A/N: Since it's been asked, I thought I would discuss Sakura and Kakashi's ages. They have their canon age difference in this AU. Sakura is 25, which would make Kakashi around 39. I considered making this a same age AU, but once I thought about just how much more this story would diverge from canon that way, I decided to stay with their canon age difference. Their ages are mentioned further on in the story in a few places, but I thought I would talk about it here in case anybody else was curious.

Thank you to Storyshoes, who very kindly pointed out that Kakashi's book said "18 and under" and not "18 and older" in chapter 7! Oops. That's actually not the first time I've made that mistake, because sometimes my brain likes to be confidently wrong about things. (It also thinks the place Ibiki works is Torture & Investigation, not Torture & Interrogation.)

Finally, some of you have noticed (or predicted) that certain tropes are being used/may in the future be used in this story. Yes! When writing this story, there were certain romance tropes I wanted to try for the first time (one of them is in this chapter!) because—and I need to emphasize this—this story is extremely self-indulgent, and I just wanted to. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Sakura could hear her pulse thundering in her ears as she pressed her hands tightly to Kakashi's wound. He'd been unconscious for the last five minutes, and she'd been doing her best to save him, her chakra bleeding deep into his system to heal his internal organs while her spiderlings did their best to knit together his other more superficial wounds.

When Kakashi had lost consciousness, she'd spared a brief moment to bark orders at Kin and Gin before going to work. The two large spiders had disappeared in opposite directions, following her orders to position themselves to keep an eye out for more Frost shinobi, but Sakura knew that she and Kakashi were still incredibly vulnerable in their current location. She had to get him healed enough to transport, and then she had to move him somewhere else. There were also all of the dead bodies to account for—and the fact that she herself still bore a wound on her leg.

This mission was supposed to be a stealth one. They were supposed to get in, kill the single target, and then get out without leaving any trace behind. What had happened instead was a total shitshow, and Sakura was the only one left to handle it. Ideally, she and Kakashi would dispose of the bodies and vacate the area, but neither of them would be able to travel that far in their current conditions. She needed to get Kakashi stabilized, destroy the bodies, and find a place for them to hide before she completely ran out of chakra—and it was already getting low after their fight and the healing she'd done to them both.

She finished healing a part of Kakashi's spleen and finally leaned back on her heels, assessing him. His biggest wound still looked raw and angry, but she'd healed all of the major damage and he was stable. She could move him now—but not before she handled the evidence of their battle.

Pulling Kakashi's cloak around him snugly, she got up and went to work. She winced as the wound on her thigh reminded her of its presence; she'd only managed to partially heal it before she'd had to switch to healing Kakashi, although her spiderlings' silk seemed to have stopped the bleeding. It didn't matter—she had more important things to worry about than a little flesh wound.

The fastest way to dispose of the bodies would be to use a seal variant of the self-destruct jutsu that all ANBU agents learned. That would drain even more of her dwindling chakra, but she needed to get rid of the bodies now, before another patrol of Frost shinobi came through in search of their compatriots. She didn't have the time to get rid of them by more ordinary methods, like burying or burning them.

Sakura moved as swiftly as she could, removing a travel kit of brush and ink from her hip pouch and using it to mark each body with simple seals that could be activated by her chakra. Once all of the symbols were painted on each corpse, she went one by one and formed the hand signs, feeling her chakra sputter lower and lower with each body that burned and crumbled into nothingness. As the seals were designed to sense the target's DNA, the blood from the bodies also disappeared from the snow. By the time she was done, she was seeing dark spots swimming in front of her vision, and knew she was perilously close to losing consciousness from chakra exhaustion.

Sakura stomped her foot on the ground twice, knowing it would alert her spiders and cause them to home in on her location. They arrived shortly and waited expectantly for her orders. "I need somewhere that we can shelter until we recover enough to move on," she told them.

"Lady Sakura, there is a cave to the southwest," said Gin in her soft little voice. "I think it will serve your needs."

"Take me there," Sakura said with determination as she rose to her feet. Summoning the last shreds of her chakra to enhance her strength, she was able to pick Kakashi up and carry him across her shoulders.

She could feel him shivering as she followed both spiders in a slow jog that was the best she could manage in her current condition. Enough time had passed since they'd woken before dawn that there was now thin sunlight streaming through the trees. This wasn't enough to make the temperature noticeably rise, however, and she was concerned about Kakashi's weak shiver. With his wound and chakra exhaustion, combined with the cold weather, his body should have been shivering harder in an attempt to raise his temperature—the fact that his shivering only seemed to be getting weaker was not a good sign.

The cave wasn't far from the site of their battle—a fact that Sakura was grateful for as she carried Kakashi in after the two spiders, her legs beginning to shake beneath her. Lowering him to the ground, she wearily said to Kin and Gin, "Can you keep watch? I know it's cold, girls, I'm sorry."

"We'll be fine, Lady Sakura," said Kin, rubbing her front legs together anxiously. "We will keep watch." Both spiders bowed and then darted off toward the mouth of the cave, leaving Sakura alone with Kakashi.

Knowing that she wasn't going to be able to work on either of their injuries again until her chakra had replenished, Sakura moved sluggishly to bandage both of their wounds, her looming exhaustion slowing down her normally swift hands. She briefly considered taking a soldier pill to replenish her chakra, but with her chakra at such dangerously low levels following such extensive healing, she ran the risk of burning out her chakra paths if she didn't let herself rest for at least a little while. Her mind raced as she considered the situation. She couldn't be sure of what Kakashi's orders would be if he were awake, but since their enemies' bodies were disposed of and they couldn't completely flee the area, the best course seemed to be to shelter in place and observe stealth protocol. That meant no fire.

That was a problem.

Grateful that her previous exertion was still enough to keep her warm, Sakura pulled off her cloak and spread it over the floor of the cave. She could feel the chill start to set in as she dropped to her knees and began to pull Kakashi onto the cloak, hoping the extra layer between him and the ground would help keep him from losing any heat to the cold stone. Unwrapping his cloak from around his body, she draped it over him like a blanket. Pausing in consideration, she finally made the decision to take off his hound mask, and her spider mask, though she made sure to keep them close at hand. Now there was only one thing left to do.

Staring at him for a long, dubious moment, she whispered, "You had better not kill me for this."

When Kakashi unsurprisingly didn't respond, Sakura took a deep breath and then slid under the cloak with him. She had laid him on his back, and she pressed her body against his uninjured side, putting an arm around his chest and pulling herself closer. Without a fire, this was the best way she knew to keep him warm.

Sakura took a deep breath, held it, and then exhaled. Now that she had finally come to a place she could rest, she tried to make her mind stop racing, but it was still anxiously reeling in spite of her exhaustion as she tried to decide if she'd made the right choices. She'd healed her captain. She'd destroyed the bodies and done her best not to leave any tracks. She'd secured a place for them to shelter while they recovered enough to move a longer distance. She'd asked the spiders to keep watch. All there was left to do was to rest, replenish her chakra, and keep Kakashi warm.

Thinking of Kakashi and keeping him warm brought a new heat to her face. As tired as she was, being pressed up against him made it hard for her to relax. She'd like to roll her eyes and make a joke about playing big spoon to Captain Hardass, but the situation was too serious for that—and being this close to her captain was making her aware of a few things. Like how hard his muscular body was beneath his clothing... and the way, under the scent of blood, he smelled faintly like soap, leather, and something entirely masculine.

Pinching her eyes shut, Sakura dropped her forehead against his shoulder, the exhaustion finally starting to overcome her racing mind. Keeping him warm enough to not freeze while he regained some of his chakra was of the highest priority. It didn't matter how embarrassing the situation was—and since she was a medic, it really shouldn't be embarrassing, right?

Still, the last thing she thought before she let herself fall asleep was that it was imperative that she woke up before him, or she'd probably never hear the end of it.

Kakashi was drifting halfway between awake and asleep. There was a distant, throbbing ache in his body, and his limbs felt weak as he shifted slightly. He could feel cold air on the top half of his face, but the rest of him was warm, thanks to the sweet-smelling woman that lay in his arms, her body pressed against his as she snuggled into his chest. A contented sigh escaped him as he pulled her closer in spite of the ache, and his first thought was to wonder how long it had been since he'd last had a woman in his—

Wait. What woman?

Kakashi's eyes bolted open, and he only had to see a brief glimpse of pink before he was grabbing a sleeping Sakura by her shoulders and shoving her back. His vague desire and confusion gave way to slightly panicked embarrassment—and pain, as the movement jarred his wound.

With his Sharingan open, he perfectly captured her tousled hair and sleepy eyes, and especially the way she licked her lips before incoherently mumbling, "Muh?"

"Spider!" he barked in a voice that came out much rougher than he meant it to.

"Captain?" she answered, sounding a little more awake as she blinked and pulled away from him. Relief washed over him as the distance between them grew, and he sat up, wincing as the motion sent another bolt of pain through him.

"Why were you sleeping with me?" he asked pointedly, closing his Sharingan when he could feel it begin to drain at the little bit of chakra he'd regained.

Fully awake now, she was scowling at him, probably because his tone had sounded more than a little accusatory. He couldn't help but notice that color had risen high in her cheeks. "Your chakra was almost completely depleted, you were wounded, and your body temperature was dropping to unacceptable levels. I thought you would want me to maintain stealth protocol, so I couldn't build a fire..."

Stealth protocol. That snapped him back to what was important. "Where are we? Did you leave the bodies—" She held up her hand and he stopped his questions, letting her reply.

"The bodies have all been disposed of." She explained how she'd used the self-destruct seals to get rid of the bodies before taking him to a nearby cave and leaving the spiders outside to keep watch. "I didn't have enough chakra to get us any further. It was the best I could do," she finished, her tone defensive.

After a moment's consideration, Kakashi sighed and admitted, "You did well." He didn't miss the way her scowl softened at his praise. Wincing, he pulled his legs beneath him and stood, automatically putting a hand to the throbbing, partially healed wound in his side.

Sakura stood, too, and began to reach for him. "I need to finish healing you—"

He shook his head, gingerly reaching for his cloak and pulling it on. "That'll have to wait. We need to get out of Frost territory as soon as possible. You know as well as I do that they're bound to notice that one of their platoons are missing." That was true, but Kakashi also knew that there was a distinctly unprofessional reason why he just didn't want her to touch him right now, and it had everything to do with how good she'd felt pressed against him.

She was frowning at him, but she thankfully did not argue as she pulled on her own cloak. "Let me call Kin and Gin," she said, moving to the mouth of the cave and then lightly stomping on the ground a few times.

"That isn't exactly maintaining stealth," he muttered. He wasn't really sure why he'd said anything; he just knew that he felt irritated, like his skin was too tight.

"It would be completely impossible to maintain every aspect of stealth protocol right now. Would you rather I scream for them?" she responded in quiet exasperation, turning to look at him.

"I'm just saying, if you were going to break protocol, you could have started by building a fire, couldn't you?" he fired back, still trying to keep his voice soft. Why was he arguing with her? Why did she always make him feel so irritated?

Sakura's eyes narrowed, glittering in the dim light of the cave, and her tone was dangerous as she hissed, "What's that supposed to mean? Are you suggesting I had some sort of ulterior motive for not building a fire?"

What did he mean? Of course she shouldn't have broken protocol to build a fire, especially since they were able to keep warm the old-fashioned way. It's not as if he'd never had to huddle with Genma or Tenzo in a similar situation. It really shouldn't have been a big deal.

Kakashi felt a rush of relief as one of Sakura's spiders darted into the cave, interrupting their argument. Sakura's words were clipped as she ordered, "Kin, report."

"The whole area was clear until about a half hour ago, Lady Sakura. A Frost scout came through the battle area, and Gin was able to make enough noise to lure him away from the cave."

Sakura turned to Kakashi. "She won't get caught, and she'll disappear once she's led him as far as she can."

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, then reached down to grab his hound mask from where it lay on the ground and put it on. "That's good, but that scout still had to have seen that there was a battle there. Your spider is only going to buy us so much time. We need to get moving now."

"Your orders, Lady Sakura?" Kin asked softly, and Sakura sent him a questioning look.

After a brief pause of consideration, Kakashi looked at Kin. "Take the rear position as we leave for the Land of Hot Water. If we get another tail, you're to lead them away the same way that Gin did." Shifting his attention to Sakura, he added, "I'll take point. Are you ready?"

Sakura nodded as she retrieved her own mask and pulled it over her face.

Without further conversation, Kakashi turned his back on her and ran out of the cave, taking to the trees as he headed in the direction of Konoha. Sakura and her spider fell into line behind him. Although running was painful with his wound still partially unhealed, it was bearable. More importantly, it distracted him from the confusion he'd felt ever since he'd woken to the unwelcome—yet uncomfortably pleasant—feeling of his subordinate in his arms.

Sakura was vaguely annoyed as she followed Kakashi through the forest inside the borders of the Land of Hot Water. He'd been a complete ass when he'd woken her up. She didn't know what his problem was.

But that wasn't really true, was it? Underneath her annoyance, Sakura was… embarrassed. She hadn't meant to fall asleep so deeply; she'd meant to wake up before Kakashi, so he didn't wake up first and find her clinging to him. Just the thought of it was enough to make heat rise to her face again, which just made her more annoyed.

Then there was how pleased she'd been when he'd told her she'd done well—that was the most annoying thing of all. She resented that such small praise from him could make her feel so good.

When they were about five miles inside the border, Kakashi began to slow, and Sakura assumed he was probably looking for a place to make camp. She was glad for the fact that they were more or less safe while in the neutral country of Hot Water. It would give them a good place to recoup more of their chakra and fully tend to their wounds.

It was late afternoon when he finally stopped. He'd found one of the many undeveloped hot springs that dotted the country's landscape, this one encased in a grotto that would provide some shelter from the chill wind. As Sakura stopped beside him, he turned his masked face toward her and said, "We should be able to regain enough chakra here so we can make it the rest of the way home. We can drop stealth protocol." Pausing, as if considering, he added, "You can drop mask discipline, too."

Sakura reached up and pulled off her spider mask, glad to have it off. Attaching it to her hip, she opened her mouth to tell Kakashi that she was going to finish healing him, but he beat her to the punch by saying, "Get a fire going. I've got enough chakra to call the dogs; I'm going to have them set up a rotating watch." And then he'd turned his back to her and was walking away, not waiting to hear her response.

Sakura scowled, noting how stiffly he walked. She knew he had to be in pain. Hell, she still needed to do some work on her own leg wound before she'd be able to run without pain herself, but she knew his injury was worse. She also knew that they needed someone on watch, though, so she didn't argue and went about gathering enough wood to start a fire.

As Sakura got a nice healthy fire going, she watched Kakashi with her peripheral vision. When he'd finished giving his orders to his dogs and they'd run off to take their positions, he rigidly moved toward the fire. He removed his hound mask before carefully lowering himself to sit by the fire, and she could see the pain he felt reflected in his single open eye.

Dusting her hands off, Sakura stood, ignoring the twinge of pain that came with the movement, and walked over to Kakashi. Wincing a little as she knelt beside him, she reached both hands for him, saying, "I know you have to be in pain. Let me finish—"

He caught her hands in his, stilling them as he brusquely said, "As if you didn't just cringe because of your leg. Heal yourself first. I'll go to the hospital once we get home."

Sakura tugged at her hands a little and made a noise of annoyance when he didn't let go. "I would bet my bank account that you've never voluntarily gone to a hospital in your life. Let me heal you, damn it!"

The pain in his eye had been replaced with irritation, and his voice had taken on a slightly growling tone as he replied, "Why can't you ever just follow orders?"

"I only follow orders when they're not stupid," she growled back, yanking on her hands again, which only brought them closer.

"That is not how orders work," he said, his eyebrows knotting in frustrating, his grip not loosening in the slightest.

Sakura suddenly became aware of the fact that they were sitting very close to each other and more or less holding hands, her eyes dropping to their clasped hands and then back to his one open eye. He seemed to realize the same thing at the same time because he suddenly let go of her as if she'd burned him.

Cheeks blazing, Sakura almost turned away, but she wanted to win the argument more than she wanted to hide her embarrassment. "My orders from my Hokage were to keep you safe and ignore you when you're stupid, so just shut up and let me heal you already!"

He glared at her with his one open eye, but this time he didn't argue, so she extended her hands toward the hem of his shirt—and then stopped. Pulling his shirt up suddenly seemed uncomfortably intimate to Sakura, so she just flailed her hands a little in his direction and said, "Pull up your shirt."

He sighed and then reached down to tug the hem of his shirt above the wound in his side, his gaze fixed stoically somewhere above her head. Sakura gingerly pulled off the bandages that she'd put on him earlier, and then let chakra flare to life in her hands as she went to work.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence as she healed him, her brow furrowing as she concentrated on finishing healing the parts of his wound that had been knitted together with spider silk. As her irritation slowly began to fade now that she'd gotten her way, Sakura searched for something—anything—to break the silence, and a question she'd had since their battle with Bear presented itself. "How well did you know him?"

Kakashi was silent for a long moment, and Sakura was about to clarify who she was talking about when he answered, "I didn't really know Bear beyond a professional acquaintance. I didn't even know his real name."

Surprised, she looked up at him, and found that he was still staring somewhere above her head, his posture stiff. "But you seemed so angry at him," she said. "I figured it had to be personal."

His grey iris caught the firelight as he lowered his gaze to look at her. "Any time someone betrays Konoha, I take it personally."

For a moment the image of Sasuke, his fist gory with the last traces of Naruto's life, flashed through Sakura's head, and a dark frown passed over her face. "I feel the same way."

He studied her for a long moment, and it must have been her imagination that his gaze softened slightly, because the next thing he did was ask in a vaguely annoyed voice, "Aren't you finished yet?"

Huffing, Sakura bit out, "You are the worst patient I've ever had."

"And you have the bedside manner of an angry cat," he countered in an infuriatingly calm voice, making her scowl.

Finally leaning back as she finished healing him, she looked with some satisfaction at the very small scar that was left behind, knowing it would have been much bigger and uglier in the hands of another medic. Loftily, she said, "You don't need a good bedside manner when you're as good as I am."

He snorted softly as he stood, moving toward the other side of the fire, and her eyes flew up in surprise as she asked, "Was that a laugh?"

"Better to laugh now than in the middle of a firefight," he said pointedly, obviously referring to the moment in their fight with the Frost nin when she'd let out a laugh. "What the hell got into you, anyway?"

Sakura sulked silently for a moment; she'd hoped that he wouldn't bring that up. Finally, she said, "I finally got the move right. Attack pattern epsilon. We executed it perfectly. It… felt good."

He'd turned to look at her again as she'd answered him, and she was shocked to see creases appear around his eyes—was he actually smiling?

"Finish healing yourself, and then eat and get some rest," he said, turning again and then laying himself down on the other side of the fire. "That is, if you don't think those orders are too stupid."

She rolled her eyes and began to heal the remaining minor damage to her leg, judging that she had built up enough chakra to finish the job. This time, Sakura was glad for the silence they lapsed into—it gave her time to consider the mission they'd just been on, and to think about what she was going to do when she got home. As she finished healing herself in preparation for turning in for the night, she entertained herself with thoughts of hot showers and delicious meals.

And she absolutely, 100% did not let herself think about holding hands, or huddling for warmth, or anything else that had to do with Hatake Kakashi.