"Wake up, Sakura."

She opened her eyes to find that the light had grown dim. The endless flat desert had been replaced with walls of rock, and they travelled along the base of a narrow gorge that formed one of the entrances to Sunagakure. The late afternoon sky above them was like a streak of molten fire.

Her cheek was resting against something soft, and she pulled back with a start when she realised it was Kakashi's shoulder. "Sorry," she mumbled, surreptitiously checking for drool.

"That's alright." He handed the reins back to her. "The welcoming party should be on us any minute, so I'd better go and make myself presentable. But while we have a second alone, can I apologise?"

"Oh, no, I'm the one who needs to apologise for the other day." She thought back over her recent choices, and the consequences they had led to, with more than a little chagrin.

"I'm not just talking about that; I'm talking about all of it. I know I've been running hot and cold for basically the last year, and I want to give you the full explanation when we both have time. But for now, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way I acted." He bowed a little in his seat, which was somehow even more embarrassing than drool.

"Please stop that." She poked him in the shoulder. "I forgive you, especially if you make good on your promise to talk more later." A week ago she might not have let him off so easily, but she had a newfound appreciation for just how complicated Kakashi's world had become. He'd managed to walk in the world of VIPs for more than a year without major incident, and she had almost toppled everything in a matter of days. Once again, her dream had left her woefully unprepared for reality.

Kakashi disappeared to don his robes of office, and before long the welcoming party from Suna arrived to greet them and take over the vehicles while the passengers were all processed. Sakura had originally been cleared under an ANBU alias, so she was expecting a bit of back and forth before they let her enter the village proper. But as luck would have it, there were some familiar faces in the group.

"Sakura!" Was all the warning she got before her vision was obscured by a blonde ponytail. "I can't believe you're here!"

Ino hugged her fiercely, and even though it had only been a few days since she'd seen her, Sakura hugged her back just as hard. "Yep, I'm here. Sorry for lying to everyone."

"Eh, ninjas," Ino waved her hand like that explained everything (which, to be fair, it did). "I'm just glad we'll have more people from Konoha at Wedding Number Two! Shikamaru's gonna be so pleased."

"Technically I'm not here for the wedding," she tried to explain before Ino got ahead of herself. "I'm on guard duty for the Hokage."

"Well luckily, the Hokage is also going to the wedding. And besides, even guards take breaks."

"Not ANBU." She showed off her tattoo with no small amount of pride, but Ino barely glanced at it.

"Oh, please. I heard you got made a few days ago, so you may as well embrace the fact that you get to be yourself from now on."

"Ino…"

"Here's Shikamaru now!" She waved over another newcomer, this one wearing a sand-coloured flak jacket with long shoulders.

"Ah, Sakura; I heard you were here, in Kakashi's entourage. Does this mean you've agreed to take my job?"

"First of all, I'm nobody's entourage." It was practically a dirty word to her, after a week of dealing with snobby VIPs and their pocket ninjas. "And second of all, what the hell kind of greeting is that? At least Ino hugged me before she tried to get something out of me." She dodged Ino's (semi) playful flick with ease.

"Yeesh, you've even started to sound like him." Shikamaru made a sour face.

"Who?"

"Your new boss," Ino laughed, and then it was her turn to dodge a hit.

"Did you guys stuff sand in your ears or something?" Talking to the Ino-Shika part of Ino-Shika-Chou could be a lot like talking to an especially rude brick wall. "Where's the nice one, that listens to reason?"

"Chouji? He's back in the village waiting for his three little ducklings to arrive." Chouji had one of the few first-year genin teams that had been deemed strong enough to enter the exam.

"Hopefully nothing happened to them."

In the past, the candidates had run all the way to Suna (a journey of roughly three days for an unburdened ninja), and anyone who fell behind would be left behind. This year, Sakura knew that there were about two dozen more personnel assigned to covertly monitoring each of the genin making the run. They didn't know all the details about Yoshio, only that there was an increased security risk and nobody was to be left alone and vulnerable. Hopefully it had been enough to ensure no puppets slipped through.

The group was beginning to move, and Sakura fell into step with her friend while Shikamaru disappeared as abruptly as he'd arrived.

"I'm sure they're fine," Ino shrugged. "I've never seen such a loyal bunch of kids. I mean, we all survived our first exam, and we were a complete mess! If we'd had to run to Suna after spending the weekend in the Forest of Death, I'm pretty sure I would've left Shikamaru and Chouji for dead like, day one."

Sakura snorted. "Yeah, for all that Kakashi tried to beat a sense of camaraderie into us, Team Seven might have failed the secret mission within the mission." The secret mission being, of course, to make sure all three teammates arrive together instead of breaking formation and focusing on independent victory. How far Team Seven had come since then; though the road had been far from smooth, considering all the attempted murders.

Ah, childhood…

The village was looking its best, decked out with bright streamers that turned the otherwise drab scenery into a riot of colour. Sakura realised, now that she was no longer here as ANBU, that she had nowhere to stay.

"With me, obviously," Ino had said once Sakura explained why she'd stopped in the middle of the road with a panicked look on her face. "You can borrow my clothes too, until you get yourself something to change into."

Sakura's outfit did kind of scream "foreign black-ops agent", which would have been fine if she was also acting like one (read: anonymously shadowing the Hokage instead of wandering around the village like a tourist), but was currently earning her a few suspicious glances. The war might have been over, but ninja habits died hard.

Ino slept like the dead, so sharing wasn't too much of a hassle for one night. The night was hot, so the balcony door was open and the stars above were shining so brightly that Sakura decided to sit outside and watch them for a while. She recalled most of the ones Kakashi had taught her in the past, but it still took her a while to find The Maiden. She was meant to be somewhere between The Hunter and The Wolf, interrupting that fatal arrow's journey and cementing their legend. But her stars were dim, her pattern lost in the celestial quilt.

"Be careful tonight, Mister Wolf," she murmured.

Spending any amount of time in Sunagakure was always a bit of a hassle for Kakashi. He wanted to go into the main village for his first day (the only day he'd be likely to have any free time whatsoever), but not in an official capacity. So he left the hat and robes back in his room (one of several exquisite guest suites reserved for the Kages). However, without the hat and robes making him look like The Hokage, he looked an awful lot like Hatake Kakashi. Which meant he looked an awful lot like Hatake Sakumo. Which meant some people, especially older people, would be likely to treat him with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Never mind that their beloved Kazakage had personally sung his praises during the war; one positive association didn't undo a thousand negative ones.

So he was wearing a white turban with long sides, and a mask to match. It was a popular choice among shinobi and civilians alike in Suna, and even with his decidedly Konoha-style fatigues he didn't stand out. This meant he could wander the bustling market, smelling exotic spices and eating exotic fruits. If anyone had asked him why he was going into town, he might have said it was just for basic touristy reasons. But in reality, there was someone he was hoping to run into.

He wasn't sure where Sakura had stayed the previous night, and didn't know how to ask around without being Incredibly Obvious; but he knew she had found herself travelling light since her change in mission parameters, so hanging around the shops seemed as good a place as any to bump into her. It also gave him something to do with his nervous energy until he did.

His feet took him to a little red bridge with a man-made canal running underneath. It was rare to see so much water in one place in Suna, and indeed the bridge seemed to be something of a feature for the area. Especially, he realised, for couples. Pairs of people were strolling arm in arm or sharing dishes of chilled fruits in nearby cafes. Kakashi dived into a tiny shop to get out of the path of one couple who seemed too lost in each others' eyes to notice he was in their path.

"Hello, dear." a plump elderly woman smiled toothily. "Are you here to buy a hairpin?"

"A hairpin?" Kakashi looked around the shop. There were indeed many hairpins, or kanzashi on display, ranging from simple to ornate.

"Oh yes, you can't visit Harimaya Bridge without buying one as a souvenir for your lady." The woman seemed determined to make a sale from him, grabbing a rainbow of options and placing them all on the counter. "What's her favourite colour?"

"I don't have a lady," he explained, backing away politely toward the door, but the woman just tutted.

"I don't believe that for a second, Mister Handsome. Now come on; what's her favourite colour?"

"I - red," he said, giving in to defeat. A hair stick wasn't all that expensive.

"Excellent choice." The woman selected an elegant kanzashi made of dark wood, with a simple red bead at the top. "They say Junshin picked the very same colour for Ouma."

"Who?"

"You don't even know the legend?" She blinked at him. "Why did you want a hairpin, then?"

"I didn't," Kakashi said, but the woman was ignoring him completely now, wrapping the hair stick in printed tissue.

"The story goes that a young monk named Junshin was courting a merchant's daughter by the name of Ouma. Monks weren't meant to have relationships, so as you can imagine, this was a secret affair.

"One day he came to the bridge to buy her a gift: a kanzashi. He wore a disguise, but Suna was a much smaller village at the time, so he was spotted and their relationship was uncovered." The woman spun the tale like any good merchant, pausing for dramatic effect. "Alas, the star-crossed lovers were separated, exiled to opposite ends of the country. But," she brightened, "the legend is the reason that the hair sticks have become such a popular token of love for the area, so something nice came out of their sad fate after all."

"I guess." Kakashi paid for the hair accessory and slipped it in his pocket. As far as he could tell, the 'nice' thing was only really nice for the local merchants. It didn't help Junshin and Ouma all that much. But as he left the bridge area and headed down to find someplace more secluded, he did note that most of the ladies in town were wearing a hairpin of some sort. There were even a few kunoichi sporting kanzashi made from sharpened steel, designed for driving into attackers' eyes and necks in close combat. It was funny to think that they might have been gifted to them by a lover.

After a while he found a tiny park, more of an empty patch of dirt considering there were few actual trees in Suna. But the ground had been carved (either by artisans or elemental jutsu) into bench-like structures in flowing, organic shapes, curving around and through the square. It was nice and quiet, so instead of continuing his vague search for Sakura, he summoned Pakkun and put him on the case instead.

"Don't approach her if she's not alone," he told him. "But don't make it obvious that you're waiting for her, either. But don't try to be stealthy, there's too many foreign shinobi around that won't know your intentions. Just, you know, be casual."

The pug's furry little eyebrows rose ever so slightly. "You okay, boss?"

He kneeled down to Pakkun's level, giving him a gentle scratch behind the ear. Ninken were basically colleagues, and certainly not pets. But despite Pakkun's stubborn pride, Kakashi knew he secretly loved the attention and would 'tolerate' scritches as long as nobody else was watching. "Do I not seem okay?"

"Hmm," the pug frowned, "that sounds like a trick question."

"I'm a little nervous," he admitted quietly, because Pakkun wasn't the only one whose pride only let him be vulnerable when the witnesses were limited. "I'm about to have a difficult conversation that ultimately ends in a big apology."

"With Floral Green? I thought you were on okay terms these days."

"Yeah, but now I have to explain why we weren't on such good terms for a while there. And I'm worried she'll hate me for it." He stood up, brushing the sand off his knees. "Don't tell her I said any of that."

"You got it, boss. One pink girl, coming up."

It only took Pakkun a few minutes to return with said pink girl, who was carrying an armful of shopping bags slung over her arm and wearing, of all things, a purple crop top and matching mini skirt.

"Are you wearing Ino Yamanaka's clothes?" he asked, trying not to stare at Sakura's exposed belly.

"And hello to you too." Sakura sat her bags down on the bench beside him. "It's just for today, now that I've got some new clothes. I take it from the puppy-gram that now's a good time to talk?"

"Not a cute puppy," Pakkun grumbled.

"Didn't say 'cute'," Sakura shot back, and they both grinned. When did they get so close?

"Good luck, boss." His 'cute puppy' disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sakura joined him on the bench.

"You want to do this here, or go somewhere quieter?"

Kakashi glanced around the still-empty park. "Here's fine. So: explanation time. In no particular order, these are all the reasons I didn't kiss you back the night you made jounin." He took a deep breath. "Number One: what if your feelings were temporary? No, listen," he held up a hand before Sakura could interject. "You had gone through hell, absolute hell, and I know we ended up closer in those few months after the war than we ever got in the last five years of knowing one another. I've seen what trauma-bonding can do to ninjas. And if your feelings were even slightly temporary, I wanted to make sure you had time to figure that out before we did something we couldn't undo."

"That's…fair," she said, and then gave him a wry smile. "Unnecessary, as it turned out. But fair."

He tried to ignore the tiny thrill it gave him every time Sakura admitted, even obliquely, that she still cared about him. Time to do the same. "Reason two: my own feelings. I…" inhale, exhale, "fell for you, much faster and harder than I really thought was possible, considering our age difference and history. I didn't know if I was just trauma-bonding myself, or maybe reading too many of Jiraiya-sama's novels."

Sakura laughed, which put his heart ever so slightly at ease. He ploughed on. "But in any case, I wanted time to figure it out before I did anything that might have hurt you."

"Would it only have hurt me?"

"Of course not; but it is different for you. Even before I became Hokage - and that's a whole other point on my list of reasons - being with an older shinobi like me would have caused problems for you. I know I touched on this back when we…back on that night; but it's undeniable. I shouldn't feel this way about you, Sakura."

She leaned over her shopping bags to look him dead in the eye. "So you do feel a certain way about me? As in, present tense?"

He huffed. "Yes, of course I do."

"Then I don't care about anything else," she declared, and once again Kakashi forced himself to ignore the urge to just crash against her like a wave.

"I haven't gotten to the biggest reason you should stay away from me," he warned. "And that's the fact that I'm now the Hokage. And being the Hokage's lover is dangerous, even for the most hardened ninja."

"I've seen a little of the 'dangers' I think you're talking about during this trip," Sakura told him. "Less physical, more political danger, yeah?"

"It's both, actually. Yes, there's plenty of ways a title will cage you. We'd have never known privacy, never have been able to take things at our own pace instead of the one set by the village elites. But also, if you had done anything to make those elites believe you couldn't be trusted; or if I had done anything to make them suspect I would choose you over the village-"

"You would never," she argued. "You love Konoha."

I love you, too. "It wouldn't have to be anything major, like betraying the village. It would be enough if they thought you had become a blindspot for me. If others could use you against me - and believe me, they would have - it's practically village policy to bury or eliminate such a threat."

Sure, some of them had managed to balance love and duty; but some of them hadn't. Tsunade lost her lover and it broke her for years. Minato died within minutes of his wife, and his son grew up alone. He knew, if the unthinkable happened to Sakura, he'd handle it poorly. And if it were his fault? It would kill him.

He withdrew the hairpin from his pocket and offered it to her. "Here. I got this today, mostly by accident, but I can't imagine giving it to anyone else."

She unwrapped it slowly, holding it up like she wasn't quite sure what it was. She didn't seem happy. "What is this?"

"It's a hairpin." He bit his lip, the nervous feeling in his stomach returning. "Your hair is probably long enough by now that you could wear it. If you wanted, I mean. You don't have to."

She shook her head, fingers flattening like she was offering it back to him. "No, I mean what is this? Is this your way of saying goodbye?"

"Oh, no." He grabbed her hands, wrapping them tighter around the hairpin. "No, Sakura, not at all. Hey, look at me. This isn't goodbye. This is just an apology for the way things have been. In fact, I was planning to ask you if you wanted to stay in Konoha after the chunin exam, as my assistant."

"Really?" She still looked sceptical. "You want me to be the new Shikamaru?"

He laughed softly, taking the hairpin and winding it into a knot at the back of her head. "I want you to be Sakura. And even if we can't be…together, I can't stand to be apart from you, either."

"Can't we? Be together, I mean?" Her eyes were wide, entreating him to return to that night in April and make a new choice. But instead he pressed his masked lips to her forehead.

"It would burn us both to the ground, Sakura." He stood up, signalling the end to their conversation. "There's a welcome party tonight, for all the foreign VIPs. If you attend, I'll take it as acceptance of the job offer. If not, then I'll understand."

He didn't look back, afraid to see the answer on her face.