Sehnsucht [Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter 41 - Alone

Chapter 41 - Alone

Itachi yawned as he sat at his desk in ANBU HQ. He had exhausted himself today with three emergency deployments and four routine assignments given, as well as piles of reports to go through. He had also put his new training regime into place and had been working with some of the more recent recruits to further develop their skill set. He had worked about 60 hours this week and almost as much last week. Sasuke was now out of the hospital, and he had spent as much of his free time with him as he could. He wouldn't go back into mission rotation for another month, at least, by Sakura's orders, and she would probably try to get him to stay longer if possible.

It had been great to spend so much time with him, and he had been at Sasuke's small apartment more than his own lately. It was in a building on the other side of town and was only a little bigger than his own place. When he had walked Sasuke back there after he was discharged from the hospital, it was clear to see that it hadn't been lived in, but it was still clean and relatively dust-free. Sasuke had muttered about Sakura cleaning up after him, and Itachi had smiled softly. Since he'd returned to Konoha, he hadn't even thought of where Sasuke's apartment was, or he probably would have done the same thing.

They had spent much of their time training and then time at the hospital for Sakura to heal them afterwards. She would spend the time grumbling about it, saying that they should know better. Despite her apparent annoyance with them, she was still gentle and got everything done quickly and professionally before sending them on their way. She had also been with them outside the hospital, and the trio had shared several meals together in the last few weeks. Naruto had also joined them plenty of times as well, despite him being quite busy. He had been training with the toads for a while but returned frequently to visit them and Hinata. Thankfully, none seemed to mind that Itachi was with them, and he was glad to be out of the apartment. As much as he wanted to hide away, he knew Hitori would be mad at him if he did. He didn't want to disappoint her even though she wouldn't know unless he told her.

But all it did was remind him that Hitori wasn't there. He frequently walked to what used to be her front door, which happened more when he was tired after a long day. When he realised his mistake, he would turn around and shuffle back to his place, which was much more full since she had left. He had come home from HQ the day she left and found that she had left him loads of her things. There was her small bookcase and many of her books, her lounge and coffee table, some of her linens, towels, and a lot of her food and the contents of her fridge. The three nights after she had left, he had fallen asleep on the lounge, comforted by her scent that still lingered on it. It had faded now, and he hadn't slept well by himself since then. He had fully expected it would take him time to adjust to her not being around, but it was taking him much longer than anticipated.

He would wake up at night and instinctively try to sense her across the hall, only to be disappointed. He would roll over to find the empty space in the bed next to him, and sometimes, he couldn't get back to sleep afterwards. Instead, he would head out and sit in his ancient armchair and read a book until he could either go back to sleep or until it was time for him to go to work. His sleep routine had suffered greatly, but he gradually got used to it. A lot of his nightmares went unchecked by the calming effect that she had on him, and he had awoken violently many nights after a vivid and traumatic dream and found himself unable to sleep for the rest of the night and sometimes into the next day.

Unfortunately, he could not have prepared himself for the sudden change, and although Hitori was away a lot on missions, this felt different. He knew she wouldn't just be away on a mission for a week and come back exhausted, then curl up in bed beside him. His emotions were a mix of pride and sorrow. He had been so proud to hear that she had been chosen for such an important position and job, but to lose her for two years after they had just taken the next step in their relationship was complicated. Besides all that, he did feel that things would be okay. They would miss each other, but they could still write to each other.