Here's another KakaSaku more along the lines of my usual offerings. This was requested by electrickpanda, and a few others who I can't quite remember (sorry).
Sakura was getting ready to go to bed, stepping over the toys and dolls and crayons that littered the floor while promising herself she'd pick them up the next day because oh God was she tired, when the front door swung open and in came her husband, stumbling slightly through over the front rug.
This was an instant cause for alarm since Kakashi never stumbled or staggered, even when drunk.
She rushed forward just as his knees seemed to give out on him, and grabbed him before he could fall to the floor. She could smell blood, and such a strong smell didn't come from a mere scratch. She hoped at least some of it wasn't his, because if it was this could easily turn dangerous.
"Hey Honey, 'm home." He grunted, and if Sakura had been a little less worried and a little less in her doctor mode, she would have hit him. Even still, she managed a brief but still scorching glare.
"Kakashi, why didn't you go to the hospital?" She hissed, even though she already knew the answer. But really, dislike of hospitals be damned, she could already tell he had lost too much blood and that his wounds were bad.
"Because you always take care of me and do it the right way. The hospital isn't as good as you." He managed, and she glared at his stupid attempt of flattery. It was not the time.
"Watch it, Hatake, that's the hospital I work at." She grumbled, quickly leading him over to the long coffee table after realizing that the kitchen table was father away and him jumping onto it or her lifting him may aggravate his injuries, whatever his injuries were.
As she lay him down, she whistled sharply. Almost immediately Shiba, Bisuke, and Pakkun appeared from where they had been laying in the spare bedroom, left there by Kakashi since he always left a few of ninken at home even when he was on a mission just in case.
"Cherry Blossom, what-"
"Not now! Shiba, I need you to get me my kit out of the bedroom. Bisuke, close the door and get me some water. Pakkun, hurry to the hospital and alert them that an idiot has come in and that I'll be needing some drugs." She quickly grabbed a pad and wrote down in seemingly ineligible handwriting a small list. "Give it to Tsunade if she's there, Miri if she's not, and be quick. Also, some blood, they know his type. I can't move him right now, or else I'd be dragging him down there."
Quick as a wink they were racing to do their tasks, and Sakura was left to deal with her patient who's breathing had gotten a bit shallow. She didn't bother to take his shirt off the regular way, neither did she bother to get scissors, she just grabbed and tore, revealing the gruesome sight before her of the deep gashes that spread along Kakashi's sides and that were profusely bleeding.
Taking a breath she focused her chakra and swept her glowing hands over Kakashi's sides, searching for any internal injuries and healing them as she found them, kick-starting the healing on some of the open wounds as well but leaving the less serious ones for stitches that she could work on healing gradually when she was a bit less hurried and tired.
Shiba came back in with her kit and Bisuke a bowl of water almost at the same time, and so she was able to get to work immediately. Wetting some bandages she cleaned the blood up, put the salve on, and started stitching him back together focusing intently on her task so that she wouldn't get it wrong. She was tired, in fact only minutes ago she would have claimed to have been too tired to do anything with effort, but in the face of blood and mortal injury, everything else clicked off and she was just left as the medic-nin, hard eyed and firm handed.
Pakkun appeared with the medicine and a packet of blood, and Sakura stopped the stitching for a moment to put an IV in, though then she was left with a problem because there weren't enough hands for what she needed to do. This is why the idiot needed to go the to hospital.
"Damn-"
"Mommy? Daddy?" Everyone in the room froze, heads whipping around to see the small, sleep tumbled sever year old staring wide eyed at the blood and chaos, and at the sight of her father, face too pale, bleeding on the coffee table and carpet. "W-What's going on?"
Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn.
"Karin, honey..." She started, pausing for just a moment because they really didn't have time. "Daddy was hurt on a mission, and now I have to fix him, okay? You just go on back to bed, and it will be better in the morning." She said, turning back towards Kakashi.
Karin watched for a moment as her mother fumbled with the bag full of the red—blood, it was a bag of blood—and how it was connected to her father, and just for a moment she thought about going back to bed and let her mom just fix it like she always did. But she looked tired—determined, eyes hard and focused, but tired—and her dad was hurt, hurt really badly. And so, stomach in knots and her heart in her throat, she took a step forward as she fisted her trembling hands.
"I-I want to help."
Sakura almost said no. She almost told her to go back to bed because she would handle it on her own and protect her baby. But this was the worst Kakashi had been in a long time, and it would be easier if she had another set of hands to help even if they were small and innocent and trembling.
"Alright." She sighed, beckoning her closer before handing her the blood. "Alright. I need you to hold this up, okay? Nice and high, that's a good girl."
She turned back and continued with the stitches, focusing intently and blocking everything out as she put her husband back together piece by piece so that he could be whole and well when she tore him apart later on.
"W-Why is Daddy like this?" Karin whispered, looking over the gashes and tears and splits in his skin, "What hurt him?"
Sakura was too intent on what she was doing to answer, so instead Shiba was the one to do it, coming up behind her to nuzzle her back soothingly.
"He was on a mission, Little Forest. He gets hurt sometimes."
"But if it hurts him so much, why does he keep on doing it?" She whispered, and the room was silent as they tried to find the appropriate answer for the girl that was too small to be asking such big questions.
"Because..." Kakashi coughed, earning a concerned glare for his efforts from Sakura, but she allowed him to keep on talking because she knew that Karin needed an answer.
And maybe, with her being so tired and sore and worried and mad, so did she.
"Because if I don't get hurt, if I don't do my job and take care of the threats made to our village, other people will get hurt. Lots of people that can't protect themselves, innocent people, people from the village and people outside of it. My job is to protect them, to protect everyone in this village, and that's what I do. That's what I do, that's what your mother does, and that's what all of your aunts and uncles do. And sometimes, we get hurt."
Tears were gathering in the little girl's eyes, but she held them back valiantly as she stared into her father's half lidded, slightly foggy eye.
"Do you like your job?" She whispered, and that eye of his crinkled affectionately as his hand reached out to cup her cheek.
"Of course. It helps me protect you."
The girl took a deep breath and, after a moment, she nodded and forcefully sniffed her gathering tears away. Her shoulders straightened and her back stiffened, and she lifted her chin, determined to do her part now. She tightened her hands around the packet of blood, and stared resolutely ahead.
Sakura finished the stitches and then started healing them a bit, going over him one more time to make sure she hadn't missed anything. After forcing the half-lucid Kakashi to take his medicine—really, he was such a baby—she took the now empty blood packet from Karin and cleaned everything else up, leaving the little girl to pet her father's face and hair in what she hoped was a soothing way.
After everything was decently tidy, Sakura pushed herself up with a grunt, feeling the aches and the tiredness that always came as her medic state of mind faded away. "Alright," She sighed, "Time to get you into bed. The both of you."
She managed to get Kakashi up, supporting his weight with his arm over her shoulder. Karin came along, wrapping her smaller hand around his and opening the door for her parents when they came to it.
After laying Kakashi down carefully and taking off his shoes, forehead protector, and mask, Sakura picked up the now yawning child and carried her into her own bedroom where the spinning lamp on the shelf above the bed painted images of dancing butterflies on the walls. The girl's arms and legs had wrapped around her when she had picked her up, which made her smile as she untangled herself from the limbs.
"Mommy?"
"Hmm?"
"There's blood on the carpet."
"I know. It happens."
"There's blood on your pajamas."
"That happens too."
Karin quieted down as she allowed her mother to tuck her in, brushing her hair lightly out of her face, but before she got back up more questions were released to stop her.
"Do you feel like Daddy about your job? About protecting people?"
Sakura thought it over for a moment. Thought about the bloodshed and the pain and how much it hurt at times, and then she thought about Kakashi's words and even the words from the past that suddenly appeared, like Naruto's speeches about protecting his precious people.
"Yes." She murmured, smiling gently at the girl before leaning over to press a kiss to the top of her head. "No go to sleep. You've had a big night."
She got up and was just about to close the door when a small, sleep burdened voice made her pause.
"I'm gonna be the best ninja ever, just like you and Daddy, and I'm gonna protect everyone." She yawned, and then sleepily mumbled "Promise."
Blinking, Sakura sighed before smiling slightly, more at herself and some internal battle than anything else.
"I know you will."
She got in the shower to quickly scrub off the drying blood that covered her, tossing her clothes in the hamper and twisting a towel around her to make due since she was so tired she didn't even feel like putting on pajamas. Stepping back into the bedroom, she saw Kakashi sleeping and she knew that it would be best for him to sleep. As a doctor, she should let him sleep.
As a mother though...
She strode across the room to her side of the bed quickly, grabbing her pillow and lifting it before solidly smacking his face with it.
He jumped a bit, jerking to automatically defend himself against attack, but the stitches pulled and caused him to hiss, holding his side as he glared at his pink haired attacker.
"What-"
"Don't you ever, ever, come home like this again. Do you understand me, Kakashi?" She hissed, earning a baffled and still somewhat angry look.
"Wha-"
"Our daughter, our seven year old daughter, should not ever have to wake up to the sight of her father bleeding all over the coffee table, and neither should she have to help in saving his life. I know I spoiled you, I know that by helping you all the times in the past I encouraged you, but you do not get to be selfish anymore. Not when it comes to Karin. No, because from now on you are going to the hospital if it is anything more than a band-aid can handle."
"I-"
"No." She growled, narrowing her eyes at him until he shrank back away from the heat, "This is not a discussion. There will be no negotiations or arguments, there is only this decision. My decision. Do you understand?"
"Sakura-"
"Do. You Understand?" She hissed, waiting for him to nod before she relaxed her offensive posture. "Good. Now let me check you over to make sure you didn't pull out one of your stitches when you jerked."
He lay still and in silence while she checked him over, staring up at her face, but when she began to pull back he grabbed onto her hand to stop her.
"I'm sorry." He murmured, his eyes drooping even though he was determined to stay awake long enough to fix this. "It won't happen again."
"I know." She sighed. "I know. Now go to sleep, and we'll take you to the hospital tomorrow to make sure that everything is fine, and work on getting you more used to going there." She brushed a hand through his hair and sent a halfhearted smile down at him.
"She wants to be a ninja just like you and me."
He chuckled. "That's a terrifying thought."
She nodded slowly, dropping the towel so that she could slip in beside him, switching the light off and resting her head on the pillow as she stared up at the ceiling, wide awake despite how unbearably tired she felt.
"Yeah, it is."
Well, this just kind of popped up in my head when I suddenly realized my neglect of this pairing.
I don't really have too much more to say, other than that I hope you all have lovely nights (or days, depending on where you live and when you read this)