As the World Falls Down

Author's notes: After a long hiatus, I once again feel the pull of Ita/Saku again. Especially with the latest chapters of the manga. I've had some concerns posting again after a year and a half, but I decided that instead of sitting here worrying about it, to just post it and focus on the next chapter. Hopefully you will find it worth the wait.

A special thanks to Leafygirl for helping keep me motivated to finish this chapter and post it. Without your encouragement and bounce, this chapter would have sat incomplete on my hard drive collecting dust.

Disclaimer: My name is not Masashi Kishimoto. Hence, I don't own Naruto. This story is made by a fan for fans for the enjoyment of the series. I do not receive any monetary or other gain for my stories. This story contains written works of an explicit nature. 18 and over only.

Chapter 5


Sakura inhaled the scent of furniture polish and old paper, entering one of her least and yet most favorite rooms in the Hokage tower. Konoha's entire history was contained within the walls of this room. From the most insignificant Genin missions right on up to the most top-secret unranked missions. These were the sorts of missions that wars were started over.

Sakura had lost track of how many grueling hours she had spent here pouring over old mission logs and scrolls. There were times when she lost herself in the reports, completely fascinated by the detailed accounts of various missions, techniques, histories of their village and lives of people who lived and died for Konoha.

But there were other times where Sakura had a hard time making out the barely legible text. Those were the worst. As if the handwriting wasn't bad enough, the spelling mistakes made it sometimes impossible to make out what the person was relating in their log. Sometimes she felt it was purposely done. Maybe the person was lazy, or worse, they were purposely trying to bury details in illegible scratch marks.

Today she had specific materials she was looking for. She quietly greeted the other two occupants of the room who had glanced up when she entered. They returned her greeting before turning back to their respective tasks. Sakura perused the reading materials for several minutes before making her first selection. The volume was battered, and had obviously been read many times over. She took her time, finding some more equally battered selections, making a stack on one of the unoccupied tables.

She moved into the quieter area of top secret files, searching. Most didn't bother with this area because you had to have the proper clearance to unseal them and read them. She found an old tome of some interest and tucked it under her arm. Moving to a shadowed doorway, she formed some signs with her hands. The chakra preventing entry to the room beyond vanished, allowing her access. It was a circular room that had nothing but scrolls from floor to ceiling. There was a stand beside the door with a tool used to retrieve the higher scrolls. She spent about an hour before she found the sealed scroll that she wanted. She had noticed it previously when she had been researching information on the Kyubi. Sakura would need Tsunade to unseal this one for her as she didn't have high enough clearance - possibly the last volume she had picked out as well. Hopefully Tsunade would consent to do that for her.

Exiting the scroll room, she smiled a greeting at the familiar jounin who looked bored out of his skull. He perked up at seeing someone else in the room.

“Hokage need some files?” the bandaged nin queried.

“Nah, just some light reading.” She grinned at his exasperated look. It was plain to see that Kotetsu couldn't comprehend purposely bogging yourself down with at least three days of reading materials. “You?”

“They need some files from a mission two years ago back at the office,” he released a long suffering sigh.

“Who was the squad leader?”

“Kohiko.”

She moved around the shelves and picked out a book, “What was the mission number?” she asked distractedly, thumbing through the book. He rattled off some numbers to her, looking hopeful. His shoulders slumped when she replaced the volume on the shelf, and pulled out another. Flipping through, she asked for the number again, which he supplied.

Smiling she flashed a page of the book at him, which he saw was exactly what he had been searching the past half-hour for. “I could just kiss you, Sakura!” Her eyes narrowed slightly as he leaned forward like he was actually going to. But he simply took the book from her, still grinning happily. “Thanks!” And with that, he was gone.

~*~*~*~

'I almost forgot what an ice princess she was,' Kotetsu thought to himself as he rushed down the hall, recalling the chill that had suddenly rolled off her palpably when he leaned forward to kiss her cheek. 'Sweet as she is pretty, but scarier than Anko on a bad hair day if you make a wrong move.'

~*~*~*~

“Haha! Someone clocked you a good one, bastard! The side of your face looks like minced meat.”

“Shut-up.”

“Why didn’t you ask Sakura to heal that for you? She’s really good at making bruises go away.”

Naruto was unable to make out the words Sasuke muttered. “What?”

Sasuke grumbled louder, “I said, she wouldn't.”

“Yeah, right. I believe that,” Naruto said with thick sarcasm, chuckling. Naruto paused, you could almost see the wheels turning. The smile evaporated from his face. “She hit you didn’t she?” Naruto stared hard at Sasuke, when he didn't readily reply, he took that as assent. “Sakura never says a cross word to you, what did you do?”

"That seems to have changed lately," Sasuke hissed to himself. Naruto was such a knucklehead, but his perception could be uncanny at times. Sasuke’s headache was returning with a vengeance.

Naruto stared him down for a few more moments before relaxing. "Well, whatever it was, she knows how to take care of herself anyway. I wouldn't piss her off too badly. What you got there was just a love tap."

As if to emphasize the fact, he punched Sasuke squarely in the shoulder. Who returned it with a nasty right hook. The situation deteriorated from there.

~*~*~*~

Sakura waited in the hall outside Tsunade's office. She could hear indistinct voices from behind the door, but they were too thick to separate, let alone hear the words.

A short time later the doors opened and the squad of nin who had been speaking to the Hokage exited. Shizune ushered them out, exchanging a few final quiet words with their leader.

Turning, her face brightened into a smile at seeing Sakura there, Shizune beckoned for her to enter the Hokage's office. They exchanged greetings, and Shizune grabbed half of Sakura's stack, helping her set them on the desk. She gave Sakura another smile before closing the doors as she exited the room.

Tsunade finished making notes on a paper before giving Sakura her attention. She smiled in greeting. "How did that amputated leg go earlier?"

"I was able to successfully re-attach most of the nerves. And there was already a slight reaction to stimuli. All in all, it went better than expected," Sakura replied confidently.

"Excellent! So, what are all these?" Tsunade asked, gesturing to the assorted books & scrolls Sakura had.

"I wanted to do some reading, but two of them are too high of a clearance for me to release the seals on."

Tsunade fingered one of the worn volumes idly, and flipped through a few pages. Grabbing a second book, she turned a few pages of that as well. Tsunade's expression grew somber as she gazed evenly at Sakura, "These are all about the Uchiha family."

Sakura nodded her assent, "There are always three versions to every story..."

"Your side, my side, and the truth." Tsunade finished for her.

Making an internal decision, Tsunade reached for the sealed scroll and tried to released it. When it didn't immediately open, she frowned. After doing some intricate seals, it still wouldn't open. The perplexed Hokage reached under her desk retrieving some artifact. She infused it with chakra and made even more complicated hand seals before slicing her finger on the artifact and allowing a few drops of blood to fall on the seal. Her upper lip sweated slightly as she stared at the drops of liquid before they dissolved into the now smoking seal, releasing it.

Sakura handed her the old book as well, and Tsunade turned it over in her hands looking at it before releasing the seal on that as well.

"I don't need to warn you ..." Tsunade's voice carried warning

"No, Shishou," Sakura cut her off, cradling the scroll to her chest. "I'm well aware that these are the highest classification of top secret, and if I get busted with them, you have no knowledge of anything."

"Good."

A quiet but insistent knock sounded on the door. "Who is it?" Tsunade asked, slightly cross at the interruption.

"Shizune."

"Enter."

"Sorry to intrude, but a high end mission just came in," she said, closing the door behind her before crossing the room and setting a paper down in front of the older woman. They briefly discussed the details of the mission, momentarily forgetting Sakura who was used to this sort of thing and only listened with half an ear. They tossed a few names back and forth, looking over the roster.

A thought suddenly occurred to Sakura, so she voiced it, "Why not send Naruto & Sasuke? They could do with a little action, they've been beating the crap out of each other again." And I could use the downtime, she internalized.

Tsunade frowned, while contemplating the idea. Sakura had planted her seed, there was no need to say anything else. She gathered her reading material and turned to go, but paused as the blond spoke again.

"Sakura, you know I'm here if you need to talk."

Sakura smiled warmly at her mentor. "I know. Thank you."

The conversation resumed behind her as she was closing the doors.

~*~*~*~

Tsunade eyed the two nin sitting uncomfortably in the hospital chairs. Ino droned on dramatically, "... like a pair of reckless teenagers! Right in front of the academy too! I swear Tsunade-sama, you need to do something about them! The poor kids were terrified. If it weren't for Choji's quick reactions, little Nika would have been decapitated! And they got blood all over my new vest." She pulled on it to emphasize the rust colored splotches.

Tsunade saw her intake of breath and cut Ino off before she could continue, "Thank you Ino. I'll see that they are properly chastised."

Ino glared daggers at the two men, before bowing to the Hokage and turning to go.

Tsunade stared down her nose at them, arms crossed. Neither could meet her eyes for very long, and when she felt both were sufficiently uncomfortable, she spoke. "I hear this isn't the first time you two have caused a scene of late."

Naruto's gaze shifted to his shoes, and his shoulders hunched slightly- a dead giveaway.

Tsunade sighed. "Get yourselves patched up and then meet me in my office. I have a mission for you two."

~*~*~*~

Having already checked in on Itachi and fed him his lunch, Sakura found she was finally able to do what she'd been waiting all morning for. She carefully arranged her reading material around her in her lab. Sasuke and Naruto had left on their mission about half an hour ago.

With a wry smile, Sakura made a mental note to buy Ino a week's supply of dango.

She smiled remembering the look on his face as Naruto bitched about their platinum-haired friend. “She didn't have to make it sound that bad to the old lady. It's not like one of us wouldn't have stopped the shuriken before it got near the kids.” he paused as he gestured with his hands. “I think the kids were more terrorized by her shrieking than they were of the weapons.”

Sakura had chuckled at that, he was probably right. “Well, on the bright side, you get to go on a pretty important mission,” she said.

“Yeah,” his eyes lit up as he started to talk about it in his excited fashion.

The conversation with Sasuke went much as she expected it to. Things were still tense between the two of them. He told her without words to watch things while he was gone, and she had told him without words that things would be fine.

Turning her attention back to her task at hand, she eyed the stack as only a person with a true love for written materials could. She contemplated which to read first and decided to start with the lower level books, and work her way up to the more privileged information. She picked up the rattiest, most tattered volume from the stack.

Opening the first page, she scanned the contents of the first page. She quickly found herself drawn into the complete history of the Uchiha family. It detailed customs and traditions, had a chapter dedicated to the police force, another chapter dedicated to special techniques - although implementation was not something taught.

There was a full family tree in there as well. It explained the family crest and the meaning behind it. If it was Uchiha, this author touched on it; Sakura was surprised at the amount of information she learned about Sasuke's family.

The final chapter detailed the family massacre.

She moved on to the second book. This one related the history of the Uchiha police force in the first few chapters. Next it detailed who the officers were along with their commendations. Their motto was interspersed randomly throughout. It was fairly thick, so it took her awhile to thumb through. After scanning most of the contents and not finding anything of importance, she pulled out a third tome. This one contained logs from the chief of police. Some of the details he related were interesting, but for the most part it was pretty dry reading. Full files about arrests and the criminal records of the prisoners were kept at the jail.

Sakura frowned, closing the book. While there had been a lot of information in the books, none of it was anything she couldn't have learned from talking to some of the elders from the village.

She moved on to a fourth book. This one contained mission reports. They were all so clinical and boring, devoid of extra detail and embellishment. She leaned heavily on her hand, flipping another page. She felt her eyelids getting heavy, and rubbed her eyes in an effort to stay awake. And even though she refocused her attention on the book, she soon found her mind wandering again.


There was something that made the act of pulling down Itachi's pants and boxers seem more intimate than simply opening a lose robe. At first she felt unsure of herself again. Her hands found the elastic waistband of his pants and she glanced at him.

His eyes were locked on her face and she found she couldn't turn away from that alluring gaze. Her breath hitched in her throat momentarily. He shifted slightly allowing her to easily slide the material down his muscular thighs. Her fingers lingered on those thighs longer than was necessary, and his eyes slid closed briefly as she lightly caressed the satiny skin.

Her gaze fell to his erection and she found she wanted to see if she could recreate his earlier reactions to her change in technique. Her eyes found his again and he watched raptly as she leaned closer to him and blew on his overheated flesh. His molten gaze burned into her, encouraging her to do more.

She leaned forward and ran her tongue along his tip, tasting him again. His eyes rolled back in his head and he let out a lusty moan as she closed her mouth over him. She slid her mouth up and down his length, feeling him in her mouth and loving his reactions to her. They were so much more intense than when she used her hand.

"Unbind me, Sakura," his lust filled voice commanded.

Heat flooded her at the thought of letting him touch her as she had been touching him. She wanted it more than she had previously realized. She leaned over him, putting the key in the lock. She froze when his mouth closed over her breast through the material of her blouse and a low moan escaped her as heat radiated out from between her legs.

Sakura jerked upright in her seat, her wrist numb from supporting the weight of her head as she dozed. Heat flooded her face as she wondered if she had moaned out loud while she had been dreaming. She glanced down at her desk, relieved she hadn't drooled on the irreplaceable log book in her sleep.

She shifted in her chair, still feeling the residual lustful cravings from her erotic dream. Glancing at her watch, she noted the time. She had spent most of the afternoon and well into the evening reading and taking her little nap. Stretching her arms over her head, a sigh escaped at the feeling of tight muscles stretching and loosening up.

She wandered upstairs and made dinner for herself and Itachi. She blushed thinking about him. For some reason, the dream was deeply ingrained into her brain and she was having a hell of a time dislodging it. Her semi-aroused state wasn't getting any better as she realized that it was just the two of them in this manse.

~*~*~*~

Sakura looked distracted as she brought his dinner in, Itachi noted. She wouldn't meet his eyes, and there was a slight flush on her face. When he reached up to take his bowl, his fingers lightly brushed hers, and she jumped and quickly turned away as if the unplanned contact had burned, but not before he saw the color bloom across her features.

The pink-haired woman took her time settling herself to eat her dinner, gaining her composure. He dug into his dinner, allowing a soft hum of pleasure escape his lips at the first bite. Her startled green eyes met his stoic ebony ones before darting away. This time Itachi got to see the telling flush spread across her features from a frontal view.

He didn't allow the amused smirk that tickled at his face to appear. He wasn't sure what had happened, but she was completely rattled in his presence, and he fully planned to take advantage of the amusing situation.

They ate in silence, but Itachi noticed each time she shifted uncomfortably and each time her eyes flitted across his form to quickly dart away. She delicately picked at her food, barely eating, and started when he asked quietly for seconds.

Sakura quickly set her own food down and crossed the room to him. He nonchalantly tickled her hand as she took the bowl from him, careful to keep his expression devoid of any tell-tale signs of what he was doing. He was rewarded with the sound of her sharply indrawn breath.

The flustered medic quickly fled the room. Itachi allowed the smug smirk free reign now that she was out of sight.

~*~*~*~