"If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow."

- William McFee

The file sat on the table between Sakura and Ino, closed with the label facing up. A few of the papers within were sticking out. A name was visible in the top corner of one of the sheets of paper. Sakura couldn't bear to look at it, and she couldn't bear to touch it, either.

So she looked away.

She still felt the same cold dread that had flooded through her when she'd first found the folder. It had been an accident. Shizune had sent her to the file room to put away some patient records, and she'd stumbled upon one that had obviously been misplaced.

Why would a file clearly labelled "Suicide Mission" be stored in the hospital's file closet?

Curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she'd opened it up and scanned the first page. To her horror, the leader of the team taking on the mission was none other than her own sensei and occasional lover, Hatake Kakashi.

Whatever happened after that was mostly a blur. She couldn't remember crying, but her eyes were stinging and puffy. She had no recollection of screaming, but her throat felt sore and torn up. The last thing she remembered was answering the door when Ino knocked.

Ino had said, "You called?"

Sakura didn't remember that either.

And now here they were, sitting across from each other, everything silent except for the burbling of the coffee pot in the kitchen. Ino had flipped to the first page of the file, and that was all she needed to read to understand. In most cases, Ino always knew the right thing to say. Or if she didn't know the right thing to say, she at least had something to say. This situation had managed the impossible - it had rendered Ino speechless.

They'd been sitting there, neither of them saying a word to the other, for at least twenty minutes before Ino finally broke the silence.

"So that's it, then?" she asked quietly. "You're just going to let him go?"

Sakura shrugged and ran the tip of her finger along the rim of her cup of coffee. "He's already left," she said. "What choice do I have?"

Ino wanted to roll her eyes. But it didn't seem appropriate. "Go after him, of course."

Sakura couldn't help the bitter laugh that escaped her. As if she hadn't already considered that. There was nothing she wanted more than to chase him down and stop him, or at least join him in the fight if he refused to come back with her. Even now, her feet itched to carry her out the door, to run until she caught up with him, even if it meant never stopping.

But, as unimportant as they seemed in comparison, she had other obligations. People to see and places to be. She would surely be missed if she ignored them.

"I have a shift at the hospital tomorrow morning," Sakura sighed. "It would take me a day, at least, to reach him. Tsunade would notice I'm gone before I even made it halfway there."

The coffee pot stopped grumbling, but Sakura didn't get up. She sat frozen in her chair, no longer trying to avoid looking at the folder. Instead, she stared straight at it, as if trying to banish it from existence with her eyes.

With a concerned frown, Ino got up and fetched the pot of coffee herself. She brought it over to the table and went to refill Sakura's cup, only to find that it was untouched and completely full, and no longer steaming. So she filled her own mug and returned the pot to its place, then sat back down across from her friend.

She gave a contemplative hum as she took a long sip of her coffee. Then, with her face still half hidden behind the mug, she said, "What if I told you that you'd be at the hospital tomorrow no matter what? Bright and early, right on time."

Sakura looked up with one eyebrow already arched. "You're not making any sense," she said.

Without explanation, Ino performed a quick henge, transforming herself into a perfect clone of Sakura. She'd matched Sakura's appearance exactly, everything from the color of her hair to the placement of the freckles across her nose. She smiled.

Sakura lips quirked up slightly in return, despite her better judgement. "If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting-" she started.

"What choice do you have?" Ino shot back, using Sakura's own words against her.

"If you get caught-"

"I won't!" Ino insisted. "I look exactly like you. I've known you my entire life, so I think I can act you pretty convincingly. And you're only supervising tomorrow, right?"

"I have a few minor check-ups schedules. I think Lee is supposed to come in-"

"Come on, Sakura!" Ino persisted. "I've done a check-up before. I may not be the fifth Hokage's prodigy, but I can do that at least."

Sakura pursed her lips in thought. She picked up her mug and took a sip of her coffee, then promptly made a face and set it back down. "This is a crazy idea," she said as she brought her cup to the sink and dumped it, watching it swirl down the drain.

"It's the only choice you've got."

That wasn't true at all. She could easily sit at home, cross her fingers, and hope for Kakashi's safe return. That was the sensible choice. But if he never came home... She'd never be able to forgive herself for not trying to save him.

The safest, easiest choices were not always the best ones.

But Ino knew what it would mean if Sakura left. The two of them would be in deep trouble if anyone found out. And while Ino was a great friend, she usually didn't jump at the chance to get herself in trouble. As often as she could, she sat on the sidelines and waited for everything to play out before she ever took real action. In fact, that was her biggest flaw. A flaw that she was clearly overcoming.

"Why are you doing this?" Sakura asked.

Ino clicked her tongue impatiently. "Because I'm your best friend," she said. "And I'm not about to let you lose the best thing that's ever happened to you." She paused, and as an afterthought, she added, "Since me, at least."

Humming quietly in consideration, Sakura hopped up to sit on the counter. She nervously twirled her hair around her fingers as she weighed the pros and cons of Ino's outrageous plan. It wasn't foolproof in the slightest. There was a huge chance that they would get caught. If that were to happen, best case scenario, Sakura would lose her job at the hospital and probably her apprenticeship with Tsunade.

Worst case scenario was face the Hokage's anger and deal with the aftermath. Sakura shuddered to think of what exactly Tsunade would do to her if she knew that she was even considering going after Kakashi.

However, if all went well, everyone would be safe. Kakashi wouldn't have to die, Ino wouldn't get caught, and Sakura would have Kakashi. That was all she needed. Tsunade need never know. And like Ino said, it was the only real choice Sakura had.

She came to her conclusion and nodded. "Okay," she decided. "If I'm not back in three days, you have to tell Tsunade and only Tsunade what's going on. Don't reveal yourself to anybody-"

Ino jumped up and dropped her henge. Her blue eyes were bright and excited. Sakura had a feeling she wasn't taking this as seriously as she should. But she knew Ino better than anybody, and if there was a thrill in it for her, there was no way she'd lose focus. She would be having too much fun.

"I'm not stupid, Sakura-" she started.

"I mean it. Because if somebody finds out that you're not really me, it'll be my head. Or worse, my job."

Ino laughed and whispered something under her breath about priorities. "I know that."

"Repeat it to me," Sakura commanded.

"I can't tell anybody what's going on-"

"Not a soul, not even-"

"I know!" Ino exclaimed. "Not even Shikamaru or Chouji. But if you don't come back in three days, it's officially an emergency situation and I have to tell Tsunade."

"And only in an emergency situation-!"

"I get it!" The blonde stepped forward and slapped her hands onto Sakura's shoulders, shaking her hard to remind her of what she needed to do. "Sakura, you're wasting time!"

Without another word, Sakura leaped off the counter. She swept through her home at a dizzying speed, collecting all the things she would need on her journey - a pack of clothes, some weapons, and a first aid kid. When she was done, she ran toward the door and put her hand on the knob.

Nervously, she looked back at Ino. The blonde gave her a short nod and a salute, and that was all the reassurance Sakura needed. She opened the door and was gone.

"Are you sure you are alright, Sakura-chan?"

Ino ground her teeth together, but she played it off as a wide grin when she turned to Lee and said, "Of course I'm alright!" Better as soon as you leave, she thought to herself. "Why would you think anything was wrong?"

"I don't know, you are just... Well, it is not exactly a bad thing... But you seem to be more..."

As he stumbled over his words, trying to find the right phrasing, Ino let her imagination run wild. More what? she wondered. More friendly? Prettier? Sexier? She smiled. "What is it, Lee?"

"Perky. You are perkier this afternoon!" he said.

Ino laughed, a chirpy sound that would never actually come out of Sakura's mouth. She threw her arm over Lee's shoulder and began slowly guiding him towards the hospital's exit. She said, "Well, I'll tell you what. Just seeing you brightened my day!"

Lee jumped. "Do you really mean that?" he asked excitedly.

"Of course I do!"

For a moment, he looked as if he might combust. Then he let out a cheer and threw his arms around Ino, embracing her tightly. "It means so much to me to hear that from you!" he shouted as Ino struggled to escape his hold. "Someone as lovely and youthful as-"

The door swung open and in rushed a group of at least ten people, all crowded around one stretcher. Ino could tell that three of them were ANBU from the masks they wore. From their uniforms, Ino picked out five medics. There was one civilian wrapped in a blanket who appeared to be suffering from shock, and in the midst of all the chaos, Ino caught a glimpse of Naruto's bright orange jumpsuit.

Her heart contracted and she pushed Lee away from her. There was no way she could hide her true identity with Naruto around. If anybody knew Sakura as well as Ino did, it was him. And what was worse, he knew Ino pretty well too, and if she hung around him too long when she was trying to cover for Sakura, she'd be found out.

Above the ruckus, she heard mentions of the mission being incomplete and the enemy still at large. She started to back away from the commotion, trying not to be seen. Then, as if he sensed her presence, one of the frantic medics exclaimed, "We need Haruno-san!" He turned toward her and gestured for her to come over and help.

"No, no, I'm very busy at the moment-!" Ino murmured.

"Sakura-chan?"

Naruto turned toward her, and as he did so, Ino caught a glimpse of a mop of white hair splayed on the stretcher. Everything clicked, and she let out a shriek. Her hands clapped over her mouth and she backed away a few paces.

There were only a few patients that were so important they needed more than one or two medics. And Naruto wasn't one to follow any random patient on a stretcher into the hospital. He, like his sensei, preferred to stay as far away from the hospital as possible. And the only reason they would need Sakura's help was if the patient was his sensei.

The medics stared at her expectantly, and Naruto watched her with a worried expression. One of the medics still had his hand up, twitching his fingers toward him, beckoning her forward. "Haruno-san, we don't have much time."

"I- I-" Ino stammerd. "I have to go!"

She turned around and ran as fast as she could, sprinted to the stairs - the elevator would be too slow. She took them two at a time, climbing until she reached the corridor on the top floor, where she dashed down the long hall until she reached the office at the end and flung the door open.

The blonde woman at the desk looked up immediately. Ino didn't have time to explain the entire situation to Tsunade, so she did the only thing she could think to do at that moment.

She dropped the henge. Sakura's image shimmered for a few seconds before fading into Ino's.

Instantly, Tsunade jumped up, her expression growing dark and angry. "Where the hell is Sakura?" she shouted. "She's supposed to be supervising-"

"She went to go save Kakashi from his suicide mission!" Ino blurted out.

The words were quick and jumbled, but Tsunade understood well enough. Her face darkened even more, but she looked less angry and more frightened. "That stupid girl-" she muttered.

Ino took a deep breath and continued, "Kakashi's heading into the OR right now, he's dying, I have no idea what to do, they didn't complete the mission, the enemy is still out there, and fuck, so is-"

"So is Sakura," Tsunade finished with a sigh. "There's a reason I didn't want her to find out about that mission."

"You knew she'd go after him," Ino panted.

"And I knew that doing so would likely be fatal. For the both of them," Tsunade explained.

Ino's eyes widened and she began to shake her head rapidly back and forth. "No, no!" she cried. Sakura wasn't going to die. This had been her stupid idea, Sakura couldn't die because of it, and neither could Kakashi! The whole point had been to save his life. A single tear slid down her face and she wiped it away, trying to maintain what little composure she had left. "There must be something we can-"

"It would take a day to get somebody out there, and by then, it would be too late. I'm guessing she doesn't have any emergency transport scrolls on her, and she wouldn't know to use them anyway. Unless..."

Tsunade paused and Ino glanced around nervously. Her eyes still stung, but she refused to lose it now. Not when Kakashi was dying on a stretcher a couple floors down. The pause stretched on even longer and Ino snapped, "In case you'd forgotten, Kakashi is dying on another floor and shit is hitting the fan-"

"Katsuyu!" Tsunade said suddenly, snapping her fingers.

"What?" Ino asked incredulously.

Tsunade took off, running the same way Ino had come. Ino followed at a strenuous pace. It wasn't until Tsunade began speaking again that Ino noticed the small white slug perched on the Hokage's shoulder.

"Katsuyu can summon herself to Sakura's side," Tsunade explained, sounding far too calm and composed considering the situation at hand. "I'll send an emergency scroll with her, but it's risky and there's no guarantee-"

"No guarantee? What do you mean?" Ino barked. "If she has the scroll, she can come back in a heartbeat-"

"But will she?" Tsunade shook her head. "She'll be expecting me to pull out all the stops to bring her back if she knows that I've found out she's gone, which she will once Katsuyu finds her. She wouldn't put it past me to trick her into thinking Kakashi has already returned and that she doesn't have to worry about him anymore."

"She knows you wouldn't have found out she was gone unless it was an absolute emergency." Tsunade looked over her shoulder and glared at Ino, who continued guiltily, "That was part of our deal."

Tsunade made a sound akin to a growl. "I realize that," she said. "That's only one of my many concerns. The others are far worse."

"Do I want to know?"

"She may already be engaged."

Ino felt her heart jump. She almost skidded to a halt, but she forced herself to keep going, taking the stairs even faster to keep up with Tsunade as they headed toward the operating room. "Then what the hell are we waiting for?" she shouted. "Katsuyu, get-"

"A scroll," the slug finished quietly. "Bring it to Sakura. I know. I'll do my best."

The creature disappeared in a small puff of smoke, and just as she vanished, the pair of blondes burst through the door of the operating room. With a booming shout, Tsunade ordered everybody out of the room. They all left except for one man in an orange jumpsuit.

Naruto straightened up and opened his mouth to argue, but under Tsunade's hard glare, he could do nothing but oblige. He deflated and left the room, but Ino could see him peer in through the tiny window in the door, glaring at her suspiciously.

Her heart pounding, Ino retreated into a corner and slid down onto the ground, her head in her hands. She looked up at the stretcher, but all she could see of Kakashi was his hand hanging off the side. A drop of blood fell from one of his fingertips every few seconds, and his whole hand was covered in the stuff, though most of it looked dry. She didn't dare stand up to see the rest of the damage. She put her face back in her hands.

"You can heal him, right?" she asked quietly. Through her fingers, she made eye contact with Naruto, and she quickly looked away.

"Of course I can," Tsunade said simply, already beginning to work. Her hands were green, all aglow with chakra, and she kept picking up tools from the stand beside her. "The question is whether he'll care that he's alive or not once he realizes where Sakura is."

After a short silence, Ino solemnly murmured, "All Sakura wanted was to save his life. And now she's going to die."

The Hokage clicked her tongue but didn't look up from her work. "Don't underestimate her," she chided. "I kept that mission hidden from her so that her judgement wouldn't be clouded by her emotions. Not because I didn't think she was strong enough to handle the enemy."

"Then why did you call it a 'suicide mission'? If it was suicide for Kakashi, then there's no way Sakura can-"

Tsunade tensed visibly, then relaxed as she explained, "'Suicide' was only the mission's code name. Kakashi, or his team, must have screwed up somewhere, because this should have been easy for him-"

"I don't understand."

Code names for missions usually dealt with the area in which the mission would take place, or the nature of the enemy, but Ino couldn't see any explanation for this code name. All she could think when she heard "suicide mission" was a sacrificial mission that a shinobi would take knowing that he or she would die, but also knowing that it had the potential to save the village.

"We called it the Suicide Mission because of the enemy's peculiar abilities. He can turn himself into a perfect clone of his opponent, but his skill goes much further than a basic henge." She shot a glance at Ino, and her eyes fell to the floor guiltily. "He can actually replicate his opponent's exact fighting style," Tsunade continued seriously. "The only flaw is that he can't perform any kekkei genkai for obvious reasons. If his opponent managed to kill him, they would be-"

"Killing themselves," Ino said, putting the pieces together. "'Suicide.'"

"Precisely. And the reason I sent Kakashi-"

"The Sharingan," Ino guessed, and Tsunade nodded. "The enemy can't copy kekkei genkai."

Of course. As ridiculous as it was to give a mission a code name that implied something far worse, Tsunade's explanation actually made a lot of sense. Kakashi was far too valuable a shinobi to be sent on a mission that he would surely die on. Tsunade would never give him anything more than he could handle. They needed him. Of course this mission wouldn't have killed him.

Perhaps if she or Sakura had bothered to read the entire file, they might have known.

"With the Sharingan," Tsunade said, shaking Ino out of her thoughts, "Kakashi would have been perfectly able to predict the enemy's next move. It should have been an extreme advantage."

"What I don't understand is why you didn't just tell Sakura about the mission before she found out and did something stupid like try to follow him," Ino wondered aloud.

"I was an ANBU mission." There was a slapping sound as Kakashi's vest, cut down the middle, slapped onto the ground, blood pooling around it. "I was legally obligated to keep my mouth shut, or else I would have told her. I knew if she saw the file, she'd jump to the wrong conclusion immediately."

Oh, she had. They both had. "Why didn't you call it something else?" Ino asked.

"The code names of missions are not always my choice. I would have, if I'd had a real say in the matter. I made plenty of suggestions, but at the end of the day, it was Kakashi's decision." The operating table shook, and Ino guessed that Tsunade was taking out her anger and frustration on the patient. "He just had to be fucking clever."

"And now they're both going to suffer for it..." Ino shook her head. She couldn't believe this was happened to her. To them. She couldn't decide whose fault it was. Tsunade's, for putting him on the mission? Kakashi's, for coming up with the stupid code name? Sakura's, for not reading the entire file?

Or was her own fault, for letting Sakura go after him at all?

She groaned. "Do you think Sakura can get back here safely?"

"If she listen to Katsuyu," Tsunade said with an air of certainty. "Whether she meets the enemy or not, she'll be able to make it back if she's thinking straight. If she doesn't believe Katsuyu and becomes engaged in battle when she still believes that she has to save Kakashi's life..."

"She won't be fighting for herself," Ino finished.

"No," Tsunade said quietly. "She'll be fighting for him."

Ino was unable to hold back any longer. She cried in earnest now, tears streaming down her face as she choked on her sobs.

Sakura wasn't the only one fighting for him. Tsunade was working diligently, her brow furrowed and shiny with sweat, to keep Kakashi alive, knowing full well he wouldn't appreciate her efforts if Sakura wasn't around. Ino had risked severe punishment by covering for Sakura - even now, she had to wonder what Tsunade had in store for her when she finished healing Kakashi. And Sakura herself was out in the middle of nowhere, looking for a man she wouldn't be able to find, trying to save his life when he was already in very capable hands.

Ino wiped at her tears, but her efforts were futile. They continued to fall ceaselessly. "So who's going to fight for her?" she murmured.

Her question was met with silence.

Water dripped from Tsunade's face and Ino couldn't tell if it was sweat or tears. She continued to work quickly and quietly, for what felt like hours upon hours. Naruto was no longer standing outside the door. Instead, one of the medics from before was there, watching Ino with the same suspicion Naruto had shown.

More hours passed, and Ino had stopped crying. She was slumped on the cold tile floor, leaning against the wall, her eyes heavy. But she refused to sleep. She doubted if she would be able to at all. Nightmares would surely plague her tonight. Every time her eyelids tried to close, she forced herself to watch Tsunade.

And at last, the blonde Hokage stepped away from the operating table and wiped her hands off on a cloth. She swiped her hand over her brow and sighed, looking down at Kakashi. "He's stabilized," she said wearily. "He'll be just fine."

Ino doubted that.

Even though she was bruised and battered, even though she was bleeding from more than a few wounds, and even though the rain was ice cold and unrelenting, Sakura knew there was a reason for everything that had happened to her today.

She stared with unfocused eyes at a blurry white shape sitting in a small puddle of rain or blood, Sakura couldn't quite tell. Above the loud slap of the rain against the mud, she could hear quiet sniffling. She didn't know slugs could cry.

"Why didn't you return with me?" Katsuyu asked her fiercely.

Sakura shook her head, as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the word. Her breathing was labored and she struggled to speak. "I had to... save him," she rasped.

"He was in Tsunade's hands!" the slug exclaimed. She then lowered her voice and said in a somber tone, "He's alive, Sakura."

At that, Sakura couldn't help her smile. Her eyelids were painfully heavy now, so she allowed them to close, not caring about the fact that they may never open again. Very quietly, but very surely, she said with her last breath, "Then I did what I came to do.

A/N: So there you have it, skylar_inari. I thought long and hard about what I was going to write for your prompt, and in the end, all I could come up with was angst, angst, and more angst. With a side of angst. I hope that's all right with you! May the angst in this fic not interfere with your Merry Christmas or your Happy Holidays. :)