Since her meeting with the Yamanaka, nothing in Sakura's life became easier. If anything, it turned more complicated. Now standing before the a grim-faced Hokage, his dark aged eyes piercing through hers with a intensity she never truly have witnessed before, she wanted all but to cower away and shrink into herself. Maybe it was because Lord Third hasn't said anything for a while, since he was informed about the situation really, so all this silence around her rang loudly in her ears, intimidating her ever further.

The moment the Hokage sighed, puffing out a cloud of smoke from his ancient pipe, was the moment she tensed and started anticipating her probation for the consequences of her ignorance.

However, it never came.

"I'm deeply regretful this had to happen to you, Sakura-chan," Hokage-sama rasped out, his eyes closing as if it physically pained him to see her in such situation. "What Miyamoto-san did was well within his own knowledge and I as the Hokage, along with our trusted Council, promise you that we will do everything in our will to right these circumstances."

"Now," He regarded with steely eyes, stern and gentle yet not unkind. The rumours must be true then, he really does have soft spot for children. "I will not dare to condemn you for something a child shouldn't have known in the first place, but I must know if you ever shared this information with anyone else. A friend of yours, maybe? Or even a former classmate?"

...

"...Sakura-san," Inoichi dropped the softness of his voice, and Sakura wanted to curl into a ball with the way Aunt Sayuri and Ino were silent, yet venomously glaring at the Head of the Yamanaka Clan. If only glares could kill, he would have been dead ten times over by now. "I would ask you to keep my daughter out of this."

"Inoichi-"

"-Not now, Sayuri!" He quickly interrupted her. "Sakura, do not meddle Ino into this. If the friendship between you two means anything-"

"-DAD, NO! What are you doing?!" Ino cried, shooting up from her seat.

"-then don't let anyone trace any strings back to her."

...

Do not meddle Ino into this.

Don't let anyone trace any strings back to her. Inoichi's voice echoed in her head on repeat.

And Sakura pretended to ponder over it, her heart beating loudly on her chest at the prospect of lying to the Hokage right in his face. She was really doing this, she was really about to become a liar in the worst ways possible. This could be considered even more horrible than this goddamned leak.

But she was willing.

For Ino... she was willing do everything for Ino.

She shook her head, and almost instantly she could feel Kakashi-sensei's stare burn at the back of her neck. She prayed to the Gods above that he won't say anything and go along with her lie, she begged him internally to understand as she opened her mouth. "No, I- I wanted to keep it secret... I knew that as a Civilian-born I didn't have anything compared to the Clan kids in my class, so I sort of kept it to myself." The lie sprouted out and she begged, begged for luck to be on her side and for everyone to believe this little white lie.

The relieved smile Lord Third rewarded her drowned her in so much guilt, so much so that she had to bit her tongue to not let her eyes water and show her real feelings.

Since when did she became such an expert that she could even fool the Hokage? She doesn't know, she doesn't want to know. All she wanted was to get the hell out of here without seeming too suspicious.

Kami, when did she became such a crybaby...

"I'm glad to hear that, you put this old man out of some real stressing work," He chuckled, and the heavy atmosphere around the office vanished in an instant. Her shoulders visibly slumped, and a small smile graced her lips for a moment.

"I guess this was the only thing I did right," She laughed lightly along with him, feeling more relieved yet more burdened at the same time.

Lie, lie, lie lielielielie!

"Don't be too hard on yourself, keep reminding that on your student, Kakashi-kun." Lord Third glanced at her sensei pointedly, to which the Jounin nodded with a lazy blink of the eye.

She doesn't know what could this possibly mean. Her instructor had been so silent by now that, in midst of her worries, she almost completely forgot about him being in the same room. She tried to not dwell on it too much, she was supposed to be a Ninja and Ninja are always aware of their surroundings.

"Dismissed, I expect Team Seven to get back to active duty by tomorrow," The Hokage finalized, before putting down his pen.

Sakura bowed with all the etiquette and politeness that was installed into her, her sensei merely giving a hand wave in acknowledgement, before his hand was on her shoulder and they shunshined out of the Hokage Tower.

Green of the grass and orange of the sunset greeted her vision once they landed in to solid ground. The hand on her shoulder tightened, not uncomfortably but rather in question with a lot of concerns and a demand for explanation.

"I can't be friends with Ino anymore," was the only thing she needed to say for Kakashi to understand the entirety of the situation.

"That bad, hm?" He hummed nonchalantly, but she knew he was doing it more for her sake rather than his. Her sensei may be a little socially awkward, but he wasn't by any means emotionally inept.

"...I fucked up," She sighed, slumping her crossed forearms over the railing of the bridge. Now that she noticed, her team frequently meets in this spot, aren't they? "At least this is one thing out of my to-do list."

"That's actually very productive," He gave her a cheery close-eyed smile, and the rosette could feel the sincerity and how much he was trying behind the action. She smiled up at him gratefully, a small little tired thing in all honesty, and looked back down at her reflection on the water.

"Not really, there aren't many things there. Only that I need to gather stamina building exercises and find a therapist... who isn't a Yamanaka this time," She paused, and looked up at the distance with a expression of dry amusement. "Huh, I really am having beef with a whole Clan... Wait, does that make it three since the Nara and the Akimichi come in package?"

Kakashi-sensei, to her absolute horror, actually snorted out a laugh as he came to stand besides her, leaning his own forearms now over the railing. "You aren't having beef with anyone, and I don't think Inoichi-sama is the kind of person to do that."

Sakura, too tired to care for how her behaviour appeared towards her seniors and superiors at this point, waved him off with her hand dismissively. "Meh, semantics. Just say I simplified it, after all, I almost troubled their future heiress. The guards outside the compound gave me the stinky eyes when I left."

"Words truly do travel fast," Kakashi-sensei mused.

"They're a bunch of gossips," She grumbled. "Give it two days and my family's contract with the Yamanaka's Flower Industry will flop."

"Shinobi Clans do get to get a bit petty, but you don't have to worry too much about it. Like Hokage-sama said, they will handle it." He nodded wisely. "Do you know how this got out so quickly?"

She shrugged. "Inoichi gave a report to someone to inform his Clan Elders before I was escorted out. The errand boy must have read the contents and spread the word."

Kakashi-sensei hummed. 'I doubt Inoichi-sama wrote down such information, especially considering it's confidentiality. A eavesdropper, maybe?'

Like a Nara would say, all this is just so troublesome. Kakashi's gaze hardened as he contemplated over the reasons on why his former ANBU Captain could've made such a irrational decision. From everything he knew about the man, it seemed highly unlikely that he would do something so reckless and bring the Village into chaos.

Suddenly a thought struck him, and he wished with all his might that he is wrong. Goodness, he never wanted to be more wrong before in his life.

"Go get some sleep, you'll need it for tomorrow," He said, and glancing at the dazed look she had in her eyes, something in him twisted painfully.

And more importantly, he couldn't blame himself. Kakashi always coped by shouldering all the burden and my taking countability about things even out of his control, but this? He didn't even knew his student when she was a kid, he was walking through the streets of hell in ANBU while she was learning the secret sign language.

Before, something always connected towards him so he could take the responsibility, but he couldn't do the same with this.

His fingers twitched. This was uncomfortable.

But watching as his student shot him a small yet reassuring smile, something inside him screamed that he should've been the one comforting her. Maybe if he was actually a good sensei, he would have read her files and maybe he would have avoided taking up the D-Rank for Miyamoto's apartment.

"Ne, Kaka-sensei... thank you." She spoke softly, her words full with sincerity, gratefulness and purity that it made his heart clench a bit.

And that's how Sakura became Kakashi's favourite student.