Sakura was…. For the first time in his life, Itachi was at a complete loss for words. Because Sakura… Sakura had confessed to him. The day before after he'd unexpectedly kissed her on the trainings field, she'd squirmed around with a dark red raging blush on her cheeks, until he thought that she was mad at him and he was about to get a firsthand experience of those infamous 'Fists of Doom'. Just when he'd been about to apologize and maybe even beg for his life, she'd suddenly jumped up and just said it outright.
"Itachi-san! I like you! Please go out with me!"
Itachi could honestly say that he'd never been happier than at that very moment. Of course, five minutes later, when he'd admitted his own feelings and kissed her again, he'd been even happier. He had a feeling that this trend of moments of happiness eclipsing each other would continue as long as he had Sakura at his side. Not that he minded, quite the opposite, actually.
Well, there were bound to be problems as well. One big, glaring problem just happened to go by the name of Rock Lee. The taijutsu specialist had gotten wind of Itachi and Sakura's budding romance, how, Itachi wasn't sure (but he was willing to pin it on Kakashi, justifiably so). He'd been bugging Itachi about it for the majority of the morning. Sakura was conspicuously absent from the village, a medic mission, something or other (he was also going to blame Kakashi for that as well), so he was left all alone to Lee's mercies.
And he was going crazy. The younger man had not left him alone for hours, pestering him with questions Itachi either didn't want to answer ("How did you get Sakura-san to say yes to you, Itachi-san?" "I've been asking her out for years now and she's always said no, how come she said yes to you?") or didn't know how ("How does it feel to date the prettiest and smartest and strongest and awesomest (was that even a word?) girl in the whole village, Itachi-san?" "How far did you go?" "If you make Sakura-san cry, Itachi-san, I am gonna do whatever I can to get revenge for her, okay, Itachi-san?").
He'd only managed to flee in the late afternoon when Shisui came to take him to a clan meeting. There was no clan meeting, Shisui had heard from his teammate (Inuzuka, maybe?) that Lee was pestering Shisui and had come to the rescue.
"Thank you, Shisui," Itachi expressed to his cousin and best friend.
Shisui, being Shisui, just laughed the gratitude off, instead threw an arm around Itachi's shoulders and started asking questions of his own.
Awesome.
"So, my dear sweet baby cousin finally got himself a little girlfriend?"
Itachi threw the arm off and stalked forward, uncharacteristically annoyed with Shisui. Usually, he could take Shisui's teasing in good humor, but this topic just rubbed him the wrong way.
"Contrary to popular opinion, I am not asexual, Shisui. Sakura is a beautiful, intelligent and very attractive young woman. I do not see why it would be such a surprise to anyone that I find myself attracted to her. The girl has a fan-club, for Hokage's sake."
And again, Shisui laughed. He really was annoying Itachi, today.
"Calm down, Ita-kun! I'm just happy for you. Love is a wonderful thing and I'm glad you get to experience it, that's all." Grin firm in place, Shisui caught up to him and bumped their shoulders together, his usual way of saying sorry, without actually saying the words. And as usual, Itachi forgave him, just like that. They were brothers in all but blood, it's not like he really could stay mad at him.
"Don't call me Ita-kun," he finally murmured and Shisui laughed again, making Itachi smile. It always felt good to be with Shisui. He was so positive, so jovial and full of life, that beside him Itachi could forget all about the blood he'd shed, lives he'd taken and not be the prodigious Uchiha clan heir and just be himself. Just be Itachi.
Come to think of it, he felt the same way around Sakura. The girl had grown up around the Uchiha clan, been Sasuke best friend for years, she didn't see Itachi as an Uchiha, she only saw Itachi. And she liked what she saw. Ah, he was beginning to understand this feeling called love. It hit you like an S-class jutsu out of nowhere and left you spinning and struggling for air, but in the end, it really was very subtle, sneaking up on you and hitting when you least expect it.