AN: K, so this is my first ever fic! Awesome! Anyway, this will be multi-chaptered, though at this point I'm not sure how many. I'm sort of following this plot as far as it takes me. Naturally, I don't own a single thing. Rated mature for language and sexual/violent content in later chapters. Enjoy!

The first time she found Kakashi, he was sleeping. Or at least he had been. Strong fingers clutched her forearms in a bruising grip and she felt like it would be her levee that broke before her bones. Her throat mangled out a sound that might have been his name or the name of another ghost. The fingers tried to crush into fists around her arms and she cried out, not fighting, only falling.

"Sakura?" One shocked eye, a heaving chest, a bang, and smoke.

"Oh…oh, no," she sobbed. The concrete floor of the storage unit was cold, and she lay folded as a blanket until sunlight marked another beginning.

Ten months of SACRIFICE, and BLOOD! Goddamn him! The thoughts shot from her narrowed eyes and into the dark where they settled around her. She could not go on. She could not start over.

She searched herself again, plunging the depths of her memory and intuition to make a guess. Any estimate would do. How far could a ninja of his caliber travel in a day, and how far could a heart stretch? Sakura could think of an answer to neither. She curled into the moth-eaten blanket and thanked the Universe that she had forgone a late dinner for a night at an actual inn, lonely and dirty as it may be.

If I find him, I might kill him, she thought, and didn't believe herself. Not really.

But she thought of Tsunade's trembling chin, the streak of lipstick which had never been out of place. Not once. She remembered the rough texture of the scroll and Kakashi's trembling strokes.

Sakura had not cried then. It had been too frightening, the dark pit of future that she stared into at that moment. Her eyes were far away and wide like she'd never shut them again.

After the first few days Tsunade had put her in hospital, convinced she was trying to starve herself.

"I will not have my head of E.R. waste away before my eyes!" Her face was angry, her voice was twisted, "My apprentice…" and the last sound was like a pained plea. She turned and slammed the door so hard the small window pane shattered. Sakura liked the sound. It made her feel…important.

Two days later she accepted the mission: bring Kakashi back. Her Hokage nodded tight and short and not many words passed between them. She left that very night, and decided she would break before she gave.

Now she was tired, and had learned to blink again. Had even learned to sleep, eventually. As far as she knew, no one else was tracking her target – and that was how she forced her brain to work – for money or for knowledge, and he was still alive. She could afford the rest. She didn't eat much. Tsunade would be furious.

Sakura wasn't sure if it was hatred or hurt or love or vengeance that spurred her on, gave her that sick feeling in her stomach at night, when she had time to feel. She decided it must be a combination of all of them and then decided they were all worthless. She thought of vengeance and snorted, nearly amused. She thought of the word obsession and of the people she knew.

The breeze was chilly and Sakura felt like breaking something. Crushing something delicate in her fingers. She knew she could do it, if only there were anything delicate left.

"Ghraah!" The skin of her knuckles split against the brick. Six months since she had woken him on that summer night in Earth Country, since her first failure, and still the man remained a scent on the breath of the strangers she met.

…at a bar…

…the inn downtown…

…strange figure in the trees…

She ground her molars and headed for the southern gate of the small Fire Country village. Kakashi was darting back and forth between countries by travelling close to the borders. Smart man. He knew what international communication was like these days. He knew a lot of valuable things.

But that was the Hokage's business.

If she left now, she could travel at least another two hours and make a camp between here and the next village. Some terrible fuel drove her and she knew she'd be alert even in her sleep. Besides, she was sharp in mind and body, chakra precise and steely as a scalpel. She could remove a man's skin without touching him. She had not been wasting her time during her search. She sweated through every minute, refining, meditating, focusing her intent.

She didn't want to kill him, but she knew she couldn't beat him either. And she knew he'd need to be unconscious before she could think about dragging him back to Konoha.

Where he'll be incarcerated and likely interrogated.

The thought was novel, not one she'd considered before. She felt satisfied and then a little guilty.

She let her mind go blank as she forged onward through the trees of the dense wood, eventually finding a place to rest as the night became cold. She laid her chakra like a blanket over the surrounding area and controlled it elegantly, not too much, nor too little. Just enough so that she'd know if someone approached.