Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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-X-

She turned her hands nervously in her lap. Sakura was uncomfortable sitting in a room full of highly trained lie detectors and making sure her attention wasn't focused on one person in particular.

She was the idiot who suggested monthly Jonin meetings led by the Hokage and was deeply regretting that idea.

"Sakura-chan, want to train today?" Genma leaned over from his seat at the conference table to take up her personal space while Kakashi and Shikamaru wrapped up the agenda.

Sakura learned the formula to dealing with the notorious womanizer: say a little to lead him on but throw in a threat to keep him from thinking he had a shot.

"Well now, Genma, I don't think our hot sweaty bodies exchanging blows is something Aikiko-san would appreciate. She's staring daggers at you...and it looks like she's about to throw one."

Sakura dove out of her chair as a kunai whizzed through the air. He deflected it with the senbon in his mouth before it could maim his person. The kunai changed trajectory towards Sakura and she awkwardly tried to twist away when a hand appeared in front of her with a kunai that countered the projectile and sent it safely to imbed in the floor.

She should have been angry, but her focus was consumed by the warmth at her back and the scent clouding her senses. Seconds passed, and everything resumed.

Sakura righted herself and stepped away at the same time he did. "Thanks, Hokage-sama." She smiled congenially.

"Don't worry about it." Kakashi winked.

She turned her attention on the two guilty parties currently fighting. "Oi! Genma! Aikiko! You could've hurt somebody." She stalked over to the fighting-this-week couple and noticed Kakashi leave the room.

Although the pretense of not having a relationship was demanding, Sakura was receiving the best training in deception. Working with Kakashi and pretending they were only colleagues was difficult at times but incredibly rewarding. No one had guessed their relationship and that included tricking Kakashi's near constant ANBU guards.

They decided to wait until he stepped down and Naruto became the Hokage to announce their relationship. That would be in a few months and they were adults who could be discreet until then, made easier now that Sakura was taking on more responsibilities at the hospital and seeing less of him.

After telling off the jounin couple, Sakura hurried out of the tower towards the hospital.

-X-

Sakura managed to escape the hospital to get lunch somewhere besides the cafeteria. She eagerly picked a cafe and ordered right away. When another person sat down across from her in the booth she did her best not to look up too happily. He always had a way of tracking her down.

She acknowledged him with a polite smile. "Hokage-sama."

"Haruno-sensei." He greeted back.

The unmistakable heat in his eyes and the magnetic pull she felt whenever they were alone was in full effect. She couldn't be this close to him and not be in physical contact. Her foot slid against his under the table and she saw his eyes narrow playfully though he managed to appear the same outwardly bored person.

He folded his hands together and rested his chin on them. "Working late tonight?"

There was something wrong with her because every word and movement seemed incredibly sexy and that was completely unfair. Sakura knew she looked stressed and tired and there was a speckle of blood on her lab coat from her last patient. Compared to the Hokage, Sakura looked like a street urchin.

She sighed audibly. "I'm scheduled until six so barring an emergency, I'll be out by eight."

"What a coincidence, I plan to sneak out of my office and escape my ANBU guard around that time." Kakashi replied happily.

Sakura couldn't help but smile and her smile grew when a plate of onigiri was placed in front of her by the wait staff. She looked lovingly at the little morsels of rice and hurriedly scooped one into her hand.

She leaned in for a bite.

"Haruno-sensei!"

Sakura's right eye twitched and she pulled her foot back to her side of the table. A red-faced Chunin was running through the cafe to her table. The younger woman bowed to Kakashi and turned to her. "There's an emergency at the hospital that requires your presence."

She let the onigiri fall back onto the plate with an audible plop. Sakura reluctantly stood and pulled out her wallet. Kakashi waved her off and placed several bills down from his robe. She thanked him and took one last longing look at her uneaten lunch then followed the shinobi back to the hospital.

Three hours later, Sakura walked out of the operating room with a wearied sigh. Her back was killing her from hunching over a table working on a nasty leg wound. A genin team was practicing jutsu in the training field and like all impressionable youth they tried something highly unpredictable and unstable on their teammate.

She stalked over to the guilty Jounin sensei who was paying close enough attention and the two male teammates sitting worriedly in the waiting room chairs. All three stood when she approached. Sakura pulled off her white medical mask and looked disapprovingly at all of them.

"Sakura-san, how's Miki-chan?" Lee asked immediately.

"She's sedated but the surgery went well." She addressed the two boys, "You can visit her in a couple of days."

They both slumped with relief.

Lee clapped his hands together and shouted, "You are the best doctor in the village!"

She crossed her arms. "You're still in trouble, Lee. Don't even think about visiting her until you've run a thousand laps around the village." She instructed.

He saluted her. "Hai, Sakura-sensei! I will not visit until I've completed two thousand laps around the village on one hand!"

"That's not what I-"

Lee was speeding down the hospital corridor before she could correct him. She couldn't help but smile softly at his never changing energy. She knew Lee would beat himself up about what happened on his watch unless someone admonished him for it. Sakura was only too happy to be that person.

She turned to the rest of the team. "Both of you will go to the Hokage and tell him exactly what happened. Understood?"

"Hai, Haruno-sensei." They answered together and followed the same path as Lee out of the hospital.

They might think she was scary but two minutes with Kakashi after admitting they severely injured a teammate would set them straight for life. She hoped the Hokage took some pity on them.

Sakura pulled off the rest of her surgery dressings and stuffed them into one of the medical waste bins along the hallway before heading back to her office.

She fell into her desk chair with a groan and heard her back crack in several places. Her eyes closed, and she took several deep breaths to overcome her exhaustion and prepare for the report she needed to write about the training incident.

When she opened her eyes, she noticed the white take out container sitting in the middle of her desk, on top of a pile of medical forms. There was a folded slip stuck to the top and she curiously reached over to read it.

Eat.

She opened the container and found three onigiri inside waiting for her to devour. Sakura smiled fondly at Kakashi's consideration and finally took a bite of rice. Hopefully, she could meet up with him after her shift for a real meal, just the two of them with no work distractions.

Sakura was literally skipping to the exit doors of the hospital a whole hour earlier than she expected to be done. After her afternoon surgery, there were no other major medicals she had to complete. She checked on a few patients in the wards, including Miki-chan's post-surgery recovery, taught a group of new doctors how to make chakra scalpels, and finished her paperwork.

The day went smoothly, and she could surprise Kakashi at the tower and bust him out early.

She approached the sliding entrance doors and breathed in the outside air when they opened. The light was low hanging over the trees surrounding the building and her first step from the hospital on to the smooth pavement outside felt like freedom.

Then she heard the unmistakable sound of a teleportation jutsu landing in the cordoned off section of the waiting room for emergency medical treatment.

"Sakura-sensei!"

Sakura glanced fleetingly at the outside world before turning on her heel and heading back inside.

She rushed over to the ANBU team that teleported in and threw her bag to one of the nurses who was attempting to triage them. There was a strict rule that only doctors with the highest clearance could perform surgery on ANBU members to protect their identities.

Sakura spotted bone jutting out of a chest and a river of blood splashing to the hospital floor. She rushed to the injured ninja's side and inspected the wound closer. Something had torn the man's chest open and most of the ribs were exposed and broken. She could make out some of the internal organs through the breaks.

"Get me a stretcher!" Sakura barked to the closest nurse. She turned to the other three masked men and gave them orders, uncaring of who was behind the mask. "Bring Yamanaka Ino here." One of the men disappeared instantly. She pointed at the other two in turn. "Debrief the Hokage and you, assist me until the other medic arrives."

A gurney appeared next to Sakura and she indicated the ANBU to help her move his teammate on top. Sakura pressed a hand bathed in healing chakra to his heart once he was set up. She cringed when his heart was on the verge of giving out.

She didn't hesitate and clambered on to the gurney and started directing her chakra to the broken blood vessels. Sakura directed the ANBU to wheel them into the nearest operating room and to seal the door with chakra behind them. She didn't need to be interrupted by someone without clearance walking into the room.

"Remove his mask."

The ANBU moved closer and pulled away his teammates mask. "Oh, shit." Sakura cursed when she recognized the unconscious face as one of the men who belonged to her division in the war.

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep her emotions in check and keep calm. Sakura jumped to the ground and grabbed a scalpel to slice through the clothes covering his torso.

Sakura took a deep breath to center herself and repeated what she needed to do over in her head. Start a transfusion, set the bones, stop the bleeding. She ran to the refrigerated storage in the operating room and grabbed six bags of blood and quickly set up an IV. The needle was inserted into the nin's arm just as a hard knock sounded at the door.

"It's Ino."

Sakura indicated for the ANBU to let her inside.

Ino rushed through the door once the chakra barrier was down and looked in muted horror at Sakura's appearance. Blood covered her from head to toe and made even more visible on her pink and white civilian clothes. Ino took the time to scrub up after the ANBU pulled her out of the Torture and Interrogation offices. The instances of infection were significantly higher without wearing sterilized dressing gowns.

"Sakura, wha-"

"It's bad." She cut her off. Ino finally looked over to the patient and paled when she saw his open chest.

"You're dismissed." Sakura addressed the two ANBU teammates who hovered by the door. They nodded sharply and closed the door behind them.

"Listen, Ino, we don't have time. I need you to mend the ribs while I maintain blood flow. Do you understand?" Sakura's face was pinched with anxiety.

Her words struck a cord and Ino snapped back to herself. "Yes, I understand."

They each took a side and nodded to each other. Their hands lit up with chakra and both went to work, keeping a close eye on his pulse and breathing.

Five hours later and Sakura's chakra began to give. Sweat was covering her brow and neck but the ANBU still had a whole in his chest. They had managed to get the ribs back to their original positions and heal some of the surrounding tissue but he went into cardiac arrest twice during that time. His heart and brain couldn't take a third flat line.

"Sakura, take a break." Ino stated when her arms began to shake.

She wiped at her forehead. "I can't. You know I can't." Sakura responded and met Ino's gaze head on.

They were both medics and understood that it was impossible to stop until exhaustion made you black out or the patient died. Ino didn't try to reason with her, especially when it was their comrade on the table.

Sakura paused and reached for the bottle of Soldier pills from the gathered supplies. She unscrewed the cap and dry swallowed one.

Ino grimaced but didn't comment.

At four in the morning, Sakura and Ino officially declared time of death. They were both equally keyed up and exhausted from the surgery. Sakura left first while Ino took care of the arrangements for the deceased.

She didn't bother to change clothes before she left the hospital. She threw on a jacket to cover the blood stains on her once nice clothes and hoped the night would obscure the rest.

On autopilot, she weaved through the village until she was inside and heading straight to the bathroom. She woodenly undressed and turned on the shower to the hottest setting before entering. When the water hit her skin, she hissed from the soreness of her muscles.

Sakura robotically went through her bathing routine and cleaned her skin with surgical precision. She tried not to think of ribs sticking in the air as she cleaned the blood from under her fingernails. The bubble of anxiety in her stomach and throat begged to be addressed but she couldn't make herself let it out.

She healed dozens of people every day, some of them close to death but it always hit harder when she knew the person. He was a trusted comrade who died under her care and her mind knew that she was in shock. The human psyche was a delicate thing and keeping it bottled up would only make her feel worse but it was impossible to scream or cry and let out how terrified and weak losing a patient made her feel.

She blinked rapidly to force the tears but they refused to come. With a sigh, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Sakura dressed mechanically in an old training shirt of Kakashi's. It was riddled with small holes from too many washes, but it smelled like him and she secretly loved it. She shuffled through the house to the bedroom.

Upon entering she was eagerly met by wagging tails and eight bright pairs of eyes. Sakura gave the ninken a watery smile and crawled into the bed. Urushi pulled the edge of the blankets over her body and she scratched him behind the ears in thanks. Then the dogs jumped up onto the other side of the bed and arranged themselves around her like a giant furry security blanket.

Sakura wrapped herself around the bundles of warmth and willed herself asleep.

She was woken hours later by the dip in the mattress. Her eyes blearily opened and watched Kakashi quietly dismiss his summons. He traded his uniform for lounge clothes and slid in to bed from the other side. His hand found hers underneath the covers and gently squeezed. She rolled herself into his side and laid her cheek against his chest. His arm curled around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Sorry about your day." He whispered.

She nuzzled into his warmth and closed her eyes against the images of death.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked after a few minutes of silence.

Her hand splayed out on his chest and felt the beats of his heart underneath her palm. "Ask me again tomorrow." She replied shakily.

He nodded and stroked her back until she fell asleep.

-X-

Kakashi was gone before Sakura woke up in the morning. Her shift at the Hokage tower started at least an hour ago and she struggled to find motivation to go to work when even the Hokage didn't find it necessary wake her up.

She considered her options: stay in seclusion, wallow, and not face the world for the day or get her ass up, get moving, and start on a distraction. Not once in her history did she sit down and give up, it wasn't part of her way of the shinobi.

Sakura rolled out of bed and stalked over to the dresser. She chose her usual shinobi outfit from the second drawer and changed. Without stopping for breakfast or some other thing that would keep her inside until her energy waned, Sakura determinedly pulled on her sandals and headed out the door.

She fell into work the moment she stepped through the entrance of the Tower. There wasn't time to slowly get into the rhythm of paperwork or worse to dwell on worse things. Sakura happily took to her desk and started to sift through the piles of mission requests. The hum of chakra beyond the closed doors to the Hokage's office was strong and stable in the background.

Around noon Kotetsu came by her desk.

"Sakura, do you want to do you hospital review now? I can cover the desk."

"Oh, it's that time of the month already? Sure, the Hokage is free now too." She grabbed her reports and entered the office, closing the door behind her.

"Hokage-sama!" Sakura shouted upon seeing the scene in front of her.

Kakashi lazily looked up from the scroll he was reading to the bewildered expression on her face.

"Yes?"

"This has to be the first time since you became Hokage that you are actually just working." Sakura explained.

Kakashi gave her a droll stare. "Haha, very funny."

She smiled and walked around his desk to hand over the report she wrote on the hospital's operations for the last month.

"As expected our efficiency is still rising at a steady rate. With the number of patients we're seeing from outside communities and the increase of hospital staff it's not hard to imagine we have the largest medical facility in Fire country." Sakura reported and turned to stare out the window behind the Hokage.

Kakashi thumbed through her report and nodded. "How is the medical training course coming?"

Sakura beamed. "Great. The recruits are doing well, and it was a good idea to include shinobi from the other nations."

"Will they be combat ready?"

She sighed and leaned back against the edge of his desk. "I can't teach them to be fighters. Some have a background and would do well under field pressure, but others are meant solely for the operating room."

Kakashi, seemingly mollified by her answers, closed the report on his desk with finality. When he leaned back to catch her eye, she braced herself.

"You didn't have to come in today."

His grey eyes were soft and rooted in concern. She felt the tell-tale prick of tears in her eyes and had to look away from him to keep her emotions in check.

"I didn't want to be alone."

Kakashi took her hand, hanging by her side into his. "I'm sorry to have left you." He intoned apologetically.

Sakura smiled bereft. "Every time I lose a patient, it means you lose a shinobi."

"Knowing they were in your care means there was truly nothing that could have been done."

Sakura turned her head towards him and swallowed heavily as the first tears ran down her face. Faster than she could follow, Kakashi was on his feet and wrapping her in his arms. She sobbed and balled his vest in her hands. He rubbed her back and let her spill all of those built up frustrations.

When her tears dried, and her eyes were an angry red, Sakura pulled away from his embrace. She fanned her face and used a fresh bandage from her pouch to wipe her cheeks.

"Better?" Kakashi asked.

She turned to him and smiled at his concerned expression. "Better." Sakura leaned forward and stood on the tips of her toes to plant a chaste kiss to his masked lips. "Thank you, for worrying."

Kakashi's eyes softened and he brushed an errant pink hair from her face. "I love you. I never stop worrying."

She blinked several times to keep the fresh tears to bay. "You haven't said it before."

His smirk made her heart skip a beat. "If you want me to tell you every day I will."

"Well maybe not every day…" Sakura grinned.

Kakashi leaned towards her and pulled his mask down. She eagerly met him half ways for a lingering kiss. His hands wrapped around her smaller frame and lifted her onto the desk without breaking contact. Sakura ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer until his wider frame dominated hers.

Her lower half burned with want. She pulled away to nip at his ear and whisper, "Can you take a break? We only need twenty-" Sakura yelped as Kakashi pulled her body flush with his. "Fifteen minutes." She amended.

His wolfish grin went in for another kiss when they heard a loud, "You have to knock, Naruto!" Come from beyond the door.

In less time than it took for their boisterous teammate to turn the handle and open the door, Kakashi had pulled up his mask and taken his seat at the desk while Sakura straightened her white coat and grabbed the report she originally came into discuss and took her station to Kakashi's left.

Naruto waltzed in with Shikamaru hot on his heels. "Oi, Kakashi-sensei, oh hi Sakura-chan, why can't I go on the mission with Shikamaru to Waves?!"

Sakura's pasted on grin, cracked. "Naruto, we're in a meeting! You can't come barging in whenever you like." Her pent-up frustration made her uncomfortably hot and caustic. Damn Naruto and his timing.

Naruto apologized then immediately started ranting about all the reasons he had to go on a simple peace keeping mission to Waves when he really just wanted to see old friends. Sakura was determined not to let her anger go when she felt Kakashi take her hand underneath the table out of view of their audience.

She didn't startle or show any outwards signs of recognition even when his thumb started tracing trace lazy circles over her skin. Her annoyance crumbled, and she squeezed his hand tightly.

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-X-

A/N: We're so close to the end folks!