Meeting the Family (SOS Version): Chapter 2

Meeting the Family (SOS Version)

- SleepyArcher

 Chapter 2

Uchiha Itachi took a turn at a corner and entered the main street leading towards the Hokage Tower. It was for his weekly visit to the Hokage where she checked his eyes to assess how far they have recovered and if further treatment is needed. This could have been done in the hospital itself but his reputation (and the actions that had led to said reputation) had terrified most of the hospital staff including the healers even before he took a step inside it. In the end, the Godaime had taken on the responsibility herself.

The weather was fairly nice. The sky was a clear blue and while the bright sunlight was not pleasant for everyone, Itachi particularly enjoyed it after years of experiencing the endless rains of Amegakure. He had taken on his once-cheerful-and-now-reserved brother’s habit of taking long walks on secluded paths inside the village. It had unnerved his Anbu guards but the Hokage had nodded her head in approval and they had no choice but to follow her orders. What started as a form of healing had slowly evolved into a hobby and Itachi found out that he quite liked the civilian way of walking as compared to jumping from one roof to another like most other shinobi did. He started going to the market as well and after a long time, the Uchiha brothers were eating proper home cooked meals once again.Sasuke didn’t comment on his ni-san’s emerging interest in shopping and cooking but he started to appear at their home during mealtimes. Unlike Itachi, Sasuke’s only ‘guard’ was Naruto because it was well-established by then that others could do very little to stop Sasuke if he ever took off again. Their only female teammate was tasked with sedating him instead of meeting him head-on in battle should he ever go berserk again. Not that Sasuke needed all these precautions. He had become strangely carefree since the final battle with Naruto.

But all these happened after the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War and several years had passed since then. Sasuke had gone on a journey of redemption and returned almost two years later to rejoin Konoha as an active shinobi. Itachi accepted his choices though the two-year long absence had pained him deeply. His life had also changed, and for the better for once in his life. He no longer had any guards, his eyes were healed and he could even activate the Mangekyō Sharingan - though he was advised not to use any form of the dōjutsu at all unless as a last measure - and best of all, he was employed as a teacher at the Academy, responsible for training budding talents in the intricate art of Genjutsu. Itachi, who was unable to spend much time with his little brother once due to his Anbu duties, felt like the world was offering him a second chance at becoming an older sibling to children who, in his mind, merged with the figure of a child-Sasuke. Any guilt he felt at being more present for other children when he failed to do so for Sasuke vanished when he witnessed the soft look in the latter’s eyes upon seeing Itachi with his students.

Half-lost in thoughts, he arrived at the Hokage Tower sooner than he realised and refocused on his current surroundings as he underwent the necessary security check and identification process. He was a regular face at the place thanks to his regular appointments with Tsunade, which speeded up the procedure and soon he was waved inside. Itachi moved sedately towards the waiting chamber. He had arrived early because he remembered that it was not a hearing day only midway into his walk. The Godaime was a notoriously late-riser when she did not have any scheduled work in the morning. Just as he was about to sit-down to wait for the Hokage to call him in, Shizune walked in.

Itachi turned towards her and bowed in response to her greeting bow. He straightened and could not help but notice that not only Shizune’s usual expression of calm composure was severely cracked but even her hair seemed to be in a state of disarray as if she had pulled it in frustration. After hesitating a little, Itachi decided to ask if she was feeling alright. Following years of knowing each other thanks to her assisting Tsunade with his treatment, they had developed a close acquaintance at the very least, if not friendship. It was a noble idea but before he could even open his mouth, Shizune blurted out, “Itachi-san, will you please join us in greeting guests? We could really use your presence.” She tried to smile, realised that it looked more like a grimace and promptly discarded it in favour of staring at him with eyes radiating desperation and hope with a slight hint of madness.

Itachi stared back at her, concern warring with self-preservation in his mind. Back in his Akatsuki days, self-preservation would have won instantly but the peaceful days had softened his heart and concern won as he nodded his assent to her invitation. Shizune managed a grateful smile this time though the hint of madness remained and led him towards the living quarters of the Hokage’s household. Itachi followed, his expression neutral despite the concern being overtaken by a sense of foreboding.

***

Despite being a regular visitor to the Hokage Tower, Itachi had never entered the current Hokage’s personal quarters - most shinobi hadn’t, that dubious honour belonged to Team 7. Still he had a good idea about how the interior would look and at any other time, he would have been secretly pleased to see his guess being correct. At the moment, however, the sense of foreboding had intensified upon laying eyes on the village leader and all sense of pleasure had vanished faster than Sasuke did with his portals.

Shizune stepped up from beside him and said, “Hokage-sama,I have brought Itachi-san as you commanded.”

Her voice was deliberately calm though he could see the tension holding her posture rigid. Before he could voice a greeting, Tsunade’s head snapped up and the pair of golden-brown eyes met his eyes. Itachi held back his flinch. He never had any problem meeting anyone’s gaze - in fact, others usually didn’t meet his eyes most of the time - and the Godaime was no exception. Tsunada also liked when her shinobi met her eyes while conversing, no matter their rank.

But that happened during normal days when the Hokage was focused on her job. Right now, she looked like she was on the verge of starting on a warpath towards an invisible (to Itachi at least) enemy, raining down her punches on them. 

“Sit.” She ordered, pointing towards a seat at her side and he sat down obediently. A slight movement indicated that Shizune had taken her own seat at the other side of the Godaime. Then, a manicured hand took hold of his chin while fingers of the other hand pressed against the back of his head. A slight warmth slowly spread from the back of his head to his eyes, turning warmer before vanishing. Tsunade leaned back, her expression oddly triumphant.

"See? His eyes will be fine." She shot a smug grin at her student then refocused on him. "You will keep an eye on them and check if she is under a genjutsu. If she is then you will expose him immediately. And," the Hokage hesitated before continuing, "if she isn't, then you will check for the presence of extra chakra."

Itachi blinked. He was not yet aware of any details but the Godaime's words were hinting at a rather troublesome picture. A picture he wasn't sure he wanted to be a part of. 

He wanted to enquire gently as to the context of this rather abrupt order but before he could open his mouth, footsteps sounded outside the door and the expressions on the two women's faces tightened before they arranged them to maintain composed looks. Itachi followed in their lead because he had recognised the chakra signatures of the new arrivals, and the picture was suddenly clear to him.

***

'Patience is the key to contentment in love' is a proverb that Sasori heard plenty of times from the hags in Suna as advice to the children. Sasori scoffed at that each time. He was, by nature (and nurture) not a patient man and love was a word that had turned to ashes back when he realised that Chiyo was a lying coward. The closest thing to love in his life was his art which was where he had poured all his attention and dedication into.

This changed when Haruno Sakura punched her way into his life. He was at once annoyed and impressed. Annoyed by her selflessness but impressed with her mind. Over time, other feelings had joined the mess and one day watching her beat the life out of a group of ronin that had been foolish enough to ambush them, he realised he was irrevocably in love with her. 

On the heels of that realisation, came others, equally troubling ones. Like the fact, his eyes started to move towards her whenever they met in a group even if she was standing quietly at the side. Or, when they had a heated conversation (debates where Sakura often had to restrain the urge to send him flying with a punch) and he liked the bright gleam in her eyes a little too much. And most annoyingly, his mind started to wander at leisure times and contemplate the meaning of the word 'family' for the very first time in his life. That was when he decided to act on this newly gained emotion of his. Their courtship period (him stalking her) taught him patience and the reward it bought was worth the hardships he tolerated for the lesson.

It was this unintended training of being patient and the effect of pure love that had turned Sasori into the patient man (only to Sakura) that he was currently. Otherwise, if any one of his acquaintances stood glaring at the main door of the Hokage Tower for almost fifteen minutes instead of stepping through, he would have poisoned them and left them to their miserable ends. But since it was Sakura trying to scan the door with the intensity of dōjutsu she didn't possess, Sasori only felt indulgent. He understood the season behind her caution perfectly well even if the valiantly-trying not-to-tremble guards did not and were pretending to mask their confusion with a veil of indifference that was somewhat ruined due to the afore-mentioned trembling. 

Sasori marked a strike against Deidara, the cause behind this entire situation and resolved to teach him a lesson for stressing out Sakura and wasting both of their time. He had conveniently forgotten that he was the one who enabled Deidara's latest "art installation" because he hated the door Chiyo had installed in her house, and also because he wanted Sakura to release her stress by beating up the moron.

Deidara, still in Sunagakure for some inexplicable reason, felt a sudden chill down his back en route to his next project location. He snapped into a defensive pose instantly and waited for several minutes for the "threat" to appear. When nothing appeared or happened, he straightened, ran a hand through his hair (and inevitably fed hair to one of his mouths which gagged immediately), swore, and started on his path. Within minutes, the chill came back and persisted. For some reason, a certain red-head's face flashed in his mind and Deidara gave up for the day and turned back to go back to his room in the inn.

Back in Konoha, Sakura finally relaxed and strode past the guards after giving them a short bow, and walked through the door, Sasori at her side. They remained silent till they started towards the living quarters. 

Sakura started, "Did you set Deidara up the last time?" Her voice was quiet enough that eavesdroppers wouldn't get anything. She continued, "It's the door, right?"

'She has worked it out!' Sasori should not be feeling this giddy but love turned him into a strange man. Most of his family and acquaintances would argue that he was always strange but he hardly ever bothered with their foolishness.

"It was a hideous addition." Sakura rolled her eyes at the tone and he grinned. She shook her head with fondness disguised as exasperation then stopped and turned to face him, expression suddenly serious.

"Did you do something similar this time?" She had to be sure even though the reasons for them meeting his family back then and them meeting Tsunade were entirely different.

Sasori didn't let his grin falter, even as his mind raced for answers. Answers that would assuage her doubt. With anyone else, the answer would be to lie. But this was Sakura and Sasori couldn't bring himself to lie to her face. So, he ended up deflecting.

"I don't even know why your shishou summoned you back to Konoha so soon." He had a pretty good idea about the reason why but that was neither here nor there. He spread his arms in a gesture of innocence. "You know that I am only a mere messenger for the Kazekage." 

It was the truth, Sasori hadn't just accompanied her on a whim, he was carrying a scroll from Gaara that was addressed to Tsunade. It was a "mission" that was absolutely beneath Sasori but Sakura knew that it was Gaara's way of ensuring that they got to spend more time together. She wasn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth and slowly let out a breath, her expression losing severity. She gave a quick squeeze to Sasori's hand before turning back and resuming walking.

Sasori followed, an air of serenity about him. He knew the conclusion Sakura had reached and to be sure, it was a logical one for normal cases. Only, neither of the Kazekages fell in the range of normal and Gaara had taken after his cousin and their grandmother much more than anyone had expected.

***

Tsunade straightened as her younger student entered the room and bowed in greeting. If Sakura was surprised at the Uchiha's presence in the room, she didn't show it. Tsunade fought her own urge to look at him and check whether he was following her order and focused on Sakura's rather infamous companion. She had little patience for the delusional one-sided rivalry Chiyo had maintained till date, finding a rivalry based upon their healing abilities an insult to the field of medicine itself but she had to praise her (silently) for training her oldest grandson into one of the finest shinobi the world had seen. The Godaime Kazekage was a ruthless, manipulative man who was equally dangerous as an ally as he was as enemy. He also possessed a strange sense of honour that had turned the alliance between Konoha and Suna...unique to say the least. But that was a different thing. Tsunade has had enough experience dealing with complicated individuals, starting right from her own genin team members. Sasori, in his capacity as the Kagekage, was still tolerable. Sasori as the possible...No, she refused to think about it. Forgetting the political complications, even at a personal level it was a most disagreeable thought. She had wanted Sakura to move on from Sasuke but never in such a drastic manner.

Tsunade scrutinized Sasori's expression as well as his body language but got nothing more than a heavy lidded stare and an air of indolence about his entire person that could rival Shikamaru at his laziest. Tsunade cursed herself for imbibing heavily last evening. Using chakra would alert Sakura to her heavy drinking and she would get double the lecture she was going to receive from Shizune. Sakura also has a nasty habit of threatening her most prized sake bottles so she had no way but to sit down and listen to the lecture. She resigned herself to the headache slowly building up and gave a slow nod to the newcomers, "Please have a seat." The bit of courtesy was solely due to the presence of the foreign shinobi.

"Hokage-sama, I was informed that there was a matter of great importance that you needed to discuss with me." Sakura said after she and Sasori took their seats. She refrained from mentioning the word "urgent" that was a present in Tsunade's missive, in present company. She was sure Sasori knew the contents of the letter word by word but she didn't want to put her shishou in a potentially vulnerable position in a face-to-face meeting if the reason behind the usage of the word was a matter that could compromise Konoha's integrity in any manner. Itachi's presence, despite his unquestionable loyalty to the village, also complicated matters.

Unfortunately, her tactful words did not help Tsunade today, whose migraine was gradually intensifying. Her ever mindful assistant, Shizune, took over. She poured tea for everyone and said in a soothing tone, "You were away from the village for a long time and we were worried about you."

"Worried?" Sakura frowned, "I was away at Sunagakure for a long-term mission sanctioned by Hokage-sama. The mission comes under our alliance with Sunagakure and was approved by both the Kages and their Councils."

"Uh, yes..." Shizune's eyes moved towards Sasori before realising her mistake and quickly looking away. Sasori, for his part, sipped his tea with his usual expression of calm indifference. 

Sakura frowned some more. This kind of evasive behaviour was virtually unheard of in either of the two kunoichi before her when it came to matters regarding the village. The fact that the Godaime had Itachi present only enhanced the gravity of the matter. She wondered where his brother was. In fact, she was surprised that Kakashi, Naruto and Shikamaru were not present either.

Itachi's eyes flickered from black to red and back again to their original colour. Sakura's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't sensed any danger but maybe the peaceful times had made her complacent. She started extending her senses and kneading chakra when Itachi got to his feet in a graceful movement.

"I believe it's time for me to leave, Hokage-sama." He bowed towards Tsunade and continued, "There is no cause that makes my presence here a necessity."

He made a second bow towards Sasori, nodded politely towards Shizune and Sakura, and was about to leave the room, 

when Tsunade finally reacted. A mix of alcohol-induced migraine, worry over the for Sakura due to the "rumour' that had supposedly come straight from Gaara himself, stress over the Council's possible reactions to the rumour, not to mention team 7's reaction and hope at the possibility of the "rumour" being just that, culminated into the Hokage forgetting the presence of others and blurting out, "Sakura is not pregnant with the Godaime Kagekage's child then?"

Silence ensued for a minute. Then her brain caught up with her mouth and Tsunade's eyes widened in horror. Shizune sat still in shock, her own eyes wide. Sasori, took another sip of tea to hide his barely perceptible smirk. Itachi, who felt oddly slighted at this ignominious use of the Sharingan, bowed again and replied in a clear voice, "Sakura-san is not pregnant with anyone's child, Hokage-sama. I'll be taking my leave then." He walked out of the room, the building and the entire mess of a situation resolutely, determined to put this entire event out of his mind for good. 

Sakura finally jumped to her feet, face red with anger and mortification and exploded, "Hokage-sama! What is the meaning of this? Why is my personal life a topic of an official meeting?"

Tsunade, who was already filled with guilt, shrunk at the barrage of questions. She also stood up, "I truly did not mean to embarrass you Sakura. It's just...I received such worrisome news that I lost my wits momentarily. You are close to reaching your goal and a life-altering event like this can affect your focus majorly." She didn't add the part about political implications. Once her anger cooled down, Sakura would realise it on her own.

But Sakura was not listening. Her mind was still stuck at the 'worrisome news' part. What news? Who would spread something like this? She and Sasori had very recently confirmed their relationship to his family (and Deidara) and she was sure that none of them would leak private matters to outsiders.

This was where Sakura was slightly wrong, though she wouldn't realise it until much, much later.

She opened her mouth to address the issue but Sasori beat her to it. He had finished his tea and now stood up languidly, a scroll in his hand which he offered to the Hokage. Shizune, still half in shock, received it and did the customary check for hidden dangers before passing it to Tsunade. 

Tsunade took it, her suddenly wary eyes on Sasori who drawled, "There seemed to have been a misunderstanding," her chest tightened at the pause; - maybe the truth was something worse - he continued, " the truth is Sakura and I have recently started courting each other." Relief chased away the doubts and the stress, and she felt so unburdened of the worries that have plagued her ever since she heard the rumour that Tsunade almost laughed aloud. Almost being the keyword. Instead, she graced the room with a bright smile that shocked both her students and said in a jovial tone, "Is that so? Congratulations to both of you!"

***

Sakura remained massively confused and shocked even after coming out of the Hokage Tower. Sasori strolled by her side, his face eerily resembling a cat that had gotten the canary.

"What just happened?" She demanded. She wanted to ask 'Did my shishou just summoned me back because of a pregnancy rumour?' but was too embarrassed to do so. Besides with her luck, Naruto would somehow learn of this and a way bigger chaos would follow.

Sasori took her hand in his without breaking stride and threaded their fingers together. A boyish smile took over his face, making him so jaw-droppingly handsome that her breath caught, her brain already forgetting half her confusion.

The rest were wiped off from her neurons when Sasori leaned in and pressed a lingering kiss on her cheek before whispering, "Your shishou has accepted our relationship."

***

Note: Originally, I planned to write the entire thing from Itachi's perspective but when I actually started to write, I couldn't resist adding Tsunade and Sasori's perspectives. Gaara was the mastermind here, and he really wants Sasori to marry Sakura and settle down. Mostly because Naruto would then come to Suna to visit Sakura-chan.😌 Sasori guessed what he was doing but let it happen anyway because he knew he was going to be treated to an excellent show. In his mind, he and Sakura are already but for the sake of others, he said courting. Not dating because that is too juvenile and doesn’t describe his bond with Sakura. And….I should probably stop yapping. 

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