A/N: We're on to the Adolescence Arc of the story! How exciting. I also kinda want to explore Itachi's parenthood and all that because he's always been one of my favourite characters, but that isn't the focus of this story. I love him to pieces but I need to put Sasuke and Sakura together somehow, so he's just gonna be mentioned from time to time maybe. Also, this is going to be like Liberosis, short and sweet. :)

Now that some time has passed since I last updated this story (and believe me I never forget I need to finish it), let me make some of the ages clear. Since the start of this chapter explores Sakura's 14 years of age (the last bits because in the last chapter she was already approaching 15), Sasuke and Naruto are the same age, and so this would make Itachi around 19 years old, and his child (which we will see more of hopefully?) 4 years old. It has been 6 years since Naruto was taken to the palace and the disappearance of Madara. I think that's all to put us up to date. Next chapter will be Sakura's 15th birthday!

As a side note, the columns of the temple described here are like the ones in The Great Hall of Ramses II, if that helps in the visualization process. They're huge. I tried looking for what most closely resembled what I had in mind, and that one was the best example.

Enjoy!

Sacred

(4)

Her duties as official Priestess of the nation and of the Uchiha ruling don't change much from her duties as a mere trainee. She is still in charge of the Temple of Rebirth, the temple where Isis and her husband, Osiris, are revered, only that she's in charge of attending to both gods now—Osiris every morning, and Isis every night.

She stands by the impossibly-tall columns of the temple where she spends most of her days in, leaning on a column by the stairs that lead down to the fertile earth. When the sky is dark enough to hide her contemplative longing, she makes sure it's light enough to let her see all that is the great Uchiha grounds and beyond the hill that keeps the royal palace enclosed, but always before the sun even dares to show signs of making an appearance.

Beyond the three paths that meet in the three main temples of these grounds, where they meet in a single path, there are gardens she has never let herself really see before. And past the gardens, past the vast expanse of exotic flowers, trees, and plants, lies both the Uchiha buildings and the grand gate to the outside of the palace grounds; the former to the right and the latter to the left, from where she's standing.

The buildings face the main gate, and they're a set of intricately-built, separate homes for different societal classes. There is a house for the vizier—the King's personal advisor, and the closest anyone could get to the position of Pharaoh—and the highest, most important administrative units in terms of military sections; such as the infantry, the chariots, and so forth. This house, as she has heard her mother tell her when she was studying to join the priesthood, has the military's top personnel of only this village's division. It contains the officer in charge of the division, who reports to the superior officer, then comes the captain, the troop commander and troop overseer, the garrison official, and the fortification overseer. The lieutenant commander, the general, and the vizier are on a smaller house next to this one; the general is then below the vizier, who reports directly to the Pharaoh. Such a convoluted hierarchy of power is what has made the nation one of the strongest throughout history, though she hardly tries to understand anything related to the subject matter of war.

Past these two houses is a common area, and past this area is the Palace in its whole three floors of splendor. There are rooms for every royal, Uchiha member, though that number has decreased considerably for reasons she is still unaware of. The great kitchen, the common area, royal bathrooms with tubs the size of pools, and the living quarters are all on the first floor. The second floor is for bedrooms only, and the third is for the Pharaoh and him alone. It's an open room with small columns lining up the squared area, where the King sits and surveys the city below him.

Past the main building of the palace are the servants' quarters, the stables, and the cattle yards. The servants' quarters are in a one-floor, large house; it's home to the official, royal gardeners, artists, architectural designers, weaponry and jewelry designer, and the maintenance and cleaning servants of the entire grounds. Some of her friends' parents live there, though she hasn't seen any in passing yet.

Sakura stares at all that from the extravagant entrance of the sanctuary behind her, but she imagines most—after all, she has only ever been through the gate and past the gardens, and she hasn't seen much else than what she has heard of.

As she focuses her vision in the darkness ahead of her once more, a silhouette appears to be walking down the path that breaks off into the three temples. And although there are guards stationed every few metres around the compound, there is never a single person walking around at this time, too late to be the night but too early to be morning. The person, however, keeps walking toward her, and she debates on whether to wait or hide back inside the temple.

When he takes the path that leads toward this specific temple, she makes her decision and hides behind the column she had previously been leaning on. The column is thick enough to hide her body—and someone else's if needed be.

She barely hears the steps on the chiseled, dried mud of the stairs, which can only mean this person is barefoot. Her heart skips a beat when she realises only direct family members of the Uchiha and priests can walk barefoot on holy grounds.

As he passes by the threshold of the entrance and approaches the basin with water by the opened doorway, she makes out who it is.

Sasuke.

Sasuke, the boy she's been blushing over since she has the mouth to speak, since she knows of reason. Sasuke, more beautiful everyday; taller, stronger, smarter. Sasuke, who looks at her and ignites a rather childish urge to smile, to run up to him and hug him to her—definitely, as she has come to know, a different feeling than when she does the same to Naruto. Sasuke, something unattainable, a lost cause, and something that is far from reach.

Sakura lets a small, quiet sigh escape her lips as she watches him scoop up water with both hands and bring them up to his face. Behind her entrancement by his appearance, she's surprised he even knows he must cleanse himself before stepping inside the temple, and even more surprised that he knows how to do so.

The moment doesn't last that long, of course, but she feels like she has stopped the time and slowed it down enough for her to make out every detail of his appearance. However, it does end, and he goes inside a few seconds later.

She makes herself wait a few minutes for him to come out again and leave, and only then does she calm her racing heartbeat and come inside the temple, back to her bedroom.

As she lies on her bed, she wonders more than she can comprehend.

Why would Sasuke come to the temple? To pray to one of the two gods worshiped, of course, but why at this hour? Why does he come when the temple hasn't opened for visitors yet, when she hasn't cleansed every object and every wall and every floor in the temple as she's supposed to? Why would he make sure no priest is up yet, or even any person at all in the Palace?

Could it be, that in some shape or form, he comes at this time to pray because she's not awake yet and he won't see her? Though it lacks reason or rationale from her part, she barely finds sleep again with these thoughts.

Osiris, dweller of the underworld and judge of the afterlife, is of a nature green and depicted as mighty on the statue at the front of the temple and inside, indicative of re-growth and new beginnings. Though he is God of all things dead, he is also associated with rebirth and resurrection, a good judge for the passage to the afterlife, and worshiped by many. She stands in front of his tall, incredibly detailed statue and drops to the floor on her knees in silent prayer.

Osiris stands with his arms crossed over his chest, a crook held in one hand and a flail in the other. He wears an Atef crown indicative of his high status with ostrich feathers on the sides. As a sign of stability and constant power, the Djed pillar—a column as tall as the statue, decorated by all symbols that represent the deity, is normally raised as a sign of rebirth in some banquets and festivals—stands next to him, raised so as to proclaim his resurrection, a feat from none other than his wife Isis.

And though he might be at the front of the temple, and is visited way more often than Isis during the day by high officials from the palace, Sakura still holds a special place in her heart for Isis; such a resilient, strong female deity, never afraid of facing the impossible.

As a priestess, she should vow to pray for all gods equally and with respect, but a small part of her still feels detached from this whole practice in ways that it shouldn't. Yet she reasons that she was never born to become what she has, and the only part of her daily duties she takes pleasure in are the times she gets to practice her healing abilities. At least then she can help people directly instead of through means of spiritual deities—not that she doesn't believe in them, because she does, and as she has made a vow to continue in this line of work her entire life, she will stay true to her devotion, only that she had never thought this would be her life-long goal.

She takes comfort, somewhat, in the notion that her High Priestess is more independent than most other officials she knows, and therefore allows her small freedoms. She's allowed to go out the temple once a day and no more regardless of the time she chooses to go, she gets to keep her long hair intact instead of having to shave it all off as is customary—although, on important occasions, she does have to put it back for the fitting of an intricately woven, dark and short wig, decorated to show her high status—and she gets to wear ankle-length, linen white tunics instead of the mere loincloth that commoners wear—that she would have most certainly had to wear had she not decided to become a priestess. She even gets to take a bath four times a day, twice right before the sunrise and twice right after the sunset, to purify her soul and her body for the gods at the purification pool inside the temple.

It might not seem as much, but there are benefits to this job that make it so much better, and the constant cleaning, healing, and praying don't seem like much of a hassle if she thinks of all the advantages she has over the life she has left behind. Especially, she knows, when she gets the added benefit of seeing Naruto almost everyday the one time she's allowed outside the palace, though most of the times she does see Naruto, she also happens to see Sasuke...

Inadvertently and inadequately, an image resurfaces in her head from the last time she spoke to him.

"How can you hang with the biggest idiot on the planet all the time?" She had asked him without looking at him. Instead, she had been ruffling Naruto's already-wild hair and laughing at his complaints.

Sasuke had stayed quiet for the most part, only answering when he was sure she would pay attention, though she had said it without really expecting a reply.

"Would that not make us both so, too?"

Sakura had stopped laughing, and instead had a small smile that mimicked Sasuke's, looking at him with warmth in her eyes. Naruto had still been complaining, and had been fixing his hair at the time.

"I guess it does."

And they're so simple, such quiet and pointless conversations and moments, that she only craves more than what she can get from him.

For a second, she recalls when he had so unceremoniously shown up to the temple to pray a few nights ago.

She shakes her head and focuses on her duties, closing her eyes and feeling the ground beneath her knees start to dig indentations on her skin. She only stops muttering prayers when the pain becomes more of a forgotten memory and less of a nuisance.

It's on a quiet evening as winter approaches that Sakura sits by the Nile with Naruto, the river's waters already waning from the summer's moderate flood this year. The sun is setting and they're not supposed to be outside the Palace's sand-covered, mud-based barrier, but they sit and talk just like when they were children.

In a way, they still are, but as Sakura thinks of all that has happened since then, she knows it's not true. At least, she doesn't feel the same as when she was freely roaming the narrow streets of her home, lost to the sound of her friends pursuing her whilst playing a game that seems too silly to care for anymore.

"Say, Sakura, is this finally the date you owe me?" Naruto asks, meek and blushing, a sheepish smile gracing his lips before disappearing at the look she gives him; it's a clear warning, but a joke all in all.

They stay like that for a few more seconds before she pushes him a little, and then the space is filled with laughter, just like she remembers it being like.

Life with Naruto as her friend used to be so simple, yet she's glad that, even if their circumstances are more entangled now, they're finally together.

And on that note, as her laughter dies down, she recalls what she's been meaning to ask him for a very long time now.

There's something she hasn't asked Naruto, and it's a very obvious question she has been withholding ever since she heard of his disappearance. He had been eight years old when he was taken to the royal palace, but for what reason?

She still has no clue, so she stops staring at the colours that play on the holy water's surface, and turns to look at him.

"I've been meaning to ask you," she says, voice light but face serious.

Naruto hums, uncharacteristically solemn, and throws a pebble at the water by his feet, almost as if knowing what the question is.

"You are considered a prince now, brother to Sasuke, but how? Why exactly did Pharaoh take you in?"

Naruto almost looks guilty for not explaining this to her sooner, and he sighs and scratches the back of his neck as he thinks.

"Well, Sakura, it's just-"

"Naruto!"

She hears his voice and, right in that moment, right when she was about to get the answers she's been searching for for years, it's the first time she's not glad to hear it. That it still brings goosebumps to her skin is another story, however.

"You shouldn't be here," he yells from the top of the hill.

Naruto looks back and stands, opening his arms to Sasuke as if to dare him to do anything against him.

"Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, you bastard?" He exclaims, waiting for him to reach them.

Sasuke finishes walking down the hill from the Palace, and stands right in front of Naruto, eyeing him and shifting his hardened gaze to Sakura a second later—still sitting by the river, with her straight hair down and flowing, the dying light of the sun making it glow a darker pink shade than usual and highlighting her soft, pale features.

For a moment, he almost thinks it an otherworldly sight.

Sakura sees him looking at her and immediately thinks he's angry at her audacity to go out of the Palace grounds with no supervision—and with a royal prince on top of it all—but then he looks back at Naruto, and she turns to look at the water by her feet in embarrassment.

"How did you even find me? Can't I get a moment alone from time to time?" Naruto exclaims, hands up in the air and huffing puffs of air in anger.

"It makes it a little easier to find you're breaking the rules if you're careless about it. Things like, say, skipping dinner," he deadpans, watching as Naruto sucks in a breath and looks up toward his home.

"Shit, dinner. I just- Sakura here, she- It's her break and- Crap, I totally forgot I had to be there," he babbles on and on, running over the words hurriedly.

Sasuke shakes his head, muttering a string of curses toward himself before sighing and rubbing his forehead in exasperation at the blond's irresponsible behaviour.

"They just announced our battle-tactics teacher. Maybe, if you hurry, you can get to meet him and try not to make a fool of yourself."

Naruto widens his eyes and turns to look at Sakura.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go! See you later, yes?" He almost yells at her in his hurry. "I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

And, just like that, he starts running up the hill like something far greater than any of them is chasing him. And, just like that, it's Sasuke and Sakura on the rather private, short stretch of the Nile, reserved only for royal family and high officials alike.

Sakura looks at Naruto leave and turns to face the river once more when she realises that Sasuke is still there, and she closes her eyes and prays to any deity she can remember so that the boy behind her turns, walks up the same way Naruto did, and leaves.

She questions her faith when her prayers go unanswered and she hears his sandals stepping on the sand and coming closer to her, sitting on the stone of the stairs that lead down to the water next to hers a second later—the stone her blond friend had previously sat on.

She speaks before he has the chance to, wanting nothing more than to sink in the water of the river and disappear.

"Shouldn't you go as well?" She asks; extremely bold of her, but necessary.

Sasuke stares at the water before him too, a rather peaceful, somber look in his eyes. She makes the mistake of turning her head and looking at his profile, and her heart skips a beat against her better judgement at the sight.

"I already did what I had to, so there is no need."

She turns her face away and hums as her answer, the tension in the air almost palpable.

They stay like that for at least five more minutes, and by the time he speaks, she's already grown accustomed to having him by her side, legs almost brushing from the proximity—though her breath still catches in her throat the moment he talks.

"Sakura," he says, tone serious but calm, sort of quiet. It doesn't prepare her at all for what he insinuates then. "Why are you really here?"

Sakura blinks several times at that, her brain not catching up to the implications the questions brings with it. She would have never thought anyone would ask her that, especially not Sasuke.

But, if she thinks about it, Sasuke is one of the only people with enough reason to question her motives for joining the priesthood, something the King himself has to approve—if not inducted by hereditary means. He's always been the quiet, observant prince, careful and meditative.

Sakura doesn't know if she wants to tell him a lie or the truth; after all, could she really trust him to not tell his brother, the Pharaoh? Has she interacted with him for long enough to know this was not how she planned her life to be? Has she bonded with him enough to trust he will understand and trust her decision?

She would know the answers without having to even think of the questions.

"My prince, I have simply found eternal devotion to the gods is my purpose in this life. After all, my dream has always been to help people," and that last part is true.

"How is this helping anyone?"

She pretends to ignore the biting tone to his question, and instead replies with a leveled, practiced tone.

"I help people by serving the gods, and I have been studying medicine with the High Priestess. In fact, in only one year, I am close to rising up to the next rank in the profession."

Sasuke only stays quiet, elbows on his knees and hands over the lower half of his face.

When he remains quiet, she decides to ask why he has asked her such inquiries.

"Sasuke, why-"

"Do you know of what happened to my family?"

And then, he turns to look at her with ice in his stare, and Sakura feels frozen to the spot at the pure, crimson red hatred in his eyes.

"No, but-"

"Then, you should not be here."

He stands, just like that, and walks back the way he came from.

Sakura's left staring at his retreating form with a heavier heart to carry.