"Sakura-chan? Are you home?" Naruto hammered on the door. "Let's go to–"

"Ah, good afternoon, Naruto-kun," Itachi said mildly, easily ignoring the way Naruto's fist was centimetres from his chest.

"–Ichiraku?" Naruto trailed off, staring wide-eyed at Itachi before hurriedly bringing his arm down. It was one thing to know that Sakura was dating him, but it was another matter entirely to see him in Sakura's apartment, answering the door like he owned the place, and dressed so casually (or as casually as an Uchiha could get). "I, uh, I mean, hey, Itachi-san."

There was a brief pause where Naruto looked at everywhere but Itachi's eyes, and Itachi stared serenely at Naruto, his expression unreadable. "You must be looking for Sakura," Itachi said finally, as if he hadn't heard Naruto yelling her name two seconds earlier.

With an easy grin, Naruto explained, "Yeah, I wanted to..." before he lifted his gaze to meet Itachi's for a split second, and saw something that made him change his mind mid-sentence. "…check if she was free for lunch! But since you guys are busy, don't worry about it!"

"Good…bye?" Itachi said to the empty space where Naruto had been only a moment before.

"Did he want to eat ramen?" Sakura called from where she was lazing on her sofa.

"That was his intention initially," Itachi answered, shutting the door before he sat down. "You could probably still catch up to him."

"Unlike our dear future Hokage, I don't particularly enjoy eating ramen every day," Sakura said dryly, curling up to Itachi's side. "Besides, you just came back yesterday and I missed you."

"And I you," Itachi said softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

In a world where chakra sensing existed, knocking on someone's door was a little redundant if they could sense your presence from the moment you got within 3 metres of said door. Conversely, there was no point knocking on the door if you already knew there was someone inside. But Ino was a clan heiress and she'd been raised to be polite, so she did it anyway.

"Oi, Forehead! Are you home?"

Unfortunately, this was also a world where security seals existed and chakra sensing of people inside certain apartments could be limited – that is, Ino knew there was someone approaching the door, but she didn't see any reason why it wouldn't be Sakura.

"I hope you remembered we're going out tonight, you–"

"Good morning, Yamanaka-san," Uchiha Itachi said mildly as he opened the door.

"What the–" Ino caught herself, clearing her throat before she tossed her hair back. "Oh, Uchiha-san! I wasn't expecting to see you here," she all but purred, before a wide smile spread across her face.

Itachi felt his own smile freeze into place, and swallowed nervously.

Boar flared their chakra in the specific pattern all ANBU operatives knew meant something along the lines of "no harm, presence required". It was a common signal, one that they all learnt to recognise in their sleep, and sure enough, the presence on the other side of the window began to flicker in a way that signalled their awakening.

Well.

Boar knew full well whose chakra signature that was, and it certainly wasn't the person they'd been told who lived in the apartment. The flickering became more intentional, flashing into the patterns that had the approximate meaning of "what the hell is happening".

Boar replied by using the pattern that meant "medical emergency". In the usual context of ANBU missions, it had varying levels of urgency, depending on a number of factors including the severity of the injury (or injuries), the number of casualties and whether there was a medic on the squad or not. Luckily, the person Boar was attempting to contact was an expert in medical emergencies and the circumstances of tonight's emergency were a lot more controlled than, say, three injured squad members in a four person squad with no medic and an unfortunate number of Cloud shinobi nearby due to their location (Cloud territory). But that wasn't to say that it wasn't urgent.

Just as Boar was beginning to doubt the validity of their intel, a second chakra signature flickered into awakening, and then into the pattern that indicated something akin to "message understood, I'm coming". A few moments later, the front door opened and two figures left the building, nodding to Boar.

Well, Boar's mission had been to bring one specific person to the ANBU medical facility, but they sure as hell weren't going to stop an ANBU captain from coming along.

Hatake Kakashi was late.

This was news to exactly no one, but what would have surprised everyone else is that one of his students was late as well. Naruto had sent him to collect Sakura as punishment, but what Naruto hadn't realised was that a new Icha Icha book had been released, and Kakashi had been itching to read it.

So at a nice, leisurely pace that ensured minimal effort and movement, save for the occasional turning of book pages, Kakashi made his way towards Sakura's apartment and arrived unscathed thanks to years of shinobi training and also years of shinobi training with his head buried in a book.

Not even bothering to lift his eyes from the pages, Kakashi knocked twice and waited patiently for an answer. In his peripheral vision, he saw – and heard – the door swing open and proceeded to drawl, "Yo, Sakura-chan–"

It was just a split second, but as Kakashi was in the middle of greeting his favourite student, he flicked his gaze up to give his signature eye smile, only to freeze once his line of sight was back on his book.

A lesser man might have reacted by gawking or stammering or something else that was equally undignified, but Kakashi was, as Gai so often proclaimed, cool. So he raised his head, still smiling, and greeted the man in front of him.

"Yo, Itachi-chan."

There was a brief silence. Kakashi tried again.

"Yo, Itachi-kun."

"Kakashi-san," Itachi acknowledged, and said nothing else.

There were no logs that Kakashi could replace himself with, but he found that nearby mailboxes worked just as well.

There was a light, but rapid, series of knocks on the door. Itachi took one look at his sleeping girlfriend and gently, carefully, extricated himself from her grip before answering the door.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan! On this beautiful morning, I have come to–"

"Good morning, Lee-kun," Itachi said calmly.

Lee gaped at him, eyes darting between Itachi and the apartment number on the door before they widened. "UCHIHA ITACHI–"

Itachi closed the door.

There was a light, but rapid, series of knocks on the door. Itachi took one look at his sleeping girlfriend and gently, carefully, extricated himself from her grip before answering the door.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan! On this beautiful morning, I have come to–"

Good morning, Lee-kun," Itachi said calmly. Lee gaped at him, eyes darting between Itachi and the apartment number on the door before they widened noticeably. Itachi noticed and said, quickly, "Sakura returned home from a mission early this morning"—it was, in fact, still early morning, as the sun was just beginning to rise—"and is currently resting. I'm sure she will arrange to train with you another time, but for now, I will have to ask you to leave."

Years of practicing his poker face kept Itachi impassive as Lee's eyes widened even further. "OH! I UNDERSTAND!" he whispered. "THANK YOU FOR INFORMING ME, UCHIHA-SAN! HAVE A GOOD MORNING!"

"Thank you, and you as well," Itachi returned before he shut the door. Even without his Sharingan, he could navigate his way back to Sakura's bedroom in the early morning darkness, though he supposed it was due to his familiarity with her apartment layout than any sensing skills he honed over the years. His feet were silent as he came to a stop beside the bed, gazing fondly down at Sakura as she breathed slowly and quietly, practically radiating peacefulness. It was what Itachi had come to associate Sakura and her home with, and it was more apparent now, in the stillness and silence of the night.

He climbed carefully back into the bed, sliding beneath the covers before pulling Sakura close enough to whisper in her ear.

"Stop pretending to sleep."

Silence, then–

"I wasn't pretending," Sakura mumbled against the pillow, not even bothering to open her eyes. "I could hear him from here." She didn't say anything for a few moments, and Itachi thought she might have dozed off, until she added, "If he knew I was awake, he wouldn't have left."

Itachi huffed with amusement and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I can't argue with that," he murmured. "Go back to sleep, my love."

I've been sitting on this for a while but it's been a super busy year, and probably won't get any better. Writing has never been a priority for me but I don't really plan to stop any time soon. Updates or new fics will just take a long time to come. But I really appreciate all the love that the non-mass series has been getting, it seriously means so much to me so thank you all so much!