Sakura arrived home just as Sasuke was adding the last few pieces of equipment to his travel pack. He always traveled light, but Sakura could glance at the pack and estimate how long he would be gone.

"You'll be away awhile?" She asked, trying not to let her disappointment show. She understood Sasuke's nature, his motivations, and that hadn't deterred her from marrying him. Still, the time he spent away from Konoha left her lonely, and he had only returned from a mission a few days prior.

"Kakashi needs me to attend to something near Suna. I'm not sure how long the mission will take given the group has been elusive for awhile," he told her. "I'll leave in a few hours."

The fact that she had Sasuke for the rest of the evening didn't make her much happier. She was still emotionally drained from the day and knew she wouldn't be great company. Still, she tried to put on a cheerful front.

"Shall I put something together for dinner then?" She asked, intent on at least sending him off with a warm meal despite having eaten herself.

"I ate earlier. Kakashi, Shikamaru and I ordered food while we discussed the mission."

"I see." She tucked her hands behind her, unsure how to bring up what happened that day, but wanting to tell him before he left.

"Did you learn if any of the children that came in today are related to you?" he inquired as he closed up his pouch and turned to her. She saw the curiosity in his eyes, but none of the surprise she had felt. She realized he knew more about the children and their history than she did despite the hours she had spent with them. She tried not to let it irk her.

"They aren't related to me, no," she confirmed, glad to know at least that much. "Some of them are related to each other, but not as many as I had assumed given their ages and the rarity of our hair color. I'm not sure what to make of it."

Sasuke nodded, and Sakura wondered if he was relieved. They had talked of starting a family in the distant future, during a time when he could take missions that wouldn't send him so far off and she felt comfortable taking short sabbaticals during their children's birth, but they hadn't settled on when. Sakura suddenly having a young relative (or several) to care for would have upended their plans.

She felt some regret that it wouldn't come to pass now that she had the confirmation, but also knew it was for the best. When she had set up the children's mental health clinic, her teammates—all orphans—were prominent in her mind. She and Shizune had worked tirelessly to locate and vet families so when orphaned children were ready for the world outside the hospital, every one of them would have a loving family ready to nurture and protect them. Sora and the others would be no exception.

Sasuke made to exit their bedroom with his pack in hand and Sakura followed him, intent to learn something from his meeting. "Did Kakashi-sensei let you read the report? Is your mission to deal with the traffickers?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, dropping his bag beside their front door. "The group's base, or at least one of them, seems to be north of Suna. They're likely to move since they've been exposed, but I'm going to try to intercept them before our trackers lose them."

She gave a small hum to let him know she was listening as she moved around their kitchen. Sasuke might not be hungry then, but he would be after a day's travel. She knew he preferred to camp in the wilderness rather than seek out an inn, so she would pack him a good lunch. "You'll bring back any victims you find?" she asked as she pulled out a travel bento box and waved it at him, looking for approval on idea.

Sasuke nodded an affirmative and offered her a small, sad smile. "I will. But I don't think there will be any. This group remains small to avoid detection. From what we know, as soon as their captives hit puberty, they either kill them or force them to reproduce somewhere remotely, depending on certain factors."

"I suppose that explains how some of the children are related to each other." She thought of Sora, on the cusp of her teenage years, full of promise and yet with certain death in her near future at the hands of her captors. "I wonder why it's taken so long to detect them."

The comment was meant to be rhetorical, so Sakura moved to the fridge and focused her attention on gathering food to pack. She gathered some vegetables and fruit for a salad and small dessert to pack in the smaller compartments of the bento, washed them, and set the vegetables on the counter to cut.

Suddenly, Sasuke spoke up again from as he peeked inside the fridge. "They've had to be careful. At one point Konoha put a sizable dent in their organization, and probably considered tracking to destroy them."

"I never heard of anything about this. When did this happen?"

Sasuke snorted. "No, I imagine you wouldn't have. Kakashi kept it well under wraps." He pointed at the rice balls Sakura had made the day before that were sitting on the top rack, and gave Sakura an adorable pout.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura stepped back to the fridge and pulled out the rice balls, but held them out of reach from him. "Tell me. Otherwise you only get salad in the bento."

Sasuke scoffed in a manner that told her he didn't take her threat seriously, but he leaned against the kitchen island and began to tell her as she dropped the rice balls out of his reach and began to cut up the vegetables. Sakura listened intently while Sasuke described how one day the traffickers approached Team 7 shortly before the chuunin exam. They had been on a mission not far from the heart of Konoha, a C-rank in a neighboring village. Sasuke wasn't clear on where her and Naruto were when the men approached ("you were busy acting like clowns" were his exact words, which earned him a well-deserved swat), but Kakashi had sent the three of them back toward Konoha ahead of him.

"Naruto was oblivious and you were yelling at him about something as usual, but I caught some of their conversation. Kakashi told me to keep an eye out and not leave your side," Sasuke explained. "But I wasn't concerned they would follow. It was clear Kakashi wasn't letting them get near us."

Near you remained unspoken.

"You think he killed them?" True to her promise, she began to pack the rice balls in the largest section of the bento box, then held one out to him. Even full from dinner, Sasuke was a bit of glutton when it came to her rice balls.

He took the offering, biting off a piece and chewing it thoroughly. "I know he did. When Kakashi returned he went straight to visit the Hokage Tower instead of disappearing like usual. I went back to the village a few days later to see what I could learn. He hadn't been subtle at all, dropped off their corpses at the local security station and left. The entire village was talking about it."

Sasuke looked thoughtful for a few moments while he took another bite. "Considering we never had trouble with them again, it wouldn't surprise me if the group didn't want to risk exposure and more losses, so they moved out of Fire Country."

"Why didn't you tell me this?"

"When should I have done that? And what would it have accomplished?"

She didn't have an answer to either question, but she suddenly felt as though she was exposed to a whole new reality she had been living in, completely unaware until that moment. She finished chopping and mixing the vegetables with Sasuke's help, all the while trying to remind herself that she didn't need to feel uneasy. The past couldn't touch her.

Sakura had planned to set off to the Hokage Tower in hopes of catching Kakashi before he retired for the evening, but after Sasuke's revelation, she needed some time.

"Don't worry. I'll be back soon," he promised as he gave his usual, reserved smile, and then she watched from the gate until he was nothing but a dark speck against the horizon. She knew he was dedicated to this mission and would remain away as long as it took to locate the traffickers; he had a personal stake in the group's demise: However unlikely, there was a slight chance one or more of their future children would have pink hair.

"How were you able to avoid capture?"

Now she knew. Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura's sleep was intermittent and fitful, her thoughts swirling endlessly. No matter how she tried, she couldn't recall the day or even the mission Sasuke described. Instead, she could only see herself as she had been: Twelve years old, flowing hair, an abysmal ninja, and a loud, attention-seeking young girl. Her small form, her bubblegum pink strands, her nonexistent breasts: All of it had made her an ideal target.

Suddenly, every compliment she had ever received from friend, foe, and stranger flashed through her mind and made her skin crawl. As a ninja, her hair was an inconvenience; as a female, her hair was a novelty that many fawned over. She thought of Mina, recoiling at the word "pretty", a word that normally would evoke happiness in a child instead of fear. Suddenly, the children's interest in her, her hair, was glaringly clear.

They had probably never seen an adult with pink hair. Anyone older than Sora was killed or moved to presumably create future pink-haired captives. To traffickers, the children's value was only in their bodies and their hair, a commodity to keep business flowing.

"How were you able to avoid capture?"

She considered how her life could have been very different if she had been an orphan like the rest of her teammates; if her parents had decided to travel more during her youth; if she had been more inclined to wander instead of study; if she had been assigned to a sensei who wasn't fiercely protective of the genin in his charge; or if she had a sensei that was less capable or not as strong.

In all of those cases, she'd probably be long dead.

Dawn was breaking when Sakura made her way to the Hokage residence. She couldn't wait another moment to see Kakashi, and had no desire for an audience of his assistants and strategists.

When Kakashi opened the door, his eyes were still heavy with sleep, but he was dressed in his usual uniform sans robes and hat. He looked exhausted. "Sakura," he greeted quietly, seemingly noting her own exhaustion and unshed tears. He opened the door wider to invite her in, and she didn't offer any warning before she launched herself at him. Her nose was pressed uncomfortably against the front of his uniform and her tight embrace was likely cutting off some of his circulation, but she continued to cling to him anyway. How many times had Kakashi saved her life in her years of knowing him? Until last night, she thought she had a good grasp on the count, but it seemed she needed to reevaluate that number.

She felt him release a heavy exhale and then one of his palms settled on top of her head, its weight a familiar reassurance from him. "I guess you spoke with Sasuke before he left."

She nodded against his chest.

"Let's go inside and have some tea, shall we?" he offered. "Otherwise your husband is going to return to a lot of misleading gossip from my nosy ANBU."

She gave a watery laugh into his chest and gave him back his personal space. "It may be too late for that."

"Probably," he agreed.

Kakashi ushered her inside and set the water for their tea to boil as she sat at his table. Despite it being the Hokage's quarters, Kakashi still kept a minimalist aesthetic: the only thing hanging on the wall was his robes on a hook near the entrance, and a tall bookshelf filled with books and scrolls in various conditions stood near a single blue couch. The table they sat at was finely crafted but modest for the ruling leader of a large nation.

While they waited for the water to boil, and then the tea to steep, Kakashi confirmed the story Sasuke had shared. Sakura noted that Kakashi seemed uncharacteristically solemn for a shinobi who had rid the world of such awful men, but she didn't push for the source of his melancholy.

"I'm surprised Konoha didn't take advantage of the opportunity of their appearance," she wondered aloud before sipping the freshly brewed green tea. She closed her eyes, intent on focusing on the flavor. Her sensei could be an eccentric man, but he made excellent tea and excelled at cooking all foods. She's be envious if she hadn't benefited from his gifts over the years (Sasuke would never learn who taught her how to make those rice balls so well.)

When she opened her eyes again and turned to compliment him on the tea, Kakashi had turned his gaze away from her, and was looking particularly pained.

"…did they try?" She asked carefully. She waited a few moments, then tried again. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"It was considered."

"When?"

Kakashi sighed heavily. "Shortly after we returned from the mission. Some felt since Konoha had the means to lure them out, we should make an attempt."

Sakura's heart sank. She understood the implication: They had considered a mission to dismantle the organization, and that mission would have no doubt included her as bait.

"And you…disagreed," she said aloud, the gravity of his decision not lost on her.

"I did." Kakashi confirmed, meeting her gaze again. "Vehemently."

They sat in silence as their tea cooled and the sun continued to rise on the village they both cared for, though in different ways. Without it being said, Sakura now understood Kakashi's expression. Ensuring Sakura's safety all those years ago had a cost: A cost Sora and the others had paid.

"I would have killed the entire group if I could have found them," he admitted quietly. "But I don't regret my opposition to the mission."

This was Kakashi's brand of loyalty. It was the same loyalty he had instilled in her and Naruto, the kind that had sent them on a years-long mission to pull Sasuke back from Orochimaru's grasp. Despite all he had taught and given to the three of them over the years, Sakura knew that this was to be his legacy.

She felt unable to verbalize her feelings in that moment, every word trapped behind the lump in her throat. So instead, she took his hand in hers, noting that even in the early hour he was wearing his gloves—his hands were almost always covered—and gave it an affectionate squeeze.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," she finally whispered, and was a bit embarrassed when her voice wobbled with emotion. "I promise to do everything in my power to look after those children."

He nodded, then he offered her his trademark smile. "I know you will. Thank you, Sakura."