Capitulum XI – I knew what you had with Sasuke was real.

It's already been more than a week ever since she started working for Sasuke, yet it was still weird thinking of herself as one of his employees. Sakura had been given a smartphone and laptop of her own to work with and she spent most of her days alone in her guest house talking to former associates and contacts, reading up on everything she thought might be related to Madara in some way and trying to figure out his next move.

It felt weird being alone again for most of the time. She got so used to Kai's presence in the last couple of months, but she had to leave him behind for his own sake. They had said their goodbyes prior to Sakura leaving Tokyo, because she knew if Madara had gotten his hands on Kai as well, he wouldn't have made it out alive. Nevertheless, Sakura missed his presence. She was sure Sasuke had bugged both her laptop and her new phone and was monitoring every call and click she made, so Sakura didn't try contacting him. It would just make him angrier, and despite the fun she had with teasing him, right now, an angry Sasuke is not a good thing.

Sakura hadn't seen him very often in the last few days, nor had she spoken to him. It almost seemed as if he was avoiding her. He was always in meetings, on his phone talking to someone or out of town 'taking care of things', as Karin dubiously put it. The red haired woman turned out to be a great help to Sakura. Given the nature of her employment, she was restricted in almost everything, so Karin acted a facilitator of sorts; whenever Sakura needed anything, she figured out a way to get it. She also had a brilliant mind, which had helped Sakura more than once when she found herself stuck with something. She was glad Karin overcame her initial hostility towards her. Moreover, she was glad someone as fiercely loyal as the Uzumaki was fighting for their cause. After all, they needed all the help they could get to bring down Madara.

That bastard is elusive as hell, but I'll nail him.

Sakura was lost deep in her thoughts while eyeing the laptop screen in front of her. Madara went out of his way to cover his tracks and was immensely careful with everything he did, but she managed picked up a few clues as to who he might be working with. She still couldn't put all the pieces together, though.

She went through the articles on the recent murders in Tokyo again. After checking the dates of each of them, she looked at the file on her laptop screen. Sakura's eyes widened in sudden realisation. "They match.", she whispered, before jumping up.

It surprised her to see it was dark already when she walked out of the guest house and headed towards Sasuke's office. I must have lost track of time, she deduced. As she crossed the bridge, Sakura felt growing anticipation. Finally, she made a breakthrough. This will bring them one step closer to their goal. And maybe even one step closer to reconciliation, Sakura prayed silently. Eager to tell Sasuke the new good news, she turned around the corner with a smile and raised her head to look for him.

What she saw then made her stop dead in her tracks. Her smile had vanished completely and the anticipation she felt earlier at seeing Sasuke turned to anger. She swung around quickly, so as to prevent them from seeing her and leaned against the wall in hopes of calming herself again. But her anger didn't subside, and she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

"Must be hard for you to see him like that, huh? And don't give me that you just got something in your eye bullshit." Kakashi's sudden voice broke her out of her thoughts and she raised a hand to quickly wipe away the tear. Sakura tried to laugh away the fact he had just caught her in an embarrassing situation, but all she managed was an awkward huff. She looked up into the face of the man who had always been like a father to her. The last time they saw each other, his eyes had been distant. But now, they were warm and full of understanding.

Faking a smile as best as she could, she claimed, "I don't know what you're talking about." She could see Kakashi's head shaking and him beckoning her to sit down at the bench next to the pond. Reluctantly, she obliged. It's not like I can talk to my ex-husband or anything, since he's busy making out with a blonde bimbo on his terrace, she thought to herself. As she sat down next to Kakashi, she gazed into the pond and waited for him to talk.

"Sasuke gave me the audio file of your encounter with Madara and asked me to listen to it. He said he was too angry and felt like he might have missed a thing or two, so he told me to analyse it. Which I did. That Zetsu guy did quite a number on you, huh?"

Sakura kept silent. She didn't like thinking back to that, especially not to all the stories Zetsu had told her about Sasuke.

"He made all of that up, you know. The stories about him strangling a girl called Sakura, the twins… and my God, the stripper with pink hair. Zetsu must be one hell of a fuck up to come up with that bullshit."

Sakura tilted her head and looked up at him suspiciously. "You're just saying that to make me feel better." – "It's the truth. That never happened. I mean, don't get me wrong, Sasuke was beside himself, he was… I can't even begin to describe how furious he was after what you did, but his anger never reached a point where he would hurt innocent women."

Sakura drew up one leg and rested her chin on it. Her gaze fell back on the pond in front of them. She observed the elegant movement of the koi fish and lost herself in their serenity for a moment. A feeling of relief filled her at hearing Kakashi's words. He would never lie to her, she was sure of that. The one thing that had broken her back in Zetsu's torture chamber was the thought that Sakura hurt Sasuke so much that he had to take out his anger on innocent women that reminded him of her. However, now that she knew he had never done those horrible things, the pain associated with that memory lessened a bit.

Sakura was torn from her thoughts when she heard Kakashi's voice beside her.

"Nevertheless, Zetsu's methods proved effective. I must say, it didn't surprise me all that much to hear your reaction to those stories. After what happened, everyone believed you were the most cold-hearted, manipulative and deceitful bitch, excuse my French, in all of Japan. Everyone, including Sasuke, believed you faked all of it, that you never had any feelings for him and that you never cared about him. Everyone, except for me. And Naruto maybe, but he thinks everyone is in love with everyone, so that's not something to go by." Sakura couldn't help but laugh at that last part. She missed the blonde knucklehead.

"I knew what you had with Sasuke was real. You were genuinely in love with him. So of course hearing Zetsu say things like that would be painful. Just like seeing Sasuke with his blonde lady friend over there must be hard as well. But it's hard for him too, you must know that. You have to be patient with him, Sakura. He needs time to warm up to the idea of you being in his life again. I'm not saying he'll wake up one day and realise he might still have feelings for you, but I believe over time, you two might just be able to sort things out."

She looked into Kakashi's compassionate eyes. He never was one for touchy-feely conversations, so hearing him say all of that was a big deal for Sakura. When he had caught her crying a few minutes ago, she was hell bent on laughing it off and just returning to her rooms. But now that he admitted he knew about her true feelings for Sasuke all along, she felt like he had taken a load off her mind. She didn't know she needed a conversation like this, until Kakashi came along and lifted her spirits.

A barely visible smile spread across her lips as she looked into his eyes. "Thank you, Kakashi." He gave her a nod and got up from the bench. Just as he was about to leave, he turned around and said, "Just so you know, it's nothing serious between those two. It's her first time here and I'm guessing it will be her last. So you have nothing to worry about her."

Sakura snorted and grinned at Kakashi, as she watched his retreating figure disappear into the night. She stood up as well and made her way to the guest house, under the watchful gaze of a pair of onyx eyes. He didn't hear their entire conversation, but what little he picked up at the end made him curious.

Suddenly, the blonde in his bed lost all of his interest.