Chapter 33

Kakashi just stared at the back of Sakura's head as they continued running through the pitch black of night. They just barely escaped running into more men sent by Tenzo. They ran into the woods behind the cabin in the middle of a snow storm with a backpack filled with some food, few clothes, and a bunch of ammo and two handguns.

He couldn't believe what had transpired over the last hour. He couldn't believe he witnessed Sakura do what she did without a second thought. The only thing keeping him grounded right now was the hold she had on his hand as she guided him to safety.

When she said mouthed the words "I'm sorry." back in the cabin, he didn't know what she meant until he watched her slam down the crowbar onto the guys restrained hand as she violently interrogated him. Kakashi couldn't take his eyes off the scene that was unfolding in front of him, the arm welding the gun he was using dropped down to his side.

He tried calling out to her after the first shot into the man's knee but she ignored him. It was like she was in some trance as she continued screaming. Fighting. When Sakura pointed at him with the crowbar and repeated that she would do anything to ensure his safety, he lost his voice as he stood there speechless. Kakashi knew she was serious when she said she would do anything to protect him, but seeing her put the promise into action was jarring. He wasn't sure if he could ever look at her the same again. The rage that was registered in her face would forever be burned into his memory.

That wasn't Sakura who was breaking every bone in that man's hand or firing off shots into his knees to get answers, he thought. No. That was the top tier bodyguard that she had trained and honed in for years doing all that vicious work.

"I compartmentalize." she had said the day of the bombing as they drove them towards the cabin.

'That wasn't her. It's like she turned herself off and turned on this ruthless person… She had to do that after what happened… She couldn't be herself to survive anymore. She had to create this side to protect herself and now she's using it to protect others. To protect me. She did that for me...'

"Sakura." he spoke confidently for the first time since this all started.

Kakashi stopped running and caused her to stop as well when he didn't let go of her hand.

"We can't stop right now." she spoke as she tugged his arm to try and get them going again but he refused to budge.

He's eyes remained fixed on the trail of dried blood that covered the left side of her face.

"You're hurt."

"I'm fine." Sakura bit out as she pulled him along, but he only allowed them to only walk, "We can't stop. We need to find shelter."

Kakashi bit the inside of his cheek and remained quiet for a bit. They had been running for about thirty minutes at this point and he wanted to know what she was thinking.

"Where are we going?" he asked as he squeezed her hand.

She didn't reply for a moment and he looked down to his right and her face was twisted in worry.

"I don't know." she whispered.

He stopped them again and looked at her in confusion. He didn't like the fear that laced her tone suddenly.

"What? You told me you know these woods?"

Sakura shot him a dirty look then at his doubting tone.

"I do!" she snapped before speaking more softly, "I've never been to the cabin in the winter though, I told you this! Everything looks the same when it's covered in a foot of snow. My sense of direction is off…"

Kakashi just stared at her and nodded. He understood her reasoning, but it didn't help his growing worry. She seemed to have a plan, but their current circumstances were fucking everything up.

"This snow storm and the fact that it's night aren't helping anything either." she added quietly.

He watched a sad smile work it's way to her face and squeezed her hand instinctively.

"Sakura."

"We need to find shelter soon. We can't continue in the storm. We'll freeze to death."

"Sakura." he said again, but more firmly.

Green eyes finally looked up and he regarded her warmly before he brought up his free hand and cupped her cheek and leaned down and kissed her softly. He smiled into the kiss when she instantly sighed in relief at the affection.

"We're going to be okay." he spoke quietly when he pulled back, "We're going to be okay."

He let his forehead rest against hers and they stood like and enjoyed a moment of peace in this stressful situation.

'She's working so hard just to keep me safe…'

Sakura was so thankful for Kakashi at that moment. He knew what to say to give her some sense of solace. The kiss only made it better as she let the affection reaffirm why she was taking all these extra steps to ensure their safety.

A sudden gust of blowing snow came through and blew up a bunch of the fresh snow around them. Shuddering they both pulled back and frowned at each other in the darkness. She realized if they didn't get out of this snow soon that they would be in more danger. Not from the possibility that they were being hunted down right now, but the danger of the weather. She didn't want them to succumb to the cold or slip and get hurt.

"We need to find somewhere to bunker down." she said as she turned and stared into the pitch black night.

She could only see a few feet in any direction since the combination of snow and darkness hindered her senses. She could only hear the howling wind, creaking branches, and their heavy breathing from running and she feared a sneak attack.

'I didn't grab a flashlight like an idiot… We ran north from the back of the cabin and then I pulled us westward after a while. If we keep going and if I'm correct, there's a river not far from here. If I can just get us there…'

"Let's get going." she stated as she turned and nodded towards the direction she wanted to go.

Kakashi just nodded as they said walking as fast as they could in this worsening weather.

'I have to get us to safety…'

They walked for a while in silence as Sakura strained her eyes to see ahead of them. Trying desperately to recognize something, anything that could tell her where they were currently at. She grew up in these woods. She spent countless childhood summers here exploring these woods. But it was all suddenly foreign to her since the snow covered everything and the current snow storm only obstructing her view more.

"There's a river nearby." Kakashi suddenly spoke up for the first time since they started moving again.

Sakura jerked back to attention and strained her ears and smiled when the faint sound of rushing water came through the blowing wind.

"Perfect." she sang as she squeezed his hand and encouraged him to follow her more quickly.

'Let's hope my memory proves correct.'

She knew her boyfriend was exhausted. Hiking through the dense forests in the middle of a snowstorm was probably the most intense activity either had experienced before. They needed rest and hopefully some sleep, but first she needed to secure shelter for them.

They arrived at the edge of the river a few minutes later and she smiled big up to Kakashi.

"I remembered right. And, if we're close enough, we can head down stream and this should lead into a waterfall. We can find a safe place there. I know it."

Kakashi regarded her with surprise at the mention of the waterfall.

"The… the same one from your stories?"

She nodded as they started following along the river.

"Yeah." she mumbled as she started up into the sky and tried to find the moon to gauge what time it was. When she couldn't see anything but the snow whipping by above she frowned as they marched through the deep snow.

Another chunk of time passed and they soon found themselves at the edge of the river where it turns into the waterfall and Sakura hummed happily.

"We just need to get down there." she informed him as they walked away from the water and followed the gradual slope down and worked their way back towards the waterfall.

Kakashi watched her close as she guided him through the tricky terrain of getting down to the water below. He noticed she was studying the face of the cliff closely as if she was looking for something.

'What is she looking for?'

The sudden sound of a gasp tore him from his thoughts.

"Yes! Here!" she spoke excitedly and tugged him suddenly and he stumbled after her.

"What is here?" he asked as they walked towards the face of the cliff.

Sakura let go of his hand for the first time since they left the cabin and he watched her trot ahead and then suddenly disappear as she stepped between two rocks. He quickly jogged forward and squeezed himself through the tight space and found himself plunged into complete darkness and found that there was no snow here.

"Sakura?" he spoke and was surprised to hear a slight echo.

"We're safe for now." he heard her whisper before he felt her hand on his arm, "I wish I packed a flashlight or something so we could see."

Kakashi smiled at her even though he knew she couldn't see it as he shrugged off the backpack he was wearing and kneeled down in front of her.

"I packed one." he revealed and Sakura dropped down to her knees in front of him and gasped happily.

"When?"

"When you were grabbing the food. I saw the flashlight and just put it in here for safe measure. I also grabbed the flint striker off the mantel by the fireplace and the money." he spoke in a smug tone as he lit the flash light and pointed it at his girlfriend.

Gloved hands came up and held his face as he watched her lean forward and give him a big kiss as a happy laugh erupted from her.

"You single handedly saved the day, darling!" she told him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him close.

He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer and they remained like that for a while. It was the first moment that they both felt truly safe for the time being.

"I can try to start a small fire so we can get warm" she spoke again as she pulled back and grabbed the flashlight from him and shone it around the enclosed area, "Looks like there's lots of dried leaves in here to help start one. We can try and get some twigs and branches outside to at least keep us warm for a few hours."

He watched in awe as she switched back into her serious side and together they stood and exited the enclosure and made quick work of locating wood that wasn't wet and covered in snow. Together they made a small fire in the middle of the area and he sat back and leaned against the stone wall with a happy sigh.

"Where even are we?" he asked as he watched her work on the fire and add a few branches to it.

"I didn't think of this until we were already running away. It was a shot in the dark especially with how lost we were." she spoke as she stoked the fire, "This is next to the waterfall I told you about from my childhood. It takes about three hours to get here from the cabin."

She finally looked up to him and smiled as the heat of the fire started to fill the room.

"My parents and I found this one day when I was like six or seven years old. Parts of the cliff face had broken off a long, long time ago and formed this cave like room. I always thought it was a cool hiding spot growing up… Who knew that I would be using it to save our lives twenty years later…"

He frowned at the last part while he watched her put the flint striker and flashlight in the backpack. He glanced around now that the fire was going strong and it illuminated the space. The enclosure wasn't that big, maybe seven feet wide and six feet deep. The walls sloped upwards and there was barely enough room for him to stand straight inside. There were only two openings inside, the way to get out and there was a large crevice at the top where the rocks rested against the cliff face.

Kakashi reached over and gently took her arm in his and encouraged her to scoot over to him and she quickly settled herself between his legs and settled against his chest with a sigh. He leaned over and reached up and pushed her hat up and sucked in a breath when he saw the gash on the left side of your forehead.

"We need to get you to a hospital." he mumbled as she tugged the hat back down over the wound.

It was a decent sized gash from taking the hit of that gun earlier. The dried blood made it look a lot worse than it may be and he could tell she was in pain from how swollen it was. She probably hadn't felt it yet since they both had been riding off the adrenaline from escaping most certain death.

"Not any hospitals in this neck of the woods."

He just groaned at her sarcasm when a random thought came to him.

"Won't they follow our footsteps here? The snow makes it obvious."

"Nope. The storm is pretty bad. It'll cover all over our steps from tonight. By morning they won't have a clue where to look, if they're even out there looking that is. We got lucky because I know the area. They don't."

'She's right but where are we going to go now? The cabin is a no go now that they know where it's at… How did they find out? Was Shikamaru a double crosser? Tsunade?'

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her as they sat there sucking up the heat from each other and the fire. He let his head fall and rest against her shoulder and inhaled the faint scent of her shampoo as he grew more and more tired. Who knew running for your life for hours through a blizzard and nearly two feet of snow would be exhausting?

"Where do we go now?" he asked.

Sakura rolled and rested her head against his and hummed for a second.

"There's a town north west of here, but we can't go there. It's the closest town and I know they'll be there waiting incase we do get out of these woods. We're going to by pass that town and continue north. There's a little hunting village not far past there. It's inconvenient, but we should be safe there while we regain our bearings and get supplies and secure another vehicle."

'She's already got a sound plan… She's thought ahead quite a few steps. I might have brains in the business world, but she definitely has brains for the real world.'

"I love you, Sakura." he whispered quietly.

He felt her lean forward and scoot away. When he opened his eyes and found her putting a couple of the bigger branches onto the fire before she returned to his open arms.

"I love you too. So much, darling." she mumbled as she relaxed into his hold and felt her hands rest over his, "Let's try and get some sleep. We need to have as much energy as possible tomorrow. I'm hoping we can get to that village by nightfall."

He just hummed as the fire crackled and lulled him to sleep with her close in his arms.

'We'll be okay.'

A/N: They're not out of the clear yet, but at least they're safe... for now? *shifty eyes* I love these two and their faith and dedication towards each other, ugh. Just LOVE IT.

Please, please leave a review if you can! I love hearing your thoughts on how this story is going to play out! A couple of you have struck pretty close with some ideas I have for this story and others are way off. I really love how my writing gets interpreted. c:

Shout out to Taytay95 for being the and rocking out my edits and being evil and encouraging me to write more kakasaku stuff that isn't YNS or UWS, ahahaha.