happy belated birthday, sonya! and uh, happy (almost, if your time zone is like mine) new years. :D

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Pairing: Itachi/Sakura, flirty!Shisui
Prompts: "Hey, so can I have your key?", hotels & motels, "What are you doing to my door", 1985

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The Aftermath

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consequences aren't always bad, after all.

that was shisui's motto, anyhow.

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"do I hear wedding bells?" he inquired with a grin.

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(written by seleneswan)

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The Earth daimyo by the name of Masao Yoshio, a stout, plump man with thinning, long beard smiled at his escort lecherously. His dark eyes were filmy with greed and satisfaction, and he gazed upon the busty, dark haired woman with lust.

His cheeks were rosy with his eagerness, and she handed him the red wine, her fingers briefly brushing his pudgy ones. His grin widened.

"Yoshio-kun, how was your day?" she inquired, brushing her bare foot against his leg as she did.

He gulped down the wine, and then sighed. "It just got better. That wife of mine has been such a hassle lately. She doesn't understand that I have so much work to do," he gestured to the minimal sheets of paper on the desk. "And all I want is for her to go take care of the kids and run the house. Is that too much to ask for?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh, what a shame. And here I was hoping you'd have some free time to spend with me, but if you're too busy…" she glanced again at the two sheets of paper on his entirely bare desk.

"No, no." He replied quickly, a smile reappearing on his face as he glanced none too discretely at her chest. "Never too busy for you."

And with that, he tugged her across the expanse between them into his lap. She smiled silkily, and fingered the collar of his tunic. "Of course."

No one saw her come, and no one saw her leave, just as she was told.

Only hours later did Masao Yoshio end up in a hospital, coughing up his last breaths before succumbing to the darkness.

And then, the country was in panic.

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They were sitting in a small tea house on the way to Earth, in the outskirts of the Grass. She had her legs crossed as she perused through the papers that had slid across the table her way. There wasn't any chatter sans the old lady in the back humming as she washed dishes.

"I think we're going to have to be incessantly careful. There's no room for mistake since we're dabbling in politics with this. We just need to get in there, catch this man, and get out. Masao's people and the rest of Earth country will be none too pleased if we mess up, Shisui."

Shisui looked up from where he was tracing patterns on the table. "Wha—Sakura, why d'you always pick on me." He gave her a pitiful look, and she couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Because you're the one always getting into trouble. Why no one has punished you by now is beyond me."

Shisui grinned widely, then. "Yeah, I am, aren't I? Maybe you should spank me and make up for all of that lack of penalty."

Sakura burst out laughing, then. "Maybe I should." She paused for a moment. "Well, what are you waiting for, then? Bend over."

Itachi sighed, as was typical of him when they got too absorbed in bantering. "Focus."

Sakura sobered quickly, but Shisui was still smiling like there wasn't a problem in the world.

Itachi unfolded the map of Earth efficiently, tracing a path with his finger. "We will stay in the closest town for the duration—Tottori. It is close enough to the border for us to make an efficient escape should anything happen, and it is one of the more frequented towns by the drug lord we're dealing with. It is also the home of the deceased daimyo, so it should suit us well."

Sakura nodded pensively, scanning the map. "And it's a weak point—possibly where the target's drugs breach the border."

Sakura glanced up at Itachi, her eyes lingering on his face for much longer than necessary as he shuffled through some more papers, speaking while doing so. "The Tsuchikage has taken it upon himself to compile a list of the daimyo's enemies, but none of them seem to fit the profile, so we'll have to do everything from scratch. However, since the daimyo was given the drugs in an invasive method, it's highly likely that the target was someone close to him."

"Shouldn't be a problem. We're good at this." Shisui boasted, and Sakura's lips turned up into a smile once again.

"No, we're good at this. You're clumsy at best." Sakura shot back, and even Itachi smirked at that one, amused.

Itachi folded up the map, then, and they were off.

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They had changed in the tea house into civilian clothing, travelling that way for the rest of the trip. Upon their arrival in Tottori, the trio had searched through numerous hotels and motels, finally finding one that didn't have mold in the walls or bugs in the beds. They booked two rooms, one for Sakura and two for Itachi and Shisui. However, the two rooms were connected by a door, though, for easy access.

And then they converged once more around the small table in Sakura's room. "Shisui will go in and actively seek out anyone with the potential for being our target. The person will seem vindictive and should likely be female, seeing as the last suspicious person to be around Masao Yoshio was a female escort. She likely has good bone structure—" And then Itachi was promptly interrupted.

Shisui snorted, amused. "Good bone structure? Man, just say it. She's should be hot."

Itachi didn't even spare him a glance, continuing. "—and would be considered conventionally attractive. However, at first glance you wouldn't notice her. No one can seem to definitely remember her face which means that she probably blends at first glance. Typically, this means normality. Earth has many dark-haired people, so she's likely a brunette. Tsunade acquired drug-dealing reports for us, and she seems to frequent this night club—" he pointed to the map to an area marked off "—which sells crystallized methamphetamines and cocaine, the latter of which is laced with poison."

Itachi looked up then. "Shisui, you will be in the field. Find the woman, and try to…" he seemed to be searching for the phrase.

Shisui cut in again. "Be charming? Enigmatic? Suave? Captivating?"

"…not do anything stupid."

Sakura muffled a laugh.

"There are 1,985 drug dealing spots in Earth alone. The potential for mass fatality is looming, and we are here to prevent an epidemic. There is no room for mistakes."

Sakura grinned. "Shisui, if you screw up, the world is doomed."

He gave both Itachi and Sakura sullen looks, trudging back into his room. All was silent for a moment as Itachi shuffled around with the papers and Sakura seemed to get lost within her mind.

"We may be picking on him too much." Itachi noted.

Sakura shook her head, obstinate. "Nah. He'll be fi—." Sakura tripped over the chair leg, shrieking. And then before she was even given the chance to catch herself, an arm laced around her waist, catching her.

Well, wasn't this just cliché.

She was pulled back up easily against Itachi's chest, and for a brief moment, she stood there, swooning inside of her head. And then walked away, frowning. "I could have handled it."

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm not some damsel in distress thank you very much. I can take care of myself!" Sakura asserted her independence.

"Then tell me, how would you have avoided the table corner that was in your path of injury? It would have taken out your eye."

Sakura was silent for a short moment.

But it was enough. Itachi's lips pulled up in a victorious smirk, and then spoke to her one last time. "By the way, while Shisui's coercing the drug lord, we'll be watching him from the inside by posing as a couple." And then he walked out of the room, raising a hand lazily in farewell.

Sakura blinked.

And blinked again.

"What?"

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Sakura stared herself in the mirror, wrapped in a towel, as she blow-dried her hair, trying to use the noise to drown out her thoughts to no avail. If Ino were there at that very second, she would probably say something along the lines of, "You have the opportunity that no one else in the entire world has right now. Now wear something hot and go get some!"

Sakura's face colored, and she chewed on her lip, nervous.

And then realized what she was doing.

She was obsessing. She was standing in front of a mirror, worrying about what was going to happen to their working relationship. Right now, as it was, she and Itachi got along just fine. She respected him, and he respected her. It was a good, healthy, professional relationship.

And so with a determined look in her eyes, she stared at herself in the mirror, resolute.

So what if Itachi was gorgeous? So what if she was playing girlfriend? It was for her job. It was to protect Shisui and to catch that heinous woman who was busy massacring the countryside for no apparent reason.

And that was exactly what she was going to do.

And with that, Sakura finished blow-drying her hair, slipped the slinky black dress over her head, and strapped her weapons holster to her thigh beneath the dress before arranging her hair.

She would be ready for whatever came at her—be it Itachi's attractiveness or imminent danger.

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Sakura stepped out of the bathroom, ready to face the world. Her pointed heels gave her a sense of empowerment and she walked across the room, assured, and knocked on the connecting door between the two rooms. "I'm coming in, you guys." She called out.

Shisui was sitting on the bed, dressed to impress, twirling a blade in his hand with a look of utter boredom on his face. He looked up as she came in, and a grin spread across his face. "Lookin' good, kid."

Sakura frowned. "I'm hardly younger than you to be called 'kid', you know."

Shisui shook his head. "I'm like, 29. You're 22. That's a large age gap. You are a kid. Hell, even Itachi's a kid. 26. How good it is to be young."

Sakura snorted. "Alright, then, grandpa."

"That's right, young lady. Respect your elders."

She sniffed. "Respect is earned, old man."

Shisui changed the subject, then. "Itachi's taking forever in the bathroom, so we're stuck here."

Sakura eyed the door speculatively, and then sashayed up to it, slamming her fist on the door heavily—not enough to break through the weak wood, but enough to make a loud noise. "Itachi." Sakura called out, scratching on the door with her nails, then. "Itachi." More hammering. "Itachi. Itachi. Itachi. Itachi."

The door promptly swung open, and Itachi caught her hand, mid-scratching. "What are you doing to my door? It sounded like a cat was throwing itself against it."

Sakura smiled winningly. "I'm using my magic touch to get you to hurry up. I'm a big believer in that if you do something over and over, it will speed the process up."

Itachi gave her a drawn out look. "And how's that been working out for you?"

"Pretty well, since you're out of the bathroom!" she chirped.

"Right." He glanced at her dress for a second, and then nodded at nothing. "Let's go."

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Shisui was sitting at the bar, flirting with a random girl with purple hair. "Genma has rubbed off on him a bit too much," Sakura noted.

So far, she and Itachi had done nothing couple-like, which came as a relief to Sakura. They were only sitting at a table, conversing and sipping drinks—both waters, so as to maintain sobriety and good sense during the mission.

Itachi chuckled. "Aa. And the other way around, as well."

Sakura sipped her water calmly, swishing around the ice cubes in her glass. "One day, when either of them gets married, their wife—never mind, that will likely never happen."

Itachi's lips pulled up in a half-smile. "Actually, Shisui's parents have been pushing him to marry."

Sakura grinned, then. "Oh? And has he thought of anyone?"

Itachi gave her a long look, then, as if gauging how trustworthy she was. "Aa. But not anyone acceptable by the Uchiha standards."

Sakura snorted, then. "Why does that not surprise me. What are the standards he has to meet?"

Itachi counted them off on his fingers, then. "She must be a shinobi—so as to have skilled children in the future. She must be of average looks at the minimum, have a respectable position in society, be intelligent. She must have a good income and have a feasible amount of money. However, she must also be willing to carry not only her job as a shinobi forward through her life but also bear children—to split the job. And most importantly, she cannot have had any disreputable rumors or history trailing after her."

Sakura leaned back in her seat. "You sound like you've heard that a lot already."

Itachi nodded. "I have been urged to marry as well."

Sakura blinked, and then glanced at him before looking away quickly. "…have you thought of anyone who fits the requirements?"

There was silence between them for a while; all that could be heard was the blaring music from the dance floor and the clink of glass against ice. Sakura glanced over at Shisui who seemed to be holding up just fine.

"Perhaps." Itachi finally said, tracing a finger along the rim of the glass.

Sakura looked back at him quickly, then, and upon finding him already staring at her, flushed slightly. "Well, ah, should I be offering my congratulations?"

Itachi chuckled again. "I'm not getting married yet."

Sakura fidgeted, searching for something to say. "She's a lucky girl." Sakura finished lamely.

Itachi looked at her pensively for a moment. "Oh? And why's that?"

Sakura flushed, then. "Ah, um. Well. You're…" she stumbled over her words a bit. "Well, you're pretty much considered by all of Konoha's female population to be the best looking man out there. Half of the women in here are ogling you right now, and the other half are glaring at me for associating with you."

Itachi glanced around, then. "Hm. So it seems."

She nodded slowly. "Yes."

And there was silence once again. "I'm going to get a drink. A real drink. I'll be back. Do you want anything?" Sakura announced suddenly.

"No, thank you."

Sakura stood fluidly out of her seat and walked over to the bar, ordering herself a glass of rum.

A drunken man stumbled up to her then, leaning on her. "Hey, babe, so can I have your key?"

Sakura stepped away, staring at him as if he had three ears. "Um, excuse me?"

The man urged her. "Your key."

Itachi showed up out of nowhere, then. "And you are?" he inquired smoothly, slipping an arm around Sakura's waist.

The man slowly looked up at Itachi and back at Sakura. "Wait a minute…" he reached out and grabbed a lock of her hair for a split second and the let it go. "You don't have pink hair. You're supposed to have red hair…" And then he stumbled off elsewhere.

Sakura was frozen, even as the barkeep slid the rum across the counter. It was only when Itachi turned her around that she unfroze, and then whined. "Ew. He got his disgusting all over my hair," she bemoaned, and then took a generous sip, savoring the flavor.

Sakura slid a glance to where Shisui was still flirting with the violet-haired woman wearing the sequins dress—clearly not the target.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to be inebriated while—" Sakura cut him off.

"Of course it's fine; I'm not drunk, I'm just warm inside."

Sakura lifted his hand from her waist, then, and inspected his fingers. "Why do your hands look so much prettier than mine?"

Her own hands were covered in telltale scarring from chakra burns, from overusing her control and pushing her limits. Her nails were cut short, and a half-healed scrape ran along the side of her left palm. But Itachi's hands, while appropriately callused for his line of duty, were in other wise perfect shape.

"It's a testament."

Sakura looked up at him, unaware of the lack of distance between them for once. "What?"

"It's a testament to the work that you've done and the lives that you've saved."

Sakura zoned out then, suddenly sadder. "I haven't saved all the lives I've liked to have saved."

Itachi closed his hand over hers, tugging her away from the bar. Sakura's vision focused, then. "What…?"

"I think Shisui's found the right person." Upon Itachi's statement, Sakura glanced over his shoulder discretely to see Shisui chatting up a sultry dark haired woman whose fingers were clenched onto the counter in tension.

Sakura nodded slowly. "Yes." She peered closer, between the passing people. "She has the cocaine with her. There's a slight sprinkling of it on the hem of her dress."

And then Sakura suddenly realized where she was. Itachi had guided her to the dance floor. She fumbled with her words, then. "I don't really like to dance…"

Itachi gave her a sharp look. "We're maneuvering ourselves closer to Shisui."

Sakura nodded then, in understand, slipping her arms around his neck, pushing herself closer to him, as intimately as all the other people grinding away on the floor were. She could smell soap, and rainwater.

And then they danced.

And she wasn't aware of anything else for a while besides the smell of him, the small sensual movements between the two of them that wasn't entirely with the beat of the song, the feel of his nose cascading along her cheek, his hands around her waist, and the warmth of him against her.

And the feel of his mouth so dangerously close to hers that she slipped her eyes shut and craned her head up the barest bit to only brush and dared to hope…

Until there was a loud crash and Shisui collapsed against the counter, glass shattering, coughing, and covered in white powder. And the woman was nowhere to be found.

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Sakura had ripped herself from Itachi then, and rushed over to the counter, mission be damned while Itachi disappeared somewhere, presumably to find the woman.

She hauled Shisui off of the bar, laying him down on the floor that smelled vaguely like spilled drinks and cocaine. And pressed her hands to his body—one to his stomach and the other to his neck, trying to push for chakra-induced vomiting in hopes that he could throw up the majority of the poison. And surely enough, he gagged, then and rolled over on his side, throwing up all over the ground. "Shisui, this is going to have to do for now. I'll heal you up more fully later on."

He moaned loudly, trying to say something to no avail.

The barkeep peered over the side of the bar and sighed, muttering something about mopping.

Sakura, in the meanwhile, pulled Shisui off of the ground and hoisted him over her shoulder, marching out of the club and out of the site of poisoning.

To find Itachi standing outside with a smirk, a similar situation with him. For on lifted his shoulder was the bound form of the female target at the bar, passed out, with little signs of struggle about her.

Sakura laughed then, hysterically, earning herself even stranger looks than the ones she had already been receiving.

And they walked back to their hotel room, victorious.

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Shisui woke up hours later in an empty hotel room, fully healed. He straightened up, walking around and then through the open door between the two rooms to find Sakura in Itachi's lap, half-laying on him, asleep. His fingers were around her waist and in her hair, while hers were curled naturally, limp. Her head was buried in the space between his shoulder and neck, and her soft, deep breaths were the only thing audible in the room.

Shisui's lips twitched up in a smile.

It seemed his screw ups made for something good after all.

afterthoughts: I've been positively dying to write ItaSaku for forever and ever. So I hope I did okay. (: Thanks to Briony, and happy birthday, Sonya! I'm sorry this is so late, but I hope you like it. (: