Sakura answered the door, and Kakashi braced himself for carnage. But his body didn't move except to let himself in when she stepped out of the way. Her hair was damp and there was a towel around her shoulders.

"Hey, I was wondering when you'd get here." She fluffed her hair with the towel one last time and tossed it on the bed. Her eyes shifted down to Kakashi's hands. "So, where is it?"

The strings controlling his body seemed to tighten, and with a surge of triumph Kakashi realised his puppeteer didn't understand Sakura's question.

And then the scene changed.

He was a young jounin, still an awkward kid with a squeaky voice and spots under his mask. Minato was smiling at him from over the top of his desk; the same desk Kakashi himself used to sit behind. When was that?

"Kakashi, this mission depends on your intel," Minato said, and he wanted to be useful so badly that he probably would have swallowed his own shuriken if asked. "We need to know what Haruno Sakura is asking about."

"Sakura, sir?" Sakura was after this time, wasn't she? He tried to find a memory that included both Minato and Sakura, but a different one forced itself in front of his eyes. Sakura looking at his empty hands, saying, "So, where is it?"

He had a vague notion that his answer was very important, but not for the reasons Minato was suggesting. "Sir, I'm not sure I understand what's happening."

"Of course you do." Minato reassured him, fingers drumming tunelessly on the shiny desk. And suddenly Kakashi did understand. Minato was here, and he was Hokage. Kakashi only had to follow his orders, and everything would happen as it should.

"That's right, Kakashi. You aren't being forced to give up control. You're being allowed to give up your responsibilities."

Thank God…

"I told Sakura I would bring her something for lunch. That's probably what she is asking about." He finished his report with a crisp salute.

"Thank you, Kakashi," Minato said, and his heart could have burst with happiness.

"Actually, I was thinking we could go for a walk instead. Maybe have a picnic."

Awareness returned to Kakashi, along with the knowledge that he had betrayed himself utterly. Bile tried to rise in a throat that wasn't being controlled by him, and was forced down by a will other than his own. He hoped it took a lot of Yoshio's energy to force him to seem normal, when every part of him was in active rebellion.

Sakura's brows knit together. "Really? Isn't it way too hot outside?"

Yes, it is. Please see that this is a trap.

"It's not too bad," Yoshio forced him to say. His body leaned forward to brush a strand of hair behind Sakura's ear. "Besides, there's something I want to show you." He could feel her slightly damp skin, flushed pink from his touch. But it wasn't his touch, and he could only watch in horror as Sakura leaned toward him to press a light kiss to his masked lips.

"Don't worry," she murmured, "Ino stepped out for a bit. It's just us."

Don't you fucking DARE! He thought furiously, but even though his thoughts were easier to articulate without Ino's mind squashing his consciousness into a tiny corner, he wasn't sure anyone could actually hear them. There was another minute tightening of the thread, as if Yoshio was paying particular attention to Kakashi out of all his puppets. He felt sick.

Sakura pulled back after a moment, and once again there was a line between her brows, a sliver of concern on her beautiful face. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he said, giving her a reassuring smile slightly too late.

"I don't know," she shook her head. "It's silly, but for a second there you looked like you might burst into tears or something."

"I was probably just overcome by your beauty," Yoshio lied through Kakashi's teeth. "But even though I'd love nothing more than to spend the rest of the day in this room with you, I really want you to see something. I guarantee you'll love it."

"Okay," she sighed, but Kakashi noted with some hope that the crease in her brows was still there. She placed her red kanzashi stick in her hair, and after a moment of deliberation strapped her kunai holster to her thigh.

"Just in case," she smiled at him, and Yoshio seemed to have the sense not to fight her on it.

Kakashi seemed to be for the edge of the village, so Sakura tugged his arm gently.

"You sure this is a good idea? Today's the day Yoshio is most likely to attack." Sakura didn't need to do much other than conserve chakra before the main event, but it still felt like tempting fate to let the Hokage leave the village virtually unguarded.

As if reading her mind, Turtle and Bear emerged from their hiding places and fell into a respectful shadowing distance behind them. Sakura let her hand drop from Kakashi's arm (if the men were halfway decent at their jobs, they probably knew everything by now anyway; but discretion was still expected) but to her surprise, Kakashi reached out and linked her arm in his.

Why does this feel familiar?

"People might see," she reminded him, but he shrugged.

"Let them. Besides, nobody is around at this time of day."

That wasn't a reassuring thought, for some reason.

The border guard waved them on without so much as a second glance. Sakura's foreboding increased.

"They should have said something." If the leader of a foreign country got lost or attacked outside the Hidden Sand, it would be a major incident. The guards should have asked where they were headed and when they were expected to return.

Kakashi tightened his arm around hers, leaning close to her ear as if they really were on a romantic stroll.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. They're in on my little plan, so they already know everything," he told her, so close she could feel his breath.

'Check.'

Slowly, without breaking stride, Sakura slid her linked arm free and balled it into a fist. "It's been a long time, Yoshio."

They walked in silence for a few more seconds, before 'Kakashi' finally spoke.

"How did you know?"

"Kakashi doesn't call me Sakura-chan anymore."

"Ah." He nodded thoughtfully, then pulled out a kunai and held it to his carotid artery.

Sakura bit back her scream, shut down the urge to lunge for the blade. "There's no need for all that, Yoshio," she said instead, as if he had done something only mildly objectionable.

"Just a precaution," he smiled from over the top of the blade. "You're smart enough to know you're outnumbered."

She did know. Turtle and Bear were still at her back, and the border guard was close enough that if they weren't puppets, they would certainly have reacted to the sight of the Hokage holding a knife to his own neck. Not to mention the fact that Yoshio could have any number of other puppets under his direct control currently. It didn't need to be Kakashi's throat he slit to keep Sakura in line.

"How long have you had him?" she asked, even though she was afraid of the answer. How many touches? How many sweet words, whispered in darkness? Was their whole relationship a lie?

"For this one? Not long at all, only an hour or two."

They were approaching the fighting pit, and Sakura suspected she knew what would happen when they arrived. "Listen, Yoshio; it's not too late to stop this." She looked into Kakashi's charcoal eyes, trying to imagine the brown eyes of her greatest enemy. "I will personally vouch for you to the other countries. I'll tell them the truth: you aren't well."

"Saint Sakura," he mocked affectionately, the tip of the blade catching slightly on Kakashi's mask and leaving a dark pinprick of blood. "Always trying to save the poor, mad dreamers."

"It's not too late," she repeated, even as they walked up to the lip of the pit. She peered over, and there, in the middle, was the real Sato Yoshio. He waved, looking just like a normal little kid. He could have been competing in the chunin exam. He could have been one of Sarada's classmates.

"Long time, no see," he mouthed silently, the words reaching her ears in Kakashi's voice.

And then a boot was in her back, shoving her unceremoniously over the edge.

She knew it was coming, so had no trouble landing on her feet. "What now?" She raised her hands, taking in the pit and the others assembled around the edges. They were from all different places, judging by their clothes, and Sakura assumed they were just the tip of the iceberg for the shadow puppeteer. "We both know you can't turn me, which means you just want me out of the way before I mess up your plans." She'd have to fight every single shinobi in the pit before she was ever allowed close enough to the boy (man) controlling them. But if she was fast, and lucky…

"True; shadow puppetry would have no effect on you. But even if you weren't impervious to genjutsu, I wouldn't have much use for an arrogant, broken medic who thinks the only one allowed to change reality is her."

"I'm not changing reality," she defended, ignoring the throbbing in her head so that she could get ready to mould chakra.

Yoshio raised an eyebrow, the mature expression looking wrong on his freckled face. "No? You're barely nineteen in reality, but somehow you've fallen into bed with your thirty-something former teacher." He shook his head. "You could have been a god, and you chose to be a cliché."

Sakura leaped forward, glowing green fist aimed squarely at Yoshio's young heart. She didn't have a second shot at this; he had to die, right here and now.

Her fist made contact with something, but instead of crunching ribs, it was grabbed and yanked forward, sending her sailing off her feet. She flipped, gracelessly, onto her back in the now-familiar dirt of the arena.

Two figures swam above her, the heat ripples and her latent head trauma making them seem distorted. Yoshio, his smile sadistic; and Kakashi, eyes wide and urgent.

"Sakura, run!" he cried, and for a heady moment she thought he'd broken free of Yoshio's jutsu. But then she realised that it was his hand that gripped hers, still twisting it at an unnatural angle.

She sprang to her feet, ignoring the protesting creak in her wrist as she slipped free. She retreated until her back was pressing against the pit wall, pulling a kunai from her holster as she went. Kakashi mirrored her actions, advancing slowly.

"Run, Sakura, just get out of here!"

"Don't do this," she pleaded, not to Kakashi, but to the boy using him as a human shield. "Don't make him fight me."

The 'boy' just smiled and nodded at her knife. "Then do the job for him."

"No!" Kakashi shouted, shaking his head even as the rest of his body continued to ignore him, "Damn you, let me go!"

Sakura slumped against the wall like the fight had gone out of her, subtly coiling strength into her feet. Before Kakashi could reach her, she sprang away, sidestepping him on her way to the unguarded puppet master.

Or at least, that was her plan.

In reality, her feet sank into the rocky ground like it was made of syrup, and when her body jumped forward, her feet stayed put.

She shrieked as her right ankle popped out of its socket, clawing at the pit wall with chakra-enhanced hands before her left ankle could follow suit. She wobbled, all four limbs stuck in place; but only two by choice.

"Forgot about the others, didn't you?" Yoshio teased, and Sakura followed his gaze to one of the shinobi surrounding them. His hands were forming seals, presumably the earth jutsu that sunk her feet in place. "Does the whole world just fall away, when your lover is near?"

"Dodge!" Kakashi shouted, and she had a split second to move her head out of the way before his fist collided with the wall behind her. She dropped the chakra in her hands, balancing unsteadily on her good leg and trying to ignore the bad one.

"That's cheating," Yoshio tsked, and Kakashi's shouts were cut off, his expression going slack.

"Kakashi. This woman killed Haruno Sakura."

His next punch was aimed at her solar plexus with a roar of pure hatred. There was no way to dodge while she was still stuck in place, so she tensed her abdominal muscles as best she could. The impact still left her wheezing, head slamming back so hard that she almost got knocked out for the second time in as many days.

"It's me," she coughed, ignoring the metallic taste of blood on her tongue.

Kakashi wouldn't or couldn't hear her, wrapping his hands around her neck and squeezing.

Yoshio stepped closer, watching her struggle like this was a class and Kakashi was about to demonstrate some fascinating new technique.

"K-kai," she choked out, forming the rat seal for genjutsu release. The pressure on her neck didn't ease at all, but something seemed to flicker in her vision. Was she just seeing stars from the lack of blood travelling to her brain, or was there something on Kakashi's back?

"Finish her," Yoshio murmured, but Kakashi shook his head.

"She needs to suffer first."

"Ugh, humans. Why can't you ever do what you're told?" Yoshio threw up his hands, and at the same time Kakashi's body froze. For a second only his eyes were moving, settling on his hands. When he spoke, his voice was surprisingly calm.

"Sakura? Kill me."

His hands left her neck, one shifting to pin her shoulder against the wall, and the other drawing back like he was preparing to punch her again. But instead of a fist, his fingers were curled into a claw shape.

Their eyes met, and Sakura understood what was about to happen.

Blinding white light flashed in her eyes, and then her chest was ripped open.

She had been impaled before, but a knife or spear was nothing compared to an entire fist. She'd been burned, but fire was nothing compared to lightning. She'd even been electrocuted before, but getting caught on the edge of an uncontrolled burst was nothing compared to experiencing Chidori directly.

First, her ribs cracked like straw, crushing her lungs. Then 300 million volts passed through every nerve in her body at once, making her teeth grit together so forcefully that they would eventually crack. Her heart raced so fast it was likely to explode. Her mitotic regeneration kicked in automatically, easing her suffering only long enough for the lightning to fry her all over again.

Kakashi's hand was wrist deep in her chest, bathed in arcs of white light. And even as he shouted for Yoshio to show mercy, that hand remained steady. Her own hands, black-striped and shaking, pressed themselves to the sides of his masked face.

"Kill me," he begged her again, dark eyes full of tears.

They both knew she couldn't, so Sakura didn't waste energy on answering as she lowered his mask. Her chakra was efficient but not limitless, and she didn't want to die without seeing his face one last time. The face that had been the anchor of her reality for two years now; a symbol that she was awake, and alive, and loved.

"Please," Kakashi whispered, and Sakura wasn't sure if it was for her or Yoshio or the gods above. She wanted to tell him it would be over soon, that her chakra was close to failing; at which point the black stripes would retreat, leaving her body unable to heal from the damage he was causing her. She would die, but at least he'd no longer be killing her.

Why wait? Her inner voice whispered, and she realised it was right. She could drop Mitotic Regeneration early, force her body to end the stalemate and accept its fate. She closed her eyes, and felt her cells begin to die without growing back. Only be a few more seconds of pain to endure, and then the fight would no longer be hers.

Her chakra fluttered, as if desperate not to give up while she still had something in reserve. The medic's code forbade it, after all. But what else could she do? Her brain was literally cooking, her body in too much pain to let her think.

Kakashi needs us.

She opened her eyes, commanding herself to take in the bleak situation just in case there was something at hand that could help. Yoshio was close by, watching her death with eager eyes, but he was still just slightly too far for her to reach. She couldn't bend with a hand in her chest, so her kunai holster was also out of reach. Kakashi was within reach, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt him badly, and it wouldn't have changed her fate even if she could. Shiny filaments still circled his back, but she reached out a hand and they passed straight through. Unlike normal puppetry, when combined with genjutsu the strings were more like energy than a physical cord.

Oh.

She reached up and pulled the kanzashi from her hair with shaking fingers.

Oh, please.

Her ability to mould the last of her chakra raced against Kakashi's ability to bring death.

Please let this work.

Green light flared around the stick, barely longer than the length of her finger, but hopefully long enough. Kakashi saw what she was doing, and his face broke into a tired smile.

"Thank you."

Inner Sakura scoffed. Idiot. As if we'd use the last of our strength just to kill you.

She reached past Kakashi and raked the tiny chakra blade through the strings attached to his back.

Checkmate.

Something snapped inside Kakashi, and his body became his own once more.

He stepped back from Sakura and plunged his crackling hand into a new target. Yoshio looked like a child, and Kakashi hated hurting kids more than just about anything else. But he wasn't a child, and though the image of his Chidori slicing into his chest and exploding his small heart was gruesome, he knew it wouldn't weigh on his conscience.

The boy who was really a man collapsed to the ground, and all the other shinobi who ringed the pit jerked as though an invisible string had snapped inside them, too.

"We did it," he murmured, turning back to Sakura. His triumph evaporated instantly, because the black lines hadn't returned to her body and the hole in her chest was still bleeding freely.

He grabbed her before she fell, lowering her to the ground and trying to ignore the roaring in his ears that it was too late, too late, too late. She had come back from terrible things before. She just needed time. His hands guided hers to her chest, pressing them gently against the edges of the gory sight that he had created (too late, too late).

"What do you need?" he asked, when nothing happened.

She frowned, twitching her hands slightly. Faint green light sparked briefly, then disappeared. "I reached my limit," she croaked, the words choked with blood. For the first time in many years, she looked afraid.

"Then use my chakra." He pumped it into her so forcefully that she coughed another mouthful of blood. His pure white chakra became her soft green, but even though her hands were glowing steadily, nothing else was happening.

"No," she said, the now-familiar crease forming between her brows. "Not chakra – I've reached the Hayflick Limit."

The Hayflick Limit was the point at which a cell could no longer divide and regenerate. She must have healed the wound too many times in the last few seconds, and now the cells were unable to divide any further.

"What can I do?" he asked, because this couldn't be it. They had won. They had stopped the threat and freed all the victims. Sakura was meant to get up and walk away with the others. She always got up.

She was still looking at him, but her eyes were glazing over and she seemed to be breathing more blood than air. She said nothing, either because she could no longer speak, or because that was the answer. Her eyelids slid closed, and he knew that this time there would be no getting up. This time, he was actually losing her.

I love you, Hatake Kakashi. I wish I could have told you properly, just once…

"No."

He formed the seals to a certain jutsu, one he had never used before and would never use again. Chiyo's jutsu used the same hand seals as any other, looking deceptively mundane. The onlookers in the pit might have thought he was doing a normal healing jutsu, and perhaps that's why they were keeping their distance instead of trying to stop him.

The jutsu took, and he placed his hands over Sakura's broken body. He wasn't sure what to expect; would it hurt? He got his answer almost immediately, and it was a resounding 'yes.' It felt like every cell in his body was on fire, burning and dying. He gasped, tasting blood.

His breath was coming harder and he felt cold despite the summer sun, but if this was helping Sakura then he'd endure it to the bitter end. His vision was blurring, and his last coherent thought was that it was a shame he'd probably be gone by the time she woke up. He would have liked to say goodbye.

Sakura opened her eyes.

Her body still hurt, but instead of drifting away she seemed to be returning. Kakashi was still crouched over her, and she opened her mouth to tell him everything she regretted not saying before.

But he looked wrong. His mouth was red, his face ghostly pale. His eyes were glazed and dull, one of the main things Sakura looked for when she knew a patient was about to die. The dark material of his shirt was sticky with blood and gore, but the fabric itself wasn't ripped. It was like his chest had simply burst open of its own accord.

"No, no." That was all Sakura could say, struggling to sit up and assess him properly. It was then that she realised they were still connected, his hands stuck to her chest like she had been grafted to him. But this graft was killing her host, somehow transferring all of her wounds to him.

She formed the seals for a diagnostic jutsu, trying to assess how much better she felt with every passing second, and how many seconds it might take before she was perfect and Kakashi was dead.

The chakra coursing through her body was palest green, far lighter than usual and, weirder still, her body seemed to be pumping it out of her body, up Kakashi's arms, around his circulatory system, and back around her own in an endless loop. And it wasn't just chakra; her cells were, somehow, meeting Kakashi's and blending together. Her dying, burnt out cells were being replaced with his fresh ones. And the healthy cells of his body were burning.

"Kakashi, stop." She shook his shoulder and his head lolled to one side. "Stop. That's enough."

"Not until she's okay," He muttered, and Sakura suspected his mind was barely holding it together with the sudden loss of blood.

Plan B, then.

Her seal cracked open, black stripes once more racing along her body, but this time they travelled up Kakashi's arms and covered him too.

And this time, it worked.

Cells divided, damaged tissue knit back together, and cracked bones and torn muscles became whole once more. Her ribs shifted painfully back into place, and Kakashi's sharp groan made it clear that the same thing was happening to him.

"Thanks for splitting the difference with me," she grinned, when it was possible to do so without wincing.

Kakashi looked at her, and down at himself, with wide eyes. "What's happening?"

"Like I said, we're splitting the difference. Your healthy cells and my expired ones were getting swapped around. If Chiyo's jutsu went on long enough, I'd have walked away fully healed and you would've died from my injuries. But at the halfway point both of us are wounded, but neither of us are at the Hayflick Limit."

"Which means healing can work again," Kakashi concluded, examining the black lines running down his arms. He frowned. "But I thought Chiyo's jutsu was about exchanging one life for another. How can we both be alive right now? Not that I'm complaining."

Sakura shrugged. "We only ever saw it used on Gaara, who was completely healthy other than the fact that his chakra got extracted along with the One Tails'. Before that, I heard they only ever tested the jutsu on puppets. If it's really about exchanging cells and chakra, it wouldn't be clear what was happening to people who had no life-force to begin with." That was her theory, anyway. She doubted she'd get another opportunity to study the jutsu close-up, and that was fine by her.

Thanks, Chiyo-sama. You saved me one last time.

People in brown robes and white aprons dropped into the pit, and Sakura closed her seal with a sob of relief. They were still far from peak condition, but she was satisfied neither she nor Kakashi would drop dead before the medics could get them to hospital. Mitotic Regeneration shortened one's lifespan; and now that she could once again look forward to a world with both she and Kakashi in it, she wanted their lives together to be as long as possible.

"Wake up, Sakura."

Sakura opened her eyes. "Shishou?"

Tsunade stood at the base of her hospital bed. She was wearing travelling clothes and covered in about a week's worth of sand. "Sorry I'm late; but I guess you didn't need me and Shizune for your plan to work after all, eh?"

Sakura had the sudden urge to burst into tears at the sight of her mentor. Instead, she laughed. "Plan? The plan went out the window immediately. I've just been making it up as I go."

"I might say the ends justify the means," she lifted Sakura's chart from where it hung at the end of her bed, "but it looks like the means almost got you killed. Both of you." She glanced at the bed next to Sakura's, where a tuft of silver hair peeked out from the top of the blanket. "Do I need to bother reading his chart, or is it just a carbon copy of yours?"

"Pretty much," Sakura shrugged sheepishly. "The local medics had us on telemetry for the first few days, and we were so in sync that at one point we went into cardiac arrest at the exact same time."

"Cute," Tsunade deadpanned, dropping the chart back on its hook. "I'm glad you and the Hokage are alive and in more or less one piece; but don't ever do that again. Your bodies literally couldn't take it, for one thing."

"In my defence, he was the one who used Chiyo's forbidden jutsu."

"Snitch," Kakashi mumbled, signalling that he was finally awake. "Hey, Tsunade-sama."

"Don't you 'hey' me, kid. As I was just telling Sakura, you're both lucky to be walking away with only a scar for permanent damage."

Sakura scratched absently at the dressings on her chest. She and Kakashi would indeed have matching scars after this, right down to the exact shape of the Lichtenberg figures trailing out from the wound like a starburst.

"No regrets," Kakashi said, sitting up with a barely concealed wince. The blanket fell away from his bare face, but ever since Sakura had lowered his mask for what she had assumed to be the last time, he hadn't raised it again. It was already causing quite a sensation among the female medics.

"Be sure to tell them that at your disciplinary hearing," Tsunade said tartly, her anger making her immune to his handsomeness.

Kakashi just smiled. "I already got the 'Forbidden Jutsu Bad!' lecture from Gaara. He also said that Sunagakure is going to resume testing of Chiyo's jutsu - under strictly controlled conditions, of course - so I get the sense the formal hearing might be postponed indefinitely, as long as we promise to let them dissect our bodies one day."

Tsunade stayed for a while longer, and eventually she was joined by Shizune and Tonton (who had both taken the opportunity to bathe before visiting). When a medic came by with dinner, they excused themselves with a promise to come again tomorrow.

Sakura and Kakashi waved tiredly after them. They had only been declared healthy enough for visitors earlier that day, and already they had seen Gaara ("Forbidden Jutsu Bad!"), Ino ("I'm glad you're feeling better, because the second we get home everyone is getting mandatory training against my jutsu"), Shikamaru and Temari ("We postponed the second wedding because we didn't know if you were going to die; now that we know you're okay, we'd better go and tell the caterer"), Chouji ("Sorry for helping to turn Ino into a puppet and nearly getting you killed the other day. By the way, my whole team passed the exam!"), and even the other Kages with whom they were less close ("Thanks for killing that man. Now we have to rush home and deal with the fallout of his jutsu, so bye!"). They'd barely had more than a minute alone together in which they were both conscious, and Sakura was fed up. Even though it hurt, and would almost certainly upset the night nurse if he caught them, she slid out of her bed and limped over to Kakashi's.

He flicked back the corner of his blanket and helped her lower herself in by his side. "Careful."

She (carefully) rested her head under the crook of his neck. "Did I tell you how happy I am that we're both alive?"

"Hmm." Kakashi (carefully) wrapped an arm around Sakura, pulling her closer. "If you did, I might have been asleep for it."

She smiled. "Well, I'm really happy we're both alive."

"That's good news. Things might have been awkward if you weren't."

"Also, I love you."

He sighed into her hair. "I knew that one already."

"I know. But I wanted to tell you properly." She raised her head to look him in the eye. "I want to tell you every day."

"Does that mean you're moving back to Konoha for good?"

"Well..." There was still a great deal of the world she had yet to see, but it could wait a little while longer. "Have they leased out my apartment yet?"

"After more than a year? I'm afraid so."

"Ah, damn."

"But I managed to save your aloe plant. I named it Mrs Ukki."

"Our plants are married? Oh dear, I can't possibly split them up again."

Kakashi grinned. "You'll just have to come live with the three of us, then."

"It might be a bit crowded."

"We could get a bigger place? A proper house out on the edge of town, maybe. With a garden out front for the Ukkis to run around in."

She giggled at the mental image of two plants 'running around'. But the rest of that image, of her and Kakashi eating dinner together, having friends over to visit, and waking up in each other's arms every morning, filled her with warmth.

"I don't need the nicest house on the nicest street to be happy. As long as you're there, it'll be home to me."

Shikamaru and Temari had the Suna half of their wedding ceremony. It was far smaller, and somewhat overshadowed by the world being thrown into disarray by the revelation that so many important people were, until recently, being puppeted by a maniac with a god complex. But Sakura and Kakashi were there, in party clothes and matching wheelchairs, watching as their friends exchanged their vows once more. When Shikamaru (dressed in a dark kimono embroidered with a thousand tiny gold flecks of sand, to parallel Temari's leafy gown from the Konoha wedding) kissed his wife every bit as tenderly as he had the first time, Kakashi reached across to Sakura, and they held hands with no regard for who might see them.

JANUARY

"We're going to miss them."

Sakura's sandals made a clacking sound as she trotted ahead of her companions. Kakashi and Obito were still chronically late, and even though she had already accepted their apologies and excuses, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of panic at how time had gotten away from them.

"They'll wait for you, Sakura!" Obito assured her, half-jogging just to stay in earshot. "And it'll be worth a slight delay to know that you'll have the memories for the rest of your life." He glanced at the camera around Kakashi's neck, which was the reason they had all spent the last twenty minutes hunting for film.

"I'm sorry," Kakashi repeated for the dozenth time, also jogging (but carefully, because cameras were delicate instruments). "I swear I replaced the film last time I used it."

Sakura turned the corner to the academy yard and saw that her friends were indeed all still waiting for her. Like her, the girls were all wearing furisode in a variety of beautiful patterns, topped with furry white stoles for warmth. The boys were more muted, but still dressed in their best clothes.

"We're here! Sorry we kept you waiting." Sakura bent over, partly in apology and partly to catch her breath.

"No problem," Ino, looking gorgeous in her usual purple, approached and gave her a brief hug. "Happy Coming of Age Day."

"You too." She wasn't sure if it would be too awkward to celebrate reaching the year she would turn twenty, considering her actual age was still…complicated. But Kakashi had convinced her that the new memories she made in the real world would one day be just as important as the ones from Sarada's world. Even if it was hard to 'repeat' certain events, or celebrate milestones that made her feel young, one day all of her youth would be behind her, and she'd want to feel that it had been spent to the fullest.

Naruto and Sasuke broke off their conversation with Hinata and came over to the group just as Ino excused herself to go talk to Shikamaru (who was visiting from Suna and complaining bitterly about the cold). Team Seven spent a few minutes just congratulating themselves on making it to twenty in one piece.

"We're not quite twenty yet," Sasuke reminded them. "A lot could happen before our actual birthdays."

"Were you always such a pessimist?" Obito scowled at this cousin.

"Yes," Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi said in unison, and grinned at each other.

It was a testament to how much he had grown that Sasuke only rolled his eyes at the trio. "Dummies."

"We know you love us," Naruto said, throwing an arm around his shoulder. He threw the other arm around Sakura's shoulder and pulled them both close. "Get a photo, Kakashi."

Kakashi was only too happy to oblige, his handsome face disappearing behind the lens of his old camera. Sakura squeezed Naruto's shoulder, using his warmth as a shield against the crisp January air. It truly was amazing that all three of them could be standing together like this, considering everything that had happened in the last few years. They were officially adults, all of them. Sakura no longer had to straddle two worlds, unsure whether she was a teenager like her friends or a thirty-something like her lover.

She touched Kakashi's scarf hidden under her fur stole, whose red shade perfectly matched the colour of her winter kimono. She was back to wearing it every day, as an official token of the love they no longer felt any need to fear or hide. His other gift, the kanzashi stick currently pinning up her hair, was only brought out on special occasions.

It had survived the fight with Yoshio, but like Sakura and Kakashi it was fundamentally transformed. The lacquered wood was burnt where it had cut into the chakra strings connecting Kakashi to Yoshio. The red bead was also transfigured, covered all over in crackling black lines that always reminded her of the reddish-pink scars she and Kakashi would share for the rest of their lives. She used to think scars were blemishes, something to be avoided with quick healing. But she had learned that a slower recovery was sometimes the healthier option overall, and scars were just the body's way of reminding you what you survived.

She smiled at Kakashi, who looked up from the camera to give her a brief wink. Obito stood beside him, looking a little misty-eyed at the sight of a team that had managed to survive its youth intact. He tapped Kakashi on the shoulder.

"Let me get one with all four of you in it."

Kakashi shook his head. "This is their day, not mine."

"Nonsense." Naruto let go of Sakura to grab Kakashi's arm, and Sasuke immediately followed cue to grab the other. "It's partly thanks to you that we made it that far without literally killing each other, after all."

Again, it was a marvel that they could all joke so candidly about past heartaches. Sakura smiled fondly as her teammates frogmarched Kakashi into place at the back, then took up positions on either side of her.

"Time for a new team photo," Obito said, and Sakura realised they had planned this.

"We need something to remember you both by, after all," Naruto lamented, and Kakashi put his hands on the boys' heads like he had when they were twelve.

"We'll only be travelling for a few months; a year, tops," he said. "But if you like, we can stay home and I'll continue on as the Hokage?"

"No, no, you've earned a break!" Naruto replied hastily, and Kakashi ruffled his hair.

Sakura caught Sasuke's eye and smiled; they both knew better than almost anyone what it meant to Naruto that he was finally becoming Hokage. Even though she and Kakashi would start travelling shortly after he was officially sworn in, Sakura no longer worried that he would grow to resent the role. He would have Sasuke, Hinata, and even Obito looking out for him back home.

"Everyone say 'peace!'" Obito said, and they all obeyed, Sakura raising her hands and grinning all-out like she had for their first ever photo. She remembered being furious at her team when they got it back, because Naruto and Sasuke were staring daggers at each other instead of smiling for the camera, and her and Kakashi had their eyes closed. She had a feeling this shot would be perfect though, because these days Naruto and Sasuke could smile together, and she and Kakashi faced everything with their eyes wide open.

"Will you be sad to leave?" Kakashi asked later, as they lay together in the bed they shared.

Sakura was lying on his chest, so she couldn't see his face. She raised herself up, caging him between her arms. "It was my idea for us to travel together, once Naruto came of age and you got your freedom back. Don't you want to do it anymore?"

"Of course I do," he assured her. "But I'd hate to get all the way to Kumogakure only for you to realise it was a mistake."

"Not gonna happen; but even if it did, we could just come right home. I'm happy either way."

Kakashi reached up and gently tucked her hair back behind her ears. It was long enough now to tickle his face. "It doesn't scare you anymore?" He said, his expression serious. "Talking about 'happiness' after everything your dreams put you through?"

"Not anymore." She smiled, returning to her place against his heart. "Because now I know what happiness is."

THE END.