Author's Note: Apologies in advance for the shortness and sheer boringness of this chapter as well as the lateness in posting this. Some real life events have killed my desire to write, and so I can't promise regular updates for the near future. I will do my best to provide you with the best story I can with the energy and motivation I have left. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

WARNING: DESCRIPTIONS OF TORTURE, HINTS AT RAPE, PTSD, DEPRESSION, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS. RATED M FOR A REASON.

TRIGGER WARNING

Whatever it was that drove his need to remain close to this particular kunoichi, he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. It wasn't an emotion or feeling that he could neatly catalog away in the recess of his mind. It didn't quite fit in any of the usual molds and thus, coping with this feeling was more of an annoyance than usual.

He could probably tuck it under guilt; it's where most things landed nowadays, but it didn't quite feel like he had known it to feel. Even with the death of Rin and Obito (the first time), this just felt more and their circumstances were rather permanent. Maybe it was the decided lack of permanence that was complicating his emotions? Either way, it made Kakashi extremely uncomfortable. In a physical sense. Every glimpse of scar tissue caused a tightening in his chest cavity, not unlike he had experienced drowning.

Another month passed of dissecting, hypothesizing, and analyzing the inner workings of his mind did nothing to help him settle this overwhelming sense of, what he assumed to be, guilt. She'd recover, emotionally, and these feelings would settle into their rightful place in the back of his mind, of that he was certain. He'd just have to ride out the initial emotional outburst, and then he could go back to his stoic and nonchalant demeanor.

Belatedly, he wondered when he had put this much mental energy in someone, even a former student and teammate. Kakashi wasn't a stranger to death; he'd been entrenched with it from a young age with the passing of his father. Suicide.

Well that brought up other frightening reactions from the generally stoic man. His keen eye had seen the evidence that Sakura had at least attempted to make a permanent exit from life. He'd seen shinobi of all standings crumble beneath the pressure of a self-inflicted kunai wound. Would she be counted in those numbers alongside his father?

The jonin shook his head from those disturbing thoughts. A calloused, well-worn hand ran through his silver locks as he glanced at the looming building ahead, unsettlingly white and cold in appearance. Tsunade had voiced her concern over the amount of time Kakashi had spent at the hospital, and he knew it was with good intentions that the blonde Godaime roped in the blonde Nanadaime to set him up with various 'urgent' C-rank missions. All turning out to be nothing short of mundane, predictable, genin-level assignments he could've completed in his sleep. The only good thing about them being all his restless energy collected during his visits to the hospital was released on deserving criminals.

He no longer bothered with the main entrance to the hospital, as the visiting hours were long passed and while he could easily slip past the guards, it was energy not worth dispensing for this. Taking the shinobi highway, straight up the white brick structure until he found her window, still bright. A frown settled across his lips beneath his mask. It was nearly three in the morning, a time where most rational people who weren't required to be up, were down.

Out of courtesy, he sent a small flare of his chakra about halfway up and he was pleasantly surprised when the window to her room slid open for his arrival. He continued his nonchalant pace, not wanting to appear too out of character despite whatever feelings were unsettling his mind. "Ah, Sakura-chan, you're awake?" Though the inflection might have indicated he was asking a question, it was fairly pointless for him to ask as he could see the deep kohl rings below her eyes, and the slightly dulled, glazed over look in her eyes. He'd been out of the village for several days, hastily wrapping up his missions with unheard of efficiency (for him at least).

Sakura offered him a small twitch of her lips in what constituted a smile for her these days before turning and sitting on her bed. With no other skills to practice in the hospital, she had taken to honing her sensing abilities, and was quite pleased when she felt Kakashi's presence nearing even before he so courteously 'knocked'. She pressed all ten finger tips together before spreading her hands out in opposite directions. Obviously.

Of course sleeping sounded so nice, but with her history of night terrors, she couldn't bring herself to face her demons. It might have been more manageable had she been discharged, she could actually put to use some of her medical knowledge of how to properly take care of her mental and physical health. The council however had few reservations about keeping her under lock and key until her psychological profile could be deemed non-threatening. Her fists were, after all, licensed as weapons and could bring down whole buildings should the desire arise, and Yamato would probably not like being relegated to construction duty again.

The first thing she wanted to do was go for a run. And not just a jog. But a full-out sprint. Wind slipped past her body, legs burning, lungs desperately grasping for all the oxygen they could get. She wanted to run so fast and so far that her muscles would give out on her and she could just exist.

What a strange thought to think. She could exist anywhere and anyhow, but she didn't truly feel like she was here. This body she occupied was a shell, a ghost of what she once was. Sure, she existed, but she didn't feel real at all.

Kakashi had settled himself into the usual lounger, looking ready to commit to sleep himself, but he dutifully and lazily gave her a goofy crescent eye smile. "I brought you a souvenir." He rifled through his vest pockets before letting out an 'ah' and producing a small blue stone. Tossing it to her, she quickly plucked it from the air and looked down at the stone in the palm of her hand.

"It's Blue Lace Agate." He clarified as he studied her perplexed features. The stone itself was rather beautiful, in a demure sort of way. It was perfectly oval in shape, thin and fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. Threads of soft baby blue, white, and tan ran through the stone in a wavy pattern that gave the appearance of waves swashing over the shoreline. Without prompting, he continued, seeing as she was still slightly confused. "It's supposed to represent communication." Jade eyes flickered up to him and then back to the stone that her fingers had subconsciously curled around.

The thin fingertips of her unoccupied hand reached up and pressed against her lips before lowering them in front of her flat. Thank you.

Kakashi chose to ignore the fact that had unintentionally blown him a kiss. "Now, go to sleep."

X

"No offense, Pinky, but could you possibly hurry up and bolt down your loose screws?" Genma slumped down into the lounger, his chin resting lazily on the palm of his hand, senbon jouncing in response to the movement of his lips.

Kakashi sent a steely eyed glare at the projectile user who rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "It's a Saturday night and instead of getting drunk and getting laid, I'm here. Sober. Practically revirginating as we speak." Raido simply blinked, unfazed at his juvenile teammate's rant and Kakashi sent another withering glare at the man.

Sakura, for her part, watched the scene unfurl in front of her, a portion of herself bemused by the antics of the man who was clearly the male version of Yamanaka Ino, or well, the Ino she had known several years ago. She took Kakashi's moment of distraction to let her gaze drift over her momentarily. He hadn't much changed except the clear signs of lack of proper rest and nutrition. The hollows underneath his eyes seemed darker, and more concave than she'd previously seen and his posture was more kyphotic than was healthy for an active duty shinobi. She frowned at this observation. The rest of him was too covered for her to speculate about so she let the matter rest in her mind to dissect later.

Kakashi's gaze slid back to hers, their eyes clashing with an unspoken conversation, understood by years of camaraderie and training.

'You need to take better care of yourself.'

'Old dogs don't do new tricks.'

Kakashi looked away, unable and unwilling to let her penetrating gaze beat him into developing healthy lifestyle choices this late in the game. He had come to several conclusions over the course of his lifetime, and one of those brilliant morsels was that he'd either die from a kunai or from a case of fatal self-neglect. Sakura wouldn't be able to prevent either of those.

Genma, either unaware or uncaring, continued to mourn the loss of his evening companionship with some lucky, or unfortunate depending on who you ask, woman. Or two. Who knows what he missed out on with this assignment as he so dejectedly pointed out.

Sakura sent one last silent look at Kakashi who had suddenly found interest in the ceiling before sending a glance in Genma's direction. She'd spent the majority of her genin and chunin years as a burden and many years trying to overcome her weaknesses. To suddenly be one again was simply devastating. All of her well-earned muscles: gone. Her carefully honed chakra control: disrupted. She was essentially a genin again, skill wise, though she still retained the ANBU title. It would be a while before she'd be able to manifest and control her chakra as she once had, being cut off from it for so long.

Morosely, she wondered how long it would take to recuperate her skills and more internally, she wondered if she even really wanted to. The constant flashbacks and the nightmares would make overnight missions nearly impossible as her mind would be heavily distracted. In the end, she'd likely just contribute to the death of whatever team she was on. But then again, if she wasn't a kunoichi, what other skills did she possess? Perhaps she could utilize her medical training, but then again, with Tsunade and Shizune at the head of the hospital, there really was no great need for her to be there.

Sakura let out a wistful sigh, looking out the window to the incoming grey mass of rain. She had always loved the rain, how it wiped things clean and allowed for things to flourish in its wake. The pinkette could only hope that she was one of those things. Her emerald gaze settled on her scars. Alas, there were some things the rain could never fully take away.

A knock at the door drew the attention of the room's occupants and four sets of eyes turned to the ajar door framing the pleasant form of Inoichi Yamanaka. "Ah, Sakura-san, it's good to see you're awake."

A manicured eyebrow (courtesy of Ino) raised slightly. It was a Saturday afternoon, and as far as she knew their meetings had been reduced to Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday due to lack of objective success of their appointments. Without gaining access to her dangerous mindscape, and with her reluctance to speak or communicate more than a few words, progress was non-existent. What she had going for her, was her outward passivity.

"Naruto told me to apologize for his absence. The elders are busy monopolizing his time on budget meetings and he didn't want to hold off on the good news." Genma leaned forward with child-like excitement rippling off his body.

"Naruto has decided that you've been sequestered away for long enough and you've made sufficient progress to ensure public safety." Genma was on his feet, practically shaking with the hope of escape.

"He's assigned you to the jonin barracks as your previous living quarters are unavailable. Unfortunately, the ANBU detail will remain, at the behest of the council, at least for a few more weeks." The senbon user slumped back down into his chair.

"You'll of course be given more freedoms now, such as access to training grounds, should you feel the desire to utilize them; however, possession of weapons outside of the training grounds will be grounds for reduction of that privilege."

"Geez, just tell her what she can do already." Genma grumbled, barely loud enough to be heard but was caught clearly by Inoichi. The blonde merely smiled at the eccentric ANBU member before turning back to the topic of conversation.

"Essentially, you can go and do as you please, just without weapons." A fatherly smile plastered on his face, he observed for any outward reactions. The kunoichi seemed neither pleased, nor especially displeased, over the news meaning giving a brief nod in acknowledgement. "Lady Tsunade will be by within the next few days for a final check up and pending that, your discharge is planned for next Friday."

Kakashi blinked stupidly. Sure, she had been awake and in the hospital for nearly two months now, but she was still leagues from being okay, mentally that is. Physically, she was probably just fine. His visible eye lazily glanced over to the pinkette in the bed: nothing.

"I'm sorry to have sprung this on you so suddenly, but Naruto insisted this couldn't wait. You know how he can be." The older blonde shinobi smiled that fatherly smile of his, bright and warm, an attribute that no doubt helped in his current field.

Sakura nodded in response, taking a moment to observe the flabbergasted silence that Kakashi had stilled into.

"There's a few other details to work out, your finances, and possessions and all that but we'll talk about that at our next session. I don't want to completely overwhelm you all at once with the finer points."

At last, Kakashi seemed to find his voice. "You mentioned Naruto spearheading this multiple times…" His eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What says the professionals?"

"Ah." Inoichi let out an uncomfortable chuckle, taking a nervous half-step towards the door. "Well, Dr. Riku and I have discussed it at length and while we are hesitant, we are comfortable with the decision the Nanadaime Hokage has made." Nobody missed the caution with which the shinobi spoke.

Kakashi raised a silvery eyebrow but said nothing. Far be it for him to question the decisions of his Hokage, though internally, he was very unsettled over the quick progression of her recovery. Though, it would mean that he could keep an eye out of the kunoichi easier without himself being stuck in some antiseptic-reeking, white-walled prison.

X

Author's Note: This chapter was a little difficult to write, in that I just am not feeling it, but I needed it for the progression of the story. I can't very well keep the poor kunoichi trapped in the Hospital forever, now can I? I have a vague plan of action. I tend to write better without a clear objective in mind.

Anyways, would love to know what you think about the story, and if you have anything you particularly don't like or think needs explaining, please let me know. It's the only way I'll be able to improve my writing and make sure all the plot holes are covered adequately. I'll probably end up editing the crap out of this chapter in the future but I don't have the energy right now. This is the third rewrite for this chapter I've done already.

I've been trying to stick to what I feel are typical reactions for both the situation and for the characters without making them too out-of-character; however, from here on out, the characters are going to diverge more and more from 'normal'.