"Want to come over for dinner?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at her neighbour. Is this because of the tempura incident yesterday?"

"Not at all." Kakashi waved his hands as if offended by the very notion. "I just happened to get too many ingredients at the shop, and if I don't use it all now it might go bad."

Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Kakashi's apartment was simple, like Sakura's, but whether it was by virtue of the fact that he had lived in it longer or some other indefinable quality, it seemed warmer and more hospitable. On the kitchen bench sat a paper bag full of groceries. Sakura went over to inspect it.

"You're making curry?" She held up a cardboard box of roux.

"We're making curry," Kakashi corrected. "Don't worry, it's mild."

"I know what you're doing, and I already know how to make curry," she told him, fetching a knife from the drawer. "It's like, three steps."

Kakashi placed his hand on his heart as if she had wounded him. "I know I was once your teacher, but not everything I do is meant to be a learning opportunity. Sometimes I just like the company."

"Whatever," Sakura muttered, even as she began to chop the vegetables. Better that he believe she was just adjusting to life away from home rather than grieving the loss of a world that probably didn't exist.

Probably?

"So how's the new apartment been treating you?" Kakashi asked, chopping steak into cubes. "The aloe plant still alive?"

Sakura huffed. "It's a succulent; I haven't touched it at all and it's doing fine. The rest of the apartment too. Except the door and the kitchen ceiling, of course."

Kakashi laughed softly, transferring the meat to the pan and turning the hot plate's knob to 'medium' with infuriating deliberateness. "Glad to hear it. Let me know if you want me to pay for the door, by the way."

"Did Hatake Kakashi just offer to pay for something?" Sakura pressed a hand to her chest as if overcome with shock.

"Well, I know what it's like when you first start living alone. There's a lot of unexpected expenses."

"I've still got some savings from A- and S-rank missions. Though I suppose it'll be harder to get more of those now that we're in peacetime."

"Long may it last."

"Amen."

For a few minutes they sat in silence, Sakura focusing on her meal instead of the man sitting opposite her. But soon enough Kakashi spoke.

"You keep playing with your hair."

"Do I?" Sakura fingered the strands of pink that framed her face. "I guess I'm still getting used to the length."

"It'll grow back before you know it."

"Hmm."

"Part of me wishes my own change were so easy to fix," Kakashi rubbed at his left eye.

"Is it bothering you?" Sakura was out of her chair and performing diagnostic seals before Kakashi could even respond.

"Not really," he said, sitting patiently while Sakura placed a glowing hand over his eye. "It's just odd, having it open all the time. It feels exposed."

"It's still new for you," she said quietly. She had forgotten.

"It's a miracle it even exists, really."

"Good old Naruto." It was hard to keep the bitterness from her voice. "No formal training in medical jutsu, just," she wiggled her fingers, "bam, miracle."

She realised the eye that she was examining was now examining her right back, and stepped away with a blush. "Not that I'm not pleased you got your eye back. I just realised it was kind of frustrating to have all my years of training completely overshadowed by Naruto's inherent power. Again."

"That's perfectly reasonable," Kakashi assured her. "As the former Copy Nin, I've done my fair share of undermining the efforts of hardworking-types. If my price in the bingo book is any indication, it's pretty infuriating."

"It's funny," she murmured, returning to her seat. "I never really thought to care before now." Perhaps envy had no place in paradise.

"That's because you're a kind girl, Sakura-chan." Kakashi smiled at her with his eyes.

"Stop treating me like a child," she snapped before she could help it.

"I'm sorry," Kakashi said immediately, and he seemed sincere about it. "You're right, you're not a child anymore. You don't need useless platitudes from me."

I never did, Inner Sakura said, and from Kakashi's expression it seemed she had said it aloud. She clamped down on her traitor tongue. "Sorry, I'm just tired."

"You're right though. I regret not being a better teacher to you when I had the chance. I pushed you away with pretty words when I should have trained you just as hard as I did with Naruto and Sasuke. You deserved better than me." He bowed his head in apology.

What was this? Was Kakashi finally acknowledging his failures to her? Even in the genjutsu they had never had such a conversation. It was a dream come true; which was terrifying.

Trust nothing.

"It's getting late," she glanced at her bare wrist. "I should go get some sleep. Thanks for the meal."

The next day Ino invited Sakura to join Team 10 on a visit to Kurenai's new baby, and Sakura accepted automatically. Anything to avoid her silent apartment and Kakashi's shrewd gaze.

The bags under Kurenai's scarlet eyes were even deeper than Sakura's. Nevertheless, the woman invited them inside with a warm smile. Sakura had been surprised to find that Kurenai lived in a house, but judging by the cardboard boxes in the hallway, this was a relatively new development for the woman.

"As you can probably hear, the baby's in the nursery," Kurenai gestured further along the hall, where the sound of wailing was strongest.

Shikamaru was already halfway into the room; it was clear he had been there before. With practised efficiency, he lifted the swaddled newborn into his arms and presented them to the others.

"Mirai," Sakura breathed, stomach turning to water. The baby's face was still scrunched with pitiful tears, but it was unmistakable. This was the exact same child that Sakura had watched grow up into a young woman with her father's hair and her mother's eyes.

"That's right," Shikamaru said, and Sakura's stomach dropped even further. "He is the future.*"

[*a/n: "Mirai" means "future" in Japanese]

"He?" Sakura blinked.

"Meet Sarutobi Akira," Kurenai stepped forward and gently took the baby from Shikamaru. At once, he stopped crying and began to stare passively up at his mother.

So then it wasn't Sarutobi Mirai after all; such a person had truly never existed. But Kami, that baby was just like she had dreamed it. The resemblance was uncanny.

"He's beautiful," Ino cooed, she and Chouji moving in to get a closer look. Sakura hung back, and when the others seemed sufficiently distracted she subtly formed the rat seal. Once more there was no discernible change to her surroundings; the baby still had red eyes and spiky brown hair, and Sakura's body was still seventeen and awkward. But this wasn't as reassuring as it had once been. After all, kai-release hadn't seemed as effective inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Kurenai caught her eye over the tops of the others' heads, and Sakura hastily broke the seal. The other woman turned away, and nobody else gave any indication that they had noticed at all. No one was turning on her with unnervingly blank expressions, and after a few seconds Sakura allowed herself to believe what her eyes were telling her: she was safe.

Ino walked Sakura home, inviting herself into the apartment and making a beeline for the kettle. Within seconds she had found the tea, and within a minute she had gone through every other drawer in the kitchen and had started on the rest of the apartment. Sakura let her go, knowing that this was just Ino's personal brand of nosiness.

They drank their tea in the kitchen, leaning against the benches.

"This place is surprisingly nice," Ino said. "I was worried you were holed up in some dingy flat, but I'm actually impressed."

"There's plenty more apartments available, if you're thinking of joining me," Sakura joked.

"Alas, the Yamanaka clan would never let me that far out of their sight."

"How is the changeover going?"

Ino tapped her nails against her mug. "It's hard. Everything reminds me of Dad. I keep half-expecting him to just turn up, alive and well. Like in my dream."

Sakura leaned forward. This was the first time she had talked with someone else about their time in the genjutsu. "Your dad was there, huh?" Another match, albeit a slightly more obvious one.

"Yeah," Ino whispered. "It wasn't even anything special, he was just...there. Holding my mother's hand and smiling at me."

"And Sai and Sasuke-kun?" Sakura prompted.

Ino's pale brows bunched together. "No…? Why would they be there?"

"Sorry," Sakura laughed awkwardly, "I just thought there might have also been a romantic element to the fantasy."

"If there were," the tapping of the mug was becoming erratic, "you probably would have been there."

"Huh?" Sakura was nonplussed. "You mean to fight you for Sasuke-kun's attention?"

"No you idiot, just...there. With me."

The full implication of that statement dawned on Sakura slowly, then all at once. "Oh! But, no; you were in love with Sasuke-kun."

"No, I wasn't. You were."

"And you hated it! You got so upset when I said I was...oh, wait." She blushed too. "I'm an idiot, aren't I? You weren't upset because you liked Sasuke-kun."

"No."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

Ino gave her a rueful smile. "It's not like it would have changed anything. You clearly didn't see me the same way that I saw you."

"But," Sakura floundered, "why let us become love rivals, if you weren't even interested?"

"I guess I was afraid you'd forget me if I didn't. At least if we were rivals you'd be forced to acknowledge me. And, selfishly, I let you believe we were rivals over Sasuke-kun because I didn't want to be there when you talked about how much you liked him."

"Ino, I'm so, so sorry." It was hard to look at her friend and not see the future wife of Sai. But by Ino's own admission, that wasn't likely to happen. "I'm a terrible friend for not realising this sooner."

Ino laughed. "You're not terrible, you're just straight."

"Well if I weren't," Sakura started, "you know that I would consider myself lucky, and certainly I am flattered, that you think of me-"

"You really don't need to do that."

She smiled sheepishly, pushing herself off the bench and reaching out for her friend...but she paused before making contact. What if this was awkward for Ino?

"You don't have to do that either," Ino huffed, rolling her eyes and closing the distance to hug Sakura.

Sakura rested her chin on Ino's shoulder, basking in the comfort. Her last hug felt like years ago. "I could never forget you, by the way," she murmured, and Ino's arms tightened around her.

"I know, Blossom," she sighed, and Sakura couldn't believe she had never understood Ino's love before. "Anyway, I'm over you now."

Sakura pulled away, laughing, and Ino smiled her usual tough-girl smile.

"I'm the world's biggest idiot when it comes to love, aren't I?" Sakura wiped a mirthful tear. "First Sasuke, now you. I misunderstand everyone's feelings, even my own!"

"You're hardly the biggest idiot," Ino waved a hand. "Naruto's way worse."

"Naruto?" Sakura cocked her head to the side. "You mean about noticing Hinata?"

"Hmm maybe." The blonde smiled. "Tell you what, now that I've opened your eyes a bit, why don't you see if you can figure out what I mean?"

That night, Sakura sat on her balcony and looked at the stars. The smog in her future version of Konoha had blocked most of them from view, and she had grown to forget how they had looked. Maybe if she memorised their places now, she could make sure they didn't change later.

"Yo." Kakashi had let himself in, joining her out on the narrow balcony.

"Remind me to get that door fixed."

"Oh don't be like that." He nudged the aloe plant out of the way with his foot and took a seat beside her. "Are you looking at the stars?"

"Mhm. Hey Kakashi?"

"Yes, Sakura-chan?"

Hearing the -chan still gave her a little jolt of wrongness, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. "Have you ever made so many mistakes that you no longer know if you got anything right at all?"

A long, deep sigh followed this question. "Absolutely."

"I've been wrong about so much, lately," Sakura whispered to the stars, "Have I always been this way, and just never realised?" Is this the punishment for our blindness? Is there any meaning to this at all?

"It all just starts to feel like a great cosmic joke after a while, doesn't it?"

Fear reared its head again, and she turned sharply to face the man. "How did you know that's what I was thinking?"

"Because that's how I feel about Obito." Kakashi replied, dark eyes lost in the dark night. "I thought he was a true hero, the very best of men, and now...I don't know what to think."

"Have you visited him since we got home?"

Kakashi nodded. "A couple of times. Apparently Naruto also dropped in once. Sometimes it's like talking to my annoying twelve year-old teammate, and sometimes it's like talking to a mass-murderer who trapped the world in a mental prison."

Uchiha Obito. She remembered the way he had looked at her when last they spoke, the desperation in his eyes. "It occurs to me that the Infinite Tsukuyomi wasn't the first genjutsu he put me in. Do you remember when he caught Naruto and me in the Limited Tsukuyomi?"

Kakashi nodded. "I do remember that. Actually, I wondered if that might have been one of the reasons you could break out of the Infinite version when nobody else could; that and your natural abilities, of course."

"Sort of like an inoculation against the real thing," Sakura mused. She remembered that other world clearly; she had known it was fake at the time, but it still felt real enough. She shivered.

"Cold?" Kakashi ducked inside for a second, returning with the blanket from her bed. Sakura tried not to enjoy the feeling of Kakashi tucking it carefully around her shoulders. Like Ino's hug, it stirred up a craving for human affection that she had no right to ask of anyone.

"Thanks," she said, huddled inside the blanket like a worm in a cocoon.

"Feel better?"

She examined her feelings and came up blank. "I don't really feel anything, to be honest. Just tired." She buried her face in the soft fabric, so that her voice came through muffled. "I'm just so fucking tired."

Kakashi was silent so long that Sakura wasn't sure if he'd just gotten up and left her there. But then she felt a sharp nudge on her shoulder.

"Shooting star!"

She looked up. Kakashi was pointing eagerly at the sky, but whatever he had seen was already gone.

"It went straight through the heart of The Maiden." His finger traced a line through the sky.

Sakura tried to find a woman hiding in the cluster of sparkles. "Which one is The Maiden?"

Without even seeming to think about it, Kakashi shifted closer, pressing the side of his face against hers. Now that they shared a single perspective, he pointed back at the sky.

"See that really bright star with another one just to the side of it?"

Sakura tried to focus on the stars and not the fact that she could feel Kakashi's warmth through his mask. "I think so."

"That's the maiden's feet. The three smaller stars above them are her head and shoulders, and the tiny star right in the middle is her heart."

In truth, it still looked like a bunch of dots to Sakura, but she committed the image to memory. "The Maiden," she repeated firmly. "Do you know any others?"

Kakashi grabbed her hand, directing it to a point slightly below and to the right of The Maiden. Again, he seemed unaware of just how close he was. "That's The Ox," he traced a boxy shape in the sky with Sakura's obediently pointing finger, "and just below him is The Wolf. He's coming to hunt The Ox, but unfortunately The Hunter," another vaguely humanoid figure was picked out of the stars, standing on The Maiden's opposite side, "is drawing his bow to shoot him first."

"Poor Wolf," Sakura murmured, and Kakashi finally leaned back from her.

"That's what I said, the first time my father showed me the constellations." A fond smile tugged at the edges of his mask, taking years off his face.

Kakashi had never really spoken about his father before. Sakura had learned the fate of Hatake Sakumo from old reports and older gossips, but it was clear that her former captain preferred not to talk about it, and Sakura had never been willing to ask directly.

"Did he tell you how a wolf and a cow managed to get into the sky?" she asked instead, and Kakashi's masked smile widened until it became infectious.

"The story goes like this: long ago, The Maiden was the only daughter of the Emperor, and The Hunter was her betrothed." He spoke as if reciting the tale from memory, and Sakura couldn't help but be drawn in. "When a hungry wolf drove an ox from The Emperor's herd, the hunter was sent to kill the wolf and retrieve the ox. The hunter was a cruel man, who took an unnatural pleasure in killing. The Emperor's daughter had no love for her betrothed, and begged her father to spare the wolf; after all, what was a single ox compared to the vast estates they owned? But The Emperor was as greedy as the hunter was cruel, and refused to hear his daughter's pleas."

Kakashi continued, quiet voice bringing life to the scene in the stars. "The daughter followed the hunter in secret, and watched as he snuck up on the unsuspecting wolf. He smiled as he drew his bow, and the maiden knew then that she would rather die than be with such a man. As the arrow flew toward the wolf, she ran to intercept it."

"What happened to her?" Sakura hugged the blankets around her, following Kakashi's story with wide eyes.

"The gods were moved by the maiden's sacrifice, placing her and the others in the sky as a warning to the rest of the world: never take undue pleasure in killing."

That's a sad story," Sakura whispered.

"It is," Kakashi nodded, "but an important one, I think. The Maiden's example has saved more than one ninja from becoming a monster like the hunter."

"Hmm." Sakura rested her head against the balcony's sliding door. The blanket was warm, and Kakashi's presence made her feel safe.

She closed her eyes.

"Mama!" Sarada was calling from somewhere far away, the anguish in her voice impossible to ignore. "Mama, please wake up! Come back!"

Sakura sat up with a jolt, her daughter's name on her lips. A scan of her surroundings told her that she was in a dark room, with only muted light coming from curtains. It looked like the bedroom in her apartment, but she had no memory of how she had gotten there.

"Kai!" She shouted, practically begging. Nothing seemed to change, but perhaps the room was just too dark to show the threads of tangled dream-space.

She got out of bed. The rest of her apartment looked the way she remembered it, but still she rushed past and out the front door. Sarada's cries were still ringing in her ears, and she wasn't sure if she was trying to run toward the source, or away.

Kakashi's door was locked, but with a sharp snap the handle turned free and she barrelled through the door. This apartment was also dark and quiet, but she could see through the open bedroom door that Kakashi was already sitting up in bed and reaching for the lamp.

"What's wrong?" he asked, voice groggy. His mask was still over his mouth. "What's happened?"

She leaned over the side of his bed, staring him in the eyes. It must have seemed totally erratic, but she couldn't trust in his word alone. She needed to see him say it.

"When was the last time you saw me?" she asked.

There was a slight crinkling of the man's forehead. "About…" he glanced at an alarm clock beside the bed, "five hours ago?"

Sakura glanced at the clock; the display read 2:26 am. In another life she might have been suitably mortified by the late hour, but right then all she felt was panic. "What were we doing?"

"Talking about the stars?" Kakashi sat up properly, examining her. "Are you alright?"

"How did I get to my bed?" This was the question that her sanity hinged on. She watched intently for his response.

Kakashi's eyes shifted away from hers for a second, and his hands flexed in a way that might have been embarrassment or might have been deception. "I carried you."

Sakura nodded. It was the answer that she had been hoping for, the answer that meant she wasn't losing time again. But her hands were still fisted in Kakashi's blankets, and her heart was still pounding with the feeling that something was wrong.

"Is that okay?" Kakashi asked, when the silence began to stretch out.

"What? Oh. Yes. Fine." Sakura leaned back from the bed. "I just wasn't sure. Um, sorry to bother you. I'll go." She turned back for the door.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" Kakashi called after her, and her hand froze on the handle. Slowly, she turned back to the man in the bed.

"What do you mean?" Her heart refused to slow down; surely Kakashi could hear it.

"I could put the kettle on." Kakashi pushed back his covers and got to his feet. "You look like you could use a cup of tea, and Kami knows I'm not getting back to sleep now."

"No, that's fine." Sakura crossed the tiny living area as quickly as she could manage without seeming obvious. "I have to go. Sorry again."