The day she was born is where her problems began. Sakura's mother was in her hospital room, water had just broke, and she was ready to deliver her daughter. Only problem was, the doctor who broke her water was nowhere in sight. Sakura's father was absolutely furious and began to panic as the heart monitor connected to her mother starting beeping faster and louder. In his efforts to relax her and find a nurse, a short young nurse came running in, her long white hair coming loose from her bun, skidded to a stop at the door and immediately put on gloves and sat down in front of the bed where Sakura's mother was panting and looking weak and pale.
"Save my daughter, please." Sakura's father gasped out as he held her mother's hand.
"I'll do everything I can." She promised as she narrowed her eyes and went to work. A few moments passed before she gasped and called for another nurse. Working furiously, she removed the blanket covering her mother's stomach and pulled the hospital gown up more, exposing her skin to the now sticky room.
"Your daughter appears to have gotten stuck in the birth canal. I can save her, but I need to work fast. Mrs. Haruno, I am going to be applying pressure to the top of your abdomen and pressing downwards. A nurse will be waiting for your daughter's head to show so we can put a suction cup device on her head and slowly pull her out."
"Okay," she nodded as she squeezed her husband's fingers.
The second nurse came running in holding the suction device and immediately put on gloves and sat in the chair at the end of the bed.
"Ready?" The nurse asked, hands gently placed at the top of Sakura's mother's abdomen .
"Yes, Hatake-senpai." The nurse replied with a nod, suction device ready.
"Alright, let's save this baby girl. Mrs. Haruno, I need you to push as hard as you can, okay?." She smiled a small smile to calm Sakura's mother as she began to push on her abdomen. Sakura's mother pushed as hard as she could, trying to hold back her screams.
"I can see her head." The nurse sighed softly with relief as she placed the suction device on Sakura's head and gently turned the device on and pulled.
As Sakura was being delivered, the entire room was deathly still. Sakura's cry was never heard. After breaking the suction in her nose and mouth, Hatake-senpai grabbed the bluing baby girl and carried her to the incubator, placing a small oxygen mask over her mouth and rubbing her thumb quickly across her rib cage.
"Come on, Princess." Hatake-senpai whispered as she pumped the air bag. Seconds later, Sakura's cry rang out through the room loud and strong.
"There she is." She sighed with relief as she handed Sakura to the other nurse to be cleaned up and given to the happy parents. As the nurse reached out for Sakura, a diamond shaped birthmark slowly began to form on her forehead. With wide eyes, the nurse handed Sakura to the nurse and quickly left the room.
When Hatake-senpai reached her office, she went straight to the corkboard next to her chair and pulled off a picture of her newly born son. A diamond birthmark had formed on the lower right side of of his jaw.
"I just helped birth his soul mate." She gasped as she traced the birthmark with her thumb. "My sweet little Kakashi. I found your beloved." She added with a whisper. Working quick, she put the picture back and pulled out a small scroll and scribbled something down. As she finished, her office door slammed open, making her jump as she hid the scroll in her desk.
"Hatake-senpai, your husband requires your assistance immediately."
"Yes, yes I'm on my way." She sighed before waving the too serious intern away. As soon the door closed, she put her hand over her heart and took a deep breath.
"Damn, could've at least knocked." She sighed again before smiling over at the picture of Kakashi.
"I hope Sakura loves you as much as I do."
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Kakashi." Mintao's agonized words did nothing to help Kakashi feel better. They stood in the pouring rain in silence, staring at the memorial stone. Kakashi's father had committed suicide for abandoning his mission and rescuing a teammate, resulting in a failed mission. The villagers treated him as a traitor, even the very teammates he had saved. He took his own life late the previous night and Kakashi had found him. Not only had he lost his two friends, but now both his parents. Kakashi had never felt so alone.
Until, he heard the sound of a girl's heart wrenching sobs coming from behind the memorial. Confused, both Kakashi and Minato walked behind the memorial and saw a girl with bubble gum pink hair hugging her knees to her chest, the tears falling down her red cheeks showed no signs of stopping.
"Sakura-chan?" Mintao knelt in front of her and caressed her hair. "What's wrong?
"K-kakashi-kun's dad is-" She cut herself off with a sob so hard it broke Minato's heart. Looking up at Kakashi, he saw him rubbing his chin with a confused look on his face, his own sudden tears startled him even more.
"What is going on?" Kakashi mumbled as his body, moving on it's own, sat down next to Sakura and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. Minato's eyebrows rose as he watched Kakashi mumble something into her ear, immediately silencing her cries.
"Mintao-sensei? I'd like to see what my mom left behind for me." Kakashi suddenly spoke strongly as he hugged Sakura tighter. "I think she's my soulmate."
"What? Are you sure? Normally-"
'"Normally you don't meet your soulmate until you're an adult''' I know, but I… I can feel it. It's her." He sighed contently, closing his eyes as he laid his head against hers.
"Kakashi-kun, you're only fourteen." Minato tried to reason. "There's no way her mark has-"
"I saw it." He mumbled. "Her forehead."
Minato cocked his head to the side as he looked over at Sakura and noticed that her bangs had been roughly tousled away from her eyes, exposing her forehead and there Minato saw what Kakashi had meant. A dark purple, almost brown, diamond was on her forehead, a perfect match to Kakashi's.
"Oh, my." Minato gasped as he looked between the two, knowing full well that there would be some problems for them. This isn't the first time soulmates found each other at a young age, but it is the first time that the son of a supposed "traitor" was able to keep his. Normally, if you lose your hero status in your home village, your bloodline does not receive their fated love mark. But Kakashi seemed to be different. As he always did, but Minato wasn't worried about Kakashi. He was worried about Sakura.
"Kakashi-kun, I need to speak with Sakura-chan for just a moment, then I'll take you both for some ramen." Minato internally was dreading this conversation. Sakura must have known that Kakashi is her fated to be and followed them there. But how?
"Okay." He sighed as he slowly helped Sakura stand. After making sure she was okay to stand on her own, he smiled at her and slowly walked away before sprinting into the village.
"Sakura-chan," he addressed her, worry and fear laced his voice as he knelt down in front of her. "How did you know that you and Kakashi were fated? He never takes that mask off."
Sakura smiled a sad smile and ran her fingers through her hair. "When word got out that Hatake-san had taken his life, my forehead began to burn." She mumbled as she brought her hand up to touch the mark. "I became incredibly sad and began to cry, right in front of my mother." She added with a soft chuckle. "It was like I was feeling Kakashi-kun's pain. I don't really know how to explain it."
"Sakura-chan, Kakashi-kun is your fated love. But it seems that you two have developed your matching marks much faster than predicted. Did you know it was Kakashi-kun's mother who delivered you the day you were born?"
Sakura's eyes widened as she stared at Minato, waiting for him to continue.
"She saved your life. I, unfortunately, do not know the full story, but you were the last child she delivered before she died. It has occured to me now that this could be why you and Kakashi-kun are fated to be. You, the girl who lived, and a young man fated to die on the battlefield, are meant to be together. Perhaps you save him one day. Who knows." He shrugged with a smile. "But heed this warning, Sakura-chan, there are also problems that come with knowing your soulmate at such a young age."
"I know, Minato-sensei." She smiled again, lacing her fingers together. "I've been reading up on it after lunch. If fated loves meet before they come of age, the other must never leave their fated love's side. There are ninja known as Nusumareta Unmei or "Stolen Fate" who will stop at nothing to separate the two young fated ones and keep them apart until they come of age, which is the age of twenty one."
"Ah, yes, that." He coughed awkwardly. "I didn't expect you to know all that."
Sakura smiled up at him with pride. "I'm fully prepared to stay by his side or by any of the guardians who are specially assigned to each of us."
"You even know about the Fate Guardians." He mumbled, clearly impressed. "Well, Sakura-chan, I guess there isn't anything I need to tell you."
"If it helps any," She called out as he began to walk away. "I never planned on being alone with anyone that wasn't him." She smiled once more before happily sprinting to where Kakashi stood at the entrance of the memorial.
"For both your sakes, I hope you're right, Sakura-chan."
