Five days later, the sun was shining hot and bright in a cloudless sky as Kakashi walked; or rather, limped, out of the hospital. The black tee Tenzo had kindly brought for him so that he wasn't stuck with his other option - one of Gai's hideous green jumpsuits - covered most of the bandages that were still heavily wrapped around his chest, protecting the new, uncomfortably tight skin that the medics had healed around the wounds. There was no hiding the obvious stiff leg, nor the bandages that extended up from his chest and to the top of his throat. It had been a grueling five days but he'd kept the promise he'd made to Sakura and he'd waited until discharge papers were in hand before he'd left.

She was waiting for him in the shade underneath the tree in front of the building, wearing her usual outfit and a huge smile. "Kakashi!" She exclaimed happily as she stood and walked with a skip to meet him, letting his arm draped over her shoulder to give him support as she walked with him. He smiled as they began walking slowly.

"I missed you, too," he murmured softly to her, his fingers squeezing her shoulder gently. He couldn't hold her hand in public, nor could he kiss her like he wanted to; but he could still let her know that she was still on his mind. The discreet touch triggered a gentle blush to her cheeks, and he smiled under the mask. It really was the most lovely shade of pink.

"I thought maybe we could get some lunch before heading back to your place," Sakura told him, doing her best to keep her gaze directed forward and not over at him. "I know that hospital food is pretty bland." Kakashi's stomach growled in response, and she giggled, pointing towards a cafe on the corner of the street. "What about that place?"

It seemed quiet enough, he mused. There were some tables under a lattice roof that was covered in brightly colored flowers and ivy. The paper lanterns that hung along the roof's edges promised a romantic ambiance in a nighttime setting, he pondered with a small smile as he imagined taking Sakura there again sometime after dark when the place looked its most cozy.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed, letting her lead the way.

The host sat them at one of the tables on the outdoor patio he'd been admiring. By the twinkle in Sakura's eye, she was enjoying it too, and he couldn't stop himself from reaching up to brush a soft pink tendril from her eye as she gazed at the flowers.

"You look beautiful," he spoke the words as he thought them, his grey eye meeting hers in an intimate moment where, for a split second, it was just them in the world. The cough of a waitress pulled them out of their little universe and Kakashi blinked as the woman spoke.

"Would you like anything to drink?"

"Melon soda, please," Sakura answered for herself, eyes not wavering from Kakashi's.

"Water for me," Kakashi gave his reply, not breaking his gaze.

The waiter jotted onto her pad and then disappeared, leaving the two alone in their world again. Sakura was the first to come back to reality, her hand finding his on the table as her eyes glanced down at the menu. True to his nickname, Kakashi copied the pink-haired woman, studying the words on the paper before deciding on eggplant before he looked back up to see Sakura already watching him, a serene smile on her face.

"I'm so happy you're out of there," she murmured to him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

Kakashi was, too. He hated hospitals and before Sakura, he never would have promised to stay put in one. He'd been forcibly restrained more than once, being told it was for his own good. One of the times he'd been more stubborn in his efforts to leave against their advice, they'd threatened to put him in a medically induced coma before he'd finally relented to begrudgingly stay. All Sakura had done was bat her eyes and give him that glassy, sexy look that turned his Will of Fire into a puddle and he'd agreed to stay until discharged. The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile as he realized that maybe he wasn't as in control of this relationship as he'd told her he was.

The server brought their drinks out and both of them gave their orders before she trotted off again. Kakashi brought her hand to his masked lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her slender fingers. When he met her gaze again, he saw the glassy haze turning stormy, a frown tugging at her lips.

"What's wrong?" he asked her quietly.

"You were on Team Ro," she spoke, her words not a question. "Tenzo said as much when he came to get us."

After a terse silence, Kakashi answered slowly, "Yes...A long time ago, Sakura."

Her eyes flickered to the concealed ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder before she looked at him again, eyes a shade darker. "Do you think this is about some old vendetta?"

"I don't know," he told a half-lie. He couldn't tell her the truth even if he wanted to; those were classified missions that he wasn't even cleared to discuss with the Hokage. No matter his feelings for her, his duty to his village had to come first. Her frown deepened, and he sighed, letting go of her hand to reach up and touch her face gently. "You know if I could, you'd be the first person I would tell."

"What if they don't give up?"

Her voice was small as she spoke, the storm in her green eyes breaking, giving way to something more fragile. He tilted her chin up, keeping his gaze intently on hers as he spoke his next words firmly.

"We are Leaf shinobi, Sakura. We don't give up, either."

Their food arrived a few minutes later, and they ate in silence as their conversation loomed over them with the flowers and the ivy, hanging like a dark cloud. They had finished eating and had just stepped out onto the street when Kakashi heard a hawk make a short call as it flew towards him. He held out his hand and caught the scroll the animal had been sent to deliver to him. He propped himself up against a post holding up the lattice as he unfurled the scroll, eyes glancing over the characters printed on the parchment.

"Lady Tsunade has ordered me to her office immediately," Kakashi murmured to Sakura, making a series of hand seals to bring forth a small poof of flame, into which he placed the scroll. When it was ash, he let the fire disappear and leaned over to press a masked kiss to Sakura's forehead. "I'm sure it won't be long. She can't very well send me on a mission right now," he gave her a humorous look. "Why don't you wait for me at my apartment?"

Sakura nodded, though Kakashi could tell she was still worried by the slight tremble of her bottom lip. He reached up to steady it and she leaned in to his touch, eyes closing for a moment before she opened them again, her expression lighter now as she nodded in agreement and gave his hand a squeeze before she turned and began heading in the direction of his place. Kakashi watched until she rounded the corner and then made his way towards the Hokage's tower.

Tsunade's desk was for once cleared of paperwork, giving her a full view of the two, now three men that stood before her as he arrived in the room fifteen minutes later, his chest tingling in discomfort as the new skin heaved with quiet, labored breaths. The room was tense and as he glanced around the room, identifying who had been summoned here with him. Genma was standing sentry in his usual corner spot, eyes focused on a spot on the wall behind his head somewhere. As Lady Tsunade's personal bodyguard, he was to be expected. There was also Tenzo, standing statuesque and looking just as serious as the feeling in the office. Given the most recent mission, he was also to be expected. And then, he realized with a chill, there was Aburame Yoji, looking just as creepy as he always had to Kakashi, with the upper half of his face concealed in tight black cloth and glowing white circles covering his eyes. The silver-haired shinobi's eyebrows furrowed when he realized just who Lady Tsunade had assembled.

"Former Team Ro," Tsunade's voice was sharp as she spoke, opening the lone folder that sat on her desk. As she flipped through page after page of redacted mission reports and missing paperwork, her red nail tapped in aggravation. Her eyes glanced up and settled on Kakashi, a frown on her lips as she continued, "Recently, you informed me that the Council forbade you from speaking about a mission your team took to the Land of Earth seventeen years ago."

She paused for a moment, her eyes shifting to each one of the three men as though she were daring them to say something. When they didn't, she spoke again. "Well, I had a little chat with that council two days ago and although there was dissent from one," her eyes flickered to Yoji and narrowed slightly, "the rest of the council agreed that I will become privy to that information. So spill. Now."

It was silent in the office for only a few moments before Tenzo started. Kakashi gave him a sharp look and then began speaking. He had been the team's leader, and what had happened was another one of his burdens to bear.

"The mission was simply to retrieve a package and safely deliver it into Konoha," he started slowly, his eyes meeting Tenzo's and then settling back on the lady Hokage as he continued, "The package was a young girl," the memory flashed in his mind. "We located her in a small mining village on the outskirts of Iwa; it was late winter and I made the decision to take us through the North Pass," his voice was gravelly now, eyes hard and his hands balled into fists at his side. "A blizzard came, and we were forced to seek shelter in a cave for three days." He closed his eye now, seeing it all playing out as though he were there again. "Sometime during that three day period, the girl was bitten by a venomous centipede," his voice was thick now. "We woke up on the third day and she was dead."

Tsunade hummed softly as she pondered what Kakashi had just relayed to her. "Who discovered the bite?"

Kakashi and Tenzo glanced at Yoji, who nodded as he spoke for the first time. "I did. It was on her lower back."

Tsunade frowned, folding her hands together as she looked down at the mostly-redacted file with a sigh before she spoke, "What was done with her body?"

"She wasn't a missing nin or an enemy. The mission had only been to safely deliver her to Konoha, and we had failed that. We left her in the cave and returned to the Land of Fire after the blizzard broke on the morning of the fourth day," Kakashi answered her in a cool tone.

Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose, flipping through the paperwork in frustration. "Nearly everything about this mission has been completely scrubbed from ANBU's records. There isn't even a name written down," she spoke in measured words. "Were any of you aware of this girl's identity, or why she wanted to leave Iwa?"

"No," the three answered in unison.

"She didn't really speak," Tenzo offered.

"Very well. Dismissed," Tsunade's voice was sharp again. As Kakashi moved to make his way out the door, she shook her head. "Not you, Hatake." He frowned, turning back to face Tsunade. She waited until the room was clear of everyone but herself, Genma and Kakashi before she spoke again. "I think we need to talk about-"

The door slammed open before she could get another word out. Shizune stood there with a desperate and wild look on her face that Kakashi didn't like.

"Lady Tsunade!" The woman exclaimed in a panic. "The files, they're duplicates!"

Tsunade's eyebrow arched, her hazel eyes narrowing as her fingers clenched the papers below them tightly. "What do you mean, Shizune?"

"Inoichi was finally able to break down a wall in one of the prisoner's minds and he saw that they copied the files. They knew Kakashi's team was gaining on them, so one of them used a summon and accidentally sent the real documents with that summon back to whoever was waiting in Iwa," Shizune exclaimed quickly and with urgency. "The files - they made it to Iwa, Lady Hokage!"

Kakashi's blood ran cold as the implications of what he'd just learned sank in. "Sakura," her name fell from his lips as a desperate sound, his feet already carrying him towards the window. Injuries forgotten, he leapt from the windowsill to the roof across the street and was just about to make his next leap when he stopped in his tracks as the ground shook. Kakashi watched in horror as three large plumes of thick, black smoke began billowing into the clear sky; one of them directly where his apartment should be.

"Sakura," he choked out her name again, pushing the chakra to his feet and willing them to bring him faster to the woman he loved, hoping more than anything that somehow she hadn't already been there waiting for him.