Sitting on top of the Hokage monument was one of Sakura's favourite things to do after a double shift at her hospital. Ever since the fourth shinobi war, reconstruction granted a second hospital with the staff to fill it as well. There was a huge increase of ninja wanting to know the basics of medical ninjutsu and those wanting to become full-time medic nins. Tsunade couldn't have been happier, she wanted to drive home the importance of medicine to Konoha and it had finally happened. It was a shame it took a war for it to do so. When Sakura wasn't in the village, Ino became the hospital's director. It meant they could never be on missions together and that they hardly saw one another.

It wasn't just ninja working at the hospital, civilian doctors and nurses also filled its wards. This decreased the stress on Konoha's ninjas and fortified the relationship between the shinobi and the villagers even further. Sakura herself had interviewed every single personnel in the building and trusted them all completely. The mix of ninjutsu and traditional medicine was working extremely well of late and couldn't wait to give the Hokage her report. The other hospital was just for medical nin and the base for the Konoha Medical Corps. Shizune was proud of her hospital as it was making advances in the medical field constantly.

As much as she loved her hospital, it wasn't as if Tsunade had just given her apprentice the building straight away. The Hokage herself oversaw it until she believed Sakura was ready for the responsibility. That was when she was 19. Sakura was now 21. The war had finished when she was 17, so in between those years she had decided to take her jonin exams and then join ANBU. They had accepted her with no hesitation, the reputation for her abilities and the eagerness to still learn was something they could work with. Yugao Uzuki had been her squad leader, and had been more than happy to teach the Hokage's apprentice the art of swordplay. It was something Sakura had been very interested to learn when Kakashi, for her 16th birthday, had given her a pink katana. Before her time at ANBU, it had just been in Sakura's apartment for decorative purposes, not anymore.

Her precise chakra control combined with her now mastered ability with her katana only increased how lethal she was on the battlefield. Yugao had also sent her to Kurenai for genjutsu training. After only two months of non stop training, Sakura now had an arsenal of new tricks to play with. She'd worked hard to get where she was now. Blood, sweat and tears went in to her training and there was no way she was going to let her teachers down. Especially Kurenai, with a daughter to look after as well, Sakura was surprised that she would even agree to train her. It was mostly demonstration and teaching her hand signs, the older kunoichi wanted to be able to spend hours with her training, but she couldn't. The time she did spent with Sakura though, she was grateful. That extended to a couple of nights where Sakura had even agreed to babysit for her.

The choice to leave ANBU had been a hard one, two years of almost being anonymous had been good for her. Yugao didn't want to let her go, but the hospital needed her. Tsunade had protested vehemently that Sakura was not to join the black ops to begin with, offering all the training she could and persuading her to reconsider her choice. Being a jonin didn't mean that ANBU was your next goal. It was a specialised group. But Sakura wanted to expand her skills past medical ninjutsu. She wanted the best of all the worlds available to her and the medicinal world always advanced. So for Tsunade to allow her to join Sakura promised her that she would come back to her every three months for two days for private tutelage from the Hokage. It was a deal that pleased everyone and had even taken days to negotiate. Sakura would have two days guaranteed at home and Tsunade would have her precious apprentice to herself. Not that Tsunade was selfish, but she didn't want Sakura to change too drastically. She wanted the young kunoichi to keep aspects of her personality and not for them to be swallowed up by the cruel enviroment of ANBU. The Hokage hated giving her S ranked missions where she couldn't be backed up by her usual team. At least then Tsunade would know that Sakura would come back alive. Not that she doubted her ANBU, but they were still hard to trust after the root division.

It had taken Ibiki weeks to weed out those who were not loyal to Lady Tsunade. It even went as far as all missions were to stop for the black ops squad. Only her top jonin took the S rank missions that would be originally suited for them. It was a tense time, but she was still wary of them. The experience did, however, put more faith in Sakura. She had finally stopped seeing Sakura as the young girl of 12 asking to be her apprentice, but a fully qualified kunoichi who had experience beyond her years. Everytime Tsunade saw her now, she couldn't help but feel pride for the pink haired woman and respected every choice she had made over the past four years.

Now, it was getting late. Sakura left the monument and took a casual stroll back to her apartment. Her block was near the hot springs, not far to go from where she currently was. Still in her doctors uniform, the short walk to her home was filled with people nodding to her with respect. There wasn't a shinobi who didn't know who she was. Her exploits with Naruto had gained her recognition that she never had expected. Which is why being anonymous for two years had let her escape from the village's watchful eyes. Only a few people knew where she had been, other's assumed she was either dead or constant lengthy missions. Those ANBU masks were a blessing that she didn't anticipate.

She adored where she lived, it was central enough for everything and anything she could possibly need. Sakura only wished she could make it more homely. Her walls were bare, as she didn't like the idea of her life to be scattered and avaliable for anyone to break in and see. Memories were kept in a locked box under her bed. Photographs, mementos, anything her friends had given to her over the years. Her photo album was the most precious things she owned. There were pictures of the old team 7, the new team 7, her and the girls, Tsunade and Shizune, her new friends and plenty of space to add new ones. Her favourite ones were of her 21st birthday party. Everyone had turned up drank their own weight in sake. Most of the pictures were incriminating and used as blackmail. Anko and Iruka groping each other and making out behind the academy was one she frequently teased her old academy teacher with. Anko was proud of it and was still trying to persuade Iruka that he should be as well.

It was also the night where Kakashi had met Yugao. Sakura could remember they stood together almost the entire night discussing assassination techniques and what their favourite approach was. Tales of each other's accomplishments took the entire party. Sakura hadn't been able to spend time with either of them. She'd hoped that something more romantic would come out of it, they suited each other completely. As far as Sakura knew, they hadn't said a word to each other since. A shame really, they both needed that someone to relax with. Sakura could only guess that Yagao was still grieving over Hayate and Kakasi was just being Kakashi.

Before going to bed, Sakura walked to her bathroom where she took her clothing off and dumped it straight into the wash basket that was in there. She looked at herself in just her underwear. Her hair was back to its long length, she had missed it and tied it up for missions so it was no bother. Her body was mainly immaculate, if you discounted her ANBU tattoo the large scar that curved from the bottom of her left breast stretching down to the right side of her back. She could of course make it almost invisible. But that would be a lie, all ninja had scars so why should she hide hers? She traced it like she did almost every night. It had become a habit that she hadn't bothered to stop. At least it wasn't the worst she had ever seen, it was just long and twinged with pain every so often. A reminder of her first ANBU mission and the dangers of how fast grass ninja could be.

Sakura left her bathroom and strolled to her bedroom across the hall where she changed in to a shirt that was three sizes too big her but it was comfortable. And it was the only thing she kept of her ex boyfriend's. Noriyuki, or Yuki as she called him was a civilian. He was a patient of hers that had a broken leg but needed a quick fix because he had to travel to Suna. Nurses had persuaded Sakura to quickly drop in and heal his leg so he could be on his way. However, Yuki was a charmer. He'd left in record time to make his travels and she'd left with a date when he came back. They were together for just over a year when he decided that he couldn't be with a shinobi who could come back dead tomorrow. Sakura wasn't on as many missions as she used to be, but the ones she did go on were A and S ranked. It was hard to believe that his reasoning took him a year to decide on, so Sakura assumed that he had met someone else. And he had, Noriyuki met Reiko when she visited Konoha to establish trade for her family's business. They'd simply bumped in to each other and started talking. As much as Sakura wanted Reiko to disappear, and she could have easily done so herself, she saw how happy they were together.

What Reiko could give Noriyuki was something Sakura could never give him. Stability and more of a guaranteed future together. They sometimes saw each other walking through Konoha's streets, a small smiled between them was shared but nothing more. Their break up hadn't been messy, it had been short sweet and to the point. She could still remember the sight of him on his knees crying and begging that they could still be friends. He'd even asked her to retire as a shinobi so they could spend their lives together. If it wasn't for her position in the village, she would have accepted his offer with no hesitation. There was just no way that she could, countless shinobi and civilians relied on her addition of the protection of Konoha and comradery for missions. Yet she wasn't in love with him, she adored him and cared for him greatly. She wasn't ready to love and he accepted that because he was always telling her that day will come where she would just tell him spontaneously. Now, that day would never come.

In bed, her memories put her to sleep fast. It was a technique she'd learnt from Shizune. Blocking all the painful memories out and allowing yourself to be overcome with positivity. She was having trouble sleeping for a long time and in her profession, she needed as much sleep as she could possibly get.

The next morning Sakura woke up with one of Kakashi's ninken in the middle of her bedroom floor. Guruko slept quite happily as his instructions weren't to wake her up, but to wait until she had woken up naturally. As soon as Sakura moved about in her bed and sat up, the ninken sprung up wagging his tail.

"Mornin' Sakura." He said looking up at her.

"Hello Guruko," Sakura replied stretching her arms with a yawn. It wasn't uncommon that Kakashi sent one of his ninken to her apartment, it only happened if he was in the tower and Tsunade had spotted him. Besides it was a nicer way to recieve a message from the Hokage than whatever sadistic way she chose on the day. She was hopeful that this was a mission summon and Kakashi would be involved. It had been too long since their last mission together and she missed him.

"Lady Tsunade would like to see you about your next task in the afternoon." Guruko explained.

"Why in the afternoon? She never requests to see me then." Sakura was looking very perplexed.

"There are meetings that she must attend to all morning."

"So why have you come now?" She asked, swinging her legs out of bed to dangle over the side.

"Master Kakashi would like to see you."

"Oh really?" Now this was a surprise. Kakashi had never asked to see her, if they saw each other it was for events or passing by in the street. "Did he give a reason why?"

"Nope. Just that you go to his place when your ready."

"Sure, see you later Guruko." Sakura said finally getting out of bed as the ninken disappeared just like Kakashi would.

Quickly, Sakura jumped in to the shower to get ready to meet her former sensei. After that, she had a towel wrapped around her as she brushed her teeth and went back to her bedroom to dry her hair. She opened her wardrobe to the array of outfits she now owned. There was something for every occasion stuffed in there, she picked out something fairly casual. Loosely fitting black knee length bottoms with a red over skirt that was slanted for over the top. This of course had her usual white circle on. On top, she put on a mesh top underneath with her flak jacket over it. She'd left it unzipped slightly you could see her mesh top peeking through. Accompanied by plain black small heeled sandals and her hair tied to the side with her headband tied over the top, she was ready to see Kakashi.

The walk to his apartment only took roughly twenty minutes, the last time she had been there was when he told her that Sasuke had died by Naruto's hand and the blonde haired boy needed to travel for a while before he came back to the village. Which was completely understandable, Naruto would spend the rest of his life protecting the village so he deserved some time to himself after killing his best friend. It was there when Kakashi had treated her like a close friend. There was no mask between them, she hadn't expected it but it was better that the news came from him in a more personal sense. No barriers between them, especially when she had cried in his arms.

When she got there, she knocked on his door and it had opened almost straight away. When he knew it was her, he pulled her in straight away. It was extremely unusual behaviour, she wasn't used to Kakashi being this way. He almost seemed spooked at something.

"I want to give you something." He said with a smile. Kakashi didn't see the point in wearing a mask around her anymore, she'd already seen his face there was no point in hiding it anymore.

"Which couldn't wait until I walked in myself?" She asked skeptically with one hand resting on her hip.

"Nope."

"What are you up to Kakashi?"

"You'll see." He wondered off to his bedroom and she sat down on his couch. May as well make herself at home.

Kakashi reappeared with a long wooden box in his hands and gave it to her. It wasn't her birthday, they didn't share an anniversary, no holidays that would involve gift giving... So the only conclusion Sakura could come to was that he had done something wrong, or was going to do something wrong and this was his way of making it up to her.

"You've done something haven't you... You'd better tell me now." There was no way he wouldn't notice the rising anger in her tone of voice.

"Honestly Sakura, can't a friend give a present without it being scrutinized?" He replied with amusement.

She opened the box but keeping her eyes on him with suspicion. But what was in the box was something she wasn't expecting. Sakura pulled it out and immediately fell in love with what she saw. A navy blue cloak with faux fur outlining the hood. She couldn't contain her excitement, she stood up and wrapped it around her, a perfect fit. Kakashi couldn't help but smile, but it wasn't because he was pleased she loved it, it was only because he knew what her upcoming assignment was going to be and this would benefit her greatly. Sakura then took it off and folded it back in its box.

"Before you ask, I saw it on my way back from the Land of Water and it reminded me of you." Kakashi said, "Just think of it as a very late birthday present."

He was the only one to turn up to her party without a gift, not that it bothered her since he couldn't top her katana and she was never one to expect presents. Sakura was just happy that he was with her celebrating, she'd found out after that Naruto had bribed him in to being social. Probably the same bribe for her 16th as well. "Thank you Kakashi." She said softly.

From what she knew of Kakashi as a person, this gift had to be more than an extremely late birthday present. He either wanted something or wanted her to do something for him. But for whatever reason, she didn't want to question the man. "Just promise me you'll take it with you."

"Huh?" Sakura finally took her eyes off the cloak in its box and gazed up at him, "Take it where? I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. I have a hospital to run, and even then Lady Tsunade always gives me warning so I can prep Ino."

"Don't question me Sakura, just promise me." Kakashi said with a sad smile.

"Fine, I promise..." Still just as confused as she was to begin with, Sakura sighed, "So why did you drag me in when I got here?"

"Oh that? Just because I could."