Kisame sidestepped just barely the glancing blow that would have sliced his left arm clean off had he not evaded. But he received no rest, Itachi came at him with a barrage of kunai followed by an obscenely sized fireball that singed the tips of his hair as he dodged. Kisame swore as he countered a second one with a water jutsu, straining against the pressure of his opponent. Itachi fought like he was on fire and Kisame wasn't sure this was what he had signed up for when he had agreed to "spar".

"Careful Itachi," Kisame exclaimed, hissing as a series of shuriken whizzed past his ear, taking a chunk of skin with it. "Pink-haired medic's not around anymore to heal us- well me-"

Kisame choked as his comment was cut off by a powerful burst of air that exploded out of the ground and threw him violently against a tree. He had barely lifted his head before Itachi was on him frighteningly fast, like a bolt of lightning, pressing the tip of a kunai into his throat. He couldn't speak for fear the metal would pierce. If he so much as breathed, he was well on his way to becoming fish kebab.

A faint twittering interrupted the silence as a confused bird circled and flew towards them. The bird landed silently on Itachi's shoulder and the heated tension burst like a bubble. Raising out of his stance crouched dangerously over Kisame, Itachi retracted his blood covered blade.

Then, without a single word he disappeared in a poof of leaves, bird and all.

For his part, the abused fish man sighed deeply, breathing once again.

"That boy and his mood swings," he huffed as he pressed his hand against his neck to stem the flow of blood.

oOo

At the top of a tall fir tree which overlooked the Akatsuki base on one side and the edge of Rain on the other, Itachi extended his finger to his shoulder, the small crow immediately climbing on.

He stroked its head with his fingertip, and she cooed in delight, dropping the small rolled piece of paper into his waiting hand. He continued to absently stroke her as he unrolled the crumpled paper, reading the small scrawled words.

"Let's talk."

He didn't know what he had been expecting or if this fulfilled any expectation he might have had. He tried not to think too deeply into how it made him feel, or his feelings in general. Feelings had weight, they had repercussions.

Itachi didn't have room in his life for repercussions.

He stroked the bird absentmindedly as he contemplated his next step. No matter how he told himself that if he agreed to meet with her it would be making a risky decision, he reasoned he had already known it would be her when he had answered that suspicious summon the last time and he still went for it. He was no less or more committed if he agreed to meet this time.

His worry lay in the budding desire to be committed.

Itachi didn't have room in his life to be committed.

And yet, he couldn't very well leave that young girl and those twins alone. He was responsible regardless of what the circumstances had been.

The only question now was how involved he would be. Which wasn't really a question all things considered because he was a liability through and through.

Thus, the only question remained was... could he still walk away?

oOo

Sakura breathed deeply as she stood outside the tall doors to the Hokage's office, never had they seemed as imposing as they did now.

She raised her fist to knock but hesitated before her knuckles touched the wood. Closing her eyes and steeling herself, a brief memory flashed across her eyes of being backhanded against a couch, of being whacked against the back of her skull, of being pierced with a blade.

Yes, she had faced far worse than this.

The door creaked as Sakura slowly opened it, stepping quietly inside. Her shishou had her head down, focused - for once - on the papers in front of her as she vigorously signed and stamped them.

"Sakura," she spoke without looking up. "It's been a while. How are you?" Her pen scratched as she violently signed another sheet, swiping it quickly to her completed pile.

"Hokage-sama I am pregnant." Sakura blurted out the second she had closed the doors behind her, not even processing Tsunade's welcoming words.

Tsunade had opened her mouth to reprimand her student on reflex for calling her by her formal title before her words sunk in. The red stamp fell from her hands and splattered a half-formed "APPROVED" onto a rogue request for permission to transform the academy into a cow sanctuary.

But Tsunade's mind was far from her duties as her head snapped up to land on her student standing awkwardly by the doors to her office, hands clasped behind her back and the tell-tale flicker of growing chakra within her womb.

A shaky breath left her as she struggled to speak.

"Sakura- a-are you ok? What- how did this happen?" her brows drew together as horror dawned on her, "were you-"

Her student in question had a conflicted look on her face, torn between honesty to her only ally for the past year or so and her feelings of abandonment during her experiences the past few months.

"I wasn't." Sakura asserted as she sat down in front of her desk. "It just… happened."

"During your kidnapping." Tsunade stated more than asked, accurately assessing from the strength of the chakra the time from conception.

"It was. But I will start with this, I have full intention of keeping it, both the pregnancy and the baby."

"But-but Sakura," Tsunade spluttered lost for words, lost for her grasp on this sudden bizarre reality thrust upon her. "If you can't remember what happened during that time how do you know what is inside you is safe? Or real even!"

"I know."

Sakura's expression was unyielding as she stared back, a look of absolute steel which her shishou had never seen anything of the like on the young girl's face before.

"I know."

"Shishou, I will not be tested and prodded. I know what is inside me. But if you feel it would be safer, I can leave. If that is what it takes, I will leave."

"You will not." Her shishou replied, voice firm but eyes wavering.

"But." She hesitated. "At least let me check, for my own peace of mind that you are ok."

Sakura remained unmoving, that same unyielding look on her face.

"Are you sure you can handle it shishou?" Her voice was more mature than she had ever heard it, serious.

Tsunade hesitated, not quite grasping her meaning.

"If you check me as a doctor, confidentiality comes above even the wishes of a hokage."

Sakura merely watched her shishou quietly while she struggled to give an answer.

"Ok." Was all her shishou said and Sakura got up and walked over, moving her jumper aside so her shishou could place her hands on her stomach.

As Sakura left the room, she reflected on her shishou's reaction. She had never seen such an expression on her face, such shock and turmoil. You would think she was the one having the controversial baby.

Babies plural, Sakura reminded herself.

Whilst she almost wanted to laugh at the whole bizarre experience, a part of her was wrought in panic. This was only the beginning. Her shishou was only one of the many people in her life, and while she had reacted somewhat well, or well as she could, it didn't mean others would. Sakura needed contingency plans and she needed them fast.

She needed answers too. She swerved down the stairs of the hokage tower, altering her course as she suddenly remembered an ulterior motive.

The hokage library in the tower was covered in dust and poorly maintained as few people had access to the room. As her shishou's pupil, Sakura had been lucky Tsunade had thought such extensive texts would occupy her mind and broken heart. Oh, what a lifetime ago that was. But more than anything Tsunade truly didn't think anything in the records of Konoha was of life changing importance.

And there wasn't. Sakura spent a good few hours scouring the shelves and all the scrolls for a retelling of the Uchiha massacre but there was nothing. She wanted to know who cleaned the bodies after, who carried out the autopsies? Who led the investigation? Surely homicide of that degree wouldn't have been brushed off without extensive investigation, so where was it?

Huffing as she threw the last scroll back onto the stack, Sakura dusted herself off and left the room. There was nothing. Literally nothing.

In the personnel record Itachi was lauded as a genius anbu captain and his personality was described as distant but kind, capable of leading and capable of executing appropriate moral justice.

Following the massacre that hadn't changed. The only difference was, below his description was now a massive red stamp with the word "DEFECTED" blazoned.

Ultimately it didn't matter, Sakura knew. But she wanted to know. She had been ignorant for far too long on the history of her village, her teammate, and the father to her children and she wanted to know. But how could she find out if there was no record?

oOo

Engaged as she was in solving the mystery of how and where the information she was after had gone or would be, the young mum-to-be almost missed the little bird that fluttered around her shoulders before landing exhausted on the crown of her head. Sakura had only realised when she caught her reflection in a store window, the small bundle of black curled up in the nest of her auburn hair.

She covered the journey home much quicker with the small bundle nestled in her palms and the second she had the door closed behind her back she collapsed on the sofa and gently caressed the small bird awake. The bird blinked a few times in confusion before becoming aware of its surroundings and target, and immediately returned to its mission now that it was almost complete. Once out of its beak and into Sakura's hands, the bird disappeared, not waiting or expecting a reply.

That night Sakura scrubbed herself clean and did the best she could to pretty-up her hair and face, choosing her prettiest dress before bundling-up in warm layers, pulling the hood of her long oversized jacket over her head and covering her face with an anbu mask she had pilfered for this very purpose.

The night air was crisp as she quietly made her way to the furthest part of town, her soft footsteps crunching against the gravel. Gazing up with what appeared from the outside a distant curiosity, she wondered how she would enter the cordoned-off area.

Not that anyone patrolled the grounds anymore she reasoned, as she calculated the height of the walls versus her ability to see and scale the obstacles in the dark. Regardless she couldn't very well walk straight in, so she continued nonchalantly on, walking the outer parameter casually as her eyes desperately searched for an opening.

One particular spot had very little foliage peeking out above the high walls, and the moon shone just right that Sakura could see well enough to tackle it. Pumping her fist in victory (she has clearly been spending way too much time with Naruto), Sakura took one glance around herself before she made a break for it, sprinting the distance in two strides and covering the wall in three.

Once at the top Sakura released the chakra from her legs as she crouched on the ledge, glancing down first to check her landing. But she had underestimated the space of her foothold and without the chakra to anchor her Sakura went plummeting to the ground.

She couldn't hold back the cry of panic that escaped her as her hands shot out instinctively to break the no doubt high fall, her mind screaming out she was protecting the wrong part of her body. Her face smacked against something solid with an oof, but Sakura sighed in immense relief as she felt her body braced and her torso did not slam into anything.

The familiar scent pervaded her senses as she quickly realised what or more like who had saved her.

Itachi was lying beneath her on the ground, his hands gripping tightly onto her hips as he held her torso an inch above himself and thus impact, his muscular arms tensed and trembling from absorbing the velocity. He sighed in relief and relaxed his arms, allowing her bodyweight to settle against his properly.

"Hey," Sakura's weak voice came from his chest and he couldn't help the breathless chuckle that escaped him.

"Hey." Came the deep whispering return, as he found himself ruffling her hair without even intending to.

It was an oddly quiet walk as the pair strolled through the Uchiha ghost town, and Sakura couldn't help wondering how he managed to be calm in such a space of intense memories.

Blindly following his lead, she watched his face with concern, searching for hints of pain or wavering in his expression. Her lack of concentration on her footfalls caused her to stumble and Itachi's slick reactions saved her from plummeting face first once again. He caught her arm instinctively and steadied her, his hand moving down to her wrist as he made sure she was stable again before letting go.

Sakura had no presumptions about the nature of their relationship or what they were to each other. She knew at best she was a responsibility to him. At worst a liability. And yet, she couldn't help herself grabbing the edge of his sleeve as he withdrew his hand, under the guise of needing support, of which she was desperate to somehow provide to him.

As if he needed it. She had no idea what went through his mind. She chastised herself that she was painting a pretty picture inside her head of Itachi and the motives that drove his past. And yet, for a man she knew hardly anything about she couldn't help but feel, taste almost, the suffocating darkness surrounding him, like vultures circling for an opening.

They eventually reached a small, untouched building. Despite the rumours that the Uchiha compound was haunted grounds, covered in dried blood and skeleton corpses, the place in general was spotless and well-kept. The building they entered was a small storeroom, the back of which had a secret door leading to a medium-sized communal area. As the light flickered on, Sakura could see more clearly the small kitchen area in the corner, the sofa and coffee table in the middle next to a set of table and chairs, the small bed in the corner, and of course the complete lack of windows which would give away their presence with the light on.

Itachi strode inside, depositing his cloak on the back of the sofa and rolling his sleeves as he made his way to the kitchen area. Sakura was silent as she took a seat at the table, observing the obvious familiarity Itachi displayed, with incredible curiosity.

A few moments later Itachi approached the small dining table and set down the two cups of tea, uttering a thanks, Sakura smiled as she wrapped her fingers around the warm glass in delight.

Itachi, seemingly more relaxed than she had ever seen him, took the seat opposite her.

"So, let's talk." He began.

"Do we have to?" Itachi raised both brows in surprise, not expecting Sakura's response as those were the very words she had summoned him there with.

Laughing before he could question it, Sakura clarified herself, "I so hate facing reality." Sakura sighed melodramatically and Itachi couldn't help his continued surprise. It was refreshing seeing Sakura like this, he imagined this is what she was like normally, without the anchor of impending death weighing her down.

It was cute, almost.

"Itachi tell me honestly, I know the answer already, but I need to put Kakashi-sensei at ease."

Itachi nodded signalling for her to continue.

"You'll let me live?"

Itachi froze, glass suspended halfway to his mouth as he processed her words.

For a moment he had forgotten his legacy. That he was a feared criminal, that his name was in the bingo-book and the bounty on his head was immeasurable, that the words "clan-killer" and Uchiha Itachi were never far apart. That Sasuke didn't wake up from nightmares of him even till this day.

Oh, how he had forgotten.

"Of course you will." Despite the light-hearted comment, Sakura's words were steel as if she were surer of Itachi's intentions that he himself. "After all the trouble you've been through to let me live, it would be stupid to stop now." She chuckled, sipping her tea.

After a long pause, in which Sakura struggled viciously with herself not to break, to allow the Uchiha to express his thoughts, he eventually spoke, his voice low and dark.

"You do not need to fear for your life when you are with me."

It took a while for the young teen to process his words because they held a weight far greater than she was able to immediately identify. He didn't just tell her he won't kill her, he said something else, something far scarier.

"Good." Sakura laughed shakily, hastily gulping down her tea.

But the conversation didn't progress naturally and there was a long, heavy silence in which Sakura could only describe Itachi as trademark 'Uchiha brooding'.

When she realised this, she couldn't help laughing aloud.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, its nothing." Sakura struggled to stifle her laughter. "It's just I sometimes forget that you two are brothers, and the similarities throw me of."

Itachi was surprised to say the least, his eyes slightly wide and his tone full of disbelief, "I share similarities with Sasuke?"

Sakura's heart thudded in her chest at the underlying tone in Itachi's voice, an emotion she was afraid to admit to herself that she could hear there.

"Yes." Her voice was solemn, dampened by the sudden reality. "The way you both reply as concisely as possible, sometimes even with only a grunt. The way you glare when angry or chuckle when amused." Her eyebrows raised as she looked pointedly at him, "The way your shoulders stiffen when you brood."

There was a long pause while Itachi processed her words, then with a change in temperature so sudden Sakura was fearing whiplash, Itachi replied:

"Alas, we were all born naïve, unique and human, but any individuality was stripped away during our 'How to be Uchiha' bootcamp."

"I honestly cannot tell if you are joking or not." Sakura replied in mildly shocked deadpan.

"Clearly, Sasuke got the glare and the brooding, but not the humour." Itachi sighed dramatically, "Ah my dearest little brother disappoints me again."

Sakura blinked rapidly not quite believing the sight before her eyes, she looked down at her tea and brought it to her nose sniffing apprehensively. Nope, didn't smell like hallucinogens. She looked around herself in abject suspicion, had she stepped into an alternate dimension?

But when she turned back to Itachi, beautiful, kind, slightly psycho Itachi, she saw the same man she had always seen since day one. She just now knew something additional about him which no one else did.

"Dear Lord, I don't know what will be worse for these kids, if they take after the Haruno side or the Uchiha side." Sakura laughed softly to herself as she felt her hands circle the small bump on her stomach.

She missed in that moment, Itachi's expression. His turmoil at the reality of Sakura's words. That to find out their personalities, one would have to stick around long enough.

Almost as if reading his mind, Sakura's tone was quiet as she changed subjects.

"I spoke to the hokage." Itachi had manage to school his expression into one of stoic interest by the time her emerald eyes hesitantly raised to meet his. "She has agreed to allow me to remain in the village and to protect me throughout my pregnancy, birth and the children thereafter. I called you here to tell you that." Sakura's voice wavered as she spoke the words that had been turning over and over in her mind the last few days.

"That its ok. I won't expose you or the babies' heritage, and they will be looked after and protected within Konoha. That you have your duties to the Akatuski and whatever the hell it is going on with Sasuke, so I promise this won't get in the way." Sakura's voice was very, very small by the end of her sentence and her words almost disappeared completely as she watched Itachi's expression gradually darken, his emotions completely unreadable.

Sakura felt fear for the first time in a while.

The kind of fear that she was making a big mistake, but she couldn't figure out why. Itachi was kind and civil to her, he met her per her request and he even took her to this quiet and safe place and made her tea – none of these actions surprised Sakura, they were entirely in line with the character that had built inside her head through his actions during her captivity.

But she knew, that more than anything else Itachi's actions towards her – a young, innocent captive, the age of the younger brother which he had spared and a part of his former village – were different than his ambitions and long-term plan. That his kindness was far more understandable as just that, kindness to a victim of circumstance.

That just like the dreams she had had, the destiny of the Uchiha's had a far greater role than being restricted to Sakura's small world. And whilst she wanted nothing more than to interfere and save the both of them somehow, she had no part in all or any of it.

That no matter what she had been through and what she was now, Haruno Sakura was still just Haruno Sakura.

An average fourteen-year-old girl who was destined to remain behind.

Sakura let out a shaky sigh as she felt a sob desperate to take over, her words rushed as she hurried to fill the uncomfortable silence.

"Besides, its not safe for me outside Konoha at the moment so I'll just be staying put at the flower store and the hospital."

"Sakura." Itachi's voice was darker and rougher than she had ever heard it before, angry if she had to put a name to it but possibly slightly worse. It froze her heart in her chest and she bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying as she dropped her eyes to the table.

She watched the table rattle slightly as Itachi shifted, the chair drawing back agonizingly loud in the quiet room as he stood up slowly and purposefully.

"What on-" Suddenly he froze. the sharp deadly tenor of his voice cut off; the absence so sudden that Sakura looked up from where her eyes were glued to the table, filled with tears.

"Not safe?" he interrupted himself, a confused haste to his words. "What do you mean?"

Sakura met his eyes for the first time that whole conversation, her brows drawn in turmoil.

Should I te-

"Tell me." The commanding tenor of his voice interrupted her thoughts and Sakura had to look away from the intensity in his eyes as she answered.

"We were followed back from the inn."

"By?"

Sakura hesitated again, feeling somehow like she was betraying Konoha.

"Root…"

"Fuck." Itachi's eyes were narrow as he cursed under his breath and pulled his hand through his hair in frustration.

Sakura couldn't really follow what happened after that. It was all a blur. Itachi was in a world of his own. She recognised the tell-tale signs of a genius mind at work as he paced the room, his eyes crimson and narrowed in concentration. She had barely kept up with his pacing before the dizzying movement began to make her feel sick and she had to look away.

Before she knew it, she was on her way back home with a firm warning from Itachi to be mindful of herself. It occurred to her then, that in another life Kakashi-sensei and Itachi would probably get along like a house on fire.

She still didn't understand what all the panic was about. Sure, she understood the danger from what Kakashi-sensei had told her, but she didn't get how it could affect her from within the safe confines of the village. A part of her worried that she should be more concerned about the situation given both of their reactions but within the same vein she realised there was very little she could do.

She sighed as she entered Naruto's apartment feeling very… unsatisfied?

Really, what had she been expecting? She berated herself as she made her way to the bathroom, peeling off all her layers and reaching for her face cloth to clean off the make-up.

As she lay in bed, exhausted from the experience and whole day of anticipation, Sakura could hardly sleep for the racing thoughts in her mind. It wasn't concerns for her welfare keeping her up. No, it was Itachi's expression. His reactions.

Ever since the first time he had sat with her and saved her from spiralling in the Akatuski base, Sakura had known there was more to Itachi than meets the eye. When they slept together Sakura truly felt, not through words but the communication of his gentle touch that there was a different side to Itachi that wasn't Akatuski. That was very out of place with everyone else there.

That something was very wrong, but she didn't know what.

And now. Now Sakura didn't know what to think. It scared her sometimes, to realise that her love for Itachi had outgrown any other perception she had of him, that though she didn't know him at all before her captivity, those rumours must have had some weight to them. Afterall, you don't get labelled as a 'clan-killer' for no good reason.

But now Sakura wanted to paint him in a good light, wanted to find the reason for the Uchiha massacre and for it not to have been Itachi's fault no matter how absolutely unrealistic that was.

Now Sakura wanted him. More than ever before she wanted him to be around and be a father to the babies. She wanted him to give everything up and be with her.

Even scarier, she wanted to give everything up and be with him.

Sakura groaned and turned over, screaming into her pillow at how cliché teenager-in-love she sounded. The damned hormones were making her feelings run amok and were messing with her judgement.

It wasn't like she wanted Itachi in that way. He had just been there for her at a difficult time and had made her feel safe and validated. And then he had given her, her dying wish when she had asked.

She rolled over onto her side, squeezing her eyes shut tight.

She really, truly didn't think of him in that way.

A/N: Firstly, thank you so so so much for the lovely, encouraging reviews. I read every single one and it motivates me to write and continue this story. This chapter has literally been on my mind every single day for the past 6 months, and its the reviews that remind me I need to get it finished and out, and forces me to post despite wanting to check every detail a million times.

Secondly, apologies for the ridiculous delay. To summarise, the dramatic (tragic) adult-life that everyone my age has to face, I work in the business-corporate-pharma-industry, that is to say it has insane hours and is super stressful. I cannot remember the last time I could enjoy a leisurely evening, and wish I could go back to the days of being 16 and able to stay up till 3am writing fanfiction lol. That being said, I am looking for a better job to allow me to breathe again, so while I probably won't be able to update on a regular schedule, I'm hoping I will reach a point where i'm at least updating!

Finally, the next chapter will be far spicier and a bit more pregnancy-focused and less plot-focused. Be prepared!