understand.

Itachi-san is such a strange person. That was her first impression and it stuck. Beneath the surface of polite greetings (more polite than Sasuke, certainly. Itachi-san even bowed to her slightly, although she is younger and inferior and all sorts of things. It is a gesture she is and always will be enchanted with) there is something sad about him. Sakura thinks that he must miss his parents. It would be hard, she imagines, taking care of Sasuke all on his own.

That first meeting on the bridge had started something which Sakura doesn't quite understand yet, possibly because she's twelve and possibly because she's never felt like this before. When she'd seen Itachi-san before, she'd always thought that he was one of those ANBU whom you should not speak to. The Shinobi who are wholly dedicated to their work, those who have no heart and no compassion to speak of. Sakura may be young, but she's not naïve. She knows what it means to be a ninja, what it means to be a Kunoichi, and that it's not all about being strongest or fastest or the best at school. It's hard not to notice these things, when you see some people walking around on the street who when they look at you have no soul behind their eyes.

No, Sakura is not stupid. She knows someday she's going to do things she'll never be able to forget, things she can barely even imagine right now because they're not taught in the academy or mentioned by their kind-hearted teachers. She thinks, with that childish certainty, that she'll be different from those people she sees around her, but in reality every day that belief is slipping away.

With that belief goes her certainty about understanding people. At first she used to think that Naruto was just an idiot without anything behind his smile but the urge to enjoy himself and some stupid ideal he only wants because it means he's famous. She used to think, too, that Sasuke-kun was just motivated instead of somewhat frightening, that he was the sort of guy who in the end of they day would come home and get married and have kids. She used to think Kakashi-sensei was a pervert and totally useless as Shinobi, one of those people who got to a certain point and then just shrugged and made themselves comfortable on the back of hard-working people.

She used to think Itachi-san was heartless or cruel, the kind of guy who good girls stay away from. Her opinion hasn't changed that much, but Sakura doesn't think he's cruel anymore. Cruel people shouldn't be so thoughtful, walking their brother to the bridge everyday and talking to his friends and all sorts of things with the feeling about them that they are doing something routine, something to be nice. Cruel people shouldn't smile like that, just barely visible but entirely trueful instead of a fake grin or whatever expressions some people throw on their faces. Cruel people shouldn't even try to fit in, be polite and not comment that Sakura is blushing (unlike Naruto, who always teases her about it). Cruel people shouldn't be tactful or considerate.

No, Itachi-san isn't cruel. Sakura thinks he isn't really cold-hearted, either, but that is harder to prove with only two minutes a day of interaction. Sometimes she asks Sasuke if they can walk home together on the offchance that she'll see Itachi-san getting back from his missions. Sometimes Sasuke says yes (well actually Naruto grabs both of them and starts talking about stupid things while they're walking, but the effect is all the same). Sometimes she does see Itachi-san, and even if Sakura can't keep the blush off her face when she meets him he always raises a hand in greeting, quietly self-assured.

Sakura cherishes those memories, because they prove that even people in the ANBU, the sort of people who have lost everything already, have done all the things she is still so afraid of, are capable of at least being a little bit kind. Even though Itachi-san barely ever says a word, Sakura chucks it up to him being just like Sasuke-kun, just naturally quiet (which is sooo cool, as opposed to Naruto who never shuts up for a minute).

Sometimes she thinks about her future. Sakura still likes to dream, think about going out on dates and being engaged and getting married, even having kids. She is twelve, and although she's much too young for such things (and knows it) she also knows that by the time she is 16 she should have made Chuunin or Jounin and be out on missions already, with no time to spare and few chances to even see her boyfriend, much less actually get one.

Which is why, in the end, she likes Itachi-san better than Sasuke. Because Sasuke is young, and he doesn't think about that stuff yet because boys are so stupid sometimes, because they all think they'll live forever and have time later when they won't. Even Naruto who does want to go on a date (not that Sakura ever will, even if he's not as stupid as she thought he was) is always thinking about Hokage this and Hokage that without realizing that on the way there he is going to die, and maybe he'll be alone, with nothing left in the end except his stupid ranks. And isn't it better to have at least gone out with a nice boy first, get a chance to live a little before Sakura becomes just like those ANBU you're not supposed to talk to?

Itachi-san, at least, she knows is ready. Maybe he doesn't want to date and that sort of thing, but Sakura is sure he at least understands that it's now or never, that she not too young or too naïve or too inexperienced. Because Itachi-san is too polite to say that, maybe just polite enough to go out to dinner with her, first with Sasuke and Naruto there, maybe with Iruka-sensei who still likes to listen to all the things they do, and then later on their own, just the two of them, and maybe eventually he'll start to talk.

Sakura thinks she can handle it, dating a guy who's five years older than her, because Itachi-san is polite, because he isn't one of those ANBU you're not supposed to talk to, because he's Sasuke's older brother who in the end she knows she can trust.

Because if it's now or never, Sakura prefers to pick Prince Charming over Peter Pan.

END

A/N: …that was my first fic with Sakura in it. Is it OOC? I dunno…just to remind you, this is HER POV, she doesn't honestly understand Itachi or Sasuke, although in reality she shouldn't, should she?

The reference came out of nowhere, right? I guess that was somewhat ill planned. But… Prince Charming is supposed to be perfect and, well, charming, which to Sakura Itachi is (partially because she really has no idea what she's talking about) and Peter Pan, in the end, is just a little kid who doesn't understand the real world where people grow up way too quickly and there's work to be done, just like Sasuke and Naruto don't understand why Sakura is rushing.

I'd just like to say that… writing this has given me perspective on pairings.

A good couple for a certain circumstance will work whether you plan to put it in or not, simply becoming an implied thing within the writing without any sort of prodding from the author. I think I managed that for the first time, and I feel proud of myself for it. I think it's a step in the right direction on the road to good writing.

Anyway, this is the last chapter, no more should be expected (unless I get some sort of sudden brainstorm).