#silverfootsteps

[sakuraficrecs]

Fic rec #24

Kaleidoscope Days by silverfootsteps

[T] Sakura x Itachi

From watching her heal the sick and throttle the living daylights out of her best friend, Itachi discovers that there's a lot more to Haruno Sakura than he expects.  Non-massacre.  Itasaku. 

Complete. Words: 7,093

[somebodylost-chan]

Fancy Footwork, chapter 27

15 years of marriage spanned between them. 15 anniversaries. 15 revolutions around the sun- some of it spent breathing the same air- other times spanning across an ocean with just phone calls and silly text messages to tie them together. They had said 'hello' countless times but never said goodbye. Itachi had clutched her fingers, even as she had nearly crushed them duri ng contractions. He had held their children in his hands, nearly crying the first time he had laid eyes on Haruki all wrinkled and wailing strong as he used his lungs for the first time. She had really cried both times- not because of how beautiful their children were (because they were both perfect and gorgeous) but at the look of sheer awe on Itachi's face. There was still that glimmer of amazement in his gaze each time he watched Ruka learn a new word, each time he had a deep conversation with Haruki and realized just how quickly he was growing. And each time she caught that look, she fell in love with him again and again. Sakura had swelled up all round and soft twice during their marriage. Somehow, the second time had been no less amazing than the first. Stirring in the wee hours of the morning before the sun had risen because she gasped. 'He's kicking. Feel it?' Groping for his hand in the darkness, she had guided it to the swell of her belly where he had waited with baited breath until he felt the little flutters. Or when he got home from work she would be sitting in the living room with a storybook held in her hands. She would read out loud in a soft, lulling tone until she saw him standing in the doorway. 'I read somewhere that they can hear you talking.' Warm summer nights he lay with his ear pressed to her stomach as she read the millionth book about parenting and babies. Each little bump, each tiny kick and stretch was the greatest miracle to ever occur on the planet. Time had gone on- their children had grown, learned words and stood on their own two feet. With each spin of the planet around the sun, she had lain awake at night, running her fingers through his hair and watching the steady rise and fall of his chest until it lulled her to sleep. Or he would hit the snooze button of his alarm in the morning to press his cheek between her shoulder blades and feel her lazily press her back to his chest in half-sleeping daze. Some nights Haruki lay between them, wrapped up in Sakura's arms to keep the bad dreams away. And he would stare at his son's long eyelashes, at the impossible pink hair that matched perfectly with Sakura's. He would follow the soft rhythm of Sakura stroking his head and wonder how such gentleness was all his. 15 years still stupidly in love. 15 years of words and memories and sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee late at night. And sometimes, on a whim, one of them would suddenly say, "I love you." And the other, never surprised, would smile back and answer with an obvious, "I love you too." ---- THIS. This is one of my favorite passages that I've read and keep rereading. The love you can feel from the everyday things is what made this very human and touching. Thank you for making this fic, @silverfootstepswrites . It really gives me hope and strong motivation to write ItaSaku (or any other pairing) with emphasis to love and respect and trust and gentleness, not the usual fare of dubcon, intimidation, etc. While admittedly the latter are enjoyable from time to time, these tender and heartwarming fics are more enjoyable to me because they make life a little bit more brighter and positive, that something beautiful can blossom despite the state of the world. They are also few and hard to write (compared to sexy!ItaSaku lol) -- but that just makes them all the more cherished. Anyhoo, this fanfic, "Fancy Footwork", is a great inspiration for me. I hope you continue making more ItaSaku fics with this care and love. (Amaryllis is awesome in that respect) (p.s. if anyone appreciates fluffy, heartwarming animes, where you explore life after marriage, check out "I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying"; it's about an office lady and her otaku husband)

[silverfootstepswrites]

title: This side up

summary: Post-graduation. Fancy Footwork AU. Some foreshadowing.

pairing: Itasaku

“And this is the view from my place,” Sakura announced, turning her laptop to face the window. There was a tap and then some crackling as Itachi fiddled with his laptop screen. She could see his face in the reflection of the window, squinting at the view.

“Well...” She could hear him hedging, not wanting to offend her. 

“Well?” she prompted.

“...You have a window?” he finally said.

“Itachi!”

“Well, it’s not a very nice neighborhood. Is that an ambulance outside your building? Isn’t this where they film all those gritty crime shows?” Itachi demanded. Sakura turned the laptop around to scowl into the camera.

“No. That’s a billboard. Don’t make fun of my neighborhood,” snapped Sakura, her eyebrows lowering. Itachi slowly blew out a breath. He pulled his glasses off.

“You know, I’m just worried. I’m telling you, if you asked, your parents would be more than happy to help chip in so you could get a nicer place-” Sakura cut him off with a gasp of indignation.

“Or you could let me contribute a little-” he continued.

“How is that any better?” exclaimed Sakura.

“Sakura,” he sighed.

“No! My mom paid for my living expenses throughout college. I promised that I would take care of myself after graduation. And my dad has his own family to think about,” Sakura reminded him. Itachi opened his mouth again.

“And if you are so set on us getting married, you should be saving up instead,” she added as the finishing blow. He deflated at that. Sliding down a little lower in his chair, he propped his cheek up in his hand.

“...Alright. Then show me that painting Konan sent you last week,” he relented.

Two years later, when she had moved out of her tiny one-bedroom in a slightly shady neighborhood, Itachi came to visit again. She met him at the airport, bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement. It was cold and she had had perhaps a touch too much coffee.

“Hi! Hello! Hi!” Sakura babbled about a million times as Itachi groggily walked out of the gate. It was 5:22 AM and he had managed to sleep for about half an hour during the 14 hour flight. She threw herself at him, hands linking around the back of his neck. And despite his eyes barely opening, Itachi smiled. Dropping his suitcase and his neck pillow, he squeezed her around the middle. 

And just because she finally could, after years of living in a foreign country, choking on the hard, clunky English words, she sighed and said:

“Ohayou, Ikkun.”

They took a cab back to her apartment, hands linked together the whole ride over. The driver glanced at their sappy expressions in his rearview mirror a few times before he spoke.

“Are you folks here on vacation?” he guessed. Instead of jolting away like she would have in high school, Sakura pressed her side against Itachi. She leaned forward slightly to address the driver.

“This is my boyfriend. He’s visiting me all the way from Japan,” Sakura responded. Her tongue still had some difficulty wrapping around all the sounds of the English language, but the man seemed to have no trouble understanding her. He chuckled knowingly, pointing to the small picture of a woman taped to the dashboard.

“My girlfriend, Sylvie. I met her at a swing dancing class,” the driver offered in return. The rest of the ride went by quickly as Sakura engaged in merry conversation with the older man. Itachi occupied himself with staring out the window. 

Konoha was a sizable city but it seemed like a little village compared to the sheer immensity of New York. They had started off driving past short brick buildings with black fire escapes wrapping around the sides. Slowly, the far-away skyscrapers drew nearer and the brown stone buildings faded into the past. Now there were shiny buildings that screamed of their newness. Even the people on the streets, wrapped up in heavy coats and carrying their morning coffee hurried along to work with purpose. The traffic increased too, as did the jaywalkers who leapt out into the streets seemingly at random.

Before he knew it, they stopped in front of a building. There was a bustling deli on the first floor, but Sakura pointed all the way up.

“That’s me. On the 7th floor. I have a really nice view of that park across the street,” Sakura said in his ear. The driver popped the trunk and Itachi went to gather his bags while Sakura dug in her wallet for the fare. By the time Itachi had the bags out and opened the door for her, Sakura was laughing again as she pushed her change back into the man’s wrinkled hand.

“Merry Christmas! It’s my gift to you!” she insisted as she got out of the cab.

The driver leaned over to extend his waving hand out the passenger side window.

“You enjoy your holiday too, sweetheart. Make sure that boyfriend of yours treats you to a real nice dinner,” he called out to her before he drove off. As Sakura fished her key out of her purse, Itachi stared after the cab for a moment.

“You didn’t know him before, right?” he asked just to be certain. Sakura moved to a green door just beside the deli. As she stuck the key in the lock, she looked over her shoulder to stare at him.

“No? Why?” she responded.

“It’s nothing,” he assured her.

Thankfully, unlike her last apartment, this new building had an elevator. Hugging just Itachi’s neck pillow to her chest, Sakura pulled him into the elevator before mashing the button several times. Faint music played from the speaker above. Itachi stared at his dark circles in the reflective walls.

“This is certainly an upgrade,” remarked Itachi as they rose. Sakura shrugged.

“They pay me really well. And honestly, a friend of a friend moved out of this place last month and pulled some strings so that I got a better price,” answered Sakura, surprisingly modest. 

There were still two unopened boxes stacked in Sakura’s foyer, but they were pushed up against the wall to leave space to walk. Sakura kicked off her boots and then pushed them into a neat line with her toes without looking at them. She pranced into the place, humming as she moved.

“I’ll make us some coffee. Maybe you should just sleep today. You look exhausted,” she called down the hall as she hung up her coat. Itachi moved a little more slowly, putting his shoes next to hers and then lifting up his suitcase so the wheels wouldn’t scratch the wood floor.

“Where should I leave my things?” he asked.

“Oh, you can put it in my room. It’s down to the hall to the right. The bathroom’s right across from it,” Sakura said. 

The white walls were covered with newspaper clippings and photographs. Some were grainy polaroids while others were larger prints. There were tiny snippets of print from the back pages of the newspaper while a few choice others were larger sections. There was Sakura on the front cover of an indie dance magazine. Itachi himself had gone online to buy the American version just to have one for himself. 

The walls of Sakura’s bedroom were, in contrast, mostly bare. There was the large painting from Konan that she had received upon graduating college two years ago. It was a puddle on concrete with a single white paper boat floating on top. But the fluorescent lights of city nightlife were reflected in the water. It hung proudly over the bed. There was really nothing else on the walls except a set of pegs where Sakura hung her necklaces and a couple beanies. But this was fine, given that she had star-shaped string lights looped around her curtain rods and trailing under the window sills.

And on her nightstands, crowded between her lamp and alarm clock, were picture frames.

The day of her high school graduation. One of her and her mother with their arms around each other. Her father and his new family, Sakura holding her half-brother in her arms. And there was one of him, his arm around her waist and his eyes squinting against the sunlight.

Itachi left his suitcase propped against the wall and slipped into the bathroom before he went out to join Sakura.

The rich smell of coffee flooded the apartment the minute he stepped out of the bathroom. In the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, there was a little breakfast bar cut out. Sakura had managed to wedge two mismatched stools there to make room for them. But she was still in the kitchen, tapping her fingers against the countertop. 

“This is a really nice place,” Itachi said as he approached. 

The living room was cramped, but cozy, with colorful cushions on the sofa and a fuzzy blue throw on the back of her one armchair. The plush rug that filled most of the living room floor felt luxurious under his swollen feet. 

Even the kitchen fit her perfectly. The dishtowels were yellow with a picture of a grumpy-looking rooster. The refrigerator door was covered with photos and various postcards. Itachi even recognized the design of the postcard Deidara had sent when he had first moved to Paris. 

He almost started when Sakura held out a white mug to him. 

“You still take it black, right?” she questioned. Itachi nodded, wrapping his hands around the warm cup.

They settled at the breakfast bar together, knees touching. 

At first, Itachi had worried. In fact, he had spent about two hours of his flight worrying that things would feel awkward. It had been a couple years since he had seen her in person. He had even missed her college graduation because of a high-profile case at the law firm. Granted, his work on that particular case had led to his uncle making him a partner, but that didn’t stop him from feeling that same pang of guilt at seeing her diploma hanging in the living room.

Sakura was different too. And it wasn’t just the way that her hair was cut in a stylish bob, or the way that she wore more makeup now. 

It was more in the way that she tilted her head a little whenever she looked up into his face. Or the way her thumb lightly touched her lip when she was searching for the right words. He always expected her lipgloss to rub off onto her finger when she did that, but it never did. She didn’t laugh as loudly or as openly, but her eyes still sparkled with that same fire. 

Sakura was still Sakura in all the most important ways.

He started. That was right. Sakura was still Sakura.

“Well, what do you think? Should we stay in? I took off from work today,” she said.

He set his mug down on the counter with a surprisingly loud noise. Her eyes widened, flickering to him. But she didn’t move away as he reached out for her. His palms cupped her cheeks. Her skin was smooth and a little cool. She simply stared at him, waiting for what would happen next. Drawing her close, he kissed her once, a chaste touch. When they drew apart, Sakura’s eyes were closed.

“Good. Because I want to keep you all to myself today,” he declared. Some part of him was embarrassed to hear those words out loud. And even Sakura blushed a little as she pulled free of his hands.

“You really didn’t wait at all for that, did you?” she muttered. But then she met his gaze with a smile.

“Oh no, I did wait,” he corrected her, “I didn’t want to ruin your conversation with that taxi driver.”

“Itachi!” she laughed, swatting at his arm. The sounds of her giggles dissolved into a sigh as he kissed her again. She didn’t protest when he lifted her into his arms and swept her off into the bedroom. Sakura laughed when Itachi stopped partway through to turn her stuffed rabbit to face the wall. And they had to take a break for a minute when Mikoto called to make sure Itachi had arrived safely. 

But eventually, they lay staring up at the ceiling together as their breaths evened out. Itachi pressed a light kiss to her temple while Sakura traced swirls on his shoulder. Wrapped up in a blissful haze, Itachi forgot all about his jetlag or about the fact that he hadn’t had a proper meal in quite some time. Airplane food was not real food, after all. 

“Oh, remind me to take my birth control before dinner, okay?” Sakura hummed in an almost-sleepy voice. Itachi was about to agree until he actually processed what she was saying.

“Birth control?” he repeated. Then his eyes widened as he realized what she meant. They had not thought about taking the proper precautions at all. But before he could panic, she continued speaking.

“Yeah, I started taking them because it was a pain getting my period all the time, especially when I’m moving every day for work. It really isn’t fun to be out of commission for a quarter of the month,” Sakura went on. Itachi tried hard not to wrinkle his nose. Even after all these years, he still remembered Sakura’s deadly glares when her time of the month came around. He still had stashes of chocolate around his apartment in case of such an emergency. 

“Then that works out well for us. Sorry, I should have been more careful,” Itachi sighed. Sakura nodded.

“I forgot that you didn’t know. Oh well, as long as I remember to take it every day, we’ll be fine,” she admitted. Itachi raised an eyebrow.

“You mean that if you forget even just one day, you could...?” he trailed off.

“Yup,” she said, nodding. 

“Hm,” was all he could think to say in return. They continued to cuddle together, enjoying the quite until Itachi’s stomach let out a plaintive growl. 

“Pizza?” suggested Sakura.

“I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you,” he chuckled.

[silverfootstepswrites]

I was cleaning out my drive and I found a couple unfinished oneshots for Fancy Footwork pre-epilogue. What say you, jury? To post or not to post?

[yuzumelon]

Ss fic recs please?

Hiii I'm looking for a an ss fic like entropy by silverfootsteps (which I adore and frequently reread). Some adventure, action, multichap, badass Sakura, slow sasusaku friendship before some super sweet romance? Hehe. Please and thank you!!

[silverfootstepswrites]

New oneshot up. Enjoy.

[silverfootstepswrites]

I decided to post it.  Because it's cute.  Here's the short companion piece to Entropy. Enjoy.

[silverfootstepswrites]

I'm finished with that heavily hinted-at sequel to Entropy and I'm still not 100% sure if I want to publish it or not.  Regardless, here's a preview under the cut:

Some nights, usually in the summer when the weather’s nice, we’ll all sit on the back porch and just stay there doing nothing.  Mom will cut up peaches and stick little toothpicks in them.  And then, if we pretend we’re tired, Mom lets us put our heads in her lap and then we’ll pretend that we’re sleeping.  Mom is the best doctor in the whole village so she knows that we’re not really sleeping.  That’s how Itachi and I always used to get in trouble for staying up late talking, even if we were lying in bed.

But Mom lets us pretend then.  And then she’ll talk with Dad about a bunch of things.  Sometimes they talk about what it was like to be Genin together with Naruto -jii-chan.  Or they’ll talk about being on rotation together as ANBU.  I think Mom likes to talk about after the war the best, though.  She laughs a lot and I can hear Dad laughing too.  They talk about the hospital and dates and even about the people that they remember.

They don’t really like to talk about being Chunin together, though.  It makes Mom and Dad sad, I think.  From what Mom’s told us, I know that Dad wasn’t around when she was a Chunin.  Itachi asked once if that was because he was on a mission.  Because Dad is away on missions a lot and we always miss him then.

I remember what she was doing when she told us that.  Mom was sitting in the living room healing our scratches from training.  We were practicing punching wooden stumps at the Academy.  And then Mom got really quiet for a second.

“Your dad wasn’t on a mission.  He was lost,” she finally said.

“Lost?  Like that time Izuna and I got lost on the way back from Grandpa’s house?” Itachi asked. 

“No.  Your dad was lost for a long, long time.  But he found his way home eventually.  And then he stopped being lost,” Mom said.

Itachi and I don’t really get what she means by that.  Dad never gets lost.  If we go anywhere in the village with Dad, he always knows where he’s going.  Even if it’s late at night, we don’t get scared because Dad gets us home safely.  But I think that when adults say things that sound like they make sense, but don’t, means that they’re actually talking about something else.  I think it’s one of those things that I’ll have to ask Mom again in a few years when I understand things better.