Sakura,
Securing Fort Mito is taking longer than we expected.
Please let your clan know that I'm not avoiding them. Especially your mother. I'd hate for us to get off on the wrong foot. Again.
— Kakashi
Kakashi,
How much longer do you think it will take? Genma and Tenten have started making eyes at each other, and if I see them so much as blink in each other's direction once again, I don't think Rin's tea will be of much help anymore.
— Sakura
Sakura,
I don't know.
Some days after we took back Fort Mito from the Uchiha, they returned with more forces and have been occupying the space right outside our perimeter. They haven't moved this entire time. I can't write much more than that, in case this message gets intercepted.
So tell me about this instead: Genma and Tenten? Why? How? And again: why?
Have you checked to see if Genma's hit his head?
Also: is it normal for you to still need the tea?
— Kakashi
Kakashi,
I would really rather not commit any memories about Genma and Tenten to paper. This poor scroll hasn't done anything to deserve such punishment.
And no, Genma hasn't hit his head. He's been doing too good of a job avoiding all of Tenten's weapons.
Maybe that's why she likes him so much?
I haven't experienced any nausea for two weeks now. I only mentioned the tea for humor's sake.
And now I feel silly for having to explain it.
Please stay safe.
— Sakura
Sakura,
Fort Mito is secure. I should be at the Senju estate within a week.
As terrible as this sounds, I hope Genma and Tenten are still making eyes at each other. This is a catastrophe I would like to see for myself.
It's good to know you don't need the tea anymore.
Your quip about the tea is still funny, despite the explanation. I would argue that everything is even funnier now because you had to explain it?
Because it's funny how I thought
And now I'm the one who's silly for explaining things. Let's put an end to this.
— K.
"A new letter from your husband, Sakura-hime?"
Sakura glances up and smiles at Tobi as he tends to the gardens.
"No, this letter is from a few days ago." She tucks the scroll away, her smile getting wider. "He'll be arriving soon. Maybe three or four days from now."
"You must be very excited to see him," Tobi says.
"Don't tell him," Sakura says, winking conspiratorially at her new friend. "He'll hold that over my head for the longest time."
Tobi has been staying at the Senju estate for the past two weeks or so, exchanging his labor for some medicine intended for his sickly nephew who has weak lungs.
"It would be helpful for us to examine the boy for ourselves," Tsunade had said after he came to them, her brow furrowed.
But the boy in question was too weak to travel, so they had to make do with Tobi's descriptions. Tobirama had been reluctant to take the white-haired man in — "Is it because his name sounds too much like yours?" Sakura teased him, much to his disgruntlement — but Tsunade was quick to take pity when Tobi unwrapped the bandages around his head, looking surprisingly handsome despite the scars all over the right side of his face and his missing left eye.
"My appearance makes it hard to find work," Tobi explained as he wrapped the bandages back over his face.
"We don't need any payment," Tsunade said, frowning. "It is our duty to help the people of Konoha."
"Please, Tsunade-hime, the very last thing I want is your pity," Tobi said softly. "Allow me to earn that medicine. For my pride."
And so Tobi has made himself useful, meticulously cleaning weapons and armor at the training grounds, tending to the gardens and orchards, replacing broken roof tiles, mending gaps in the walls surrounding the estate, and even helping to construct what Yamato has been calling a greenhouse.
"This will allow us to grow plants in a controlled environment," Yamato had explained to a curious Sakura. "If it works."
Sakura finds herself in Tobi's company for precisely one hour every day before dinner when she retreats to the gardens to have some time for herself. He explains that sunrise and sunset are the most ideal times to tend to the gardens; it is still bright enough to see, and he can work without the blaring heat of the sun beating down at his back.
Depending on her mood, Sakura either reads quietly while he works in the background or she asks him questions. But the more she asks him, the more she realizes that it is far more entertaining to listen to the man speak rather than reading her scrolls.
So he tells her stories about his nephews, how he never knew his father, how his uncle cared for him his whole life because his mother died during childbirth, how he fell in love with the kindest, most generous woman who loved him back but couldn't bring herself to leave her old life and start a new one with him.
And in the spirit of reciprocity, she tells him little things here and there about Sukea and Kakashi: the tea Kakashi dutifully brewed for her every morning in the early stages of her pregnancy, the poetry Sukea wrote for her underneath the beautiful blossoms of the plum tree by the lake to the south of the Hatake compound. She even tells him how Pakkun nibbles on her hair reproachfully if he finds himself unsatisfied with the number of apple slices she brings him.
But it is too complicated and too painful to explain to this stranger that she is speaking about two very different men. So Tobi only ever hears this man referred to as her husband.
"Your husband must love you very much," Tobi observed just the other day, the smile on his face apparent despite the bandages.
Sakura had smiled in return but gave no verbal confirmation. It would hardly be accurate to say that Kakashi loved her, but despite Kakashi's wry disclaimer about his inability to make new friends, Sakura thinks he has done quite well with her.
She thinks of the box in her room, filled with correspondence from Kakashi. His letters are much more sparse than Sukea's, and they have accumulated fairly quickly. And if Sakura is being honest with herself, there is something reassuring about the fact that Kakashi has written to her so often.
They care for each other, that much is certain. And what a far cry it is from their beginnings.
"You say you haven't seen your husband for almost two months now, Sakura-hime?" she hears Tobi saying.
Sakura pulls herself out of her thoughts.
"That's right, Tobi-san," she replies.
"If it's not too forward to say, I imagine you're allowed to be excited, Sakura-hime," Tobi says. "Two months is a long time."
"It is, isn't it?" Sakura says pensively. Her eyes light up. "I wonder if he's decided to grow his hair out after all."
Tobi wipes his brow. His white, almost silvery hair is slick with sweat.
"Then you'll both look very different to each other, Sakura-hime."
When he gestures at her gentle curve of her belly, she grins.
"What if we don't recognize each other?" she says playfully.
Tobi taps a finger to his chin in exaggerated contemplation.
"I find that hard to believe. How many young ladies in Fire Country with pink hair and green eyes are expecting a child?"
Sakura laughs. Then she suddenly stands when she sees how low the sun has dipped below the horizon. She's going to be late for dinner.
"I have to go, Tobi-san," Sakura says apologetically. "Have a pleasant evening."
"You as well, Sakura-hime."
The next evening is Tobi's penultimate night at the Senju estate. He speaks with her excitedly about the prospect of going home and finally giving his nephew some medicine to ease his labored breathing. But in the middle of his chatter, he stops, his right eye widening.
And Sakura freezes when she hears it. The cacophonous clanging of weapons. The panicked shouting. The katana slicing through shoji screens.
"Sakura-hime, where are your guards?" Tobi asks urgently.
Sakura forces herself to stand.
"I don't know," she stammers. It is hard to talk. Her heart is racing out of her chest. "Probably at the training grounds with Tenten —"
"That's practically the opposite of where we are," Tobi says. "The attackers are coming closer. You hear it too, don't you?" He looks around desperately. "We have to get you to a safe place, somewhere they won't think to look."
"The orchards," Sakura says immediately, her mind racing. "The trees are densely packed together."
Tobi nods.
"Lead the way, Sakura-hime. I'll watch for attackers."
The closer they get to the orchards, the smaller the noises become. Sakura takes deep breaths to slow her heartbeat then looks at Tobi.
"Are you alright, Tobi-san?"
"Yes. Are you?"
Sakura nods, blinking tears out of her eyes.
"My family —" she says, choking up.
"The guards were stationed closest to your mother and your uncle," Tobi says, nodding almost to himself. "Your sister is a fearsome warrior. And the training grounds are next to your brother's greenhouse project. I'm sure all of them are fine."
Still, Sakura cannot help it. She bursts out into tears.
"None of this makes sense," she thinks out loud, hiccuping. "Why would they attack us so brazenly? Even if they killed us all, my grandmother's clan would step in and carry on where we left off."
Tobi nods listlessly.
"Could it be a distraction?"
Sakura frowns.
"A distraction? From what?"
The world goes dark. Sakura tries to scream, but the hand over her mouth and nose blocks it. And the arm pinned against her throat makes it hard to breathe.
The last thing she hears is Tobi's voice, equal parts soothing and sinister: "Sleep, Sakura-hime. Go to sleep."
"Kaa-san!" Tenten roars as she tears through the estate, the Hatake guards at her heels. Although there are tears in the shoji screens and pieces of furniture strewn around, she is reassured by the lack of blood and bodies. "Kaa-san! Tobirama-ojii!"
"Tenten!" she hears Tsunade from her study.
She rushes to her mother and embraces her tightly.
"Are you hurt, kaa-san?" Tenten asks, eyes scanning her mother's body for injuries.
"No," Tsunade says. "Your Tobirama-ojii is unharmed as well."
"I saw Yamato-nii on my way to find you," Tenten confirms. "How's Sakura?"
Tsunade blinks.
"She wasn't with you?"
Tenten's blood freezes in her veins. Behind her, she hears Genma's breathing quicken.
"Doesn't she spend afternoons with you?" Tenten asks slowly.
"She visits the gardens before dinner," Tsunade says in a sharp voice. "Find her."
Tenten turns to the Hatake guards.
"The gardens are extensive," she barks at them. "Split up into pairs." She points at the clansmen to Genma's left. "Search the left side of the garden." She nods at the clansmen on Genma's right. "Search the right. Genma, you're with me. We're going to search the orchards right behind the gardens. If the four of you see nothing in the gardens, join us at the orchards. Let's move."
The gardens appear undisturbed, which is somewhat reassuring. But there is still no sign of Sakura.
"Come out!" Tenten calls through the orchard. "Sakura, it's safe now!"
Only silence greets her.
Tenten calls for her sister until her voice is hoarse. Before she knows it, the moon is hanging high in the sky, and Tenten's mind momentarily slips into blissful nothingness as she stares blankly at her shadow.
"Tenten-taichou." She looks at Genma, eyes dead. "She's not here. We have to tell your mother."
She scrunches her eyes shut.
"No," she says forcefully. "She has to be here. Sakura? Sakura, this isn't funny! Come out!"
"Tenten-taichou, the sooner we tell your mother, the sooner we can come up with a plan," Genma says firmly. "Let's go."
She rubs the heels of her palms deep into her eye sockets.
And she wishes she could sink into the earth when Tsunade turns those furious golden eyes upon her and the Hatake guards, then snarls, "So instead of guarding your future matriarch, you were busy indulging in a six-way spar with the one person who was more than capable of protecting herself and the people within her immediate vicinity."
Every defensive statement about how the estate was securely guarded — for the most part — slips away from Tenten's mind. She pinches the skin of her wrist and tries not to cry.
"Do you know who else is missing?" Yamato says, his dark eyes contemplative. "Tobi."
Something inside Tenten snaps.
"Who fucking cares about Tobi?" she lashes out, glaring at Yamato.
Yamato, long used to his sister's outbursts, merely blinks at her and crosses his arms.
"I care about Tobi," Tobirama deadpans. "Because I'm almost certain that he has kidnapped Sakura."
Tenten cannot breathe.
For lack of a person to rip apart with her bare hands, she screams. Then she hurls several kunai at the walls for good measure.
Surprisingly, no one rebukes her, not even Tobirama who has never liked when she brought weapons indoors for fear of her damaging something. Tenten is not sure how long they have been standing in silence together, but her shoulders stiffen when a new voice joins the room: "I know I'm early, but is now a bad time for a visit?"
Trembling, Tenten turns to face her new brother. And some tears dart down her face.
Kakashi frowns when no one replies.
And his dark eyes narrow when he realizes —
"Where is Sakura?"
Sakura does not know where she is.
What she does know is that she has been slung over someone's shoulder, and they are moving fast. And judging by the heaviness of her limbs, she suspects she has been force-fed some sort of sedative, one that also makes it hard to set her thoughts straight.
She sends out a silent prayer of gratitude to Tsunade and her Shizune-oba for insisting that the entire Senju clan covertly build up some resistance to most poisons and sedatives.
And although it is difficult to fight through the urge to slip back into unconsciousness, it is not impossible.
So she grits her teeth.
And then she gets to work.
Tilting her head slightly, she tries to get a glimpse of whoever is carrying her, and a chill runs down her spine when she sees a familiar red and white crest on the fabric of his cloak, right underneath her face.
"Stop here." She recognizes Tobi's voice, but just barely. He sounds different now. Colder. "Do you need me to carry her?"
"No, Obito-taichou," the man carrying her says, his voice emotionless.
Obito. Tobi's real name is Obito.
Sakura feels sick to her stomach for revealing such personal, precious details to a person who lied to her about his name, among other things.
"Let's keep moving."
Sakura still recognizes the landscape around them. They are not too far away from the Senju estate; perhaps only two hours away on horseback? But they have been traveling on foot, presumably to leave less of a trail —
She does her best to stay limp as they begin moving again. And although it takes all her strength not to scream or tense up in pain, Sakura eventually manages to rip a fistful of hair out of the base of her skull.
There is no wind. Whatever trail she leaves will stay in place.
And best of all, Tenten is probably looking for her right now.
"I know you've been playing with the training dummies, Sakura!" Tenten screeched at her once during their childhood. "Unless someone else with pink hair has been traipsing around the training grounds!"
And so Sakura drops some of her hair along the way, mostly along the white reeds of the pampas grass where they will be most visible. She rations the strands successfully enough to leave a trail that ends only ten minutes away from the hideout.
The hideout is small but well-guarded. Her captors are greeted by what sounds like a sizable group of men.
"We leave at dusk tomorrow," she hears Tobi — Obito — say as they put restraints on her. "If the Senju princess ever wakes, do not speak to her. And do not listen to anything she says. Her words are dangerous, and you may hesitate when the time comes to do what we must." He pauses. "Sasuke-kun. Gag her."
"Yes, Obito-taichou."
Someone pinches her nose, presumably to force her to breathe through her mouth. The moment she opens her mouth, a cloth is shoved in between her teeth then tied around her head.
Ridiculously, her heart twinges painfully in her chest when she realizes that the circlet she usually wears is gone. She wonders if Tobi removed it. Or if it fell as they carried her.
It belonged to her grandmother.
When tears prickle at the back of her closed eyelids, Sakura forces herself to stop thinking. If they realize she is awake, then the one advantage she has over them is gone.
And so Sakura waits.
And she listens.
And she does her very best not to whimper or cry or scream when Obito and his men talk about all the ways they will slowly torture information out of her and then kill her when Kakashi finally finds her in about a week's time.
The man who carried her returns to the room some hours later. As he removes the gag, she keeps her neck limp and her eyes closed.
"I know you're awake," he says coolly. "The sedative should have worn off a few minutes ago."
Sakura opens her eyes and glares at him.
He is young. Probably around her age, she realizes as her eyes scan his strikingly handsome face and the short dark hair that frames it.
He stands above her, holding a cup.
He is going to sedate her again, Sakura realizes.
"Touch me and you'll regret it," she says, channeling all the rage she has been storing since listening to the Uchiha speaking about all the disgusting things they would do to her and her baby.
He snorts.
"There is no point resisting," he says her in that same cold voice. "There is nothing you can do."
He pinches her nose and forces the sedative into her mouth. Then she spits it at him and manages to land a kick to his chest.
"Hn. Annoying," he says, wiping his face.
They both freeze when they hear a loud crash and the undeniable ring of blades clashing.
He looks at her with those dark calculating eyes. Foolishly, she feels a flicker of hope when she sees something that looks like regret on his face —
Then with one sharp motion, he hits the back of her head.
Sakura clings onto consciousness out of pure spite, but she cannot dredge up enough strength to properly resist when he pours more of the sedative into her mouth. She chokes and coughs, but it is futile; she has swallowed too much.
Her head feels heavy.
So heavy.
But she smiles because the last thing she hears before slipping in and out of consciousness is the familiar sound of Tenten's kusari-fundo whistling through the air.
They have been searching for hours now.
Genma grimaces. Kakashi's anger has always been most apparent when he is quiet, and the man has not spoken a single word since he exited the Senju's home, mounted his horse, and rode away without them.
"I'm sorry, taichou," he says.
Kakashi looks at him out of the corner of his eye.
"I know," Kakashi replies in a flat voice.
Then he clicks his tongue to tell Bisuke to speed up.
Beside him, Tenten watches Kakashi's back, her knuckles white from gripping the reins so tightly. Tears have been silently streaming down her face ever since they told Kakashi of Sakura's kidnapping, and one of her hair buns has come loose from the frantic pace at which they'd had to set to catch up to Kakashi.
"She was here," Kakashi says sharply from up ahead.
He has dismounted his horse, and he is holding something small and delicate in his hands. Genma's heart drops when he recognizes the violet jewel and the thin gold band.
"They must have traveled on foot," Tenten says, her eyes scouring the ground. "Horses always leave obvious tracks. But even the lightest feet can leave prints as well."
Kakashi nods.
"Search the area."
It only takes five minutes for Tenten to shout for their attention.
"I found something!" she says sharply in the middle of a field of pampas grass.
They all gather around her.
It's not a footprint.
It's something better.
He watches as Kakashi slowly takes some invisible thread from Tenten's hands and holds it up to the light of the moon. It looks almost violet.
Sakura's hair.
"Spread out," Kakashi says in a clipped voice. "We travel on foot from here on out so that we don't miss any more clues."
They leave two Senju guards to stay with the ten horses.
And over the next four hours, they slowly but surely follow a definitive trail of pink hair. The trail ends deep in the woods.
"Fuck!" Tenten growls. Then she takes a deep breath. "We can check for broken twigs. Dirt that is more compact. The soil here is loose, according to Yamato-nii, so it should be harder for them to avoid leaving tracks of their own."
Tenten is right. One of the Senju guards finds a trail, and after a few minutes of darting between the trees, Kakashi stops them.
"Look," he says in a low, dangerous voice.
Genma tilts his head upwards and exhales.
Smoke, hardly visible, dissipating just above the tree line.
"That has to be them," Tenten breathes.
"What's the plan, taichou?" Genma asks, carefully looking at the space between Tenten and Kakashi.
Tenten swallows, swipes tears out of her eyes one more time, then nods at Kakashi.
"Taichou?" she says.
Kakashi's eyes snap onto him.
"Genma, scout the hideout and report back with the number of exits. And a head count."
Half an hour later, Genma returns.
"There is only one visible entry and exit point, taichou. I counted twenty guards forming a perimeter around the hideout."
Kakashi nods.
"Listen close," he says, and despite years of hearing the man hash out battle plans, there is something about Kakashi's voice that sends chills down Genma's spine. "We only have one chance to get this right."
They get it right.
Tenten and Genma play the quietest game of target practice to dispatch the guards surrounding the hideout.
And Kakashi watches from the shadows as Tenten, Genma, and the rest of their men explode through the doors of the hideout. He waits for ten seconds, listening to the brutal sounds of necks snapping under Tenten's kusari-fundo, before entering the hideout for himself.
There is blood everywhere. And the remaining Uchiha are protecting the entrance to the solitary hallway.
Kakashi makes a beeline for it.
All the while, his blade swings in a graceful arc, slicing diagonally through one Uchiha, two Uchiha, three Uchiha who throw themselves towards him.
He leaves Tenten and the men to deal with the rest.
And he would sprint down the hallway, except there is one final person to cut down.
And he would cut down this man who stands right by the entrance of the hallway, except there is something about this man's relaxed stance and the solitary kunai he twirls between his fingers that stops Kakashi in his tracks.
"Hatake Kakashi," the man says softly, his hair as white as the bandages that cover most of his face. "Oh, the things I have heard about you from your wife."
Kakashi is not here to talk. So he keeps his mouth shut and strikes with his katana.
But the man is fast. Surprisingly so. He dodges every single attempted strike.
And worryingly, the man gets close enough to Kakashi to almost draw blood with his kunai.
"The Senju princess is very beautiful. I don't blame you for being so quick to put a baby inside her," the man says mockingly.
Kakashi pushes past the fatigue, compresses his anger, and releases it in short, sharp bursts of movement.
Strike. Dodge. Strike strike dodge.
He manages to slice the man's arm.
"Look at how hard you are fighting to bring her home, to keep her by your side." The man laughs maniacally when his kunai slashes across Kakashi's torso. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You are so obviously in love with her it makes me sick." The kunai slices diagonally across the first slash, marking a large red X into Kakashi's chest. "I cannot wait to take her and that baby apart piece by piece in front of you."
Kakashi sees white.
And then red, when it spurts out of the deep wound he pierces into the man's side.
The man laughs again. He spits blood out of his mouth.
"It was interesting to finally meet you, Hatake Kakashi," he says, his grin wide and red. "I'll tell your wife you came by to say hello."
Kakashi dodges the shuriken, but just barely.
And Kakashi's heart drops when he sees the white-haired man disappear through a trap door.
This is impossible.
The Senju should not have been able to find them so soon, much less find the hideout.
Sasuke slowly draws a kunai from his holster.
Then he glances back at the Senju girl one more time to make sure she is fully sedated, but he freezes when he sees a bloodied patch of skin at the base of her scalp. He turns her over, lifts up her hair to study it, and inhales sharply.
She left a trail that led straight to them.
His mind racing, Sasuke curses to sedative barely held up. She must have been awake for hours.
From the sounds outside the doors, there is no time to brew more of the sedative and give it to her. With quick, practiced fingers, Sasuke undoes the secondary restraints that hold her upright against a support beam, but despite how fast he moves, he knows there is no time to put the gag back over her mouth.
Scowling, Sasuke lifts the trap door that leads to the underground tunnel and flings the girl over his shoulder.
Before he can jump down, a blade slices through the doors, and despite the slow, calm rhythm of his heart, a hot rush of panic surges through his veins when he sees who is standing in the ruined doorway.
The man, tall and sinewy, with his long white hair tied up in a high ponytail, is all blood soaked clothes, sharp angles, and barely-restrained fury.
Through the purple warpaint around his eyes, Hatake Kakashi glares at Sasuke, bares his sharpened canines, and snarls, "Return my wife to me. Now."
Sasuke knows his own abilities better than anyone else, but he is not stupid.
He cannot win against this man, not with the girl on his back. And even if he snakes his way through the underground tunnel, he is in no position to outrun anyone, especially not a man who is rumored to move faster than lightning when he is angry.
So as he stands, he tugs the Senju girl's limp body up against his torso, tilts her chin up with one hand to bare her neck, and presses the kunai against the soft skin of her throat.
"Let us go," Sasuke says emotionlessly, slowly moving towards the entrance of the tunnel. "Or I will end her life before your very eyes."
"If you wanted to kill her, you would have done it by now," Hatake Kakashi says, his eyes narrowed. "You need her for something."
Sasuke raises his eyebrows.
"You're right. We need her alive. Only her."
Then he lowers the kunai to her rounded belly.
A sharp pain pierces through his neck and Sasuke shouts, dropping the Senju girl as he claps a hand to his bleeding neck.
She fucking bit him.
From the floor, the Senju princess glares up at him and smirks, his blood marking her lips and chin a dark red.
For a moment, Sasuke's heart stops in his chest.
Then he snaps himself out of it, because he has to leave if he wants to survive.
Quickly, Sasuke throws a handful of shuriken towards the Hatake heir before jumping down into the tunnel and running as fast as he can.
It takes some time, but once he ascends to ground level, he is able to find Obito, who is holding a blood-soaked cloth to his side. Flanking Obito are Itachi and Shisui, who had missed the attack because they had gone out to hunt.
"Sasuke," Itachi says, alarmed by the blood seeping between the fingers he has pressed against his neck.
"It's fine," he bites out, thoroughly embarrassed that his older brother has to see him like this. "No veins or arteries."
He dresses the wound himself, and does not allow anyone, not even Itachi, to look any closer at his neck. But he is conscious of Obito's solitary eye burning a hole into his throat.
They wait for a few more hours, but no one else arrives. It is likely that they are dead.
"That wasn't how anything was supposed to go," Shisui says wryly after he and Obito share their accounts of the recent events. "Shit."
"How did you lose a girl who was sedated and bound?" Obito snaps, rounding on Sasuke.
"You underestimated her," Sasuke says coolly. "The sedative barely affected her. I suspect she was awake for at least half the journey to the hideout. She even left a trail for them to find with her hair."
Shisui runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head.
"That wound on your neck is a bite mark," Obito says. "Did the Hatake heir snap at you with his fangs?"
Sasuke's hackles rise at the mocking tone in Obito's voice.
"No."
Shisui's eyes go wide.
"So she bit you?" he asks.
Sasuke exhales irritably.
"I couldn't put the gag over her in time."
"You should have killed her in front of the Hatake heir," Obito growls.
Sasuke narrows his eyes.
"The main objective was to extract information from her," Sasuke says, crossing his arms. "Breaking the Hatake heir's spirit was a bonus."
Obito exhales loudly out of his nose.
"It is highly unlikely we will ever capture her again," Itachi says quietly, the light of the small fire they have set up reflecting red in his eyes.
Sasuke nods.
"She is stronger than she appears."
Itachi raises an eyebrow.
"That, and the Hatake will guard her more closely now," Itachi says, sounding almost amused.
Silence falls over them. Then Shisui laughs incredulously.
"Who would've thought?" he says, almost to himself. He grins at Sasuke and says, "You know, that's the nicest thing I've heard you say about anyone. Ever. Does little Sasuke-kun have a crush on the pretty pink princess?"
Obito glares at Sasuke when he does not answer.
"You spoke to her, didn't you?" Obito asks flatly. "Either that, or she spoke to you. Which one was it?"
Sasuke narrows his eyes at them, unamused.
"You're all annoying," he says dismissively.
Then he lays down, turns his back to them, and tries to fall asleep.
Sakura knows Sukea is gone.
But through her brief spots of consciousness, she swears she sees him.
His long white hair, tied high up on his scalp. The purple paint around his eyes. The sharpened canines to mark members of the Hatake clan's main house.
He has come for her. And he looks furious.
So when the Uchiha holding her up drops the kunai away from her throat and holds it against her belly, against their son, the very least Sakura can do for Sukea is help him fight back.
Her hands are bound. She turns her head and sinks her teeth into skin. She tastes blood in her mouth.
"Sukea," she mumbles, fighting to stay awake when he descends upon her to pick her up from the floor.
But this vision of him is not quite right. From his left eye, a vicious scar rips its way down to the side of his jaw. His clothes are drenched in blood.
And when he cradles her into his chest, he does not smell like ink and plum blossoms. He smells like rain and sweat and steel. He smells like —
"Kakashi-taichou!" she hears Tenten bellow. "Do you have her?"
"I have her!" he shouts back. Then to her, he murmurs over and over again, "I have you, Sakura."
He wipes the blood off her lips with the underside of his wrist, the only part of him that hasn't been stained with the blood.
"Kakashi," she whispers, smiling. "You grew out your hair."
Then she finally succumbs to the sedative.
Back at the Senju estate, Kakashi jealously guards the entrance to his wife's room.
He does not move.
He does not eat.
He does not rest.
Tobirama understands. He is also concerned about Sakura's long sleep, despite Tsunade's increasingly impatient explanations for why such a thing is happening in the first place.
"You try surviving a kidnapping attempt, repeatedly getting drugged, and pulling your wits together long enough to leave a comprehensive trail, and let's see how long you decide to sleep," Tsunade snapped when Kakashi asked her for the umpteenth time why Sakura was still unconscious.
But Kakashi has been at this for over thirty hours now, and it is getting ridiculous.
So when Kakashi turns those dark eyes towards him, Tobirama crosses his arms, leveling him with his best glare.
"You cannot stand watch over her for much longer if you keep this up, Kakashi-sama," he says coolly. "Tenten and Yamato will take over for you."
Kakashi shakes his head.
"What if she wakes?"
"Then we will alert you immediately," Yamato says firmly. "I will find you myself."
After glancing at the extensive collection of weapons Tenten has managed to strap around her person, Kakashi nods wearily.
"Follow me," Tobirama says.
He leads Kakashi to the dining room. A small but simple meal has been laid out, enough for two people.
"Eat," Tobirama orders.
It is obvious that Kakashi is only going through the motions, but Tobirama does not care. As long as the man eats something, it will do.
"Thank you," Tobirama says stiffly. "For Sakura."
"She is my wife," Kakashi says dully.
Tobirama raises an eyebrow.
"You could have waited to begin your search at first light for more visibility. But you didn't."
"Waiting would have been a waste of time."
Kakashi lifts the soup bowl up to his mouth and drinks. Tobirama sighs.
"I'm not thanking you only because you found her so quickly. I'm thanking you for caring so deeply about her." Tobirama crosses his arms again. "I had my doubts about whether you and Sakura would get along. But you proved me wrong." Tobirama's lips press into a thin line. "And you even have an heir on the way."
Kakashi scratches the back of his neck.
"Sakura is very...pragmatic," he says, shuffling in his seat. "She will make for a strong matriarch."
Tobirama laughs humorlessly.
"I know. I made sure she would be." Tobirama shakes his head. "When we were negotiating terms with Jiraiya-sama, the contract was initially going to be made between Tenten and Sukea."
Kakashi's eyes widen with surprise.
"That would not have been good," he says mildly.
"No," Tobirama deadpans. "Certainly not. And had we gone through with it, you would have married Tenten."
Wickedly, Tobirama takes great pleasure in the sudden pallor of Kakashi's face.
"That also would not have been good," Kakashi says. "But you already knew that. So why did you consider Tenten in the first place?"
Tobirama sighs.
"Sakura is the daughter I never had. And I didn't want her to leave so soon." Tobirama frowns. "When circumstances changed, and she had to marry a widower...you can only imagine the extent of my displeasure."
Kakashi nods, and Tobirama watches his shoulders slump as the full weight of his exhaustion finally bears down on him.
"I didn't want this either," Kakashi says.
"No one did," Tobirama acknowledges. "But it is reassuring to see exactly whom Sakura married." He nods stiffly then adds, "So thank you."
The most curious expression of self-loathing flashes across Kakashi's face for the briefest of moments.
"I'm sure Sakura would do the same for me," Kakashi says gruffly. He shakes his head. "She's already beginning to. With the clan."
Tobirama smiles, and this time there is no ice behind it. Then they both sit up straighter when they hear a set of hurried footsteps approaching.
Yamato opens the doors, a wide smile on his face.
"She's awake."