Once it became apparent that Akiko was gone from her reach Sakura began throwing herself into missions. It may not have been the best coping mechanism but what else did a shinobi have? Being a jounin allowed her access to all levels of scrolls but she had no interest in throwing her life away on an S-class mission. Instead the cherry blossom took as many lower ranking missions as allowed then disappeared for days on end. When all the missions were completed she would return and start the cycle over again.
Almost no one saw the medic-nin anymore, including her lover who was growing concerned for her health. In the fleeting moments he had seen Sakura he noticed she was looking thinner, paler. He had hoped that she would have come to terms with her loss in the first few months but now he feared that she was on a path to self destruction. It was time for him to intervene.
He stood waiting for her return in front of Konoha's main gates staring idly at the Hokage moment. The sky was a steely gray, the wind bitter. Despite wearing his heaviest flak jacket and a thick wool scarf the breeze seemed to blow right through him. It looked like a normal, overcast day but Kakashi could smell the snow in the air. He was betting they had at least a foot on the ground come the end of the day.
So absorbed in weather prediction, the elite shinobi barely had time to react as a body crashed against his. Sakura had appeared in a cloud of her usual pink smoke but the medic-nin hadn't made it one step before her knees gave out, toppling her sideways into the silver-haired jounin. Activity broke out around the gate as the guards came rushing forward, shouting questions to Kakashi as he carefully lifted the unconscious cherry blossom into his arms.
"Is she injured?" Kotetsu shouted as he ran from his post.
"No, just exhausted." Kakashi said as he cradled her against his chest. With his free hand he began to explore in the pockets of her flak jacket.
"What's going on here?" Just as Kakashi silently predicated, a ROOT captained appeared in a swirl of autumn leaves.
"Haruno-san collapsed upon returning to the village." Withdrawing his hand from one of her pockets, the silver-haired jounin tossed a hand full of mission scrolls to the captain.
"It is not her day off." Catching the scrolls with ease the Captain tucked them into his own vest. "She will be expected to report back to duty."
Growling in annoyance, Kakashi finally looked away from Sakura's pale face to fix the Captain with a stern glare.
"If you check her mission records you will find that she has not taken her assigned day off in three months. Also, all shinobi are entitled to a one-day sick leave every two months. Something that Haruno-san has not used since the law was passed. There is also the fact that since the academy students have been put in charge of D and C-rank mission, we now have a ratio of 2 shinobi per 1 mission scroll. So even if Haruno-san reported for duty, which she won't be, there is a good chance there will be no missions." His voice was cold and heavy with the unspoken dare for the root agent to challenge him. The Captain, while standing strong for the sake of appearance, was struggling not to shrink back from the bite of Kakashi's words.
"Now," the copy-nin continued as he took a step towards the ROOT agent. "You can either walk away, turn the mission scrolls in and explain the situation to the Hokage or I can kick your ass, pin a note to your back and have you dragged to Danzo-sama. Which would you prefer?"
Shifting uncomfortably the Captain looked from Kakashi to the gate guards. Usually such a display of defiance wouldn't go unpunished however this was Kakashi, the master of over 1,000 jutsu and former candidate for the position of Hokage. Stronger captains than himself had butted heads and backed down from this man in the past. Stepping away from the jounin the ROOT agent tilted his head slightly.
"I will inform the Rokudaime of Haruno's condition. If he has any questions, I'll be sure to direct him to you." Though he was backing down, the Captain made it clear to Kakashi he would not be taking the fall for him.
With a snort of indifference towards the ROOT captain, Kakashi shrugged off a concerned Kotetsu and quickly made the hand seals for his teleportation jutsu. A feat that was admittedly difficult for the copy-nin while cradling his unconscious lover. Within a heartbeat he back in the apartment he and Sakura had been sharing for well over a year now. Looking down at the girl, the jounin could not help the frown that caused his brows to furrow. What had she been thinking? He could tell the cherry blossom had been neglecting herself, judging by how light she was in his arms. Her skin was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes, betraying the fact that she had not been sleeping properly.
This was completely unlike his lover, who had always been very serious about maintaining her health and body. He could understand if she was depressed over the loss of Akiko but why now, after all they had suffered through so far, had she appeared to have finally given up?
Laying her down on their bed Kakashi brushed her pink hair to the side, staring down into a gaunt face he barely recognized. She was clearly suffering and it pained him to no end that she had chosen to throw herself into missions instead of sharing her pain with him. Slowly, he ran the pad of his thumb across her cheek. When she woke, he was going to have a serious conversation with her. After all they had suffered through together, she should have realized by now that he was her partner in pain.
In her sleep, Sakura's eyes fluttered.
She was staring down at the mission scroll, reading it's contents for the tenth time. Why had she expected anything different? Danzo was known for his sick sense of humor and forcing her to sleep with her former teacher certainly fit the bill for sick. If she thought she would survive the journey, the cherry blossom would have headed to Suna after the second time she read the scroll but Sakura knew she stood no chance of making it to the desert before being hunted down by Danzo's elite ROOT dogs.
Closing the scroll, Sakura hung her head. She wasn't sure if the wetness on her thighs was from tears or the rain that had just started to fall.
Another image flashed across Sakura's dream, a figure hanging from a tree in training field nine.
Fear welled up inside the sleeping, pink-haired girl as she rolled onto her side, curling her knees to her chest.
The night club was full of smoke, it reeked of stale bodies and alcohol. It was one of the seedier taverns in town but one of the few that dared to remain open during the early hours of the morning. From her seat in the booth, she could clearly see Kakashi sitting at the bar, staring into the distance as he sipped on something from a small glass. By her count this was his fifth drink and the slight sway to his body told her he was indeed intoxicated.
"Sakura, what are you staring at?"
Turning her head, the medic-nin gave Ino a soft smile before nodding towards the bar. "Is that Kakashi-san?"
Wrinkling her nose, Ino turned her head and followed Sakura's gaze. "You had any doubts it was him?"
With a shrug, Sakura rose from her seat and placed some money on their table. "I think I'll go say hello. Don't wait up for me."
Walking away from her blonde friend, the cherry blossom did her best to remain calm. He may be drunk but he was still Kakashi, feared sharingan wielder and elite shinobi. She had to play her hand carefully or she would fail. Failure was not something she could afford, the medic-nin was almost out of time to complete her mission.
Sliding onto the bar stool next to him, she gave him a playful punch in the shoulder. "Hello Kakashi."
"Sakura!" He spun around on his stool and grinned through his mask, waving a little more enthusiastically at her then he normally would. She couldn't help but smile.
"I thought I'd join you for a drink."
"Mmm" Kakashi said, swaying slightly as he continued to spin, "I dunno Sakura, I think it's time for me to head home."
"Aww, Kakashi! You wouldn't leave without having one birthday drink with me, would you?"
"Birfday?" He leaned his head backwards and squinted at the ceiling. "But...it's not...I thought.." he looked at her then, slightly confused.
"I ought to know when my birthday is!" She joked with him, grinning widely. Inside her blood had turned to ice, she was hoping he would be to drunk to remember the date.
"Well...yesh..yesh you should!" He laughed suddenly then, a loud jubilant sound that Sakura had never heard from the man before.
"Bartender!" He shouted as he jumped from his stool. 'Two shots please!"
The scene unfolding in the darkness of Sakura's unconscious mind flickered again. She was standing in a dark room, lit only with a single, dim light bulb that buzzed insistently. Chains were the rooms primary decorations and the medic-nin could not tell if the walls had been painted a brownish red or if it was simply dried blood. In the center of the room was a table, on it laid a struggled figure covered by a dirty sheet. Set up next to the table was ultrasound equipment. Chewing on her lip, she began to grow nervous. What was that doing in a torture room?
They collapsed onto the mattress, hot kisses passing between the pair. Every few moments Kakashi would pause and question her. His mind was fuzzy, he couldn't exactly remember who he was taking to bed with him but her kisses were like fire on his skin. She pushed him roughly, forcing him onto his back. He let out a startled gasp as she began to trail those delicious kisses down his neck and chest. Opening his eyes as he fisted a hand full of her hair, his lust filled moan caught in his throat.
Pink. It was pink hair. Sakura..had pink hair. He squinted, trying to focus on the woman currently licking her way past his belly button. Why couldn't he seem to complete a thought? Why was his skin so sensitive to her touches? He'd engaged in drunken sex before, but never had the copy-nin been become so fuzzy that he couldn't remember who it was he was sleeping with.
"S-sakura?" he managed to choke out. If he had guessed wrong the worst he would suffer was a slap he wouldn't remember.
'Shhh' a husky voice soothed as she took the tip of his penis in her mouth and began to suck gently.
Jade eyes stared at the monitor in front of her in disbelief. How was he expecting her to react? The medic-nin's heart pounded against her ribs, fluttering like a caged bird.
"So then, you confirm the diagnosis?" Danzo's voice cut through her mind, breaking the spell the black and white monitor held over her.
Instead they fell upon a pale faced girl who stared at her with large, brown eyes full of fear and pain. Her long brown hair, usually done up in twin buns, was pulled loose and matted with twigs and dirt. A sealing tag was taped across her mouth, preventing the woman from speaking but Sakura saw every unspoken word reflected in doe-like eyes.
"I.." What was she suppose to say? There was no way she could lie...not at this point.
"Excuse me?" Danzo demanded.
Closing her eyes, Sakura drew in a shaky breath.
"Yes Hokage-sama. She is pregnant."
"Hmm" Danzo began, a twisted smile forming on his lips. "And did this particular Kunoichi have permission to conceived?"
"N-no Hokage-sama." In her head, Sakura began to scream. (No, no, please don't...don't ask me ..)
"You will terminate the pregnancy then."
Kakashi's body was unmoving beneath hers as she rode his hips fast and hard. Every few moments the copy-nin groaned unconsciously as he stared, unseeing, at the ceiling. Her poison had finally taken complete control, leaving his body subject to her whim. Sakura had made love on several occasions, but never before had she out right fucked anyone. That was the only word that could describe what she was doing to her former sensei. That, and rape.
Sickness suddenly washed over the cherry blossom, causing her rhythm to falter. Taking a breath, she closed her eyes and tried to ground herself, tried to remind herself why she was doing this. Shifting, she placed her hands against his toned stomach to balance herself and resume her rhythm with renewed vigor. She could feel his body beginning to tense.
Suddenly the stomach her hand pressed against was not so toned. It was softer, smoother and covered in the blood. The blood ran down from the woman's chest, dripping from a wound inflicted by the ROOT hunters during her capture. It pooled around the medic-nin's hand where it laid against the helpless kunoichi's stomach. Soft, blue chakra glowed around the edges of Sakura's hand but it was not being used to heal the ROOT's powerless victim, instead it was stealing the life from the baby that had started to grow inside her womb.
Tears ran down the cherry blossom's cheeks as she felt the unborn child's heartbeat shutter to a standstill. Her body gave an involuntary shutter of it's own.
"It..is done Hokage-sama.."
"Very good Haruno-san." His voice was thick with amusement. "Tell me Haruno...are those tears?"
"N-no Hokage-sama." Sakura managed to squeak out. "It is..very hot down here."
"Would you lie to your Hokage?" His amusement only seemed to grow.
"No Hokage-sama." She was staring at the concrete floor now, willing her body to stop shaking.
"Mmm, very well Haruno." Shuffling slowly, he came to stand next to her. Raising his hand, he began to stroke her hair much the way one would stroke a dog's head. Without warning, his hand fisted in her hair and jerked her head backwards, forcing her to stare into a face twisted with delirium.
"You did very good to obey your Hokage. All Kunoichi should look to as you a role-model!" He begin laughing uncontrollably as he released her hair.
"You may go." Danzo snapped. Like a switch had been flipped, he was suddenly serious again.
She moved quickly, intent on escaping from the horrors of that room as soon as possible. Passing through the door way, Sakura didn't pause to cast a backwards glance at the woman left sprawled across the cold, steel table. She couldn't look back, not without risking the wrath of her Hokage and possibly finding herself on one of those table, albeit for a different purpose. Shuttering again, she hung her head and ran.
"I'm sorry Ten-ten.." she whispered to the dirty walls. "I am so sorry."
Without warning Sakura jerked awake, startling both the silver-haired jounin and the black cat in his lap. Vaguely Sakura register she was at home, in her bed but then nausea rolled through her and she was up and sprinting for the bathroom. Even after violently emptying the contents of her stomach into the toilet it continued to churn unpleasantly. Shaking and gasping for breath, the cherry blossomed pressed her cheek against the cool porcelain and was rewarded with a small reprieve from nausea. After a moment, a cool towel was draped across her neck and a large hand began rubbing circles slow along her back.
"Feeling better?" Kakashi asked softly.
"No.." Sakura groaned out miserably.
Strong arms wrapped around her, hugging her to Kakashi's chest. Closing her eyes she focused on the feel of his heart beat against her back, using it's steady rhythm as an anchor to calm her own. It had been months since she had dreamed of Ten-ten and the atrocities she had been forced to commit against the girl. Surely the cosmos was punishing her. Of all the night's to dream of the former member of Team Guy, it had to be this evening the nightmares returned.
"Kakashi.." Sakura's voice was suddenly unsteady as her breathing began to hitch once more.
Hugging her tighter, he brought his head to rest against the back of her neck. "Shhhh, I'm here"
"No..." the medic-nin struggled to speak. She was beginning to shake again.
"Sakura...What's wrong?" He urged her gently.
Clenching her hands into fists, she felt another wave of sickness wash over her as she managed to spit out the words.
"I'm pregnant."