Penthesilea

Chapter Nine

Chapter Beta: None beyond my own two eyes and editing software at the moment

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戦国時代

Sasuke doesn't see her again for another week, and then only when he walks in on her giving Itachi another of his routine treatments. As he ducks into the tent, he is staggered by a rare sound—his brother's laughter.

"Until he was how old?" Sakura giggles.

"Six," Itachi confirms. "It's too bad there wasn't an artist around at the time to capture the moment for posterity."

"Is it really necessary to fill your healer's head with nonsense?" Sasuke asks hotly, suspecting he is the topic of conversation but not wanting to ask what particular embarrassing moment his brother is relating.

"Don't be foolish, little brother," Itachi dismisses. "Sakura-chan is practically family." She and Sasuke exchange startled glances. "After all, you keep bringing her back to help me, so she must have your trust—and that's a rare feat."

"That's still no cause to tell her things about me that aren't relevant. You're the patient, not me."

"But it could be relevant," Sakura protests. "The human body can be influenced by any number of factors stemming from childhood. I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't being exceedingly thorough."

Those damn green eyes spark with mischievous promise, and Sasuke promptly forgets any retort he might have offered.

Itachi chuckles against his knuckles and Sasuke is torn between annoyance at Sakura getting along so well with his brother and happiness at seeing Itachi in such good spirits. It hits him then, with a startling sense of clarity, that this is what he wants his future to look like.

Which is why the gods see fit to remind him why that can never happen.

There's a commotion outside, and a familiar voice demanding, "We need to see Itachi-sama."

Everyone in the tent stills, and Sasuke is filled with an immediate concern over Inabi discovering either Itachi's illness or Sakura's identity.

"He's indisposed at the moment," he hears Kakashi say mildly; the tone of voice might be easily mistaken as detachment, but from the pitch Sasuke knows it's meant as a warning.

"Move your ass, Hatake, or we'll move it for you," Inabi snarls.

Sasuke gets rid of the few bloody rags his brother has been coughing into and helps lift him into an upright position. His earlier smile vanishes, and he adopts a rigid, straight-backed seiza. Meanwhile, Sakura darts around the tent gathering her materials. Her transformation from confident war medic to common healer is instantaneous; she hunches over, affecting an air of invisibility that any common villager might have in the presence of nobility.

"No need to be rude about it," Kakashi remarks as the tent flap is thrown open, and Inabi barges in, followed closely by Yashiro, Tekka and Taiko.

"Leave, woman," Inabi snaps at Sakura, not even sparing her a glance.

While Sasuke is irritated by the manner in which his cousin speaks to her, he's glad that she is nothing but an extra body in the room to him.

Head down, Sakura hurries out of the tent; with Kakashi's help, she'll make it out of the camp without a problem. He will visit their usual rendezvous point later and see if she waited for him.

"Is there a reason for the indecorous entrance?" Itachi asks their visitors in a neutral tone, the slightest narrowing of his eyes the only sign of his annoyance.