Tidbits

by Jasmin Kaiba

Story tidbits that I've started but am unsure about continuing. KakaSaku ItaSaku, please give your honest opinion which should be continued and which not.

Story tidbits for KakaSaku and ItaSaku fanfiction

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I – KakaSaku

He was dirty, injured and in a particularly nasty mood as five ANBU escort him to the Hokage's office. Well... escort might not be the right word... because he's not willingly walking this path and two of them are almost carrying him. And he swears if Hyuuga sneers at him behind that mask one more time, he will aim a Chidori at his ass, consequences be damned.

The only positive thing about this whole situation is that it's the middle of the night and nobody save a few chuunin on watch duty have seen the entirely humiliating procedure. He keeps his eyes on his boots during the walk, he doesn't want to look at the ANBU nor the village, he just wants this thing to be over as fast as possible.

After what seemed like an eternity they're finally ascending the stairs of the Hokage tower. His guards are silent and almost impossible to make out; if two weren't grasping his arms he wouldn't even be aware they were there. Even Hyuuga is keeping silent, and that is almost a miracle. The blasted bastard hasn't stopped giving little remarks and sneers since his team has 'captured' him. Captured, ha! They wish. He'd come back on his own, they'd only intercepted him at the gates and dragged him where he'd been planning to go anyway. Stupid arrogant bastard probably thinks he can get a reward out of the whole ordeal. Well not if Sasuke has anything to do with it. He'd escape again if it meant pissing Hyuuga off and making sure he didn't get rewarded for something he's not done.

There is still light in the Hokage's office, he muses as he looks at the door. The Godaime has never struck him as one to work so late or to come right away when called. The Tsunade he remembered was as lazy as Kakashi, but didn't bother with stupid excuses like his evasive ex-sensei.

Now imagine his surprise when he enters the office, (or his guards throw him in there) and the only person he finds there is Kakashi.

The masked man is leaning against a bookcase near the window, his trusty porn book open, with his messy head stuck in it. Some people never change, Kakashi has always been the prime example of that.

The Copy Ninja looks up when the door opens and the only reaction to Sasuke standing there is a curved eye and a half-hearted, one-handed wave. "Hey, Sasuke. Heard you're back. Welcome."

Well damn. He should have known that Kakashi would be impassive. To await something else from a man that is the personification of apathetic and aloof is like waiting for a intelligent thought in Naruto's head. A waste of time and energy, period.

Sasuke decides that Kakashi's greeting is not worth a proper reply and only grunts, wondering what the jounin was even doing in the Hokage's office that late at night.

Kakashi, on the other hand, leaves his position by the open window – summer nights in Konoha are as hot as hell – and comes up to the front of the desk, to Sasuke's side and takes a casual seat on one of two chairs. Then he turns to Sasuke again, "You should sit too, Sasuke."

The younger man doesn't answer nor does he take the seat, he remains standing rigidly behind the second unoccupied chair.

It is then that the Hyuuga decides to speak again.

"It would be better if the prisoner does not sit, Hatake-senpai."

Kakashi lifts a silver eyebrow at the masked man and stretches lazily before turning front again and quietly answering, "Hmm... Things must have changed since I was an ANBU captain, Hyuuga-kun."

Sasuke barely suppressed a snicker as he imagined the arrogant Hyuuga blanching behind his mask. Everyone who's ever heard of the Copy Ninja knows that the cold and apathetic man was a prodigy much like Itachi had been, ANBU captain at thirteen, perhaps even younger, Sasuke wasn't sure, and was currently the strongest shinobi after the Hokage in Konoha. For the last two and a half decades, give or take a few years. To call out to the Copy Ninja was unheard of.

"I apologize, Hatake-senpai, I didn't-"

Kakashi waved a dismissive hand. "Drop it, Hyuuga-kun. I'm just an old senile man, after all."

A new voice broke through at this and Sasuke flinched, "Will you stop talking such rubbish, Kakashi? Seriously."

Kakashi sweat-dropped and stood, turning to greet the newcomer and Sasuke braced himself. Even though he hasn't heard it in years, he knew this voice. This very female, very authoritative voice. Gulping silently and clenching his fists, Sasuke turned around.

And it was Sakura that stood before him. Very different and older but definitely Sakura. Her viridian orbs were gazing sternly at Kakashi and Sasuke took the opportunity to look at her.

She didn't look one bit like the fifteen year old he's seen the last time. At twenty two Sakura was almost not recognizable. First thing he noticed was that she's grown her hair out again. From what he could see it reached the small of her back and was completely unbound, a bit mussed and windblown, she must have been in a hurry. Her emerald orbs provided the most prove on how much she'd changed. They lacked the innocent, naive light he'd always seen there before, she seemed to have been stripped bare of that, if the slightly jaded, hardened look could be used as any sort of identifier. One thing didn't change, though. Sakura would always be a loving, caring, compassionate person who wore her heart on the sleeve. He could see the slight nervousness and apprehension in her gaze.

She was beautiful; he concluded looking at her gentle features. The baby fat was gone, her face was slender and her bone construction seemed to flow. Facial features aside, she was the type that radiated beauty from inside. Again her eyes were the most catching feature, burning with a fire so strong, he was drawn into it. Those burning emeralds also showed the sharpness of intelligence, a kunoichi of her caliber has to be smart, and he knew from the past days that Sakura had a genius hidden behind the slightly bigger forehead she'd finally grown into. In reverence she now looked slightly like a younger, milder and pink version of the Godaime, down to the small blue diamond on the center of her forehead. Sakura was the type of exotic beauty you found only seldom and when you do they're usually either kunoichi or prostitutes. Good thing she was like her mentor in that aspect.

Her hitai-ate wasn't holding her hair back anymore, it served a much more complicated purpose, of securing the holster of the huge axe she carried on her back across her front (he didn't know what to make of that and didn't even want to think about it).

She wore black now. It suited her, enhancing her floral pink hair, and huge green eyes, more defining the paleness of her fine features.

The black scarp of a shirt that only reached under her bust (which remained quite small, though he suspected was bigger unbound, but it suited her, she would look ridiculous with a bigger chest) was armored, with metal plates worked into the material, a mesh shirt covered her stomach to her hips. Said hips were encased in too short shorts with a black medical apron over it, her weapon pouch and kunai holster in place. What caught most of his attention was an over-standing metal arm-guard that stretched from her right wrist to her elbow, fastened to a long black fingerless glove. Her left arm was covered in a high glove too; this one identical to what the ANBU wore. Sakura was apparently the type of kunoichi that chose clothes which were the most practical and comfortable and completely ignored how distracting those could be for men. The most distracting parts of her outfit (beside the shorts, really) were her knee high black leather boots with metal shin-guards worked into them. All in all Sakura looked like a kunoichi, despite the petal pink hair.

"Yare, yare, always so stern with me, Sakura-chan." Kakashi's voice shook him out of his observing and he caught Sakura shaking her head at Kakashi before grinning and swatting the older man lightly on the arm.

He didn't have anymore time to ponder on Sakura's appearance as a familiar laugh reached his ears and he looked over Sakura's shoulder to catch a glance of his once best friend and brother. Naruto would always be Naruto, even if he didn't look the same anymore, Sasuke concluded as the blond knucklehead slung an arm over Sakura's shoulders and laughed lauder. "You should know better than to provoke Sakura-chan's temper, Kaka-sensei."

Kakashi glared at the hated nickname and Sakura laughed with her best friends before he let go of her shoulders and walked around the desk and faced Sasuke.

Sasuke meanwhile observed his former friend. Naruto truly didn't look the same anymore. His blond hair was still spiky and unruly, but it was longer and messier, falling over his hitai-ate and into his face. His blue eyes were the same mischievous, devious sparkling orbs of the once-prankster but were somehow sharper, wiser, more attuned to his surroundings. The blond seemed constantly on guard even as two ANBU stood directly behind, obviously guarding him.

Naruto was taller, and heavier built, but what stunned Sasuke the most were the clothes. The blond wore a standard jounin black turtleneck shirt and metal arm guards, sand colored pants tucked into calf high brown leather boots, with his weapon holsters in place, his hitai-ate still sat on his forehead, the material still black but much longer and reached down to mid-back. But the probably most outrageous piece of clothing was the knee-long orange cloak with quarter sleeves and a black fire pattern along the hem and the bottoms of the sleeves. Something about that coat awoke Sasuke's memory and he looked up, over Naruto's head, staring at the face of the Yondaime Hokage, who looked exactly like Naruto only without the whiskers pattern on his slightly paler cheeks. So the rumors had been true and the legendary youngest Hokage ever, Namikaze Minato, really was Naruto's father. The proof of that stared everyone in the face.

Calmly, like he had his long lost best friend turned nukenin before him every day, Naruto sat in the Hokage's chair and looked at Sasuke. The latter was still getting over his shock – Naruto is the Hokage? – as Sakura walked around as well and stood slightly behind Naruto's chair and Kakashi reclaimed his seat again.

For the first time in seven years the three ex-teammates stood face to face, and it was bound to be a historical reunion.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in..." Naruto grinned and seized his still-brother up. Behind him, Sakura laughed quiety and pointed to the Hyuuga ANBU Captain in the corner.

"Falcon, Naruto. Neji-san is the falcon."

Naruto looked confused for a moment, but realization dawned and he grinned brighter than before. "Right. It's somehow fitting that it'd be a falcon that finally manages to catch you, Sasuke."

Sasuke stiffened and glared, before turning to snarl at the hated Hyuuga.

"He didn't catch me. I came of my own free will, he just intercepted me at the gates."

Sakura raised a tweezed eyebrow at this and turned beryl colored eyes to the masked ANBU.

"Really now?"

Sasuke noticed the Hyuuga tensing and smirked.

"Moegi and Konohamaru are on gard duty, they'll know the truth. Izumo, Kotetsu!" Sakura clapped in her hands and two chuunins that hadn't been there as Sasuke had been brought in, entered. They looked half-asleep and weren't even clad properly in their uniforms, but they bowed and looked a Sakura. "I didn't wake you for nothing," she addressed them. "Go tell Moegi and Konohamaru to come here, and take their posts till they come back."

"Hai, Sakura-sama," the two aids bowed and puffed out, leaving the room quiet. Uncomfortably so.

But Sakura still had more to say and turned to Hyuuga next. "Neji-san, I'll have to ask you to pay a visit to Ibiki-san first thing tomorrow morning. I hate to do this, but one of your squad members has given me a completely different story, and looking at it now, only Uchiha seems to have been in a fight. We've established before that even ANBU are not allowed to ommit details or twist facts. This, though, looks like the truth hadn't been told at all. I'm afraid we'll have to suspense the ones who'd been lying. Kakashi," she looked at silver-haired elite and nodded, standing up.

"Hyuuga-kun, I'm afraid that you and your squad will have to be taken off this case and off duty for a unknown amount of time. Now please hand me your mask and I'll escort you to the disciplinary office."

The Hyuuga took off his mask and was watchinf Kakashi slip it from his fingers, as Sakura interruped. "No, we need you here, Kakashi. My first OP will take him as soon as Moegi and Konohamaru come."

As on key-word the two young chuunin entered and bowed to the Hokage. Naruto stood up.

"Konohamaru, Moegi, has Uchiha Sasuke tried to enter the village on his own, or has he been brought in forcibly by the ANBU?"

The chuunin exchanged a look of confusion before Konohamaru shrugged, "He's been through the gate as we called the ANBU. He's was asking to see you, Hokage-sama, as they arrived and took him, only telling us to keep quiet."

The Hyuuga was in huge trouble, Sasuke concluded as he watched Sakura's eyes narrow and the corners of Naruto's mouth slipping down.

"That's enough, thank you." Sakura sent the youngsters out before turning to Hyuuga again. "This is a breach against the rules, I'm afraid, Neji-san." She sighed. "Take him." Suddenly two ANBU clad in white uniforms were there, claiming Hyuuga by the arms, much in the same fashion Sasuke had been threated by Hyyuga's men, no twenty minutes prior. "Escort him to the disciplinary office and go wake Ibiki-san, this'll have to be settled tonight and Kakashi is indespendible." The two ANBU OPs nodded without a word and disappeared just as quiety as they've arrived.

Please tell me if you think it should be continued and uploaded.

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II – KakaSaku

There is no happily ever after for shinobi.

That was a universal rule and the first thing they were told at the academy. Do not hope for personal happiness and dreams fulfilled if you want to be a successful shinobi. All shinobi who've lived long enough to see the real cruelty of their chosen lifestyles have made peace with that. They were after all, soldiers. And soldiers live to fight and to die an honorable death.

That had been a concept that the young Sakura simply couldn't understand. What does it mean to die an honorable death? And why should anyone strive forward to that? Wasn't the instinct of every human, every living thing to live and fight to stay alive? Apparently being a ninja meant defying the most natural of instincts that even the smallest of animals followed.

That was why she'd always had trouble finding her own nindo, her way of the ninja. Sasuke had his revenge and defeating his brother to strive for, Naruto wanted to be Hokage and change something, but she had no such inspiration to guide her. She was only beginning her journey as a ninja and was already lost.

She deemed herself a hopeless case and was ready to give up.

But someone seemed to believe even in her meager and poor abilities. Kakashi was either blind or simply ignorant enough to think she of all people could get through the Chuunin Exams. But even if she knew that she was far from the best candidate for such a test and passing it of all things, she wasn't going to disappoint her sensei by giving up before she even tried. She admired and hero-worshipped Kakashi enough to want to prove herself to him, even though she was well aware that it was hopeless.

She'd tried. And she'd failed. But she hasn't given up and that was enough for Kakashi to tell her that he was proud of her after her fight with Ino. If one could call it a fight. But Kakashi was proud of her. He was proud of her. That made her absurdly happy.

Bad things seemed to follow her every step it seemed to her as Sasuke left her on a cold stone bench to follow a madman in his stupid and mindless pursuit of power. But she still wanted him back, no matter what he might have to say about that. And so she made Naruto promise that he'd bring him back. Only years later she understood how selfish she'd been and what immense pressure she'd put on Naruto's shoulders.

Back then she'd only hoped that their search party would come back with a kicking and protesting Sasuke in tow. Not heavily wounded and only barely alive. When Kakashi brought back an unconscious Naruto on his back and she saw the injuries Sasuke had inflicted on him, she'd realized that her childish wishes were far from the hard cold reality of Sasuke's twisted perception of the world around him and the abilities a curse from a madman has given him.

She hardened her resolve and began taking her training with Tsunade more seriously, drinking in every word from the Sannin's lips, pouring over medical scrolls all night long and healing healing healing till she run out of chakra and passed out. Then Tsunade started combat training with her, saying that she was a ninja first, then a healer and even if she was born to be a medic-nin she needed to concentrate on her fighting abilities as much as on her healing. That was the hard part. Even with her naturally unnatural chakra control and her affinity with genjutsu she just couldn't bring herself to fight in earnest. But Tsunade wouldn't have any of that and attacked her mercilessly, again and again, forcing her to defend herself, screaming at her to not just evade like a damn coward but to attack her, damn it!

And she'd done it. The competitive side of her had woken up fully and she'd started attacking her shishou back, not just jumping around and away from the Slug Princess' lethal punches and kicks. Her defense was good, more than good, Tsunade had told her, but she needed more speed, more force, more technique behind her attacks. That meant back to basics for Sakura. Her taijutsu and her weapon handling needed more work than she'd first thought. Soon it became clear that if she really wanted to get stronger and reach her full potential it wouldn't be enough to rely to Tsunade. The older kunoichi was Hokage after all and didn't have the time it would need to train Sakura fully. So she turned elsewhere for help.

A smart girl like her knew how and where to seek help. It was fairly easy to convince Lee and with that Gai-sensei to help her with her taijutsu training. The Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha had glowed when she'd asked him if he'd please spare some of his precious time for her and teach her some of his superior and magnificent taijutsu techniques. Gai-sensei had cried for his favorite student's happiness and declared that he shall help the Beautiful Chibi Blossom achieve her youthful goal as well. She was grateful for their help, but was immensely relived when it was over. There was only so much a person could take from those two and stay sane.

Getting Tenten to help her with her weapon handling was harder. And it didn't help that Lee was constantly around to beg the other girl to have a heart and help his Beautiful Blossom. Sakura had the feeling that the older girl disliked her for some reason. The bunned weapon-mistress of Konoha had only given in when Hyuuga Neji had snapped at her to just do it, if only to get Lee to shut up.

Weapon training with Tenten proved to be as hard as Kakashi's training had been. The brunette had drilled her again and again in the proper way of throwing kunai, shuriken and senbon till she could hit bull's eye with her eyes closed and back turned. She'd practically tortured her through the handling of a katana and other larger weapons a shinobi might come to use in their life. Tenten was weapon obsessed and Sakura could see why Neji trained mostly with her. Her accuracy and force with the sharp and deadly weapons was frightening to say the least. But Sakura was happy with what she'd learned.

Next came convincing lazy ass Shikamaru to help her already sharp mind get sharper and teach her how to devise tactics. That had been a piece of work. All of her pleading did nothing; Shikamaru only yawned and said it was 'too troublesome'. After a week of fruitless efforts, she'd turned to drastic measures and told Ino of her little dilemma. The blonde was nothing if not persuasive with her teammate, and Shikamaru had agreed after only an hour of Ino pestering him.

Training with Shikamaru was playing shogi and go and trying to beat him. Needless to say that she'd never succeeded in that, but after a time she'd started to present a real challenge to Shikamaru and the lazy genius had complimented her with a smirk and shooed her off, saying there wasn't anything he could teach her anymore and to just work on it and someday she'll be able to beat him.

She'd completed her training in time for the next Chuunin Exams and this time she'd passed with flying colors and Tsunade was the one who was proud of her. It only hurt that Naruto and Kakashi weren't there to witness how much she'd changed.

With Naruto's return to the village came the days of a reunited Team 7, she realized as the two of them faced against Kakashi, once again in pursuit of two tiny bells. To say that the man was frustrating would be an understatement, but they'd managed to get the great Copy Ninja to break a sweat, and really who would have thought that Naruto could be so cunning? But, she relented, you have to give a prankster what he's due.

The first mission with old Team 7 minus one, proved to be the most difficult and dangerous one of her life till then and that was saying much, 'cause she was nearly fifteen and many ninja didn't get to live so long. She'd been sheltered. By her sensei who always made sure that she was in the background and protected before diving head-first into a fight, by teammates who jumped in front of her when enemies attacked and who deflected weapons meant to harm her, by her shishou who despite insisting she get as much combat training as medical training, made sure she was stuck in the hospital more often than taking missions.

Some of that had paid off, she realized when she almost worked a miracle and saved a seemingly doomed Kankurou's life. She wouldn't have been able to do it if she hadn't spent so much time in the hospital's research wing with Shizune working on poisons, antinodes and other ways to fight it. The draw back was that she was still as frightened by high-level enemies as she'd been with twelve. She hadn't been able to look the clone of Uchiha Itachi in the eye in their confrontation, a fact that still shamed her.

Short after she'd saved Kankurou, an achievement she was proud of, she was faced with her first real fight to death. If it hadn't been for Chiyo-baa-sama, Akasuna no Sasori, the Puppet Master, would have been her last enemy. She was sure of that. But thanks to the tough old kunoichi she was alive and Gaara was brought back to life and her face adored Bingo Books world-wide saying that she was the one who first killed an Akatsuki member.

She later discovered that it hadn't been a smart move on Suna's part to put her in the Bingo Book. The onslaught of missions she suddenly had thanks to that, tampered with her daily training, her work in the hospital and her attempts to get used to being on a team again, with Naruto, Kakashi and that weirdo Sai, no less. But in the end it all worked out.

Partially.

She was sixteen and decidedly one of the prettiest kunoichi in Konoha, not to mention one of the most skilled and deadliest. And that got her assigned on a mission that nearly ruined her carefully collected and re-attached scarps of a life.

Few days after her sixteenth birthday, Tsunade called her to her office, a mission she said. When she got there, she found her mentor in a heated discussion with her team-leader. Heated on Tsunade's part, at least, but Kakashi was distressed and most probably pissed under that crafted facade of his and the mask that hid his face from others.

It was an espionage mission, Tsunade explained, one with a twist, Kakashi added as the busty Hokage glared at him.

She was to travel to Lightening Country, to a city near Kumogakure and find a man named Kazuo. That won't be hard, Tsunade told her, he was well known in that city, and stood out among the townspeople with his remarkably good looks and expensive clothes. The city itself was poor; he stood out like quite the sore thumb. He liked women, exotic ones, young and beautiful, and who could fit that description better than a sixteen year old kunoichi with pink hair, snow white skin and emerald green eyes?

Her job was to seduce him and get him to a private place where she could drug him with a truth serum she herself had worked on with Shizune and get the information she needed. She was also to kill him afterwards. Apparently, her target had nothing to do with the shinobi world and wouldn't recognize her from the Bingo Books, but he'd pissed off some dangerous people who paid Tsunade good money for the info and assassination they wanted done as soon as possible. Tsunade ranked the mission B, the man was a civilian after all.

But the blonde Hokage didn't know that the civilian had a few rouge nin as body guards, that one had recognized her immediately and warned his boss, who'd drugged her in turn and taken her innocence in the most brutal of ways. Unfortunately for him and his thugs, she managed to burn the drug off faster with her medical jutsu and had killed Kazuo as brutally as he'd raped her. In her grief and fury she'd ripped out his arms, driven a kunai in his genitals and ripped his eyes from the sockets before driving her chakra-laden fist through his skull. After killing the low level shinobi that worked for him, all fists through the skull or chest, she'd sat down among the bleeding corpses and cried. She'd cursed Tsunade for not getting better information, for sending her on that mission, for not listening to Kakashi as he protested. She'd accused the masked ninja of sheltering his former student. In that moment Sakura wished Kakashi had sheltered her more or not at all.

She couldn't remember how she'd gotten back to Konoha, only that she stumbled bloody and tired, with ripped clothes and tear-stained cheeks in her mentor's office and only after Tsunade and Shizune had cleaned the blood from her face and hands did she tell what happened in a hollow, pained voice as more tears fell from her eyes.

Her shocking entrance and awkward stumble through the village had quickly become the talk among the people and reached Kakashi's ears. He'd gotten to Tsunade's office just in time to hear her explanation of what had happened and snapped. She'd never seen the aloof and detached ninja so emotional before. He'd yelled, yelled at Tsunade that he'd known it wouldn't end well and that now she has it, an innocent girl is paying the price for her mistake. Now it was on her to explain to Sakura just why she's been hurt so much and he would be damned if the precious girl on his team came out with emotional trauma after this.

Then he'd proceeded to sweep Sakura in his arms and despite the Hokage's angry protests that she needs medical attention walked out with her, saying he was going to take care of her and that all the medical attention she needed she could provide for herself better than the simpletons at the hospital. To say that the Hokage was pissed at him was an understatement.

He'd brought her back to his apartment where he'd wiped her tears with a handkerchief, given her clean clothes and towels, leading her to the bathroom and saying that there was hot water and that she take as much time as she needed. She'd mechanically taken off her tattered clothes and slipped into the shower, letting the hot water sooth her somehow and had cried again, thinking of how gently Kakashi had treated her. After the calming and cleansing bath, she'd set on healing her wounds and the torn skin of her most private of places. She didn't cry as she did it. What was done was done, she told herself, she wasn't the first kunoichi to lose her virginity on a mission nor was she the last and she certainly wasn't the only girl that was raped brutally. But she was one of the very few that have gotten revenge just as brutally, and that made her feel slightly better. Besides, she wasn't alone, she of all people had a lot of friends, who all loved and supported her, even if she lacked in the parents department she had a strong and dependable mother figure, who she loved, even if it was slightly her fault that she was in this mess, she had Kakashi who would be a father figure if she could bring herself to view him as such, she had the best brothers a girl could possibly ask for, idiots that they were, she had the perfect older sister and just the best girlfriends in the world. What more does she need? Well a boyfriend would be nice, and having Sasuke back wouldn't hurt either, but that was pretty much irrelevant at the moment.

And that was how she found herself curled on Kakashi's couch in his boxers and shirt that could serve her as a dress, drinking tea he'd prepared and talking about nothing as she looked around his small and mostly bare apartment.

After a lengthy silence she decided to talk again, "Say, Kaka-sensei..." she trailed off and he looked at her expectantly. She only called him Kaka-sensei when she was in a good mood and that was a good sign.

"Hmmm?"

She sighed and looked at him, "Why is your apartment so empty? Don't you have more things?"

He too omitted a sigh and his visible charcoal grey eye looked around his small living room. "I've been a shinobi all my life, Sakura-chan. Most of that time I've spent away on missions. I've never had the need for more things than the basics."

Her green eyes were appeasing him and after a moment she pouted, "You really are no fun, Kaka-sensei."

He only shrugged, but she continued. "Do you have anything other besides furniture, clothes and your porn books in here?"

He scratched his head and grinned, "Well, I have di-"

"Don't!" She cut him off. "Don't even go there saying you have dishes and toiletries, because I'll seriously hit you if you do. Leave out the two sole pictures you have in your bedroom, too. That's about the only personal stuff you have in this place. How can you live here?"

Same as before, thank you!

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III – KakaSaku

The last time he saw her, she was standing at the village gates, waving cheerfully to them, Sai at her side, stoic and unmoving. It was her first S-ranked mission since Naruto became Hokage and even if he was scared witless at whatever may encounter her on this mission, he was also grateful that she'd have Sai at her side. He would protect her.

He didn't know why, but for the first time since he became a shinobi he didn't want to see a friend and companion go on a mission that they could never return from. He'd always expected from his friends not to worry or fret when he took the countless unclassified missions and returned it with the same sentiment. They were all ninja, after all, soldiers for hire, assassins, thieves, tools of the villages they swore their loyalties to, emotions were never welcome and often times presented a burden, that's why the shinobi laws existed. Friends were lost on the battlefield, family was lost, one's own life was never secure, so why needlessly burden it with worry?

That was until she came along with her sunny smile, bright eyes and big loving heart. She even found it in herself to love him, that foolish girl. And he loved her, too. Last night he'd finally told her. She'd cried, and laughed, and hugged him and rained kisses on his face and called him a fool and idiot for not telling her sooner. He felt he was more of a fool for telling her at all. Now she had one more burden on those delicate, white shoulders he'd kissed endlessly in that dark night while she clung to him and whispered his name brokenly.

He loved her and he knew that if she didn't come back from this mission that he'd find a way to end his existence and follow her. She knew it too and had promised to return, safe and sound and successful. She wanted to make him proud she'd said. Didn't she know that he'd always been proud of her? Such a silly, blind girl.

And then they were gone. A group of friends and family watched as a black and a pink dot disappeared on the horizon and the gates closed behind them. He felt as if those very same gates have fallen upon his chest, suffocating him.

He went home, hers, because his wasn't home anymore, not after last night. In the loft where she'd lived the past five years everything bore her name and that gave him comfort. It didn't look like she'd just gone on a potentially life-ending mission, it almost seemed like she'd stepped out to the grocery store and would be back any minute.

There was a book on the kitchen counter, she'd been reading it last night when he'd dropped by unannounced and changed their lives forever. 'Chakra and Blood flow', typical Sakura, he chuckled hollowly. The coffee pot was still warm, his cup half full, her empty, he didn't want to think it held any meaning other than that she liked coffee more than him. The bed was unmade, and her pajamas were strewn all over the room together with her underwear from last night, a towel was draped over the couch, the radio was humming in the background.

It all seemed to comfort him. She'll be back, it said. He wanted to believe it.

She was supposed to be gone fifteen days. On day sixteen, Naruto send out two ANBU platoons. "Bring me back my family," he'd ordered the two captains. Later he'd grinned and told him, "I'll scold them for being lazy and late. You're rubbing off on them, Kaka-sensei."

Kakashi had a feeling Naruto didn't believe those words himself. There were tears hidden in those bright cerulean orbs.

The ANBU came back on day eighteen, empty-handed. The voice behind the red rodent mask still echoed in Kakashi's head.

"They seem to have completed the mission successfully, but were ambushed on the way back. Judging from the sight of the battlefield they were sorely outnumbered. Destruction was permeating that forest, trees were split apart, scorched, covered in ink, the ground was broken completely, every stone seemed overturned, blood was everywhere. We didn't find any bodies. Searching for them was fruitless and we came back to report what we could. I'm sorry."

Didn't those ANBU knew that 'I'm sorry' didn't cut it? I'm sorry didn't bring back two precious lives nor did it lessen the pain. It only made it worse.

Shinobi duty has finally taken everything from him. He wasn't ready to sacrifice anything anymore.

On day twenty, Kakashi resigned from duty and Naruto only nodded, signing the papers and smiling through tears, saying that he understood.

Only he didn't. Nobody ever could.

Everything he had left now was a loft still smelling of her and emanating her warmth and a book full of pictures and memories, and one night of happiness, love and passion stored to forever be cherished in his heart.

On day twenty-two he was awoken rudely from a dream about her by young chuunin banging on the door of her home.

He'd opened the door, angry and not bothering to show it. But the chuunin did pay much attention, quickly delivering his message.

"Hokage-sama sent for you to come to the hospital, Hatake-sempai, it's urgent!"

Grumbling that he was retired and why couldn't they just let him die in piece, he threw on his vest and sandals and followed the hyper young boy running in front of him.

At the hospital a nurse was waiting for him and led him to a room wordlessly, leaving him for a second to wait outside before coming back out and telling him to enter. He did, fully expecting to see Naruto on a bed, down from food-poisoning. It wouldn't be the first time.

He did find Naruto. Sitting on the edge of a bed, clutching an achingly familiar, small, white hand, the Rukodaime looked like a child on Christmas. On the other side of the bed stood another blond Hokage, this one female, older and since long retired. A hand that was showing the signs of her true age lay gently, lovingly on a head full of radiant pink hair that he never thought he'd see again. Her almond eyes were overflowing with tears and she wasn't bothering to hide it. Remembering how she'd broken down at the news of Sakura's death, Kakashi wasn't surprised.

Finally coming back to himself, his mismatched eyes met tearful emerald ones and he felt like he would break down.

"Kakashi..." Her voice sounded so small, so broken, he prayed to all Gods he could think of to not let this be a dream.

Naruto stood up and he took his place, grasping her small, trembling hand like a life-line and she cried harder, small sobs escaping her pale lips.

Then she started talking. "We completed our mission just on time... Sai found the guy and I injected the poison on the last night, after we've collected all the information. We immediately started on the journey home. Hours from the town, deep into the lush forest we felt presences closing in on us. They were many and fast, we wouldn't have made it far by running, so we stopped and prepared to battle. They were high-ranked, at least jounin level, and no less than twenty, but we weren't dreaming of giving up. I told Sai that if I had to go down then I'll make sure to take as much of those assholes with me as possible. He only nodded and we fought. For a while we had the upper hand. They obviously hadn't expected my strength and Sai's ink creatures, I caught many in genjutsus and Sai slaughtered them mercilessly with his katana, anyone who came near me fell from the chakra scalpels. We almost killed them all when one activated a smoke bomb. Suddenly everything was black and I realized I've fainted when I woke up in a cell. Sai told me they'd taken us there, and he'd overheard that they were waiting for their leader to decide what to do with us."

She paused and they all waited, not wanting to press her, Kakashi only squeezed her fingers comfortingly and she smiled at him.

"A man came soon," she continued, "and leered how Sai would be killed and I would be given to some partner of theirs as a toy. When he was gone Sai turned to me and said that he'd promised I'd be safe and return to Konoha, and that he'll do anything to keep his promise. Not knowing what he meant I agreed and set on freeing myself. The assholes have bound my hands behind my back, palms outward to prevent jutsu, obviously thinking that was why I was so strong. The nap I had from the gas in the smoke had returned my chakra fully and I destroyed my restrains and healed myself, and did the same for Sai. We escaped through a hole I punched in the wall. Be we were surrounded in the courtyard and my chakra was almost half gone already. Sai whipped out a small scroll hidden in his boot together with a brush and made a bird. He ordered me to mount it. Believing he'd be right behind me I did. The bird took off and I realized he'd stayed back. I called him, I screamed but he ignored me and the bird kept flying away from the place. Over that forest it started going down, lower and lower and ten feet above the ground it became ink again-" she cut herself off with a sob, leaning on Kakashi, her free hand clutching his shirt. "I landed hard and I knew that Sai was dead. His creatures disappeared completely unless they were destroyed. I couldn't go back there to check, I just run in Konoha's direction as fast as I could. I'm sorry, Naruto."

---

IV – KakaSaku

Years ago when her good friend passed away from a gruesome disease, Tsunade found herself with a scarp of a girl with pink hair, viridian eyes and keen intelligence in her two year old mind. When Shizune had presented the little thing to the blond, the Slug Princess had stared at somewhat bashful, yet bold green eyes, staring right back at her under a thick pink fringe meant to conceal the slightly wider than neccessary forehead. If she'd had any doubts of what kind of person Kikyou's daughter would be, it all vanished in the instant the said girl said, "Mommy's gone, pwease take cawe of me, 'Unade-sama."

She still sometimes called her "'Unade-sama", out of sheer stubborness.

Sakura had reminded her of herself and Tsunade had promised, to Kikyou and her own scarred heart, that she would make sure the girl had a happy childhood and became the strong kunoichi she was destinied to be. When she left Konoha she took her late lover's niece, Shizune as apprentice, and her surrogate daughter with her as a reminder to someday come back to a village she'd stopped seeing as home.

The pink-haired, tiny excuse of a girl grew and developed amazingly. At five she could draw out and somewhat control her chakra, at six she detected a genjutsu that had slipped past Shizune, at seven she'd learned all there was to learn about medicine and poisons from books, at eight she was well past academy level in book knowledge, at nine she controlled her chakra better than Tsunade did at twelve, at ten she started learning and mastering medical jutsu that Shizune had taken up at fifteen, at eleven she demolished everything in sight in a Tsunade-like fashion that Shizune would never be able attain, at twelve she could feel chakra from miles away, at twelve and half her mind was so sharp that no genjutsu could hold her longer than a second and a half. Tsunade was as proud as any mother could be and was sure that if fate had gifted her and Dan with a daughter that she would be just like Sakura, intelligent, head-strong, stubborn, brash, temeperamental and incredibly gifted.

So when her former teammate and secretly missed bane of her existence, Jiraiya, came to look for her with a blonde that practiculary drooled over her surrogate daughter in tow, to inform her of Sandaime's passing and Konoha's wish for her to become the next Hokage, Tsunade put up only a minimum of resistence. Her precious little girl needed to become an official shinobi anyway and what better place than Konoha, right? Especially with her as the Hokage.

When they arrived in Konoha, Tsunade started second-guessing herself and thinking that maybe she'd gotten more than she'd bargained for. Her stupid luck really never held out for longer than two seconds flat.

"We have two comatose patients that've been waiting for your attention, Tsunade," Jiraiya grinned at her as soon as she'd been introduced as Godaime and led to her new office, where paperwork was already waiting.

"And Bushy Eyebrows, Baa-chan! You must heal him, too!" the blond Yondaime look-alike with whiskers shouted as Shizune handed her the charts of Uchiha Sasuke and Hatake Kakashi, Sharingan induced coma for both.

"What's bushy eyebrows?" Sakura eyed Naruto with distaste as she set a tea set in front of Tsunade.

The blond trouble-maker only grinned brighter. "Not what, Sakura-chan, who!"

The pinkette only rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot. And stopped calling me Sakura-chan as if we're friends or something. I don't even know you."

Tsunade smiled lightly as her daughter sneered at the blond who didn't seem to take anything to heart and only beamed at her more, making Sakura's eyebrow twitch in irritation. The girl had her temper, Tsunade knew that and Jiraiya's little apprentice was going to get a taste of it sooner rather than later if he continued pissing the easily irritated girl off.

Not wanting a Naruto-shaped hole in the office walls at least for now, Tsunade redirected everyone's attention to the two, or rather three, patients needing her help. "And who, pray tell, is Bushy Eyebrows, Naruto? I can't heal anyone without a name and chart."

"Rock Lee, thirteen years old, genin," Jiraiya supplied when Naruto looked at her confused. "His leg and arm were crushed with sand at the Chuunin Exams and the medic-nins have told him that he won't be able to walk anymore, let alone continue his shinobi training."

"Crushed by sand?" Sakura gasped and Tsunade laced her fingers in front of her face, thinking.

"By a Suna nin I presume?" the newly appointed Hokage inquired, making Sakura look at her with suspicion and Jiraiya nod.

"Yes," the Toad Sage confirmed. "Sabaku no Gaara."

Shizue flinched and Tsunade scowled, that wasn't a good sign at all.

"The one-tailed jinchuuriki?" Sakura muttered and Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"It doesn't mean he's a bad guy!" the blond exclaimed, something fierce glinting behind his cerulean orbs. Too bad Sakura wasn't the type of girl to back down when someone yelled at her.

"I didn't say he was bad, you dolt!" she retorted just as hotly, emerald orbs spitting green fire at the irritiating orange-clad ninja. "I said he was dangerous! And from what I know Sabaku no Gaara is called the ultimate weapon of Sunagakure no Sato! He's a psychopat that enjoys killing and craves blood! He's not a bad guy, he's a monster!"

Suddenly the air in the room shifted and all eyes turned to Naruto as he glared at the pink-haired kunoichi. Tsunade and Sakura could see his chakra swirling in enraged waves around him, but the younger medic didn't think of backing down.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" shouted the blond. "Gaara is no monster! He's lonely and misunderstood and feared and hated! He has no one who loves him, so how can he know what love is, huh?"

"And what do you know about that, huh?" Sakura shouted back, unfazed by his anger. Shizune was fidgeting, but neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya made a move to stop the two younger ninja and she figured that Sakura could probably hold her own.

"I know more than you do!" Naruto clenched his fists and spit at Sakura. "I know more than anyone! I'm a jinchuuriki, too! And I'm not a monster! The Kyuubi sealed away in my body is, but not me!"

"Enough!" Tsunade suddenly barked and Sakura swallowed the scatching remark she'd been about to throw at the blond genin. It was probably because her mentor and surrogate mother had guessed what Sakura was about to say and decided it was better to stop the imulsive girl before she was sorry. And she most likely would have been sorry. What she'd almost said to Naruto would've hurt him badly and Sakura would've ended up feeling guilty for it. It only shoved how well Tsunade knew her.

"We don't have time for your childish shouting matches, children. Three patients are waiting and I assume more are at the hospital after the attack from Sound and Sand. Sakura and Shizune, you go and see if you can do anything for Hatake and Uchiha, Naruto take me to Rock Lee, and Jiraiya you go find Iruka, Sakura needs to be tested for the genin exam."

The two younger medics nodded, "Hai!" Sakura grabbed the hospital charts and they left the office without a question. For a medic nothing was as important as the patients and when ordered to heal, even Sakura's temper cooled and she did as told.

They arrived at the hospital in a few minutes and a nurse showed them to the room where the Copy Ninja and the last Uchiha were lying in a coma.

Sakura handed one chart to Shizune, not caring which one and looked at the one left for her, Hatake Kakashi. She'd heared a lot about the legendary Copy Ninja during her ravels with Shizune and Tsunade and she was more than a little surprised that someone was able to take the man who bore the title of the best shinobi in Fire Country, out. She guessed it just showed that there would always be someone better and stronger, or at least someone whose list of skills was longer and meant to inflict more damage.

---

V – KakaSaku

He'd left the village, his home, ten years ago, on the longest and hardest undercover mission of his carrier. Now he was finally back.

Looking at the imposing red and green gates of Konohagakure no Sato, Hatake Kakashi asked himself if the transition from civilan back to shinobi would be as hard as the opposite had been, a decade ago. Deciding that he could mull over it when he met the new Hokage and reported in the office, the Copy Ninja took a deep breath and crossed the treshhold to the village.

The two chuunin at the gatehouse merely spared him a glance as he walked in, the hitai-ate sporting the leaf over his left eye identified him as one of them. A Konoha ninja, something he hadn't felt like in over eight years.

The hardest part of his mission had been seven years ago when his ninken had come back after delivering the monthly report with the black message about an attack and the death of the Sandaime. He'd wanted nothing more than to rush back to his home, help where he could, pledge his loyalty to the new Hokage. But he couldn't. The council of the elders had ordered him to stay and finish the mission, or at least till the Godaime was appointed and made the decision. Weeks later a bird had landed on his window, in the middle of the night, carrying a message from Princess Tsunade, Godaime Hokage of Konoha, telling him to stay put, and keep reporting as before, the mission was of very high importance.

And now it was over. He didn't want to think about it anymore.

He still knew the village like the back of his hand, that would never change. A Konoha ninja would always be a Konoha ninja, no matter what. Several missing nin throughout the history have proven that. Their sense of loyalty and duty may be gone, but they could never truly let go of Konoha. Oroshimaru too, in a twisted way. His desperate trying to destroy the village was enough proof.

The market place was bustling as he made his way through it, to the Hokage tower, it was the afternoon, but the vendors didn't even think about closing, with the gates wide open welcoming any visitor, the business was bound to be good. The whole village had a sense of peace to it. That was not something Kakashi had expected upon his return. The loss of the Sandaime still weighted heavily on him, but it seemed that the new Hokage was doing her job well. And that was all he could ask for.

He reached the tower in record time, being deep in thought while walking always made him reach his destination faster, since nothing came up to distract him, and that was, in a way, good. The widing staircase up the tower was as long as before, but he was far too happy to be home, for it to damper his mood at all.

A few shinobi passed by him every now and then, either coming down or up, doing their jobs with the ever-present efficiency.

Then two young men came down the stairs, walking past him, silently talking. One had his hands deep in his pockets and slouched his shoulders with a look of extreem boredom in his dark eyes, his hair was up in a spiky pony-tail on top of his head. The son of the head of the Nara Clan, Kakashi recognized. He looked exactly like his father. But it was the other man that almost stopped him dead in his tracks. This one was much livelier, compared to his comrade, his sunshine colored hair and bright grin were blatantly attention grabbing, but it was his face that had Kakashi transfixed. Save for the whisker-like markings on his tanned cheeks, the boy looked exactly like the Yondaime Hokage, Kakashi's mentor and substitute father, Namikaze Minato. Only one person could bear such resemblance to the youngest Hokage ever, his son, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto.

Going up the stairs and doing the math silently, Kakashi decided that Naruto was 21 years old. How the young grow up. Faster and faster every day.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Kakashi entered the foreroom to the Hokage's office and was greeted by pretty dark-haired woman in a yukata and high heels. Kunoichi these days, Kakashi sighed, but crinckeled his eye at the woman, smiling friendly. She returned his smile, pleasently enough.

"May I help you?" she asked with a smile and he relaxed a little. Maybe the new Hokage isn't as bad as the rumors had said.

"Yes," he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, he wasn't used to introducing himself to his own comrades, he was known enough to avoid that. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, just back from a mission. I think the Hokage is expecting me."

The kunoichi smiled wider and nodded. "Yes, Tsunade-sama is waiting for you. Go right in."

"Thanks," he smiled again, and moved to the double doors, opening the right one with a light knock.

That turned out to be a mistake as he came face to face with two scowling kunoichi, one sandy-blond, the other pink-haired. Kakashi laughed nervously and looked from one woman to the other before deciding to introduce himself.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi, you're expecting me, Hokage-sama."

That was a mistake as well, when the pink-haired woman's eyes narrowed even more and she snapped at him. "Expecting or not, it's impolite to enter without being called in! Show some respect to the Hokage!"

Kakashi shrank vissibly back and wondered if his time as a civillian had killed some of the fearlessness he'd been famous for. It was, after all, unheard of for the Copy Ninja to be afraid of a girl almost two feet shorter and only half the age of himself. To his credit though, the girl was fierce and as intimidating as the Hokage who was a Legendary Sennin, maybe even more so, since Tsunade was the classic sort of woman, petite and voluptous, and the younger one was exotic and displayed the deadly femininity of a kunoichi with toned, slightly muscled arms, and long graceful legs that could no doubt cost a man his head, figuratively and literary.

"Calm down, Sakura," the Hokage waved off. "Hatake was never known for his manners after all. To be honest I'm surprised he managed to come on shedule. I almost bet Shizune he would turn up tomorrow at the earliest. That would've been one more loss."

"And possibly good news," the younger kunoichi sighed. "You just won a free pass for the new spa, shishou." She pulled out a colorful slip of paper and handed it to the Hokage. The blond woman scolwed at the pass as her apprentice continued, "The last time you won something, Genma's team was almost killed and Neji-san stayed in the hospital for two months. After you lost that bet with me on Naruto, I killed an Akatsuki member and came back alive, Gaara-sama was brought back to life and Naruto managed to defeat the mad bomber, Deidara."

Kakashi raised a brow at this. Tsunade was known for her bad luck in gambling, but that her winning somehow translated into something bad... well, that seemed a little over the top.

"What sorts of missions have been given out, Sakura?" Tsunade asked her apprentice, but waved Kakashi in, and he closed the door, softly before moving closer to the desk.

The pinkette shuffled through some papers before pulling out one and studying it. "Hmm... Three D-ranked for the genin teams, you remember, Konohamaru complained up a storm again."

The mentioned genin seemed to be an mutual source of annoyance, because both women scowled and Tsunade shook her head. Neither paid any attention to the masked man and he decided to remain invisible for the time being, his most important policy had been to keep his hide safe if he could. Pissing of two potentionally dangerous kunoichi seemed rather counterproductive to that.

"I don't understand that brat," countered Tsunade, taking a look at the scroll Sakura presented her, the list of D-ranked missions and snorted when she realized that there were more missions than genin. Great, she'd have to give them to chuunin, and will never hear the end of it. "He's seventeen and still a genin," she continued, pushing the scroll away with a grimace. "Why doesn't he just work harder on the chuunin exams?"

"Because the only thing in his empty head is how to beat Naruto in that disasterous Sexy no Jutsu idiocy of theirs!" the young medic snapped, slamming another scroll on the table without care.

"Weren't you a little too rough on him during the last exam, Sakura?" the Hokage questioned with a sly look in her amber eyes. She awerted her gaze when the younger woman scowled something fierce and leaned down further.

"I was too lenient on the pervert! I should have given him the Jiraiya treatment! The only thing I asked him was how he stood with illusions and he had the nerve to use the Sexy no Jutsu! That I sent his flying from the examination room is mild to what I would've done to Naruto for it!"

Tsunade nodded and leaned her chin on interwined fingers and met Sakura's hard gaze head on. "It was the wrong thing to do, yes. But that was an illusion as well."

"It wasn't!" Sakura growled and straightened. "The Sexy no Jutsu is a disgustingly glorified Henge no Jutsu! It has nothing to do with genjutsu! The art of genjutsu would lose all its glory if things like that perverse idiocy spawned from it!"

"Yes, yes, I know," Tsuande waved her off. "Genjutsu is holy land for you, I get it. Just don't let your medic studies suffer under your passion for illusionary warfare."

The pinkette huffed and threw her hair over her shoulder with a twist of her wrist. A genjutsu user. Konoha hasn't seen any truly gifted ones since the Uchiha Clan, and Kakashi was truly curious about the girl. She, on the other hand seemed more interested in a staring match with the blond Hokage.

"Now," the Hokage looked away from her apprentice and to the list of missions laying on the table. "About the mission roster. How many S and A class?"

Sakura picked up the list and her eyes flew over it. "No S. Two As. Nothing too major, just some good old spying. Most to the members of the Hyuuga Clan."

Tsunade gave her surrogate daughter a sour look before leaning her heavy head on her fist. "We all know how those spying missions can end up. Wasn't your team ambushed on one just last week?"

Sakura didn't appreciate being called out, not even by her shishou. "That was Naruto's entire fault. The idiot couldn't keep quiet long enough and we were discovered in the middle of enemy territory. We took them out fast enough and without any trouble, they weren't higher leved than chuunin, if even that."

The blond slowly nodded her head, but then seemed to remember something. "But Naruto came back here black and blue and bleeding, he spent three days in the hospital."

Her student grinned and Tsunade rolled her eyes, already knowing the answer. "That was me. One of the ambushers grabbed my butt, needless to say I smashed his skull in. And since it was Naruto's fault we were attacked in the first place, well, it was punishment. And I begged you to just send me and Sai. I thought you knew how it ends up with Naruto on recon missions."

"Yes, yes, never again. Now," she turned to the masked jounin waiting patiently in the corner. "Hatake, how long were you gone?"

Kakashi, startled, tore his eyes from Sakura's behind and forced his mind out of the gutter, thanking whatever power was up there that the object of his fantasies hadn't noticed his attention. Smiling sheepishly he met the Hokage's knowing gaze and felt heat rush up to his cheeks, fortunately it wasn't visible beneath his mask. "Ten years Hokage-sama."

Tsunade shook her head at the man's antics but dropped it for the moment, she was used to Sakura being a man-magnet. "Ten years, huh? Well, it's good to have you back, Hatake. The village has been feeling your absence gravely, especially during the Sound/Sand attack when the Sandaime died." All three of them dropped their eyes and prayed once more for the former Hokage's soul. "Anyway," the woman continued, "Your last report said that everything went according to plan and I recieved all the information we'd needed. As it is, your mission is over and you'll be given two weeks to settle in again and rest, I guess. I'd give you more time, but we need you, I'm sure you understand. Now Sakura will acompany you to the hospital and see that you're given a physical check up as well as a conversation with the counselor, then you're free to do as you wish. Sakura please do the physical yourself, I don't want him being uncomfortable with a male medic or a female giggling over him and not doing their job."

The pinkette nodded, "Yes, shishou," used to giving physicals to top-grade shinobi due to her position and the trust Tsunade put in her. Kakashi on the other hand blanched. While he certainly didn't want a man touching him anywhere below the waist and prior experinece had him running from female medics as fast as his legs could carry him, he would put up with any of it if it meant that Sakura, who sparked an interest of sexual nature came nowhere near his unclothed body. He wasn't sure if he could control his body's reaction in such a position, and if anything happened... Both the cause of it and the Hokage would tear him apart.

But the young medic was already at the door, waiting for him. Asking the Hokage for another medic would probably insult the pinkette and he'd be beaten black and blue. Great. With a great sigh he followed her out the door and missed the sly smirk forming on Tsunade's face.

Sakura needed to relax, only way to do it, make sure the girl got laid. Hatake was damn sexy, even she would admit it and if the way he was looking at Sakura was any indication, well he wouldn't have any qualms doing the honor. And Sakura was easy to seduce once a guy figured out how to do it. But if Inuzuka Kiba could do it, than Hatake Kakashi wouldn't have any trouble.

With a deep slouch and hands stuck in his pockets, Kakashi followed Sakura out of the Hokage tower and towards the hospital on the other side of the street. Walking behind her down the stairs of the tower, he'd nearly collided with her back as she'd stopped and he noticed almost too late due to trying not to look at her legs. She'd stopped at the approach of Hyuuga Hiashi, the head of the Clan, followed by his nephew, Neji. Sakura'd bowed to the elder shinobi respectfully, while he nodded his head, and the younger man bowed as deep as Sakura had. Kakashi hadn't missed how the young Hyuuga's milky eyes glued themselves to Sakura's face.

Then he'd almost fallen over as Hiashi, almost casually asked, "Have you thought about my proposition, Sakura-san? Neji is still waiting and I can promise you that you will become the wife of the future Clan Head. This is not something to refuse."

But the girl'd just giggled and brushed the older man off. "I'm sorry, Hiashi-sama, but my answer still stands. I'm not ready to marry yet, and I don't feel that way for Neji-san. But I'm sure some other girl will be thrilled to have the honor of becoming Neji-san's bride. Maybe Tenten-chan? Neji-san knows her well."

Hiashi'd scoffed at that. "That girl is not fit to lead our Clan. She might be a formidable kunoichi, but she lacks grace and good breeding. You, on the other hand, Sakura-san, are beautiful, intelligent, sofisticated, an excellent kunoichi and that the Hokage sees you as her own daughter does't hurt either. You'd be an asset to the Clan." Sakura had laughed and excused them, after saying that if she ever thought she could feel for Neji like that, she'd take them up on their offer.

"Hatake-san?" her voice shook his from his thoughts and he flinched before somewhat composing himself.

"Yes?" She somehow didn't strike him like a woman who would tollarate anything but actual words for answers.

"Is that slouch of yours a permanent health condition, or are you simply refusing to stand sraight?"

Squirming a bit uncomfortably he looked at her back and shrugged. "It's not permanent."

He saw her nod. "Good. But it will become permanent if you continue doing it. You're not all that tall, so stop it. Jiraiya-sama is much taller and he's always showing off his height. Such a posture is unbecoming of a shinobi of your status anyway, Hatake-san."

"I don't really care about such things." It sounded lame to his own ears.

"That's nice, at least I know you're not obsessed with your status like so many others. But it still doesn't mean you should walk around like that, you might give people the wrong impression. Oh, and you'll give me a wrong impression if you continue staring at my backside like that. It's rude."

That almost stopped him dead in his tracks and he tore his treacherous eye from the enticing sight of her swaying hips and focused them on his own shoes. Fighting down a blush while trying not to choke on his own tongue he somehow regained enough composure to attempt an apology. Attempt being the key word.

"I'm sorry... I didn't... I mean, I wouldn't... I-I-I... I'm sorry," he breathed out, ashamed of his own behavior.

She just giggled and turned a sparkling smile his way. This time he couldn't beat down the blush rising on his cheeks. "It's alright, Hatake-san, I'm just joking with you. But it might be seen by someone like Naruto and then you'd be beaten wihtout a warning. He's a bit overprotective."

For a moment he just stared at her, uncomprehending, till he caught her words and cleared his throat, grasping the the chance to change the subject. "Uh, you know Uzumaki Naruto?"

The pinkette noded and continued on, with his a step behind her, still slouching casually. "Oh yeah. Do I know him. He was my teammate when we were fresh out of academy. He and Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto was the bane of my existance and I was the bane of Sasuke's. He's still my teammate. But now we have Sai, since Sasuke defected almost nine years ago. Naruto's my best friend now, my brother. We actaully got along just fine when he finally gave up on that crush he had on me when we were twelve. He's a great guy, a stunning shinobi, one day he'll be the Hokage."

Kakashi took in the information without much of a reaction. The Hokage's apprentice teamed up with the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and the last Uchiha, very fitting. So the young Uchiha abandoned Konoha in the end. It didn't surprise Kakashi. He'd never met Uchiha Itachi's brother, but he'd heard enough to know that the boy was obssessed with revenge. He'd gotten it too. The news of Itachi's demise by the younger Uchiha's hands had even reached Kakashi. Maybe now Sasuke could be free of that burden. But he doubted it. He boy still hasn't returned after all. Sakura's voice broke throuh his thoughts.

"How do you know Naruto?"

Still lost in his musings, he didn't think about what he blurted out. "Oh, I don't know him. The Yondaime was my sensei."

When he realized what he'd just said, he lifed his head, but Sakura was walking in front of him calmly. "Yeah, Naruto's dad. Must have been great having someone like him as your sensei."

He stunned for the part of a second. "How do you know that?"

She turned to him with a sly smirk on her face and winked. "It just stares us in the face. When Naruto's up there," she pointed to the Hokage monument behind the tower, "they'll look like twins. And Tsunade-shishou told Naruto the truth years ago. He was really happy to finally know who his parents were. Even though he'd suspected it for a while. He might be slow and oblivious and sometimes more than dense, but he's not stupid."

---

VI – KakaSaku

'LOCAL GIRL COMMITS SUICIDE', Sakura stared at the caption on the newspaper she'd bought on a whim that morning. Apparently, Uchida Maya had jumped down from the hospital roof the day before. Sakura knew the girl, Maya-san had been a nice, normal seeming, seventeen year old that worked in her parents' bakery and dated the green grocer's eldest son. She'd been admitted to the hospital almost two weeks ago with a case of stomach flu. Sakura had personally been treating. The girl was cheerful if weak from her sickness and seemed the farest from suicide as one could possibly be. But ANBU had been set on the case, so it was pretty much sure Maya-san had ended her own life. Too bad the article didn't mention the reason she did.

"Writing your mission report?" asked an amused voice from her right and Sakura jumped in her seat with a small cry of surprise. Whipping her head around, so her pig-tails slapped her shoulder and the chest of the intruder, Sakura looked up and locked gazes with the former Hokage. Her very own ex-sensei, the one and only Copy Ninja, Hatake Kakashi. The man had always loved scaring the wits out of her.

"Kakashi... Typical..." she mumbled under her breath and gave the infuriating man her deadliest glare. Which wasn't much with her big, bright eyes, small nose and lips in a perpetual pout. But that was Kakashi and he knew what she was capable of. She was sure he could imagine what she'd do if he made fun of her at that moment.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan. Didn't mean to scare you, but you were ruining your report."

Giving the man a look that told him what she thought about him at the very moment, Sakura looked at her mission report and then quickly back up at Kakashi with a sheepish smile. She'd been drawing circles on her report while reading the newspaper. Great. Now she could write it again.

"Interesting article?" inquired the Copy Ninja, taking a seat beside her and glancing at the newspaper. "Ah," he answered his own question and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Tenzou was harping about it this morning. He wasn't happy that ANBU had investigate a civilian suicide."

Sakura nodded in understanding and pushed the ruined report away with a scowl. "She did it in a ninja hospital, that's the reason behind the ANBU investigation. I've been complaining for years that a small clinic was not enough for civilians and that they shouldn't be admitted in a hospital full of injured and potentionaly dangerous shinobi. But nobody ever listened to me. Maybe they'd listen to the ANBU."

"I doubt it." Kakashi replied leasurely, lifting his left ankle on his right knee and putting his hands behind his head. He intended to stay a while. That was more than alright with her. "Naruto would care even less than Tsunade did, and listen to Tenzou definitely less than to you."

The pink-haired medic puffed up a sigh and sagged in her chair. He was partially right. But only partially. "I'll get Hina-chan to talk to him and Ino to pester him and I'll threaten him. That should do the trick. I lead that fucking hospital and the odd hundred something medics working there. We have too much place, too many uneeded nurses and equipment that ninja healers don't require. We can separate the east wing and make it into a civilina hospital. The twenty doctors and fifty nurses crowding in a three room clinic would be greatful and ANBU wouldn't have to worry about investigating civilian suicides."

---

VII – KakaSaku WARNING: Mature content ahead!

Coming back home from a mission had always been taxing for Kakashi, and it had nothing to do with injuries or exhaustion. It was simply the thought of his small, empty apartment that made his legs turn into lead and his shouldres hunch a little lower than usual.

But now he walked through the gates with a smile beneath his mask and his shoulders surprisingly high, even with his messy head buried in his dirty book. He wouldn't be walking across the village to the smelly, empty apartment where only his dogs sometimes waited for him. His heart swelled with pride as he thought about the big bright studio apartment with its green and beige walls, white furniture, abudance on books and little knick-knacks nobody really needed and the most amazing of all, the beautiful loving woman with her vibrant hair and gorgeous eyes and big heart. And she waited for him to come home to her.

Arriving at one of the classier buildings in the village he looked up and saw that the balcony doors were wide open. She was home. Smiling he took out his keys and opened the heavy double doors, closing them behind himself before greeting the doorman. Only someone of Sakura's station could afford to live in such a building and not be totally broke after paying the rent. He could too, of course, but he hadn't seen any reason to throw away his hard earned money till he'd moved in with her. Now he payed half the rent. Even the half here was double the rent of his old apartment. But it was worth it. Every penny. With her, he had a need to spend all of his money on her, not that she ever let him. On that matter they were still stuck in a limbo.

Taking the steps two at a time he arrived at the fifth floor in seconds and jogged to their door. Taking in a deep breath and pulled the knob down and pushed, the door opened inwards revealing the sitting area and part of the open kitchen to his view. All tension of his mission left his body the second he crossed the treshlod to their nest. He could smell her everywhere around him and that was enough to calm him at his worst. Slipping of his sandals as he closed the door he murmured "Tadaima," and waited. Nothing. She was probably up in the bedroom and hadn't heard him.

Kakashi shrugged his heavy pack off his shoulders and left it by the door before taking off his vest and draping it over a chair. His over shirt and weapon holsters came next. Those he left on the dining table together with his hitai-ate and gloves. Pulling his mask down around his neck he climbed the waiving staircase to the open space above that housed their bed and bathrooms. And indeed, Sakura was there. Curled into her favorite armchair by the open balcony doors, she was dozing lightly with a book open in her lap. She'd been waiting for him, dressed in one of his shirts and the panties he liked so much, the simple white ones with the pink polka dots and a small ribbon on the front. He liked her more simple and rather childish underwear more than the silk and satin ones she possessed, full of frills and lace. In his eyes Sakura would always be sweet and innocent, even when he made love to her, he sometimes couldn't imagine her wearing such alluring underwear.

Smiling at her serene face he kneeled by her chair, supporting his weight with hands on the armrests and leaned up to her, kissing her cheek softly. She stirred and her lashes fluttered before opening and she smiled at him sleepily. He grinned in return and pecked her cheek again. "I'm home," he whispered against her soft skin. Her smile awidened as she wound her arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Welcome back," she murmured, before turning her face and pressing a kiss to his neck and burying her nose beaneath his ear.

Kakashi chuckled softly and brought his hands to her, slowly carresing up her arms to her shoulders, where he squeezed gently, up her neck, to her cheeks and finally her hair, where they stopped, tangling with her soft, silken, pink tresses. She whimpered into his neck and he smiled, pulling her head away gently, before bringing his lips to hers.

It was soft and chaste at first, just a meeting of lips, gentle, slow caresses, little pecks and small nibbles. Then she sighed and he pressed closer to her, kissing a little harder and finally allowing his tongue to venture out and taste her lips. She sighed again at the first tap of his tongue on her and readily parted her lips, welcoming him in without hesitation like she had since the first time their lips met in a show of desperation almost a year ago at the hospital when he'd thought she was dying and she had been simly happy to be alive. They've come a long way since that day and Sakura had cherished every second of it.

After a long moment where both strove to taste the other as throughly as possible, Kakashi drew back and leaned his forehead against hers, watching as she struggled to catch her breath. When she finally found her bearings again, her eyes opened and gazed at him, full of adoration and andulated love.

"Hi," she whispered softly, smiling at him, happy that he was safe and sound and with her again.

"Hi," he whispered back, a small smirk gracing his face. He was well aware that with her he'd become one of those guys who were so completely consumed by their women that they stopped caring about everything else. He'd essentially become a living, breathing cliché, and he'd never been happier.

His eyes fell on the bare expanse of her thighs and he hid a smirk as a thought of how she could welcome him home flashed through his mind. Looking her in the eyes again, he eased out of her embrace and stood, holding his arms out to her. She didn't need to be prompted twice. Closing the book and placing it on the small glass table by the chair, she stood up and wound her arms around his neck, cooing as he bent and picked her up, one arm around her shoulders, the other under her kness, holding her to his chest tightly.

He crossed the few steps to their spacious bed and carefully laid her down, climbing in after her, draping his torso over hers. She smiled into his mismatched gaze and raised her face to be kissed. He complied easily enough, sweeping his tongue in her mouth as soon as their lips touched.

They kissed for what seemed like hours, gently touching, getting reaquianted with each other after a month long absence. After kissing her thoughly, Kakashi separated his lips from hers, swallowing a smile as she gave a small groan of protest and sat up on his kness over her, taking the hem of her borrowed shirt and raising it.

She understood what her wanted and raised her upper body slightly from the matrres as he raised the dark shirt up and over her head. Disposing of the shirt quickly, he bent down again, pressing his lips to her neck, sighing as her floral scent assaulted his enhanced senses. His teeth grazed her tendon and she shivered, winding her hands into his soft, wild hair. Kakashi rained kissed over her jaw and thoart, ocassionally licking and nippins as he went, getting rewarded every time she shivered or couldn't hold a tiny moan back. Reaching her collarbone, he paused, paying special attention to the soft skin, between the two raised parts of the bone, sucking and nipping at it, till he formed a dark and very prominent bruise. She'd be amgry about it later, but he'll deal with the consequences as they came.

Kissing his way down, he reached the soft swells of her small, perky breasts. Admiring her beautiful body with a hungry gaze, he raised a hand caressed the soft flesh, squeezing, gently kneading it, till he couldn't keep his fingers from brushing her already stiffenting nipple. Sakura gasped softly at the feeling and moaned as he piched the small peak between his fingers. Still playing with her breast, he bowed his head again and took her other nipple into his mouth, delightening in her moan as he sucked slightly. He loved her breast, despite being a man throughly obssessed with legs, he could honestly say that her breast weren't any further from perfection than her long, sleek and powerful legs. They were small, but he'd always liked it that way better, they were perfectly rounded and wonderfully responsive to his every touch. He could play with them for hours.

But now was no time to do that. They both had more urgent needs in the need to satisfaction. Realsing her breast with a soft pop, he sat up again and pulled his shirt over his head, before popping the buttons of his pants and pushing them his legs, discarding the last of his clothing before he joined her again.

Sakura mewled softly as kissed her again, his slightly calloused hands, wandering down her stomach, circling her navel before reaching the low waist-band of her panties. She gripped his shoulders as he eased a hand inside and moaned into his mouth as he brushed gentle fingers against her pink curls, stroking her sex, going further down with every caress, till he dipped his midlle finger into the wetness that had already gathered there.

Pulling back from their kiss, Kakashi attacked her neck with his mouth as his fingers found her small nub of pleasure and stroked over it. Her hips bucked upward and she moaned ludly. Satsfied with the results, Kakashi firmed his fingers and touched her again and again, delightening the noises she made.

Sakura cried out as one of his fingers circkled her hot opening before slowly slipping inside, his thumb still abusing her clitoris. Soon another finger joined and she rolled her hips, trying to get him inside deeper. "Kakashi," she rasped breathlessly, "please, I need you inside."

He lifted his head from her neck and smiled, before removing his fingers and sliding her underwear down her legs. He draped himself over her again and she spread her legs, lifting them higher, as he gripped her thigh and guided himself home. He slid into her with one smooth thrust, both groaning at the wonderful feeling.

After a moment where they both adjusted to the overwhelming sensations, he started moving in deep, slow thrusts. Sakura sighed and wrapped herself around him, hands in his hair, legs around his hips and ground her pelvis in the rythm of his.

Only a few moments of the gentle rocking had Kakashi slightly frustrated, and he dislodged her fingers from his hair, twining his own around them and raising their hands to rest above their hands as he sped his thrusts up. Sakura moaned happily and reached up kiss his jaw.

They held this rythm for what seemed like an eternity as Sakura's muscles started fluttering around his memeber and he groaned, thrusting faster, harder, aiding her in her search for the climax.

It hit her like a tidal wave and she didn't bother trying to tone down the loud shout of Kakashi's name as she came around him. The squeezing of her inner walls, proved to be too much for the Copy Ninja and he buried his face into her hair, shuddering with a broken groan and whisper of her name as he spilled into her.

---

VIII – KakaSaku

She's an odd little thing. All sharp angles and uneven contours, wild hair of a sun-bleached brown and dull green eyes, the color of cut grass. She's not pretty, not by far. And she's not attractive, couldn't be further from it. Her blue shirt is wrinkled and stained, clashed horribly with her eyes, her jeans are dirty and worn, her sneakers are falling apart, her nails are short, and the tacky green polish is chipped and out-grown. All in all, she's not a woman a man would turn around for. At least not in anything else but disgust and ridicule.

The woman beside her is another story completely. She's petite and voluptuous, consisting of sharp lines and soft angles, soft, luxurious hair of vibrant sandy blond and lively, sparkling almond shaped eyes the color of rich amber. A picture perfect of beauty and femininity with full blood red lips, professionally tweezed eyebrows, freshly manicured long nails. Her white blouse is pristine, her dark burgundy skirt neatly pressed, her lacquered heels polished and shiny. In the last half hour at least ten males have approached her with amorous intents. She's disappointed them all, discretely showing off her left hand and the platinum band on her ring-finger.

"Thank you, Tsunade," muttered the brunette quietly, not lifting her gaze from where it rested on the dirty top of her right sneaker.

The blond waved her away with a small, precise movement of her right hand, not bothering to hide the roll of her sharp eyes. "Oh, please," she drawled sarcastically, fixing her orbs on her half-full glass of martini. "I thought it'd be very clear that I'm not doing this for you, Yukina. The only reason I'm even here is because I value the friendship we once had. That I'm heeding your bizarre request is only because I've respected your deceased husband very much. He was such a brilliant doctor, and a much trusted colleague. It's to honor his memory that I'm doing this. And for that poor child who's life you're ruining." She knew that she was maybe too harsh with her old friend, but Tsunade was unforgiving toward stupid people. And Yukina was definitely behaving like the biggest fool on the planet. "I won't berate you for throwing away your own life," she continued, turning to face the other woman marginally. "But I also can't let you destroy the only memento of Seiya. Yukina, you have no idea how much I've envied you all these years, and yet you do this."

Yukina took a deep breath and looked her childhood friend in the eye; desperation and depression clear in her otherwise dull eyes. "I can't do this anymore, Tsuande!" she cried quietly. "I can't live without Seiya! I've tried and tried, but I can't! He was the one who always got me on my feet and going, without him I'm helpless. And Sakura... She's so much like him already, I can't stand it. She's three and talks and behaves exactly like him! It's too much. I'm doing this for her good. I hit her, Tsunade! She didn't do anything wrong, I hit her because she asked me when dinner would be ready! I can't... I just can't look at her anymore!"

Something broke in Tsunade and she jumped form her chair, startling the bartender and a few other patrons, as she slammed her palm on the counter. "Fool!" she growled ferociously. "That girl is the most precious gift God could've given you! Seiya wasn't the only one who died that day. Dan was in that car, too. Dan also died, I lost the man I love as well, or did you forget that? I have nothing left of Dan! I've cursed myself every day since that faithful afternoon two years ago! I always insisted we wait when he said he wanted children! I wish for nothing more than that I've not only thought about my career and give in! Now I would maybe have Dan's child to comfort me! You have that and you throw it away! You disgust me!"

"Tsunade," Yukina pleaded in desperate need for someone to underszand her. Her parents have been nothing but disapproving of everything she did since her husband's tragic death. Both them and Seiya's parents had threatened to take away Sakura if Yukina didn't get a hold of herslef. She'd hoped that Tsunade, who'd lost her husband that day too, would understand her. But Tsunade was everything Yukina could never be. Tsunade was strong and confident, she could live her life without depending on someone. Yukina had always admired that in her friend. For herslef, Yukina could only say that she was weak. She'd always been. She'd slept in her parents' bed till she was ten and her father forced her to sleep in her own room by locking her inn. In school she'd first tried to follow her teacher, then she'd met Tsunade and become the blond's friend. Against little Tsunade's will, that is. But she'd given in soon enough and they'd built a strong friendship. In college Tsunade had met and befriended Seiya and when Yukina met the charming, handsome, sweet-natured young doctor-to-be it'd been love on first sight. By some sort of luck Seiya seemed to be just as attracked by her as she was by him and they'd started dating within two days. That had given Tsunade some freedom and by chance one night during a town meeting she sat beside a young man who agreed to all her complaints to the mayor. Dan and Tsuande had needed some time to realize that they liked each other more than friends, but when they admitted it, it was like a fire had been left to burn uncontrolled. That was something very strange to Yukina who'd never been privy to so much passion before. Both her and Seiya were rather quiet and shy, their love was geniune and real but it severaly lacked passion, neither knew how to express it. Tsunade and Dan married a whole year before Yukina and Seiya and stayed passionate through the years. After their wedding, Yukina and Seiya immediately started working on a baby, it'd been a mutual wish since they began talking about marriage, on ther fifth date. Tsunade always talked about waiting a few more years, and Dan loved her too much to pressure her. Not that anyone could pressure Tsunade into something she didn't want. Ten days after Sakura's first birthday, Dan and Seiya had gone to buy dinner and ice-cream for a cranky Sakura. They never came back. A drunken driver had hit them frontally. Seiya had died on the scene, Dan a few hours later in the hospital, while Tsunade tried everything to save him. That had been the end of their friendship as well. Tsunade closed off, lost in her grief and not ready to deal with Yukina'a pain. And Yukina, alone and afraid started drinking to forget how much the world without Seiya scared her.

---

IX – ItaSaku

Middle in Fire Country, among lush forests and steep cliff-faces lay a small, quiant village, full of patchwork buildings, friendly people and sunshine. It was the exact opposite of the place where she'd grown up, in comparsion to Amegakure, Konoha seemed almost rural. In a way it was.

Keeping down a sigh, Sakura got out of the car and looked around. It would be hard to get used to this. Pushing a stray lock of long pink hair behind her mulitple pierced ear and bringing her sunglasses down to cover her brillinat green eyes, she forced a smile for her mother's sake and moved to get her luggage from the trunk. Even this small back-water place should be better than her dad's hut in Suna.

"So, honey, this is Konoha, my hometown. What do you say?" her mother asked cheerfully and Sakura forced her smile to widen.

"It looks great, mom," she answered quietly, ignoring a blond boy about her age as he turned after her and walked straight into a lamppost. Just great.

"It's a beautiful little town, you'll probably need some time to get used to it since it's a lot different from Ame, but I'm sure you'll learn to love it. I miss the atmosphere here from time to time. Everyone here is nice and they'll accept you with open arms and if nothing else there won't be a boring day with Tsunade! That woman is so full of life and has a admirable character. Now that I think about it, you're a lot like her. You'll learn a lot from Tsunade."

Sakura smiled at her mother's run-around speech pattern and looked up at the Clock Tower striking noon. The last time she'd seen her godmother had been twelve years ago, when her mom had gotten a divorce and left Konoha. Shortly after that her dad moved to Suna and there had never been time or reason to come here, till now. Her mom had gotten married four months ago and though Sakura liked her new step-dad – he was the type of person you like on sight, open, cheerful, honest and loving, with a great sense of humor – she had to leave them. Katsuya, her step-dad, was a photographer and traveled around all the time, only seldomly returning home. Her mom had stayed with her while Katsuya traveled and Sakura had experienced first hand how unhappy the separation from her love had made Kikyou, thus proposing somewhat unwillingly to move to her dad. Luckily her mother had a better idea and Tsunade had agreed to let Sakura live with her for a few years, at least till she finished high school. And here she was.

"Kikyou, is that you?" a rich, subdued female voice startled Sakura from her thoughts and she looked to her left to find herself face to face with a tall raven-haired woman with equally dark eyes and a strikingly beautiful face. But what caught most of Sakura's attention was the young man standing beside the woman. He looked only a few years older than her with brown-black hair, held back in a low pony-tail and striking, warm black eyes, surrounded by long and thick lashes that would make any woman envious. She'd never seen such a beautiful man before. If this village had more guys like this, she could learn to love it sooner than expected!

"Uchiha Mikoto, goodness it's been so long!" exclaimed her mother, hugging the drak-haired woman and laughing.

"Long, indeed, my dear friend," replyed Mikoto, hugging her friend back. "What are you doing here? Coming back?"

"Oh, goodness no! I just brought my daughter here. She's going to live with Tsunade for a while. I got married recently, but my husband travels a lot and I had to stay home with Sakura, but she offered to live with her father so that I can travel with Katsuya. But Suna is small and dry and windy and hot so I thought that if I had to separate from her than at least she should get to live comfortably and Tsunade agreed to have her!"

The dark haired woman smiled, used to her friend's speech manner and picked up the facts from the jungle of fast-spilled words.

"Congratulations! I am happy that you finally found your happiness. Now I haven't seen your daughter since she was five. I want to take a good look at her!"

Kikyou smiled and took Sakura's hand, presenting her to the raven-haired woman with pride. Her mother had always been proud of her, no matter what. Unconditional love and trust, their relationship had always been like that. Kikyou had been made to be a mother and Sakura was blessed to be her child.

"This is Sakura, my pride and joy! Isn't she beautiful?"

Mikoto grinned slightly and shook Sakura's proferred hand. "Yes, she's breathtaking, like you when we were as young. Nice to meet you, Sakura-chan. I'm Uchiha Mikoto, one of your mother's oldest friends, but you probably don't remember me."

Sakura smiled sunnily at the woman, she seemed nice enough. "No, sorry, I was too young, I guess. But it's nice to meet you now, Uchiha-san."

The elder woman waved a slim hand gracefully, "Oh please, just Mikoto. This is my eldest son, Itachi. Itachi, say hello."

The handsome young man smiled slightly and took Sakura's hand in his. "Nice to meet you, Sakura-san."

"The pleasure's all mine, Itachi-san," replyed the pink-haired girl with a twinkle in her eye that told Itachi she was just as taken by him as he was by her. She was captivatingly beautiful and vibrant and charming. Maybe he could get to know her better at some point.

"Kikyou, I insist that we get together," Mikoto turned her attention to her friend again after smiling at how her son was obviously showing some interest in the pink-haired pretty girl. "I'll invite Kushina and it would be like old times. What do you say?"

Sakura's mother smiled a little dreamily as she considered the offer. "That would be fantastic! I have missed you and Kushina like you wouldn't believe. I've already told Tsunade that I'd be staying for the weekend and Monday to catch up with her and to spend some time with my daughter before we have to part. How about we do that tomorrow? Oh and Sakura has to come too! She can meet Kushina and tell her to bring her son as well, and maybe some of his and your Sasuke's friends too. Sakura doesn't know anybody here so I'd like for her to get some friends quickly!"

Mikoto seemed more than happy to comply the pink-haired woman's request, but Sakura covered her eyes in slight mortification. Glaring lightly in her mother's direction, she leaned closer to Itachi to whisper to him. "Now she's arranging play-dates for me, like I'm five. What's next? Grabbing the next handsome guy and praising me to high heavens in hopes he'd want to date me?"

Itachi chuckled slightly and bent down to be able to speak in her ear, without the two cahttering women overhearing. "Don't let it surprise you if she does. My mother has listed all my and my otouto's atributes to every even remotely pretty girl she felt would suit one of us. She's also dragged me to three omiai and set seven blind dates up for Sasuke. Needless to say none was ever successful, but she tried."

Unable to control herself, Sakura burst out laughing and both women looked to her and Itachi, slightly conspiratory smiles on their faces. Mikoto came over and laid her arm across Sakura's shoulders. "You seem to get along well with my son, Sakura-chan. That's great! Isn't he handsome? Ah, with his dark looks and your bright beauty, you'd make a striking couple! How about you take Sakura-chan out sometimes, Itachi?"

Itachi supressed a chukle as he regarded Sakura's flushed face and his mother's beaming smile. He'd expected something like this to happen. This time he didn't mind it. "Of course, mother. I would be honored," he replied galantly with a slight smile, enjoying the shock that overtook Sakura's formerly embarassed expresion.

Mikoto brightened up and clapsed her hands. "You would? How wonderful! I knew that she would suit you, Itachi! What do you say, Kikyou?"

The slightly hyperactive seamstress smiled and came to her daughter's other side, unaware that Sakura was wishing the earth would open up and swallow her. They'd just arrived in Konoha and her mother and a strange woman with an extremely atractive son were trying to play matchmaker! Just her luck.

---

X – KakaSaku

A baby with eighteen hadn't been something Sakura had ever pictured for herself, but now with twenty-one and an adorable three year old boy with the most beautiful smile in the world, she could say she was truly happy. Of course, the man who fathered the perfect boy played a huge part in that too. He was all she'd ever wanted, only she'd never noticed it, until she'd stumbled into bed with him and discovered the gem he really is, uncut and rough around the edges, but a gem nonetheless.

Smiling brightly as she waved to Shikamaru across the street, she entered the bog, bright house and called, "Tadaima!" while taking her boots off. A few seconds later, short footsteps thudded down the hall, towards her and in the blink of an eye, tiny arms squeezed her waist as her son pressed his face into her stomach.

"Mommy!" he exclaimed, looking up at her wih the huge green eyes he'd inherited from her.

Her face and smile softened as she took in his handsomely cute features and ruffled his hair. "Hi, honey."

"Okaeri," a deep voice entoned from behind her, and she turned to see her husband come in through the door after her, with a ball under one arm.

The boy in her arms perked up and looked around her waist at his father. "Daddy, you found my ball!"

---

XI – ItaSaku

They really did it this time. They'd beaten her black and blue and Ino hadn't been there to try and protect her. Somehow, Sakura was glad that Ino had stayed home because of a cold. This time even the boys had joined in and hit her. And only because Sasuke-kun had said that he'd see her tomorrow, when he left for home. It's not like it was her fault. She'd only thanked him for correcting her aim when they had target practice that day. And he'd smiled a bit and told her, "Sure, no problem. See you tomorrow, Sakura." Ami had been livid, because Sasuke-kun never remembered her name and called her Nami. And so she, four other girls and two boys had attacked Sakura on her way home.

She couldn't even sit up to go home. Home. That had become the orphange as of three months ago when her single mother had been killed on an A-ranked mission. The kids hated her even there. Most were civilians and were jealous of Academy students. Ino had said something about shinobi privileges Sakura didn't understand and couldn't remember. The only person geniunely nice to her there was Naruto. He was a goof, and a bit of an idiot, but he smiled when he saw her, and talked with her all the time and he thought she was the prettiest girl in the Academy. He probably hadn't met Ino yet.

Wincing as she put weight on her heavily bruised wrist, she tried to haul herself up, but fell on her behind again as the pain in her knees became unbearable. Dinner would be over in fifteen minutes and she'd go hungry to bed if she didn't return on time. She hadn't eaten anything that day, becasue one of the boys at the orphange had thrown her plate on the floor and she was too afraid to ask for more, then Ami had fed her meager lunch box to Kiba's dog behind his back. She was really hungry, her stomach was growling something fierce and her trembling wasn't caused by her many injuries or the cold wind. She would faint if she didn't eat anything soon.

After a few more minutes of desperately trying to pick herself up and somehow reach the orphange on time, Sakura heard steps and stilled. They were light and hurried, coming in her direction. Afraid, but still unable to move properly, she started scooting backwards as a tall, dark figure came into view.

Itachi hurried along the way towards the eastern gate of the village. He refrained from jumping up on the trees lining the trail and breaking into a run, because he had to get out of the village inconspiciously. Since he always left through the eastern gate and never run till he passed the gate guards, they would get suspicious if he changed the patern he'd used for years now. They had to think he was leaving on a mission. The success of the coup he'd just completed depended on it being undetected till the morning. He had to hurry.

He rushed through the bushes, absorbed into his own thoughts when a small squeal demanded his total attention. He came to a halt the moment he heard it and looked down toward his feet. And there, crowding against a particulary dense bush was a tiny girl with pink hair, big tearful green eyes and trembling hands. He stared at her for a moment incoprehending, before he noticed the bruises covering her face, arms and what was visible of her legs. And the fear written all over her small, wet face was so strong that he was taken aback for a second. Then he noticed that she was attempting to crawl into the bush backwards, but the branches were too strong for her small body and she couldn't get even an inch of herself inside.

Temporarily forgetting about what he'd done and had yet to do, he turned and crouched in front of her. She tensed, but didn't move or make a sound. She was terrified. He was wearing his ANBU uniform without the mask hiding his features, but he somehow doubted that she'd ever even seen an ANBU before. Only his hitai-ate identified him as a shinobi to her. Unable to take the terror on her face anymore, he decided to speak.

"What are you doing here this late?" he questioned softly, his voice barely above a whisper and she seemed to relax just a bit. "Are you alright? Why are you hurt?"

Her big eyes left his and she stared at her own hands before a tear streaked from her left eye. A second later, she answered shakily, so quiet he had to strain his ears to hear her. "Some kids from the Academy beat me..."

So she went to the Academy. But if she was crying in the bushes after letting some of her classmates beat her... Well, her future as a ninja wouldn't be bright. Even if she made it to genin, which he seriously doubted. Still, it had piqued his interest.

"Why?"

She looked up to him again and shrugged. It wasn't the first time, she was used to the beatings. What a pathetic ninja she would make. "Today, because Sasuke-kun knows my name and helped me, when he doesn't even seem to notice that Ami exists... Usually, because Ami says I'm ugly, or Iruka-sensei praises my chakra control which he says is the best he'd seen in years. Ami can't control her chakra at all and always fails at the Henge no Jutsu."

His eyes sharpened as he picked out the information in any way useful to him. This girl was a classmate of his little brother, probably even his friend. And despite his earlier assumption, she could have bigger potential than Sasuke if her chakra control was as good as she said. With the proper training she could become a hell of a kunoichi. She could be useful to him.

"Can't you stand up?" he asked and she shook her head before looking down again. She was ashamed of her weakness. "Come, let me help you," he offered and her eyes brightened as she nodded.

Itachi stood before he bent and scooped her up. She didn't resist. Throwing his earlier plans mentally away, he activated his sharingan and easily put the girl to sleep before dissolving into a flock of ravens and vanishing with her in his arms. Nobody would miss her.

Two years later, Amegakure

Itachi stood outside the protective rain that surrounded the large village and watched his ten year old ward as she sparred against Kabuto, a boy under his partner Oroshimaru's tutelage. Truth be told, the young Uchiha trusted Oroshimaru as much as he would a poisinous, agressive snake, but Kabuto was a very gifted medic-nin and Konan, Leader's partner had commented that Sakura would be suited to become one as well. And so he'd asked Kabuto to teach her. He was always present for the lessons and left the girl with Konan or Leader when he had a mission.

In the two years he'd been taking care of her, Sakura had grown amazingly. She was still too small for her age, but she'd shed her shy and unsure disposition for guts and a healthy dose of self-confidence. And she'd developed quite the nasty temper. Where she got that, he wasn't sure.

Kabuto had taught her well and she seemed to be a natural healer, picking up on the older boy's teachings quickly and learning his techniques in record time. She'd tried to develop some techniques on her own, but... Somewhere along the proces she'd messed up and what was meant as a healing techique ended up being a very nasty attack using healing chakra. She could control the blood inside her target. With a little training, Kabuto had commented, she would be able to stop hearts with a single bursh of her hands.

If she wasn't so terribly unsuitable for stealth mission with her brash and staright-forward nature, Itachi would've trained her to be an assasin. As it is, she was more suited for open combat, face-to-face. He'd also discovered that she had a natural affinity for genjutsu. It wasn't a nice way of discovering this, when he'd woken one morning only to find himself back in the Uchiha compound in Konoha, surrounded by the corpses of the family he'd killed with his little brother laying unmoving and dead at his feet. It had taken him a good while to figure out that it wasn't neither dream or reality, but a very nasty genjutsu. He'd dispelled it with the sharingan only to find his small ward sitting on his chest with the biggest grin on her face. The nine year old had giggled at the shock in his eyes and asked, "Did you like my genjutsu, Itachi-nii?" When he'd demanded to know where she learned that, Sakura had shown him a scroll Konan had given her.

The genjutsu worked only on sleeping enemies and he'd pointed this out to the girl, but she'd only grinned again and brought her small hands to his temples. He was deeply asleep the next second. She'd woken him again and proclaimed proudly, "Kabuto-sensei taught me!" That was also the day he'd found out that healing chakra could be very sinister, in the right hands. Or the wrong, depending how you look at it.

Few days ago, Leader had commented that Sakura would be ready to officially join Akatsuki before she would've graduated the Academy had she stayed in Konoha. Itachi had tried to imagine the tiny girl with pink hair in an Akatsuki cloak intimidating an enemy. It was sad how comical that image had been. But that might have been because the only picture of Sakura in the black and red cloak was the one of a month ago when he'd come out of the shower to find her in his room, grinning at him from within the folds of the heavy garment. She'd looked like a toddler in her father's shirt. She said she wanted to look how it would suit her, when he'd asked about it. The next day Konan had arranged one such cloak to be made for her. The tailor had looked from the girl to Konan to Itachi and back to Sakura as if he'd wanted to ask how he was supposed to make a standard issue cloak fit a girl who only reached Itachi's he'd done it and she still looked ridiculous wearing it.

Konoan had giggled when she'd seen Sakura in her new clothes and Pein had picked up the pouting child and promised that she would go on missions when she was twelve years old. Sakura had than surprised them all by proclaiming that her first mission would be to go to Konohaand show Ami, her worst childhood enemy, how strong she'd become. What had shocked Itachi was Sakura's answer to Konan's question on how she planned to show her new power to Ami. The ten year old had grinned almost maniacally and whispered, "I'm going to make her heart explode in her chest and she won't be able to do anything to help herself." That was when he learned that the little sunshine who always smiled at him had developed a dark side as well. It was to be expected, after being abused and beat most of her early years and then end up living with some of the most dangerous people in the world. It was the first time he'd questioned his decision to take her with him.

---

XII – KakaSaku (AN: I will write this, either way, it's the companion story for 'What the future holds' and will entail how they got together.)

"You look like you haven't slept in days," the deep, toneless voice of her former sensei broke through the haze of her stuffy office, but she didn't start. She'd sensed him long before he'd let himself in through the half-opened window.

"In a week," came the distant reply that had him frowning at her back. He'd hoped to get a more lively reaction out of her, but surprising her was getting harder and harder each day. It was no wonder, with a medic as attuned to chakra as her, but it was always worth a try.

"What are you working so intently on?" he asked after deciding to drop the disaponitment for concern. It was so like Sakura to place work above her won health, especially everything she'd been through in the last six months.

"A new medical procedure that would allow medics a larger range of chakra usage on ill organs or even destroying bacteria and viruses with medical ninjutsu. It could revolutionize the medical world as we know it. It would also save countless lives, where medication failed and chakra healing wasn't possible." There was a slightly bitter and sad undertone to her voice as she said this. "I still can't get past some of the natural obstacles, though," here she sounded frustrated. "Every time I get past one problem, I'm stuck on another. And now I'm trying to figure out how to balance the procedure with the difference in chakra control each medic has. Such a technique would be useless if only two or three medics could do it, after all."

Of course. What else could it possibly be? The medical genius that she is wouldn't be working on anything else. But even if her work sounded fascinating and was without a duobt another proof of her genius, working herself into a stupor wasn't an option and she needed to understand that.

"Ever consider taking a break and sleeping over it? A rested mind works better than a sleep depraved one." His hope that the slight lilt of sarcasm in his voice might distract her died down when she only shook her head.

"Can't. Every time I think about giving it a rest I get an idea that might just be the solution to the current problem. I can't afford forgetting a possibly important realization because I went to sleep."

There she goes being stubborn and unreasonable again. Very well. He could be stubborn too. Heck, he was the emobodiment of stubborness. Just let her try outdo him.

"It'll be useless if you colapssed due to exhaustion. And what if your tired mind conjured up ideas that seem perfectly reasonable and even revolutionary at the moment, but are, instead, really just a bunch of shit that would kill a patient before it healed him?"

A frustrated sigh met his ears and he smirked in triumph when she threw her pen away and stood to face him.

"What do you want, Kaka-sensei?" She looked like she hadn't gotten some shut eye in months and not days.

"Take a rest, Sakura-chan," he responded with an eye-crinkling smile, ignoring her scowl. "The work will still be there tomorrow. Take a shower, eat, sleep. Read a book, take a walk. Take your mind off the problem and the solution will find you, okay?"

She gave in easily, probably too exhausted to argue with him over something she wanted anyway, was just too stubborn to admit to herself.

"You're probably right." Closing the folder, she'd been srcibling in for the past week, she turned off the lamp on her desk and walked over wher he stood by the door, holding it open. "Thanks, Kakashi."

He only smiled and pushed her gently out of the office.

---

XIII – KakaSaku

It hurt. It hurt like hell. It was worse than having his arm and leg crushed by Gaara's sand. That agony had been purely physical, and any true shinobi could take his bones being ground to dust with a grimace and get over it. Even when the medics told him that nothing short of a miracle would save his shinobi career after that horrendous injury, he'd not dispaired nearly as much as in this moment. Because miracles do happen from time to time, so he'd had hope. There was none of that now.

He'd never felt this way. This was something that not even Gai-sensei could make better. Not even he could repair a heart broken to tiny little pieces.

And it continued to break as he watched her. Her. Sakura. The one he'd loved from the depths of his heart since he was thirteen. The first glimpse he'd had of her had burned her image forever into his soul. And he'd dreamed and hoped she would one day love him back.

She'd been his constant source of hope that he would return to being the shinobi he was destined to be after Gaara almost ruined his dreams. Only the thought of her elated smile when he could fight again had kept him going through frightening surgeries and the painful physical therapy.

His chest tightened painfully and his stomach twisted when he realized that even her brightest smile held no meaning when she direcated it at him. She didn't love him. She never had.

Sakura was bright and cheerful, and warm and friendly. She was caring and loving. And she looked at him like a good, dear friend. She cared deeply for him. But her heart didn't belong to him. It never would.

Over the course of the years they'd all changed. Some more than the others. He'd continued on his way to becoming a great and respected shinobi. Tenten honed her skills with weapons and still strugled to achieve her dream of becoming like the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. Neji lossened up a bit and became more open, more friendly. Naruto sought after greatness, coming ever near to his goal of becoming Hokage. Sakura became stronger and smarter, and blossomed into a incredible medic and a truly frightening kunoichi. She was acknowledged and respected by everyone, even a hard-ass like Neji.

With his training and missions with his team he'd not had much time to spend with her. Rushed reetings as they passed each other on the street, the occasional small-talk when she had some time to spare and anecdotes shared by Neji when she'd trated him at the hospital or come to the Hyuuga compund to visit Hinata had been most of the interactons he'd had with her. So it was no surprise that it had slipped past him that she'd given her heart away again after it had been broken by Uchiha Sasuke.

The first unnerving nagging of that thought had been when Neji shared another story of her after a training session. They were all sitting in the shade of a large oak, taking a break and cooling themselves off when Tenten, fidling with a senbon asked Neji about the shoulder he'd dislocated the day prior.

Neji'd shrugged and taken a swing out of his water bottle before answering. "It's all healed up. Sakura-san righted it and healed the inflamed nerve-endings."

"That's good," Tenten answered before adding. "Man, Sakura is such a great medic. To think that I can't even gather my chakra enough to execute a medical ninjutsu..."

Neji chuckled and shook his head. "Don't beat yourself over it. Sakura-san once told me that medical ninjustu was so complex and required an impressively high level of chakra control that even Kakashi-san couldn't do it after copying the technique with his sharingan. And Naruto mentioned that Sakura-san's chakra control at twelve had been better than Kakashi-san's back then. Now its even better than Tsunade-sama's. That's why Sakura-san can use justs that even the Hokage is incapable of executing."

Tenten shot her long-haired teammate a sly look before nudging him with her elbow plafully. "You're quite informed about Sakura-san," she intoned teasingly. "Is that more than friendly admiration that I pick up in your voice, huh Hyuuga? Maybe Sakura's pretty smile and her charm managed to melt your icy heart?"

Neji just snorted and gave his teammate a dirty look. "Don't be ridiculous. Sakura-san is certainly beautiful and would be more than worthy of my affection and attention, but we are nothing but friends. If even that. More like friendly aquiantences. The most I know about her is from her constant chatter when she's treating me and Naruto's unstoppable blabber-mouth when he drags me to Ichiraku every now and then. Besides," he added after a short pause, "I wouldn't risk losing limb and life coming between her and Kakashi-san. They're always together. I would make a bet that there's something going on with those two. More than friendship or team dynamics."

That had been a month ago. Since then he'd taken time out of his training to watch her. And indeed. It was just as Neji said. She worked at the hospital and helped Shizune-san at the Hokage Tower. But aside of that, most of her free time she was spending with Hatake Kakashi. They trained together, ate together, went on walks, to tea shops, shopping, to the movies, had dinners and met every Saturday at each other's apartments for home-cooked meals. If not for the fact that aside from Kakashi's arm around her shoulders on occasion, they never did anything even remotely intimate and neither ever stayed over night, he would've sworn that they were a couple.

---

That's it for now. I'll probably find some more when I find my notebooks in the basement somewhere. I hope at least.

Well tell me what you think and please be honest!