A/N: To set the scene... War is over (yay) and three years have passed.


Prologue: "I can explain."

"I can explain."

Biting her lip anxiously, Sakura tried to keep eye contact through the steel bars but found his usually impassive gaze far too intense. His hands were even more unsettling as his long fingers steadily tapped the wooden table between them. He never usually fidgeted, betraying the calm that strangers may have attributed to the slow tapping. To them, he might have looked bored. She knew better.

Kakashi was annoyed. Not angry but most definitely disappointed.

Ultimately, she wasn't sure if her explanation even mattered. Kakashi certainly never bothered with authentic excuses, often blaming black cats and roads of life for his renowned tardiness. From the look of him, he wouldn't even listen fully to her carefully thought through plan that had definitely not been the product of excessive drinking and coincidental encounters.

If he were Naruto, she'd have no problem shouting at him that she knew what she was doing. If he were Tsunade, she'd probably have been pulled through the bars by now into four-inch-wide Sakura slices. If he were Sasuke... Hell, Sasuke wouldn't have even bothered showing up.

Kakashi, however, merely dropped his intense stare and smiled under his mask. She then breathed a sigh of relief; she had forgotten how intimidating the Copy-Nin could be from when he used to be her teacher. Even then, he had never given her that look, always giving her small doses of positive encouragement and never pushing her as hard as the boys. The award for strictest teacher would always go to Tsunade, along with every other teacher award unless 'Most disinterested'was somehow a category. Usually it was Sakura glaring at him; he did openly read porn in front of her.

Despite that, Sakura had given up on being teacher's pet a long time ago. If she was still sensitive and raw about how Kakashi treated her, she could have felt hurt that it had taken over a day for him to notice her absence.

"Well?" he asked, in a manner reminiscent of being in class again under Iruka when she had been too distracted staring at Sasuke to listen to him drone on about Konoha's history. As a ten year old, she'd spluttered and blushed.

Nine years later, Sakura was still spluttering.

She glanced to the guard standing thirty feet away, satisfied that if they spoke quietly enough he would not hear. It appeared the pair next to them were too preoccupied to eavesdrop as they were having the next best thing to a conjugal visit, stroking each other's hands and whispering dirty things about what they would do to each other if the bars weren't there.

Sakura overheard something being hot and wet then quickly tuned out.

"I went to do some reconnaissance."

"In a bar?" Kakashi asked, sniffing lightly. He didn't even need to say "You stink of alcohol". Damn his supernatural senses and damn the showering times being restricted and damn her mild hangover she hadn't bothered to heal. "I thought we had agreed you would stay—"

"I'm the mission leader, Kakashi-sensei," she interrupted, indignant.

It sounded awfully juvenile and only drew attention to the catastrophic situation the 'mission leader' had found herself in, when she was meant to be the utter professional and prove to him – and to Tsunade – that she was capable of taking charge outside of the hospital.

He'd told her to stay in that tiny little hostel and she had done what she had done out of spite since flipping her former teacher the bird had seemed a little too unprofessional. It was only intended to be one drink, and she would have returned before him with the copy ninja none the wiser.

She should have learned that things rarely pan out as she expected them to. If genin Sakura had her way, she'd be Mrs Uchiha now, a stay at home mother with lots of babies. Chuunin Sakura would have still been Mrs Uchiha but working in the hospital. Jounin Sakura, however, was supposed to be an independent, intelligent, powerful woman – like Tsunade with a little less alcohol and gambling dependence.

"Anyway," she continued, aware that visiting time was running out.

The last thing she wanted Kakashi to do was actually break her out of here. Both because she needed to complete her mission, and she didn't want to carry on relying on the male members of Team Kakashi to bail her out. It could only happen so many times before it became a 'thing'and Sakura did not want 'damsel-in-distress' to be her 'thing'.

"I came across the target after they—" she inhaled sharply and unconsciously rubbed at her palms, remembering the blood, "—took care of our contact. I followed them and she handed herself in."

"She brought herself here?" he asked, puzzled.

"Yes."

"Here, in a mental asylum," he stated sardonically.

Sheepishly, she glanced to her fellow inmates. Dressed in uniforms that must have been sparkling white once but were now a dull grey, barefoot and with their respective numbers inked both on the back of their shirts and along their collarbones.

6-10-84 was hers.

"It's the psychiatric unit of the island's prison," she corrected.

He sighed. "And here I thought you'd finally snapped, Sakura."

"Who could blame me?" she retorted, only half-joking. He'd been frustrating the whole mission so far with his aloof attitude yet deliberately mentioning things to get a rise out of her. At least back in Konoha she could unload her frustrations on others – 'Naruto the punch bag' was great stress relief – but she'd been stuck with him the whole time with his porn and his mask and his insubordination. "Anyway, we've been here for a week and this was the first lead we had."

Kakashi scratched his chain. "Ah," he pondered, "But could you please enlighten me why you had to be taken away as well? I am sure you should have no problem escaping though it might be difficult to stick to our mission brief completely."

A key component of said mission brief had been that under no circumstances should they reveal themselves as shinobi. They were rare here and after the Great Shinobi War, those countries that did not have hidden villages were becoming distrustful of any ninja. Not that she could blame them after the sheer devastation Madara's ambition had caused.

"I think that there's something here, in the facility. A drop off or a contact. One of the inmates here must have something to do with it since this has to be the only way for them to discuss their plan. If I can find out who it is, we might be closer to finding the source."

"Speculation," Kakashi frowned.

"It's the best thing we've had. I'm notgoing to let this spread further," she hissed.

Kakashi had only been doing reconnaissance for a week. Before this mission, Sakura had been pursuing information for months. She had pointed out to Tsunade the worrying reports. She had identified the areas that had been affected. She had intercepted the coded messages, all pointing to this location, to this person. Needless to say, she was becoming increasingly impatient.

And she would rather spend the rest of her days in a green jumpsuit with a bowl cut than let it slip away from her.

"Besides," she added, "It's not like you would exactly blend in here." As funny as the image might be of Kakashi wearing a sock-filled bra and putting on a high-pitched voice.

During the former student and teacher's intense argument, the couple next to them had gotten more intense in a different manner, kissing through the bars. The bars were still too thick though so the end result was essentially the pair just licking each other's tongues. The guards had marched over to separate them and decided this was a good time to bring the visiting session to a close. More wardens in their pale blue uniforms with their white clinical face masks entered to take the visitors away.

Kakashi did not protest and slumped away in his usual unenthusiastic manner. At the door, he turned slightly to consider her with his good eye.

He looked... worried.

She gave him a small wave and a smile, hoping her Will of Fire was going to be enough.


That Will of Fire was a bit put out by that evening.

"Shower time!" the other inmates all giggled happily, bundling by the door to try to be the first one out. The woman who had been part of the overly affectionate couple earlier had already started taking off her clothes.

"In an orderly fashion, please," called the guards on the other side of the door. After some pushing and shoving, a queue did start to form and Sakura took her place at the back. Once the guards were satisfied, they opened the doors.

The first room appeared to be a changing room but there were no doors to hide behind, just a large laundry basket for them to throw in their uniforms.

The others stripped without hesitation, despite the two men in the room.

Showing her naked body didn't bother Sakura that much. She could consider the situation with her cool, professional 'medic-nin' hat on and detach herself from any personal insecurities. When performing physicals, it got to a point where she'd seen everything and accepted that bodies came in all shapes and sizes and so on with the cliché.

However, it was clear the two guards did not have their cool, professional 'warden' hats on by the way they were staring at the lusty woman's body.

Cool and professional. Cool and professional.

It was a mantra she repeated to herself as they were ushered to the 'Wet Room', another room of a similar size with ten shower heads in one corner and a non-slip rubber floor.

The two guards approached the opposite corner though where another warden had entered through a door marked 'STAFF ONLY'.

"Ah, you must be the new guy! Ebisu, right? You're just in time, heh heh."

Sakura glared at the three men, though she couldn't really see the features of this 'Ebisu' except for his...

Gravity-defying light grey hair.

Suddenly the mantra changed to a long, drawn out scream. She was quick to jump into the gathering of ladies under the shower heads, earning a few tuts as she stepped on their toes and elbowed her way into the furthest corner.

What the hell is he doing here?!


A/N: So... I haven't written fanfiction for like five/six years. Recently, I re-read my favourite fanfiction stories and I was sad to see that the best author ever Silvershine had stopped updating. I don't know if anyone else gets this, but it's ruined all other fanfiction for me. If you haven't read her stuff, stop reading this and go read all her stuff. Then feel depressed that there's been no more updates and come back here. Actually, don't come back here straight away because this is gonna look like garbage next to her work. Wait a month, work through your withdrawal symptoms then come back. (Like seriously, should we arrange some sort of group counselling session?)

So I'm writing fanfiction because I'm frustrated and I'm taking it all out on you in this author's note (at least I put it at the bottom).

Reviews are greatly appreciated.