A section of the forest is leveled. The surroundings are burned by fire and the grass is scorched by lightning. Craters litter the landscape and significant chunks of earth have been rearranged.
Kakashi Hatake lies beaten and broken on the ground before her.
When Sakura attacked, the Sixth demanded the hidden guards in the office stay out of it and purely work to keep everything as discreet as possible via barriers and heavy use of genjutsu so that no one would notice or get involved. The fact that a considerable number of the forces in the village were incapacitated due to celebrations, sleep, and intoxication helped mitigate things.
She can't do it. Fighting hadn't made her feel any better and she finds herself starting to cry that things had come to this. An overwhelming feeling of sadness rises within her.
"I don't know why you're trying so hard to mess with Naruto's life," Sakura voices, perhaps talking to herself, trying to understand.
Kakashi can't respond. His jaw is broken along with the rest of body.
"It's like... it's like you don't see it. The world is changing and you just can't see it. Why? Why can't you see it?" she cries despondently. Sakura takes a shuddering breath as tears fall from her eyes. "Maybe you don't want to. You're too stuck in the old ways."
Bringing up her hand, she examines the kunai she's still fiercely gripping. It's full of scratches and the tip is partially chipped. She releases it and watches as it falls to the ground where it embeds itself in the dirt.
"I don't know why you don't believe in Naruto, but I do. He's going to change the world," Sakura declares and proudly pounds her chest even as her voice chokes, "and I'm going to be there every step of the way with him."
With a slight limp from battle, the medic kneels next to the Hokage and heals him enough so that he won't succumb from his injuries.
"If you can't see that, then we're just going to leave you behind."
She walks away.
"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers!" comes the voice of Ino, crouched behind the counter. Standing up, she spots who came through the door. "Naru- Lord Hokage!"
With a few quick signals to indicate that this shouldn't be overheard, he places a seal tag on the counter to ensure privacy while Ino locks the doors and temporarily closes shop.
Mentally, Naruto goes over what he knows. Tsunade said that Sakura was seen dragging someone to Ino's home before she attacked Kakashi that night and this mystery person is most likely the Root ninja that the mission was reassigned to. He's pretty sure he knows what's going on, but why? His assumption is that Kakashi tried to get Sakura to take part in some kind of plot to fake a relationship with him in order to have his child, so how does this Root fit in?
Taking a second to shake himself off, he allows himself to drift into his official persona. "I'm investigating an old mission. On the night that the Sixth was attacked, Sakura was seen carrying a former Root kunoichi into your home. What can you tell me about this?"
Ino's faint smile falters and collapses entirely. "Oh."
Naruto expects her to continue and say something, but nothing comes out of her mouth. Ino stands there, silently, with apparently no intent of sharing any information.
"Are you protecting Sakura?" he blurts out before flinching at his own atrocious choice of words. Making it sound like he's accusing his wife of something is not the right way to go here.
Ino doesn't seem to notice however. Her face slightly twists in several emotions in response to what he said, alarm racing for the front seat. Suddenly, "She loves you."
Before he can even think to say anything back, Ino reaches forward to grab one of his hands in emphasis. "I promise you, she loves you," the blond insists. "She really loves you."
Naruto takes a deep breath and closes his eyes to re-center himself before he puts his foot in his mouth again. Despite everything, he finds himself smiling. "I know," he says. He honestly believes it. "I'm really lucky."
It's obvious that she thinks he's misunderstanding and is afraid he now hates his wife. Suddenly feeling stupid and uncomfortable with using his position of authority for this, he takes off his hat and shrugs off his cloak to drape it over a chair. It's how he should have handled this to begin with. It was always a personal thing.
"I know Sakura is innocent in all this. I'm just looking for... confirmation, I guess," Naruto explains lamely. "What was the Root member trying to do?"
Something in her expression settles, but her face continues contorting a few times as she appears to wage some kind of internal battle. After a long moment of silence, Ino takes a deep breath and tells her side of the story.
She tells him about how certain interested parties wanted to make sure there were more viable Uzumaki jinchūriki. About how they grew concerned after hearing that Naruto turned down Hinata and wanted to know why. About how she was asked to write up psychological reports on him and Sakura while disguising the purpose so that she thought it was something benign. About how she wrote down that Naruto only ever had eyes for Sakura and would never have interest in anyone else.
She tells him about the mission. About how Sakura refused to try to manipulate him like that. About how the Sixth tried anyway, but with Sakura interfering and Naruto having zero interest in anyone else, they had to do it by force.
"I was drugged," Naruto dumbly repeats, disbelieving his former teacher would go so far. "And this Root ninja, she was going to... really?"
Ino nods. "Sakura caught her at the last moment and needed me to find out who sent her. That's how I found out about all this."
He drags a hand over his face. Kakashi... what the hell? The Seventh grabs his things and stands up to leave. "Thanks for telling me. I mean it," he says as he begins making his way out the door.
The woman catches him first, a worried look on her face. "I promised I wouldn't tell. She's scared of you finding out," she reveals.
Naruto nods in understanding. He thinks it's time to put this ghost to rest.
When the adrenaline wears off and Sakura is back at home in her apartment, she promptly has a panic attack over what she's done. It lasts into the morning.
"There's some kind of cover-up going on," Ino announces as she returns from her latest venture to try and gather intel. "Official word is that the assailant was dealt with, but the details are classified. Naruto has been bothering Shizune all day about it. I don't think she knows anything."
Sakura nods distantly. As much as she regrets getting her involved, Sakura greatly appreciates having Ino understand what's going on. She had been so uncertain for so long as to if there actually was a threat or not, but now that there is and she has attacked their leader in response, she finds her body wound tighter than ever in unimaginable levels of stress. Her fate seems to hang in the balance and she doesn't know what to do. By all rights, she could be executed.
"Listen, Sakura," Ino tries to get her friend's attention, "stay as long as you need. I mean it."
She plops down into a seat beside the pink-haired medic and passes over a bottle of water to drink before asking the thing that's been on her mind ever since she found out about this whole mess, "Why didn't you date Naruto? That seems like it would have been the easiest way to deal with it. The Hokage probably would have backed off then."
Sakura quickly downs the drink. "You realize that's exactly what Kakashi wanted, right?" she points out.
"I thought we already dealt with that whole 'I really, really like Naruto' thing," the blond replies, mildly confused. "We were all there when you had that little epiphany. Look, one day, Naruto is probably going to want to have a kid. Who cares if the Hokage happens to want the same thing?"
"It should be his choice!"
"Exactly. Why can't you be his choice? You must have thought about it."
Sakura gets up and tosses the water bottle in the recycling. "I lost that right a long time ago," she vaguely answers, once again thinking of a certain snowy night in the Land of Iron. Ino facepalms.
"I cannot believe the two of you," she mutters quietly enough so that it can't be heard. Knowing she can't say anything that Naruto told her in confidence, she still does her best to bat for him. "I think Naruto has a virtually infinite capacity for forgiveness. Just look at Sasuke."
Recalling what Naruto thought about the bond between him and Sasuke, the medic ignores the example, "Sasuke's different. It's- It's complicated."
Ino contemplates screaming. "So you're just, what, giving up?" she asks.
"Even if I wanted to-" Sakura cuts herself off and starts over. "I was able ask for Kurama's help without Naruto knowing. He can sense emotions. He won't let me."
It takes a moment for the blond to remember that Kurama is the name of the powerful Nine Tails sealed inside of Naruto. It's not something that comes up in daily conversation. Still not seeing the problem, Ino ventures, "I can't say I know how that works, but If you really love him, he would be able to sense that then, right? What are you so afraid of?"
Sakura can't give her an answer.
Shikamaru stands by a whiteboard, drawing a quick diagram of five points in a circle, then making connecting lines between each of them to form a mesh. "If you want the exchange program to be self-sustaining, we need to get the other villages to work with each other. They're only interested in doing it with us right now," he explains.
"Right. But how? I can't just make them do it," Naruto says as he leans back in his chair. He grabs a letter from Taki that came in the day before. "Taki wants to be involved and they're looking for one or two medical ninja. Is there someone else other than us we can point them to?"
"Lady Tsunade taught some lessons in Suna last month," the Nara muses after a moment of thinking. "They might be willing to do it."
The door to the office opens and in walks Tenten who is escorting one Kakashi Hatake. She cheerily announces, "I found him, Lord Hokage."
Naruto waves back, "Thanks Tenten. I'll take him." With that, Tenten leaves.
With a quick nod to Shikamaru indicating that they'll finish up after, the shadow user follows her out. Naruto grabs a small pile of papers before reaching out to hand them to his predecessor, stating, "There's apparently a rule or something that says you have to verify that your old stuff is real before I can do anything with it."
Kakashi sheepishly scratches the side of his face. "Ahh, oops?"
With a roll of his eyes, Naruto gets started. "Here's a law you wrote about the storage of explosives."
"I signed that?"
"This one is a tax on lotteries and gambling you wrote a week after becoming Hokage. Really Kakashi-sensei, do you hate her that much for giving you the job?"
"No comment."
"And this," Naruto says as he slides the mysterious paycheck over to him.
The Sixth reaches down to grab it for a better look and freezes for a moment after reading it. Naruto doesn't give him time to say anything in response however. "We're going to talk about this, but not right now. The real me would want to do it himself and he's busy picking up Shina and Hanami for Sakura's birthday. I'm disappointed in you and I want to know what those old guys told you to make you think this could possibly be a good idea. I just ignore them. It's not like they have any power."
Taking the check back, the now revealed clone states, "I hope she beat some sense into you that night. Boss isn't happy."
Kakashi lowers his head and lets out a long sigh, not looking forwarding to that conversation. It was always a possibility for him to find out once he had the full authority of being Hokage at his disposal. He supposes he deserves this.
"She did."
Sakura isn't sure what to think when a mostly recovered Kakashi shows up at her door, leaning casually against the frame. His right arm is still in a cast and there is a clear flinch of pain when he shifts his weight on his legs. She doesn't greet him and he doesn't say anything either which leads to an awkward silence. The man coughs into his hand.
"I've had a lot of time to think about what you said," he begins with a light shrug. "Not much else to do. Lady Tsunade wasn't inclined to read to me."
The thought of the Fifth reading Kakashi's smut out loud to him like reading a bedtime story to a child is certainly a mental image. She doesn't respond though. She had already expressed her thoughts on the matter and doesn't feel like saying it again.
"You're right. I don't see it. I've seen this cycle of peace after a war before and it's hard for me to see this one as any different," the Sixth continues, "but that doesn't mean that I can't have someone show me the way."
She blinks, unsure if she heard that right.
"I'm going to talk to Naruto about making him my assistant and set him up with diplomatic authority," Kakashi reveals.
"Good," Sakura responds stiffly with a nod. "And the mission?"
"Cancelled. Technically it's on indefinite hold, but that's so certain people won't ask questions."
She wonders when it will hit her that she's actually done it. She nods again. "If you pull anything like this again, I won't stop to heal you. You're the one who taught us to not abandon our teammates."
For a man that was already a trained killer at a mere five years old and buried himself in the darkness of ANBU for a decade after the deaths of those closest to him, the future that Jiraiya and Naruto see is something difficult to grasp. The picture Sakura paints is a world foreign to him, one where he has no map and doesn't have as much faith as Naruto that a path exists to navigate it.
Perhaps, Kakashi wonders, what she told him may not have been entirely correct. Naruto and Sakura aren't going to leave him behind.
They already have long ago.
"I think," he finally says, "that I have much to learn from my students."
"I can't believe you took me to that stupid burger place for my birthday," Sakura laughs out. The fact she's laughing about it is good news, but that doesn't stop Naruto from grimacing.
"I promised the kids I would let them help choose where we would go. Shina wanted burgers and Hanami wanted to go to Ichiraku's. They flipped a coin. I thought they'd at least consider what you would want to eat," he helplessly tries to explain while failing his arms around.
After returning home and putting their children to bed, Naruto insisted on dragging Sakura away and she finds him leading her up to the top of the Hokage Monument. She knows the route well and allows herself to close her eyes and lean against her husband as they walk.
"Why are we going up here?" Sakura questions, willing to play along a little longer.
Naruto taps his chin with his free hand. "I was thinking. We've had some pretty important moments up here. I asked you to marry me. I convinced you to have a date with me for the first time."
There's the sound of a throat clearing coming from Sakura. "I'm the one who asked you out."
"I wanted to add another one to that list," he goes on as if he didn't hear her.
Sakura raises an eyebrow.
"I never gave you my birthday gift for you, did I?" he muses as they near the top, full well knowing that he was just waiting for the right moment.
An amused grin slips on her face and she legitimately seems mildly surprised. "You didn't forget this time?"
Naruto hums in response, hamming up his act. He pulls out the paycheck that's been on his mind the past few days.
"Jonin Sakura Uzumaki," the man speaks with authority which causes his wife to roll her eyes, "while completing an audit for missing documents, an undelivered mission payment was located. In my capacity as the Seventh Hokage, I am returning what rightfully belongs to you."
He hands it over to her and watches as Sakura takes one look at the amount of the payment.
And promptly punches Naruto in the gut.
"Naruto! You can't just steal from the village for my birthday! What the hell is wrong with you?" she barks out.
Gasping as the air was just knocked out of him, he wheezes back, "C-Check s-signature."
Sakura looks at it again and is now even more confused than before after seeing that it wasn't Naruto who signed it. "How old is this?" she mutters to herself. Naruto isn't entirely sure himself, but he speculates that it was written right after his son was born as some kind of apology gift. That would put it at about six years old.
"I found it the other day while we were finishing up Kakashi's old stuff," he explains after catching his breath.
The woman keeps flipping the check over, looking for some kind of explanation. "I don't get it. I think I'd remember this."
The Hokage switches back to his official voice, "Your methods were highly unusual. You sabotaged the efforts of the other Konoha kunoichi assigned to the mission and committed the highest level of treason by attempting to assassinate the Hokage, but despite that, you were successfully able to ensure that Naruto Uzumaki had a child."
Sakura pales. She's so white that he worries she might be about to faint. Her mouth opens and closes several times, unable to make a sound. Right as Naruto thinks he sees her lose balance and start to fall over, he rushes forward and pulls her close, pressed against his chest. Gently, he places his lips on her forehead and murmurs, "Thank you for looking out for me."
Her head jerks back at his voice and her wide eyes stare at him, a mix of absolute terror and desperate hope written on her face. As Naruto whispers reassurances to her, she buries her face in his shoulder and begins to cry.
By keeping her ear close to the ground, Ino Yamanaka is able to find out exactly when the Sixth will be returning to office. She gets there early and camps out a spot before a single other person in the building arrives.
Hours later, when the sun finally comes up, she is the first person to meet with him that day.
"A transfer form?" Kakashi asks as he looks up from the paper to the kunoichi that had handed it to him. He seemed mildly surprised.
Ino's face is blank. "Is this a problem, Lord Hokage?" she asks emtionlessly.
The man hums lowly and reaches for a pen. "No," he replies. "Justification for request?"
An answer comes easily to her. "I don't want to work in an area where I need to worry about my work being used against the people I care about."
The pen halts in motion and Kakashi stops writing to look up at the kunoichi's face. The mask makes him impenetrably hard to read. After an extended moment, he reaches over for a stamp and presses it on the page.
"Permission granted. The barrier team has been asking for you. They'll be happy to have you back full-time."
After calming down, the two of them have taken a seat near the edge of the monument.
"I was afraid you'd find out and assume the worst," Sakura reveals. "I begged Ino and Kurama to never tell you."
It takes a second for what she said to register. "Wait, Kurama knew about this? The whole time!?" he shouts, surprised. He then begins rapidly punching himself in the stomach. "You stupid furball! Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have saved me!"
The faint sound of snoring within his mind is all that he hears back in response.
Sakura laughs, a nice sound to hear given what they had been talking about, and reaches out to grab his hands to make him stop. "It's a long story."
A comfortable silence rests between them. Naruto feels at peace again and he hopes that he has taken this burden off her mind. There's only one loose end left.
"Do I need to yell at Kakashi?" Naruto asks.
Shrugging uncaringly, Sakura answers, "We came to an understanding a long time ago after he came around to my way of thinking. It's ancient history."
He frowns, not entirely happy with the answer. This may have been several years old for her, but it's fresh for him. Maybe he'll just dial down the talk one notch. "Summon the Nine Tails for intimidation" is probably a little too high.
Sakura grabs a small rock and tosses it off the edge of the cliff. "You're still looking for an assistant, right?" she asks.
A groan unwillingly forces its way out of Naruto's throat as his thoughts are pulled back to the conversation at hand. "There were a lot of people applying. Shikamaru and I have it down to 10 or so. I became Hokage 6 months ago. You'd think this would go faster."
"I want you to hire me."
A pause. "Why? You're running pretty much everything Medical."
"After we fought that night, there were some things I said," Sakura says, lost in her memories, "Kakashi didn't have faith that we could see peace you're working for, but I did, and I told him I was going to be there with you every step of the way."
She stands and looks down upon the village, renewed purpose in her eyes. "I want to be involved. I can't do that from the hospital."
Naruto turns to look at her in surprise, not having expected this. There will probably need to be a longer conversation about if this is really what she wants, but for now, he thinks that's a discussion for another time.
He gets up to stand beside her. "We'll figure something out. Happy birthday, Sakura."
Sasuke Uchiha comes home.
For the first time, he sends Sakura and Naruto a correspondence indicating his intent to return and when he'll arrive.
The honest truth is that she had kind of forgotten about his existence in all of the recent chaos she's been wrapped up in. She wants to see him, but things are different now. After everything that's happened, she wonders if she wants a relationship with Sasuke at all.
When the date of his arrival rolls around, Sakura never shows up. She doesn't go to the gate. She doesn't meet up with Naruto. She doesn't look for anyone.
Naruto once told her that he felt that the top of the Hokage Monument was his favorite place to think when he wanted to be alone. Deciding to give it a shot, Sakura takes the path up to watch over the majestic view of her home.
Sitting there alone, she thinks.
Time passes. The sun rises fully in the sky and sets on the horizon.
Sakura is broken from her trance when the sound of someone calling her name drifts by her ear. Sure enough, there's a rustling of bushes nearby seconds later where Naruto Uzumaki emerges, waving his arms frantically.
"Sakura! Where have you been? Did you forget about Sasuke coming home? I've been giving excuses for you not showing up all day and I don't think the one about you having a plumbing problem is going to last much longer!" he exclaims as he jogs towards her.
Naruto reaches to grab her arm to pull her up and start dragging her towards the village, but it's interrupted when Sakura begins to struggle.
"Naruto! Stop- Let me go you idiot!" She kicks him for good measure which makes him stagger back.
It takes the blond a second to register that she doesn't seem concerned about what he just said and she's also not making a move to head back.
"Wha- why? You, you don't want to see him," he accuses while leaning in. "Why? This is what you've been waiting for, isn't it?"
Ino's words echo through her mind. What is she so afraid of? A lot of things, really.
Sakura resists the defensive instinct to attack. "I just... needed to think about things," she tries to say with confidence and fails miserably as she fidgets in place.
His expression makes it clear he doesn't believe her in the slightest despite the fact that it's technically true.
It's all so stupid now. What is she so afraid of?
"I was thinking about that question you once asked me. The one about why I love Sasuke."
She's afraid of looking like an idiot. She's afraid that she had already lost her chance with him years ago even though she's seen what was written up about her in Naruto's psych notes.
Naruto's face shifts away from suspicion and back to something more normal, but he stays silent.
"I think the answer is that I don't. Maybe I never did. I wanted to love him though, but that's a different thing. I understand that now. I wanted so badly to love him that I thought I really did."
She's afraid she's misunderstanding herself again. She's afraid of being called out by the Nine Tails.
"How do you know?" is Naruto's blunt question. "You haven't even talked to him."
"Because someone else showed me what that kind of love feels like."
She's afraid that what she's feeling isn't real.
The most bizarre expression Sakura has ever seen overtakes Naruto, but she doesn't dare let him respond or else any courage she has left might fade away. Seizing the moment, she grabs him by the collar of his shirt, pulls him down and kisses him.
She likes it so much she does it again.
And as Naruto staggers back in utter shock, Sakura watches and waits for the moment where Kurama intervenes and says something to his host, usually spotted by Naruto's eyes glazing over.
She waits.
And waits.
And wai-
"Y-You," he stammers, "Why did you do that?"
Sakura blinks, realizing that Kurama still hadn't done anything yet. She hadn't thought this far ahead. Her courage is now tapped out, leaving her feeling vulnerable and shy.
"It was you, Naruto," she says, suddenly finding her feet incredibly interesting, but quickly pulls her attention back to his face when she remembers to keep watching his eyes.
Is the fox really not going to do anything? Does this mean...?
Naruto's face cycles through a sort of inverse 'five stages of grief'. "Is this really happening?" he asks, eyes wide and full of hope.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura goes all in. "I know I've screwed up before, but I want to try again. How about a date tomorrow?"
His head is practically a blur of nodding as he rapidly babbles, "Yes. Yes! That sounds good. Amazing in fact. Best thing I've ever heard."
"Good. I'll make plans. I'll see you tomorrow at seven." She grabs him and kisses him one more time for good measure, leaving Naruto completely dumbfounded.
As she walks down the path back home, Sakura faintly hears Naruto screaming in joy from the top of monument.
In what could later be argued as either a moment of brilliance or stupidity, Sakura takes him to Ichiraku's.
A/N: Sorry about the delay on this, considering that chapter 2 was so quick. I'm not much of a romance dialogue writer so I struggled immensely with the more emotional/touching/fluffy parts. All part of the learning process, blah blah blah.
Fun facts about this story
-Apparently Boruto likes a burger stand. I figured I'd carry that over.
-According to Narutopedia, Ino is canonically the leader of the Konoha Barrier Team in the Boruto series. I use the events of this story as an opportunity to explain why she takes that path as opposed to a future leader of intelligence/interrogation.
-Sai recognized the Root kunoichi. As such, Kakashi couldn't allow him to go the party. None of the characters put that together. This was actually a plot hole I noticed late into writing chapter 2, but the nature of the story allows me to just say "The Hokage did it".
-Naruto has rubbed off on Sakura more than she's aware of. In the end, she fixes things in a very Naruto-like way by beating people up and then giving a speech.
-I'm very on the fence about Sakura taking on an assistant role, but after writing the dialogue for the mini-speech she gives Kakashi, my brain wouldn't let it go any other way. My fear is that it ruins her individuality, but there is a certain amount of sense to it. I make a pretty big point in this story that she believes in Naruto's goals, and she can't be involved in that with her canon career path.