So um yeah. This has been something I've had written for a while now. I just didn't feel like it was worth posting, as it is obviously part of a larger story than is told here. But with how much of my effort is directed towards Samurai and that I'm also trying to direct towards school, I just don't have the effort left in me to try and tell the rest of this story here. The plot bunny is dying, for all that it fascinates me, and I feel like it is better to get it up and out before I accidentally ruin it or something. And besides, once I'm done with Samurai I'd like to get back to Insurance Company Ninjas or the potential spin-off of Samurai that I'm plotting maybe doing once I finish with it.

This was also written such a very long time ago that you can still see the "post-Pein's-invasion" dystopia that every Naruto writer and their freaking grandmother trotted out when Danzou was being all Evil Overlordy. I felt it was overdone at the time, and that fics which cling to it as their major backbone are a bit silly these days. I mean, come on.

Also you can see my personal theory that Kakashi's family is originally from Kumo, which is...yeah. That is basically my head-canon for the man.

Well, without further ado,

Enjoy!

Cold

Kakashi had nursed her back to health after the attack on her life by ROOT agents. She was the only healer in Konoha who was probably capable of reviving Tsunade, and so Danzou had ordered a hit on her—Kakashi had saved her life that night but only barely. He'd taken them to Kumogakure under the strictest secrecy, to tell the Raikage of the problems brewing in Konoha.

They'd been given quarters—a bedroom, bathroom, studio-style kitchen-living room, a typical shinobi residence—in the Raikage Tower. It was there that Kakashi worked the poisons out of her chakra system and rehabilitated atrophied muscles. She fell in love with him then, although he had gently told her that she was likely only misunderstanding gratitude after a near-death experience.

Although by the following summer he couldn't deny that he felt something for her as well. Sakura wasn't bothered that he wouldn't say he loved her—she knew that he just didn't say things like that. They got married that fall, their wedding officiated by the Raikage and his personal staff—and with that they formally renounced their Konoha citizenship as well as their ranks as Konoha shinobi. They took on Kumo citizenship, and were each evaluated as being Jounin level shinobi within the Kumo rosters.

They hadn't wanted to, but there was a mass exodus from Konoha of good shinobi and their families as Danzou and ROOT tried to take over the village. Tsunade had been smuggled out eight months before by Shizune and Yamato. She had established a small village just inside Kumo territory, and was working with Naruto as well as the Raikage to build that village into a worthy shinobi village.

It was at escapees from Konoha's urging that the other four nations started a war against Danzou's regime. But Kakashi had decided that the Konoha he loved had stopped existing for a long time, and Sakura was inclined to agree with him.

The winters were cold in Kumo and the fierce winds stung her cheeks, but she made up for that by wearing a mask when she went out in public. They moved out of the Raikage Tower and lived with distant relatives of Kakashi's—they were his father's great-aunts and uncles, and they were thrilled to finally meet Sakumo-kun's son. At the first few family dinners they'd had, Sakura had realized that Kakashi's Kumo blood showed quite strongly. He, who had been one of the lightest haired people in Konoha, had nearly sooty hair compared to these people. The light blues, reds, yellows, and greens present in Kumo made Sakura herself feel normal as well. All of Kumo seemed to agree with her far better than Konoha—or at least that's what she told herself.

"So, Sakura-san, how did you and Kakashi meet?"

She glanced over at him, asking what she should say. Kakashi cleared his throat a little and politely answered for her.

"I was her Genin-sensei a few years ago. But we really saw each other for the first time when we came to Kumo."

There was a long silence at the table and Sakura wanted to drag her hand down her face—Some countries, she knew, fiercely disapproved of mentors becoming romantic with those they worked with. Some of the old men frowned at Kakashi while the women looked at Sakura herself with pity in their eyes. Finally a woman a little older than Kakashi spoke up.

"How rude to her family not to suggest an engagement at the time! Unless you are attached to another, there is no reason to spend that much time around a woman without at least acknowledging that you are proud enough of her to allow her into your family. Her mother must have been horrified."

"Yes, Kakashi, what would your father think?" an ancient old man said, his voice hoarse with age and disuse. Sakura decided to come to Kakashi's rescue.

"Actually I was a poor student at the time. I learned well enough but had no drive towards better application of technique—I voluntarily left Kakashi's training and sought a new teacher in Tsunade-shishou, the Godaime Hokage. I wasn't anything to be proud of when I was thirteen." There was a reign of silence over the table. Sakura decided not to educate her new relatives about the fact that one: age of consent in Konoha was fourteen, and two: sensei were not allowed to pursue romantic relationships with their students until their student had either studied with them for five years or was over the age of seventeen—whichever came first.

"But you are now," Kakashi said, taking her hand and smiling a little as he spoke.

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