Kakashi waited for awhile longer before he approached the campsite again, stoking the fire with more wood before he slipped through the flaps of the tent. Sakura was lying on her side; knees pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, her face buried in between her elbows. She wasn't sobbing anymore, but the occasional sniffle squeezed at his heart as he stretched next to her, draping an arm over her hip.

"You're strong, Sakura," he breathed against her ear softly, letting his fingers trace lazy circles into her skin. "It's not about that."

"Then what?" She snapped, her words venom as she twisted her neck so their eyes met.

"It's me," he tried to tell her again, his lips pressing a kiss to her shoulder. "I tried to tell you after the mission. I froze, Sakura. I can't do that again; not with Danzo, not if I'm going to keep the promises I've made to you."

"Kakashi, I-" Sakura started, but he cut her off with his index finger to her lips. His voice was strained with his next words.

"You read the scroll; tell me, Sakura. What was the cause of death for the third body I brought back from that mission?"

She blinked, her eyes frowning as she recalled what she'd been able to read before he'd snapped the scroll away from her. "I don't know," she answered him. "I don't think-"

"The ninken," he croaked out, his eyes glinting like steel in the moonlight. "The only reason I'm not dead right now, Sakura, is because I summoned them to subdue her. She got the upper hand because I saw you, and I love you, and I couldn't hurt you, Sakura. They ended her the second I blacked out. I didn't kill her myself because I froze."

She rolled over so that she was facing him, reaching up to run her hand down his trembling arm. Kakashi wiggled an arm underneath her, pulling her close to him as his lips brushed across her forehead.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, burrowing her face into his neck and inhaling the salty, earthy smell of him. Against his throat, she whispered, "I'm so sorry."

"You don't have to apologize," he told her, his hand rubbing up and down her spine. "But I need you to hear me on this, Sakura. Please, stay out of it. Focus on your training with Lady Tsunade. Let me deal with Danzo."

Sakura only nodded, closing her eyes as he held her. Every bone in her body was telling her to insist on being by his side; that he couldn't take this, whatever it was, on by himself. But she kept her mouth shut and her opinions to herself. She decided to trust him, to give him the space he needed with the situation. She would do as he'd asked. She would train with Lady Tsunade and stay out of his way.

And when the time came, she told herself, she'd be there to back him up.

-x-

The sun was already up the next morning when Sakura woke up to the smell of fish cooking, the scent of it enticing her stomach into low rumbles. She woke slowly, stretching first her arms and then her hips and her legs before she crawled out of the tent.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Kakashi's smooth tone spoke to her from somewhere above. She squinted, glancing up to see him come in to focus, his grin beaming down at her as he extended his hand to her and helped her to her feet.

"What time is it?" She asked groggily, brushing the sleep from the corner of her left eye before doing the same to her right. As she was doing so, Kakashi's lips covered hers in a sweet kiss that she smiled into, her hand reaching up to card through the silver hair at the base of his neck.

"A little after eight," he answered her, reaching down to rotate the fish. "After we eat, I was thinking we'll-"

"Go into the village, where I'll spend the day with my parents," she finished for him with a roll of her eyes. He arched his eyebrow, tapping her nose with his index finger.

"Actually," he started. "I was going to suggest we could check out the inside of the house before we head in to the village, where you'll spend the afternoon with your parents," he finished, a smirk on his lips at the look on her face.

"What's it look like?" She wondered out loud, an excited smile tugging at her lips.

Kakashi chuckled, reaching to pull the fish off the cooking spit. "Like a house, I suppose," he answered lightly, giving an exaggerated wince as she shoved his shoulder playfully. He placed each of the fish on a plate before sitting down, patting the grass next to him.

"I bet the views are great," she told him as she took a large bite of her meal, chewing happily as she glanced up at the house. After she swallowed, she added as an afterthought, her face twisted in worry, "I hope it has a bathroom."

Kakashi's laugh bellowed through the yard, his hand pressed against his stomach in the heartiness of it. When he finally managed to stop, he was still chuckling as he said, "Of course there's a bathroom. This place isn't ancient."

"Well, it might not be," she grinned at him, a gleam in her eye. "You, on the other hand..."

Kakashi covered his heart with his hand, his mouth falling agape. "The beauty of an angel with the tongue of a devil," he spoke, clucking his tongue and shaking his head. "So cruel."

She giggled, her food forgotten as she leaned in, supporting her weight by pressing down on his thighs. She ghosted her lips across his and inched her fingers to stroke his crotch, a grin forming when she felt him hardening beneath her gentle caresses. Just as he cupped her left breast, she tittered again and hopped to her feet.

She was several feet away when he called out in a grumble, "We played this game yesterday, Sakura!"

The smirk she gave him over her shoulder was positively evil, her eyes shining as she echoed back to him his words from the night before, "And as I recall, you liked it."

He met her in the house a few minutes later and found her standing in the middle of the small entryway, her eyes glancing around the darkened room. He reached around her, tugging on a dusty curtain, letting the morning light flood the space. He ignored the anxiety that had begun wrapping its tentacles around his lungs as he glanced at the wall behind her, where a cobweb-covered photo of himself and his father hung crookedly. She turned to see what he was staring at, reaching for his hand.

"That's him," she murmured, her words not a question. "Your father."

He nodded, giving her hand a light squeeze. "His name was Sakumo. People say I look just like him," he glanced down at the ground before leading her into the next room, where he cleared his throat and changed the conversation, saying, "This is the living room."

The heels of his sandals clicked on the dirty wooden floor as he walked across the long stretch of space. Once he was on the other side, he pulled a long rope and drapes glided back, the natural light illuminating the room. The rope snapped when the curtain was about halfway open and he sighed.

"Guess that's on the repair list," he spoke as he walked back over to Sakura, letting his arm fall over her shoulder. "So, what do you think?"

She looked around the room slowly, taking it in. The wall the window was on appeared to be completely made of windows that, while dirty, gave one of those great views she'd been sure the place had. On the long left wall were a series of built-in bookshelves, still stocked with dusty volumes and forgotten knickknacks. A dead plant sat in the corner next to a long, moth-eaten sofa. The walls were filled with holes and Sakura frowned as she imagined a teenage Kakashi, so overwhelmed by pain and rage that he'd done that.

"Another life," he spoke, his words a reminder as much to himself as to her. He wasn't that out of control, angry kid anymore. Sakura leaned in, brushing her lips over his chin.

"I love it," she answered him matter-of-factly. "It's a lot bigger than it looks outside."

"Let me show you the kitchen," he murmured, leading her through a doorway and into the kitchen. She smiled as they crossed into the room, her eyes immediately drawn to a set of sliding glass doors that would open up onto a small, covered deck. Along the same wall the doors were on was a long expanse of cabinets, covered with a butcher's block counter top that still bore knife marks from meals Kakashi had shared with his father. Next to the door was a large window that overlooked the rushing river, the loud sound it audible even through the glass. Below was a large basin made of the same river rock as the wall out front.

She turned around, finding that the counters wrapped around the room and extended all the way to the end of the wall, creating a galley-style space. The space was wide enough to accommodate a large, intricately carved island topped with a beautiful slab of river stone. Above the island hung a wrought iron chandelier; one wide circle hanging higher with a series of small circular bulbs with a smaller circle hanging below that supported a single clear orb.

"My father was gifted that by an old friend of his in the Land of Iron," Kakashi murmured as he saw her eyes admiring the craftsmanship of the fixture. "It probably needs rewiring, like everything. I've always liked it."

"It's stunning," she agreed, reaching up to trail her fingers along the cool, rough exterior of the lower iron circle. "I bet it's beautiful on a dark night."

He pulled her close, letting his arm loop around her waist, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear. "It does," he confirmed before nodding towards the doorway. "C'mon, there's more to see."

He took his time leading her throughout the rest of the main floor. Around the corner from the kitchen was a short hallway with doors leading to a tiny half bathroom and a small pantry for dried goods. As he led her through the living room and down another short hallway, he made a point to walk past the locked door on the left, his eyes averted away.

Sakura didn't need to ask why.

At the end of the hall was a steep, ladder-like staircase that led to the upper floor. He ascended first, checking each step's stability before he reached down to help her up. "We can fix this, if you want," he told her as she took her last shaky step, stumbling into his arms. She smiled up at him, her eyebrow arched.

"We?"

He gave her a sheepish smile, shrugging his shoulders. "I know you won't move in right away, but..." the vision he'd had before of seeing her working in a garden outside flashed in his mind's eye and he hummed, a dreamy haze clouding his grey eye as he continued, "I want you to be comfortable here, too."

Sakura blinked, looking up at him. "Right away?"

"Hn?" He murmured, meeting her glance. "Or at all. You don't have to-"

"No," she cut him off with a chaste kiss, the smile already tugging at her lips. "I mean, you want me to move in at all?"

He laughed, reaching up to push the hair away from her eyes. "Yeah, eventually," he told her as though it were the most obvious thing in the world before he pointed out with a chuckle, "Besides, you were spending an awful lot of time at my apartment."

Her smile grew into a grin, and she tugged on his hand, walking down the hall. "Show me the rest of the house," she implored him, stopping at a door that was cracked open. "What's this room?"

"An anything room," he shrugged, nudging the door open with his foot. The windows on the wall opposite the door looked out over the front yard. He added, "I guess it's probably meant to be a guest room, but we never had any. I used to sit in here and play board games with Obito and Rin sometimes."

"They were your first team, right?" She asked him quietly. Kakashi had never spoken much about either of them, though she'd seen their faces in the one picture he'd had displayed in the apartment. Her heart ached when she realized that photo was now gone and she wondered if Kakashi himself had even realized that yet.

Kakashi only nodded, walking past the room and nodding towards a door on the opposite wall, huffing with a small laugh, "There's your bathroom."

She didn't hide her excitement as she pushed the door open, grinning at what she saw in front of her. Along the farthest wall was a cast iron clawfoot tub, its white porcelain exterior in need of repair. On the wall next to the tub was a large walk-in shower, likely meant to accommodate Kakashi's father's height and size. It was tiled from floor to ceiling with dark blue slate, the natural ridges highlighted by the sunlight filtering in from the window.

She turned, looking at the other half of the room. There was a double sink along the wall separating the bathroom and hallway, a dirty mirror above each basin. The cabinet was handmade using the same materials as the island from the kitchen, and between each mirror hung a simple iron sconce. The toilet seat next to the back end of the tub, and along the far wall was a door she assumed opened to a linen closet.

"It's amazing," she told Kakashi, turning to find him standing in the doorway, arm propped in the frame. He smiled, glancing around the space.

"We," he emphasized the word with a grin before he continued, "Can paint it whatever color you want."

"Pink," her eyes shined, glancing around the room once again. He rolled his eyes with a playful smile, shrugging his shoulders with a short nod of his head.

"Pink it will be," he told her before heading out of the bathroom and to the end of the hall. There was a window there that overlooked their temporary campsite, the edge of the forest in the distance. She came to a stop behind him as he led her into another room.

"This was my father's room," he told her quietly as she looked around his shoulders to see a large bed on the wall across from them, a large window above it. The room was dusty, with thick cobwebs hanging from every piece of furniture and the simple pendant light that hung in the center of the ceiling. It looked as though no one had been in here for ages, she thought to herself. When he saw the shadowed look on her face, he leaned in to brush his lips across her forehead and added, "It's okay. This...wasn't the room," he finished in a strained voice.

"Still, it's probably not easy to see. Even after so long," she whispered against his arm, letting her arm give him a gentle squeeze. "We can leave this room alone; maybe just clean it up so there's no spiders?" She suggested lightly.

Kakashi smiled, nodding before he led her out of the room and towards the last room left unseen, on the wall shared with the bathroom. He kicked the door open lightly, a small smile on his face as they entered.

"This was-"

"Your room," she cut him off in a soft whisper, stepping around him to look around what she considered to be the most private sanctuary he could allow her in to. He stepped aside, not speaking as she glanced around the time capsule that the room was.

His walls were charcoal grey; nearly black, she thought to herself as she smoothed her palm along one of them. Her eyes glanced up, her eyebrow cocking when she saw a tattered poster of a scantily clad kunoichi covered in fishnet and ribbons, her purple eyes winking and her matching hair in long, flowing pigtails. She turned to face Kakashi, who was blushing and had a hand buried in his hair.

"She was rather renowned in taijutsu," Kakashi tried, earning a scoff from Sakura.

"I bet," she giggled, pointing at the bed that sat below the poster with a giggle. "I bet you daydreamed a lot about training with her," she chortled.

Kakashi's blush deepened, an unspoken answer to her question as she moved on, her eyes stopping on an old photo displayed on a dusty nightstand. She glanced over at Kakashi, who gave her a subtle nod of his head, and she gently picked it up, using the flat side of her fist to wipe away the dust.

She found herself looking at a photograph of a beautiful woman with familiar eyes she recognized as matching Kakashi's own beautiful grey one. Her hair was a deep, raven's black, flowing around her down and out of the frame. She bore a vibrant smile and a twinkle in her eye that reminded her of Kakashi's mischievous glint when he was about to do something funny. Stretching from the inner corners of her eyes and to the edges of her face were two distinctive purple streaks, and in her arms was a toddler with a shock of silver hair.

She gasped, realizing that she was looking at a photo of Kakashi and his mother. They had both been so young, she mused to herself, her hand trailing along toddler Kakashi's unscarred left eye. She felt him move behind her, his fingers wrapping around the frame as he lifted it to study it. She saw the way his face softened and smiled, hugging him to her.

"Her name was Kokoro," he told her quietly, setting the frame back down on the nightstand. "And she really was my father's heart, mind and soul."

"You look like her," Sakura smiled up at him, leaning in to press her lips to the corner of her mouth. When he gave her a confused look, she grazed her fingertips over his right eye, whispering, "Here," before she trailed her fingers to his mouth. "And in your smile."

Kakashi kissed the tips of her fingers delicately, letting his forehead lean against hers as his eye closed. All his life, people had only ever seen him as Sakumo's son. They'd always pointed out all the similarities with his father; his hair, his talent, his penchant for darkness. In all his 31 years, no one had ever even talked about his mother; had never told him that even with his striking resemblance to the White Fang, he was comprised of bits and pieces of Hatake Kokomo, too. It made his heart swell to bursting point, and some of that emotion leaked out of the corner of his eye. Sakura's fingers reached up to brush the tears away and he could only hold her as he felt more of them coming. He'd never felt so loved before; so completely cared for. It was the first time in Kakashi's life that he felt truly at peace.