Sakura smacked the back of her head against the wall. "Fuck."

Itachi pricked his ears as Sakura gently pushed him back so she could stand on her feet again. It was definitely a baby crying. He watched her hop around to put her clothes back on, similarly straightening himself out. She motioned for him to follow. "We're pretty much alone here, so you can tell me everything."

"I should say the same thing." She colored a little as they went back out into the night, half jogging back to the garden. Itachi followed her through the back door of a clearly new house, down a few halls, and up the stairs to the source of the wailing.

"Shush, shush, aka-chan," Sakura murmured into the ear of a black haired baby as she lifted it of out the crib. "Ka-san is here. I'm sorry." Itachi stared in shock, watching the child calm, noting the unruly black hair. Sakura turned back to Itachi, gently bouncing the baby in her arms. "Look, it's your uncle." The infant's coal black eyes connected with Itachi's, and he caught a breath. He looked exactly like Sasuke. "He likes you." Sakura smiled proudly. "You want to hold him?"

Itachi silently held out his arms, unable to speak. He cradled the tiny warm body against his chest, just like he did to a three month old Sasuke all those years ago. He'd forgotten the comfort of holding a baby. The little raven gurgled happily. Sakura stroked her child's messy locks. "Looks just like his daddy, doesn't he?" Itachi nodded. "I couldn't decide on Minato or Sasuke for his name, but Sasuke would have none of it." She sighed. "Men and their sons. Finally I just let him choose. Madara is as good a name as any."

Itachi looked up sharply. "What did you say his name was?"

Sakura was startled by his dark tone. "Madara." His fingers curled.

"Where did Sasuke get that name?"

"I think it's from the Uchiha family tree. Why?"

Itachi looked back down at Madara, who had fallen asleep. "Just an interesting name from him to pick," Itachi said softly. There was a long silence before Itachi spoke again. "So, you married Sasuke?" Unexpectedly, his tone wasn't in the least bit unpleasant. He sounded almost as if he wanted to congratulate her.

"Yes." Sakura glanced at her wedding ring, the low light glinting off the half carat solitaire. Simple. Elegant. Perfectly befitting the wife of a prominent clan leader.

"How long?"

"About five years."

"You waited a long time to have children," he observed, his focus on the sleeping baby in his arms. A little bubble formed at Madara's tiny lips. As it popped, Itachi's content smile widened.

"Um, not really…" Sakura trailed off. Itachi looked up, an unmistakable excited gleam in his eye.

"You have more?" Sakura was taken aback. Itachi seemed eager to see her children, even if they were his brother's. Sakura had never realized how much Itachi loved children. After all, she had never seen him with any. "How many?"

"Just one more, Tenmaki."

"Boy or girl?"

"A girl." Sakura smiled fondly. Of course she loved her son very much, but Tenmaki was her first. She was already becoming like her mother, developing similar traits. She was exceptionally smart. "She turned five this November. She'll be starting school soon." Itachi smiled, a glow of happiness surrounding him.

"Where is she now?"

"Oh, she's with Naruto in the Hokage's building. You'll meet her soon enough." She paused, her eyes wandering away. "Oh, yeah," she snapped out of it. "Naruto is-"

"Hokage, I know. Hinata-isha told me."

"She-she did?" Sakura blinked confusedly, realizing she didn't know about how Itachi had come back.

Itachi was still gazing in adoration at his nephew. "When I woke up in the hospital."

"You've been in the hospital this whole time?"

Itachi nodded, and Sakura's heart skipped a beat. I'm not far, I promise. He had been right there all those years, in the same village, in the same building. He really had never left her.

He looked up with his eyes sparkling with true joy. "And I'm not sick anymore. Hinata cured me."

"What?" Sakura whispered, hardly daring to believe it. Itachi's smile broadened.

"I don't quite understand it myself, but I don't know if I even care." Gingerly, Itachi put Madara back in his crib, facing Sakura to take her hands. "I'm here now." Sakura's breath caught. Itachi smiled softly, kissing her hands. "And I have no wish to ruin such a beautiful family." He let go, letting her arms drop limply as he turned away. "I'm so happy for you, Sakura-chan."

Itachi felt something in himself rip as he headed towards the door. She was happy, as he always wanted. He knew there was more to what he missed, but somehow, he couldn't bring himself to hear more. Sakura was married, with two children. Two children who were not his. Who was he to break that apart? He shouldn't have even come. Joy intertwined with pain, a long wicked knife buried in his heart. He paused, one hand touching the doorjamb.

"Itachi?" Sakura's voice was hopeful, a sharp contrast to what he felt. He couldn't breathe. Her pitch increased. "Itachi, what's wrong?" Couldn't breathe. No air. Gasping. Maybe he shouldn't have exerted himself so much so soon. "Itachi!"

O*O*O*O*O*

"Itachi!" Sakura couldn't suppress a scream as he crumpled to the floor. She dashed to his side. "You said you were cured!" As she flipped him over, she checked his mouth and eyes. There was no blood. She shook him vigorously. "Itachi! Wake up!"

"Sakura-senpai?" Sakura heard the door open, the sweet voice of Hinata floating through the house.

"Up here!" Hinata's footsteps were rapid, rushed on by the urgency in Sakura's tone. She streaked into the doorway, collapsing with a medic's efficiency next to a comatose Itachi. His eyelids were lifted, nose and mouth checked, Hinata's ear to his chest to monitor his heart. Sakura panted, breathless, finally understanding the helpless look that family members got when at the site of a nasty injury.

Hinata looked up. "He's fine. Everything is normal." She frowned. "He shouldn't have been exerting himself." Sakura forced herself to hold Hinata's gaze through her sudden and crushing guilt.

"How did you know he was here?" Hinata's eyes sparked, and Sakura swallowed hard. "Ah. I see." Hinata nodded slowly.

"These eyes see more that one would think." Hinata turned her gaze back on Itachi, noting his even, smooth breathing. "I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Waking up is quite a shock as it is." Sakura's hackles rose as she recalled one very essential part of information that she only now was privy to.

"Itachi was in our hospital for five years?" Her voice was strained with suppressed hurt, anger, sadness, and strangely enough, relief.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Sakura-senpai," Hinata said quietly, her eyes cast demurely downward. "It's just- if it didn't work- if I had-" Of course Sakura understood. It's why they never told a patient's condition to any of their loved ones during a surgery. So many things go wrong, but a patient can still pull through against all odds. On the other hand, a patient may do well all the way through, and crash at the last second. Sakura would never tell them until the surgery had ended, when the visible end result was laying in the bed before the family. Near misses and freak deaths were common. It saved them the agony. At least, if you didn't know the answer, you could hold a tiny hope that everything was going to be okay.

Sakura sighed. "He's cured."

Hinata nodded. "He is cured." She caught the pinkette's eye once again. Sakura's eyes widened.

"Sasuke?"

"We aren't sure," Hinata corrected. "But if he's a success, that speaks some possibility for Sasuke-san."

Sakura shook her head, confused about her feelings. It was very strange to love two brothers, even weirder for one to be legally dead, but still alive. She loved them in two different ways, like the way she loved her children. What could she do? What was she to say? What now?

Hinata seemed to pick up on these thoughts. She laid a hand on one of Sakura's arms, which were still wrapped possessively around the eldest Uchiha. "Sakura-san, not now." Tears gathered in Sakura's eyes. "What's important right now is getting them both healthy. We can deal with the rest later." Slowly, Hinata pried Sakura from her once lover. "Let me take him. Let go. He's safe with me." Sakura shuddered with barely contained sobs as Hinata lifted him over her shoulder. If it weren't for her complex emotions, it would have been humorous, a tiny girl lifting a grown man over her back. "Take care, Sakura-chan."

Before she could protest, Hinata had taken off. Sakura took a deep breath, preparing for huge cries of anguish to rip from her throat, when a mild whine emanated from her youngest. She let the air out with a shaky breath, standing.

"Shush, Madara. It's alright. He'll be back." She cuddled the tiny body to her chest, willing the small child to quiet. He did, but she kept repeating herself, almost as if she wasn't talking to the baby, but her own quaking and scared self. "He'll be back. I promise. He's not leaving. He promised. He promised. He's coming back…"

Please review, and sorry for the delay!