Tobi was on the border of Konoha and The Hidden Sand, covertly observing the movements of both sides as they tried to out-bluff one another. Orochimaru was using the Kazekage as a pawn in the upcoming chunin exam, and it was amusing to watch the border guards pretend that they weren't preparing for war.

He had decided a little while ago to alter the time dilation field of kamui. The new ratio wasn't perfectly 1:1, but now one day outside was only a week or so for his toy soldiers. It meant he didn't need to worry about them getting too frail to be of use while he considered how best to employ them. It also meant that Kakashi's kunoichi wouldn't end up growing older than him before he decided what to do with her.

The unfortunate side-effect was that even prisoners with a poor sense of time would notice if his favourite toy started disappearing every week instead of every few months, so he couldn't keep taking her out every night. He'd been good about it so far, though his pink-haired obsession was never far from his thoughts. Sometimes he was tempted to just take her out full time, like his new bodyguard; but there was a chance she would distract him from his work, and that simply wouldn't do. How could he ever look Rin in the eye if he ended up forcing her to wait longer, just for the sake of a cheap imitation?

And so he would be good, and leave his toy in her box where she belonged. Perhaps he could treat himself to a nice, long reunion with her once Orochimaru's plan threw the ninja world into abject chaos. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all.

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

Ino had insisted on staying with Sakura.

"We'll go shopping," she said, and every male under twenty made a face like she had suggested getting waterboarded. They all silently decided to be elsewhere for a while.

Sakura looked to Kakashi. "Can I?"

She still wasn't completely sure what a handler was supposed to do. Did he need to be supervising her 24/7? She wasn't sure Kakashi really knew either, so today might be her last chance to spend quality time with her best friend before they both found out.

Kakashi hesitated, and Ino's eyes went round. "You're not seriously going to keep letting her walk around like that, are you?"

"Like what?" Sakura looked down at herself. This was the nicest she had looked in years.

"It's not your fault," she assured her, with a sympathetic pat on her arm, "but between the clothes and the hair…"

"I cut her hair," Kakashi argued, and Sakura nodded.

"It's true; I have it here, actually." She unslung her big back and showed off the coils of pink braid close to the top.

Ino gently took the bag from her hands, then promptly handed it to Kakashi. "Perhaps you can keep this safe until we get back?"

It was almost funny watching her twelve-year-old friend boss around a twenty six year-old jounin, even if the thought of leaving her bag behind was far from a laughing matter.

Kakashi took the bag without argument but raised his eyebrows at Asuma, probably silently asking where his kunoichi had developed such an attitude.

Asuma simply shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it if you don't."

"Fine. But take Pakkun with you."

"Who?" Sakura asked, but Kakashi was already biting his thumb through his mask and forming seals she didn't recognise.

A tiny puff of smoke later, and a wrinkly pug dog was standing with them on the street.

"A dog!" All concern for her precious bag was put on hold as Sakura dropped to the ground to get a better look.

The pug had doleful eyes and its own tiny forehead protector. Sakura hadn't seen an animal of any sort up close for such a long time that she fell in love instantly. She reached out to pat his velvety-looking ears, but he smacked her hand away.

"Watch it, lady."

"You talk!" Sakura gasped.

The pug had clearly decided she wasn't worth dealing with, because he ignored her and turned to Kakashi. "You need something, Boss?"

Kakashi knelt down with significantly more dignity than Sakura. "Pakkun, this is Sakura. She's the girl I've been looking for. Sakura, this is Pakkun. He's one of my ninken, so he can track me down if anything happens while you're out shopping."

"Wait, what?" Pakkun squinted at his master in disbelief. "You summoned me to supervise a shopping trip?!"

"Sorry," Kakashi gave him an apologetic pat on the head, which Sakura watched jealously. She would gain this dog's trust if it was the last thing she did.

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

The first place Ino took her was a salon.

"You know I don't have any money, right?" Sakura said as the hairdresser started fluffing her hair with a critical eye.

Ino flapped her hand in a dismissive gesture. "My treat today."

"Is Kakashi's haircut really that bad?" She looked at herself in the mirror. It was pretty uneven at the ends, and when you looked at both sides front on, you could tell that they weren't quite the same length. But there were no braids, and Kakashi had handled her hair like he understood its value to her.

"Yes," Ino and the hairdresser both said at the same time, and Sakura resigned herself to losing yet more hair.

It actually wasn't too bad, having her best friend catching her up on everything she had missed while someone fussed over her. The lady insisted on washing her hair first even though it never got dirty, and the hot water and the scalp massage was so heavenly that if she was capable of falling asleep, she would have. Aside from three hugs and a few medical examinations from the night before (which didn't count), nobody had really touched her. The Others might have spent literally half their time fighting, but they also understood the value of even platonic physical intimacy.

When the lady finally got to cutting, she ended up giving Sakura a choppy, layered bob that made the uneven patches look intentional and stylish. She even cut in a fringe.

"I have to admit, it does look a lot nicer like this." She ran her fingertips through the feathery ends while Ino simply smiled like she had known all along that it would end this way. Sakura remembered another time, when her friend had solved her hair troubles with the help of a little red ribbon. It was amazing how a tiny strip of cloth could change a person's life. She looked at her friend in the mirror. "Guess Sasuke won't like it this short, huh?"

Ino's smile faltered. "Wait, do you still…"

"Like him?" She shook her head. "It's funny, I held onto that crush way longer than I should have. I hated that I was getting older and he wasn't. But when I got out, and finally saw him after all these years, I realised I was just as happy to see Naruto. And getting to see you again made me happiest of all." She held out her hand. "Which is to say, I'd like to officially resign as your rival."

"I gladly accept." Ino took her hand and squeezed it. "And not just because it means I get Sasuke all to myself now." She winked.

"I wish I'd done this way sooner. It sucked, not being your friend."

"You were always my friend, Forehead. Now come on, let's get you some new clothes."

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

Clothes ended up being a lot harder than hair. Like Tsunami, Ino refused to get anything for Sakura that she didn't actually like. She would pick some things out for her, holding them against her body like Sakura was the main flower in an arrangement and she was trying to find complementary blooms. Then she'd march Sakura to the fitting room and make her show off everything one by one. It was the most Sakura had changed clothes in a decade, and strangely exhausting.

"Clothes are a part of your identity," Ino had declared at one point. "What you wear tells the world who you are."

"What if I don't know who I am?" Sakura tugged at the hem of a short dress Ino had insisted on seeing her in. Even if she'd had a whole wardrobe of clothes Inside, what was the point in cultivating a personality when there were only a handful of other people in your world, and they already knew you intimately?

"That's too short." Ino confirmed what Sakura had known even when it was on the hanger. "Try this instead." She handed her another small mountain of fabric. "We're going to find you somewhere."

Sakura shot Pakkun a 'help me' look, but he just stared up at her with his droopy eyes. "Don't ask my opinion, unless you just want to grab a vest and a forehead protector and call it a day?" He turned to show off his blue vest with a little henohenomoheji face stitched on the back.

"Very cute," Sakura agreed, "but I'm not sure they come in my size." She would need a new forehead protector at some point. Maybe Kakashi could help her with that.

She put the latest clothes Ino had given her in the fitting room, but instead of trying them on right away she escaped to browse the racks furthest from where her friend was currently hunting.

Red used to be her favourite colour. She still mourned the loss of her little red dress somewhere Outside, even though it would have been tiny on her by now. Was red still her favourite? To be honest, such a bold colour just made her feel nervous. Any time she ended up topside in just her dress, The Others would be on her in minutes. She was like a beacon for fights back in the day.

But red was also the colour of Karin's hair and eyes.

She picked out a pair of wide hakama pants in maroon. Red, but dark and muted. And it had nice deep pockets, too.

"How about these?" She held them up to show Ino.

Ino came over at once, inspecting the pants with clear approval. "There you are!" Possibly she would have said that no matter what got selected, but Sakura glowed anyway. "Now we need to find you a top. What were you thinking?"

"I don't know, just a black shirt?" She grabbed the first one on the top of a nearby pile. It was sleeveless and made of the same stretchy material as Kakashi's, but without the mask. Most ninjas wore something similar, so pretty much every clothes shop in Konoha stocked them.

"That's a good start," Ino hedged, sizing up her patchy coat. "But how about we get a new jacket, too?"

"Sure," Sakura said, but she meant it this time. She wasn't just saying yes to whatever ended the experience the fastest; she wanted her friend to help her complete her new outfit. Her current coat was just another strange trophy from Outside, so she didn't mind if it ended up at Kakashi's with the rest of her things.

"Oh, definitely this!" After a few minutes of both girls searching the racks with renewed enthusiasm, Ino pulled something free and presented it with a triumphant flourish.

Sakura examined the offering. It was a simple haori half-coat, which would match her hakama well. The print was a tessellating geometric pattern in bottle green and white, a little like the fletching of a thousand tiny arrows.

"It's nice," Sakura agreed, "but why this one?"

"This pattern is called yabane, which means 'arrow feathers.'" Ino spoke with that same easy confidence Sakura had admired when they were both children. "It's auspicious because, you know, once you fire an arrow it isn't meant to come back. People use it for brides' kimonos and stuff."

"I like that." Sakura hugged the jacket to her chest. She wanted to be like an arrow, flying so far that it could never be called back.

Pakkun trotted over. "Does this mean we can go home now?"

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

It was after dinner. Sakura was in the shower, and Kakashi was taking the opportunity to re-read the scroll that had arrived for him earlier.

His official mission directives as Sakura's handler were about as bad as he had suspected. The elders had clearly drafted it, because it was full of bureaucratic nonsense and excessive penny-pinching. Danzo himself had probably suggested the crueller sections, like a three-strike policy against Sakura (unclear what would be considered a strike, or what would happen to her if she reached three), mandated regular blood tests for her and eye tests for him, and a ban on her leaving the village without an escort of at least jounin status. The worst part of all was the calculation of his stipend. Because Sakura didn't need to eat, the budget didn't factor in any food-related expenses. Essentially, if he wanted to 'waste' food on her then it would have to come out of his own pocket.

He'd already bought the ingredients for their dinner that night when he got the scroll, and had considered breaking the news during the meal to make it a sort of last treat. But she'd eaten his go-to recipe of broiled saury fish and eggplant like it was something special, asking all sorts of questions about the spices he'd used and how to get the cooking times just right.

Kakashi rarely cooked at home for anyone other than himself, and he'd only taught himself how to cook in the first place to fill the void of time after his father's death. He had flavours he liked, sure; but it was hard to break the idea that eating was just one of the many banal rituals of living. If his body had stopped needing nutrients, would he still bother with food?

But then he saw Sakura's face light up just because the fish tail was crunchy, or the eggplant wasn't as bitter as she remembered it being. For her, the whole meal was a thousand little sensations, a thousand little joys that he had been able to give her. When he mentioned that it was one of his favourite dishes, Sakura had offered to cook him one of her favourites the next night (she had also requested that he supervise her closely while she did, just in case her skills were so rusty that she burned his apartment down). He decided then and there to just ignore the stipend limitations and never mention it to Sakura; he could stretch his food budget a bit, if it meant she got to feel a little normal.

The bathroom door cracked open and Sakura emerged in a waft of scented steam. Her even shorter hair was wrapped in a towel, and she had changed out of her new green and maroon outfit and into...something else.

"Ino bought this for me." Sakura gestured to the nightgown that Kakashi could only describe as 'slinky' (actually, he could have described it in a lot of ways; but not while the person wearing it was supposed to be under his care). "I told her I didn't need to sleep so why would I need pyjamas, but she said I'd still want to be comfortable at night. Honestly, I think she just enjoys dressing me up now that I can shop in the adult section."

"And is it? Comfortable, I mean?" Kakashi was trying hard not to stare at her legs.

"Sure." Sakura ran her hands down the front, inadvertently pulling it tighter against her body. "It's super silky."

"That's nice." It was not nice.

"Speaking of being comfortable," Sakura gestured to his face, "do you always wear your mask at home, or is it because I'm here?"

"Ah." The honest answer was that yes, he had only kept the mask on and eaten in his usual speedy way (which hardly mattered because Sakura was too engrossed with her own meal to notice at the time) because she was there. He already had to share his house and his time with her; did he really have to share his face, too?

But the moment he had the thought, he realised it was stupid. He'd sworn, prayed even, that he'd do anything for Haruno Sakura if only he could save her. Showing his face was nothing compared to what he was prepared to do to make this work.

He tugged the mask down. "Forgot I was wearing it."

Sakura was staring openly, and he forced himself to focus his eyes on his scroll and ignore the itchy feeling of her scrutiny.

"You're really handsome."

Did she mean to say that out loud? He glanced up at her in spite of himself. She didn't seem embarrassed at all, and paradoxically that made the moment even more embarrassing for him. "Uh. Thanks."

A little-known fact about the great copy-nin Hatake Kakashi was that he blushed easily. Maybe he should have just claimed he wore the mask at all times; the discomfort would have been nothing compared to having a girl in a nightie calling him handsome.

Sakura removed the towel around her head and hung it back up. "So did you want to go to bed?"

"What?"

She pointed to the window. "It's dark outside. Are you still reading, or did you need to go to sleep?"

"Oh, right. About that…" It hadn't escaped his notice that the number of beds in the apartment had failed to change just because the number of residents had. Obviously the guest got priority, but unfortunately he didn't even have a couch to crash on in the meantime. Sharing was out of the question even before he had seen her pyjamas, but a viable alternative hadn't managed to present itself either. "There's only one bed."

"Yeah, I know." Sakura glanced at the bed which, due to the open plan layout of his shoebox apartment, was a fairly prominent feature. "I figured I'd just sit on a chair, but if you're worried about privacy I can go into the bathroom?"

"You can't just sit on a tiny chair all night," Kakashi argued. "You'll be taking the bed."

"Why?"

He blinked. "Because."

"Because it isn't gentlemanly to sleep in a bed while a lady goes without?" Sakura teased. "I don't sleep, you do."

"But don't you miss it?" he asked, still unable to come to terms with Sakura just…sitting in a chair all night.

"Having a bed?" She went over to his bed and fell back onto the covers. Her nightdress rose a little higher over her scarred thighs, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. Instead, she closed her eyes and rolled gently from side to side like a fitful sleeper. "It's nice, yeah." She opened her eyes and hopped back up. "But so are chairs."

"Well, if you're sure…" He switched off the main lights until only the bedside lamp was still lit.

"I'm sure." Sakura went to one of the armchairs and spun it around so it faced away from the bed. There was still basically zero privacy, but he had to agree that it was better than her watching him sleep all night.

It's just like camping on a mission…

He might have insisted longer, but tomorrow he had to decide whether or not to nominate Team Seven for the chunin exam. Before Sakura's return, the answer had still been complicated, just in a different way. The exam was strictly for teams of three, so Naruto and Sasuke would have had to find a genin whose teammates had already been promoted; or, more likely, the elders would have taken the chance to assign a permanent replacement for Sakura. Now that she no longer needed replacing, the problem wasn't whether the boys could play nice with a new teammate, but if all three of them could still work as a unit well enough to survive.

He needed enough energy to put them through their paces tomorrow, before registration closed and they were forced to wait another six months. Sakura's mission scroll made it clear that certain restrictions could be loosened for the duration, so clearly the elders were keen to see Team Seven participate. If they blamed Sakura for delaying, would it count as a strike against her?

He drifted off to this unpleasant thought, and in his dreams he was visited by his father.

"You're letting your friend sleep on a chair?" Hatake Sakumo's eyes were wide with all the gentlemanly angst Sakura had accused Kakashi of before.

"She doesn't sleep," he murmured, even though you probably weren't supposed to talk to ghosts.

Sakumo's ghost ignored him. "A lady friend."

"Please go away."

"The first lady friend you've had over in a while."

"Dad…"

"Basically ever."

"Dad!" Kakashi had been too young to have such embarrassing conversations with his father before he died. Perhaps it was because it was a dream, but it felt easy to imagine. "She's not a lady friend, she's a mission."

"Ah, Kakashi…" Sakumo leaned over the bed like Kakashi was still a child. But instead of tucking him in, he took a short tanto blade and thrust it into his own stomach. Dark blood splattered the sheets. "It's the missions that get you killed."