Sakura - Chapter 14 - lilacHaze (2024)

Chapter Text

Flashback

She nearly lost her balance on the foot-wide stone paver - the ones stacked together to form the three-foot-tall retaining wall. A fall or stumble from this height would not kill her but the embarrassment might just. If he noticed her stumble - and she knew he did - he did not comment. The cover of night hid her darkening face as she continued to move in the direction he was. She tucked her arms behind her back, fingers collapsed around her wrist. Her green eyes remained straight ahead.

Minato walked next to her, on the sidewalk. Feet firmly on stable ground and head in the stars, despite Sakura being the one who was three feet closer to them now. The wind moved through his unzipped white jacket with the black racer stripes down the length of his arms.

"And at twenty-two, twenty-three I'll be Hokage. Have a kid a year later," he carried on with a confidence that she could not muster even on her best day. The way he spoke about his future was just as telling as his words. Like it was just a matter of time and not a matter of circ*mstance. He was so sure of himself and this timeline.

"You do realize you're twelve right?" Sakura asked him snootily, intentionally moving her voice into that nasally pitch she knew he despised.

"So?" Minato blinked at her slowly, it reminded her of a cat. So condensing. "It's not bad to have plans, a schedule for yourself."

"Right," she scoffed, shaking her head. She jumped over the small divider in the fencing to allow for a narrow walkway. "Getting married, becoming Hokage, and having a kid within three years is a stretch…even for a prodigy like you."

Married. He wanted to get married. He planned on getting married. It should not have come as a surprise as most of the world did that - even shinobi. The profession had to keep going after all. The rate at which civilians joined The Academy was very low. Less than ten percent of the civilian population so it was up to the shinobi population to produce offspring to protect the village. Because children of shinobi became shinobi. Almost at a rate of one hundred percent.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Minato huffed, shaking his head to correct the set of his bangs over his brows. His okaasan had cut them too short again. He was glad he was out of The Academy otherwise he would have to listen to the teasing around his hair running away from his brows. His eyes wandered over to her - all without turning his head - if she noticed, she did not let him catch on. She never made fun of him for the same things others did: the books he read, his quietness, the way he looked, or his stutter. He noticed that about her.

"Minato-kun," she sighed, standing on the edge of the paver, her sandal-clad toes curling around it. There was only a sidewalk ahead as the row of trees and planters of the civilian district ended and they entered the shinobi clan neighborhoods. "It's not completely up to you. Being Hokage…yes, but the other stuff, the other stuff you need someone else and that can impact your timelines."

'Not everyone gets picked…but you won't have that problem. Especially if you're Hokage.'

"I've thought of that," he crossed his arms and frowned, turning his body so he was facing her head-on. His chin was tilted up not only to meet her eye but to hold his defiance. "I've planned for that."

"For someone to fall in love with you?" She asked with an eye roll. She was tired and her empty belly was full of hot air. So there was hardly any room for any other emotion. She did not know why she was so annoyed. She was the one who asked him what his plan was. Granted, the scope of her question had been much more narrow than what he ended up answering.

Just like the dark impacted his eyes from seeing the red on her face, she missed the color on his. "It doesn't have to be a whole thing," he murmured, hands twitching before he could hide them in his pockets. They were starting to sweat. His palms rarely got sweaty. Usually just around her. "It can just happen. And mostly everyone gets married. And most people that are married have kids. It's our duty to the next generation. The Will of Fire!"

Sakura jumped down from the wall, nosily. "I guess," she said with a shrug that failed to match his enthusiasm over this Will of Fire concept - a lecture that stuck with him even more than two years after his graduation. For someone like Minato-kun, she believed that to be true. He got along with everyone. Everyone wanted to be his friend. He was just selective. He may be quiet and shy like her but they were not the same.

She was in the class - the lecture - where the kunoichi learned about babies and the changes to their cycle every month. She assumed the shinobi had a similar lecture just without the parts on menstruation. So she knew that marriage was not a requirement to have kids. It was taboo though, to have kids without being married. Tano-san, an instructor at The Academy had a daughter. She was not married. Sakura noticed the way the kids talked about her. They said mean things in mean ways behind her back. Minato-kun's parents were married. He had told her. So it was not a surprise that he wanted to do it right - the way society deemed it right. He wanted to be a husband before he was a father.

'That's nice. To commit to someone before starting a family. How nice must it be for kids to have both parents?'

You'd settle for one.

Happily, she would happily settle for one.

"The majority does get married," she had to give him that, reluctantly trying to move on from the wave of sadness Inner's comment swept her under. She did not know if her parents were married. She knew nothing about them. "But what's the big rush?" She asked. They were only twelve. His taste kept changing. Last week his favorite fruit was orange. Now he claimed it was kiwi. The consistency seemed to be that he liked tart.

He tilted his head to the side, eyes open with the question they held. "The rush?" His lips asked.

"To get married!" She threw up her hands in exasperation at his slowness. "Why not just focus on becoming Hokage and worry about that other stuff later?"

'Will you still want to spend time with me when you're married?'

Worry about living long enough to have that problem.

Inner always was like a bucket of cold water dumped on her unsuspecting head. Sakura had to admit - inwardly - that Inner had a point, but still, it was hard to focus on that when this was calling her attention.

'I just got him back….'

"The village would have more confidence, and stability if the Hokage is married," Minato answered her question, forcing her to have to focus on him again.

"The Nidaime wasn't married!" She pointed out stubbornly.

"He was older," Minato furrowed his brow - the first sign of his patience slipping. "His circ*mstances weren't the best. He had to step in after the Shodaime-sama's passing." He envisioned - he hoped for - a peaceful transfer with the Sandaime's blessing.

Sakura pushed her lips to one side of her face, arms crossed over her chest defensively when it became apparent that there was no winning this argument - not that it was an argument. She sighed.

"I just don't want you to be disappointed," she admitted, begrudgingly. "If things get moved around," she added quickly to the drop in his shoulders. "If you end up being Hokage before you get married." It was selfish but she wanted to spend as much time with him as she could before he became someone's husband.

"You worry too much, Sakura-chan. Everything will be fine. You'll see," he smiled at her, bright and warm. For a moment she forgot that it was the time of day for the moon and stars to shine their light and not the sun, that was how bright he was. Just like his future. The one he planned out and she knew he would work harder than anyone to make it come to pass.

She smiled back, shyly.

"How about you?" Minato asked her, watching a crumpled-up leaf move in a mostly straight line between their feet as an ant carried it on its back.

"Um," Sakura blew a raspberry. She did not even know what next week would bring and here he was with his whole life planned out. "For the future," her fingers curled around a lock of hair to rub between her thumb and index finger.

'I would like to go on a mission with you, Minato-kun.'

Maybe we can even be a two-man squad. The best two-man squad they have.

Her face flushed at the thought. "F-for the future," she turned her head away from his imploring gaze - the one that always saw right through her. "I want to be a Chunin and maybe even a Jonin." If she was good enough. It felt realistic to her. His silence had her adapting, she glanced at him for a gauge of his response. He was staring at her with a peculiar look on his face.

''Was there something wrong with my answer?'

She did not get a chance to ask because there was a rustle in the bushes. She turned her head just as Minato stepped in front of her; their bodies perpendicular to each other. Sakura's fist curled to her chest and her eyes went wide just as a tuft of white poked out of the leaves. His stance shifted, it was no longer alert but it was far from relaxed.

"Hiya, Gakis," a grinning face leered at them. "What were we talking about?" Jiraiya - Minato-kun's sensei - asked from inside the azalea bush.

Sakura blinked at a total loss for how to proceed. He was nothing like her sensei.

"Jiraiya-sensei," Minato dipped his head in a bow. Despite the gesture, his voice lacked enthusiasm for seeing the man. Which was something his master noticed right away.

"Why the long face, Kid?" Jiraiya asked, his grin now stretched from ear to ear. His eyes flickered over to Sakura - small and apprehensive; timid - the glint in his dark eyes grew that much more no-good. He did not miss the way Minato shifted, subtly to hide more of the pink-haired Genin from his gaze without making the action obvious to her or him. "Did I interrupt your date with your girlfriend? Is that why?"

The monochromatic light of the moon could hide a lot - it could obscure just about anything - but it failed to hide the matching flushes on their faces. It went all the way up to their ears and down their necks. They were standing ramrod straight. A small squeaking sound had left the girl - he was not sure it could have been Minato from which the sound originated.

"It's not…!" Minato sputtered, pulling at the ends of his hair, failing to cover his eyes to hide his growing mortification. "Sensei!" He groaned quietly.

The bush rustled in response to two arms rising from the branches and the round, evergreen leaves. Jiraiya held his chin in his hand, his expression reflective.

Minato stiffened, preemptively. He dared not glance back at Sakura. He could hear her breathe. She was holding her breath just like him.

"Maybe we have to up your training sooner than I thought," he frowned, eyes pinned on the small-for-her-age girl. "If we want to keep up with the schedule."

'T-training? What kind of training?'

Sakura's mouth opened and closed like a fish under the white-haired man's scrutiny.

"What do you say, Little Blossom? Wanna be the Yondaime's First Lady?" Jiraiya asked her - grin a leer.

Sakura squeaked like one of Kuromaru's squeaker toys. High-pitched and shrill. She lurched forward, bent in half. She bowed twice. In her flustered state, she bowed to not only Jiraiya but Minato before she wheeled around and hightailed it out of the area in zig zags without looking back, leaving her breath behind.

"Sensei!" Minato whined, his hands moved, crawling up his face to claw out his eyes.

"She's fast," Jiraiya noted dryly. He rose to his full height. "Look alive, Kid. We need to go."

He tried to pull himself mostly together. "G-go?"

"Training," Jiraiya said with a sigh. "Unless all that talk was just putting on airs to impress the little lady."

"No way," Minato shook his head, the red was starting to fade and reveal his usual coloring. He frowned. "What kind of training?" He asked suspiciously.

"Both," Jiraiya grinned but before Minato could groan, he held up his hand. "We're going to Mount Myōboku," he announced with a booming chest.

"Really?" Minato's eyes lit up at the prospect.

"The third moon is in perfect position," Jiraiya uttered sternly. "It will help you with Senjutsu." He had an inkling that Minato would struggle with it. It required sitting still longer than the boy was capable of.

"Why couldn't you just say that in the first place, Sensei?" He asked, hints of exasperation shining through his voice. He scratched the back of his head, looking over his shoulder in the direction Sakura had fled.

"What and put it in her head that you picked training over a date with her?" Jiraiya frowned at his pupil, looming over him. "You do need a lot of training if we want to meet those goals of yours. How old are you again?" He eyed the boy top to bottom, with his hands on his hips.

"Twelve," he mumbled in his embarrassment. He had not thought of it like that. Training was important but so was spending time with Sakura-chan. He could train whenever. Time with her was much more scarce, it required more planning.

"So that gives us about a decade then?" The Sannin cleaned his nail beds already losing interest and fast. "Doable," he said with a shrug. "When you have as brilliant of a sensei as me," he chuckled heartily at his own humor that he found hilarious.

Minato blinked at his sensei slowly. Like a cat. So condescending.

"Let go," Jiraiya said with a scowl at the incredulity on his pupil's face that he was too polite to voice. "We're burning moonlight here."

"Right." Minato's face was determined as he joined his sensei. Jiraiya clasped a hand on his bony shoulder, his hand holding the Dog seal. They vanished into the night completing the reverse summoning. All thoughts not pertinent were left behind in Konoha by the blond-haired boy.

End of Flashback

History would not be rewritten to say that The Gallant Jiraiya was not an idiot because he was. He very much was. He grinned like the idiot he was - from ear to ear no less - with his arms crossed over his broad chest and his dark eyes sparkling with accomplishment as if he had just solved the looming threat - threats - over their heads for the better part of a decade. He did no such thing. Not even remotely close.

It's so nice that Mommy and Daddy have made up.

Those had been the very first words out of the idiot's mouth in years to the two of them once the seal had been activated and it had been confirmed that just the three of them were privy to the conversation about to take place. It was out of sheer principle alone - she needed him - that Minato did not have to spend his afternoon scraping Jiraiya off his walls and carpet because Sakura was not in the mood for anyone's bullsh*t. Because being alone with Minato - she had inquired why Shikaku was not there and the answer she received from Minato was less than satisfactory - for the first time since she slapped him - twice no less - had brought her down to her last nerve.

She wished she could say that things only improved from there but they did not. But this time it was Minato's brains she wanted to bash in. His strategy was his strategy - as in the same strategy that led to his and his wife's death. In short: Kushina gives birth in a remote, secret location within Konoha only known by a few, he focuses on the seal, and Biwako focuses on Kushina. And lo and behold everyone walks away happy. Not to mention that there is a new baby in the world.

How three great minds - two and a half because she was suspicious regarding the quality of Jiraiya's - came up with practically the exact same plan was beyond her. Well beyond her. She supposed the only caveat was that Shikaku had signed off. For whatever that was worth.

Insanity.

But he was Hokage and it was his wife and kid as he so kindly reminded her - his vote was the only vote that mattered. The only solace she had was this time Jiraiya would be around, hench him being called in days before the due date. And she was here. So maybe it was not a complete disaster that the plan was no different and that the Uchiha was still not unmasked. Kakashi, Obito, and Rin were alive and they had their tasks. Rin was to be in the room with Biwako and she tried not to worry about all the ways that could end badly if history repeated itself. Something she had voiced and that was utterly disregarded.

Should have gone rogue when we had the chance.

She did not have the time or headspace to ruminate over her regrets. She should have just kidnapped them both, knocked them out, and delivered the baby herself inside of Katsuyu deep in the heart of the legendary Shikkotsu Forest. That would have been less of a mess.

We still could. Asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission. They'll get over it once they have Naruto in their arms.

The threat of all that monumentally bad karma prevented her from going down that route. Also, she doubted Minato would give her an opening. He knew what she was capable of. She caught him eyeing her warily every now and then.

"Leave the Uchiha to me," she declared, cutting off whatever Minato was going on about.

Jiraiya sputtered, the first to recover. "When did you become so overconfident, Gaki?"

"Not overconfident," she sighed, it was penance for not finding the culprit in time. It was the least she could do to clean up the mess. "I'm effectively immune to Genjutsu. And most of my jutsus require peak control. No eyes will be able to replicate by just watching." The Uchiha could try but they would quickly learn just how bad an idea that was. Just because something looked effortless did not mean it was.

"Y-you're what?" Minato looked at her in open shock, addressing her directly for the first time in weeks. The cold standoff - war - between them reached a momentary cease-fire. Right before she bowed out of it entirely. Jiraiya could only manage repeated blinking in surprise at the casual utterance. It was almost comical. She would have laughed if the stakes were not so high.

"Well, above ninety-five percent of Genjutsu. I'm practically immune," she corrected herself because hubris was the enemy. The Infinite Tsukuyomi would still give her problems but that was one bridge she hoped the world would never have to cross. She pointed to the center of her masked forehead. "Perfect control," she explained in a bored tone. "My guard will up. The Mangekyou won't be a problem."

"I," Minato closed his mouth. He was at a loss that the very thing that could control the Kyuubi could not do the same to her.

It looks like I broke the Yondaime.

Her mask hid her smirk.

Minato cleared his throat, composure, and authority regained. "Alright."

Jiraiya yawned loudly into his hands before cradling the back of his head in a carefree posture. "I'll go get settled." It had been a while since he visited the Konoha public onsen.

"I'm leaving now," all traces of her were gone just as soon as the words left her mouth before they even completely reached their ears.

"Yikes," Jiraiya frowned, digging his pinky into his ear. "She couldn't get away from you fast enough." He blew the flaky wax with disregard for where it landed. "Did she use the Hiraishin?" He co*cked his large head to the side and asked innocently.

Minato rolled his eyes at his sensei's weak attempt to get him off kilter. His mind was still racing with her admission. He could not help but think that could have been useful information to know much prior.

Typical.

She tilted her head to the side before squinting her eyes. "Itachi-kun was right," she mused quietly on the rooftop she was perched on. "You are cute, Sasuke-kun," she spoke to the sleeping baby several yards away. The sun was hot against her back. She could hear the low hum of the fan through the open window. Fat flies clung to the screen, wings buzzing in access being made to be granted access inside to the color temperatures. "Your friend Naruto is going to be here soon."

Your brother. We're all holding our breaths here.

She sighed away the heaviness in her chest. The nerves were starting to get to her. "I hope things work out for the best, Sasuke-kun." He looked so peaceful as he slept completely unbothered by the realities of the world. Unbothered. Content. Safe. "I hope to see you again when you're a little bit older. You won't remember. But that's okay. That's more than okay." It would mean that she did not completely mess up everything and everyone.

"I hope you never lose your peace or your happiness this time around, Sasuke-kun." She smiled sadly, unable to correct the set of her lips. "I'm trying my best." She was. Only time would tell if it meant anything.

She peeled her head from her curled fist at the sound of footprints. A little raven head came into view. He sat down carefully at the edge of the small futon mattress. He hunched over and watched the baby for a few moments before turning his head to the left. His dark eyes locked with hers through the mask.

Loris waved. Itachi blinked slowly and for a second she thought that was that. But then he slowly raised his hand and waved back. It warmed her heart.

She did not think too deeply about her actions as she transferred the contents contained in the canvas grocery bags on the counter to the various cabinets. She had to stand on her toes to reach the top shelf - okay the second from the top - because she could not be bothered to grab a chair.

Too much work.She thought whilst scrunching her nose. She worked methodically. The mindless activity was a perfect moment to turn off her brain. She hummed a tune but it was choppy as she grew bored halfway through and switched to something vague that she recalled from memory. Nothing captured her attention for long as of late.

She tapped her fingers against the side of the wooden cabinet door. More dried salt-broiled saury skins in aluminum tins joined the neat little rows. It was not as great as the real thing but it should be enough to tide Kakashi over until the next time Kushina prepared it for him. She was good to them, to Minato's kids. And she did not foresee Naruto's addition changing any of that. If anything, it would bring them even closer together.

She smiled behind her mask as she pictured Obito, Kakashi, Rin, and Anko - because they had become a package deal of sorts, Rin and Anko - helping Naruto take his first steps. The boys would be in a near-constant state of exhaustion from trying to keep the tiny blond tornado out of trouble once he was of walking age. She could imagine it all. Rin helping an unconsolable Minato and Kushina through Naruto's first cold was all so clear and vivid that she could almost reach out and touch it, all the while Anko called them every name under the sun, disgusted by the display from their great leader. Naruto's and Sasuke's first playdate and all subsequent playdates to come. It was all so beautiful and tempting enough that she wished she could be here to lock those moments away forever in her heart.

"What are you doing?" A voice trying so hard to pass off as nonchalant and disinterested asked her.

Loris looked over her shoulder at the teen who entered his house through a window as she had not heard the door open or close. "Filling the cupboards," she answered nonplussed at being caught. "I didn't think you'd be back from your mission until tomorrow."

"Sensei had said to make it back quickly. He's antsy." Kakashi pulled out a chair and plopped into it. Exhausted.

"Are you injured?" She asked into the cabinet. She was almost done filling the shelf. He should be set for a year. At least.

"No." He knew better than to lie to her about this. "It was uneventful. The most action I saw was when I pulled out a kunai to file down Pakkun's dewclaw."

"I told you to stop being cheap and buy actual dog grooming tools," she glared over her shoulder at him, tone admonishing. "Is his paw okay? Did he catch it on something again?"

"He's fine," Kakashi rolled his eyes. "He needs to learn to be more careful when trying to mark up trees." He tsked, annoyed at his ninken slowing down the tracking assignment. Speed went a long way in getting noticed. It was nearly as important as completing the mission. "I'll apply the ointment you made for him and bandage it so he can't keep licking at it." Having a summon was such a pain. And somehow he ended up with eight.

"Good," she folded the empty bag and pulled a full one toward her. "I taught Rin-chan how to make it too," she said lightly. She opened a drawer to her right, bending over to start filling it with packs of strawberry candies and cookies.

"Loris?"

"Yes?" She did not look up from her task.

"Why are you stocking up like there's going to be a zombie uprising?" He asked her impatiently. He was not the one leaving everything behind - yes, he was still a little upset about it. And he could not even tell the only people he wanted to talk about it with because he promised her he would not.

Fourth Great War, Sensei. Hits a little too close to home there.

Loris hummed pleasantly. "There was a sale so I took advantage."

House-slipper-clad feet shuffled towards her. He poked around the contents. "On miso soup base, dango, and all things strawberry-flavored but not actual strawberries?"

"Yes. Strawberries don't keep well and the season is over," she informed him.

"You're being weird," he frowned under his face mask. "Cold feet?" He asked without hope more of a guilt trip than anything.

"Not weird. Not cold feet," she shook her head. "Just nervous." She was anxious about what was to come. What she feared was around the corner. "I guess I'm nesting too." In her own - maybe weird - way. She was not having a baby but leaving hers. She needed this more than they did, she realized but that did nothing to halt her movements.

Maybe I should knit them sweaters for the winter? Right after I teach myself how to knit.Between her and her clones, she figured it would not take all that long.

"She's just having a baby. Women have babies all the time. I don't see what the big deal is." He grabbed the still-full bag from the counter and started to help her.

That's because your Sensei is hiding things from you all.

They knew to some degree - Rin more than them - but it was all compartmentalized. He did not want them to know the extent of his fear and she could not fault him for trying to protect them. They were still children after all. The burden of the truth should not be placed on their small shoulders. Never mind the fact that Kakashi was nearly as tall as her and he still had some growing to do.

"Any requests for dinner?" She changed the topic less than smoothly.

Kakashi took a minute to consider it. "Let's make tempura together."

She smiled. "Okay."

"Shisui-kun finally came in today," Sakura peeled off her boots seconds after stepping through the door being held open for her. "I had half the mind to admit him." She had been so close. But that would have been an abuse of power and she really did not want to end up back in probation after clawing her back into semi-decent graces.

"That bad?" Shinnosuke asked with a frown, stepping further into the genkan to remove his shoes. "Fugaku did mention the boy was taking on more missions. Maybe I should check in?"

"Could you?" She asked over her shoulder, she set the takeout containers on the dark granite countertops. He was pushing down his grief, all the signs were pointing to it. She did not want to push too hard. It was not her place. "I think if I try, I will end up mandating that he wears a blindfold for a week." She tapped her fingers against the countertop. "He might actually listen to you."

Maybe I should write him a note…but would he show it to Minato? Probably not. To make matters worse, Shisui-kun will not let Uyeda examine his eyes so he's forced on the injury reserve list. And Uyeda won't believe my claims because I'm not even supposed to know about the state of his eyes.

The tap turned on behind her as Shinnosuke began to wash his hands in preparation. His dark sleeves were rolled up to the crooks of his elbows. His black shinobi pants were slightly baggy until they cinched a couple of inches above his taped ankles to accommodate the standard-issue shinobi sandals. The only color from his ensemble was the small red and white fan sewn on his left arm as if his features did not make it obvious enough from where he came from.

She jumped in surprise at a pair of hands kneading her shoulders. She let out a soft sigh, relaxing her spine. "Thank you," she said with gratitude, hanging her head forward.

"You're welcome," Shinnosuke kissed the back of her head. "You smell so good," he inhaled the scent of her shampoo deeply.

"You always say that," she rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. "How good could I possibly smell after a shift?"

"Very," he said with a grin," pecking her on the cheek. "When you work with a bunch of ANBU all day you begin to wonder if you lost the ability to smell. So ten-hour-shift, twenty-four-hour shift, I'm always happy to smell you."

She scrunched her nose in distaste. "That was not nearly as romantic as you thought it was." Or sweet. It was kind of gross.

"Because you're the leading expert on affection?" He asked with a scoff and good-natured eye-roll.

"Who said anything about affection?" She leaned forward, moving her shoulders in a quiet request for his hands to find the particularly stubborn knot. She sighed, relieved when he set to work.

"My mistake," he said as he worked diligently to loosen the muscles. He frowned but held his tongue, knowing she would not heed his words to take it easier. He leaned forward, closing the gaps. "I'll talk to him," he murmured into her hair. She let out a hum of appreciation. "Now come on before the tempura gets cold." He chuckled at her forlorn groan as he reached across her for the bag she had set down. "No one likes soggy tempera," he said with a grin, pecking her pouty lips.

"No one likes a tease either," she grumbled, following him to the small dining table, after reaching into the cabinet behind her for two glasses with a set of freshly washed hands. She settled into the chair he pulled for her, lowering the glasses on the table.

He made quick work of the double-knotted plastic bag. Shinnosuke distributed the to-go bento containers, handing Sakura one of the white sleeves containing disposable bamboo chopsticks.

"You'll get the rest of your massage," he assured her, moving quickly to the fridge. "Good things to those who wait."

"Guava juice, please," Sakura said sweetly over her shoulder, not being shy about the view of his rear sticking out as he perused the chilled drink offerings.

"It's basically dessert in a can," he said with a sigh, setting it down on the table, his fingers - coated with the chill of the aluminum - brushed against the nape of her neck causing her to squirm.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," she popped it open and poured the contents into her glass. Because she did not want to revisit the look of extreme judgment that Shinnosuke had given her the first - and only time - she drank straight from the can in his presence.

"We have glasses, you know," he had said as if questioning all his life choices at that moment. For someone so easy-going he sure was high-maintenance. But she supposed it could be chalked up to his rigid upbringing.

He poured chilled green tea into his glass. "How was Kita-chan?" His eyes flickered to hers.

"Adorable. So alert. She loves playing with toys! Naturally, her favorite is a dog toy that one of the puppies left on her blanket. It squeaks. I was able to disinfect it before she shoved it in her mouth. Tsume is way too carefree about these things. Kita-chan can even roll over! Even some babies two months older than her haven't managed that," Sakura gushed, remembering how excited she had been to witness the milestone. Tsume had shouted at her to keep it down from two rooms over. The woman was trying to nap when Sakura's squeal bolted her awake.

Shinnosuke chuckled. "Sounds like a sharp kid."

"Hm," she hummed in agreement. "Tsume kept the teasing and the first-degree to a minimum. I think she was too exhausted to see my mortification." She clicked her chopsticks together in a few test clicks - a quirk she did not even know she had until he pointed it out - before she pulled the clear plastic casing from the bento. She inhaled deeply.

"I'm going to miss this so much."

"I'm sure everywhere has tempura," Shinnosuke rolled his eyes at her antics, reaching over to give her a piece of fried carrot. She traded it for broccoli.

"Yeah but then I would have to give it a try. And not all places do it right. Remember the last time there was still powdery batter on the inside of the onion ring?" She shook her head and made a face. "They probably didn't move their wrists up and down."

"I'm sure that's the culprit."

"What did you miss the most," she asked with her chopsticks held horizontally between both hands. "When you were away from Konoha?"

"When I was around where Uzushiogakure used to be?" He asked with a quirked brow. Sakura nodded her head. "The longest I was away from Konoha was five and a half months with Kaba-san, Okura-san, and Shibata-san, Uzumaki-san's guardians."

"They wanted to see the aftermath of what was left of their home, right?" She shook her head with a small sigh. "Sad."

"It was," Shinnosuke's eyes glazed over slightly in a revisit of a not-so-pleasant memory. They had said nothing but the anguish on their faces and the remorse and regret in their frames had said it all. It overflowed from their pores and filled the water that grazed their ankles. The water that held the remains of their brethren and their village. There were no tears. The ocean carried their tears for them.

"I was very green then, less than eight months into ANBU. They've rebuilt a small colony from what I heard. A place for Uzumaki around the world to come back to if their adoptive homes are no longer as welcoming." The Hokage did send patrol units every few months or so to remind the world that Neo-Uzushiogakure was not without allies. Allies that were more than just on paper. The fact that the Yondaime's wife hailed from Uzushiogakure only added to the legitimacy of the treaty. "I hope to visit it someday."

"That would be nice," she smiled encouragingly. Neo-Uzushiogakure was also on her list of places to stop by. Maybe she could go with Nagato. Maybe one day Karin's parents would wind up there.

"I missed," he closed his eyes, willing away the memory, trying to find a way to answer her initial question without adding to the weight on his chest. "The air," he blinked his eyes open.

"The air?" She asked without ridicule or jeer, to understand. Because they were shinobi, the answer was not to something as generic as your own bed, your own shower, your own space. Those things were luxuries. They quickly let go of those notions early into their career. They were just as comfortable sleeping under the stars with their teammates as they were alone in their own room.

"Hm, Uzushiogakure is damp, every breath felt like mold was growing in my lungs. I missed the air back here," he sighed, chuckling away the seriousness. "You must think I'm crazy."

"I do," she nodded without a second thought. "You were by the ocean," she tapped her fingers on the table. "Every day for five months. Sounds like paradise."

"Must be an Uchiha thing - a fire thing. All my jutsu were much weaker given the conditions." He shook his head as a breath of laughter left his throat. "We might just be incompatible travel companions."

"I knew it was too good to be true," she grumbled at his teasing in favor of addressing the way her stomach fluttered.

"Food's getting cold," he reminded her, moving his neck subtly to the side to stretch out a kink. "It's fine," he stopped her before she could start. "Not every little thing needs to be fixed."

"So it's a problem then?" She asked dryly with a raised brow, a large carrot between the bamboo.

"No, Sakura. It's not. Just like how you being asked was also not a problem," Shinnosuke sighed, his eyes focused on the soup in front of him.

"Don't you think it's weird?" She asked, taking a small bite after she had dipped it in the dark, thin sauce with a top sheen from the oil. "He just asked me out of nowhere with everyone at the table!" She huffed incredulously, too worked up to appreciate the salty, tenderness of the carrot or the crunch of the batter. "I can't believe it."

"You can't believe that he wants to meet me?" Shinnosuke's face was neutral and his posture relaxed. He rubbed the back of his neck, holding up a hand when she narrowed her eyes. "Or you can't believe that I would say yes?"

"I didn't ask you," she said with shakable confidence. She had told him, ranting at Inoichi's audacity. "I didn't want you to feel pressured into saying…," she frowned.

"It's pretty normal, I think," he raised his glass and nearly drained half his cup; emptying the rest of the can into the glass. He finally pulled his chopsticks from the sleeve, he opted to start with the salad dressed with sesame. "For a friend to want to meet a person their friend is dating."

Dating? Is that what we're doing? Is that what this is?

She glanced around the room, subtly as much as she could without turning her head. Her hesitation was palpable, her inexperience showing. "Do you want to go? With me? The next time?"

"That would be nice," he smiled, swallowing a chewed cherry tomato. "After the Hokage-baby is here." He raked his fingers back through his hair, it fell around his jaw perfectly tousled and did some things to her insides that she did not want to acknowledge.

"Okay," she said in a small voice, blinking at the green poking through a layer of fried batter in his bento. "I'll let Inoichi know." Chika would be over the moon to have another mouth to feed. "Tsume will be jealous," she said almost as a warning to get him to reconsider opening this particular box. It was a package deal.

"Then it's settled," Shinnosuke nodded his head as if ending a long-winded debate. "I'll meet them." He yawned into his hand. "Sorry."

Sakura made a sympathetic sound. "We didn't have to do this tonight," her thumb ran over his knuckles. "You're exhausted." Loris was working them hard, ensuring their reps were perfect.

"I'm fine," he smiled tiredly at her. "I wanted to." His smile turned slightly more playful at the less-than-convinced look she was directing at him. "Besides, you're in high demand, Sakura-sama. I can't forfeit the one consistent night a week I get you."

"Flatterer," she shoved a whole shrimp in her mouth, stretching out her cheeks.

"Eat your salad," Shinnosuke pointed at the untouched greens on her plate.

Green eyes rolled heavenward but the next thing her chopsticks picked up were spinach and a shred of carrot.

She did not think much of the zoned-out look on Anko's face. The teen had a habit of doing that. Just sitting and staring off into space while focused intently on an object usually for one of two reasons: the first, she liked to make people uncomfortable and the second, she was actually thinking. Loris assumed it was the former since she had already given her feedback and assessment to Anko's mission report. The girl had written two. One for the Yondaime and one for her. Now, Loris could have just as easily read the same one Minato did but she figured the exercise would be good for Anko as well as give the girl the opportunity to add things that she might not want the Hokage to know, such as her attempt to tame a poisonous frog and bring it home as a pet - after she had immunized herself against the toxins, of course - duh.

Loris's back was pressed against the side of Anko's bed frame as she sat on the floor, cross-legged in biker shorts because Anko's building did not have centralized heating and cooling - which was not unique to the high-density dwellings on the east side of town. Anko simply could not afford the upkeep of her late parent's home. So she sold the modest property and found the first apartment in her price range.

Yes, Anko made jokes about Loris's legs. Ranging from tame, such as asking if that part of her body ever saw any sun because it was so pale, to being slightly put out that Loris was not all wrinkly. Because the only thing that would make her more of a badass was being horribly disfigured or a hundred years old. The round fluffy area run was of a dark blue and surprisingly clean. She did not see any bugs or dust caught in the high pill. She was studying the schedules for the tracking teams. The ones that would be dispatched with the responsibility of maintaining surveillance over a five-mile radius for any suspicious behavior. Namely, looking for the Uchiha or Zetsu all without saying it in so many words.

Minato had called it a brush-up on training. He turned it into an incentivized exercise. The team that spotted the "criminal" - what they believed to be a controlled element - and reported the findings to the watch guard first, would be compensated nicely - money from the Yondaime's own pockets and not the village's. Having bragging rights also did not hurt morale.

"Sensei?" Anko broke the silence. "I have a question."

"About the new poison base you're trying out?" Loris did not look up. Anko was trying something a little riskier than Loris felt comfortable with. She wanted to supervise at this time. If the teen managed it without her help, it would go a long way for Loris to leave with a mostly clear conscience.

"About where babies come from."

What did she just say?

"Sorry?" The ANBU asked, not lifting her head or moving in any way beyond her mouth and blinking.

"Babies," Anko repeated, her hands wrapped around the long white tunic she was wearing. It pooled around her legs while she sat on her heels. "Where do they come from?"

Loris was not certain if Anko was messing with her. There was hardly anything there in her tone for her to make that determination. It sounded like an honest enough question. She raised her head and regarded the teen, reading all that was nonverbal. Her eyes were shifty and her cheeks were slightly pink - and Loris did not believe the hot afternoon was entirely at fault.

"Anko-chan," she bought herself some time to keep her mind from spinning too far off its base. "They have a lecture in The Academy on this topic."

"I know about sex!" Anko huffed, embarrassed. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.

"Okay," Loris said slowly. "So could you please explain your question to me? I'm a little confused, Anko-chan."

"I…," Anko blew a raspberry. "Forget it, it's dumb."

"Anko-chan," the documents were folded and placed on the rug. "It's not dumb," she said firmly. "What's going on?"

The girl squirmed, bringing her hand to the back of her neck - not sure what to do with herself. "Do people only have sex to make babies?" She asked the ground, voice shaky and tone timid.

"Um," Loris fought off the inner panic. "Not always," she admitted because lying seemed like the wrong thing to do - or the most wrong thing to do in this situation that felt wrong overall.

"Oh," Anko seemed to deflate in front of her.

"Oh?" Loris asked in a voice lilted with what she hoped came across as encouraging.

"I just thought…," she shook her head. Anko let out a frustrated grunt before she fell backward, sprawling out like a starfish on the floor. She flailed her limbs wildly. "Gah!" She groaned. "I just don't get it!"

I can't believe I'm about to ask this.

"Which part?" Loris pried gently. "Which part do you not get?"

"All of it!" Anko threw up her hands, covering her face. Fists balled against her eyes. "I thought…I thought if it was just to make babies then yeah, I could understand that. But why would…anyone…why?"

She went from mortified, to curious, to now worried. Loris spoke with authority in her voice, she used her Sensei-voice. "Is someone pressuring you, Anko-chan? Into doing something you're not comfortable with?" Thirteen was young. But that hardly stopped predators. That only encouraged some.

"No, no, no!" Anko thrashed on the ground. Her chest moved up and down from her outburst.

"Anko-chan, sit up." Loris watched as the girl begrudgingly did so. She touched her teeth together, holding onto her ankles, and refused to make eye contact with the ANBU. "Use your words, please."

Anko sighed. "I read something," she grumbled, barely intelligible. "And I know I wasn't supposed to. Obito always makes comments. And he's always so sneaky when he's doing it like he's not supposed to. And I got curious after he said I was a loud ninja that anyone would see coming so I would be terrible for recon and infiltration missions. I just wanted to read enough to say back to him the next time we sparred or he got all holier-than-thou on me, so he would know that he was an idiot that didn't know what he was talking about half the time but then I couldn't stop reading and it made my stomach get all twisty and it was gross but I couldn't put it down for some reason and there was so much ick in it. And..and..and," she inhaled a deep breath. "I wish I didn't read it. Any of it." She groaned into her hands.

"You read Kakashi's book," Loris concluded, shell-shocked.

Anko nodded her head miserably. "I'm sorry Sensei. I'm really sorry." She was. She would never be able to look at Kushina-san or Yondaime-sama the same way again. Or any adult who was a parent.

"Does he know?" She found herself asking.

Anko bristled. "Of course not! I did it like you taught me. No chakra flare-up, no evidence!"

"Okay, okay," Loris held up her hands to placate the teen who was growing even more upset. "Um," she fought every instinct that told her to find Jiraiya and break every bone in his body, twice over while she made Kakashi watch. He was conveniently in the village. But she needed her brain cycles for something more productive. "Have you talked to anyone else about this? Like Rin-chan?"

Anko shook her head, quickly. "No, I don't want Rin-san to think I'm a baby."

"Oh, Anko-chan," Loris brought her hand to rest on the girl's head. "Everyone goes at their own pace. Rin-chan won't think you're a baby. Not for this. Those books are for adults. You were not supposed to see it." The same went for Kakashi but that was another conversation for a different day. "It's fiction, Anko-chan. It's not realistic at all." She did not even feel remotely bad for her critique of Jiraiya's lifelong work. "Real sex, the kind that makes babies and doesn't, isn't like what is in those pages. It doesn't have to be like that."

"I just…," she sighed so small and curled into herself.

"Do you have questions?" Loris asked gently, trying her best to offset some of Anko's embarrassment.

It was a long while before the girl nodded her head.

His feet almost touched the off-white tile of the floor despite his back being flush against the wall as he sat on the exam table. Head bowed and legs swinging idly, the backs of his heels clicking against the stainless steel emitting a hollow sound that neither of them was all that bothered by. It kept the silence from being stifling. There was still light outside despite the days getting shorter. She sat on a small desk situated against the wall across from him processing everything learned. Legs crossed and face solemn.

"So you heard all this from your connections in Grass?" She asked for clarification.

Jiraiya nodded his head heavily, the action weighing on him. "Official word will be coming in any day now. You got the sneak preview but you didn't hear it from me."

She nodded her head curtly. "Do they give you a number? Exact or approximate?"

"The descriptions are vague," his pursed lip held his frustration. "The accounts are contradictory in some cases. As many as five and a little as two."

"And yet you trust them enough to repeat?" She asked with a quirked brow. Nothing about him - his stance, his tone, his words - inspired confidence.

"Trust is a strong word," Jiraiya said with a frown that took up his whole face. He crossed his arms over his desk taking in her expression-less face surrounded by pink hair held together in a loose ponytail and garbs of dark black. "I could not corroborate or discredit the legitimacy of the claims. So I passed them along. Twice," he stressed the last word with more than a touch of annoyance. "Can the two of you please act like adults?"

"Do you seriously think you have any ground to stand on to ask that of me?" She shot back, green eyes narrowed in indignation. "What's the matter? Is this cutting into your peeping time?" Her tone reminded him that she need not remind him where she found him - the onsen, the woman's side of the onsen - to drag him back for an official physical, which was standard practice for a shinobi sent on long-term recon missions. The official record needed data to keep his cover story - all their cover stories - intact.

"Relax," Jiraiya held up his hands, flicking his wrists up and down in a gesture meant to placate but it missed the mark. Badly. "I was merely trying to point out that it does the village no favors that two of its brightest minds can't share the same air."

"I can speak more freely when he's not here," Sakura dismissed his claims with next to no consideration. "Did they say if the spotted rogue-"

"Allegedly spotted rogues," Jiraiya was quick to correct her.

"Did your source say if theallegedlyspotted rogues had links with the Ryusoken?" That would be bad, very bad if that was the case. Like another war bad. If the rogues that were allegedly spotted passing through Grass - predominantly peacefully from what Jiraiya gathered; because it would be less alleged and more bonafide if it were the case - from the Iwa side of the border it was a declaration of war. It violated the peace treaty.

"No," the Sannin ran his thumbnail along the edge of his jaw in a repetitive line. Back and forth. Back and forth. "It is hard to believe that shinobi that forsake their homes would align themselves with another Great Nation. There is no reason to make that connection."

"For now," she sighed, biting the side of her thumb, pulling away at the skin that was so close to healing closed. "Damn," she moved her thumb up and down the length of her hidden away lilac seal.

"It's fine, Sakura," the Sannin said with a sigh of his own. "As soon as they crop their heads the Ame kids and I will take care of it."

"How are they?" Her eyes softened slightly at the faces in her head. They were older now from the headshots in the Bingo Book. She would have to update the images in her head when she saw them for the first time with her own eyes. Alive.

"Good," Jiraiya grinned, the stress of the previous conversation melting off of him. "I didn't tell them where I was going, otherwise Haru would have tried to sneak himself into my backpack. Maybe Nagato too."

She smiled at the thought. "I have some things for them."

"I brought three different kinds of sake from Grass, and dried seaweed from Waves," he reached into the inner pockets of his maroon haori. She watched him pull out two scrolls, holding them both in one hand.

"Keep the sake," she said, "I stopped drinking," she added at his perplexion.

"Since when?" He asked gruffly, offended. "Who am I supposed to drink with now?" He nearly whined out the question.

"Give them to Inoichi. Or Shikaku. Take them out drinking." Kami knew that they needed it. Shikaku less than Inoichi but still. The three of them could compare notes and grievances like war stories.

"They can't hold their liquor like you can," he frowned, setting the scrolls down on the table on the other side of his bent knee. It was the very first thing she surpassed Tsunade in.

"Doctor's orders," she sucked air through her teeth. She nodded her head in thanks when he pocketed one of the scrolls after studying her closing, opting to not comment further. He could sniff out that there was a story there and not a fun one. Sakura reached for the clipboard at the edge of the table. She grabbed a pen from the holder and pushed herself to her feet. She crossed the distance, clicking the end of the black ballpoint pen, and handed both items to him. "Fill out the questionnaire before your exam."

Jiraiya dropped the pen. It clattered to the ground between them. "Whoops," he said with a grin. "Guess you're going to have to bend over and reach for it huh?"

She rolled her eyes. He made a face at the turtleneck she wore on the tail end of the hot days. He twirled his index finger which was pointed to the ground. "Can you turn around before you do it?" He asked, innocently. "It would make me more comfortable."

Mega Perv hasn't changed.

Sakura reached her right hand across her chest. She maintained eye contact while she plucked a pen from her breast pocket. It clicked. She brought it to the clipboard - retracting her hand that had held it out to him - much to his dismay.

"Weight?" She asked him, staring him down.

"At least buy me dinner first," he said with an easy grin at the way her eyes moved up and down his person, slowly.

"Two hundred pounds," she wrote down.

He balked. "I'm not an ounce over one-ninety-two!" He protested, loudly.

"Six foot," she scribbled his height.

"Six foot two and three-fourths of an inch!" He corrected with offense. "You know that! It's on the chart!

"Blood pressure," she muttered, not giving him a chance to react, her fingers curled around his wrist. "One-twenty over eighty," she tutted. "Jiraiya-sama, you need to take it easy on the sodium. And the fats."

"You're bad for my blood pressure!" The Sannin accused. "Why are you doing this anyway? Why isn't there a nurse in one of those tight white nurses' uniforms here?"

"All busy I'm afraid," she answered dismissively, writing down something long on his file.

That reminds me, I need to triple-check the inventory. Gauze, bandages, IV bags, empty beds…the like.

"What are you doing?" He demanded to know. "What are you writing now?"

"Have you always been this irritable?" Sakura asked him, lowering the clipboard just enough so that she could look him in the eyes - his irate eyes. "Or is that more of a recent development? How are your stress levels? Notice any changes?"

"When faced with a pain in the ass, yes," he griped. Teeth gnashing. "My stress grows exponentially."

"We'll make sure to check your heart, wouldn't want any surprises." She hummed, making more notes all without looking up at him. "When was your last bowel movement?" She asked him. "It's very important at your age to be consistent."

"This morning!" He snapped. "I'm very regular."

"I'm glad," she said without color. "Does it burn when you urinate? Have you noticed any changes in your ability to aim?"

He glowered. "No," he said through clenched teeth. "And no." The scratching on the paper did not correlate in the slightest with the length of his response.

"Alright then, any hair loss?"

He scoffed, drawing his chin back forming an additional one. "Does it look like I suffer from a lack of hair?"

"Yes or no would do just fine," she reminded him, tapping her pen on the edge of the clipboard.

"No," he answered through a scowl. "Not on my head nor my body."

"Any lumps or bumps that you're concerned about?" She frowned. "We should look into reading glasses. You've reached the age. It should help with the crow's feet," she said matter-of-factly, "when you stop squinting all the time."

"Just how old do you think I am?" Jiraiya asked her pointedly, visibly offended once again. "I'm fine! A marvel. Sharp as a tack. Agile as a bee. I'm at my peak, Gaki! My prime!" He patted his chest twice, loudly. "Better than I've ever been. Just ask anyone!"

She muttered something suspiciously close to "delusional" under her breath before dragging her wrist across the page twice, aggressively.

"How many alcoholic beverages do you consume in a week?" She carried on that clinical tone of hers, the one that was too professional to not respect.

"Two," he held up as many fingers. She raised a single brow. "Every other day." She did not relent, simply blinking at him slowly. "A night," he admitted with ample reluctance.

"I see," she clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Smoking?"

"Never."

More scratching that went on longer than his response warranted.

"Red meat?" She asked.

"Just about whenever I can," he grinned - back in his comfort zone.

"Cholesterol added to the blood work," she said out loud to herself, ignoring his innuendo. "You fasted right?"

He nodded. "Haven't had anything since last night. I had a big meal," his grin was all teeth. "Very satisfying."

"Do you always use protection when you engage in sexual activity?" Her pen stopped moving for the time it took to ask her the question.

"Of course, Sakura-chan. I'm not an idiot." His expression was smug. Oh so smug.

Debatable.

She hummed and tilted her head, writing furiously. She tapped the paper twice with the pen, emphasizing what had to be the end of her assessment.

"Okay, I think I have what I need."

"Great," his grin grew darker. "Does that mean I get to take my clothes off now or…?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm leaving," she pressed the clipboard to her chest, the wooden hard panel facing him. "Konoha."

Jiraiya blinked. "Way to kill the mood, Sakura," he said without his previous teasing with undertones of lecherousness.

"I've only told you, Kakashi and Inoichi." She paused, bringing her lip between her teeth in question as to whether she should leave it at that. "And the person I'm kind of seeing," she spoke into the ground. Because the term "boyfriend" felt silly and inaccurate. She was an adult who saw another adult in a way she did not see any other adults.

His brows disappeared under the metal band on his forehead. "Well," he whistled. His eyes migrated to the ceiling before his eyelids closed on them heavily. "I think it's a good call," he said levelly after a moment of silence.

"Really?" She asked in a small voice, reminding him of the twelve-year-old Genin he rescued in the early hours of the morning. How scared she had been, shaking against Minato - hand a mangled mess - like a kitten abandoned by its mother in the middle of a rainstorm. So vulnerable and at the mercy of the world. It was the first time he saw that look in his pupil's eyes. It was murderous. And Minato had killed more than a handful of times before that point.

"Konoha did you no favors, Kid. In my book, you don't owe it any," he expelled all the air in his lungs with no quick hurry to replace it. He carried his own regrets mainly around not doing more when he saw just how hands-off his sensei was with the girl. Hiruzen never trusted her, even from the start. He was too smart to voice his opinion out loud but the subtitles and nuances of it bled into his actions and lack thereof. He treated her like a sleeper agent. When all she did was sacrifice herself for her village. Over and over again. "You're set to be born right?"

She nodded her head. "Kind of, my parents are pregnant with the baby that would have been me. Delayed by a year as a result of my interference. Another soul will fill that little girl. She may look like me - Kami forbid for her sake - but she won't be me. Not unless…," her voice trailed off.

"She won't be you," Jiraiya said firmly, killing the thought she could not complete. "So what is your plan?"

"I don't know yet," she admitted, feeling smaller than she had in a while. "I haven't figured out all the details," she pulled some hair out of her black tie in the illogical nervousness of being ill-prepared for an exam. "But maybe I can come find you and the kids? When I've figured some things out?"

"You don't ever have to ask, Kid," he smirked, lips pulling up on the right side of his face. His dark eyes softened a fraction, almost with fondness.

"Thank you, Jiraiya-sama," she dipped her head in gratitude.

"When are you going to tell him?" His mood changed completely with the question.

"He's not the most receptive right now," she shook her head before pinching the bridge of her nose. Not that she was the most patient. "After Naruto gets here."

"No kidding," Jiraiya snorted, he squinted his eyes slightly - the crow's feet became visible. "A piece of unsolicited advice, don't wait too long. Things have a habit of sucking you back in."

"Right," she nodded her head in understanding. She sighed, but out of relief this time. Her posture relaxed and the smile on her face was more natural. "I feel better, Jiraiya-sama. I hope you have a good exam."

He furrowed his brow. "What does-"

A loud knock interrupted his question.

"Ah!" Her eyes lit up, she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Right on time." She looked over her shoulder. "Just a moment!" She called out, voice almost cheery, it sounded foreign to the point it was a little unsettling.

"Yes, Sakura-san," a deep voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Sakura," Jiraiya narrowed his eyes in warning. "Explain," his voice was low, nostrils flared.

"You're finally getting a physical done," she chirped, reaching for the scroll containing seaweed from the table before he knew what her intentions were. "I am much too low on the hierarchy of things to have such a big responsibility. Normally it would fall on Uyeda-sama, our esteemed Head Medic but he got pulled into a last-minute surgery. One that I too am needed to assist on." She patted his knee in what was meant to be reassuring, he was sure. "But don't fret, Jiraiya-sama. You're in excellent hands." She turned back to the door. "Come in, Kikuchi-san," she said loud enough to carry across the room and through the wood.

"What the hell were all those questions for?" He hissed, gathering information as he tried to assess what this was. Quickly.

"Oh that," Sakura tilted her head to the side and smiled at him. Predatory. She turned the clipboard around. "For fun. I needed you to hold still," she explained without shame or remorse.

Jiraiya blinked at the abomination he was staring at. Ink scribbled over the form completely ruining it for no good reason. He leaned forward squinting with so much focus he did not hear the door open.

"What the hell is that?" He leaned back and glared at Sakura, eyes heated.

She pouted. "Why you, of course!" She insisted with a hand on her hip. "I'm trying out new hobbies," she explained. "Doesn't it look like him, Kikuchi-san?" She tilted her head up to ask the medic who entered the room, she turned her wrist to give him a better vantage of the drawing.

"It looks just like you, Jiraiya-sama," a deep voice answered happily after some time lost studying the content material. "You even got his makeup just right," Madoka pointed out helpfully. Sakura giggled in delight, eyes sparkling with something darker than just mirth.

"War paint you uncultured-" Jiraiya's jaw fell open just as his eyes widened. His irises were nothing more than a spec of black ink against an ocean of white. There stood a man - more than six foot five - with shoulders so broad he wondered how they fit through the door frame and piercing blue eyes. Jiraiya gulped audibly.

"Oh," Sakura giggled again. "Silly me," she slapped the side of her face and sighed at her oversight which could be misconstrued as rude. "This is The Gallant Jiraya-sama," she gestured to the silent, pale as a ghost man, "and Jiraiya-sama this is Kikuchi Madoka-san," her hand motioned to the white-haired medic vaguely. "He will be conducting your exam today." She tilted her head to the side. "He is a huge fan," her smile grew sinister as she ripped the drawing in half while maintaining eye contact with Jiraiya. She was a menace. A deranged menace. "And very thorough," she assured him, pocketing the torn fragments of his face.

In the Sannin's very straight opinion - the man - the specimen - was perfect; without flaw. Jiraiya's gaze traveled down the man's crafted physique - he probably had a ten-pack under the too-tight stretched-to-the-limit white button-down shirt he wore and the tight black pants that gave an impression of just how generous Kami was when crafting this particular vessel for a soul. His long white hair brushed his waist in what had to be a health violation at worst and impractical at best. He was gorgeous.

"Huge fan," Madoka rasped, the tip of his tongue poking out of his red lips.

Jiraiya blinked, gulping at the size of the brute's hands. They were as big as his head. A head that he shook out of instinct. "S-Sakura," he stammered her name in apology for whatever sin she was punishing him for. He accepted. He was willing to repent. He implored her for mercy.

"Aw," Sakura made a sympathetic sound. Purely artificial. "He's a little nervous, it's been a while since his last exam you see. Jiraiya-sama is quite the hero, serving our village so diligently all these years without recognition for his sacrifice," she explained to Madoka, laying it on thickly. Hemming and hawing to gain sympathy. "Please be gentle, Kikuchi-san," she patted the hand-crafted sculpture of a god on the forearm. Jiraiya's soul nearly left his body at the way the muscles rippled from her action.

"Of course, Sakura-san," Madoka's blue eyes were fixated on the Sannin - hyper-fixated. "Don't worry about Jiraiya-sama, Sakura-san. I will take very good care of him."

Jiraiya shuddered at being eyed like a piece of meat through icy-blue eyes.

"That's what I like to hear," she beamed at the medic. "I'm late for a surgery." She dipped her head in a bow, leaving the clipboard on the edge of the bed. "Toodles." She waved her fingers over her shoulder and partially skipped out of the room - patting herself on the back mentally the entirety of the way. Madoka was all bark and no bite. He would never cross the line. But Jiraiya could benefit from a taste of his own medicine.

"S-Sa," Jiraiya tried to say her name through his too-tight throat. But she was already gone, the door closed.

"Let's start with taking your blood pressure," Madoka said in a low voice. His canine tooth glistened as it caught the fluorescent glow from the light.

Jiraiya closed his eyes and prayed for mercy when the man's large, large, large hands wrapped around his wrist. It felt nothing like Sakura's hand had.

"My, my, Jiraiya-sama, your pulse is very high. It's alarming really."

A whimper left his lips. To which Madoka shushed him roughly, making the Sannin realize that for the first time in decades just what it felt like to be manhandled.

"Just relax," the medic cooed at him. "I've got you now."

The house was quiet. There was not another warm body beyond the perimeter set by the Night Guard. They were out, enjoying their last few moments as a pair before the arrival of their son. It was good not only for their relationship with each other but for her. It gave her closure. There may be no such thing as meant to be but this was how things ended up being. Her bare feet moved across the carpeted floor. She did not turn on the light. The moonbeams that shone through the large window with the curtains pushed to either side allowed more than enough light. There were folded origami animals with different prints that hung from a wire attached to the rafters of the ceiling. The place was full of color in the light of day. A corner was piled high with stuffed animals. Cubbies that would be filled with toys, pencils, and notebooks as he grew older were already assembled. There was even a tall house plant in the other corner by the window. The kind that filtered air.

The room - the nursery - was put together with love. She could feel it between the wall and the coats of paint. It was the line that held each plushie on the mobile over his crib - more toads.

Every detail was painstakingly thought out. Even the mural that contained cartoon versions of his father's fiercest summons. They would watch over him while he slept. He would know she was in here - Minato, that was, Naruto's father. The Guards would tell him. She had walked by them after all. They could not stop her any more than they could ask why she was here. She was not concerned with the lie he would tell his wife. It was not her problem.

Loris walked past the dresser, the one that was packed with bibs, onesies, hats, and socks. And tiny baby shoes. The ones that broke her mind a little bit because it was hard to believe that anything - any human - could be so tiny. She came to a stop in front of a bookshelf. She reached behind her. She sighed. There was a small popping sound as a cloud of smoke replaced the scroll in her grip with something longer and thinner, with more edges. She smoothed her hand over the hardcover book.

The Hime and the Pea.

It would make me happy if you kept it.He had said to her with a chuckle when they were both ten, fourteen years ago. She could still recall every detail as if it were yesterday. She tucked it into the first empty slot she could find.

There. Your happiness is no longer my priority.

She grabbed her boots that were outside the open window, tugging them on before she melted into the night, moving soundlessly. Long after she had made it to an empty home that was more or less no different than the day she moved in. All her personal effects were in the process of being packed away. She lived out of bags now. The orchid with a single blood-red bloom sat on her clutter-free desktop.

Sakura replaced the mask of Loris with her face, pulling off all her ANBU gear to lock it into a scroll. She slipped into a long black nightshirt, one that brushed her knees before she brought her hands together and concentrated. When she opened her eyes the scene had changed.

Sheets ruffled as she crawled into bed. Arms parted to accommodate her, tucking her against a hard chest and under a chin. He tilted downward to kiss the crown of her head. Her lashes fluttered heavily, fingers twitching once almost to a full curl. Sakura blinked in the darkness, knowing sleep would not welcome her as freely as he had.

October 9th.

It was the last few hours of October 9th. Everything was still dark. Hokage Tower was empty. It was so quiet that she could hear the pipes groaning in the walls as the aged building settled. She never really appreciated the character of the old Hokage Tower. The one before the Pein Attack. But now she could not help but notice, and appreciate, each and every crack that lined the slabbed surfaces. Her eyes landed on the largest one of all, right by the door. That had her name all over it. It was from when she slammed the door in frustration after not getting through to him yet again over one thing or the other. She sighed. She was not without her regrets. She had enough to line the walls of the tower like paper.

She had not received a letter back from Junji or Yuri which could only mean, it had worked. They no longer knew who she was. She was gone from their minds just as Sakura was gone from Tsunade's. She had no reason to think that it was any different for the Kazekage. She was not worried about the medic Masato or the Suna ANBU. They would forget her in due time, naturally. The aged advisor was no longer amongst the living. The Hokage had given his condolences to commemorate the passing. Her test was successful. But it was as Inner had implied. Even when she won, she lost. They would not remember her, just as was the fates of the Rookie Nine and Team Gai. She had made her peace with it. Or rather, it was a journey. One she had yet to take the first official step of.

A contingency for her contingencies.

The objects felt heavy in her hand. She opened his drawer and deposited the dark green scroll and her shiny, polished hitai-ate next to it. She closed the drawer slowly. Sakura turned around, sitting on the edge of his desk as she peered through the three windows into the village. The lights of the dwellings twinkled like ground-locked stars. Trapped.

xXx

"Where's Jiraiya-sama?" She asked him breathlessly in admission to having trouble keeping up with his long strides on top of everything else. His hair was nearly white in the monochromatic light. She had received the call from the Night Guard via the commlinks she had ordered them all to keep glued to their ears.

"Away," he answered shortly, perhaps in a notice of her short legs. "Ame," he spared her a look over his shoulder. There was only finality in his tone. The conversation down this path was a waste of breath.

Her mind whirled at the implications of it all. The orphans. Haru. They were somewhere near Suna from what they last told her. They should be safe as far as she knew. Jiraiya was not here. He was a major piece. His mere presence - the thought of it - was what kept her grounded. And now it felt like the first domino had fallen. And it was still falling. Her stomach was in her throat.

"Loris," he called her name out harshly.

She picked up her pace, rejoining at his right hand.

Pull yourself together, Sakura. The moment we've been waiting for is here.

She nodded her head and glided through the air. She felt so unprepared but she fought to let the hesitation not translate fully until it took the place of tendons in her body.

xXx

She had completely gnawed her lower lip raw to the point it was painful. But she could not stop. No sound came from the completely sealed area. The underground chamber that Minato, Rin, Biwako, and Kushina had gone into. Hours. Hours that Minato was maintaining the seal. Hours of labor that Biwako and Rin helped Kushina through. Hours of her life slipped away as she just stood there. It had been hours of them standing outside in the dark. No one found it in them to utter a word. The chaotic, frantic, and volatile tension that rolled off of the Yondaime's broad shoulders clamped around each one of their throats. It hurt to breathe. That was how much emotion the Yellow Flash dissipated around his person. Even hours later it coated everything.

Her eyes scanned. She did not know what she was expecting. There was no way that the Uchiha would pop out from the bushes and announce his presence with a song or dance but she found herself jumping slightly at any sound. Even when it was just Panda trying to stifle a yawn. She was a mess. She was profoundly disappointed in herself for behaving the way she was. Completely coming undone on the inside. The mask of Loris was the only thing that allowed her to save face. It hid the darting eyes, the gnawing of the lip, and the twitching of her nose.

No news. No updates. That means the radius has not been breached…or they found their way around it…or everyone is already dead.

The soles of her feet ached but she remained standing. Just as the other four did. The only angle that did not have eyes on the structure was from down below. The field chatter in her earpiece has gone silent tens of minutes ago. Something felt off. Everything felt wrong. Her fingers twitched. She parted her lips to communicate her intentions of checking the perimeter of the main gates quickly.

She inhaled deeply when the seal was broken. A hiss of chakra that she could practically see rippled around her ankles before another one replaced it. She fought the urge to turn around. To see him. The others did not forgo their training, just as she had not.

"Naruto is here."

She could hear his smile in his voice. The relief.

"H-Hokage-sama?"

They all froze at the voice cut by loud, piercing static in their ears.

"There's trouble." It was Shikaku's voice.

f*ck.

"Stay here," Minato commanded from behind her. She nodded her head glaring at the nothingness contained in the forest in front of her. Her hands twitched. A pickup of air and he was gone. She exhaled slowly, shakily.

"Formation C," she ordered. Her voice was hoarse from disuse. She cleared her throat. "No one moves."

There was an exception to every rule, not that it mattered because she was done with them anyway. Loris moved through the barrier as if it were made of air and descended the stairs. The dark dimly lit passageway was musty. She breathed through her mouth. She found the large stoneware slab. She found the finger holds without wasting time. She pumped her chakra in the right order, counter-clockwise and she moved quickly to accommodate the fifteen seconds she had to hit the twenty-six openings. Everything shook. Dust and dirt from overhead landed on her cloaked shoulder. There was a click and the stone started to slide apart. The ground rumbled. She walked through the passageway.

The room was brightly lit with artificial light. Nearly fluorescent. A jutsu. One of Biwako's. Loris shielded her eyes with her hand, willing them to adjust faster. She found herself looking at three expectant faces.

"What's wrong?!" It was Kushina's frantic voice that pushed out first. "What's happening? Where's Minato? Why isn't he back yet?" The questions blurred into each other, one starting before the previous one fully ended.

Loris went straight for the woman lying on her side, curled around a bundle in an orange blanket. Her heart seized at the tiny pink face with a tuft of sunshine-yellow hair. Her bleeding lips so badly wanted to pull into a smile but she forced herself to focus on Kushina.

"She's stable," Biwako hovered behind her. Not nearly as frazzled as the new mother. "She had first-degree tearing. I didn't heal that. I thought it best not to introduce even more chakra into her."

So much for that.Loris pressed her palm firmly against Kushina's shoulder. Pulsing her chakra twice.

"W-what?" Violet eyes were wide. "What did you do?"

"It's a remote seal," Loris explained in a low, quiet voice trying to lend Kushina some of her calmness. Everything was under control here in this room and she tried to communicate that with her methodical actions. "It will heal you and keep your chakra levels up." All without her even having to think about it because something told her that she would need a large portion of her brain for something else entirely. The pain started to slowly recede on Kushina's face, dripping off like beads of sweat. The IV line on the back of her hand was keeping the woman's fluids up. "Everything will be fine. You and your family will be fine," she patted her head with repetitive soothing motions. "Sleep now." As if on cue, Kushina's thick, red eyelashes covered her dark violet eyes. Within tens of seconds, her breathing deepened.

"Rin, I need help seeing her seal," Loris called out to the youngest in the room. Rin moved with confidence despite the fear in her eyes, helping Loris shift Kushina onto her back. They slowly worked up the shapeless shift she was wearing. Loris brought two fingers whose tips were glowing blue. She touched the skin of Kushina's navel. The black lines spread through her skin like fire. "It's still weakening."

"It's responding to the state of her body," Biwako frowned severely. "She needs to rest. She needs time."

Time we may not have.

Loris pushed air out of her nostrils. She tapped her communicator. There was nothing.

The f*cking sealing!

The safeguards and precautions seemed more like a hindrance than anything.

"Stay here, stay calm, and stay alert. I should have bought you a couple of hours of Uzumaki-sama's cooperation. She'll sleep. If she wakes, keep her calm. Don't open the barrier seal for anyone." She barked out her words as she all but ran to the entrance. She was not worried about Rin. Rin was level-headed. And she had nothing to say to Biwako. She slipped through the door just as the woman's disgruntled questions reached her ears.

The first breath in open air got caught in her throat, painfully. Her skin crawled as she found herself looking at an all too familiar mop of red hair and lifeless brown eyes.

"Sasori," she walked further and further from the barrier; Past the line drawn by her team. Panda to her left and Stork to her right.

"Well if it isn't the little ANBU who has been causing me all kinds of trouble," Sasori's dry colorless tone greeted her. "I left you a little present." He smirked in that smug self-reliant way of his. "Six of your brethren poisoned. You have thirty minutes to save them or you can try to hold me off. What will it be?"

"Get them to safety. Tell no one. Wait for no one. Talk to no one," Loris commanded in a voice she did not recognize.

"Yes, Taicho." They ran into the barrier behind her. Moving quickly no doubt to undo the seals so they could transport everyone inside to the secondary secret location. Behind the monument with a two thousand-foot drop of elevation where a small lake - her lake - resided. Away from the village. Deeper towards a land inhabited not by people but by forests. Only the remnants of a small shrine nearby with no Kami's employee to watch over it.

So I won't have to Hiraishin the Kyuubi away from the village if everything goes wrong.

She remembered his stance and his logic when he shared that new detail with her to pass on to the rest of the guard. Loris slid into a defensive stance, her twin axes already in hand crossing in front of her.

"So you will stay here and hold me off long enough for your Kage to come back?" Sasori taunted.

"I'll do more than that," she promised, her axes glistening. Their body of work spoke for itself.

xXx

Looks like we're back here again.

Loris panted, surrounded by thousands of puppets.

"I wonder how much help your metal toothpicks will be, little ANBU?" His condescension fell on deaf ears. His index finger twitched in anticipation. Poison dripped from his wooden toys. "I will say, I am impressed you pushed me to this. You will make a fine addition to my collection."

Inoichi! Inoichi!

I'm here. I'm here. You don't have to yell.

Loris kept her sharp gaze on Sasori's hands.

What's going on? Talk to me.

Rogues. From Kumo and Iwa. All over. Confirmed by the Bingo Book. We have our hands full keeping them from breaching the gates of the village.

She inwardly cursed. A mini-invasion. Her eyes traveled to the barrier set up by the Barrier Team. It was holding for now. The teams who were tracking and maintaining the five-mile radius would have an earful waiting for them. Her focus shifted back to the red-haired man.

It would not have done any good. Sasori was simply too smart, too capable to leave traces when he wanted to be invisible.

I need a direct line to Minato. Now!

What about your communicators?

She rolled her eyes under the mask. There was a time and place and now was neither.

Compromised. Hurry!

A string of curses entered her mind. Probably not for her ears but she listened anyway while she waited.

He's here. I'll be excusing myself now.

Be safe!She said in parting farewell, not even sure if he heard her.

Minato,Sakura did not give the man time to catch up to the fact that she was suddenly filling his head.Tell me what you're dealing with.

Where are Kushina and Naruto?He was not so good at filtering out the franticness from his thoughts. They came in rough like they were descrambled and put back together in haste.

Safe. I had the others transport them to the secondary location. Now tell me what you see.

There was a pause which she assumed meant he was breathing out a sigh of relief.

A rogue from Yuga from the looks of his forehead protector. Intel says there are two of them that snuck in before the barrier went up. He's strong. Young. Maybe Kakashi's, Rin's, and Obito's age. I hit him with two Rasengan and he's still going strong. I know I hit him. Both times. It's not some illusion or barrier. I hit him. Point blank and he shook it off.

Sakura closed her eyes for just a second to think. A face came to mind. One alive and the other dead.

Just the one?She asked.

Just the one.He confirmed.

So no black jutsu then. It looks like the rogues they were looking for found them. She had choice words for Jiraiya, assuming whatever he walked into was not a trap. It most likely was the timing was too suspect to be mere coincidence.

One crisis at a time! You're here. Worry about now. Worry about this.

Right.She shared with Inner - herself - and no one else. Minato was still waiting.

Purple slicked-back hair? Large orange Scythe? co*cky? Arrogant? And with a foul mouth?She eyed Sasori.

That's the one.

He's immortal. Can't die. So stop wasting jutsu and chakra and seal the little bitch already.

She jumped in the air to avoid the first of the puppets. Sasori reached the end of his very limited patience.

Sakura heard Minato sigh in her head.Thank you.

She ducked and weaved until all she saw were puppets. A cave of arms blocked out the moon. There was no escape.

"Die," Sasori moved his fingers rapidly, closing it all in on her.

Sakura smirked under her mask. She co*cked back her fist and thrust it through the air, throwing all her weight into it, to meet her executioners all that faster. Pulses of blue chakra rippled.

"Shannaro!" She roared when it was overhead. A shockwave that could render steel into dust originated from her fist. So what hope did wood have? She watched grinning like a maniac as Sasori's puppets became woodshavings. Obliterated.

His brown eyes widened in horror.

"Die," she appeared behind him. Her fist collided with his back. She felt the last shudder of breath as it left his body. He collapsed in a heap, face forward in the dirt. "Sorry, Sasori. We didn't have the time to do this properly."

f*ck around and find out, puppet boy.

She did not bother to check for a pulse. No one not named Tsunade, Sakura, Hidan, or Orochimaru could survive that. She sent out her chakra, running - flying - in the direction that the remnant of Sasori's was. She followed the thin, red line that only she could see.

She found them unresponsive. A team of Konoha nin watching over them, out of their depths. She had lost seven minutes and twenty-four seconds in getting to them - from the moment Sasori started the clock with his thirty-minute comment.

"Don't move them!" She shouted loudly. They froze in shock at the pitch and power of her voice. "Back away three yards!" Her hands were reaching for her left hip pouch. She turned away from the line of trees. She unfurled the scroll, nearly tearing it in her haste.

Dog, Hare, Horse, and Rooster. She held the final seal. The ground glowed white within a circular seal before a rectangle sprung to life covering the terrain. It was crude but beggars could not be choosers, especially not when they were at death's doorstep. She closed her eyes. Ovals covered their keeled-over forms. She pinpointed all the traces of poison, visualizing how it moved. It was heavier than the water and blood in their bodies. That was its identifier. Sakura pulled at the water from within them, it separated from their blood to surround the purple substance, encasing it in perfect spheres. She pressed her lips together until they were colorless as sweat dripped down her brow. She grunted from the exertion of pulling the water spheres through their pores. Everything, entirely, all at once. She panted heavily as the ground became saturated with the thick purple sludge that was his poison.

"You," she turned her head sharply.

"Me?" A blurry face nin pointed to himself, jaw slack and eyebrows nearly jumping into his hair.

"On the second floor of the hospital, find any nurse. Tell her you need the antivenom. Enough for six. It's labeled with 'Red Sand.'" She scanned the remaining faces. "The rest of you carry them to the hospital." Their injuries were not life-threatening which meant they did not need any more of her chakra. "What are you waiting for? Go!"

Sputters of affirmation sounded around her. But she was already gone.

Minato?

I'm here.

Status?

He's been sealed. The barrier is still intact. No more got in.

Thank Kami.

Sasori has been neutralized.

She let out a breath. The only one that left in relief. Because she nearly doubled over as a sudden pressure pulled at her, demanding chakra from her reserves. Greedily. And without abandon. It wanted everything she had amassed. It was only for a second - the warning for what was to come. By the time she straightened, she had to struggle to regain balance. The ground shook. It went dark. She snapped her head to the right so quickly that she heard a crack. A growl had her blood-curdling. She shuddered as the Kyuubi rose, blocking out the moon with his size. His shadow cast over her whole person.

f*ck.

Her thoughts rang the sentiment in both of their heads.

There was no time to think. She brought her hands together, two fingers crossed in a 'T'. Her whole world blurred as she was reverse summoned to the seal. In a split second, she was able to assess the situation. She grabbed the chains and pulled; breaking them from the wooden structure made of a chakra with her gloved hands. Kushina leaned into her heavily, forehead on her shoulder. She was breathing shallowly; her breath hot.

"You're okay," Loris worked quickly to free her from the other set of chains. Everywhere her hands connected, she used to funnel her chakra quickly. Between her and her seal, the efforts were bearing fruit. Kushina looked more and more alive. Her color was starting to return.

"Where's Naruto? The woman asked her in pure terror; left stripped completely weak and frantic from her harrowing ordeal. Giving birth had been the least traumatic thing that happened to her that evening. "Loris, where's Naruto?"

She did not have an answer so she remained silent. "We need to get you out of here." She sent her chakra out even further. She did not sense anything.

"Where's Naruto?!" Kushina shook her, breaking her focus just enough that she lost the picture she was mapping.

"He's safe," Minato's voice soothed them down instantly. Kushina transferred from Loris's to his awaiting arms. They circled his wife protectively in a silent promise that nothing else bad would happen to her as long as his heart was still beating. He was here with her now.

"Minato!" Kushina sobbed, ingrained herself within his person, forehead against his neck. Relief came off of her through waves of anguish. She clung to him because she no longer had to be strong. Not at that moment.

"She's going to be fine," Loris spoke over the woman's wails. "She's stabilizing."

He rose to his feet; shielding Kushina from the horrors of their reality with his half-turned body. He looked at the Kyuubi with deadly eyes.

"Go." Loris did not have time to worry about anything other than the beast. "I'll buy you time."

He was gone before the wind caressed the side of her neck. Sakura ripped off her gloves. She grabbed one of the chains and crushed it with her bare hand. The pain barely registered. She swiped at the injury with her thumb. She moved through the seals without hesitation, bringing her palm to the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

She rose through the air. Her dark cloak billowed, rippling from the acceleration. She breathed in a cold breath from a new vantage. The air tasted almost sweet.

"Who the f*ck are you?" Gamabunta demanded in his deep voice. Eyes pointed up at her, in palpable disgust at her audacity.

"Never mind that," Sakura shot back in the same snippy tone. "You all know who that is right? Or do you need an intro?" She pointed to the roaring Kyuubi on the off chance it could be missed.

"Well, f*ck," Gamabunta concluded, his pipe bobbing at the corner of his lips. A ring of smoke grew fainter in direct proportion to its size. The smell of smoke tethered her to something other than terror: comfort. Gamaken and Gamahiro immediately got into their stances; swords and shields were out and at the ready.

Sakura kept her agreement to herself. She began to weave seals. She watched as the vines slowly extended out toward the Kyuubi, ensnaring his ankles. The beast under the guise of a Genjutsu did not react right away, dismissing the low-level attack as just that. She pulled back her connected hands, strongly encouraging the vines to do the same. The earth started to open up under the beast's paws.

"Lady, what the hell are you doing?!" Gamabunta's dark eyes rolled back up to look at her.

She ignored him. The burnt-orange monster roared as Gamahiro's katana slashed at him while Gamaken tried to corral his tails.

"Why isn't he moving?" The toad below her asked with clear expectation of a suitable action otherwise she would have two outrageous-sized problems on her hands. It was an ill-timed reminder of why she was so unimpressed with this particular summon.

Toshi-kun was right. 'Bunta in an ass.

"Seals," she answered through clenched teeth. "Similar to the one that kept him contained." An oversimplification but time was of the essence.

The toad's narrowed, dark, beady eyes widened. "You hid it in the Genjutsu!"

"In the vines," she panted from the strain of holding the damn fox in place more or less by herself. "Aren't you going to do something?!" She demanded incredulously.

"What's the need? He looks pretty stuck to me," he leaned against his cane.

"Similar not the same!" She screamed. Her modifications were inspired by Kushina's seal. It was a weaker version because she did not have chakra like an Uzumaki to throw around. She had to be smart. Even with nearly a decade's worth stored away. Stabilizing Kushina had eaten away at it. The woman's reserves were practically limitless. And a good bit was used just to summon the trio - one of which she was regretting spending it on.

"I'm trying to absorb and seal away his chakra a bit at a time. It's temporary. The longer he stays still the less chakra he will have in his coils at his disposal." With the end goal of the Kyuubi only having a manageable amount of chakra left that could be utilized until she and Minato could seal it, together.

"Smart," Gamabunta jumped in the air without warning. Sakura lurched forward. She was just able to secure her footing in time. "Sorry, Lady," his deep throaty chuckle had her bouncing up and down. "You're crazy, you know that?"

She bit back a curse or three. The Kyuubi opened his mouth. A black sphere slowly formed in his mouth as he gathered more and more air.

"sh*t!" Gamabunta changed directions. Gamaken and Gamahiro hurried to get out of range from the blast, crouching behind Gamaken's shield. "Hang on, Lady," the toad bellowed. "Lady?" He looked with his eyes for the tiny woman in the white mask. He no longer felt her on his head. "Lady!"

"What is she doing?" Gamaken gawked, jaw hanging open, his tongue spilled out of his mouth, dangling like a pink scarf nearly grazing the ground.

"Is she?" Gamahiro asked in a squeaky voice.

"She's f*ckin' crazy," his pipe danced on his thick brown lips.

Three pairs of amphibious eyes watched as the woman fell from the sky, moving toward the beast bomb. She had jumped down from the Monument. Her fist pulled back. Glowing blue.

"Shannaro!" Ripped through the night sky followed immediately by silence. They watched as the black and purple ball of pure destructive chakra was spiked straight into the ground as if it were a harmless balloon and not pure devastation. The Kyuubi jumped back, breaking away from the vine restraints. The ground shook with a deafening thunder. Trees bent in half from the hurricane winds, groaning in the fight of not snapping like toothpicks. A crater completely swallowed whole the tiny body of water.

The howling winds died down. The trees settled naked and missing branches. The tremors grew weaker and weaker until it was impossible to tell if they swayed because of it or adrenaline. The summons and the fox peered through the mushroom cloud of dust as the outline of a silhouette revealed itself. There she stood. No bigger than an ant to them. Just as strong.

Gamabunta threw his head back and laughed. Deep. Throaty. Wet. His left hand pressed against his chest as if to keep his heart contained. "That Lady," he wheezed, slapping a kneecap, "whoever she is, I like her."

His voice carried over the stunned silence of the other three.

xXx

Sakura shook her arm, smattering the over-saturated ground in smatterings of crimson. From her knuckles to her shoulder she was on fire. She tore off her cloak to wrap around her left hand to stop the bleeding. She gathered chakra in her right hand and worked to knit the skin together. She turned her head at a familiar chakra.

"Took you long enough," she grumbled, tone completely ungrateful despite the invigoration that filled her at the sight of him.

He let out a low whistle at the sight of the crater - he used his arms to fan the dust away from both of their faces - the corner of his mouth tugged into a smirk, the right side higher than the left. She noticed for the first time just how unpristine his vest and garbs were. More than she had just seen him last.

The Uchiha!She completely forgot due to her tunnel vision.

"Switch dance partners?" Minato asked her quickly, reaching for her wrist before she could recover.

"Wait, Minato!" Sakura spun away from his grip and dug in her heels. She searched his face. His hair was a wayward mess. He was sweaty and tired but otherwise unhurt. She pressed her palm flat against his shoulder just as she had for Kushina. She pulsed her chakra one singular time. His brow furrowed as his skin burned from being marked.

"A seal," she explained quickly. "I will heal you and replenish your chakra when it gets too low." She tore her eyes away from him to take in the summons holding off the Kyuubi. "Be careful, Minato."

Please.

The corner of his lips curled upward. Sakura felt her newly healed arm being pulled. She crashed into a solid chest so fast that she had a minor case of whiplash. She froze. His hand palmed the back of her hood-covered head.

"Thank you, Sakura," he breathed, closing his eyes. His warm, sweaty cheek against her cool, dusty mask. "For everything."

Her insides grew cold and her face twisted in distress. It hurt. Right then and there. It hurt to be thanked by him. It cut her. It shook her. She broke free from his arms, desperate to correct the course of where this felt like it was headed.

He would have been the best tochan, Sakura-chan. He would have been the best, dattebayo!

"You're not going to do something crazy are you?" Her voice broke. The back of her eyes stung. "Tell me you're not going to do something crazy. Pro-"

His fingers brushed the insides of her wrists. A jolt went down her spine. From what she was not entirely clear. She sank her nails into what she could, something solid. Something real. The world started to bend. He smiled at her. Bright and free. By the time she registered him squeezing her fingers, all warmth was gone.

Sakura-chan, I'll always worry about you.The voice of young Minato called out to her.

"Minato!" She shrieked, she held nothing back - she put her whole heart into it. She had no reason to. He would always worry about her, but what about him? Did he not know that she would worry about him too? Always? Her vocal chords became raw. He disappeared just like everything around him. She caught herself from falling. Everything in her screamed to go back to him. Because she did not like the look in his eyes. Not one bit. The look that said he was going to put an end to this. One way or the other. She whipped her head at the sound of gravel underfoot.

"You!" She pulled herself to her full height. Her eyes disbelieved what she was witnessing. Her thoughts crashed around her. Shattering like glass. The sound rattled in her head, amplified. Something broke. Something that could never be repaired. Ever.

"We trusted you," her voice came out much too weak. It was pathetic. As pathetic as her.

I trusted you.

Baka! Baka! Baka!

It was only the knowledge that he - that Minato, Kushina, Naruto, and the people she loved - was in danger that kept her standing tall and not collapsing into a ball with her hands in her hair or a fist pounding against her head.

Because how could she be so stupid? How could she not learn her lesson? How could she keep falling for lies?

Did she not know that the world - the Sage - was not kind to her? How much more would the world have to f*ck her over, leave her battered and bruised and so raw for her to understand?

She could not have relief. She could not have the facade of happiness - much less the real thing. She could not close her eyes for one second and just breathe. She was not allowed to have those things.

Her sins were simply too great and she was not done paying for them.

Goat's blue mask stared back at her without change. He stepped forward. He held up his hands and ceased all movement when she slid into a defensive stance.

I vetted you. I trusted you. I taught you. I worked with you. I picked you. I would have asked you!

The accusations rang in her head but she had no control of her throat. There was a disconnect somewhere. Nothing made sense.

Why? Why? Why?

"Loris-Taicho."

"Don't call me that!" She snarled, betrayal painted her words. Not a trace of her composure was to be found. Wounded, she bared her wounds for him to see with the pitch of her raw voice. Even the mask could not modify it, filter it to lessen the severity of the turbulence inside of her. "You have lost all right to call me that. You have no right." Not after tonight. Not after what he had done. Obito, future Obito's motivations she could understand. He blamed Minato for Rin's death. Right or wrong. It made sense to her how his grief ended up being channeled and manipulated by someone like Madara and Zetsu. That made sense. There was a reason for the personal vendetta.

There was no such reason here. None. Uchiha Shinnosuke had nothing to harbor against Namikaze Minato or Uzumaki Kushina. None at all. Her hands shook in a very raw desire to rip his mask off his face. A mask that made all of this possible. It gave him access. It gave him insider knowledge. It caused them to lower their guards. She lowered her guard. She let him into her life - into Sakura's life.

She broke her rules for him.

How could she trust herself ever again? How could she trust her judgment? What the f*ck was wrong with her?

"Would you prefer if I refer to you as Sakura?" He asked her calmly. His right hand moved slowly and deliberately to lift his mask. His crimson eyes shone in the darkness. Trying so hard to overwhelm her with a face she thought she knew.

"How?" She breathed, fists clenched and breath loud. He was understanding. He never pried. He never asked where she was, where she came from, why she was so tired, or what she did. He accepted her for how she was, for what she was. No questions asked. Maybe because he already knew the answers. She mistook it all for him trusting her. "How?" She growled, fists balled and voice raw.

"An ANBU with healing prowess, an aversion to socializing. A kunoichi with more or less the same. Leaving a clone in the hospital was a nice touch. Enough to throw off most." Especially when most probably did not want it to be true. For someone they admired as much as Loris to be the same as someone they loved to speak so poorly of. Ignorance was bliss. He smiled at her as if he were an old friend that she was seeing for the first time in a long time. The three tomoe spun, fixated on their prey.

You've missed things before.

She had torn open Minato's heart by saying those words all those years ago. How righteous and self-important was she? To hold his lack of awareness as a child - a child! - against him well into adulthood and yet miss her shortcomings as an adult? How could she take herself seriously when she called herself a kunoichi?

"Glasses," she mumbled. "You never wore glasses," it all clicked then and there, audibly in her head. She had never actually seen him put on glasses. She never saw him in glasses for any bit of time which was unusual for someone who claimed to be very nearsighted. Not even to move from his room to his bathroom to supposedly put his contacts on. Or even to get up for a glass of water in the middle of the night. Not once. Never. Which was unusual even for a shinobi. They all stubbed their toes every now and then - not that they would ever admit to it out loud even under distress - at home where they could lower their guard. The fact that he did not even open a pair of glasses could only mean one thing.

He doesn't need them.

"The lens," a soft gasp left her mouth. He did the very thing she taught Obito. He let Shisui cast a Genjutsu, and the disruption she felt, she attributed it to that Genjutsu and not the one on the contact lens over his eye. He used her own trick against her. A punch in the gut that left her reeling.

I taught him everything.

"You lied."

"You lied first, Sakura," his eyes were so cold but far from one-dimensional in the emotion contained in them.

"And that makes what you did okay?" She scoffed at his twisted sense of mortality.

"I needed you to drop your guard, to catch you off it," he blinked slowly, calm. "I can see just fine. The Genjutsu embedded in the lens was able to fool you into thinking my optic nerve endings were that of a phase one Sharingan user and well…made my eyes appear oval-shaped." To bolster his claims, his sad sob story of a childhood filled with illnesses that never existed. She had a bleeding heart for children. A weakness to exploit.

I'm such an idiot.

The moment she saw the contact lenses she stopped thinking and he used that split-second to completely take advantage. Her breaking into his apartment gave her all the additional reassurance she needed to believe what she wanted to believe.

The contact lens case and solution. The details….I bought it all.

She fell for the narrative he crafted. She had not bothered to check the amounts of the solution. If she had, maybe she would have noticed that it did not change or that while the outer layer of the plastic was removed, the inner seal under the twist cap was never opened. In what was there - the facade of - she overlooked what was not there. The glasses.

Why didn't I look for his glasses?

He rubbed his sovereign brow, a brow, and body that was not marked with the insignia of his clan or home. He was alone.

Sometimes those who choose to be alone can use some company too.

"And truth be told, you and the Yondaime were not very subtle about it," Shinnosuke ran his hands through his hair, undoing his half-updo. He shook his head, raven silk cut him at the chin. Her stomach churned in only rage from an action that used to make it flutter. His face - just a week ago when she had wondered how someone so beautiful could willingly choose to spend his time with her when they spent the early morning hours just talking, with nothing but their lies covering them in his bed - had not changed but now she found it repulsive. Now, it - his once beautiful face - made her skin crawl.

We have our answers. On why he chose us. On why he was nice to us. It was too good to be true.

"With your sparring sessions. With your heart-to-hearts. With your stolen glances." With the leeway, the Yondaime gave only two people: Loris and Sakura. Anyone else doing half the things she did, would have been put in their place a long time ago. Left jobless, rankless, and titleness. The arguing - the Yondaime did not even argue with his wife. He let her win, he did not have the will to go against her. The Yondaime did not have patience for any of it unless it came from her - from Sakura and Loris. It was not hard. They did not make it hard at all.

"You thought you were being careful with the illusions, with the sound suppression seals." He scoffed, a wry grin on his lips. "You thought no one noticed."

But someone did. He did. The man they were hunting the whole world for was right there. And she had never been more disgusted with herself than she was in that moment. She could have stopped this before it even began. She could have killed him at any time. She could have stopped his heart while he slept. She could have done that - she would have done that - if she was not so worried about wanting to be more like Sakura and less like Loris. Loris would have figured it out. Loris was not as foolish as Sakura.

"Did you send the assassin?" She asked him, a voice without emotion. He knew her schedule. He knew she was gone. He could have overheard that conversation too. She always let her guard down around Minato. Especially back then. She could not even remember if they had even sealed the room before she made her request. She thought she knew the extent of all their abilities.

I don't know you at all.

Shinnosuke's face pulled into a grimace. "I did," he sighed shallowly, perhaps with even traces of remorse. He tried to eliminate her, the biggest roadblock to his problem. She could not blame him. She would have done the same. Maybe. She probably would have done the hit herself. That was the only way to ensure her mark was dead. "You let that go quickly. So did the Yondaime. Too quick for a man who claims to still love you."

Is this what it feels like…is this what they all felt like?

Right before she killed them. Betrayal. Was this

Betrayal? This thing she was feeling, the one that threatened to stop her heart for good? The rope - the fraying twisted rope - creaked as the boulder swung overhead. She could feel the vibrations.

"When did you meet him?" She asked because she had to know, not that it mattered all that much now.

"In Uzushiogakure," Shinnosuke answered. He was always open to her questions. "There was a lot of downtime in the five months." No one was actively trying to kill the three Uzumaki who set off to do the impossible: rebuild from ruin. He watched from afar, they did not want another clansman - and Uchiha of all things - to learn their secrets. "He found me. He was weak and defeated. He said he needed an ear. I listened." He recognized the loneliness in Madara, it was the same as his own.

Your assassin couldn't kill me. Is that why you approached me yourself?

Her pride kept her from asking the question. She did not want the answer to it, not entirely. She closed her eyes, breaking every combat rule she had. All the superficial cracks in the glaze of her mask did not lead to dead ends. They led to ANBU. They lead to the Specialized Protection Unit - the SPU. They led to him. She had simply given up much too easily.

He never asked me for an update on the proposal…for the administrator. He must have known it was a lie. Just like everything else.

He humiliated her. He used her. He kept her close where he could watch her; until he was ready to end her. Just like she did to countless others.

He seduced me.

And she was the sucker that fell for the pretty face and the kind smile. He was everything she deserved. He was the result of her karma. She was so, so, so blind.

Sakura, we had ruled him out much before then. You vetted him thoroughly. He was clean. We had no reason to suspect him.

But she should have. She should have seen this coming. She knew this was coming. No one was who they said they were. Everyone wore a mask - multiple. This was always in the back of her mind. Who better than the Uchiha - the only Uchiha - in the Hokage's Guard? She shared meals with him. She shared her dreams of tomorrow with him. She was planning on sharing her tomorrow with him too if he would have her. And he did have her. Right where he wanted her. He knew. He knew what was behind Loris's mask.

This was why she never should have trusted someone. This was why she never should have let someone in. It was always those you trusted that betrayed you. She pulled off her mask hastily. Only muscle memory was able to trace the path to her hip and attach it there. Her reeling mind was too far gone to know what she was doing.

This is all my fault. He's only here because I convinced Minato to show that he trusted the Uchiha. And that's led to all this.

She could not breathe. She felt her chest seize up on her. Suspended in the shock of it all. Her heart skipped a beat. Then another. Then another. Until her blood was beating in her ears. She gripped the dark fabric around her chest, desperate for what evaded her: clarity. Air. She needed air. Her free hand gripped her hood with every intention of ripping it off. She needed to think less.

I did this. I risked Kushina-san's and Naruto's lives.She drew in an audible breath that did not make it past her throat. Her lungs burned.I'm the reason Minato's fighting the Kyuubi.

I couldn't stop thinking about it, Sakura-chan.Naruto's bright smile brought tears to her eyes.I couldn't stop thinking about what it would be like to be raised by my parents.

I'm the reason the village is in danger. Kakashi, Rin, Obito, Anko, Inoichi, Chika, Itomi, Ino, Tsume, Kita, Hana, I'm the reason they are all going to die.

Sakura!

She blinked, mouth parted. Her stiff muscles no longer were seizing up on her.

Nothing's lost. They are all alive. Deal with him and deal with your feelings later. They need you! Do. Not. Let. Them. Down!

Right.Inner was right. Sakura inhaled. Relief left her lungs as they deflated. A heat moved through her. Her hands fell to her sides. The cold of the night and the chill of her terror brought on thoughts that could no longer touch her. She narrowed her eyes as she focused on the sole reason behind this: him.

"Why?" She demanded. Her outrage carried over the roar of the Kyuubi and the shaking of the earth.

"I have to see her again." There was a vulnerability that vibrated against his vocal cords. The same vulnerability she saw in him during moments of tenderness: holding on so tight not even air could pass through, a tangle of limbs, and the moon was their only witness when he spoke of his parents; of his sister. All those soft moments, tracing the map of each other's person and she still managed to underestimate the severity of his broken heart. Even when she slept with her ear over the organ.

How did she not hear it rattle? How did she overlook the extent of his devastation?

She blinked away the images plaguing her mind. The karma that was being rained down on her, trying to drown her. She would build a boat long enough to see the end.

"Why do all this for something that is already gone? For a moment you can never capture again?" She gestured to the Kyuubi, burnt orange, with blood-red eyes filled to the brim with hate, and large in the distance fighting against three summons and a man who would become even more of a legend. A living legend. She would burn the world to ensure that happened.

Only love can contain hate, that's what Mito-hi-baachan said to my kaachan! Love that my tochan gave her Sakura-chan! Love!

And he had no shortage of it. For his son. For his village. For his students. For his wife.

"Why does the world get to live in peace? Why does the world get to rest when there are so many with broken hearts? Why does it have to be this way?" He held out his arms and spoke with magnitude. His red eyes softened with the familiarity of a face he longed to see. A face that would never age or change. A face frozen in time.

"This is not the way," she shook her head, growing more aware that Minato was on his own and just what that meant with each tauntingly quick second that passed by.

"It's the only way," he countered. "I have been enlightened. The ways of this world do not appeal to me. They do not make sense to me. They were senseless. A world that forces children to kill all that so they can survive. A world of killers made by killers for killers."

A world where children died before their parents. A world where older siblings outlived their younger ones, suddenly and painfully reminded what it was like being alone and without them at all.

Sakura swallowed thickly. "You're not a killer," she did not know why she was wasting precious time trying to talk down a madman. He was a lost cause. He betrayed his home, his clan, and his Hokage. He put everyone's lives at risk. She killed many for much less. And without a thought.

But maybe it was the pain that he held in his broken heart that resonated with her. Maybe it was because she was sent back to save two lives with the freedom to change things how she saw fit, to craft a world with her own two blood-covered hands. Maybe it was because she did not have a leg to stand on. Because to save a handful, she set ruin to countless. Maybe it was because she understood his pain to such an innate level that she felt it in the depths of her soul.

After all, it was the same as hers. Maybe it was because she refused to believe that he was that good of an actor - or she was that much of a fool - that he had lied to her completely. Maybe it was because she believed there was some truth to the Shinnosuke in her head, the idol she had in her mind before tonight. Maybe it was because she could have just as easily been standing where he stood, thinking what he thought…maybe it was because she would want someone to try to fight for her. Maybe he could still be saved. Maybe he could learn to let go so that he too could move on from his tragedy.

"You didn't kill Panda, Stork, Jackal, Rin, or Biwako," she could feel their chakra signatures. Not trace amounts but nearly all of it. They were alive. "You didn't let the Kyuubi kill Uzumaki-sama or harm Naruto." She breathed the words that she had no hope behind. "You didn't kill me." Even before he got to know her, he sent someone else. And after, after he had plenty of opportunity. He had no shortage of opportunity. "You did not lose your way completely, Shinnosuke. You're a kind man. The kind Ren-chan was proud to call her ani - the kind Ren-chan would be proud to call her ani."

The changes to his posture were minute. Slowly inertia was chipping away at the rigid set of spine, setting in something more malleable. Flexible. Like wet clay for her tainted hands to mold.

"She loved it when you smiled right?" She felt her cheeks dampen. The air stung. "She loved it when you made her laugh. Even when she was sick and in pain, you always made her laugh. You took care of her, just like you took care of me." She paused to register his shaking shoulders. "That's the person you are, Shinnosuke. The kind to make his sister laugh. The kind to give me all the carrots off your plate and eat the broccoli off mine even though you hate how it gets in your teeth. The kind to always know when to cheer me up without me having to ask. The kind who saw members of his clan suffering and did something about it even when it posed a risk to your goal. The kind who is patient, and who listens before making a judgment call. Not this. The kind that took the time to see something there that no one else bothered with. You're not a killer. This world did not turn you cold. Madara's dream is a nightmare with a pretty face. It's hollow. It's empty. It's not real."

"It will feel real," he shook his head with traces of stubbornness. "I won't know the difference. No one will know the difference. No one has to suffer."

"...but you," her chest tightened, her heart beating sluggishly in her chest. The sounds of the Kyuubi and Minato's face-off distorted until it was nothing but a low hum.

He stared at her with features of stunned surprise. Much too open. Much too in pain from a wound that never healed.

"No one has to suffer but you," she swallowed back the poison of her words. Words she needed to hear every bit that he did. The tear streaks on her milky skin glistened in the silver glow of the full moon. "You're suffering from the pressure you put on yourself, to fix what you think you can. To correct a wrong that was not your fault and completely beyond your control. When you know in your heart of hearts, you might not even live to see the tomorrow you desperately chase."

He inhaled shakily as more tears spilled out.

"You're all alone when all you want is to be loved and to love," she took a small, tentative step forward. She wished she could have been that person, the one to open up to him fully. The person that could have kept him from this path. She wished they could have filled the deficiencies in each other. She wished they could have been something to the other. She took another step toward him, much too late and small. Then she took yet another when he did not react beyond blinking. She noticed much too late.

"You forsook your today for the possibility of tomorrow. You continued to be alone for this mission. For this idea. For this dream that is not even yours in the beginning it became everything that it feels like it is yours. That it feels the most important thing in the world, in your world."

She was within arm's reach of him now. But still a world away.

"You gave up everything you had for a possibility, for a chance to make the pictures that reside in your head and heart your reality for even just a second. You gave up your happiness for someone else's. You gave away everything for just a chance. Until there was nothing left of you that you recognized."

She was crying. Her voice breaking. It was a realization that happened too late. A break that was too steeped in tragic regret to be cathartic. She laughed wetly at her blindness. At her stupidity. She shook her head. It hurt. All that effort was put into the pursuit of something that was perpetually just out of reach; like trying to chase a kite's string that had broken from the spool.

Futile.

"Your life still has meaning, Shinnosuke. You still matter," she spoke to the broken child inside of her who was forced to shoulder this burden. A little girl so innocent, unblemished, and too scared to accept the friendship because she did not know kindness could be offered without strings attached; because she did not know that kindness did not have to be fleeting. A teenage girl who cut herself off from the only people who made her feel like something other than a worthless entity that no one wanted or cared for, to chase false promises that resided in her head. A woman subjected herself to trauma over and over and over again to be used. Passed around, degraded, and thrown away when she was of no use.

All for what?

The Kyuubi roared and her whole body trembled. She slowly raised her hand to the side of his face. Her thumb wiped the tears from his cheeks. Over and over. He leaned into her touch, allured by the softness of her voice and the pain on her face. The draw of being understood by another was simply too great to fight. Because even if it started with a lie, there was truth in the moments they shared. And it had been beautiful in its own imperfect way.

I wish I could have helped you.

"You can still undo this. You can hold the Kyuubi while we seal him. You can come back from this," her unfocused gaze was trained on the gap between his raven brows. Shisui's eyes - his eyes would give out before it could happen. She knew it. And he would carry the guilt with him, the weight of his supposed failure because he failed to realize the ask was simply too much. "You can fix this," she implored him. "Please, Shinnosuke, help me fix it."

Please.

"I wanted to say yes, Sakura," he said through broken sobs, shaking his head. "I wish I could have said yes."

"I know," she smiled sadly. And she wished she could have asked him. Maybe then, all this could have been avoided.

He lowered his lashes over his red eyes. His lips pressed against hers with too much familiarity to be that of what he was: a stranger. An imposter. They both were. She could taste his regret. It was indistinguishable from her own. Her hand went to the nape of his neck in a familiar trek.

I'm sorry.

The hum of her chakra warmed her, just under the surface of her skin waiting for the hand signs. His lashes parted. His eyes flashed, and the three tomoe spun until they combined to form a black rhombus. Her whole world was coated in black just as her chakra raced down his spine, killing everything it touched.

xXx

The large red humanoid loomed before her. A loophole to the fact she rendered him paralyzed from the hip down. She needed his eyes and she was not sure if she needed his hands - Inoichi could jump in his head and coax the fox into standing still while they sealed it - it was the quickest way she could think to incapacitate him. She could always put the nerves back as they were after. But she forgot about the Susanoo. Future Sakura only saw it once in the distance when Naruto and Sasuke fought Madara as a team while she stood back - as the standard operating procedure. But at least she had enough forethought to layer the whole area in Genjutsu so the village was unaware of this new troubling development.

The beast's hawk-like wings expanded out, nearly blocking the sky from her vantage. He was all she saw. Shinnosuke stood in the protective body composed of pure chakra. From their one-on-one lessons, she knew that he had plenty of it. She should have been scared. But as she looked up at it - craning her neck - she felt at peace with her strategy and with her purpose.

It's going to be fine. As long as we end this. It's going to be fine.

We are really starting to eat into our reserves.

Guess we have to make this quick then.

The Byakugo broke, covering her from head to toe with thick, black vertical lines that crossed. The heat of its release melted the warpaint on her forehead and arm. Sakura sighed as she put her mask back on. The time for sympathy and vulnerability was long gone.

Reveal no weakness.

She dodged the arrow being shot at her. Even the hundreds that he rained down from the sky. The tips scorched the earth where they landed. She maneuvered through the burning labyrinth of red chakra. She taught him the Hiraishin. And she taught him well but he was bigger now. There was more of him to move. She focused on the signature - the mark - she placed on his cheek. She closed her eyes and flashed.

Blinking rapidly, she reoriented herself, correcting her trajectory in the air. She was hundreds of feet above the ground. The second it took to do so allowed him to react. He withdrew his wings into his body. Causing a wall of wind to push her back. He opened them. A searing pain overwhelmed her.

Sakura grunted as she brought the side of her blue glowing hand to strike the shaft before she pulled the arrow - it burned her hands as she touched it - from her stomach. She turned it, plummeting to the ground, throwing it up with all her strength. Anti-gravity. It clipped his wing, he could not completely maneuver out of the way in time. He was forced to expend chakra to stay airborne.

Sakura! The Kyuubi broke the Genjutsu.Minato informed her in the once quiet corners of her mind.

That hurt.She thought to herself with a grimace, nodding in acknowledgment of his status update knowing full well that he could not see her. Water pushed out of her eyes as she continued her freefall toward the ground, unable to draw in a single breath. The gaping wound was gone with only that damage to her armor and tattered top as any indication of what she had endured. She pulled off the chest plate. The added weight - now dead weight - was just making her fall faster.

Sakura focused on the formula of her distinctive seal, this time her arms were drawn back. She appeared right in front of him, at eye level. She did not hesitate. Her fist collided with the red eye.

"What did this village ever do for you?!" Shinnosuke demanded to know in outrage, pushed off balance. "You should be helping me!"

Before his Susanoo could move back and she could drop, she followed the punch with one from her left hand, ignoring his outbursts. He had his chance just like he had her sympathy. They were both gone now. The crack from her blow was so loud it was as if the earth had been split into two. Thundering. Deafening. She formed the seals, her legs planted on the side of the beast's head. Its face caved in. It was nothing more than a simple skeleton now.

"Earth Release: Earth Crater!"

The earth pulled apart. She pushed chakra to her feet causing the speed of the quickly devolving Susanoo to increase. She propelled herself off the red skeleton, kicking it down and away from her.

"N-No!" Shinnosuke's last words were swallowed by the rumble of the earth as it knitted back together.

Sakura fell to the ground, rolling completely three times before she came to a stop at the loss of momentum on her side. She breathed, laboredly. Her eyes fluttered behind her mask. She just needed a second to catch her breath. The Kyuubi roared. The earth rumbled. She groaned. Sakura pushed up to her feet with a grunt of exertion. Her legs felt so heavy and her skin, muscles, and organs around her stomach felt tight. The black lines retreated as she did not want to use up chakra while she stood idle.

I'm coming, Minato.

She warned him before she summoned herself to his side not even a full second later. Her feet planted on Gamabunta's head, her hand pressed against her still tender midsection that she was babying.

"I'm fine," she breathed out at his glance. That was all he could spare with the Kyuubi who now had its full bearings. "Kushina-san's fine too. I stopped giving her chakra. She's at about sixty percent."

Better than half. It was the best she could do.

He nodded his head. "I stopped worrying about anything happening to her after you told me she would be fine," his breathing was impacted by it all.

"You used up half of your chakra," she noted with a frown, refusing to be distracted. "I don't have much I can spare."

"You didn't stock up?" He furrowed his brows. From his estimates, she should have more than she let on.

Sakura snorted. "You ungrateful asshole," she muttered darkly under her breath just loud enough for him to hear and her to deny ever saying.

His gaze caught the missing bottom half of her black shirt. He could see the waistband of her black pants covering her navel, and the edge of her chest bindings. The chest plate was nowhere to be found. The set of his jaw sharpened to that of the slope of a kunai but he said nothing regarding his observation and his displeasure that she shaved years off her life potentially healing such a severe injury with the cell regeneration technique. Later. They could discuss it later.

"I'll be fine with what I have," his sapphire eyes could be mistaken for obsidian at a glance.

Sakura noticed a lack of a summon.Gamahiro.She eyed the fox. "I had to kill him."

"It's fine. I doubt the Kyuubi would have fallen for that again," Minato sighed. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," she worked out through clenched teeth. He was the last person she wanted to talk about her crazy ex with.

"I'm glad you're here."

She couldhearthe smile in his voice. "Remind me to get your head checked after this."

"It would be helpful if we had some water," his grin grew in size. "That was why the place was picked after all."

She rolled her eyes at the almost playful dig of the pond being gone. He would never let her live it down. If anything, she had just made the container bigger - it could be called a lake now. Without question.

"Then make some," she moved her hands into the Dog hand seal.

"Grudge rain." Two voices called out in unison. A thick purple cloud formed instantly above them. Cold sheets of rain followed quickly after. Soaking their clothes to them.

"You need a haircut," Sakura frowned under her mask. "Add it to your schedule." Otherwise, it would never get done.

"Yes, ma'am." He rubbed his chin, eyes flickering to her. "You take the back and I take the front?" His expression contained nothing but seriousness.

"Just like you to leave all the heavy lifting to me," she leaned back, stretching her spine. The fall had knocked something loose.

"My side has the teeth and the claws," he pointed out, offhandedly.

"I have the tails," she reminded him. "Nine. Count them."

"You got me there," he chuckled.

"If the two of you are done making me nauseous, we have a rat to put back in its trap," Gamabunta jeered, one eye was squeezed shut from where the Kyuubi got him with a claw. Somehow Sakura believed his eye would be fine. He was lucky to walk away with just a new scar.

"Did you mark him?" She stretched her arms to her side, preparing herself for what was to come.

If I survive this, I'm swearing off men, for good.

It seemed that alcohol was only part of the problem.

Lofty words.

"A perimeter of kunai," his tone was colorless; it did not speak to the slight offense brought on by the fact she felt the need to even ask. "I put one you marked between every two of mine."

She nodded her head as she pulled her chakra to feel for the locations. A map formed in her mind of the placement.

"And did you manage to try the modified seals out?" She regarded him from the corner of her eye.

"Just go already, Sakura," he huffed.

"Don't make me have to save you," she flashed away before she could see the way his lips pulled into a smirk at the challenge.

xXx

"Shannaro!" She screamed, her fist making contact with the Kyuubi's back. Another seal burned into his skin as he was pushed forward toward the wall of the two summons.

"Water style Rasengan!" Minato's voice cut through the air somehow carrying over the beast's roar of pain.

Gamaken and Gamabunta struck the fox's sides before it could recover.

How are we looking?She asked as she moved yet again to be right at the left side of the Kyuubi's jaw.

The seals are working. Between that and the rain, he's cut off from using a fifth of his chakra.

She let out a sigh of relief. She could slowly feel her chakra being replenished. It was barely enough for half a jutsu but it was better than constantly draining it. She had to move out of the way at the last second before she could strike to avoid a mini-beast bomb that leveled a dozen trees. She reappeared on top of his mouth, striking down with her heels, chakra bursting. The Kyuubi yelped as a canine tooth flew through the air.

"Hey! Lady!" Gambunta shouted at her from mid-air, legs stretched out at his sides, parallel to the ground. "Watch where you fling that stuff!"

Sakura could only grin. She flew in the air with reckless abandon, laughing like the crazy person she was.

"We're winning," she giggled, landing on the curve of Gamaken's tan shield, on all fours. She rocked back and forth on the edge, giving her calves a good stretch.

"She's mental," Gamabunta grumbled. Minato on his head could only chuckle in response at the lightness bubbling in his chest. They were doing it. They were actually doing it. The Kyuubi was being cut off from his chakra piece by piece. Sealing him a little at a time. So gradually that he did not even notice at first. Until it was too late.

"No! Don-"

A large sword flew through the air at the Kyuubi. The beast jumped up and dodged. The blade was embedded in the ground, sticking straight up from the earth like the gnomon of a sundial - cloaking a slice of land in even more darkness as the light of the moon did not touch the blade's shadow. Violent aftershocks rocked them all.

"Don't do that please," Gamahiro hung his head in defeat, utterly perturbed at what just happened with his precious weapon. He held its twin in a tight grip adamant not to have it fall to the same fate.

"Damn," Sakura sighed. "I thought I would at least graze him." She dusted her hands and somehow her nonchalance made her all the more menacing.

"Whoisshe?" Gambunta rolled his eye up to glare at Minato.

Minato used his hand to push up his chin, to manually close his jaw. "Sakura," he said in a voice filled with marveled grit.

"Fools!" The Kyuubi roared at the blatant disrespect being shown to him. He started to vibrate from side to side, quickly.

"That's new," Sakura's smile slipped off her face. Her stomach dropped to her toes when the Kyuubi became nine. "W-wh-"

She was cut off by a palm slamming into her body. She was left stunned. Air was knocked out of her lungs. Her vision danced. She could not work out a sound as the fox applied all his body weight onto her intending to crush her like a grape.

"Die," the beast snarled at her.

"Sakura!" Minato called out, his voice panicked.

I'm fine.She had to resort to using the telepathic link Inoichi created between her and Minato's minds. No sound could move through her with the weight of the beast.

She did not look fine. This was the furthest from fine. It was all wrong. But somehow he managed to remain on the head of the summon. Maybe it was out of respect for her understanding of the situation or fear that she would kill him for being reckless. Because all he wanted to do was fly to her and peel the beast's claws from around her.

Water, Minato.

His chin was set in a firm line. He strung over forty seals together in three blinks of the eye. Hands a blur like the wings of a moth too close to an open flame.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu."

The falling water gathered into a funnel before elongating and becoming uniform. A distinctive head formed. Yellow eyes shone in the dark night. The dragon charged. The Kyuubi stepped back, lifting his foot just enough to give her separation to breathe.

"Water Release: Heavenly Weeping," Sakura coughed out, mouth open as senbon sharpened from the pouring rain shot out right under the softer skin of his paw pads - closing the chi points with their pricks. She rolled out from a stomping distance just as Minato's dragon grew bigger and slammed the Kyuubi from the other side.

Senjutsu.She reminded him.

"Right," he said out loud. He brought his hands together, folded, and pointed up before touching his fingertips. All of them folded - becoming interlaced - except his index fingers and his thumbs. He focused.

Sakura ran onto the dragon, using her chakra to stay on top of its body as if it were solid. She worked her way up to his head. The dragon slammed into the Kyuubi's chest. The fox roared, opening his mouth.

"Acid Stream Jutsu!" Sakura screamed before a yellow, burning acid shot out of her open mouth right into the back of the Kyuubi's throat. The smell of corroding flesh was so severe she nearly lost consciousness. She stumbled, falling toward the Kyuubi's panting mouth, oozing with sores.

"Are you okay?" He pulled her to Gamabunta's head, crouched in front of her, hand on her shoulder.

"Fine," Sakura rasped, her throat raw from the jutsu. Her hand went there to try to ease the burn. "No more beast bombs for a bit," she made a face at the leatheriness of her tongue.

So that's why I don't use it much.

"His regenerative abilities are slowing down," Minato said with a sigh. "That was reckless," he admonished with a frown. "You nearly got digested." She would not have died but she would have used up a lot of chakra to heal herself. And he did not need a visual - and smelly - reminder of what it was like to witness her skin peeling off.

"Stop wasting chakra." She glared at him. That last Hiraishin was far from efficient. "As long as I have some, I will be fine."

"You're welcome," Minato shook his head. He offered a hand to help her up. One that she shoved aside as she clambered to her feet.

She groaned, holding the front of her throat. "So he can make as many copies of himself as he wants on a whim, lovely."

"Not exactly," Minato shook his head. "When he divided into nine, each replica only had the power of a one-tailed beast," Minato explained quickly.

"Less words," she said with a sidelong glance.

"I think he can divide up to nine," Minato summarized.

"Or into two, or three, or five," she murmured in understanding, staring into his yellow eyes lined with orange eyeshadow.

"Probably only multiples of two or three," he sighed, blinking to reveal cobalt. "But you get the idea."

So leaving out five and seven then? Good to know…why do you have to be so pedantic all the time?

"Hm," she reached behind her. "So if we seal one of the fractions…." Her green eyes glittered.

"We seal a significant portion of his chakra," Minato finished the thought, nodding at her. It was doable by just one of them, to seal the fox if he stretched himself too much. "Notice how his beast bombs have gotten smaller and smaller and few and far between?"

"It's working," she lowered her arm to her side. "This rain is annoying." She shook her bare hands free of water. Her fingers were freezing, nearly blue. She pulled her mask up and bit down on three ration pills. She tossed one to Minato.

He nodded in thanks. "Just a little bit more and we can try to seal all of him - what's left of him unsealed." The main seal would overpower the temporary seals they littered his body with, growing stronger from their presence and they dissolved within the single large seal.

"Got any food on you?" She asked, swallowing the bitter, chalky paste.

Minato blinked owlishly.

xXx

She was slowing down. Even with the rations she was dangerously close to her limit. A limit she did not want to cross. Without pausing to think, Sakura funneled chakra into the seal that healed the slash in Minato's side. The Kyuubi was reacting. He was adapting. He had less chakra to use but he was growing more erratic in his desperation - harder to predict.

"That's good, Sakura," Minato said between pants. His side still ached and was sore but he was not actively bleeding. The warmth of her chakra left him immediately. He frowned. "You're spread thin."

She snorted. They had found a way to seal him from a sixth of his chakra and that was after he was already down a fifth. But it was not without cost. They were down another summon. She did not have enough chakra for Katsuyu. The rain had stopped. The new lake was not even a third of the way full.

Inoichi, how are things in the village?Sakura waited for a response.

Quiet. How are things?

Maintain your positions. It's under control for now.Minato's voice called out with authority.

"Maybe we can try Genjutsu again?" She cracked some bones, pulling her fingers. He had less chakra to fight it now and they had a whole clan who could wield Genjutsu with the best of them.

Could go a long way in showing the Uchiha are as loyal to Konoha as any other clan.

"No. It's a gamble and we're not sure it will pay off," he shot down the idea, specifically the part of getting others involved. "Maybe you use him as a punching bag for a bit?"

"Sure," she shook her wrists, loosening them up. "I won't last long though." Her non-chakra blows barely registered with the fox. And that was on top of the chakra she was using up to seal another area with each strike.

"I don't need much time." He could plant seals in tandem while she dealt damage. Just a little bit more. They only needed a little bit more. "Be careful."

Sakura nodded, she flashed knowing Minato was right behind her. She was comforted by this.

xXx

You need a muzzle.

Her eyes widened in panic, just as her fist collided with the Kyuubi's snout. Bones cracked. She did not have time to worry about if they were hers or his.

No!She concentrated on the seal, screaming as every cell of her body felt like it was being scrambled and pulled apart.

"Sakura!" Minato's distorted voice called out much too late. She had already left him behind.

xXx

A bubble of blood shot out of her mouth, spraying through the opening of her mask. A new line of red - darker, thicker, crimson - dripped down the front of her chin. Her breath was wet and ragged. She blinked slowly at red-red eyes that were bigger than her entire upper half.

It was funny, in all the material she consumed on time travel - be it books, movies, manga, to more serious theoretical scrolls - the one thing that always stood out to her was this: if one were to so much as sneeze in a time they were not from it could lead to a whole conundrum of circ*mstances that no one could have ever foreseen. One small change could completely throw everything right off track and make the landscape unrecognizable. That was the singular thread that connected the various takes on time travel.

She did a hell of a lot more than just sneeze. But she noted that things were not all that different as a pair of wide horrified violet eyes gaped at her. Her face was completely pale and devoid of all color except the colors of and that framed her eyes.

Kami, they're so pretty.

She smiled lopsidedly behind her mask.

No wonder he looked at her. That day at The Academy.

Kushina's eyes were gorgeous. Big, vibrant, expressive, and clear. Pure. they looked just as she pictured Kushina's soul to be. Bright and warm. It made her feel fuzzy. She co*cked her head to the side. She blinked slowly, taking in Kushina's eyes. They held the whole word. They were his whole world. She gave him his whole world.

Naruto. Your tochan…your kaachan….

She was delirious from the blood loss. She had shed quite a bit of it. Loris hacked behind her mask, the blood coated the inside. She could feel the tacky substance every time she moved her lips. She was thirsty. She felt cold. Her blood was pumping rapidly. Her brain did not know what her body did. She had a hole through her. Loris looked down at the white, foreign entity that impaled her.

A nail.She noted dryly. It was massive. Almost as long as she was tall.

It's okay. Sakura. I've got us.

Inner - the part of her that was still sane, slowed down her heartbeat, prolonging the ultimate inevitable.

It's okay. It's okay.

"Loris," Kushina rose to her feet, unsteadily. Her hands cupped the sides of her masked face. "Loris," she breathed with tears in her pretty, pretty purple eyes.

Don't cry.She wanted to say but was unable to.Everything is going to be okay. I won't let anything bad happen.Anything that could not be undone to her and her family.

Chains.Loris's brow furrowed as she noted the black chains coming out of the front of Kushina's shapeless shift. The same one she had worn to give birth in.

You poor thing. You've been through so much today. Too much.

It's going to be over soon. She'll rest. She'll be okay.

Loris nodded. She needed her rest. Kushina needed her rest.

"Why did you do that?" Kushina asked. She shook Loris by the shoulders when the answer did not come nearly quickly enough. "Why did you get in the way?" She had been behind her, behind Loris - before there was even a Loris in the equation to be behind. She had just reacted at the sight of the Kyuubi. Her chains reacted for her in desperation to stop the beast in time. She did not even see Loris.

Why are you so sad?She wanted to reach out and dry Kushina's face. Crying did not suit her at all.You should be happy. Your son is here.

"Why, Loris?!" She wailed. The tip that would have impaled her had stopped just before grazing her nose. It had been that close. Its range had been impacted, it slowed down tearing through flesh and bone. Flesh and bone that she addressed in a total loss.

"Sakura."

Kushina let go of her. Arms falling like marble slabs to her side. Heavy and immobile as the rest of her Frozen. Sakura blinked. Another face came into view. He was just as pale as Kushina. His eyes were filled with heaviness and regret. Pain. His eyes were filled with pain.

You have pretty eyes too. Your soul is…good.

"You can heal yourself," he recovered quickly, grasping onto something he could hold. A notion. "You can fix this."

"Sakura?" Kushina tore her eyes from her husband who stood on the other side of the nail and looked at the woman with shock on her features. "This is Sakura?" She sputtered unintelligibly in sheer disbelief. "Loris is Sakura?"

Minato moved. He was right in front of her now. He lowered her mask, wiping away the blood from her bottom lip and chin with a swipe of his thumb. He did not have enough to summon Katsuyu either. His eyes - navy - searched her face. They darted quickly to the Kyuubi - over his shoulder - being restrained by the chains and the lone summon.

"You have time, Sakura," he said quickly with crumbling composure. "Heal yourself," he flattened his palm to his shoulder. "You can take my chakra, right? This seal works both ways right?"

What's happening?She was so confused.

"Sakura, answer me!" He demanded in a voice that she never heard before. It scared her.

"I-I never tried," she admitted, forcing all her energies into trying to listen to him.

"You have to try," his eyes were wild. Desperate. "You have to try."

"W-water," she begged, now that he had shocked her into finding her voice.

He turned to Kushina. "Do you have water?" He asked curtly, his voice like a harsh strike.

"W-what?" The redhead shook her head. "Minato, what's going on?"

"Water!" He barked, searching frantically in his hip pouches for something that was not there. He reached around Sakura, tearing hers off of her person in his haste. His hands trembled as he lurched forward to catch it. The clasp opened. He searched, grabbing and probing. Letting it fall when he found what he sought. He let out a sigh of relief, twisting the cap and bringing it to her mouth with a slightly shaking hand.

It spilled to the sides of her lips. "You have to try," Minato reminded her. "You have to try, Sakura."

"O-okay," she swallowed down the taste of her blood, a grunt tore through her throat as she pushed down on the nail. The Kyuubi roared in pain as it snapped off. Sakura lurched backward now that nothing was holding her in place. He caught her, his hands around her shoulders, his cheek pressed against hers.

"I've got you," he propped her up against himself, her blood covering him, slowly. Seeping into the fibers of his green Jonin vest.

Sakura.

I know.She had a moment of clarity. Sakura moved her hands through the seals. They shook.

"It's okay," he encouraged her, stabilizing her arms - trying not to rush her with his anxiousness. His eyes kept darting from her to the fox, never settling on either for long. "You're going to be okay."

Snake. Boar. Ram. Rabbit. Dog.She strung the seals together as she remembered. Her brain drew a blank.

Rat. Bird. Horse. Snake.

Sakura nodded meekly. The top of her head against where his chest met his neck. She made the four seals. Before Minato or Kushina could fully process what was happening, she clapped her hands together, completing the contract.

"Sakura!" He looked down at her in unbridled horror, his voice breaking.

"Why did you do that?" Kushina started to shake. "I came so the Kyuubi could be sealed in me! I could have sealed him! You didn't have to do that!"

Sakura closed her eyes. Her cheek stung from where Kushina struck her.

"Who gave you the right to do that?!" She screamed at the woman who was trembling in her husband's arms. So broken. So small. So fragile.

Minato caught Kushina's wrist before it could make contact with Sakura in any form. "Enough," his stern expression was enough to shake the Uzumaki out of her stupor.

"Is Naruto okay?" The ANBU asked weakly, breaking the standoff she was oblivious to but in the center of. She spotted the beginnings of the Shinigami. She bit back a whimper. But she could not hold off a full-body shiver.

One that Minato did not miss. If only he had his cloak. He could have draped it over her. But he could not even provide her with that comfort. He held her closer, willing his body to warm her enough. Just enough. He coaxed her head away from the reaper, the one that she must be seeing because she was staring off into nothing, and her face had gone white. He had read the scrolls. He knew the stages. There was nothing he could do other than accept it.

"It's okay," he whispered, tracing the contours of her face gently. "You're okay," he breathed.

I-I'm okay. It's okay.

She held his gaze, blinking slowly. Her fingers curled around his flak jacket.

"Naruto's fine," Kushina wrapped her arms around herself. Her tears rained down her face. "He's with Kakashi and Obito. Rin is okay too."

What a relief.

"Sakura."

Minato's expression was too painful for her to continue to take in so she focused on nothing at all, right over his shoulder.

"You'll be his new Jinchūriki," she said in a small voice that reflected her waning lifeforce.

"He's not a Uzumaki!" Kushina protested. "It should be me. It should have been me!" She was coming undone.

"You have a strong will," and he had an even stronger heart. The fact he was able to move on and never hold grudges proved that to her. Sakura blinked lethargically. She had to take breaks while talking. She was not a Senju. She was not a Uzumaki. She did not have their almost unreal life force. She was fading fast. And she still had some much she needed to say. "You'll keep him where he belongs. I'm not worried," she was not. He was an adult. He was the Yondaime. He was Naruto's father. He could handle anything. Besides, Naruto might want a sibling someday and she figured she would save them all the drama. She laughed breathlessly, wetly at the thought, blood spilled out of her mouth and onto his sleeve.

The pressure from the reaper was starting to be too much. She panted, unable to even lift her head.

H-help me.She pleaded, glassy eyes trying so hard to stay open and focused on his face. She did not want to see the reaper. Or the Kyuubi. Or anyone else. She was dying. She should be granted some respite.

His hands moved through seals even as her lips could not move through the words, he pushed her closer to his chest so he could use them without letting her go. She was tucked between his shoulder and neck, arms around her back. He pulsed chakra. Weaving and strengthening the seal with additional layers. The Reaper Death Seal - a seal she should not even know how to cast even if Naruto did tell her about its existence. He supplied her chakra, his chakra in a steady stream. Paying part of the requirement she could not afford.

The reaper - they could all see it now - grew more solid and less of an outline. Minato glared at it with a tight jaw.

A soft moan of pain broke his one-sided standoff. "It's done," he said, shifting her, so she was not as compressed and he could see her face. His chakra along with hers formed the seal in his abdomen. The vessel was prepared.

She was starting to shake even more violently despite the easing of the burden, a shared burden.

"Sakura?" Minato grew aware of her distress.

"My soul," she cried out, forlorn. "My soul." It suddenly dawned on her.

"Sakura," he held her to his chest, as she started to thrash. "Sakura, stop moving, you'll bleed out even faster." He could see her insides.

She froze. He was right. If she moved, she would bleed out before she finished the jutsu - before her chakra ran out, and before her mission was complete.

"I won't be able to come back," she sobbed, inconsolable, trying her best to hold still even as everything fell apart right in front of her. Her whole life, it was dancing in her eyes. Tormenting her with each and every mistake she made; taking what peace she had left. "I won't be able to come back without my s-soul."

"What?" Kushina furrowed her brows. "What is she talking about Minato?" She looked to her husband to make sense of Sakura's ramblings and devastation. She had been fine, strong until just a second ago. "What's all this about a soul?" That was the price for the jutsu. The terms were very upfront. So Why was she having second thoughts now? Now that the contract was made. A contract no one asked her to make.

"I won't be able to come back," Sakura wailed. Everything was for naught. Her soul now belonged to the Shinigami. Marked forever to fight inside the reaper's stomach for all of eternity. Even when she succeeded, she failed. She failed herself. Again. She condemned herself. She doomed herself.

You Sakura, are a self-fulfilling prophecy.Inner's once uttered hard words, designed to cut and pain, screamed at her. Inner was right. Inner was always right.

Why didn't I listen to you? Why didn't I accept you?

"Sakura," Minato's hand was cupping her face. "Focus on me, Sakura."

I can't.

She squeezed her eyes shut. She was going to die. She was going to suffer forever. She was going to be amongst the damned forever. She was the damned. She was the lost and no amount of staring into his pretty, pretty eyes would change that.

"Look at me," he said with authority. "Now." And forever. Until the end.

A part of her that was still coherent, that still had a grip on a shred of sanity obeyed. She looked into his sapphire eyes surrounded by skies of pastel red.

"I will find you," he said with conviction. With that confidence of his. Like it was a done deal; etched in stone was his decree. "I will find a way to free your soul. I won't rest until I do. You'll come back. You'll be born to Haruno Kizashi and Haruno Mebuki. You will be cherished. You will not be alone. You'll see Naruto again. You'll see all the people you care about again. I will find you. I will always find you."

Lofty words.She smiled at him. Bloody, broken, and beautiful.

His heart skipped a beat. He saw the smile that he spent the majority of his adulthood searching for. She smiled at him like she used to when they were kids. Before her memories completely tore up her life and the prospect of their world before they could even build it. Before the tragedy of it all.

"I'm not scared," she looked into his eyes, unwaveringly. It was the least she could do. She never wanted to leave like this. She never wanted to be a burden that he had to carry. "It's okay, Minato."

I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm sorry I won't be able to keep my promise. I'm sorry I won't be able to see you realize your dream. Again.

"I'm not scared." She repeated the lie, hoping it was more convincing this time around. "Everything is going to be okay."

His arms tightening around her was her only response.

I'm sorry, Kaka-kun. I'm sorry that I won't be able to write to you. Be nice to Anko-chan. She's going to have a hard time with this.

"I'm happy that I got to meet you," she smiled through the pain. It was catching up to her. Everything was just numb. "I'm so happy I got to meet you." Her eyes moved to close every time his thumb caressed her cheekbone.

"You're not alone," he promised. Right now, at this moment she was not alone. He could not speak to the moment that was yet to come. But right now, right now, she was here with him. He was here with her.

Inoichi.She called out to her friend.Inoichi, are you there?

I'm here, I'm here, Sakura. The Kyuubi isn't moving. I can feel you, barely. I can feel Minato. What's happening? Are you okay? Sakura, tell me that you're okay.

I'm okay.She smiled, closing her tear-filled eyes beyond thankful he could not see her. She did not want him to have this picture of her be the last one in his mind. Ever.Thank you for everything, Inoichi. Truly. Thank you.

What…what does that...Sakura. Sakura!

She closed the connection, burning the mental bridge. She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood again. Fresh. Her teeth were tainted pink but she kept smiling. At him.

"M-Minato," Kushina looked on with her heart in her throat. Her hand curled around the upper arm of his navy shirt.

"I n-need-" Sakura closed her mouth and let out a frustrated groan. Her teeth clattered together. "-you to promise me something." It took everything she had left to be able to work out the words.

"Anything," he did not hesitate even if his voice shook. He offered her more water but she did not move her mouth toward the open lip.

"Cremate me," she managed without crying, voice strong. All her remaining strength gathered to push on through. The Kyuubi was getting smaller and smaller as her chakra levels dipped lower and lower. "Put my ashes in the lake." She did not want to come back as an animated corpse. She did not want her body desecrated like that. She did not want to see them again like that, through those lifeless eyes.

He could only nod his head. He did not trust his voice. It would waver, unlike hers. How could she have confidence that he could do what she asked of him if he could not even bring himself to say the word yes? Inoichi's frantic voice was blaring in his head. Minato did not answer the man. No one deserved his answers - his attention, his gratitude, his devotion - more than her. No one.

"I'll take care of it," he said because he failed to take care of her.

"Don't let anyone see my face." She blinked slowly. Her lips were becoming heavier and heavier the more color they lost. "My mask," she worked out with the last bits of her strength. "That's how I want to be remem-"

"Shh," he shushed her gently. The stain from speaking was causing her to fade. He made the signs and a clone appeared. The clone stood over them with the mask in his hands. "You're the

strongest person I know. The strongest."

A tear broke through her eyes because she knew what he was saying and it was more painful than being torn in two. Because she understood him. She understood that strength was what Minato valued most in a person.

And he found her strongest.

She only wished she could have said it back to him. At least once so he could have heard it from her voice. So that she could have given him what he gave her. Sakura closed her eyes. Her chest fell and did not rise.

He covered her still face with her cold mask. One distinctive pop of his summon bidding their farewell did not register in his ears. He stared down at her mask. A loris. A tear pelted it. Landing on the curve of the mask's cheek. He smoothed it away with a tender swipe of his thumb.

xXx

Three pairs of sandals landed at the site. It did not take long for two more pairs to join it. A piercing wail had the frozen-in-place Kushina in motion again. She pulled Naruto to her chest. She soothed him, but all the while her eyes remained on Minato who had not moved beyond what was required to wipe his tears from the mask as they fell.

"I-Is that Loris?" Obito's voice asked shakily. He was reaching for the ground, his legs unsteady, indecisive on whether to stand or crouch.

Kakashi was as silent as the corpse in Minato's arms and nearly as motionless. He was so still and so focused on the white mask that shone almost as brightly as the moon itself in the expanse of the dark muted colors that he did not notice the first tear that broke the barrier. Nor the tenth. He moved until there was nowhere to go. He sank to his knees. His hand darted out slowly. He wrapped his fingers around Loris's cold hand. He bowed his head.

"Liar," he whispered, the back of her palm pressed against the insignia of his hitai-ate. "Liar," his shoulder nearly caved in on himself.

Obito blinked, trying desperately to erase the image of his broken Sensei and teammate. Her mask - the one he and Kakashi spent an ill-fated afternoon that they would never forget trying to remove to uncover her face (they were sore for a week and Rin refused to heal them on principle) - was lifeless. So cold. Tear-filled lids closed over crimson eyes containing a three-point wheel where the curves seemed to almost bleed into the next. A pinwheel.

Obito's loud sobs hung in the air. Gut-wrenching and harrowing. The Hokage Guard lowered their heads almost in unison. Even with the speed of the Yellow Flash, they were too slow. Just as he had been.

Naruto fussed. Kushina looked down at her son. The concern she felt for her son's well-being had precedence over everything. Even the tightness in her chest. She stroked Naruto's cheek with a single curled knuckle. Tears filled her eyes as her brain would not let her forget that her husband was doing the same to the woman he held. The first love of his life.

"Hokage-sama," Panda took a step forward. He moved closer when the Yondaime did not acknowledge his voice.

All other adult eyes were on Minato as Panda approached with the clear intention of taking Loris from him. Moving her.

"Don't touch her," Minato's voice was low. But a tickle of fear raced down his spine at the dangerous grit of it. Panda inhaled shakily as the navy - almost black - eyes flashed red for no more than a split second. Unmistakable all the same.

"No one touches her."

No one dared to voice any form of disagreement.

"I promise," he whispered to her. Over and over again.

xXx

He sat at the foot of her bed. Disponent eyes staring at nothing, forearms pressed against his thighs, hands clasped together. His hands were still tight from her blood. Her apartment only had sparse things out. Not a single artifact beyond the plant in the corner of her desk or the big blue and white slug plushie lying across her bed in place of pillows, spoke to who she was. It was hard to believe a person lived here for twelve years - half her life.

The seals she had warded the home with were gone. Yet more proof that she was the same. Sakura was dead. Sakura died. In his arms. He held her. He watched her eyes lose their light. He could do nothing when the reaper took her soul right out of her body. It was white. Not black from the ash of her sin. Not red from all the blood she spilled. Not tattered or with gaping holes from the darkness that was her life. But white. Blinding. Unblemished. He had seen it. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen with his two eyes. It took his breath away.

If only. He would have given his own in exchange for hers. It would have driven her crazy, he realized if he did such a thing. But he could die happy knowing they were all still alive. He did not know how to live with this. The burden of the truth. He did not know how he would be able to breathe easily again.

Minato pushed himself up to his feet. He grabbed the plant from her desk and vanished. Tsume and Inoichi could go through what there was to go through later.

xXx

Hokage Tower was still standing despite the events of just a few hours ago. Naruto was officially a sixth of a day old and under normal circ*mstances Minato would have at least had a week before he was needed back in The Tower. But the circ*mstances were far from normal. His village needed direction. They needed answers. They needed assurances. And if he wanted to avoid a civil war where the Uchiha were murdered unilaterally, they needed it now.

No speech or display of solidarity would fix this. He knew. The fissures of distrust ran deep in the shaky foundation of Konoha. At least Danzo was not breathing to capitalize on the fact that the first Uchiha to make history nearly made infamy by destroying the village. No one knew where the Uchiha's body was. What she had done with it. Just as no one knew she was fighting and Uchiha. Her chakra-extensive illusion had held. Only eyes the level above three tomoe could see the truth. And he did not believe any existed. Not anyone.

A quick summon of Toshi revealed the toad had no idea. Minato recalled the devastation on the toad's face when he realized that Sakura was gone. If toads could shed tears for emotions, Toshi would have shed his fair share. The loud, croaking gasps rang out like a depressing song. The news probably had reached Jiraiya by now too. The Sannin was able to take down two rogues with the help of Konan. He wondered if his sensei would be as disappointed in him as Minato was in himself.

She had buried the evidence. Deep enough that even their best sensor could not pick up traces of Shinnosuke's chakra. Only those in the inner circle knew that it was Uchiha Shinnosuke behind it all. A circle of him, Shikaku, Inoichi - because the blond had refused to leave until he got answers - and the remaining guard. She left it for him to figure out how to deal with it, what narrative to craft.

He could think of something once his head stopped vibrating. Uchiha Shinnosuke could be remembered as a hero or a villain and it was all in his hands.

He clambered up the steps of his place of employment with an object of life against his side. He felt every bit of his age. He opened his office. His hazy eyes noticed instantly the crack running through the faces of the Nidaime and Sandaime. Another one of her parting presents. Hashirama's and his face somehow were spared any visible damage from the consequences of her punching a beast bomb into the ground. Maybe it was just a coincidence but he could not help but think it was her way of showing defiance to the Hokage she believed to have lost the bigger picture.

Minato sat heavily in his purple chair. With a sigh, he set the plant she had kept alive on his desk. The lone red flower reminded him of blood. It matched the color perfectly that was still embedded under his fingernails. He did not know if it was exhaustion or something else that prevented him from taking the time to thoroughly clean his hands.

To wash myself of her.

Just like everyone had. Including himself. His bones are heavy but in truth, it is his heart that is immovable. It has hardened. Become jaded after everything he saw. After everything he witnessed. He watched and stood by while a human being gave everything, everything she had for a village that at best thought she was a good medic and at worst believed to be a dirty whor*. The beast in his belly moved. The chakra was still very much foreign. He could tell the difference immediately. He was being fed by the anger that burned a hole in Minato's stomach.

And anger at the citizens he was responsible for protecting. Anger at himself. Anger at Kushina's knee-jerk reaction to slap Sakura instead of thanking her for her sacrifice. Anger at himself for being too stunned to prevent that from happening. Anger at himself for not doing enough. Anger at himself for not listening to her ideas. Anger at himself for not being the one who was stuck inside the Shinigami's stomach. Anger that he had been too slow to save her. Anger that he would have been too slow to save Kushina.

Minato uncurled his fist. The blood trickled down his palm. He watched as the crescent moons healed in the time it took to blink trice. His new tenant was already making his presence known. Minato sighed. He raked a hand through his hair trying and failing to not think back at the red, orange, and yellow flames that had been adamant to touch the sky, filling their lungs with black smoke. A small sphere protected the air Naruto breathed. The others - the other children - had opted to forgo the jutsu that she pushed him to learn. He wondered if she planned this far ahead. It was hard to imagine, but he learned his lesson about underestimating her much too late, unfortunately.

Kakashi was the one who was adamant that they waited for someone to fetch both Rin and Anko before building her funeral pyre by hand, his voice breaking and his breathing erratic. And they had. They waited. The fetched wood. They assembled it. He placed her on top of it. Wood covered the white porcelain mask with red markings. It was Obito who cast the jutsu, that set it all to flame. No one else had it in them. And they watched her turn to ash. Just the six of them. The Stork, Panda, and Jackal took Kushina home to rest after he had put his foot down that Naruto be there. She did this all for him. He would not let his son forget even if Minato desperately wished to. The flames were a beacon that eventually alerted Shikaku and Inoichi. They had stood there until there was nothing but smothering embers and ashes. Ashes that were collected and deposited in the lake.

He wanted to forget the way her life drained from her in his arms. He wanted to forget just how scared, desperate, and devastated her voice was when she realized the lasting implication of what she had just done. Forever. She had forsaken her forever for his son. Because his son asked her to. He did not understand it. He did not have a bond that would compel him to do such a thing, to go to half the lengths that she went for Naruto. Dying for his child was one thing, dying for someone else was another. Sacrificing what was for what may be was insanity. Gamabunta in a way was right. She was crazy. The way she had fought. The blatant disregard for her own safety. She was ready to die. He saw it now. She never intended to survive past today. Or survive much longer than today. She always intended to die. It was just a matter of by whose hand: the Kyuubi's, the Uchiha's, or her own.

She wanted to come back. To the life that haunted her, that plagued her mind. She wanted to come back to her time with all her friends. That was her goal. But a split-second decision to push Kushina out of the way sealed her fate. She was trapped. The only thing that kept her going, the only thing that made her want to stay alive was no longer an option. Her soul was branded. It belonged to the Shinigami. That was it.

His bold-faced lie under the guise of a promise would haunt him for the rest of his days. There was very little he could do if anything at all. What he had promised - unprompted too - went against the fundamentals of nature. He could not cheat death. He could not steal from death without paying a heavy cost. Maybe even the cost of his soul. And she would never forgive him. Kushina would never forgive him. Neither would Naruto. It would be spitting in the face of everything she did for him, for his family.

He did not see a way forward. In more things than one. He had to reevaluate a couple of things in his life. But it would all have to wait until after he at least put in an attempt.

You have a strong will.

He could not make her a liar. He would never make her a liar. Even if all she ever did to him was lie. He had to try. His blond brow furrowed together. A divot developed between his eyebrows. He frowned at the feel - the pull - of a familiar chakra signature. Light and airy. Like the first winds of spring. Warm. He grabbed the edge of his desk and wheeled himself to the drawer he all but yanked it open. He felt it immediately, the invisible barrier. He pushed the chakra to his fingertips. His heart thundered in his chest, slamming against his ribcage with each violet pump. His hand curled around a scroll. He barely even glanced at the hitai-ate. She had not worn it in years - since joining ANBU - why would he care about it now?

He opened the scroll with fumbling fingers. Her handwriting - he knew it better than his own - filled his sight. His insides ached. As his dark navy eyes moved across the page hungrily.

Minato-kun,

If you are reading this, that means that I am dead. But that is not what I want to focus on. Not my death, not how I died. Not my ending. But everything that came before the end.

But before I can start, I want to apologize. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I died and I'm sorry that I am burdening you with the trauma of it all. I'm sorry for the things I said to you. I'm sorry for the hurt I caused. And most of all, I'm sorry for the things I did not say to you.

I owe you an explanation. This is my attempt to give you one. I want to speak freely. I hope that is okay. Please be patient with me. I'm not very good at sitting with these things. And be sure to read this letter all in one go. No breaks. It's important and I'll tell you why later.

I came into this world alone. Well, that is not entirely true. I came into this world with a voice inside my head that seemed to know what my name was and when I was born. That's all I had. Until I met Tsume-san and Kuromaru-kun. I met a couple more people, the most meaningful being Tsunade-sama, until I met you.

I thought you were weird and a little off, I still think that sometimes. When I allow myself to think of you. Which is not much these days. But it was quite often when we were younger. I thought you would be someone. Your reason for why you wanted to be a shinobi stuck with me even before I truly understood why. You wanted to protect those you care about. I couldn't even protect myself from a couple of bullies that came between our friendship. Even when we were not talking - again because of my cowardice - I gravitated toward your nindo. I admired it. I walked behind your shadow. That's how far ahead you were. But that's not fair either because you took the time to help me. You closed the distance. You made it seem that you were within reach.

That day you saved me from the Kumo nin, that day you found me, that was the first time I felt safe in this world. I liked feeling safe. I liked feeling safe with you. Because of you. And I liked the attention you gave me. Like I was the only person you saw. But I knew that was not true. Because you looked at Kushina in a way you never looked at me. With admiration. You admired her. You were drawn to her. You were enthralled. And that was the second time my heart broke.

But that wasn't your fault or Kushina's. Even before my memories fully came back, I recognized that something could be there between the two of you. I was insecure. But I was also selfish, I was greedy. I did not want to completely let go of my source of security in this world. My source of light: you. And then my memories came back. And I realized the two of you were more than I thought. You were my best friend's parents. A boy whom I treated so poorly in the beginning but who only responded with immense love that I had no choice but to love to pieces. So I did the only thing I could, I distanced myself.

Because I knew if I told you, you would offer to help without hesitation. You would help me and I would fall even more in love with you than I already was. By the time I learned what my true purpose was, we were strangers headed in opposite directions. We may have the same primary chakra nature but we are not the same. Not all water is the same. You were meant for the oceans. I was but a drop in a small pond that could not even be called a lake. At least that is what I told myself. In truth, I was scared. Terrified. I thought it would be enough. To break your heart once with the truth wrapped up in multiple lies.

But I forgot whose father you were. Naruto risked everything for Sasuke. Everything. He scoured the earth for him. To save him. To redeem him when the whole world - nearly the whole world - saw him as too far gone. Naruto gets that from you. Not Kushina. I realized that way too late.

I became your Sasuke, something for you to try to save. Something for you to torment yourself with. Something for you to measure your failures against. But Minato-kun, there was nothing to save. What happened to me was always more than a possibility. I fulfilled my purpose and for that, I am at peace. I am finally at peace. I proved to myself that I am not useless. That I am not weak. I proved to myself that I was worth something. That I amounted to something. I am the reason why Naruto will have both his hands full when he learns how to walk. I am the reason that Sasuke will walk to and from The Academy with Itachi. I'm the reason Kakashi will have memories instead of regret. I am the reason you get to grow old with your wife. And I do hope the two of you grow old together, driving each other crazy to the point you wonder what you saw in the other in the first place only to laugh and cherish each other even more. And I hope with me gone, you'll fall hard and fast for her all over again. Maybe when you look into the eyes of your son for the first time, it will happen. Maybe even more than the first time - from my time.

I know you believe that it is your duty to die for your village. To die for your wife. To die for your son. But Minato-kun, it was my duty to make sure you did not. And we both fulfilled them. I am happy. I am free. And I want you to know that I am thankful to you.

You and your memory - andThe Hime and the Pea-got me through the darkest moments of my life. You did save me. You did help me. You did mean something to me. You meant everything. And I'm sorry for implying and stating otherwise.

You have my heart. All of it. In this lifetime, it belonged to you, even when I tried to move on. I realized that I could not, not with you being right there. Not even when you were not right there in front of my eyes. It would not have mattered, honestly. Because you had my heart. In your hands. Always. I just could not bear the responsibility of protecting yours. And that is my shortcoming. Not yours. I want you to know that I did have love in my life. The love I received from my kids, and my friends was more than enough. It gave me something to look forward to.

I'm sorry for the hurt I caused you. I never wanted to get good at hurting you.

And I want you to know that you will not remember any of this. No one will. And before you stop reading this letter to panic or try a jutsu or whatever, just know that your memories have already started being wiped. It's done. So just accept it. Do us both that favor, okay?

Sakura No-Last-Name was not meant to live a long life, Minato-kun. But she loved you with everything all the same for almost all of it. Right up until the end.

I love you.

Live long. Live happy. Live together.

All my love,

Sakura

He watched helplessly as the ink blurred on the page. It was not due to the tears that collected in his eyes but rather the ink was being extracted from the fibers of the paper. It danced in the air before vanishing.

He tried to hold on, but the image in his head was fading fast. The color of her hair diluted to that of monochromatic gray. Sad and lifeless. Her eyes were dull and common. Her face blurred until there was nothing left.

Nothing but a name at the bottom of a scroll.

"Sakura," he said her name seconds before a white light so bright he was forced to it and shield his eyes with his arm. The scroll burned instantly to ash. The wind from the open window carried away. "My promise!" He exclaimed in anguished panic.

The light grew beyond the room, extending to the borders of Konoha momentarily stunning anyone who was still awake, those asleep were oblivious to what just happened - what they just lost. The light faded as quickly as it came.

He blinked at the red orchid on his desk, brows furrowed wondering who he had to write a thank you note to for the congratulatory present. Just as he wondered why he had left his home - his wife and newborn son to be alone in the Hokage Tower.

He wiped his eyes and sniffled his nose, telling himself that the emotion of the day - of losing a comrade he trusted in Loris - was what inspired the lingering, heavy emotion in him. The air smelled of cherry blossoms, the most bewildering of things as it was October 10th.

October 10th, the day he achieved the last of his dreams - his timeline. The day he became a father.

Epilogue

His head hurt. A lot. That was the first thing he noticed. Once he got past the throbbing, throbbing, throbbing of his head he realized he did not remember how he got that way. As if he was trampled by a drunken elephant - but it was only localized to his head - repeatedly. He sat up with a groan, head cradled in his hands - legs bent at his knees, feet flat against the ground. There was too much pain and surface area for him to contain. Even when he used both appendages. He blinked. Hissing, he closed his eyes. His arms came to cover his head. It was much too bright. It was like staring at the sun almost. Just a white light everywhere he looked. Granted, just one glance was enough to convince him it was a bad idea.

A very bad idea.

The arms that protected his head in a cocoon felt strong enough - reliable enough - to support his weight. With his eyes still sealed closed against the too-bright light that outshone the sun, he lowered his appendages until his palms were flushed against the ground. With a groan that originated somewhere deep in his core - his abdomen - he pushed himself up. Gingerly. Feeling every bit of his age for perhaps the first time in his existence.

I'm really going to feel that tomorrow.

He shielded his face, blinking one eye open under the shadow of the protection of the flat palm of his hand. It was bright but he was either adjusting or the light was not as harsh. He wondered why his skin did not feel dry. There was no heat coming off such a sharp glow. His second eye opened. After several blinks he lowered his hands to his sides. As far as he could see there was nothing. He was the only spec of color. His hands felt around his torso - feeling the zippers and metal buttons on his flak jacket - searching for what exactly, he did not know.

Heart. Lungs. Chest.

He had already checked his head. He counted his fingers and his toes. Everything was accounted for. There were no gaping holes or missing anything in him. And yet it still took everything to peel his navy sandal - like his jacket, standard issue - from the smooth floor. He was inside someplace. That much he knew. It was too clean, too bright, too controlled to be anywhere out in the open.

Contained. I'm contained.

What that meant was still every bit a mystery as everything else. He patted his arm bands - a habit over the years - as if to check if they were still there. They were. He kept moving. The second step was not as painful as the first. A body and rest and what have you. By the fifth, he was no longer concerned that something would just fall off of him like a rusty old part of a machine, held together by a bolt tightened one too many times.

Blond brows furrowed together. Fine lines on his forehead and around his eyes darkened as he scrunched his face, narrowing his eyes. His feet picked up the pace. He had been walking for some time now but the nothing seemed to move with him. Nothing changed. He glanced over his shoulder. There was more too-bright light and not much - anything - else. He turned back in the direction - west, maybe - that he had been walking. Maybe the nothing would end in this direction. Eventually. Maybe in the arbitrary direction he picked, he would see something other than nothing.

It was strange. He was not scared. He simply did not know enough to be scared. There was next to no information for him to rely on to come to that determination. His taped ankles tucked into his shinobi sandals carried him further and further as bits and pieces came back to him. Starting with his name. Flashes of light filled the corridor, he was in a tunnel. The curve of the memories - almost as if projected on a screen - gave him that insight. It was too much. He watched a boy with blond hair and blue eyes grow up at dizzying speed.

Me.

He realized. The center of his chest panged at the blonde-haired woman smiling at him, a face he had not expected to see. A face that had departed a long time ago, much too soon. He was old - older than the memory in front of him, which was from his third birthday as denoted by the number of candles on the cake - but the aching in his chest felt fresh. He kept moving.

He did not stop for any of the other memories. They were not what he was here for. There was no light at the end of the tunnel - it was all light. But there was a spec of color that was different from the ones he had walked past. A shock of pink and red against a wall of white. The colors seemed to pop off the two-dimensional surface. He realized with a start, that the colors - black, red, and pink - were not flat. Not in vibrancy and not in shape. His feet came to a half three yards from the color - the figure, the person.

He was more curious than concerned if he had to spend some time to label the emotion. However, it was much easier to label theirs. Shock. The person stiffened, freezing. His breath hitched when they turned around. How could he not? A pair of sparkling emerald eyes stared at him with first surprise then confusion followed by horror. Her lips parted. His eyes locked on the purple rhombus on her forehead. Before drifting down her face. Her pink hair tumbled over her shoulders brushing her collarbones. The skin of her shoulders was exposed in exchange for her neck being covered. The red wrap top fit her snuggly. Black shinobi pants tucked into nearly knee-high boots. The too-bright light that surrounded them completely slipped his notice. No, he noticed nothing outside of her green, green eyes.

"W-what," she spoke, breaking the silence first. She covered her mouth with her hand as if surprised by her own voice. Or maybe it was her own boldness. "Y-Yondaime-sama," she did not know what to make of him, of the situation. She was hesitant. Almost timid.

It hit him then. Right there. A kick to his throat. His eyes filled with tears. Without warning. His old knees nearly folded right from out underneath him. Concern. Concern danced in her eyes. She stepped forward, back foot still planted in place. Her arms were ready to react. The hesitation was gone in that moment as she slipped back into a persona that he had a name for; medic mode.

"Sakura," he breathed her name in disbelief. "Sakura," he repeated, unable to contain himself.

It's you.

He smiled, open and free. He was seconds away from laughing. Deliriously. Until his insides hurt. He was filled with giddiness - to the brim. But the same could not be said for her. Not even remotely close. One name spoken twice broke what was left of her timidness completely. The way he said her name, the way he looked at her. What was in his eyes caused rage to flair in hers. She rushed him, bunching the olive of his vest in her small fist.

He was still grinning like a fool when she pulled him down roughly so that all that filled his line of vision were her green, green eyes. So angry. So animated. So lively. And that, caused the smile to slip right off his face and shatter into a million pieces. She had no mercy.

"What did you do?!" Sakura snarled, nostrils flaring a drop of spit landed on his cheek. "What the f*ck did you do?!" She shook him even more roughly than he had braced himself for. "Answer me!" She roared, voice bouncing off the walls of the container he knew not the perimeter of.

He did not move his hands to defend himself. He let her manhandle him. He was still discombobulated from the memories flooding his mind. Memories of his life. Memories of his childhood. Memories of her.

"Answer me!" She demanded yet again, emerald fire surrounded him promising to char him to a crisp without a second thought. "Are you dead?" Her voice nearly broke in two at the thought that he did something so foolish that she did not have the strength to even begin putting it into words. All for a promise he made her. Did he follow after her here? Wherever here was. He read the question held in her eyes.

And yet he smiled. "You came back," he laughed. "You came back!"

She let go of him instantly as if he burned her. Her eyes searched his face for what had to be dishonesty. For anything that said this was all some twisted joke.

"What?" She asked in a much too small voice.

"I'm not dead," he dared not step forward. She was more volatile than any enemy he faced. She pushed him more than any either and he had his share of powerful, rage-filled monsters. "You're not in the Shinigami. We're not in the Shinigami right now," he spoke quickly. Not out of impatience the opposite, out of respect for time. Time he had with her. Limited and precious. He did not want to spend it all at odds like they had their lives. He would not do it.

"You came back, Sakura," he said again, less deranged this time so there was a chance of her believing him. "You're alive." He searched her face for signs of comprehension. For trust. For belief. His eyes moved back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So much was held back by his tongue that touched the roof of his mouth. But it was not about him. It was about her understanding of what this meant. The weight of it all.

"I came back?" She croaked out her question, desperate for confirmation after painful seconds of silence that cut into his life. "I came back," she murmured to herself as if trying to ensure she heard it right.

"You came back," his hands twitched at his sides. "You came back."

She threw her head back and laughed. He just managed to catch her before she collapsed into a fit of sobs.

xXx

"So all this is inside of you?" She asked him, spinning, much calmer than she had been. Her eyes were still pink and her tears stained her face. And she sniffled occasionally but it was behind them, the worst of it. "I've been dormant." It was not a question. It was a conclusion - and explanation - as to why she did not have memories of being in the Shinigami's stomach fighting with other souls, damned to that punishment for all of eternity. A fate he would never allow her to accept without a fight if she had only given him the chance.

"I sealed some of your chakra in the seal," Minato told her, leading her as they danced. He was not sure how it happened. One second they were on the floor. She was hysterical. A mess. And the next his palm was pressed against the small of her back, her hand in his. She was no longer distressed so he did not question it further.

"Why?" She asked him in a voice that was just curious. Just curious. She spun away as far as their extended arms would allow.

He pulled her back to him. "I wanted to see you again," he admitted openly. Because what was the point of hiding anything now? "I wanted to tell you that I found a way to free you." He squeezed the fingers of her hand. Just as the hand she had on his shoulder - it was warm. She was warm. Even though he knew it was all in his head.

"Did you?" She tilted her head up, peering at him through her lashes without bothering to school her expressions, her emotions. "Is that what happened?" Was that why she suddenly awoke to be here?

"No," he shook his head, tucking her closer to him with the hand on her back. She did not resist. Their feet continued to move. She stepped where he led her without any friction. Harmony. She moved with him in harmony. In a way, it took him back to the battle with the Kyuubi. In the beginning - before the end - when it was just her and him and the summons.

"Then how?" She asked the question he did not have the answer to and it made his stomach clench. "I wiped your memories," she murmured remembering. She closed her eyes. They swayed. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder. Curling her fingers in his vest. "How?" The question came out muffled.

"I don't know," his arms surrounded her shoulders with a certainty that was missing from his words. "The Kyuubi was sealed successfully. The jutsu worked."

"But it didn't cost me my soul," her furrowed brow was set in nonacceptance. "It makes no sense, why would the Shinigami - the most stingy, ruthless debt collector - spare me?" She asked him despite knowing he did not have an answer any more than she did.

"You selflessly sacrificed yourself," he caught himself before adding "again" to his sentence. "If there was ever a time to warrant divine intervention it was then." She could have survived. He knew she had enough chakra. But she chose to save them instead and in doing so, she completed what she was sent back to do. Maybe the Sage - the Gods, Kami - finally showed their merciful side to her; the side they all supposedly had.

"You were born on March 28th," his palm cupped the back of her head, cradling it. Protective. "I watched you grow up."

"You aged," she noted, leaning back just enough to take in his face. Languidly. Her fingers touched his cheeks. Calloused and warm. Steady. "You aged," she nearly sang breathily. Noticing every line and gray hair that was all new to her.

"Don't look too close," he joked, despite his tone his eyes held remorse that she was the same. Not a hair different. "It might just scare you."

She laughed. "What's scary is that your style hasn't changed, that's why I was so angry. I thought no time had passed and you did something stupid," she grumbled with incredulity. And in her defense, no time had passed for her. Time had no relevance to her anymore. But each wrinkle, line, and gray hair spoke to the truth. He was still very much subjected to it. He was older. He was different.

"You'd think Uzumaki-sama would have gotten through to you by now." She caught herself off guard with her statement. Her eyes widened. She stiffened in his arms as if remembering the reality that existed underneath her relief that swept her away. She stepped back, he did not try to hold her. His arms fell to his side, heavily. Empty. The mirth once there left no trace on her face. "Minato," she said his name softly. "Why are you here?"

His face pulled into a grimace, he hated how he was the reason the joy left her. "Sensei and I tracked down Black Zetsu. You never sent him a scroll." Jiraiya and the kids never stopped looking for him. As he spoke, he was filling in the context for the missing years - the years without her memories. So much color and context were being added to the past - his past.

She bit her lip, chewing on it, not able to hold his gaze. Her guilt weighed down her neck. "I needed someone to remember. I thought it would be the Ame Orphans and Haru-kun because they weren't anywhere near here. I thought Jiraiya would not remember." her eyes widened in realization. "Minato, what if others remember?" She asked with precursors to panic: a gasp, eyes searching, searching, searching, breath held, her still heart clenching in her chest. " I never tested the jutsu on that scale before!"

"They won't," he said firmly, reaching out to hold her shoulders. To ground her. She blinked at him, clinging to every word. "There have been no cracks in your jutsu. It was perfect," he was not happy about it and his tone conveyed as much. He chose not to engage with the intrusive thought in his head that also said he was the closest in proximity to the jutsu so he was hit with it the hardest, which could mean the wipe for the others - everyone else - was less clean. Results may vary.

"Having your chakra inside of me, that's probably why I remembered it all again." He sighed, hoping that was the case. "And even if it fades, Sakura, they adore you. The village adores you. It won't turn on you now like it did then. You're everything you should have gotten to be."

Even if it meant I never would have gotten to meet you.

She smiled, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "How do you know it's me?" Her soul. How did he know that was her?

"She has your spirit," he brushed the tears from her cheekbones. "She has your heart. She's you." She practically grew up at his house. Naruto adopted her - a point that often put him at odds with Ino. He now understood why his son and Inoichi's daughter were so obsessed with her - hell, Kushina was the same way. It was because she was Sakura. This Sakura. Haruno Sakura thrived because Sakura No-Last-Name sacrificed everything for everyone else. Sakura No-Last-Name cleared all the thorns in Haruno Sakura's path, by stepping on them herself.

"You lost control," Sakura gasped. "Minato!" Her eyes were wild.

"I almost did," he corrected her gently, doing nothing to detangle his vest from her fingers. She was gazing at him with such intense focus he was not sure she even realized that she tethered herself to him. "I relied too much on the Kyuubi's chakra when we sealed Black Zetsu."

"You sealed him?" Her brows shot up in surprise.

"Sensei, Naruto, and I did. Sensei found a workaround," he grinned. "You left an impression on him. He hasn't written a new book in two decades." Kakashi was not happy about that fact in the slightest. "Sensei's going to be so excited that he can retire now," Minato punctuated with a laugh. Jiraiya worked like he was chasing a ghost all this time, to the point that Minato was genuinely concerned for the man's health but the Sannin was having none of it. He had told Minato to worry about what he knew and to let Jiraiya worry about everything else. Now it made sense. Now he knew - he remembered - why.

"Minato," she shook her head. "Why wasn't I near the gate? The seal? That's what Naruto - my Naruto - said when he first saw you and last saw Kushina-san."

"I don't know, Sakura." He did not. "Maybe it was because it wasn't due to extreme emotion. Or maybe because my failsafe was related to memories - memory fragments locked away in my mind."

"Hm," she hummed, not completely convinced but also not that motivated to pry. "So Naruto is with you?" Her eyes lit up in a way that did not raise jealousy in him as it once would have.

Minato chuckled. "You try convincing him to not go after an immortal entity that's trying to kill his old man." Naruto was chomping at the bit to test his skills against such a force. He was a little too excited truth be told. Minato chalked it up to being young and fearless.

"You're someone's - Naruto-'s - old man," she laughed with amusem*nt, put at ease by his calm. "How old is he now?"

"Twenty," he answered with a grin. "He's taller than me." And much louder.

"Wow," she shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around it. "Me too?"

"Almost," his eyes crinkled. "In a couple of months, you're a little younger but since you were so sharp, you're in the same class as the rest." He patted the top of her head just to antagonize her a little bit, a wave of nostalgia hit him probably to make up for the fact that Sakura did not. "And not even close, you barely come up to my shoulder. You didn't eat enough of your vegetables." Deep fried did not count, much to Sakura's dismay and her mother's exasperated insistence.

"So I'm still short," she pouted, but it did not take long for the expression to melt into something else entirely. "So I'm still smart," she rocked back and forth on her toes, smiling prettily.

"Always," he said with a nod. So much smarter than her years betrayed. "Do you want to know?" He asked her gently.

She thought about it. Sakura shook her head. "No."

"Okay," he nodded his head in understanding.

She did not want to know and he could not fault her. She was born with pink hair and green eyes. She was born into a house that cherished her, after waiting so long for her - after praying so hard for her. She was doted on. Maybe she was a little spoiled but no one was complaining. She was loud. She was bold. She was opinionated. She was confident.

Ino latched onto her immediately on a summer day Mebuki took Sakura to the park. Ino announced that Sakura would be her best friend, with her hands on her hips and a face that would not take no for an answer. Sakura had asked what all that entails. Ino had huffed and said just being nice and playing with her. Sakura had taken a moment to think about it before nodding her head in agreement - stating that as long as it did not affect her lunch plans because that was a dealbreaker for the three-year-old. They were inseparable since that day. Naruto entered the mix a year later, completely taken with her pink hair and boldness for telling a bully off who tore the pages out of a little boy's sketchbook. A pale, shy thing with black hair that did not talk to anyone and did not bother anyone. His older brother had gone to get some snacks from the vending machines in the library when the bullies pounced.

Sakura had been kicked out of the library - banned for two whole weeks - and she was so indignant that instead of going home - or to the floor her mother was chatting with a friend in the cafe - she clambered up all the stairs of Hokage Tower to request - demand politely - that she be given a meeting with the Hokage to correct her unfair sentence. Shikaku - taking one look at her determined face decided it was best to let Minato handle it. He had not had his third cup of coffee yet. That was where she met Naruto, in his lap coloring. He set down the red crayon he was using to draw in his mother's hair, eyes going wide and mouth flying open. That was Minato's first encounter with her too.

A tiny, pink-haired spitfire. A ball of pure rage wrapped in a tiny, adorable exterior. He had honestly felt a pang in his chest so profound at that moment that he remembered after dropping Naruto off at home he had Rin examine his heart to see if he had an irregular heartbeat or palpitation. She had told him no and frowned before making some comments about running some more tests. Rin never found the reason behind the intense heaviness - Kushina believed it to be PTSD and encouraged him to go talk to the professionals in the clinics - an add-on after the early success and reception of the Children's Mental Health Clinic which was run by Inoichi and Rin in tandem. The timing of finding the scroll in the Senju Main House could not come at a better time after the attack of the Kyuubi. Now he knew why he was always so forlorn in the last week of March and why the color pink without fail removed the lightness from his person to replace it with something heavy.

It was after that day, that Naruto insisted he bring his new friend - and future wife (he dared not say that in front of Sakura) - to the house for lunch. Kushina, thinking the whole thing adorable, encouraged it right away. Sakura's embarrassed but also proud parents accompanied the girl dressed in a mint-green dress and red bow to the Namikaze household where Kushina fell in love with her instantly and claimed that her son was a genius. And thus began a new tradition. Ino and Inoichi - who was also enamored by the girl - fought for a day of the week to do the same. Sakura's parents never quite understood why their four-year-old daughter warranted such a reaction but they did not question it much since Sakura seemed more than happy with the arrangement. And the attention.

It would continue. His Team - Team Seven and Anko - were also not immune. Kakashi was so protective of the girl that no boy not named Naruto - because it was too late at that point - and Shikamaru - because the boy was lazy - were not allowed to talk to sweet Sakura-chan alone. A practice that continued until Sakura - a very capable Chunin - kicked Kakashi's ass in a spar (powered by her rage). She broke his nose and cheekily said to keep it out of her business. Anko had cackled like a crazy person into the sky, shouting she had never been more proud of her girl. Kakashi learned. But not before petitioning - bribing - the Hokage to assign her to his team. He retired from ANBU a year before Naruto and Sakura graduated from The Academy.

To keep things fair, Minato suggested a spar because there was a lot of interest in the pink-haired girl. Anko was the victor - a fact that Kakashi is still bitter about all these years after. And Anko never failed to rub it in. Especially when she was basking in her pupil's long list of accomplishments. Anko was very proud and very vocal about it. Truth be told, something in Minato told him not to put Sakura on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke - maybe it was because he had seen the dysfunction of his own team that he did not want to repeat that with a sensei who had less patience than him. Anko was an excellent teacher to Sakura. The best. She was on a team with a Uchiha - not Sasuke - and a Nara - not Shikamaru. She thrived.

Obito taught the girl Genjutsu before she quickly exhausted his arsenal of tricks - the ones that did not require his special eyes. She spent six months supplementing all things poison, taijutsu (learned from Gai and practiced with Lee), and ninjutsu (from Tsunade who came back to the village at the news of a mental health clinic and her one-medic-per-squad going into practice at The Academy), with Genjutsu lessons from Kurenai. Before she mastered everything the woman could teach and in a surprise move - Itachi offered to be her unofficial, part-time sempai. Which the teenager accepted.

Sakura, Ino, and Kita did everything together when they got sick and tired of their (male) teammate's ways - bickering. They got into their fair share of trouble - maybe even more than Naruto and Sasuke or any of the boys - but they were smart. They never had to report to his office for a reprimand. And that had Sakura's name on it. Her eyes would always gleam mischievously and her lip would take on a smug curl when she got away with something in broad daylight.

Sakura was amazing. Loud, bold, confident, witty, sharp, and so, so, kind. And she had no patience for Naruto's and Sasuke's bullsh*t - there was a lot of it. She put them in their place more than once and always without hesitation. Beloved. She was universally beloved by the same village that once condemned her.

He wanted to tell her it was the love her friends and kids had for Sakura and Loris transcended past her death, to translate into the love they had for Haruno Sakura. Haurno Sakura had no shortage of love and light in her life. She was never alone. And it brought him peace in a heartbreaking sort of way. She was happy. So happy. So whole. She had broken the village's heart when she announced that she was leaving for two years to travel the world and heal those who were not fortunate enough to be born in a village with top-of-the-line medical care. She wanted to train medics and help hospitals be more efficient so the most number of people that could be helped were helped. She wanted to spearhead programs and run collaborations - clinics. Obito's scroll - the seal of the Godaime - gave her access and the ability to do that. And from the correspondence she sent his son, Kushina, and Ino, she was doing just that.

From nearly the moment Sakura entered Naruto's life, Kushina and Mikoto had a bet going on whose daughter-in-law Sakura would be. From where he stood, it seemed that Mikoto had a better chance of winning. Itachi had asked Sakura to take him with her. And she had agreed, much to the clan's uproar. The clan drama delayed their trip by six months, ending with Fugaku naming his youngest as the clan heir - deeply disappointed in his eldest son. Shishui and Mikoto had worked to curb the Uchiha Clan Head's anger and they just managed to stop him before he excommunicated Itachi from the clan. The majority of the six months were spent salvaging what was left of the relationship - led by Mikoto, Shisui, and Sakura - so that by the time the pair finally left, the two men were on speaking terms again - well, f*ckagu mostly communicated in grunts but that was hardly new. The delay was only six months depending on who you asked. Naruto and Ino were beyond devastated but it seemed a new bond - or a different side of the bond - was forming between the pair of sulking blondes who could not believe Sakura would do them so dirty.

He could not tease her that she had a type: quiet, calm prodigies because he would not tell her any of that, or anything. Just like he would never tell her how he finally understood why it felt that he would scorch the earth if anyone made her bleed in his presence, why he had to fight off the Kyuubi's chakra at the mere thought of it. So much was finally making sense again to him. Finally. He would tell her none of that because she did not ask. She did not know and that was perfectly fine.

"Am I happy?" She asked him, fear peeking through her eyes as if the answer would be different somehow. She had trust issues and he could not blame her. Not after everything she had been through.

"Very," he grinned, easily, answering with patience. "So happy." He caught her tear with his thumb pad.

"Are you?" Relief had not taken over completely on her person as doubt lingered.

"I'm" he sighed as his answer was not as straightforward. "I'm content."

She smiled, touching the lines of his crow's feet with marvel like she needed to feel it to believe it to be true. "I'm glad. I wanted nothing more."

"I know," his voice was soft.

"How are the kids?" She asked with traces of fear - the hesitation of whether or not she wanted to know. She wanted to of course but the answer might just be the last straw. No sensei - no adult - wanted to outlive their kids.

"Good," he was quick to ease it away. The kids had kids. Rin and Obito had twin daughters. Kakashi and Anko - who had the mostinterestingcouple dynamic he had ever seen, to put it mildly - were expecting their first. They had been much too nonchalant about the idea of having a kid for his liking but no one asked him so he kept it to himself. "They never forgot Loris. Obito and Kakashi joined ANBU because of her. Most efficient two-man squad in history. Kakashi was captain. Obito actually listened." They broke and set record after record.

"That's only because we never paired up," her eyes glittered with pride despite her words and rough scoff. "Did Obito become Godaime?"

"Yes," Minato answered with a large smile, sharing in the sense of accomplishment coming off of her. "He thanked Loris in his inauguration speech. Said it was because of her, that he got to see his dream. He got to inherit a whole Konoha - unfractured and complete."

"Damn," she sniffled, swiping at her eyes looking upward to keep it contained in a losing battle. "Obito-Baka is still a baka," she smiled wetly.

"Rin-chan is the head of the hospital, she is working with Shizune-chan to open a new one, and Anko-chan teaches lectures at The Academy. Poisons, antidotes, and basic first-aid."

"I'm so proud," she was grinning like a madwoman. It was impossible to look elsewhere. "I'm so happy for them."

"The Ame trio started Akatsuki. They're helping the world. They're striving for their mission statement every day. They have branches - members - in just about every Great Nation. Haru came back when he turned eighteen. Tsunade-sama and him have been working together to research how his cells - the ones implanted in him - can help others. They helped kids born without limbs walk and have independent lives."

"Haru-kun came back? He did all that?" She asked, floored.

"He said he wanted his past - the one he did not remember - to mean something other than just horror, he wanted something good to live on as his legacy."

She pressed down on her bottom lip and choked down a sob, burning her face in the material of his jacket. His hands moved up and down her back.

"He's happy," Minato informed her without having to ask. "He's taken with bird watching. And birds. All thing birds. He helps the aviary rehabilitate the injured. He even gives the retired ones a place to go to live out the rest of their lives."

"He's happy," she smiled softly. "They're happy."

"They're happy," he agreed, wholeheartedly. "Really happy."

"Did you end up having more kids?" She asked him, still smiling.

"No."

"Hm, too bad. Naruto always wanted siblings," she mused. A loud house. Naruto always wanted a very loud house.

"He does. He has two sisters," Minato answered, levelly. They were four and three.

Her brow furrowed. "But you said that you…," her voice trailed off in confusion at a reality she did not allow herself to consider.

"Half-siblings," Minato clarified. "Kushina and I separated around the time Naruto became a Chunin at thirteen." Kushina re-married two years after the divorce.

She blinked at him stunned, like he forced all the air from her body without warning. A sucker punch.

"It was for the best," Minato admitted without bitterness. "I was not a good husband to her. I was too busy. Always distracted. She deserved better. And she found it. She's really happy." And he was happy for her.

"You let work get in the way?" She accused him with measurable heat in her voice. "Minato!" She shoved him, with two hands right in the chest. "After everything…after everything!" She was close to snapping.

He shook his head, quickly trying to correct a misconception before she knocked all his teeth out and used his face to mop up the blood. "I was too busy looking for something."

"What could that have possibly been, your family is the most-"

"My memories," he cut her indignant tirade before she could get too carried away and say something she would come to regret. "I was looking for you, Sakura." He reached out to cup her face. "And I found you." He smiled. Openly. Happily. With palpable relief. "I found you."

Her eyes widened. She gaped at him, like a fish.

xXx

"I thought, I thought," she groaned, burying her face in the space of his shoulder and neck. "Kami," her hot breath tickled, warm, soft lips grazing his skin.

"You couldn't have known," he said soothingly, running his fingers through her hair. His legs bent, with hers sprawled out in front of her. Her shoulder pressed against his chest, as she sat in his lap.

"I thought if I just got out of the way," that everything would correct itself. A reset of sorts. Her voice was distant. "I'm sorry Minato."

"It was a long time ago," he pressed his cheek to the top of her head. "It was amicable. We just grew apart." All it took was Naruto not being around so much for them to realize just how little there was to talk about outside of him. They stopped being Minato and Kushina right around the time they became Tochan and Kaachan. No real build-up. No scandal. They simply drifted apart. So the final strike - divide - was without tears or pettiness. It was just acceptance. "She found someone who could love her with all his heart. And he does. I've never seen her happier." She had invited him to her wedding. He had attended. Naruto had walked alongside his mother. The ceremony was lovely. It was fine.

She twisted her fingers around his armband, the one at his wrist. "And Naruto's okay?"

"He is. It took some time." He had been angry at first, really angry. He threatened to run away - to move out. He had asked how they could do this to him. He had asked how they could be so selfish. Ino and Sakura talked - yelled - some sense into him. Calling him a giant toddler who was throwing a major tantrum. They pointed a mirror at him; one that showed Naruto that he was being the selfish one here if he asked his parents to stay together for him - they may have just honored his demand too out of guilt of being bad parents. It was a rough year of adjustment.

"But he's fine now. He has two parents who love him dearly. A step-father who is good to him. And two sisters who think he holds up the moon. He's fine. He had plenty," Minato chuckled. "He's amazing. I am so grateful to Kushina for the greatest gift in my life." His expression was soft as he smiled at her. "And to you. For everything."

Everything. Because she did give him everything. He had just been so caught up in being hurt to realize. She did not betray him. She owed him nothing. And yet she gave him everything. He had been so ungrateful. She was so young when she made the choice she did. Alone in the world. And he was part of the reason why.

She reached out and touched his cheek, tenderly. "I'm glad." He covered her hand with his own.

"I'm sorry about what happened, Sakura. I'm sorry I couldn't save you," he nearly choked up on his words. "I'm sorry I didn't see you sooner."

"It's not your fault," her face fell, taking the light out of her eyes as it did. "You were right. I shouldn't have trusted him. I'm sorry Minato. I was so stupid for trusting him, this whole-"

"I was a blind idiot," Minato said harshly, catching her off guard. He trusted him too. He trusted him first. "We all missed it. We all trusted him. You have nothing to apologize for. It was my failure, Sakura. Mine."

"Minato," she began her protests with a solemn mask.

"Mine, Sakura," he insisted - eyes darkening with anger that still burned his bones. "Because of him, we lost two decades with you. Our kids lost two decades with you. I don't want to lose any more time to him," his face becoming more and more familiar - less set in feral lines. "Please let it go, it's not your fault."

"Okay," she did not argue. She was tired of arguing with him. She never wanted to argue with him again. "You sure you'll be okay?" She asked, barely masking her eagerness to change the subject.

"I'm going to be fine," he assured her. There was no way that the Kyuubi would take control of him now. Not after he was reunited with his memories. With her. His expression turned stern. "You took my memories, Sakura, from my head. You wiped them," he placed their interconnected hands on his chest. "But you couldn't take them from here. From my soul, Sakura. You marked me to my core. I went through the last twenty years feeling like something was missing. And it was. It was my memories that you took from me."

It was you. You took yourself away from me.

He did not get to mourn her loss. Her memories did not comfort him. Her memories evaded him just like all those years they lost to in between.It felt like he was going crazy, looking for something that no one believed was there. Not even Jiraiya gave him any hints. Not once - not even all those times they went to Loris's marker every year to leave their flowers and gratitude before they celebrated Naruto's birthday.

"I'm sorry," her tears fell nearly too quickly for him to catch. "I thought…I thought. It was a contingency. If I died, I had to make everyone forget about me. So what happened to me didn't happen again. If I lived, I would have swapped it out with a scroll for my resignation. Did you ever find it?"

He frowned "No. Inoichi must have burned it." He had no idea she had plans of resigning.

"Oh good," she did not need to add to his guilt. "You remember the letter? Kami, you remember the letter." She opened her mouth to begin apologizing. "I'm sorry, Minato, I should have trusted you. I should have told you," her voice nearly broke, she pressed down on her bottom lip as she breathed heavily; shoulders moving. "I should have told you."

"Sakura," he held her trembling face, brushing the tears as they fell. "The problem wasn't that you didn't tell me. It was youcouldn'ttell me," he inhaled slowly, keeping his composure together in a test of his will. "I didn't deserve you."

"What?" She stared at him, confused - dumbfounded.

"If you told me…if we ended up together, you would have left me," he believed that in his bones. With age came perspective and he believed he had enough of it. Having witnessed it twice. "And you would have had every right to leave me. I was an ungrateful asshole, you were right. I made everything, everything about myself. I never asked you if you were okay. I never tried to listen to you. I was inflexible. I was rigid. I was narrow-minded. I lectured you. I talked down to you. I went on and on about principles. I never sat with what you said. I got defensive. I never tried to understand your side. I made it impossible to work with me. I was an obstacle. I held you back. Over and over again. Who I was didn't deserve you."

"M-Minato," she stuttered his name at a loss for what to say.

"Hearing - reading - what happened to you, broke me. It broke something inside of me," it destroyed him, it left him reeling. Even now, just recalling it all he had to remind himself to breathe. There was the fox who would more than love to feed into the dark, intrusive thoughts in his head.

"And I handled it poorly. So poorly," he was disgusted with himself - it was palpable. Nearly overwhelming. He saw the way she gulped, stunned. "I was petty. I was jealous. I was possessive. I was a hypocrite. I was dishonest. I was angry. I let my anger address you. I spoke to you with anger. I didn't try to understand. I spun everything so I was the victim. I was wrong. I was horrible. To you and even to Kushina. I did not deserve either of your kindness or your love. I was horrible, Sakura."

"You're being too hard on yourself," she countered, trying to sit up in his arms. She huffed when it was too much work. "You're human," she said fiercely, protectively - not caring for how he talked about himself. About the man she remembered - the person she fell in love with. "You were hurt. You were betrayed. You were manipulated. You were used-"

"No more than you," he held her chin, she inhaled shakily as she completely forgot her line of thought. "And I didn't handle it with a tenth of the strength you did."

"It was a long time ago!" She said emphatically. "I made those choices on my own. You had my choices impressed on you. You learned about them from a stranger no less. You-," her voice broke. She inhaled shakily. "You could only react, after the fact," she held his face, thumbs working across his cheekbones. "You did your best."

"I was far from my best," he covered her hands with his larger ones, hooking them where her fingers began. "Please don't make excuses for me. I should have been better. I should have done so much better. I didn't do right by you, Sakura. I didn't try to see your perspective. I didn't understand how I had to be the shore for you to keep coming back to. I had to stand still. So you could find me - so that I was where you saw me last; waiting for you where you left me." It was never about being too slow or chasing her. She had her own objective. He should have seen that. He should have let her come to him on her own terms. She was the wave. He should have been the shore that welcomed her back. Each and every time.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be your safe place. I'm sorry that I couldn't be what you needed, Sakura," he apologized empathically, voice twisting in remorse. "That is my biggest regret, Sakura. And I'm sorry it took me twenty years to realize it and say it to you."

"I forgive you," she sniffled, nose pink. "For all of it. Thank you for saying it." Because it meant that she did not have to. It meant that she was not entirely crazy. "We were just doomed from the start. We came from two different worlds. I didn't trust. I didn't know who to trust or how to trust. I didn't know what love was. And that was too much for a child like you - who came from love - to understand." He was secure, she was insecure. They were much too young to understand any of it, the differences in their perspective. The gap was too wide to attempt to bridge.

"I'm sorry you're alone," she leaned into him, holding his hand, bringing their fingers to her lips. She kissed the back of his hand, cradling it to her chest, not all that differently than he had. He noticed the lack of a heartbeat. His stomach dropped at the harsh reminder. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm not alone, Sakura." He squeezed her closer to him still, trying to press the guilt out of her. It had no place between them anymore. Guilt had no home with her. "I have Naruto. I have Sensei. I have Shikaku, Inoichi and Choza. I have Obito, Rin, Kakashi, and Anko. I have so much. And all of it is because of you."

He was not a good husband - not that Kushina ever said so in as many words - but he was a good Hokage. And a great father. A really great father. Naruto - and all the handmade gifts over the years for every birthday and Father's Day that he had displayed proudly in his apartment - did not let him forget it. It never failed to completely blow his mind and push his heart to capacity when he thought about just how amazing his son was. He was kind, generous, considerate, forgiving, and pure-hearted. His son was perfect and he was so grateful that he was his. That he got to watch him grow up. That he got to raise him.

And if it was in the cards, he would have his grandchildren. Grandchildren, he could not wait to readThe Hime and the Peatoo. And to spoil in a way that Naruto was not and neither was he. He has plenty of reasons to not rush into the next life. Especially when she was still in the middle of hers.

"Maybe you can find someone else, maybe you can," she began not even realizing the words were pouring out of her. He still had so much life to live - she hoped. He should not be alone. He did not have to be alone in that way. He was human. Seeking comfort - companionship - was an innate need in them. "Now that we've had closure, you can try. You have to try," she was practically pleading for him to consider it. Moving on from his tragedy and loss. Moving on from her.

"No," he shook his head, firmly - adamantly. "I'm not interested in anyone else. Not then and not now." Especially not now. He was seeing clearly again. In crisp color. She had his heart. He was giving it to her. All of it. Without questions or conditions. Better late than never.

"Minato," she sighed softly. "If..something happens…if you change your mind," she shook her head in a holdover of an internal conversation he had no purview of. She understood the ramifications of being on the other side of this. The well-meaning intentions could leave scars on the soul. "It's okay to change your mind," she smiled at him gently, timidly. "Just remember that," she paused - holding back something she thought better of saying - "please," she pleaded. "And if you do, just make sure she's not batsh*t crazy, you have a type." Her voice was grave with seriousness.

"That's the mother of my child, have some respect," he somehow managed with a straight face.

"I said what I said," she retorted completely unapologetically. "Minato, I need to hear it."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said in a placating tone. "I'll be fine," he assured her. Again. As many times as he needed to. "Besides, I have your orchid to keep me company."

"It's still alive?" She blinked at him, flabbergasted. "No way," she shook her head. "You're messing with me."

He laughed, deep and full of mirth. "So that's where you draw the line, huh?"

"Minato, it's got to be over like twenty-two years old…," she frowned, narrowing her eyes. "It's not plastic, right? I didn't hallucinate the whole thing, did I? I wouldn't put it past Inoichi. He's such a troll," she concluded darkly.

"It's not plastic. It's still alive. Inoichi is a troll," his thumb traced the edges of her lilac seal. "It - your orchid - started a whole thing. I got really into gardening." Spiraled really. No corner of his apartment and balcony did not have a splash of green. He had over thirty plants, none of them came close to the green of her eyes. The green he was seeking. The green he was indulging in, drinking from shamelessly - greedily. The green he was burning into his mind.

"You're kidding," her smile was reserved and her eyes faraway, cast off as she got pulled into something in her mind.

"It's very relaxing," his hand had trailed down to the side of her face. She leaned into his touch. "Therapeutic." He lost hours in that community garden - a project he spearheaded and implemented - working with his hands, seeing the very visual fruits of his labor, wearing a faded canvas apron, that Naruto hand-painted a stick family on, and a wide straw hat to block out the sun. It was humble but it was his sanctuary. Once a week, the kids from the orphanage came out and helped him weed, water, and harvest the yield. Yield that would become a delicious shared meal. He loved Wednesdays for that reason. Midori volunteered at the orphanage helping Azumi-san whenever she needed it. Midori grew up to be a very competent nurse who worked part-time in the hospital. She married a boy - also from the orphanage - and has two kids.

Konoha has been embracing green again. Nature. Every year on Minato's birthday since Naruto turned five, father and son planted a new tree around the sizable lake on the other side of the monument. And the air was that much cleaner for it. There were fewer cases of environmentally induced asthma in children who lived on the east side of the village.

"So you got a green thumb, huh?" She asked him with glistening eyes. He could see the regret poking through the layers of depth of emotions. Like striations on the inner face of a mountain. A mountain that endured just about everything.

"I'm sorry, Sakura." He closed his eyes, pressing his bare forehead against hers. She even smelled exactly how he remembered. "I'm sorry I kept us out of balance, out of sync."

"Baka," she sniffled, leaning against him even harder, their noses grazing. "You fought me on everything. You ruined everything." All her plans, all her hard work. Even this.

He chuckled. "I did. I really did." He hugged her. Her chin came over his shoulder, cheek to cheek. Her arms circled his torso. "I'll do better. I will be better for next time," he vowed. His peripherals were filled with soft pink that smelled of citrus and eucalyptus. Crisp. Clean. Comforting.

"Next time?" He felt the words against him just as his ears registered them.

"The next time we meet outside of this life," he said with conviction. Because this life, the rest of this life would be dedicated to making the world a better place for his future grandchildren and for her - and himself - when the clock inevitably restarted. "I know my words never meant much but know this, Sakura No-Last-Name, I will always find you. Maybe in our next life or the life after or ten lives after. I will wait. As long as it takes to be your dance partner."

"Minato." She pushed down the lump in her throat. "If I'm scared…don't give up on me," she pleaded. "Don't let my fear push you away, please. Don't let my fear be the reason why I missed out on you all over again." Fresh tears leaked from her eyes. "Don't let me being afraid keep me from telling you - showing you - that I love you." She whimpered. "I love you."

"I love you too." He felt her shift under him. "I won't give up on you. Ever. We'll figure it out. I promise. Leave everything behind, Sakura." The notions, the calculations of good versus bad karma, the stress, the hurt, the fear, the broken heart.

"Okay," she nestled into him further, closing her eyes to let out a big exhale. Slow and controlled. The moment her eyes opened again, they were on his face. Studying him. Memorizing him. This new him. "You look so good. Even better than you did back then," she could not get over the changes. "So distinguished," she pouted. "No fair."

We'll grow old together next time.He promised her inwardly. He pinched her nose between his thumb and index finger. "You've always had a thing for older guys."

"You don't count," she insisted - voice nasally - with a roll of her eyes; batting his hand away, freeing her nose. "Says the man into weird hair colors," she huffed, poking his cheek. "How did you get this scar?" She tapped the small vertical cut with her finger.

"You don't count either," he smiled to reveal all the fine lines that developed without her. "A shaving accident," he answered solemnly. "Five years ago. It was a bloody mess. Barely made it out of there alive. Very scary." Up until very recently, it was the most blood he had lost in years.

She laughed. "Why didn't you just heal it?"

"Not really my specialty," he gave her a half-smile, the one that had her smile getting smaller and her eyes darker. "Can I kiss you?" He asked, cobalt eyes intense.

She laughed, it was breathy - a pant of air. Nodding her head, eyes closing. She waited, with her bottom lip between her teeth. Maybe to keep from seeming overeager. Even though she was. She really was.

He pressed his lips to her forehead. His heart nearly burst in his chest. He felt twelve years old again. That nervous. That worked up. In Ichiraku; her hand bandaged, salt on his tongue, his belly warm. And Sakura smiled shyly as she tucked hair behind her ear. He could see it in his head. Her forehead was so warm. It was so much better than anything he had imagined. Ever since he was a little boy.

Her hands curled around his arms that held her. She let out a small sigh, content. "Thank you, Minato," she said with her forehead against his, having raised it to meet him halfway. "Thank you for giving me peace." She finally had peace. With her decisions and her actions. With who she had to become. With everything. "Thank you," she bit her lip again, to keep the tremble from being too noticeable. He noticed anyway.

"You don't have to thank me, Sakura," he held her face, unable to let go - not wanting to let go. She did not seem to mind all that much. "Anything for you." Always.

"Kiss me again," she said - she demanded with a heightened sense of urgency. Knowing what he knew. Minato nodded. He closed his eyes as he angled his head slightly. Their lips pressed together. Slow. Patient. Full of promise and understanding.

Like it should have been. Like it could have been. Like it would be again.

His tears mingled with hers. Her warmth was gone and he was left alone. He smiled with his eyes still pressed closed, his curled palm over his beating heart - where he could just almost feel her leaning into him.

"I'll find you, Sakura," he said with all his conviction. "I'll always find you."

I won't forget. I won't forget you again. Ever.

Everything was calm when he blinked his eyes open. Cobalt.

xXx

"Stay where I can see you, Dear," a woman with dark magenta hair and nearly-black eyes told the small girl who was chasing after a grasshopper.

"Okay, Kaachan!" The girl called out without turning back. She was much too focused on her goal at hand to be distracted. "I'm going to get you, Hopper-san!" She said with a determined expression, the tip of her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth. She launched herself after the green insect with cupped hands. "Gotcha!" She grinned triumphantly, nearly bouncing in her crouch with the glow of her victory.

"Hopper-san?" Her green eyes widened in surprise as she caught something else bouncing. The bug hopped, hopped, hopped away. "How?" She asked incredulously, she peered at her cupped hands on the ground. "I didn't even move them!" She crouched down even lower, closer to the ground, knees on the grass as she tried to peek at the bottom of her hands. There was a small gap. But it was too small. The wind moved through her shoulder-length hair, held back by a red ribbon tied in a bow on the top of her head, carefully by her kaachan. She huffed. Moving her hands away to reveal nothing. She sat up. Her pale green dress had grass stains where her knees had touched the grass. She dusted her hands, puffing her cheeks out with hot air, releasing it loudly.

"No fair," she mumbled.

"What are you doing?" A voice from behind her called out.

She jumped in the air, spinning around with her hand on her heart. Boom. Boom. Boom. It went in her chest. "Don't do that!" She admonished with a stern, hoarse whisper. Breathless like she just ran a really long time without stopping. "You scared me!"

"Sorry," he looked down at the ground, his hands behind his back, thoroughly chastised.

"Geez," she frowned. "No need to look like a depressed daisy," she murmured, feeling bad for going off on him. She did not mean it. She was just jittery from the scare. She did not like when things popped out on her.

"Depressed?" He blinked at her with cobalt eyes.

"It means sad. I read at an eight-year-old level but I'm only four years old!" She chirped happily, showing him four fingers on her right hand, wiggling them.

"I know what it means," he frowned. "I-I'm not depressed," he stuttered. He hated it when he stuttered. He shoved his hands into his pockets. He was not dumb. He was not a little kid. He knew things. She did not say those things to him but still…he did not want her to think that.

She rolled her eyes. "You just look depressed. No one called you depressed. How old are you?" She asked with narrowed eyes. "You're small," she noted, after eyeing him up and down.

He bristled. The observation - which was true - sounded like an insult. Maybe she did mean it in a mean way. He was not sure. "Answer my question first," he said with bravery he did not know where it came from. Maybe because he wanted to show her that he was not small or a baby or dumb.

"Um," she tutted, tapping her chin. "I was trying to catch a grasshopper because my friend said that if a girl touches a bug she turns into a bug. I told him that was silly and he scared most of the girls in our class. Only because they already thought bugs were icky. But bugs aren't icky! They are 'portant. What if everybody will go 'round smushing any bug they see? That would be a big 'blem! So I wanted to catch a grasshopper to prove he's a big fat liar to save bugs from being mushed!" She finished emphatically with her arms stretched wide over her head and her face red. She breathed loudly, trying to catch her breath because she forgot to breathe when she blurted it all out. It happened sometimes when she was excited.

He blinked. "Why not try with an ant?" Surely that was easier. There were so many of them.

"Obviously I did," she crossed her arms over her dress. "He changed the rules and said I needed to bring a bigger bug!"

"Oh," he scrunched his face in thought, crossing his arms over his orange sweater. "What happens if he says you need an even bigger one?"

She blinked. "I didn't think about it." She reached out to touch his hair. He froze. "You had a leaf." She showed him the curled brown husk of life before tossing it over her shoulder. "Were you a tree or something?"

He went ramrod straight face turning red. "Four," he blurted out, face reddening even more.

"What?" She asked, blinking in surprise.

"I'm four," he held up four fingers just as she had, thumb tucked against his palm.

"Oh!" Her face lit up. "Just like me." She beamed with pride over a shared commonality.

"Do you want help?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sure!" She grinned.

"My name is Minato." He said, pointing to himself just as he had practiced in the big mirror in his room. Before his kaasan caught him and waved over his tosan. His tummy had fluttered and his face had gone so hot when he locked eyes with their reflections. He was not adorable - as his kaasan had insisted. She was trying to make him feel less embarrassed but that only made everything worse. At least his tosan did not comment again.

The girl with pink hair smiled. "Sakura."

"Sakura-chan," he said her name slowly. "It's pretty," he mumbled to himself.

"You're nice," she giggled. "Can I call you Toto-kun? Minato-kun takes too long." Her little face was so serious. So focused. All on him. He lowered his eyes, trying to remember to be brave. But it was hard with his hands all sweaty and his heart beating really fast. Why was his throat so itchy all of a sudden?

"Are you in a rush or something?" He asked the grass, finding himself frowning.

"No! It's a nickname," she explained, maybe even a little patiently. There was more delay between her words. "It means we're friends," she smiled sunnyly.

"Just like that?" He asked, surprised at how easy it was, a little apprehensive at how easy it was to make his first friend. Friend. It was important to have friends. His kaasan said that.

"Just like that," Sakura beamed at him, taking his hand in what he assumed to be a handshake - like the grownups did. "Come on, Toto-kun. Let's go catch Hopper-san." she pulled him along, not noticing the bright as-day blush on his face.

Toto-kun…it's not so bad.

He smiled, working hard to keep up with her.

xXx

The sky was on fire with swirls of orange, red, and gold. The image was mirrored thousands of times, reflected on the shimmering surface of the ocean. It was beautiful. Breathtaking. Her hands moved through conditions-impacted textured locks. Her little spitfire had finally settled against her chest. Eyes closed, mouth open. Legs on either side of her hips. Arms limp. A sack of potatoes. An adorable sack of potatoes with sunshine-yellow hair. She had been adamant about staying up to see the sunset her mother always raved about. But a day of running through the sand, building castles to the sky, chasing sea birds on all fours as if she were a dog - complete with barking at them - and swimming in the ocean in her pink bathing suit with a yellow tutu skirt had taken it all out of her. The little girl breathed deeply against her mother's shoulder. It was finally quiet. The squawking of the gulls and whines of the seal lions aside. The sound of the waves topped the symphony off.

The hand that was not in her daughter's hair was on her son's back. He slept on his stomach, a blue and green striped beach towel around his shoulders. His short pink hair - a few shades darker than her own - was air-drying in the heat. He too had succumbed to the pull of sleep despite his antagonization of his sister - two years his junior - about how she was too much of a baby to enjoy and appreciate nature. She had bristled and thrown dry sand at him (and some small crushed pebbles with it) which she had to admonish her for, even if her son had it coming. The day had been perfect and she really wanted to avoid having two crying children on her hands - one from sand and tiny rocks in his eyes and the other from the guilt of being the reason the first had sand and tiny rocks in his eyes. Her daughter got over it quickly, and her son just as fast. They were unable to hold a grudge - unlike her - which was a trait they got from their very patient and forgiving father.

"It's so peaceful," a deep voice from the otherside where her son lay said. She turned her head to regard him. He had an arm resting on a bent knee, a loose white short-sleeve shirt - unbuttoned - pulled on, and blue swimming trunks covering his legs to his knees. The picture of ease and it brought a smile to her face. "Without the sounds of cats and dogs fighting."

She rolled her green eyes. "They wouldn't fight so much if you didn't encourage them, Darling." She returned her eyes to the ocean. "You set a horrible example."

"So it's my fault?" He asked with a raised brow, voice teasing in that way of his.

"Absolutely," she huffed, cupping the back of her - their - daughter's head. It would take some work - and maybe tears of her own, not her daughter's - to get the sea-soaked pigtails back to its usual silky, soft feel. The girl could hardly sit still long enough to bother with her hair being brushed. No, she had the world to explore to lose time to things like neat hair. When she grumbled a little too much - when it started to bleed into frustration - he reminded her of whose daughter she was. That never failed to get her to sigh in resignation and solicit a small smile - sometimes rueful but a smile nonetheless.

"You know, I'm not going to argue with you. Just to show you how mistaken you are," his voice was far from innocent. The half smile he wore gave away his true intentions. She loved riling her up. And that was precisely her point.

She glared at him. "You're impossible."

He laughed, cobalt eyes glittering with mirth and adoration. She turned her head away but not before her face flushed. One such thing they argued over - bickered much to the dismay of all their loved ones who knew them long enough - was precisely how long they had been together. She always considered the start to be at sixteen - the age she finally threw up her hands and asked him pointedly if he was waiting for someone else to ask her to be his girlfriend (because she had offers) before he got up from sitting on his hands and made a move (expressed interest in seeing her something more than just his best friend), only for him to swear up and down - with a face as white as a sheet (from horror and mortification) - that he thought they were already boyfriend and girlfriend - as that was when they had their first kiss. Making the total fourteen years, while he maintained they were together for twenty-six years because his clock started from the first day they met. Because they had been "together" since that day, inseparable - attached at the hip - to the point that they called each other's parents tosan and kaasan well before their adult years. And for the ten years they had been married - because it was less vague when there was an official ceremony with witnesses (he had cried more than her; tears of joy he maintained to this day when his guy friends ribbed him about it) - they argued round and round and round about the topic. Again, no one found it all that cute or charming. Until someone put an end to it one of two ways: Most likely her friend Asuka asking irately - with loudness in direct proportion to how public of a place it was - why they were so adamant and shameless about including everyone else in their foreplay which usually got the pair to shut the hell up fast, blushing red and heads downcast; or everyone else simply left the area leaving the two to bicker until their hearts' content.

"Moving to Mizu was the best decision we ever made," she said in contentment. Kissing the top of the sleeping four-year-old's head. "Long live Iwata-san for carrying on her great-great grandfather's philanthropy. There's no safer or stable nation with this kind of view." And it was practically in their backyard on Doto Island. They could walk and have every day end just like this. Iwata Ko, the granddaughter of Tezuka Yuri, was the daughter of the wealthy former lumber trader Tezuka Junji. The man who helped rebuild the Five Great Nations.

She had been worried about it. Worries she shared ad nauseam with him - from her perspective. It was a dream of hers since she was a little girl as far back as he could remember. She wanted to move before they started a family but things kept getting in the way. To the point that she had all but given up on it, claiming it was just a silly thing to hold onto despite his protests. She was worried that the children would have a hard time adjusting. She made excuses that it would be too much work to try to get the paperwork for four completed, filed, and approved, even with Hi's treaties and relocation policies with Mizu. Their friends had been more than a little disappointed that their petition was granted and the documents signed. She was a very accomplished medic after all. Mizu had more to gain, out of this. He was not nearly as worried. The biggest challenge was to get her to let go of this belief that she was being selfish in uprooting them all. But he had told her that they would follow her to the ends of the earth without question - she was their sun after all - and there was no better example to set for their kids - four and two at the time - than to follow her dreams and pursue what made her happy. And she was. He had never seen her happier in a more laid-back environment that did not feed into her frenzied workaholic tendencies where she forgot to eat and sleep until her body took the decision out of her hands.

"It was a good decision," her husband agreed with a musing hum. "Top three for sure."

She raised a brow, clicking her tongue. "Enlighten me, Darling. What are the other two?"

"Why, getting married and having kids of course," he regarded her with mock scandal. "You're lucky that they are heavy sleepers or we would be adding to the salt."

Her jade-green eyes rolled heavenward. "That goes without saying, Darling," her tone slightly snippy. "And I don't count those as decisions. You know that." No, she was much too grateful to think she had complete control over it. Life had been really good to her. She was lucky. Incredibly lucky. She watched the sea part as a pod of dolphins chirped as they played. "Koko-chan and Kuya-kun are going to be so upset they missed that," she muttered.

"They'll have plenty of chances to see Sora-chan and Kaito-kun," the newest - and in the kids' opinion the cutest - additions to the pod. The two pairs of plastic binoculars - yellow and pink - got good use of them as the weather was starting to warm. She had real concerns they would develop an unsightly tan in the shape of the round eyepieces, to mitigate that risk, they wore hats when they left the house to dolphin and whale watch. Now if they stayed on, that was another story. He leaned back on his hands, tilting his head to the orange sky. Sunshine-yellow hair swaying in the light breeze. "Today was perfect."

"It was," she smiled in agreement. "Thank you for doing this." Her eyes held deep appreciation.

"Anything for you, Love," his eyes crinkled with affection. "Happy birthday, Sakura-chan."

"Thank you, Minato-kun," she puckered her lips and blew him a noisy kiss. He was the reason it was happy. "Have you considered my proposal?" She asked, blinking at him demurely. "And please keep in mind what day it is today and how happy it would make me," she smiled at him prettily in what was an underhanded tactic.

He pushed air out of his nostrils audibly. Somehow, he was still able to be surprised by her antics despite knowing her longer than he knew anyone he was not born knowing. He contemplated it, going as far as rubbing his chin. He played up the drama while they both very well knew what the answer was. He sighed in resignation.

"Sure," he made it be known his reluctance in uttering the single syllable. The one that had her beaming at him. "How much harder can it be to raise chickens than two kids and a couple of sheep?" He nodded his head as if consoling himself regarding his circ*mstances. "The kids will love it." And chasing after some chickens might just tucker them out to the point they slept through the night in their own beds. Their daughter was the worst offender. She crawled in at all ungodly hours of the night or morning. Usually kicking him in the process of situating herself between them, with her giant teal-colored toad plushie no less, in her tiny but firm grip. Goats, he refused to get goats. They would eat through his garden - his other pride and joy aside from the kids. She knew this. So she never asked - never brought it up - so he never had to deny her, which was something he quite disliked doing.

"Three," Sakura said, looking into the horizon - looking into tomorrow - wearing hues of the sunset that were loaned for only minutes more.

Minato's brows furrowed. He was frowning. "Three? You want to get another sheep?" Now that would require more discussion. They did not have room for another sheep not to mention rebudgeting. And a headache about who would get to name it. The kids each named one as it was. He only foresaw problem after problem with this new math.

Sakura rolled her eyes and sighed, deeply - in great frustration. "Kami," she murmured under her breath. "You have to ruin everything don't you?" She asked him with a glare, disappointment, and dismay filled her green eyes - darkening them to nearly forest. Or maybe that was the waning sun's fault.

He blinked at her in total loss for how it was his fault, her sudden mood change. "Sa-"

"Three, Minato-kun," she said firmly, staring him down. Aggressive. Agitated. Accountable "Three," she repeated, slowly this time, really emphasizing for him.

Five seconds. That was how long it took for his eyes to widen and his jaw to go slack. "T-three?" He muttered, eyes darting down her red with white polka dots bikini-clad torso which was mostly obscured by their daughter. "Three?" He asked again, unable to remember any words of his usual extensive lexicon.

Sakura laughed. "And to think it all started with a grasshopper," she chuckled, shaking her head. "You're lucky you're cute." Because he could be very dumb at times.

"It started way before that," he murmured distractedly. "Really, Sakura?" His eyes were back on her face after a couple of seconds lost to silence from ruminating thought. "Are we really…?" His voice trailed off as he held his breath waiting for her to confirm - again - what they were hoping for.

"Yes, Darling," she smiled at him, gently - not bothering to think much about his initial comment. She had long learned that loving Minato meant accepting all his little quirks too. He was her little weirdo. She reached out for him; his fingers found hers immediately they came to rest across their son's back, interlaced together. Locked. "Are you ready?" She asked even though it was happening either way.

He nodded his head with a level of exuberance that had her giggling, she was filled with rising bubbles of lightness. Her family was the only thing that kept her from floating away, even if they were the reason behind her joy. Nearly uncontainable.

"There's still doubt? Even after all that work I put in?" Not that he was complaining all that much. His wife had a demanding job as their primary breadwinner. She made a million decisions a day, taking care of seemingly everyone on the island. So he took care of her. And he was very good at helping her find ways to relieve stress.

"Darling!" If her hands were not full she would have thrown her pink flip-flop at him. She covered the girl's ear closest to him with one hand and frowned disapprovingly. "The children!" She angrily whispered, face almost as pink as her hair.

"They're sleeping. Out like lights. We both know where they get that from," he winked at her, grinning from ear to ear. They were dead to the world. The cake in their bellies in addition to the home-cooked picnic offerings would keep them under for a while longer.

"You are going out of your way to not endear yourself to me, Toto-kun," she huffed at the teasing, not sure how he turned everything on its head so quickly. If she could not sleep deeply - without a worry - in her own home, in her own bed next to her husband then where could she? "We should wait a couple of weeks before we tell anyone," her eyes softened, her fluster dying down - eaten away by the soothing waves of contentment that rolled through her.

He nodded his head in agreement. Breaking it to their daughter that she was no longer going to be the youngest was not something either of them looked forward to. If their prior experience with their son was anything to go by, there would be tears even if they had spent the better part of a year trying to subtly get her used to the idea. Their parents - Sakura's and his - were going to be overjoyed at the news. Maybe it would finally be the last push they needed to move from Hi to Mizu. They were only children after all and there was only so much emotional manipulation they could take about "keeping the grandbabies away from them."

"I can't wait to raise another with you. I'd do it a hundred times over." In a heartbeat without protest, if she would have - let - him.

"Hold it right there, pal," she interjected quickly to rein in any of his schemes. "This is the last one." She scowled at the playful twinkle in his eye - the one that called her a liar without using as many words. "I mean it!" She all but whined, lips pulling into an adorable pout. The one passed on to their son. It was identical.

"Don't worry about any of that right now, Love," he worked to placate her. He did not mean to say the last part out loud. It kind of slipped in his excitement. He was hoping for another girl. Maybe with pink hair and green eyes - because they already had blonde hair with green eyes and pink hair with blue eyes - he dared not breathe it out loud lest he jinxed it. But for the math to work out and the peace to be maintained, they better start hoping for twins especially if Sakura was putting her foot down about not making any more.

Another set of one of each wouldn't be so bad.

He gazed at his sleeping daughter and son tenderly, brushing ocean-water-coated crunchy yellow hair from his daughter's forehead. Seeing Sakura in their features. "Just picture how beautiful they are going to be," he whispered. They really did make beautiful children.

"Well duh," she huffed - covering her fluster because he made her insides dance when he looked at her like that; like she was the only person in the world that he saw, the only person he wanted to look at. Ever. "Have you looked in a mirror recently?" He was gorgeous. Drop dead. As in, any woman - or man as she did not discriminate - would drop dead if they ever tried to do more than just look while she was around.

"No," Minato leaned forward, lifting their connected hands to his lips. He kissed the back of hers. "I'd much rather look at you."

"Kami, what am I going to do with you?" She asked tenderly, swooning, face pink and heart bursting. They did make really beautiful children to add to their beautiful life. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Her stomach dropped. She frowned, her tone was warning when she spoke. "Toto-"

"You know," his grin stretched wider. His eyes focused on a place she could not admonish him for because he had an excuse. Minako's head was in the general vicinity. Sakura found herself, cradling the side of her daughter's face to keep the chances of a violent outburst down. "I did notice a change but I didn't want to comment." She was different. In the best way. He licked his lips, slowly. Languidly. As he gazed shamelessly.

"Pervert!" She hissed at him, pulling her fingers away to grope around blindly for the nearest shoe. Sakuya's. She hurled it at her husband. He grinned and dashed out of the way. "Hey!" She sputtered, disoriented to what was happening. It was so fast. One minute Minako was in her arms and the next she was in Minato's, with their daughter sleeping soundly on the pale blue beach blanket next to her brother. Both of them tucked in, warm. Safe.

Minato spun her slowly, the sheer white oversized shirt she had tried around her waist flared almost like a skirt. He pulled her against him again. Arms bent. Hand in hand. Hand on the small of her back. A palm curved around his shoulder. Feet moving in the warm sand, leaving impressions of where they had once been. Overlapping. Her back was to his chest, hands holding on all before she spun. Her salt-filled pink hair moved with her.

"I love you, Sakura-chan," he kissed her forehead, melting her anger - real and put-on.

"I love you too, Minato-kun," she breathed against his chest, pink eyelashes fluttering, melting into his embrace and losing herself in the music only they could hear.

Neither of them noticed how the sun dipped under the horizon, taking the burning colors of fire with it. Replacing them with cool blues and blacks. Closing on yet another perfect birthday. She had just turned thirty. And Sakura never looked more forward to the next decade of her life. She could not wait to grow old with the man of her dreams. In this life and the ones that may follow, as Sakura. As his Sakura. Their Sakura.