A/N: Hola! Guess who finally uploaded their stories (well most of them) to Ao3? Esta muchacha! If you all like that platform better, head on over! My name is BossX over there. There's a link in my profile.

Also, I think I made Mirio too magnificent. One of you seems to have fallen for him, though I don't blame you.

Mirio is pretty rad but I just can't get over my penchant for pathetic men like Kakashi. He's just so…*chef's kiss*, ya know?

Finally, please review (preferably nicely)? They make my day!

…

Chapter 7

Yua has eyes like her father.

Eyes like a stormy midnight sky in the middle of winter. Sometimes when Sakura looks at her abruptly, she is slammed with a vision of Kakashi, hooded lids and long dark eyelashes. If it weren't for her brazenly pink hair and Sakura's own button nose, she would look too much like her father.

Yua doesn't talk for her first three years of life. Not one word or even an attempt at one.

At first, Sakura thinks that her muteness is a manifestation of the physical trauma she endured in Sakura's womb during those first crucial months of growth. She hardly coos, laughs rarely, and she even stops wailing when she wants something at six months. Later, she knows her daughter isn't deaf because she seems to react to her name being called and appears startled by abrupt noises. Then she knows that her daughter hasn't been physically affected.

Sakura's mind threatens to go down a dark road when she realizes that what had been done to her body while carrying Yua followed her baby into life. With an extreme effort on her part, she wrenches her mind from rage and focuses on her baby.

So Yua is not deaf, but she does not, or cannot speak. She adapts, teaching herself sign language from books at the local library, and starts practicing with Yua when she turns ten months old so Yua can have an outlet for communication with her mother and others.

Amazingly, she does eventually speak and the first word she speaks is to Pumpkin when she is three years old—it is Pumpkin's name, actually.

Sakura hears her sweet, clear laugh from the other room while quickly grabbing her bottle before Yua says "Pumpkin", her small mouth not being used to forming words, mixing up sounds and syllables. Sakura jumps up from the kitchen table, not being sure if she actually heard her daughter, and when she arrives in the living room, Yua starts saying "Pumpkin", sounding more like 'unkin, in a sing-song voice, as if she's trying to imitate one of the lullabye's Sakura sings for her.

Sakura then starts working on her speech with her when Yua seems inclined to keep speaking while making sure to keep signing a constant as well.

Even still, Yua sometimes prefers and finds it easier, communicating with her hands and expressions. She slips easily and seamlessly in and out of both.

Yua is prone to contemplative silences as much as her father, but just as equally to sessions of bursts of brouhaha and frivolity, as any child is inclined to. Her temper, when she sets her mind for it, is as forceful as her mother's, as well. She's smart, intelligent in a way that a small child has no right to be and intuitive. Her high sweet laughter has anyone around her immediately smiling—it's infectious.

Yua grows in happiness and peace on their small strawberry farm with Hanako, Mirio, and Pumpkin. There are times at night, though, when she calls out to her mother in terrorized agony that it wrenches Sakura's heart in pain and she brings her to her and holds her tight, so tight. No child should have to know that kind of suffering. What they went through in that prison for four months affected her little one, as well.

While Yua grows, showered with love, grace, and affection, Sakura thinks of the past and what has yet to come. She starts training again, surprised at the effect of eight and a half months of changes. She can barely run more than fifteen seconds before needing to stop to catch her breath. Thankfully, her chakra prowess is as sharp as ever, even more so now.

Slowly, a year passes and she transforms again into a version of herself that she used to be: her body hardens with lean muscles and her movements turn towards grace again.

She plans and plots, having to leave her baby for sometimes days at a time because she has found her purpose again.

Sakura will see Konoha restored again. Their home.

What do you plan to do when your child is born? Will you seek out your comrades?

Sakura thinks of Hanako's question many times during the first year after her baby is born. One day, when bright sunlight shines through her window, she finds her answer gazing at her rosy-cheeked girl. Her heart calls out to her friends and though she's loath to admit it...to Kakashi. She yearns to go, run until she reaches him and show him what they created together. For she is sure he is still alive, somewhere.

Although, she knows she will never divulge her secret, even if she comes face-to face with him. The words he told her almost two years ago never leave her and oftentimes twist through her mind during her nightmares. She's reassured that Yua looks enough like her anyway, nobody would guess correctly at her paternity.

Sakura and Yua are safe here, though, and Sakura is terrified to leave their haven.

And still, three more years pass before she hears a rumor, scarcely a hope as to where they might be and finally sets off.

…

There was one point where Kakashi knew he had to back out, that he'd become too comfortable. Too dependent.

Sakura never said no to him even though she should have set those boundaries that prevented him from constantly intruding into her life. She'd encouraged it even.

"You'd better come to me if you're hurt, Kakashi. I mean it! And I don't care what time it is either. I know your annoying habit of avoiding hospitals won't bend even if your guts are hanging out, so just save me some unneeded stress and come to me after your mission, okay?"

He stays quiet and fiddles his thumbs.

Sakura grips his arm to grab his attention and pierces him with her stare. "Okay?"

Kakashi sighs and pretends as if he is doing her a huge favor instead of the other way around. "Okay."

Sakura only smiles sweetly and pats his cheek with, in his humble opinion, a force he thinks borders on a light slap.

Guilt at popping up into her bedroom late at night had already started encroaching onto him. Although it caused him to wince somewhat with dutifully unexplored reasons, he couldn't help thinking of Sakura and her personal life, her private life, and how he might be inhibiting it with his unplanned and spontaneous nightly medical needs.

Sakura has never once complained or even hinted at him being a nuisance (cockblocker), but then again, Sakura always thinks of herself second when it comes to her team.

Truth is, he absolutely loves getting healed by Sakura. Her gentle, unobtrusive chakra and methods are the pinnacle of exemplary medicine. While he's been treated by other doctors and nurses that jab their chakra into him as if he's a pin cushion, Sakura's chakra smoothly integrates with his—a pleasant addition instead of a foreign substance. He's, of course, only had the privilege of being treated by Sakura for the six years she's been training under Tsunade, but he has to admit he's been spoiled for anyone else. Either Sakura heals him or no one does (or they heal him while he's unconscious which happens a worrisome amount), a stubbornly obstinate stance he's taken that Tsunade often threatens him with demotion, a threat that she never actually goes through with.

Recalling this, Kakashi realizes he should have withdrawn years ago.

Sakura turns back around to rattle off a few more details about his mission while straightening out the papers on Tsunade's desk. He gazes at her back and wholeheartedly decides that he will not get hurt during this mission.

…

Blood flows freely out of the moderate gash at his side as he scales Sakura's apartment building to reach her window. The mediocre first aid he had given himself useless now that the cut had reopened.

Caked mud covers every inch of him and it cracks off his fingers as he slides them under the window sill to gently slide Sakura's window open.

She's stirring at his presence, or more likely the presence of his familiar chakra, as he makes his way inside the dark room.

He's struck suddenly by the same thoughts he had before leaving on his mission, of his intrusive habits in her life, while glancing at the soft pile she makes on her bed. An uninhibited thought quickly pops into his mind: what would he do if he ever crawled through her window and there was someone beside her?

Probably go home and bleed to death.

As it were, it is only Sakura's lone head that wearily raises to blink slowly at him. A problem for another day, he supposes.

Once recognition enters her bleary eyes, she immediately crawls to the foot of her bed to meet him where he stands.

She's wide awake now. It had always amazed how fast she could switch modes when presented with an injured person.

"Where?" She asks without preamble, raking his body with her eyes to try and pinpoint the damage. She undoubtedly noticed his slight swaying.

Silently, he presses his right hand against his side. She quickly places her hand against the blood-soaked spot he points out.

"You're covered, Kakashi. I need to get you clean first to heal the wound or it might get infected. Let me stop the bleeding first."

She quickly gets to her feet and guides him into a nearby chair. "I'm going to constrict the blood vessels around the wound to stop the bleeding for now and I'll put them back to normal after, okay?"

Kakashi only nods dumbly, incredibly tired as she kneels beside him. He wonders why she bothers explaining her procedures to him—she could dance a jig while healing him and he would trust it for the best of the treatment outcome. She probably does this with her other patients, he reasons, to calm them. He has to admit that her gentle voice is quite soothing.

He lazily watches her as her brow furrows in concentration, eyes closed with her hand firmly pressed against his gaping wound. A second later she's done and getting to her feet again. "Sit tight." She instructs and pats his cheek before padding lightly to the bathroom attached to her bedroom.

Kakashi dimly is aware of a knob turning and the sound of gushing water.

What feels like a second later, but probably is a few minutes, Sakura reappears and gently takes his hands, guiding his sluggish form behind her into the bathroom.

The soft light of the bathroom and the warming steam from the full tub do nothing to sharpen his attention at the moment, so he is only dimly aware of the tugging motions on his torso and his mask. The mask is not a cause for alarm anymore—she's seen him unmasked more times than he can count now. It's not until the pulling starts at his belt that a jolt of recognition bolsters his mind.

Sakura is undressing him.

Here. Here is where he should have barricaded himself and set boundaries between them. This was too familiar.

Too comfortable.

Too intimate.

He has never even let her administer his physicals, never having wanted to cross that barrier with her, but here she is, tugging at his belt to remove it.

"Sakura," Kakashi finally speaks, though his voice comes out an odd hoarse croak. He finds he has enough strength to stop her from pulling down his pants. Kakashi grabs her wrists tightly.

She shakes him off as easily as if she were shaking off a fly. "Do you want to get sepsis? Don't be such a baby," she grouches. Kakashi has lost about two pints of blood or so he reasons, so he can't be entirely sure that the breathless quiver in her voice is real or not. The pink blush on her cheeks could also just be from the steaming air. Her brow furrows again as she pulls down the zipper on his trousers. "I won't look if that makes you feel better…and there's bubbles in the bath to preserve your delicate modesty."

He would snort if he had the energy.

Kakashi doesn't fight her anymore as she finally pulls down his pants and underwear, then kneeling down to take off his horribly muddy boots and socks. True to her word, Sakura keeps her head bowed as she works. Kakashi realizes that if he were a bit more cognizant at the moment, he would absolutely not have allowed this in the privacy of Sakura's apartment because the most terrible thought enters his mind as he gazes at her on her knees in front of his bare cock.

He squeezes his eyes shut. Fuck, but she would drown him in her tub if she could read his mind. He would drown himself if it wouldn't cause Sakura even more grief than she was currently experiencing because of him.

Eyes closed, Sakura hops back up and chirps, "In you get!" While slinging his arm over her shoulder and leading him to her tub. He studies her, thoughts a snarl, glad that she has her eyes closed so he can do so freely. Drops of sweat are beading at her temple, the small hairs that have escaped her sloppy bun are framing her face, sticking to her with the abundant steam in the small room. She perhaps never realized that you could see the dusty pink color of her nipples through the cream-colored sleep shirt.

He digs his nails into the palm of his hand, astounded and outraged with himself. Though, thankfully, his thoughts are cut short again when Sakura nudges him to step into the bath. Once he's fully immersed in blissfully hot water, she finally opens her eyes and gives him a small grin, "Who knew that the man who reads porn in public was such a prude, huh?"

Kakashi can barely manage a small disapproving frown.

Sakura shrugs and moves behind him, slipping her hand in the water, meticulously guiding her hand down his side to find the no longer bleeding wound. She methodically guides a cloth across the torn flesh. Her head rests almost a hair's breadth from his—almost resting on his shoulder—, so much so that he feels the gentle puff of air against his cheek as she speaks. "I'm going to open the blood vessels again and heal you just enough so you won't bleed, but I'm going to need to finish when you're out of the water and give you a shot of penicillin. Do you have any other injuries?"

Kakashi shakes his head; although, he had gotten a pretty nasty bruise on his left leg. He can't fathom why at the moment, but he wouldn't be able to withstand her hands on any other part of his body that night.

Sakura nods, her pink hair brushing against his cheek at the movement. A soft sensation at his hip draws his attention but it's gone just as instantly as it came—Sakura's chakra moving steadily through the gash.

Once she deems her work satisfactory, Kakashi feels her remove her hand and her presence behind him moves away. He faintly hears a loud clack and the sound of something being squeezed out of a bottle before Sakura reappears behind him. Careful hands start massaging his hair and when he catches the whiff of floral shampoo he realizes that she is washing his hair.

The gentle fingers that tangle through his hair are the last blows against his crumbling consciousness. The last thing he recalls before nodding off is Sakura quietly stepping away and rummaging about the floor for a minute before exiting the bathroom.

What seems like only a few seconds later, Sakura is gently shaking him awake. As he blinks sluggishly at her, he dimly registers the lukewarm water around his still form.

"Kakashi," she murmurs, "I need to finish healing you and then I promise you can go to sleep."

Kakashi nods slowly against the lip of the tub where his head lays.

"I'll even let you borrow my fluffy robe."

He does actually snort at that—a half-choked sound that tiredly oozes out of him.

Smiling, Sakura helps him out of the tub with her eyes securely closed and wraps a snug, but warm robe around him. She guides his hands to rest on her shoulders for support.

"Just stand still for a minute, okay?" Sakura asks, parting the garment in the middle to place her hand almost against his pelvic bone again, where the wound lies. An antiseptic smell reaches him before he feels the brush of a cold cloth against his wound again and a slight burn and pinch. The penicillin, he reasons.

His head slowly and unconsciously falls against hers as her chakra winds through him, healing and soothing. His slow, now even, breathing brings in her floral scented shampoo on an inhale and he turns his head to partially bury his nose in her hair. His bones feel like lead, heavy and cumbersome with fatigue and sleep, even more so now that he's clean, hale, and warm.

Just as he's getting inappropriately—well, more inappropriately as this night could possibly get—accustomed to her small hand on his hip, Sakura withdraws her calloused fingers from his skin.

"All done," she announces, draping his arm around her shoulders again and leading him to her bedroom.

Kakashi should go home—should drag his worthless body there if he can't manage to walk. But she's already pulling back the blankets and tucking him into them with such care, it would be such a shame to leave.

Once his head hits the pillow, he's a goner. Kakashi faintly feels Sakura's hands on his back before her chakra suffuses his entire body. Feeling even more soothed, Kakashi doesn't think much of it and lets his mind and thoughts float away.

A small disapproving huff then escapes Sakura and she pulls back the covers on his lower half, moving her hands from his back to his left leg where the black bruise covers his lower thigh.

Ah, but he should have known that he couldn't have gotten away with it.

Somewhere in a far away corner of his mind he slightly worries that his entire ass is hanging out. After all, Sakura's robe was made to fit her shorter form.

He mentally shrugs and lets her finish, the ache in his leg fading increment by increment.

Traces of her chakra float through him even when she withdraws and finally finishes her healing.

Sakura replaces the covers and the last thing he feels before truly falling into a deep slumber is her soft lips on his forehead.

…

In the morning Kakashi awakens with a jolt, not recognizing his surroundings until he catches a faint scent of floral shampoo from the pillow beneath his head.

Right. Sakura.

He blinks in the early morning light and looks around him, finding his laundered and neatly folded clothes that had been splattered with mud the day before at the foot of the bed. He is alone in the bedroom, although he can feel Sakura's chakra out in the main room.

Steadfastly refusing to dwell on last night too much, Kakashi sheds Sakura's robe and changes into his own clothes. He feels…amazing, actually. Limber and fluid. Thinking back on last night, Kakashi guesses that Sakura performed a full-body chakra scan on him, erasing old aches that had built atop one another. Occasionally she felt the need to do this without his knowledge, which he was extremely grateful for given that he would never ask her to go even more out of her way than she already did.

Stepping out of the room, Kakashi heads down the short hallway to find Sakura fast asleep on the couch, a blanket haphazardly thrown over her form.

He doesn't think too much about the fact that even she had not crossed that line and slept beside him in her bed.

Cautiously, he steps silently over to her, studying her calm and untroubled features. He gently fixes the blanket so that it covers her more fully. Then, almost against his will, he reaches over and brushes her hair out of her face, lingering on her parted lips. Warm air ghosts against his thumb and the image of her kneeling in front of his naked body cannonballs into his head so suddenly that he sharply draws back his hand as if he's been burned.

What the fuck? What he should be doing is thanking her, not having explicit and unfounded, albeit unwilling, thoughts about her.

Kakashi shakes his head and heads towards the door, closing it securely behind him once he's exited. All he manages is to avoid her for a month after that night.

…

Kakashi shakes the memory from his mind, having become distracted from his objective by the persistent bruise on his leg that had prompted the memory. The bruise—there because of a vigorous spar with Gaara—was almost exactly in the same place as the one in his memory had been.

He rubs a hand over his sweaty brow, scanning the crowded streets again.

Suna persists as scorchingly hot as ever, and even though he's been living in Nasir, a small village adjacent, for almost five years now, Kakashi hasn't gotten used to the heat.

His mask has left him with a wicked tan line across his face.

He currently makes his way down a dusty street, cracked by the sun, in quite a shitty mood.

He longs for the leafy green of Konoha's vast forest after a thorough thunderstorm. Longs to smell green again. Most of the Konoha refugees that live nearby share his sentiment, though they are all grateful for Gaara's generosity. If it weren't for him, they would be in far worse situations.

However, almost five years of trying to fight for their home has taken their toll on all of them.

Kakashi's eyes wander the bustling street and spots Naruto at last, who is dragging his feet with a glower shadowing his features, testament to the struggle of five years that it had even affected the sunny temperament of Uzumaki Naruto. Although, his dour mood is probably for an entirely different reason than the withering sun and their lost home—he knows his is.

Naruto wears a hood over his yellow hair similar to Kakashi's, making their pre-planned meeting on the street seem of clandestine nature. To avoid curious eyes, Kakashi nods to Naruto and leads him away and towards his erstwhile dwellings, so they might be able to talk freely.

Once they are inside Kakashi's small, but marginally cooler, one bedroom apartment, they gratefully divulge themselves of their hoods and the cloaks that were the standard garb for any Suna citizen.

Naruto smiles and moves to embrace Kakashi. "Sensei, it's good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Naruto," Kakashi says, returning his embrace. They see each other about every six to eight months so as to avoid detection. Even their letters are sporadically sent. "Is Sasuke coming soon?"

Naruto shakes his head. "He decided to meet us in Suna later today. He's been kind of crabby lately, so the break is kinda nice, honestly."

Kakashi only hmm's in response, not knowing what else to reply. Naruto and Sasuke had set off together four and a half years ago when the Konoha refugees who had so far banded together decided that they needed to separate for safety's sake. Yamato had stayed, and resided in the same village as Kakashi. They all kept in contact, though, after setting off for different corners of the world.

When Danzo had made an alliance with Ame four years ago, their hopes of reclaiming their home had narrowed drastically. Hope and urge to fight had dwindled and even Naruto's unending support and hope had not been enough to keep them together.

Recent developments, though, will see a select group of them together again in Suna. Maybe for another spark of hope for vengeance...or not.

"I wanted to come here alone, anyway," Naruto continues, sitting on a chair at Kakashi's kitchen table, "at least for right now. I don't think I have to remind you what day it is today. I saw it all over your face—or your eyes, I guess—when I first looked at you, Sensei."

Kakashi stiffens, but doesn't respond. He goes to fetch two glasses of water and joins Naruto at the table. Naruto gratefully accepts his glass and chugs it down.

When he's finished, he gently sets it down and glances at Kakashi surreptitiously. "I've been thinking a lot about her and not just because it's been five years now, to the day."

Kakashi has been thinking so much about her lately, as well. In fact, he had had a dream about her just last night, for the fifth night in a row. A good one this time where she didn't choke on her own blood. She had been laying next to him, smiling, cheeks dimpling so lovingly and then she had twinned her fingers through his. Other dreams and memories are not so innocent, but he can't very well tell Naruto that.

Dreams can be both a blessing and a grief. She appears so clearly in them that he feels he could reach out and run his hand through her pink locks.

"Sometimes it feels like she's just off somewhere else in the world, you know? Like Ino or Shikamaru, and all we would have to do is send a letter to get us all back together again," Naruto contemplates, and Kakashi wonders if his words are for Kakashi to hear or if he just needs a companion to come to terms with his ow sorrow. Naruto suddenly grins, nostalgia entering his expression. "Remember that one time we had a mission to Xiu and we found out I was allergic to coconut? And my face swelled up so much that I couldn't take off the fake glasses I had put on for the mission? Sakura was laughing so hard, she couldn't barely stick me with the needle."

He does remember that—remembers Sakura's laugh.

"Would you like more water?" Kakashi asks, not so subtly trying to broach another, any other, subject with him. He doesn't tell Naruto that he feels the same. Losing Sakura is an ache—a guilt—too deep that has not faded even after years.

Naruto sighs at Kakashi's hopeless disconnect with his emotions. "I know it still hurts, because it hurts for me still too, but I'm telling you, it helps to talk about it sometimes. Especially with someone who loved her as much as you did too."

Kakashi, his back turned to Naruto, pours water into the glass. He sighs quietly, shoulders drooping. "I know." Loved her as much as you did...

Naruto is quiet for a moment while Kakashi brings him back his glass, then resumes his conversation, this time, thankfully on a different subject. "Anyway, should we head out around dusk? It should only take us a few hours to get there. I'm starving! Have you got any ramen?"

At least there are some things that are reliably consistent.

…

Kakashi and Naruto do indeed set out at dusk and make for Suna.

Naruto jabbers the whole way, but Kakashi is grateful for the distraction. He wonders if his subconscious will gift him another dream of Sakura tonight, seeing as it is the anniversary of her death.

When they arrive at Suna at about 11 o'clock at night, the moon is high in the sky and the stars bright. He and Naruto meet Gaara at the entryway to the Kazekage's tower. They are greeted by a group of Konoha comrades when they arrive. They are the last two to show, which almost makes Kakashi smile for old times sake. Almost. There's someone missing that would have reprimanded him for his tardiness without hesitation.

Yamato, Ino, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kankuro, Temari, and Inoichi greet them as they enter with differing expressions of excitement. Yamato, who had been away sending correspondence to certain comrades, claps him on the back in a tight embrace and the others give him warm smiles. Sasuke only nods tersely at him.

Kakashi looks around when they finish their reunion. "Is this it?"

Ino shakes her head. "Others are coming later in the week. But I'm sure we can fill them in about what we talk about today, right?" There's despondence hanging from her shoulders and under her eyes. Kakashi is sure she remembers what day today is too.

Kakashi nods in response.

"Right," Gaara intones, "should we move up to my office?"

Everybody is in agreement and they file upstairs and through a short hallway until they reach the wooden doors of Gaara's study. Gaara enters first, but stops, freezing so suddenly that Kakashi, who is second behind him, almost rushes into his back, but stops just in time.

"There's someone in here," Gaara whispers harshly. His gourd uncorks immediately, sand slithering out.

Kakashi is quick to draw a kunai as is everyone else, judging by the swift rustling noises coming from behind him. He looks back into the dark room and spies a figure in the shadows standing from their seated position on a small couch. His heart gives a sickening jolt and he knows it's not from the surprise, though, he can't place the feeling.

He hadn't—and didn't—feel any chakra whatsoever from the individual, which would have alerted the group to the individual's presence.

They all crowd around the large doorway, weapons raised.

"Who are you?" Gaara asks, voice a dangerous warning.

And the individual lifts a hand,—

"Don't try anything!" Naruto shouts, raising his own kunai.

—pulls back their hood, and reveals pink hair and an astonishingly familiar face.

…

A/N: Sorry for the cliffy. Couldn't resist leaving it there :)