Chapter 3
Escalation was inevitable.
Both of them knew it.
Satsuki had been walking the razor’s edge for years, balancing between the persona she crafted and the truth buried beneath it. Itachi had spent just as long reinforcing her foundation, ensuring that when the cracks inevitably formed, the entire structure wouldn’t collapse.
They just never expected the loudmouth, grinning, obnoxious blonde boy to be the catalyst.
Naruto Uzumaki.
At fourteen, Satsuki had been Team 7’s star pupil for two years. She was Kakashi’s favored student, Sakura’s reluctant friend, and Naruto’s...well, best friend is understatement. She is his teammate. His rival as much as he is her. Naruto is her problem. And, somehow, her boyfriend.
It had been a slip-up. An accident. An anchor she hadn’t meant to pick up.
A moment of weakness on a mission gone wrong, cold hands, a whispered argument, breathless relief when they both made it out alive. Naruto had smiled at her like she was something real, something human…not a poster child, not the village’s darling, not the last heir of a massacred clan. Just Satsuki.
And she had kissed him.
(And then he kissed her back. And then they did it again, and again, and again… And then two months passed, and somehow, she was still letting herself have this.)
It was a mistake. A dangerous one. A distracting attachment that she couldn’t afford.
But the thought of pushing him away felt so unbearably wrong. Unnatural. Like carving off a piece of herself and trying to pretend it had never been there in the first place.
So she let it be. For now.
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Itachi noticed immediately. (Of course he did.)
Naruto wasn’t subtle. The way he acted like a puppy around her. Always going on and on about her role as a rival in his life has cause him to improved himself in every aspects possible. He talked about Satsuki as if she hung the Moon. And if that wasn't bad enough, he stared at her like she is a God's reincarnation or something...
Satsuki wasn’t either, not to him at least.
She might have fooled the rest of the village, but Itachi could read her the way she read old battle reports, dissecting every detail, every shift in expression.
He saw it in the way her eyes softened when Naruto whined about ramen. The way she let him get away with things no one else could. The way her body turned toward his, even when she wasn’t aware of it.
He said nothing. Why would he? If anything, Itachi was relieved.
Naruto was what she needed.
A tether, an anchor, someone who could keep her grounded in ways that Itachi never could. Someone she could trust, in moments when Itachi knew she couldn’t trust him.
Because eventually, the truth would come to light.
And when that day came, Satsuki would need someone to hold onto.
Itachi had always assumed it wouldn’t be him.
So if it was Naruto…then good.