This chapter is dedicated to all frontline workers. Thank you for everything you're doing for us, truly. Thank you for going out there everyday so that we can stay safe inside our homes. A special thank you to Aura FitzBlack over at FFN who is a doctor and kindly left a review on last chapter.

I'm really glad this fic can bring some joy to people all around the world during these weird, scary times, be it for readers who are still having to go outside and risk themselves to do the essential work or for everyone who is isolating themselves at home.

We'll get through this 3

.

.

.

One of the first things Tsunade had said to both Sakura and Shizune about the shitshow that they came upon was "Be careful of who you trust." It came as no surprise to her when Sakura told her a few days later that she'd begun following her teammates.

She knew how much they meant to her, had seen it for herself how well they all fit together. She knew Sakura had never felt like she belonged—being a shy civilian at the Academy and later on with Team Seven—and seeing her actually be a part of a team that recognised her and supported her growth made her happier than she knew how to deal with. It was in the girl's nature to care and being cared for must have felt amazing.

Tsunade had been sending her on many missions with Team Ro. It felt natural that Sakura reached out to them to make sure they were people she could trust. She knew it was only a matter of time before the girl took on the mask for good.

She hadn't anticipated how attached she'd get to the squirt.

It was something that she would have betted against if she had the chance, so there really was no surprise that it was exactly what happened. Sakura played a role in her life that wasn't quite clear to Tsunade yet. Apprentice. Little sister. Daughter. It didn't matter what labels they put on it. Sakura was her family as much as Nawaki had been. As much as Dan had been.

Despite all the draining work she'd been doing for the past four months, Tsunade took the time to break out a sake bottle to celebrate the fact Sakura had looked into her teammates enough to assert they were trustworthy. The good stuff.

After putting the hospital entirely in Shizune's hands, her workload had lessened considerably but not enough to make any of this easier.

She had worked day and night, going over the archives on anything she could use to incriminate the Elders and looking through ninja profile after ninja profile to see who'd be good enough to stand by her side. She'd known she'd start with Nara Shikaku from the moment Sakura had suggested the outlines of a plan but there was still a huge way to go.

The first thing she did was establish many meetings with him. She'd ask his opinion on political matters, strategy issues and even once in how to deal with her personal accounts. She had to make sure those meetings were well known of and that the Root operatives following her always listened in. For the first part of her plan, she used the most powerful tool in her arsenal.

Gossip.

She planted seeds all around the village of how helpful Nara Shikaku was to her rule as Hokage, how trustworthy he was not only as a ninja but also as an advisor. Things naturally progressed from there and there was even talk of her grooming him to become her successor.

One night, she sent Sakura's team on a mission to retrieve him from his compound and get him to the Senju manor without Root getting wind of it. It wasn't easy, that much was obvious, but Tenzou's powers and insight on how the organisation worked had made it possible.

On that night, she told Nara Shikaku everything she had found out about their village. The day before she gathered the elders to announce she was instating the Jounin Commander as the newest member of the Council, they sat around her newly bought coffee table and drank themselves stupid until they couldn't feel the sting of betrayal any longer.

The old bastards protested. Very loudly and publicly but, in the end, they couldn't reject the idea without grossly overstepping and no one in the village was very surprised. They all knew and valued Shikaku. Having him in the Council, although it went against tradition, made sense after all.

Nara Shikaku didn't take missions outside the village because of his status as a Jounin Commander unless it was an emergency. Tsunade wouldn't need to take an active ninja out of the roster, the Nara family head would simply have a lot of sleepless nights from then on.

His ceremony would happen the following week and, as was customary for ninja about to retire from active duty, he was to take a last mission.

"Haruno Sakura will accompany you as an iryo-nin." Tsunade took a sip of her sake and shrugged when he refused a refill. She was comfortably seated on her desk at the Hokage tower behind a pile of paperwork while he leaned against the windowsill.

"This is supposed to be an InoShikaCho mission." Shikaku smoked his cigarette even after she'd told him not to do so inside her office, but she granted him this defiance for all the responsibility she had dumped on his lap.

"Yes, it is." Tsunade smiled sharply at him. "She'll meet you at the main gate at dawn."

He grumbled, because of course he did, but left soon enough and when he got back five days later, there was a glint to his narrowed eyes when he sat in front of her. Tsunade knew how Shikaku worked. He would sit in silence and analyse her like a board of shogi until he was ready to make his move.

She lacked the patience to play his games.

"Out with it, Nara." She didn't give him more than a glance before going back to signing paperwork Sakura had done for her. The piles of work had diminished greatly over the past year but there was still much work to do.

"Haruno Sakura," was all he said, like speaking her name was enough. Maybe it was. Tsunade had no doubt hers was a name that would be spoken quite often given how far the girl had come, how dedicated and talented she was.

"Yes?" Tsunade finally looked at him, eyebrow raised in challenge. I fucking dare you to waste my time, boy.

"Why isn't she a jounin yet?" Shikaku scratched his chin in thought. "She has the ability and the profile for it and I went to check her records. She has more than enough missions and seven recommendations. That is more than enough to qualify."

Something settled for Tsunade then. She had known that Sakura was a very capable shinobi for quite some time now, it was obvious to anyone close to her. She had seen her go from a determined if quivering young girl to a full fledged kunoichi that was downright scary.

There had been a part of her, however, that didn't want to let her go any further. She knew what came next, the path that all shinobi who excelled at what they did took. She'd get into a Bingo book, get a mark on her back and die young. Or she would ignore all the emotional toll being a top tier shinobi took and she'd end up dead by her own hand. Or she would end up just like Hatake.

Quite honestly, Tsunade didn't know what was worse.

There was a reason she had chosen Nara Shikaku as the next council member. He was loyal and he was freakishly smart. He was resourceful and a strategist. He was a father.

She knew that he was well aware of all the risks of letting Sakura progress in her career. He knew about all of the things that had held her back and he was still in favour of the idea of promoting her. Tsunade had to let go.

"The council looks very disfavourably towards Sakura," Tsunade sighed. "Sakura is civilian borne, there's no clan backing her up."

"Hm." Shikaku scratched at his goatee again, his clever eyes seeing all that she wasn't saying. "There are the Senju, Hokage-sama." He got up from his chair and turned to leave with a wave. "And now the Nara. I'll make sure the girl is in the next exam."

.

.

.

Sakura neatly dodged a swipe at her head from a katana. She smirked slightly at the opening that left her but realised a little too late that it had been a trap. The moment she stepped forward with her tantou, a swift elbow made contact with her jaw.

The pain spread all over her face but she was quick to recover. She let the momentum of the hit bring her forward and used it to turn on one leg while the other delivered a high kick to her sparring partner. Her shin guard met metal and they both stepped away at the same time.

"Pay attention, kouhai," Yuugao sheathed her weapon and brought her hands to her hips. "That was an easy one."

Sakura spat blood on the tatami beneath their bare feet and gave her a semi apologetic shrug.

"If my tooth falls out, I swear to fuck I'll murder you on your sleep."

Yuugao snickered and moved to place her sword on the weapon rack on the edge of the training mats. They'd just come back from an extremely boring seven-days-long recon mission on a tiny village in their northern borders. It had been cold and damp as per usual this time of the year but utterly still. Team Ro came back with a lot of energy to burn out and finally get rid of the cold in their bones now that they were back in Konoha's milder temperatures.

Sakura had roped Yuugao into training with her as soon as they stepped foot inside HQ and the girls had left Genma and Tenzou to write the report back at the office reserved for them.

"Let's hit the showers, kiddo."

Sakura put her sweaty uniform on the laundry basket and hung her mask on Yuugao's locker. Later, Tenzou would bring it to administration to put under her name so she could pick it up when they summoned her for another mission. Since Sakura wasn't an official ANBU member, she didn't get a locker so she put all her stuff in her teammate's.

It was weird, being at headquarters. Even after over six months of on and off missions with Team Ro, she still wasn't quite accepted in the ranks by the other operatives. It made sense, in a way, her tattoo free shoulder was a clear indicator that marked her as an outsider.

ANBU policy was that their operatives should wear masks at all times, even while inside the village. However, like any other place where people spent a lot of time together, these rules had become lax while inside HQ. Many operatives didn't walk through the locker rooms fully clothed and most of them ate their meals at the mess hall without the outer layers of their uniform.

Sakura somehow kept getting side glances when she dropped her genjutsu on her hair and let it take on its natural pink hue. People seemed to be weary of her and she even caught a few operatives putting their masks back on when they saw her.

It was a bit insulting, but she got where they were coming from. The reason they could be lax inside headquarters was because they'd all taken a pledge to protect each other and the Hokage. They were branded as a faction, almost like a cult, by the tattoo on their shoulder. Sakura was an outsider in that sense.

It wasn't uncommon for new operatives to come into the shadow forces like she did. Many young people were scouted and asked to join because of their particular skills, without having to undergo the exams the average ANBU aspirant would have to take. What wasn't common about her situation was the fact that she still wasn't a proper agent. It was almost like the Hokage herself was lending her skills from time to time but not fully committing to her placement there.

Which Sakura felt was warranted.

If she was stuck in ANBU permanently, she'd have to dedicate much more time to the faction. Any mission they wanted to put her in, she would have to say yes. This way, Sakura was protected by Tsunade and she would be able to continue her training in peace. She was still learning and she felt there was a long way to go before she could safely say she was ready.

So Sakura would endure feeling like an outsider even if it was quite frustrating sometimes. At least her team got her back.

"I can't believe you skipped on me." Genma pouted from the couch and shot her an annoyed look when she came back with Yuugao in tow. "You know I hate writing the reports."

Sakura moved his feet off the seat and dropped herself next to him, protesting a bit when he put his feet back up on top of her legs.

"I didn't leave you to write the report, jiji." Sakura squeezed his shins with her hands and grinned cheekily at him. "I left Tenzou-taichou to do it."

She could feel her taichou's glower before she even looked at him. Yuugao laughed and sat herself down on top of the table right next to where he was slaving away at a scroll. She leaned over to read it.

"And it looks like he did a bang up job at it, Wolfie." Yuugao gave Tenzou two thumbs up. "Great job, Taichou."

Genma barked a laugh and Sakura chuckled lightly at the man's expanse. Tenzou-taichou was a big old softie even if he was scary sometimes.

The light atmosphere of the room was ruptured when the door that led them towards the outside corridor banged open. Sakura managed to contain the full body flinch that came with being surprised and tried to remind herself that they wouldn't be attacked inside headquarters even as her hand subconsciously inched towards her holster.

A tall man wearing a dog mask and long white cape stood at their doorsill.

"Commander!" Yuugao greeted him, her eyes blinking slowly in confusion and Sakura tensed in her seat.

Genma seemed to sense this, or maybe he thought the man deserved the minimum of deference, because he sat up next to her but didn't go any further. He pressed his thigh to hers subtly and Sakura breathed a tiny, almost imperceptible sigh.

"Is that for me?" The man nodded his head at the scroll Tenzou hadn't stopped writing on. His voice was unbelievably soft and the careful, deliberate tone of it made the hair on her arms stand on end.

To Sakura's great surprise—because what the actual fuck, this was the ANBU Commander—he took off his cloak and hung it on the back of a chair before carelessly plopping down on it.

"Hai, hai," Tenzou smiled briefly at the man. "I'm almost done. There were no complications."

"Good." The man sighed then took off his mask and let it drop to the table.

Sakura couldn't help but stare at him. He was older and at the same time younger than she expected him to be. His dark hair didn't hold a single white strand and the only lines on his face were those tiny ones around his eyes but he looked… mature.

If Sakura had to guess, she'd say he was anywhere between forty and fifty.

His eyes were dark brown and completely, uniably normal. Just like the rest of him. Like he'd put himself together in the morning with the sole intention of blending in, of looking just like the next person. Sakura couldn't find a way to describe him without it matching the description of at least a dozen other shinobi.

"Haruno, right?"

Her gaze snapped back to his and she unconsciously tilted her head to the side. Now that he was looking at her, she could see something behind his eyes. Something deliberate and old and maybe the tiniest bit mocking, like the whole interaction was a play he'd seen before and he was waiting for her to make her move to react accordingly.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and gave him a smile.

"Yoroshiku," she said, polite but not too polite, slightly threatening if you looked at it a certain way.

The smile he gave her echoed hers and Sakura felt a chill run down her spine.

"I think it's about time you became an official member of my little gang, don't you?" His voice was light and Sakura fought the urge to sneer at him. He was annoying, she found. He reminded her a bit too much of the way Kakashi wore his fake squinty eyed smile around the village.

"Ah, I've been wondering why you hadn't marked her yet, old man." Genma moved his senbon around his mouth with a grin. "She'd wear the tattoo well, don't you think? But maybe it'd look weird as she grows up…"

Genma's insinuation was clear to everyone in the room. Even if he didn't look the least bit threatening, his words held a clear warning. She was too young.

Sakura saw the look Tenzou and Yuugao exchanged but they didn't speak up.

"No one ever had that problem before." The Commander shrugged good naturedly.

"Yeah, you're right." Genma leaned back on the couch and let his arms rest on the back rest. "You can't get any taller if you're dead, I suppose."

The mood of the room got heavier with that but the Commander seemed unaffected. He turned his face from Genma as if he hadn't spoken and busied himself taking a scroll from his pocket. He opened it and placed it on top of the table before inching it slightly towards Sakura.

"If you sign here, you'll become an official member, Haruno." His eyes locked onto hers intensely even as his voice remained light and airy. "You'll have full access to every part of the facility at all times without having to be chaperoned, that includes the library and the mess hall. This will also mean you're consenting to the ANBU seal being placed on your shoulder and the Wolf alias will be yours for as long as you're alive."

Sakura noticed he didn't say for as long as she was in the forces. She knew no one really retired from ANBU. She nodded at him. He was hiding something.

"And my team?" She asked instead of what she really wanted to know.

"You'll be officially assigned to all Team Ro missions but medic nins are in high demand." He shrugged again as if to say it wasn't his call. "You'll go where you're needed."

Sakura hummed.

"Does Tsunade know about this?"

Ah, right on.

She knew she'd caught him when he took a tiny breath to start his next sentence. It was the same tick Kakashi had, a slight deliberate breath as if they were preparing to speak and an immediate blink.

It wasn't much to go by but Tsunade hadn't said anything about this to her. In fact, she seemed to want her out of ANBU as soon as possible. Now, how to play this.

"Of course," he said, his smile growing slightly bigger, making his eyes crinkle more.

"Of course," Sakura repeated, smiling amusedly at him. She watched as he stayed completely still, not letting his posture betray how annoyed he was that she had seen through him. Sakura contained her smile.

For what reason could he possibly want her in his 'little gang'? So far, she'd only been taking missions coming directly from Tsunade to Team Ro, it was safe to say that the Commander had no say on that. She just didn't quite understand why he'd want complete control over her.

She wasn't a jounin yet, so she'd have to take extra ANBU training if she was to keep up with whatever mission required a medic nin. She was also a ticking time bomb, if anything happened to her, Tsunade would immediately unleash hell on him.

Sakura dropped her act and stared seriously at the man in front of her. She looked deep into his eyes, Inner taking in every detail on his face.

"Why do you want me?" She asked him, her voice barely above a whisper, as if she was talking to herself.

The tension in the room was so thick, she heard Genma's breath hitch as he sat up straighter. There was a beat of silence before the Commander dropped his smile as well.

"You're skilled," he said simply. "You could do a lot of growing here. Your talent wouldn't be wasted."

"I'd be trapped," Sakura countered, her eyes narrowing minutely. "And my talent isn't being wasted where I am."

"The council is holding you back and we both know it." His smile was back, just as fake as before and the similarities to Kakashi's were uncanny. Sakura shrugged.

"Being where I am lets me follow through with my goals," Sakura countered. "I would be stuck here otherwise."

"You mean getting Uchiha Sasuke back." The way he said it, so simply, almost callously made her hackles rise. There was absolutely nothing simple or easy about the Sasuke situation and it made her want to hit his overly normal face. She wondered if he knew about the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, he had been Uchiha Itachi's superior afteral.

"And Uzumaki Naruto." Sakura fought to keep the aggression out of her voice. "Having them both safe inside Konoha, by my side."

The Commander stretched his legs in front of him and considered her for a moment. Sakura was beginning to really dislike the guy even if his resemblance to Kakashi were slightly endearing in an annoying way.

"You could have access to all our knowledge." He nodded to himself, like he was trying to find the right way to go about this and had just seen an opportunity. "You could be trained by the best of the best in here. You could become the best of the best in here. Don't you think you'll need a lot of skill to follow through with your goals?"

Sakura scowled at him. He'd found exactly the right buttons to press. He'd seen through her and rightly assumed her need for validation and her never ending thirst for knowledge and skill aprimoration. He'd played her overwhelming love for her teammates like a fiddle. He took a shot and Sakura learned that his aim was ruthless.

She scoffed, got up and stretched lazily.

"This is getting tiresome." She moved closer to the man and he raised his eyebrows in a look of genuine surprise. "I won't take any missions that Tsunade herself hasn't specifically approved. I'm her apprentice before I'm Wolf."

She could see Tenzou and Yuugao smiling to her left but her focus was still on the man in front of her. His face was serious as he gazed up at her.

"Deal."

He stretched his hand out to her but Sakura didn't take it. Instead, she picked up Tenzou's discarded pen and handed it to him.

"Write it down, sign it and mark it with your blood and then we have a deal."

The Commander chuckled and there was a genuine smile on his face when he did as he was told.

"I like you, kid." He used the tip of a kunai Sakura hadn't seen him handle to pierce the tip of his thumb. "You remind me of someone."

"Likewise," Sakura scoffed, making sure he knew that wasn't a good thing.

Sakura signed it herself and marked it with her blood before nodding at him. Genma groaned and Sakura turned to see him pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You'll be the death of me, Petal."

Sakura smirked.

"If you don't die of old age first, Jiji."

The Commander barked a laugh and Sakura was surprised at how warm it sounded. He got up and she had to fight a flinch from how tall he felt compared to her.

"Go get your mask and a uniform and head towards the training mats when you hear the cong." He nodded at the door leading towards the main square where Yuugao and her had just come from. "Yuugao."

"Haai," Yuugao jumped down from the table and offered the Commander a bow before steering Sakura by her shoulders.

"He's annoying," Sakura said, knowing full well that they were still well within their hearing range, and the door closed the laughter of the men inside. "Reminds me of Kakashi a bit too much."

For a second, she thought she'd offended Yuugao as she remembered how fiercely the woman had defended Kakashi against that loudmouth missing nin. They entered the changing rooms and Sakura began to strip before she heard Yuugao give a soft snort.

"I guess he does remind me of senpai in a way." Her voice was soft and contemplative as Sakura put her uniform back on. "It makes sense doesn't it?"

"Does it?" Sakura shot back, an incredulous look on her face as she tightened her pouches.

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know that," Yuugao said, her eyes widening a bit. "Sometimes I forget you're so young, Wolfie-chan."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the nickname and gave her senpai a deadpan look. Yuugao laughed but answered without pretenses.

"Kakashi-senpai was just fourteen when he got into ANBU," she explained. "The Commander was the one who personally trained him before he took over as captain of Team Ro."

Huh.

That explained everything and nothing at the same time. She wondered how many of Kakashi's quirks she'd deciphered through the years she'd find in the Commander and just how she could play that to her advantage.

Before she could question her senpai any further, a loud cong echoed through the HQ. It was time.

The ceremony was over quicker than she'd expected. It seemed like all the shinobi inside headquarters were lined up before the Commander as he branded the dark red seal on her shoulder.

It hurt like fuck and Sakura was glad for the mask over her face because it hid her grimace. She thought, not for the first time, that maybe she understood why Kakashi wore his everyday.

The mark looked like blood on her porcelain skin.

The Commander explained that the seal contained a special kind of jutsu in case she got caught. Some missions were done without the possibility for extraction and she was to activate it if she thought the enemy had a chance of killing her. Immediate termination of her life and destruction of her body.

The ceremonial words the Commander said echoed Tsunade's the first time she was assigned a mission with Team Ro. Sakura felt like those words would be forever ingrained in her soul.

Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai deals in the shadows and in the shadows only. May the Will of Fire burn bright and guide you through the shadows.

Sakura changed back to her day clothes, glad that she'd chosen a long sleeved shirt that day. Distantly, she wondered when she'd find the time to buy new clothes that covered her tattoo during summer time.

She put her uniform and mask inside a bag Yuugao provided her and started making her way out of HQ. She'd have to stop by the store to buy more sake before she went home to tell her shishou the news. She would not be happy.

.

.

.

Let me tell you, this chapter was a surprise to myself hahahah I had no idea I was creating this Commander character until the words started coming to me. He's a real character in the anime btw, I just gave him a bit more depth. And some weird relationship to Kakashi lol more on that later maybe?

Nara Shikaku! Some of you guessed right on that one hahaha I didn't want to make y'all wait so long for another update after last chapter's bomb so I hope you liked it :)

For the reviewers who guessed right, you guys can leave another review in this chapter asking for a prompt and I'll write it as soon as I can! UHUUUU It can be anything Kakasaku! It can be a scene in this universe I created or a cOmPlEtE AU (college teacher AU, soulmate AU, coffee shop AU, YOU NAME IT DEAR READER!) You can also request it over at Tumblr where I'm juliette-deschemps, just make sure you put your username so I know who you are hehe

Y'all have no idea how last chapter's reviews hit me right in the feels. You guys made me cry so hard hahaha I wanted so bad to just sit down and answer every single one of them but for some reason I couldn't? I don't know what happened, I just got really overwhelmed every time I typed something down and that doesn't make any sense because I love every single word you guys wrote for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You're the best readers someone could hope for and you really make my day, specially during this fucking quarantine that I'm feeling I'm about to go iNsAnE. 51 days and counting.

This chapter! Personal promise! Reply to every single review I get even if it is with a very creepy tonelessly written i love you.