A Silver Lining in the Pink Morning Sky

"Has anyone seen her lately?", Naruto asked, looking hopefully in the crowd of his friends.

"No, not since the funeral last week.", Ino answered sadly while shaking her head.

"Yea, she is hiding in the district and won't let anyone in to see her. We have tried multiple times.", Sai agreed while putting his arm around his pregnant wife. Naruto sighed.

"M- Maybe she really wants to be alone. Maybe we should greet her wish. She suffered more than any of us.", said Hinata heavily pregnant as well.

"I have lost him, too, you know.", Naruto answered angry. His wife looked shocked. He never raised his voice against her, not like this.

"I-I know. I am sorry, honey." Naruto kissed the forehead of his wife and then pulling her into a hug.

"If this had been me, I don't know how, or better, if I could face the world ever again."

"Ino, I know you could because you are stronger than anyone else here except maybe Sakura, so she can make it too."

"Thank you Babe." Sai kissed his wife and smiled to her.

"Enough of your sweet talk. I am going to see her."

"Naruto, wait. The Hokage wanted to see you. We should just give her some space and time. She will come around. She just has too.", said Ino the grief still hearable in her voice. Naruto stopped in his tracks. He nodded and made his way not to the Uchiha district but to the Hokage tower. The rest of his friends went to their own houses.

Naruto knocked on the door and waited for his permission to go in. A few moments later, he entered.

"Hokage-sama you wanted to see me?"

"Drop the title, Naruto. I have a name and yes, I wanted to see you."

"What's wrong Kakashi-Sensei?"

"Naruto…", Kakashi paused and took a heavy breath, "how are you?"

Naruto snapped. He hated that question. Nobody cared how he really feels; everybody just wants to hear that he is fine. How is someone fine after he was seeing his best friend's corpse? How can he get over something like this? How should Sakura? "As expected. How did you feel after Obito's death?"

Kakashi sighed.

"I know how I felt, that's why I am asking you. He was your best friend. You did everything and more to bring him back to this village. I just want to make sure that you are okay and don't go the same route that I went after Obito died.", Kakashi said quietly. He knew a lot of people had asked him this very question, and he knew that Naruto probably lied to all of them. But he wouldn't allow Naruto to lie to him too. After the war, Naruto became one of Kakashi's important people, and he would try to keep his important people save as good as he can. Actually, he didn't fear for Naruto that much. He still had his wife, a baby on the way, and he would become Hokage in less than ten years. Furthermore, Naruto knew grief and how it feels and what it does to a person. He had lost his parents, his master Jiraiya, who was more like a grandfather, a pervy grandfather, but still a grandfather nonetheless, to him, and now he lost his best friend. His two best friends to be precisely, his team, his family especially when Sakura didn't recover from this loss. Sakura... most of his thoughts were around her. Ever since she came home from this mission. Lord first (God), he wished he could turn back the time and didn't assign the last Uchiha and his wife to this mission. It was a simple mission, nothing complicated. Bringing a scroll to Suna and then come back. In and out, all done in a week, and then everything would be fine. Nobody could have known or even assumed that this would be the outcome of this mission. She must hate him. He knew she hates or at least resents him. He was the one who assigned them to the mission.

"How... how are you, Sensei?"

"I am sad.", he said truthfully. It was not a lie he was sad, but he wasn't sad about the loss of Sasuke Uchiha, not primarily at least. He had always feared that Sasukes change for the better was only temporary. His gut told him, that one day Sasuke Uchiha would turn against his friends and his village once more and that they all had to pay the price for it, but he also wanted to believe in this young man full of hope and love, and he wished his gut feeling to be false just this once. He wished for nothing more than Sakura happiness, and now? Now he mourned the loss of his very favourite person – Sakura. After the war and everything they went through as colleagues, war buddies and then friends she somehow managed to get through his walls and that rather easily and became his best friend. Sure he could always count on Gai or Genma but Sakura, she was his rock whenever he needed one. He knew he had lost that. He had lost her, and he felt selfish and stupid for it. Not only that, but he couldn't bring himself to visit her and help her with her grief, because he feared the thought of her not wanting him around. Knowing that this very action would push her further away from him.

"I guess I am sad too and angry. Yea… mostly I am angry."

"At whom?"

"Sorry?"

"Who are you angry at, Naruto? Is it Sasuke?"

"No, I am not angry at him. I don't know Sensei. I am mad and angry at everyone and no one at the same time. It is frustrating and I miss him. I do, but I miss her more. Sasuke was away most of the time. I can cope with that, even if I know that he will never come back. I believe he is with Itachi again and his parents, and that he is watching over all of us. But Sakura, she was there for me. She was always there for me. I know she is your best friend, but she is mine too, she is my sister so to speak, and I miss her. I hate it that I cannot talk to her or even see her. I am afraid for her. I don't know if she has eaten enough or sleeps enough. For heaven's sake, I don't even know if she is still alive. I mean, I know. I went into Sage-Mode last night and made sure her chakra signature is still there, but you know what I mean. I am angry at her that she doesn't talk to me, and then I am angry at myself because I am angry at her. I even shouted at Hinata, and she is pregnant and needs all my support, but all I can think of is Sasuke's dead body and the look on Sakura's face."

Naruto's voice broke, and some single tears went down on his cheeks. Kakashi simply waited and allowed a small break of the conversation to make sure Naruto said everything he wanted to say and got his emotions back on track. Then he asked:

"So you haven't heard of her?"

"Nothing since the funeral. And you have seen her at the funeral. She was even more skinny than before, and even though her body was there, her mind wasn't. She looked like she had cried every second since the moment he died. She probably has."

"She looked like a corpse." Kakashi said.

"Yea, and that terrified me. I have already lost him. I am not ready to lose her too."

Kakashi nodded silently, looking at his feet.

"Can - can you talk to her?" Kakashi looked up, and his gaze meet Naruto's.

"Me?"

"Yea, you. You are her person too, you know. Listen, I know you are not comfortable helping someone cope with their emotions, you never were. I don't even believe you are good at it. Nevertheless, she chose you to be her person, her best friend and right now she needs her best friend. She needs you. So get your ass up and go to her."

"So you are also angry at me?"

"Yes."

"I see."

"I think you don't."

"What?"

"You think I am mad that you sent Sasuke on this mission, but that's not the case here. He was a Shinobi, we die on missions, that's life. That's how we earn our living, and we all know that. Nobody will ever be furious about that. I am pissed because of all people in this world who care for her and want her to be happy, the only person who can actually help her cope is you, and you don't even seem to care. You didn't go to her once after his death, but she needs you, of all people. That's what make me mad the most."

"You can be very smart, Naruto."

"Yea, but most of the time I get a headache. So will you go to her?"

"I will."

"Today?"

"Yes, today."

"Promise me, that you will do everything that is needed to fix her."

"I promise I will do everything, as long as it is in my power."

"Good. It will be good for you too, you know."

Kakashi nodded and then waved Naruto closer to him. Naruto obeyed and gets closer to him. Kakashi was hugging Naruto tightly, much to Naruto's surprise, after he was ruffling through his hair.

"And now go back to your pregnant wife."

"Yes Sensei."

"And Naruto", said Kakashi while Naruto is nearly out of his office, "drop the Sensei too. We fought in a war together, but moreover it makes me feel old."

"You are old, Kakashi, your first two grandbabies are on the way. You are practically an old man."

"I would consider myself more as the uncle of these children."

"Grandpa, that's all you get. Take it or leave it." Naruto smirked, then left the office. He knew very well that Kakashi would be happy with every title they would give him. Even if it is grandpa. And Kakashi he knew too, that he will be the proudest grandfather these children will ever get. In case of Sai's child, he will be the only grandfather, but he knew Inoichi very well, and he will do his very best to fill the hole that his death had left.

But right now he needed to concentrate on someone else. Sai and Naruto would be fine. He called it a day soon after the talk with Naruto. He knew better than let this opportunity of meeting Sakura go waste because the next time Naruto will use force.

He found himself on Sakura's doorstep way too quickly. The Uchiha district in which they moved after their wedding was on the outside of the village, but still it only took him a couple of minutes to be in front of Sakura's house. By now, he knew all the shortcuts to the Uchiha district. Before, he spent a few hours every day, or at least nearly every day, together with Sakura. He often visited her during his lunch break. He knew she went home in her lunch break. They sat together and ate a home cooked meal. It was kind of a routine for both of them. He had stopped at Ichiraku's and got some soup and a bottle of Sake. He didn't want to stand in front of her empty-handed. Not after this long period. But now he had no excuses to not knock on her front door.

She had sensed him a long time before he knocked. He was standing in front of her door for at least 5 minutes. She didn't want to respond at first, but after seeing how long it actually took him to knock, she decided to open the door for him. She didn't care she looked exactly how she felt, which was terrible, but she also knew that he wouldn't care too. Even though he looked a bit surprised to see her open the door. Neither of them said hello. Sakura simply opened the door and stepped a few steps aside so Kakashi could enter.

The first thing he noticed after she had opened the door was how skinny she actually has got. She was always slim and delight, but now, she looked unhealthy and dead. Her cheekbones were more visible as usual and even her collarbone was quite obvious. If he hadn't been concerned before, he would be now. He put the soup and the Sake on the kitchen table, then he turned around. She looked at him, waiting.

"Sakura," he started his voice was dimmed and soft, "I am so sorry. I-"

"Listen, Kakashi if you're just here to pity me, then you can go right away. I don't need anyone's pity."

"I would never pity you Sakura."

"Then what do you want? If it is the mission report. I-"

"No Sakura, I don't want the mission report. That has time. I am here because I am concerned about you and so is Naruto and the rest. You don't talk to any of them."

"I talk to you."

"Do you? I am here for you. If you want me to. I will always be there for you. I have got some soup and some Sake. We can eat together just like usual, and then we can talk or be silent, whatever you prefer. But you look dead, and that is frightening. Look, you have survived the mission and the last few days, haven't you? So you will survive the next days."

"But that is the whole problem, isn't it?"

"What exactly?"

"That I survived. I wish I wouldn't have. I wish I am as dead as he is." Kakashi had known many states of Sakura's emotions, but an emotionless Sakura. That's something he had never experienced, and it scared the shit out of him.

"Don't say that."

"Don't say what, Kakashi? The truth? I wish I died with him. I have lost my husband, the love of my life and the future we deserved. The moment he died, my happiness and my future died with him. And I am angry. I am so fucking angry, I want to tear the world apart. I want to kill each and every one of these bandits all over again, and then I want to kill their loved ones too. I want them to burn in hell for all eternity. I am so angry at him. How could he be so foolish and jump in front of me, to safe me. Me. Do you know how often he had tried to kill me? Still in this moment he decided my life worth more than his, and then he died. Didn't he know that my life would be worthless without him? How could he do that? We just found each other. I am so furious, why didn't he see our luck before, why did he waste so much of his time with hate? We could have had years together if he had not wasted so many of them while seeking revenge. A year, that's all I got. A year full of happiness, and now he is dead. He will never kiss me again; he will never say my name again. I will never hear him breathe again. I will never see his face or smell him again. They robbed that from me," she started crying, but her rant wasn't quite over," They robbed my heart and my future and I hate the world for that. How is this fair? Orochimaru had murdered hundreds of people, he even died for fuck's sake and still he is breathing just fine. But my husband, he will never be alive again. He will never meet-" That is when her voice broke completely. She was about to collapse on the floor, but Kakashi was there to hold her. She started to cry hysterically. He knew he cannot argue against her rant. He had felt those emotions before, but they would fade, slowly but in the end they will fade. She will recover from this. She is so much stronger than he ever was and still he made it through and so will she.

He held her for the next hour, and she didn't stop crying. He thought she would be asleep by now, but she wasn't. She was still awake, but she regained her self-control. She began to breathe steadily, and hearing her breath is the most beautiful sound he had ever heard since the incident in his apartment all the years back. He was stroking her hair the whole time. He knew that this was calming for her and the first knows she needed it. He was never quite fond of the idea of being close to someone physically out of the context of sex, but for Sakura he left his comfort zone willingly. She left hers often enough in the past for him, therefore was it only fair if he would do the same for her.

"I can reheat the soup if you want." He said after making sure she was ready for him to let go of her.

"I don't think I will keep the food down, but I am hungry."

He nodded and reheated the meals. He put the soup in a bowl and brought it to her. She started to eat right away, and he didn't mind. As long as she eats, everything will be alright. Then he puts two Sake-glasses on the table and poured some Sake in them.

"Oh I don't think I… I mean…", with that she stood up and ran towards the bathroom. She didn't close the door and Kakashi hurried behind her. What was wrong with her? He reached her and saw that she threw up. He held her hair and patted her back while she throws up. Now he really was worried. He should ask Shizune tomorrow to follow him around. So she can do a full medical check-up because throwing up on Ichiraku's soup is definitely not normal.

"Are you okay?"

"Yea, I am just not quite used to the nausea."

"Are you sick?" he asked without hiding how worried he is about her.

"No, not quite sick. I am pregnant."