Sakura's entire being flooded with an emotion she hesitated to acknowledge as shame. Her skin flushed; her stomach squeezed with it. She was painted bright red from the emotion, doused in color. She had not felt shame in years. But suddenly, she was ashamed of herself—for not recognizing the ring for what it was, for not trying harder to make up with her living, breathing parents. For never actually asking Kakashi if he had gone out and purchased it.
It was strange, how no matter how much she grew, how much she thought she matured, she was never as far along as she had believed. She hated herself, thoroughly, at that moment. She was ashamed and dismayed. She wished the ground would swallow her whole, or that she could crawl under the covers of her own bed and not come out.
But she couldn't give up until she got the ring back, and hiding would not be helpful.
Kakashi looked like he was going to be sick as he stood up before her, his grip on her tender elbows pulling her upright with him.
"Sakura," his voice was strained in a way that felt like someone had struck her in the chest with a baseball. "Where did you last have it?" She could tell he was struggling to be calm.
"I put it on the vanity before I went for a swim, with all my other jewelry." She pointed a manicured finger at the barren wood surface. "Everything else," she flashed her wedding band and bracelets at him, "was right where I left it."
Kakashi ate up the distance between him and the vanity in a few long strides, his movements stiff. His fingers passed over the surface of the vanity, his eyes searching, searching, searching. He dropped to his knees and looked beneath it, then began looking on the ground all around it. Sakura rushed to help, looking under the divan Kakashi had been sitting on in case it had hit the ground and rolled. She pulled back the edges of the rug, checking underneath. She saw nothing.
After two hours of turning the room, their bags, and their pockets inside out, Kakashi started yelling for Genma. The ring was not there. It was not anywhere within the suite. It did not magically appear under any of the furniture, just waiting to be found, playing a joke on them.
Sakura stood uncomfortably as Kakashi and Genma discussed in hushed voices, feeling very much like a child who had done something wrong. But this was much worse. She was a grown woman who had lost the precious engagement ring of her deceased mother-in-law. Most likely the most precious thing Kakashi owned. She wasn't a child who had done something wrong, she was Pandora.
Sakura resisted the urge to nervously wring her fingers together, because that was not who she was. But her fingertips were going all hot and cold, pins and needles pricking her like Aurora. Time slipped by as Kakashi and Genma assessed, searched the room again. Noon was quickly approaching, but Sakura remained statue still, encased in cement.
Genma kicked the side of the vanity, hard enough to split the wood. Sakura didn't mind, she barely even processed the action, replacing it would cost her nothing. But the RING. She could not replace that. Not even how she had found Naruto's beloved guitar for him.
"Someone stole it, Kakashi, and you know it." Genma's eyes were harsh, an expression Sakura rarely saw on his face. "We have to face it. We're running out of time. It almost time to leave,"
"Why only steal the ring?" Sakura sputtered, unconcerned by the time slipping by. "There's a ton of valuable things in here, and the ring is the only thing missing." She popped her jaw in frustration, her throat strangling itself with frustration and shame. "Unless this was personal against Kakashi and they knew how much it meant to him," she managed to get out of her closed throat. She could feel her phone buzzing with notifications, undoubtedly her friends and the crew wondering why she had yet to appear. Soon they would come knocking and drag her back to Konaha without the ring.
Genma and Kakashi exchanged looks. "Get the men." Kakashi ordered, his voice rough.
Genma disappeared to obey, while Kakashi paced, nearly creating enough friction to start the floor smoldering.
Kakashi dragged his hands through his hair. "My identity for ANBU work was always concealed. Always. But for my normal military service…" He trailed off, thinking. "If it was the Akatsuki, it's a trap for you," he looked sharply to Sakura, "if it was one of my enemies who knows who I am…" he trailed off, lost in thought.
Sakura watched him, her mouth pressed into a thin line, her brows tilted with distress. Kakashi kept running his hands through his hair, and he even tugged his mask down, just for a moment, like he couldn't get enough air.
Sakura's villa door burst open again, and in flooded the full force of her guard, clothes disheveled and eyes wide.
It was Guy, surprisingly, whose eyes coolly surveyed the room, Kakashi, the situation. "We were only all gone for a very short period of time this morning," he pondered out loud, one hand rubbing his jaw as he thought. "It would have been a hell of a coincidence if this was a crime of opportunity."
Asuma grunted agreement. "This was definitely targeted." He meandered from window to window, eyes narrowed. "There's no smudges on the glass, not signs of forced entry."
Genma shook his head. "There are no footprints in the rug or disturbances on anything. This thief was skilled."
At that, Kakashi's eyes cleared a little, as though the potential for danger gave him direction. He took a step closer to Sakura, as thought to protect her. She felt tears scald eyes, ready to tip over. She did not deserve his protection when she was the one who had lost his lifeline to his mother. Her gaze trained on the floor, unable to meet anyone's eyes.
"If it had been the Akatsuki they wouldn't have taken just the ring," Kotetsu offered logically, his eyes scanning the room.
Izumo choked a laugh. "Well, that narrows it down to, oh, a million other people with bones to pick with him."
"The Akatsuki are clever. They may have taken it to lure Sakura. An ambush on this island would be advantageous for them." Genma pointed out. She appreciated how seriously they were taking the loss of their commander's heirloom. She would expect most people in their position to dismiss it as lost and move on. But not these loyal men.
"What's the move?" Asuma asked, and all eyes turned to Kakashi. Sakura could practically feel the agony ripping through him. Get back his heirloom or protect Sakura.
"Round up the other security, get the idols on the boat—"
"Yacht," Guy muttered.
"—and then we investigate swiftly and quietly."
Sakura wanted to protest—they were going to put her on the yacht and leave her alone? —but she shoved it down. She had fucked up. If she hadn't taken off the ring, if she hadn't needed to go swimming, this wouldn't have happened.
She felt Kakashi's eyes burn on her skin, frozen silver fire engulfing her. "Pack. Now. Even if it was some miraculous crime of opportunity, we are getting you safely off this island." Kakashi was too battle hardened to push aside the possibility that there was greater danger. He was going to take any and all precautionary measures.
Sakura nodded robotically and started moving, shoving items where they went. Fortunately, she was an exceptionally efficient packer, with years of experience making quick location changes, and was ready to go in a matter of moments, the suite now devoid of evidence of her famousness having been there at all.
Sakura swept out the door to find Kakashi and the others there, bags in hand, eyes alert for danger.
"Shouldn't we report the theft?" she asked as they started walking for the parking lot. They had to take rental Jeeps to get to the docks, leaving the same way they had come. Jeep to yacht, yacht to bigger island to board a plane.
Kakashi, who had shown her only his back, turned his head to the side to reply, but didn't actually look at her. "Already done, Sakura. But this is a little island, they only have so many resources." She wondered why that hadn't been the first thing they had done, but Kakashi must have read her mind. "Letting us search the room and assess first was the best move." He explained but remained facing away from her.
The sun was well overhead as they descended on the Jeeps, Sakura's friends already gathered with their own security details, looking haggard and confused. They turned toward her, irritation passing over several of their faces, as they had no doubt been prepared to send out a search party for Sakura.
"Did you—"
"Yes, I already alerted the show's crew and director." Kakashi plowed through the questions she was going to ask.
Inside of herself, Sakura sank lower.
Her guards met the rest and quick, quiet words were exchanged, hands gesturing curtly.
Temari, standing with the other cast in a cluster by one of the vehicles, put her hand up loosely. "Excuse me," she called, drawing the attention of everyone in the parking lot. Sakura's guards had all forgotten their presence, distracted by the urgency pulsing off of Kakashi. Sakura suspected Kakashi felt time ticking down, his last connection to his mother possibly getting away. "What is going on here?" Temari's voice was as unconcerned as usual, a pillar of normalcy as Sakura was swept up in her negative emotions. She was sure her friends had overheard some alarming words from the conversation going on only feet form them.
Sakura met her friend's eyes, finding it within herself to answer past the shame shoving itself down her throat. "I lost the engagement ring," she said softly, hardly audible. She couldn't help but glance back down at her single-banded finger, bereft of the gem that should have shone there.
Ino, who had had her phone out, dropped it on the cement in her surprise, while shocked noises came from the rest of Sakura's friends.
After a strange moment of considering the fallen cellphone, Ino snatched it back up and sauntered forward, her eyes intense.
"Sakura," she started, reaching for her pink haired friend and drawing her into her chest. "I know who took the ring,"
Sakura, who for a split second had felt a little better in her friend's arms, pushed back from the blonde abruptly, gripping her upper arms. "What?" She demanded, her voice a squeak.
Ino flipped her long hair over a slender shoulder, the strands whispering over Sakura's fingers. "Babe, think with that beautiful head of yours." She tipped her head to the side expectantly.
No one said anything, but all attention was on Ino, from the idols to every security person standing on the pavement in the morning sun. Ino was looking more disillusioned with all of them by the second.
"Who has the ring, Ino?" Kakashi's voice was laced with impatience and a tenuous strand of hope. If Ino knew, it couldn't be one of Kakashi's enemies. It just couldn't.
Ino huffed, disappointed. "Good God, people, do you all have the memory of a goldfish? No one ate their Wheaties this morning?" She rolled her eyes. Sakura's grip on her friend tightened with her mounting frustration.
"Ino," she hissed, her eyes blazing green fire.
Ino shrugged Sakura's grip off, unappreciative of the rough handling. "Hellloooo, people," she turned on her heel in a circle, looking for signs of intelligence. She completed her rotation and held Sakura's eyes again. "You are missing your engagement ring," she stated the obvious.
"My mother's ring," Kakashi breathed out, almost a reflex. Sakura didn't know if he was aware that he had spoken. She felt like he had hit her. She wished he had hit her instead, actually. Or tossed her off a boat again. The reminder of it, his voice saying the words, were a blade to her gut.
Ino waved a hand frustratedly. "Literally who the fuck would know that?" Kakashi glowered at her. "For the purposes of this exercise," she said like a teacher explaining a hypothetical question and not a very real theft situation, "it is Sakura's engagement ring before it is anything else. Her engagement ring from you, but her ring nonetheless."
Kakashi blinked, taken aback, though Sakura did not understand why.
Ino pointed at Sakura, her manicured coffin nail an inch from Sakura's nose. "Your engagement ring which went missing in the, what, one hour, you were out this morning? The morning after you two, together," she stressed the word, "humiliated a cuckoo for cocoa puffs fan? Come on, people, use those logical skills."
Sakura sucked in a breath of dismay. Of course. Of course it was Ran.
"Seriously? Why on Earth would that not be your first guess? Don't be ridiculous." Ino's eyes were sharper than they normally were, that fierce intelligence she rarely bothered with the effort of displaying shining through.
Ino's explanation brought calm, cold rage and determination over the group around Sakura, her friends and her guards pissed off.
None so much as Sakura and Kakashi, though she was still ashamed. She had told Ran yesterday about her morning swim. She had given him the opening he needed. How could she be so foolish? She kept putting Kakshi through Hells he didn't deserve.
A long, long breath escaped Kakashi as his posture lost some of its rigidness, though his pain and anger remained.
His eyes met Izumo and Kotetsu's in turn. "Go get him."
Izumo and Kotetsu shared a look and disappeared into a Jeep, then peeled out of the parking lot at speeds that could not be legal.
Omoi cracked his knuckles nervously as they stood there waiting, a pout tugging his lips down around his sucker. "Why does it always have to be us? Why can't we just have a peaceful trip?" He muttered sadly to himself.
"No, Omoi," Sakura corrected him. "It always me." The words sounded like self-pity, and she hated it. They tasted like feeling sorry for herself, which was unfair when it was Kakashi who was the worse off.
Kakashi was wound tighter than a guitar string as he waited for his men to return. Sweat pooled inside of his gloves and dripped down his back. He felt like he was going to vomit, which was no different than how he had felt hours ago when Sakura first announced the ring missing.
His mother's ring. The most vital thing Kakashi had ever possessed, a piece of his beating heart in his hands, which his mom had left for him when hers stopped beating.
Ten minutes ticked by to the pounding of Kakashi's pulse. Then twenty. Finally, the Jeep his men had left in screeched to a halt in front of them again, sending the smell of burning rubber into the warm air. Kakashi wound impossibly tighter.
Kotetsu hopped out of the driver's seat and opened the back door while Izumo came around from the passenger side. Kakashi pushed his way to be next to Kotetsu and Sakura slunk up next to him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her straighten her spine, that mask of imperious cold closing over her face like ice on a river.
Kotetsu, with a great deal of grunting and cursing, wrangled Ran out of the backseat of the car and pushed him to his knees on the concrete before Kakashi.
He spit at their feet before looking up to glare at them. One of his eyes was swelling shut, and blood dripped from his mouth. Kakashi much preferred his face this way.
Izumo smirked, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "He fell into a doorknob. Not our fault. Right, Kotetsu?"
He nudged his friend with his elbow, which Kotetsu swatted away.
Kakashi didn't react, only towered over Ran, a god sizing up a mortal. And finding them unworthy. Kakashi debated making Ran nothing but a stain on the pavement, but refrained. Senseless violence wasn't his style. Though he supposed it wouldn't really be senseless…
"You have something that belongs to my wife," Kakashi's voice was deceptively pleasant, false nicety.
He felt Sakura look at him in surprise, but his focus remained on Ran.
Ran spat again, blood and saliva splattering Kakashi's boots. Kakashi's hard expression didn't change.
"It's in the ocean. No takesies backsies." He grinned up at them, his good eye almost feverish.
Kakashi's heart joined the ring in the ocean, the world spinning like a record while he was immobile, frozen in horror.
Izumo smacked Ran soundly upside the head. "Quit being a little shit. That man will actually kill you, and then we have to do paperwork," he scolded.
Kakshi stepped forward with one foot and threaded his fingers through Ran's hair like a lover. But his actions were anything but loving as he closed his fist and jerked Ran's head back, forcing his face up at a painful angle for his neck.
"Where." Not a question.
Ran must have seen the death in his eyes, the promise of doom and devastation in Kakashi, because he panted out, "Into the surf by the fire pit."
With the answer he needed, Kakashi shoved Ran's head away in disgust, accidentally (maybe not) slamming his skull into the Jeep door, and tried not to stumble himself as black closed on the edges of his consciousness.
Sirens blared in the distance, announcing the coming of the local police force. "Goodbye, Ran," Sakura said, blowing him a sarcastic kiss before turning her back on him. Her confidence, of course, vanished like the mirage it was the second she was facing away.
Kakashi turned away, finished with this interaction. He took several deep breaths before facing the scene before him again, though he was the farthest from composed.
Sakura was gone.
Kakashi relocated her in a second, finding her pink head dashing away, back toward the beach, as fast as Kakashi had ever seen her.
Her friends were hot on her heels, catching their boat home be damned.
"Hold him," Kakashi instructed Izumo and Kotetsu over his shoulder. Then he was the wind, running after his wife, suspecting where she was headed. His joints and muscles moved mechanically, he couldn't feel the actions.
He and the other security chased her down the steps and the stretch of beach, past the scorched sand that denoted the fire pit.
Sakura hit the edge of the surf and kicked off her sandals, then tossed her cellphone over her shoulder, just barely far enough on the beach to avoid the tide. She kicked her jeans off, leaving only her underwear and tank top.
She forged into the ocean, filled her lungs with air, and dove.
Kakashi reached the edge of the water a moment later and halted. He stared at the vastness of the waves, hopelessness engulfing him.
Sakura's search would be futile. The waves would have washed the ring away already, down to the hoard of all that was lost in the ocean.
Kakashi was pulled from the chasm inside himself by the splashing of Sakura's friends into the water, followed by the guards. They were going to search.
Kakashi pressed a hand to his masked mouth and bit his fist, overwhelmed. He looked to the clear blue sky, wondering if his mother was watching over him.
He shed his boots, his gloves, his phone, but hesitated at his mask. If he went in the water with it on, he'd waterboard himself. If he took it off, this huge crowd of people, all the idols and their various security, would see his face.
He was unspeakably angry with himself for faltering, but he was spared when a pink head bobbed to the surface before him, wearing the face of vengeance.
"You stay there," Sakura commanded in the voice she used to get what she wanted of the world. She could command plants to grow and nations to change with that tone. "We will find it. No one gets to see my husband's face." With a flick of wet hair, she dove again to continue the search.
Kakashi sat slowly on the sand, letting the water soak his pants in an instant. Over two dozen people were scouring the bottom of the sea while he sat and stared blankly at the water. The more time passed, the more Kakashi's spine curved and his shoulders hunched.
He was going to have to let it go. He was going to have to let her go. It was unbearably cruel that the sky should be so blue, that the sun should be so bright, that the ocean should glitter, when he felt the death of his mother all over again.
One by one the idols returned to the beach, waterlogged and disheartened. They pat his shoulder as they went by, sympathy on their perfect faces.
Then came their security, bound to go where they went, and give up when they gave up. He vaguely registered someone saying something about waiting in the parking lot.
Kakashi saw the heads of his men bobbing in the shallows while exchanging tight lipped looks. No one had found it.
Kakashi was certain he was going to murder Ran in his jail cell before a court of justice ever saw him.
Sakura reappeared and disappeared over and over, her mask of determination slowly cracking into devastation.
"Sakura," he called for her, his voice carrying across the water to her ears. "It's time to go."
She resolutely ignored him and submerged again.
Kakashi, now certain that his men were the only ones left on this stretch of beach, finally unfolded himself from the ground and tugged his mask down, then began his trek into the waves. He was going to have to pull Sakura out, kicking and indignant.
When the water hit his waist, he surged forward and swam for the last place she'd been in long, smooth strokes, despite the water tugging on his clothing. He didn't feel it. He didn't think he'd feel anything for a while, which was something he was used to.
He reached the spot he'd last seen his idol and tread water, waiting for her lungs to run out. He could see her ascending from below, bubbles trailing from her nose. She broke the surface beside him, gasping even as she was looking back down through the water, her eyes still searching.
"Come on," he said, reaching of one of her elbows, careful of her healing skin, though he had not been that morning.
She was talking, but he wasn't listening, not really. Kakashi was tired, but still he tugged on Sakura, reeling her towards shore. There was nothing to be done.
Sakura bit his hand, more viscously than when she nipped him in play. Kakashi released her with a hiss and a disapproving look, but she dove, swift as a covert submarine.
He sighed and went after her.
Sakura was swimming straight as a shot for the bottom, nothing below her but the shifting sands and ripples of light.
He appreciated her effort, but really, his hope was dead, and he was ready to go home.
When his fingers closed around one of her ankles, she kicked him, hard, and slipped away. She was purposely releasing the air in her lungs in order to descend faster. Kakashi knew that that meant she was going to be straining for oxygen in a moment, so he let her go. She'd be back towards the surface in a moment, and he'd wait to make sure she made it, but there was no reason to chase and fight her.
Sakura drifted to the bottom, gathered her feet beneath her, and pushed off, rocketing up faster than she'd descended. Kakashi drifted up above her, watching her as he neared the surface.
Her eyes were locked hard on his.
Their gasps filled the hot air as they breached, the sounds subdued to Kakashi. He wrapped an arm around her heaving torso and began kicking backward, pulling her through the water after him like a lifeguard.
Kakashi's feet hit the shallows and he released her to push through the waves. He could see her shadow keeping up behind him as he made his way towards the pile of his things.
He was pulling his mask back up on his wet face, damn the consequences, he couldn't feel the water in his lung anyway, when Sakura stepped around him and into his path. Her clothes clung to her soaked form, sand caked to her ankles, rivulets streaming from her hair.
The line of her lips trembled a little, bringing him to a halt. He didn't know what to expect from his living hurricane as she faced him, her eyebrows drawn low. She looked likely to burst into tears.
She extended a hand to him, a gesture he took as an attempt of both seeking and offering comfort. He reached one of his own to her automatically.
As miraculous as life, a flash of green and silver fell out into Kakashi's waiting palm. His fingers closed reverently around the little piece of jewelry, and if his eyes were blurred for a moment, it was just seawater.
"How did you find it?" He gasped, disbelieving. It simply wasn't possible. The sudden release inside of him had him collapsing in upon himself like a dying star.
Sakura cleared her throat before answering. "I'm Sakura mother fucking Haruno."
Kakashi laughed as he plunged into her gravity again, as she tilted his world on the axis as easily as people turned the knob on their front doors.
Kakashi sank into a squat in the sand for a moment, trying to regain his bearings. He simply could not believe it, but he could see and feel the ring in his finger, the light refracting from it the same color as Sakura's eyes.
He looked back up to see her trudging away, up the beach one last time. He stood back up, snatched his belongings, and trailed her as he always would. He waited for her to say something as they crested the breach, the stairs, the parking lot, walked by her friends, but she just walked to the Jeep he'd dropped their bags in in silence. She climbed into the passenger seat, closed the door, pulled her knees up, and set her forehead on them.
Kakashi thanked the idols and their guards swiftly, his throat constricted. Sighs of relief surrounded him as he showed them the ring, though he wasn't as triumphant as he could have been.
With orders to his men, he opened the driver's side door of the Jeep and climbed behind the wheel. The vehicle shuddered as he slammed the door. Sakura flinched.
"Sakura," Kakashi said softly. Her breath shuddered in her lungs. She didn't move from her position, staring at her jeans that lung to her wet skin.
Kakashi put the key in the ignition and started the engine, then killed the air-conditioning before it could chill them in their soaked states.
Sitting there, Kakashi looked at the ring in his now-gloved hand, weighing so much more than a ring could.
He asked the quiet car, "How did he get in? He doesn't look nearly sophisticated enough to pull it off like a professional." He heard the unspoken 'like the Akatsuki' in his own voice.
It was a miracle the ring had been found, but he was utterly stumped by the day's series of events.
"He had a key," Sakura said to the fabric of the jeans on her thighs. "His sister works for the resort. He told me yesterday, but I forgot in my panic about the ring being missing." Kakashi stared hard at her, uncomprehending.
It was absurd, really, that they had all jumped to the absolute worst possibility. An unhinged laugh escaped Sakura, bubbling out of her lips hysterically.
"We skipped Occam's Razor and went straight to Murphy's Law." She giggled. Ino was right, they had made such a leap in login that their muscles would be sore tomorrow. Kakashi and his men had overreacted.
And the idols were supposed to be the drama queens.
Sakura's laughter from built, the absurdity and the emotions leaking through.
She lifted her head to glance at Kakashi, finding him staring at her like she'd lost her mind. Maybe she had; he certainly was crazy.
But laughter is infectious, and relief is a hell of a drug. After a moment, Kakashi's deep laugh filled the car, overlapping with Sakura's. They laughed themselves hoarse while all of the security personnel and idols piled into vehicles and began to depart for the docks and their severely delayed ship.
Kakashi wiped at his eyes with a gloved hand and sobered up.
He turned in his seat to face her, which dried the remaining giggles in her chest right up. She had gone into the ocean, in her clothes, for him. For something that was of value to him.
"Sakura," he whispered, the sound of her name replacing the echoes of their hilarity. "Give me your hand," he held his own out between them, extended toward her.
Sakura hesitated. "What if I lose it again?" She asked, her strong voice at odds with the self-doubting question.
Kakashi smiled behind the mask. "You have a track record of defending what's yours. I know you'll keep it safe," He retracted his proffered hand and tugged his mask down with a finger, then used his teeth to remove his gloves.
With bare, careful hands, he took her left hand and slipped the ring on where it belonged.