Heat.

There was so much heat.

Sakura stood dazed half a block away from Kakashi's apartment, her green eyes not seeming to see the billowing, solid cloud of smoke that now filled the sky. The ground trembled and the pink-haired woman lost her footing, tumbling down to the street. Her head was pounding and she couldn't hear anything through the sharp, shrill ringing that filled her ears. Her eyes still blurry, she blinked several times, coughing as the pungent smoke filled her lungs with every breath and slowly, the world came into focus.

The first thing she saw was people. They were running down the street, wild looks of panic on their faces, mouths hung open in screams that she still couldn't hear. Mothers clung to their children as they fled the carnage behind them, and she let her eyes drift further down the street in an effort to find the enemy her shinobi instincts screamed at her to identify.

Her eyes found no enemy, but instead settled on Kakashi's apartment building, now engulfed in an inferno of flames that threatened to consume nearby buildings. She surveyed the street; the baker's shop across the street was a mess of splintered timber and broken glass, the small pharmacy next door in much the same condition. As the sound of alarms began going off, her eyes settled on a fallen woman, her face contorted in desperation and agony as her fingers gripped a small mound in her lap. Sakura's eyes widened when she realized that the bundle of singed cloth was a child, and she found herself back on her feet and running to them before she even realized it.

She dropped next to the woman, pulling the child from his mother's desperate arms and ripping at the fabric as she quickly explained that she was there to help. When she could finally see the child's face, her heart shattered. The boy couldn't be more than three. His light hair had been burnt away, exposing an angry, blistering scalp. Thankfully, his eyes were closed and Sakura laid him out on the street. Her medical chakra already activated, hands pressed to the worst of the injuries that she could see, she hunched over and willed every bit of her strength into his small body.

"I-I know you," the boy's mother stammered through her tears, her fingers clinging to the boy's. Sakura's eyes glanced up, and she realized that she recognized her. This was Kakashi's neighbor; the one who was always yelling at her son that he'd be late to class. Tears welled up in her green eyes when she looked back down at the burned child she was working on, remembering suddenly every time she'd ever heard him wailing through the wall. She wished more than anything to hear that wail again now.

"Can you move?" Sakura asked her, knowing that now was not the time for introductions. When the woman nodded, Sakura gave a nod and then lifted her eyes to her as she spoke again. "I need you to check on anyone else who might be injured. If they can move, get them out of here."

The woman's eyes flicked to her son, a small cry falling from her lips. "I can't-"

"I need you to," Sakura cut her off. There wasn't time for this right now, and she tried not to think about how harsh her tone must sound. She added in a softer voice, "I've got him. I'm not leaving him."

The woman gave her son another tearful glance, leaning down to brush her lips tenderly across his singed skin before she nodded, moving to her feet. "H-His name is Shinji," she told Sakura before disappearing into the smoke and dust.

The pink-haired woman looked back down at the unconscious boy in her arms and blinked back the tears, pushing more chakra into his frail body. "Come on, Shinji," she whispered to him, her voice cracking. "I've heard you cry; you're so strong. Be strong now."

The burns on his scalp were slowly giving way to the new, fresh skin that her chakra was creating. A sob of relief wracked through her body when she finally felt his little fingers weakly reaching for her arm. He was still badly injured, but he was alive. She was still working on him a few minutes later when her head shot up as a familiar voice sounded in the chaos.

"Sakura!"

"Kakashi!" She found herself yelling back, her voice choked with smoke and dust. He was next to her in an instant, his eyes scanning her for any sign of injury before they settled on Shinji. The boy was awake now; eyes open and fearful, he was still too weak to say anything. The silver-haired shinobi reached down, brushing his fingers over the burnt skin of his cheek.

"Is he-"

"He's going to make it," Sakura cut him off. "I need to get him to the hospital, Kakashi," she added in a softer voice. She'd managed to bring the child back from the brink of death, but she knew that he needed much more than she was capable of providing if he was going to survive. Kakashi didn't need her to explain this and he nodded, pressing a quick kiss to her smudged forehead.

"Be careful. There was more than one explosion," he explained quickly. "Go straight to the hospital, Sakura. Don't stop for anyone else."

"I won't," she promised, scooping Shinji into her arms. She took two steps, and then turned back to face Kakashi with a grim look on her face. "We don't give up," she repeated his words from their earlier conversation to her. And then she and the child were gone, leaving Kakashi to look around at the devastation.

Most of the civilians were now out of the area. Those who hadn't been able to flee were being tended to and pulled away from the area by his comrades. Still others who hadn't survived lay where they'd died, sending a surge of rage through Kakashi, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

A familiar hand clapped down on his shoulder, and the silver-haired man turned to come face to face with Gai. His face was serious, his ever-present grin wiped from his lips and replaced with a taut frown. Kakashi sighed, turning away from him again and back to the street in front of him now. The building was now surrounded by the Water Release Team that he knew assisted Konoha's fire department in large fires like this one. Their steady streams of water had brought the fiery inferno down to a dull roar, small flames licking the outer edges of the shell of his former home.

"I'm glad to see that you're okay," Gai's voice was soft as his fingers pressed into Kakashi's shoulder again. He reached up and covered his friend's hand with his own, a rare display of the affection he had for the man standing next to him.

"Do you know how many casualties?"

Gai turned to face him, his features shadowed as he spoke, "Twenty-three confirmed, but I've been told the number will go up."

Kakashi's gaze sharpened, and his fists became so tight his nails were now digging into his palms. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this attack on Konoha was connected somehow to the mission his team had gone on nearly two decades ago - a mission they had failed. Twenty-three people had just died because of that failure; or at least, that was the only sense he could make of any of it in his head.

Gai seemed to sense his friend's sudden burst of anger, and he turned Kakashi to face him with a stern look on his face. "This isn't your fault."

Kakashi just sighed, swiping a shaky hand back through his hair. "Yeah," he answered halfheartedly before he grimaced, moving a hand to his chest. A slew of curse words flew out of his mouth when he pulled the hand back to see a streak of blood wetting his fingers. He realized that the strain he'd put his body under when he'd been sprinting here must have been too much just as he felt his knees giving out. Gai's strength kept him from hitting the street, and he groaned, turning to glower at the other man even as the words came from Gai's mouth.

"I'm taking you back to the hospital."

-x-

The hospital was a scene of chaos when Kakashi and Gai arrived. Cots and makeshift stretchers containing civilians and wounded shinobi lined the walls while doctors and nurses raced about. The metallic scent of blood hung in the air, mixed with antiseptic and bleach. The sound of a curtain being yanked shut followed by a doctor's loud order for a scalpel pulled Kakashi out of his daze long enough for his eyes to settle on a head of pink hair in the corner of the room, her body faced away from him as he approached.

Sakura was still with the little boy, holding his hand as he lay on a bed three sizes too big for his tiny little body. His face was clean now, his wide and fearful blue eyes fixed on hers as she gently sang to him. Kakashi pressed his hand lightly to her shoulder, giving her a weak smile as she turned to face him.

"Are you-" She started, stopping herself when she saw the red stain on his hand, her eyes narrowing. "You're hurt," she amended herself, her free hand ripping up his shirt to expose the bloodied bandages. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

"I'll be fine," he tried to reassure her, doing his best to ignore Gai's eyes burning into his back. He knew there would be questions later, but his friend seemed to know now wasn't the time as Sakura wrapped her free arm around him, pulling him close as she buried her face into his side.

"I need to stay with Shinzo," Sakura finally told him, pulling away when she felt the boy's hand tugging on hers. "His mother still isn't here, and I promised I'd stay with him."

Kakashi nodded, leaning over to press his lips against the top of her head. "I'll find you later," he promised her before he turned and began making his way towards the waiting room. Finding no empty seats, and not willing to take one even if there had been one, the silver-haired man resigned himself to leaning against the wall. Gai took a spot on the wall next to him, staring straight forward with his arms crossed over his chest. The two stood without saying a word, the dull hum of the chaos surrounding them the only sound for several minutes before Gai finally spoke.

"You're sleeping with your student, Kakashi?"

The words were phrased as a question, but Kakashi knew it wasn't and he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He'd thought they'd silently agreed this wasn't the time or place for this discussion.

"It's more than that, Gai," he shot back, giving his friend a glare. "And she's not my student anymore."

He left out the fact that technically, he had been when the relationship had started. He didn't think that would help Gai understand the situation - not that he thought anything would at the moment, judging by the look of detest on the other man's face.

"Your subordinate, then," Gai retorted, voice tense. "What were you thinking?"

Kakashi didn't know how to answer that question because he still hadn't come up with an answer for himself. He remembered that first night she'd shown up; a rainy night the first week of May, just after Sasuke had defected the village. Her body still bearing the marks of the Uchiha's parting blows and her eyes looking so hollow; so broken, the silver-haired man hadn't been able to tell her no when she'd asked to spend the night because her parents were out of town. And so he'd ushered her in quietly, closed the door behind them and he'd led her to his bedroom, where she'd laid down on his bed and fallen asleep so quickly that he'd just stood there, watching over her as she tossed and turned.

It had been like that every night for nearly two months before Kakashi had realized that his feelings for Sakura had changed. He remembered how he'd tried to stop himself from acting on those feelings; how he'd ignored the glaringly obvious fact that by then, Sakura herself had developed feelings. He even remembered the way he'd been determined to keep his hands and his feelings to himself when Sakura's leg had touched his in the lagoon that humid day back in the beginning of July. He began to realize that maybe his thinking had gone out the window that same day, moments later, when he'd been on the edge of giving in and she'd sent him careening over with warm, wet lips pressed hungrily against his neck.

"Kakashi," Gai's sharp voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and he sighed again, head falling back against the wall.

"I don't need this right now, Gai," he told his friend wearily.

Gai huffed, tightening his arms across his chest but he didn't say another word. Kakashi closed his eyes, his mind racing with thoughts that he was too tired and too sore to sort through at that particular moment.

A few hours passed by before a nurse approached him, asking if she could please see his wounds. He glanced across the waiting room and through the door, finding that Sakura was still sitting with the child. He nodded, allowing the woman to carefully lift his shirt up and over his head.

Her eyes glanced over the blood soaked bandages and nodded to herself before she led him into a room down the hall, where she had him sit down. Gai had followed, anger and confusion still contorting his features. Kakashi watched as the nurse used a pair of scissors to cut away the spent bandages, his eyes meeting his friend's as he began to speak.

"She's an adult, Gai."

The nurse's eyebrow cocked, eye shifting to the man leaning against the wall. If she was expecting a response, she was to be disappointed as Gai stood without a word. Kakashi winced as she examined the wounds on his chest and torso and decided to try again.

"I tried to stop it from developing."

Gai shifted on his feet, his frown deepening and the nurse bit the corner of her mouth, setting her eyes back to Kakashi's chest as she used gentle medical chakra to pull his skin back together. The silver-haired man sighed as his friend still stayed silent. Kakashi felt his remaining patience thinning as he spoke again, his words firm.

"I'm in love with her, Gai."

This finally gave the nurse the reaction she'd been stealthily looking for as Gai finally erupted, his face three shades darker than his normal complexion as his hands flung in the air in exasperation, as though his best friend had just confessed to some horrible crime rather than having fallen in love. The nurse squeaked as Kakashi moved to his feet, Gai crossing the expanse of space until he was nose to nose with the silver-haired man.

"You're in love with her?" Gai belted in disbelief. "What do you even know about love, Kakashi?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, not backing down. "I know enough to know it's real with Sakura," he answered his friend in a steely tone before adding, "You've known me since our Academy days. Tell me, Gai. When have you ever seen me willingly step foot in a fucking hospital?" Gai faltered, blinking. But Kakashi wasn't done. He continued, "I may not know a lot about love, but do not question me about my own damn feelings!"

The room fell silent and Kakashi allowed the nurse to quickly re-wrap his chest before he stormed out of the exam room, not giving Gai a chance to add anything else. He made his way down the hallway before he felt a hand on his shoulder. Kakashi sighed, turning around fully prepared to tell Gai exactly where he could go when he stopped, seeing an apologetic look on his friend's face.

"You're actually in love with her, aren't you?" Gai asked him; this time his words not accusatory or angry, but instead sounding more gentle. Kakashi just rolled his eyes, turning to continue his walk down the hall.

"Yes," he answered shortly. "I'm actually in love with her, Gai."

Gai walked alongside him quietly until they reached the large emergency bay that he'd seen Sakura in earlier. A frown formed on his face as he searched for her pink hair, not seeing it anywhere. The little boy she'd been tending to was now reunited with his sobbing mother. He began moving for the exit, sighing in relief as he pushed past the doors, seeing Sakura sitting under the same tree she'd been sitting under just a few hours prior.

Gai hung back as Kakashi approached her, first touching her shoulder to alert her to his presence before he knelt next to her. Sakura's arms flung around him, her head buried in his shoulder as he pulled her to his body, crooning gently into her ear as she released all the hurt and sadness she'd been bottling up ever since the explosion. Kakashi could only hold her as she cried. When she finally pulled back and met his gaze, he was not surprised to see the anger glowing in her green eyes.

"They were trying to hurt you."

"Not just me, Sakura," he told her gently, pushing some hair away from her eyes. "I saw two other explosions. This was about Team Ro."

Kakashi could see that Sakura had more questions, but he just sighed, closing his eyes as he rested his chin on top of her head. Her sweet, spicy smell was now tinged with blood and smoke, but he found that even so, she brought him a sense of peace he'd been needing since he'd seen the first pillar of smoke rising from the location of his apartment. They were both safe and for right now, that was all he needed to focus on.