Ch. 6

Sakura awoke (if not refreshed) less exhausted than she'd expected to. Thank god she'd had the foresight to pic up a few hangover tinctures on their way home from the bar. Between getting Shikamaru home and her talk with Ino, she'd been physically and mentally exhausted by the time she'd made it to bed. She's had only the briefest moment to debate summoning Yume-Kakashi to tuck her in before she was passed out on her sofa.

She hadn't even made it to the bedroom.

Thinking it through the following morning, she was glad she hadn't summoned him. She still felt a little raw from her and Ino's heart to heart. Exposing herself to the charms of her imaginary lover under those conditions… it could only lead to catastrophe. She'd managed to go four weeks without summoning him all together, but one afternoon in his embrace and she was already losing resolve.

She would need to keep her guard up.

Instead, she decided to settle for the real thing. Not that seeing her actual Sensei was settling, mind you. After nearly losing him on her operating table, any Kakashi was better than no Kakashi at all.

Today was meant to be a short shift at the hospital. Just one set of rounds, and she'd be free to spend time with him in the quiet of his hospital room. They were overdue for some time together that didn't involve saving each others lives.

After that, she was to meet with her Hokage and go over plans for their upcoming project: A joint endeavor between Suna and Konoha to establish satellite health clinics along their boarders.

This collaboration was Sakura's baby, conceived well over a year ago and about to come to fruition. Tsunade had been impressed when Sakura brought the idea to her, with a goal of minimizing casualties for Ninja assigned OOV (Out of village.) This was, in part, inspired by her first Genin trip to mist, and how close they had come to the ends of their lives. Access to emergency medicine needed to be expanded, and with Tsunade's support, Sakura would make it happen.

Still, there was a lot left to plan. Specifically, the continued education for the doctors who would be stationed at these satellite clinics. Sakura looked over the series of notes she'd made for their upcoming meeting, making sure everything was properly organized before heading out the door.

Like she said, it was suppose to be a short shift.

But as it usually goes at hospitals, nothing that day went to plan. A new Genin team returning from Amegakure had been attacked on the road. The team's Jounin had taken most of the damage, putting the enemy Nin in the ground despite overwhelming odds, but one of the students was critically wounded in battle. Upon arriving at the hospital, Sakura was immediately rushed to the ER - The second time that week she'd needed to do so.

Thankfully, the girl's damages was mostly external- soft tissue injuries and a few broken bones. Sakura quickly stemmed what little internal bleeding there was, then moved on to setting the broken bones and knitting the bigger cuts back together. The girl's chart said she was 12, but she barely looked 10 years old.

Had she been this small when team 7 encountered Zabuza?

Not for the first time, Sakura cursed the world for putting a child soldier on her table. How did the system justify asking so much from children who inherently had so little? The Chakra in Sakura's hands flared a little too brightly with the swell of her emotions. She took a breath to self-sooth.

This. This was exactly why she'd initially broached the idea of satellite clinics to Tsunade. If children were expected to fight in these wars, then Konoha had an obligation in her mind to provide adequate resources so that no child was ever lost on duty again. On either side of the war.

As her hands worked, Sakura's mind flashed back to an image of Kakashi during their fight with Zabuza. To how he'd protected them at the expense of his own safety, because losing even one of them would have been the loss of everything.

Sakura studied the girl on her table, and her heart turning over. When children died, everyone else suffered too.

Haku. Zabuza… It was because of that fight that she'd realized her shortcomings. Realized that 'good enough' was never going to be good enough. She had to be better. Smarter. Perfect. Yes, she wanted to protect the people she loved… but that also meant protecting herself as well.

Beneath her hands, the Genin girl took a gasping breath, her condition finally stabilizing. Sakura let out her own sign of relief, and carefully pulsed chakra through the girls adrenal glands. This would trigger a minor cascade of endogenous opioids that would function like morphine until the nurses got her on a real IV drip.

Not for the first time, Sakura marveled at the wonders of chakra-medicine and considered the yet untapped potential of her Yume-Genjutsu. With the right amount of chakra and enough practice, Sakura could trigger that same wave of endorphins on command, blunting any pain mid-battle until it could be appropriately attended to.

Sweating from her efforts, Sakura stepped back from the table, signaling to the surgical nurses they were clear to take over.

Her Yume-Jutsu could change everything. All she had to do was get it right.

Stepping out of the operating room, Sakura removed her mask and slid to the floor. Her head pressed against the wall behind her, more emotionally spent than anything. She knew she needed to update the girl's teammates about her condition, but she allowed herself this moment of quiet. Even when she closed her eyes, she could still see the after-burn of the Genin's adolescent chakra network. It seared the darkness of her mind like the halo of the sun when you stare at it for too long. How small and fragile and amazing the human body could be…

She needed to shake this off, to sit somewhere quiet for a minute…and knew where she really wanted to go.

Getting to her feet, Sakura walked the hospital in a daze, knowing every floor like she knew her own home. She was at his room when she finally came out of her thoughts, pressing the door open without remembering to knock.

The sheets were rumpled on the bed cot, and a tray of food sat in the corner, steaming soup still untouched. Stepping inside, Sakura looked for his wheelchair, thinking he might have gone to the cafeteria, or maybe to the showers…But his wheelchair was still in the room, sitting empty beside his open window, seafood green curtains wafting in the breeze.

She didn't even have to check his chart to know that Kakashi had run away.

Think. Think. Think! Sakura yelled at herself, feet patrolling the hospitals rooftop in the hopes that her Sensei hadn't been stupid enough to discharge himself against medical advice. 'What are you even saying. Of course he did.'

There wasn't a sign of him anywhere.

'Okay' she thought. He couldn't have gone far. The soup on his tray hadn't gone totally cold, which meant she wasn't far behind him. It was dumb luck that she'd notice he was missing when she did, probably caught him moments after he'd left. If she was quick, she'd be able to locate him in time and convince him to get back to his room before the next set of rounds. If Tsunade found out he'd gone AMA, it was over. No amount of soldier pills would help Sakura heal whatever her Hokage chose to break.

The breeze was hot and sticky, even ten stories up in the air, and provided no relief for her rising temper.

They had talked. She'd thought they'd had an understanding. Why had he left the hospital so suddenly? Was it because of how weird she'd been around him last time? Had he somehow felt her approaching and thrown his broken body out the window in an attempt to avoid her?

Her questions kept cutting notches into her self esteem. She had to shake this off an just find him!

With a huff, the breeze changed direction, now caressing her face instead of her back. An idea came to her mind, and suddenly the tension in her shoulders was unwinding. Why hadn't she thought of it sooner?

Moving away from the rooftops ledge, Sakura assumed her meditation position - sitting on the roof with her palms up, resting on her knees. Why go running across Konoha looking for Kakashi when she could just ask him where he'd gone?

She was fatigued from her last surgery, but knowing she was about to see him made the chakra in her belly curl effortlessly. Soon, it was a soothing wave riding the elevator of her spine up to the crown of her head. Summoning his was getting easier and easier.

She was, understandably, a little nervous. This was her first time using her Yume-jutsu outside of her apartment, and the idea of her secrets being exposed for all the world to see should have made the manifestation more difficult. But despite the noises of the streets below, she soon felt his presence without even needing to open her eyes. She was so in tune with his presence at this point, she could have picked him out of the sky like a star.

The noon day sun beat down on her skin all around, warming away her worries. But when she opened her eyes to say hello, he wasn't smiling at like her usually did. His head was tilted into a frown, and Sakura knew imperically that he was listening to the words in her heart. They had a way of understanding each other without things needing to be said.

She let the silence linger between them until he finally spoke.

"It seems I've caused you a bit of trouble this time." He said, gazing at her in concern.

Sakura swallowed hard, torn between the beauty of him and the need to find her Sensei.

"I dont know where he's gone." She said, and to her surprise, her voice cracked with unnamed emotion. The feeling of waking up on a park bench alone cut through the heat around her, chilling her though.

"Hey." Kakashi said quickly, reaching out and tilting her face towards his. His hands were often bare of gloves when he manifested. She registered the rough callouses of his palm now so familiar against her skin.

"Hey. I'm not Sasuke. Okay? Kakashi would never disappear on you like that…and neither would I." Sakura shamelessly turned her face into his hand, holding his one in the both of hers.

"I know." She said quietly into his palm, hating how vulnerable she sounded. "And you're right. I don't know why that's always my first assumption. It doesn't seem to matter how much time passes, my mind always seems to go to that."

Kakashi studied her for a moment before pulling her forward and placing a kiss on her brow. "You know, in life, sometimes people leave. But it doesn't necessarily mean they're leaving you."

Sakura swallowed hard around the rock in her throat. Hesitantly, Kakashi trailed tiny kisses down her cheek, across the bridge of her nose, the corners of her mouth.

"Does that mean you know where he is?" She asked. Despite her reluctance, her whole world narrowed to the three square inches of skin that burned beneath his mouth. She wanted to stay here with him forever, enjoying summer air on skin that was yet to be revealed by his wandering hands.

But she had an irritating Sensei to find. She knew she couldn't stay. But oh, how she wanted to stay…

"If I tell you where he is…" Kakashi began, his voice murmured below her ear, "You have to promise to let me see you tonight." His words took on a delicious edge of hunger. Her body became a live wire.

"I-" Dear god, this man was doing distracting things with his mouth…

"Please. Promise you'll let me see you tonight." His words were soft and sincere this time, tailor made to trick her into giving in to his designs. "…I really want to make up for lost time."

Sakura's eyes locked with his, and through the strange telepathic bond they shared she could feel the heat of his intentions. Flashes of how he would spend the night torturing her with his tongue and his hands. It took all of her willpower not to give in then and there.

This was exactly why she'd sworn him off in the first place. The man was too damn persuasive…

"Fine." He said, sighing in defeat at seeing the resolve on her face. "You win. Strictly business then." But he hovered his lips over hers anyway, withholding a parting kiss. Sakura knew exactly what he was doing, the devil. He wanted to make sure she knew just what she was missing out on.

"Tell me Sakura…" his voice was drug. "What day is it?" The unexpected question caught her off guard, and she sat back in confusion. He waited for her to reply.

"It's Friday?" she said, momentarily confused. But realization dawned on her as she spoke the answer. "Oh…It's Friday." She repeated, knowing at once exactly where she needed to go.

"That's my girl."

She was up on her feet in an instant, turning her body towards the south. She knew exactly where her Sensei was, and was about to leap out into the air when something made her freeze.

Kakashi looked, for all the world, like her leaving was killing him. He smiled at her anyway. "See? You didn't really need me after all."

Leaning down from the ledge, Sakura pressed their foreheads together, knowing the truth was very much otherwise. Knowing that if she let him, he would kiss her until her chakra burned out and they both left this world at the same time.

Instead, she kissed his cheek along his scar until the feel of his touch dissolved around her. It wasn't until she knew he was fully gone that she made her words real.

"I will always need you." She said to the empty air. As always, she allowed herself to linger in the vanishing dream of him.

With a last look around, she stepped off the roof of the hospital out into the open air and made her way to the cities perimeter.

Towards the memorial stone.

-Authors note-

Thank you again for reading with me. If you like my work, please consider leaving a review or sharing with your friends 3

xoxo - VB