Author's Note: Hello fandom I haven't touched in five years. How are you?

He'd been preparing himself a long time, to catch Sakura when her legs give out the day Naruto is killed. To brace for her shrill screams when Sasuke dies. God forbid those unhappy things are on the same day, but Kakashi has thought seriously about that, too. Even though they're not trying to kill each other anymore, the possibility still exists that fate could take them down all at once.

Of all the terrible things any sensei worth their salt has to imagine, Sakura's limp form on the sand never crossed his mind.

It'd been a B-rank assessment mission. The tiny fire village had some mysterious deaths, but they claimed to have solved them and were just looking, essentially, for a coroner. To give the bodies a proper onceover. Sakura had been going stir crazy trapped at the hospital, scratching at the Hokage when pawing didn't work. It'd be a grim job but it was outside the village with a healthy trek through the southern woods.

With an estimated four days in the nameless village, it'd be a week round trip. She packed, she laughed at breakfast, and was off, ready for fresh air and corpses.

Six days became eight, and on this ninth day Kakashi finds her. A lagoon opens to a cave, and following the water leads to an underground lake. That's where she lays, on the dark shore, lazy waves rolling up to her ribs where she sticks out of the water.

Naruto looks as if he doesn't hear Kakashi right. A strained, slightly panicked smile stretches uncomfortably across his face as he asks, "What was that?" because surely he misheard. Yeah, he misheard or hallucinated or-or—oh God why is Kakashi-sensei looking at him like that?

His legs give up and he bangs the hell out of his knees as he hits the dirt. He grabs at Kakashi's pant legs, trying to talk but all that he can manage is a pained moan. Naruto can barely look at Kakashi, his heart crippled with a new sadness. When he manages to lift his sorrow-filled head, that lone eye crinkled with pain begins to blur away into the blue sky as the tears start.

On her back, her hands float beneath the surface, her long boots weighing her feet down in the shallow water. Her skin is white and blue and slimey; her neck is bruised and pocked by black, old blood. Twine, wire, hair? is wrapped around her spongy neck, still wet even out of the water. Her jaw is slack and her pale lips are parted; her eyes are half open and rolled, glass and dull.

Rigor has come and gone, and he guesses she's been here four days.

Was it because Naruto always wanted her to hang back? Did chipping away at her experience amount to not being able to handle herself that day? Is it his fault, somehow?

Why wasn't he there?

There are no signs of a struggle, and her body looks undisturbed from where it washed up. Judging from the bulge around her eyes and the crusted foam trailing down her cheek, Kakashi assumes Sakura was strangled under the water, then left. Left to float to shore, where she waited in the cold for days to be found.

The shock gives way to anger, anger at whomever would leave her like this.

Tsunade stares down at her dead pupil, cold as the slab she's prone on, and thinks of all the times she gave Sakura busy work. Revive the fish again so the Fifth can go gambling; read a book instead of punching trees because Godaime's hungover. Is this her fault, somehow?

Why didn't she try harder?

Kakashi knows he should wait to move her, report in and have an investigation team down here. He knows that. Instead, selfishly, he takes her by her thin shoulders and pulls her from the lake, dragging her up the shore to dry sand.

Everything south of her waist has begun to swell from waterlogging.

The only person crying harder than Naruto at the funeral is Ino. A wailing, inconsolable mess from a middle row, she thinks about how it isn't right, isn't fair. She thinks of all the times she wished misfortune on her friend when they were young. Is this her fault, somehow?

Why couldn't she be there for her?

He wonders what she was doing down here, running his hand across her eyes to close them. His sleeves catches on her hair, and pink sweeps across her face. According to the villagers, she left town on time.

Had she come here after learning more about the mysterious deaths? Not that he'd been investigating it, but there were rumors of a lake monster, and the solution was just not to mess with it. Such boogeymen are usually ignored by the Hidden Leaf, why would she feel the need to check? What did she find in, on those bodies?

Her parents are as silent and dry as stones in the front row. Never making it past genin themselves, their daughter's advancements tended to leave them unsure and stressed. Compared to Naruto and Sasuke, it constantly seemed as if their little girl was out of her depth. Should they have put their foot down about it? Pulled her from the ranks? Is this their fault, somehow?

Why did they let her become a ninja?

Standing from a crouch, he looks around for her travel satchel. She tended to take notes, maybe something there will shed light on what she was doing down here. It only takes a few minutes to locate it further back into the cave. It had been hidden by shadows, but the only thing of interest. Odd, that she could go so far back.

Did she come in another way?

"You shouldn't go."

He had to wait until an unholy hour, but Kakashi had been right to camp out and wait for Sasuke to attempt leaving.

He doesn't stop walking. "Since when do you care?" Sasuke's been on house arrest for nearly a year, and this is the first time Kakashi's had anything to say about him breaking it.

"Since Sakura wouldn't want you to go."

"It doesn't matter what she wants, she's dead."

"On the contrary," and Kakashi hops down from the tree branch he'd been lounging on. He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "We have to think of what she wants now more than ever; she's not here to tell us anymore."

A scowl begins to carve itself into Sasuke's face as he 'tch's, coming to a stop beside Kakashi. He can see it perfectly on such a clear night. The moon and stars are alpine tonight. He knew Sasuke would do this, look for the lake monster or the person pretending to be one.

After a quiet moment, Sasuke takes the bait. "You think she'd rather have this fool creature roaming the depths?"

"No," Kakashi concedes with a tilt of his head. "But I know she's in Heaven, and would throw herself into Hell if something happened to you on her behalf."

"This isn't about her."

Liar, the older man thinks loudly. He doesn't have to say anything. They both know it.

Revenge is how he grieves.

There's not a cloud in the sky, and finally Sasuke can't take it anymore. "The sun's been shining," he says, and Kakashi turns his head to look at him. Ah. Every damn day since she's died, the sun's been out. Even the stars are bright.

Konohagakure tends to have the fortune of heavy rain to let everyone know someone important has passed away. That's just how it works out. Maybe that means it rains more often than anyone realizes, or people die more often than anyone realizes.

It should have been bleak for days, losing Konoha's darling. "Maybe they're trying to make up for the light we lost."

That response only deepens Sasuke's scowl, but he doesn't say anything. They stand in the ambient silence, surrounded by chirping crickets and birds shuffling through the leaves, things that are utterly, utterly alive. Unlike the girl they're discussing, missing.

He remembers something Sakura had said at breakfast, the morning she left. He'd taken her out for a pastry to celebrate her return to the field.

"She had something she wanted to tell you."

Sasuke closes his eyes, "I know," and opens them. "She said she'd tell me. When she got back."

Kakashi sighs, both pleased and amazed at her tenacity. "Probably that she still loves you," but then, more slowly, "Or maybe that she doesn't." His student pivots, finally facing him fully. Kakashi takes it as a victory he's not leaving.

"Which would be worse, do you think?"

"...I don't know," is Sasuke's honest, uncomfortable answer.

Her notes aren't helpful. Not to say there isn't information there, but it's all in medical shorthand, not something Kakashi's well versed in. His little student knew her stuff, he can see that, but that's no good to him. He kept reading it though, as an excuse not to leave. She's been alone for too long, he wants to stay with her just a little longer.

It's not like there's anyone to save.

He kills enough time that the water sloshes, and he turns. There's a shadow in the lake, and he gently tosses her notebook on top of her bag. Carefully, he watches as the blob rises, loose, white fabric floating on the surface.

Early that year, when she starts growing her hair long again, he asks if it's for Sasuke.

"Nah," she tells him. "All the things I do for him, this isn't one of them." She pauses, wrinkling her nose. "Well. This time, anyway."

"Can't blame my wondering." They're standing at the edge of the training grounds, watching his new genin struggle with their chakra on trees.

She begins gathering said hair up to pull back in a ponytail. "I joined the academy for him," she announces casually.

"Oh?" he asks, trying not to sound too interested as one of his students falls back on the ground loudly. "Is that so?"

"Yup," and the p pops. Tugging on her hair to tighten the tail, her hands then come to rest on her hips. "When I was little, I saw this boy laughing when we were at the park. I asked why he was wearing tights." She laughs, and it's soft, musical sound. "My dad told it was ninja mesh, and I said I was going to marry him.

"My parents said I couldn't, that I'd have to be a kunoichi to marry into his family. They recognized the prodigious Uchiha symbol that I knew nothing about. I decided right then I would go be a kunoichi." Sakura shrugs, her smile lost in memories. "Not being from a clan, I had to test in. I failed the first time, and passed the second, and that's why I was a year older than everyone in my class. All because I knew who I wanted to marry when I was six."

Even though she's not a lone prodigy or housing a tailed demon, she always manages to surprise him. Kakashi is stunned by her dedication, never ceasing to be amazed by the love that drives her. "All for Sasuke," he wonders out loud.

"All for nothing," is her retort, but her grin is cheeky with a touch of tongue between her teeth. She doesn't mean it, of course. He knows that while she may never have won Sasuke's heart, her endeavors as a kunoichi certainly amounted to something worthwhile.

"What did your parents think of that?"

"Oh, they thought their kid marrying an Uchiha was hilarious," Sakura says dryly. "They knew how impossible it was long before I did. They were more nervous about my profession and my name."

Again, his students tumble to the ground. "Your name?"

"Are you going to help them?"

"I didn't help you lot. What about your name?"

She turns to look up at him, her tied back hair sweeping across her back. "Sakura's a pretty old fashioned name, mostly reserved for babies that are sick. Cherry blossoms have beautiful but fleeting lives. Itty-bitty lifespan, you know? When your kid isn't gonna make it, you give them a Sakura name—Sakurako, Sakurataro—to give their short life some beauty.

"I'm a kunoichi named Sakura," she laughs. "It's scary easy to live up to the legacy."

It's amazing what he can learn at his age. She's awfully worldly at nineteen. "I'd rather you didn't."

She nods theatrically. "Right? Wouldn't that just be awful?"

There's a body in the white fabric. A ludicrously long kimono is wrapped around the floating woman. Face down, she slowly comes towards the shore. Long, black hair is everywhere, fanned out and rolling with the light waves. And growing. Inch by inch it's reaching out, making a slow snake wind through the water towards where Kakashi waits on the underground beach.

There is something achingly familiar about the scene, the rumors, her notes? Where does he know this from?

And then it hits him.

"Kai!"

#

Kakashi opens his eye to a dark, rocky ceiling and sits up.

"Phew!" Sakura smiles tiredly at him, a bead of sweat rolling down from her temple. "That was going too well; I was getting tired!"

He palms at his eye, concentrating on keeping his breath even. He'd come with Sakura to the southern village, her job menial medical tasks,. and his to keep her company. That's right; they'd finished early and she wanted to go exploring the cove. They'd found a cave… and he saw an opportunity to train his former pupil.

She wipes at her brow. "So, so?" Sakura prods. "How'd I do? You were in there for a while."

Tsunade trained Sakura in the art of taijutsu and medical ninjitsu, but Sakura at her core is a genjutsu type. All alone in this place, a cool underground lake with a beach, he decided to let her play around and see what she could do.

Good grief, she's still got it.

"You had me," he admits, though he keeps his tone easy so as not to give away how disturbed he is. "Until the Lady in the Lake. I watched that with you and Naruto, Sakura," he reprimands. "Poor form to borrow from movies."

She shrugs guiltily. "I wasn't sure what to do," she admits. "It's been a long time since I've needed to use genjutsu."

"Well, you set me up nicely." Kakashi blows out a breath and she perks up. "Using the environment of the place I'm in, and inserting yourself indirectly so my subconscious wouldn't wonder where you are. The fast forwarding to skew my sense of time was a good touch, too.

"Pointing out odd weather to hide any weird inclinations is a solid cover, and you didn't oversell anyone's reactions." Though his heart breaks a bit for her, that she thinks Sasuke would have so little of a reaction to her demise. Agree to disagree, but Kakashi thinks Sakura stopped getting her hopes up the second Sasuke started considering living up to them."That was a smart move at the end, looping in an actual memory to keep me hooked. If it weren't for the movie monster, I'd have given you five stars," he says. "Minus one."

"Wow, thanks!" Sakura beams. "It's been so long, I wasn't sure how well I'd do."

He'll never forget this, or doubt her genjutsu skills again. Rusty isn't something this girl gets, he considers warily. "Interesting fear you chose."

"Interesting fear you have," she says. "After I had to let that family know their grandfather would be passing, you said you hate giving bad news. When I put you under, I remembered your saying that, and tried to think of the worst kind of news you'd have to give. It was kind of a gamble," she admits, tilting her head, "That you wouldn't have considered it before, but it seemed safe."

Kakashi nods. "You did very well, Sakura."

"Awesome." And then, "Wait, four stars out of how many?"

"Who could say?"

"Sensei."

Author's Note: Whoops, forgot Sai and Yamato. Hi. It's nice to meet you. Review, you duckies, so I can improve in giving you what you want.