AN: I decided to give you guys the whole story in one piece. Yes, you can find it in the regular chapters, but this might be more convenient!

Bonus Chapter: The Story of Karasu and Sayuri

Part 1.

The snow crunches beneath Sayuri's boots as she walks towards the small cave. Its entrance would not have stood out against the darkness of the night, were it not for the glow of the campfire. She stops momentarily, cold blue eyes fixed on it. She hesitates for a moment, then steps forward.

Inside the cave the temperature is much better- the wind is reduced to a distant howl, and snow and wind no longer reach her here. She takes her fur-lined hood down and shakes her head, freeing her silver hair from is confines. The snow-glasses come down next, and then her snow-covered overcoat. She tosses the last two in the corner.

A quick look to the other side of the campfire confirms that her prisoner is still unconscious. She drops the freshly killed snow hare next to the fire, then slumps down next to it. The heat of the fire instantly warms her chilled bones. The hare had been a tricky kill, its agility and sure-footedness in the thick snow providing a real challenge for the kunoichi. The smell of blood still clings to its carcass- it'll make a fine meal. Sayuri pulls a knife from her fur boot and grabsthe rabbit to skin it.

The man stirs. Sayuri's fingers clench around the blade's handle, eyes flicking over to him. He groans and his eyes blink open. In the orange light she can't tell their exact colour- just that they are dark.

"Wha-" He groans again and pushes himself up on an elbow.

"Where am I?" He croaks.

Sayuri looks back down at her rabbit and continues skinning it. His first response is tranquil- that was good, but she'd keep an eye out.

"Land of Snow," She replies curtly.

"I- I know that. Where's- Where in the Land of Snow." He pushes himself up further. The metal plate on his headband glints in the light. She'd seen it earlier- he is a Konoha shinobi.

"This cave." She says

"Well, aren't you a talkative one," He drawls. He rolls onto his back with a sigh.

She looks back at him, quietly staring him down. He was unusual. Captured by a strange shinobi, yet his response is not to attack her?

"I can sense your chakra," He says, as though reading her mind. "And I recognize your face. You're that Shirogane Sayuri, aren't you? I saw you in the Bingo book,"

She grimaces. Even in Konoha? Kumogakure was becoming desperate.

"Then why are you here, if not to hunt me down?" She snaps at him.

"Ah- serendipity," He smiles. "A chance meeting, if you will,"

"Just tell me already,"

A sigh. "Mission, of course. Nothing to do with you,"

She recognizes a lie when she hears one.

"Yet so ill-prepared. If not for me, you'd have frozen to death," She snaps, pulling the last of the skin off of the hare. She guts it quickly and pulls out its innards. She feels the slightest hint of satisfaction at his disgusted grimace.

"Is that why my wrists are bound?" He grins rakishly.

"I saw your headband. Couldn't take any chances."

"Makes sense, I guess. My name is-"

"I didn't ask you for your name."

"Yet I want to give it to you." Another grin.

What a pig. "How generous,"

"Sheer Konoha charm, m'lady,"

"Shut up."

Part 2.

"Why did you keep me alive?" He asks that night.

Sayuri bites into her part of the hare. The meat is juicy and blessedly hot, warming her throat and stomach as she swallows it down.

She thinks of her little brother, lips blue when she'd found him.

"Just eat, would you?"

Part 3.

Her knife cuts through his bindings effortlessly.

He smiles and she tenses, expecting an attack.

"Thank you," He says instead. "I appreciate it. My hands were starting to feel numb,"

She looks at him for a moment. He has a lop-sided smile and dimples in his cheeks. There's a few days' worth of dark stubble there, too.

"Just go," She says.

Part 4.

"You know," He says on the third day of their acquaintance. "I probably couldn't have killed you anyway,"

She jumps up, startled. She thought she'd lost him in the icy canyons.

He smiles that lop-sided smile of his and taps his nose. "My nose is better than any dog's," he says.

Her eyes widen. Konoha's tracking squads are well known- and deservedly feared. "Even out in the snow?" She asks.

"Especially in the snow. You're the only other human around for miles and miles," He sighs and sits next to her. "You're not getting rid of me so easily."

She sighs, too.

Part 6.

She almost chokes on laughter, later that day. When she finally stops her cheeks hurt. A stupefied silence falls over them.

"That's the first time you've laughed in a long while, isn't it?" He asks gently. He is kind enough not to ask why.

She nods. He deserves a bit of information.

That pun had been the worst and yet most hilarious thing she'd heard in years.

Part 7.

A week in, they run into a group of hunter nin from Kumogakure.

Her ninjutsu is unparalleled, lightning, wind and water howling through the air as she rips them apart.

He is a blur of steel and blood; the best swordsman she's ever seen.

He kisses her afterwards. He tastes of blood and sweat, but she finds she doesn't really mind.

Part 8.

Encounters with enemy ninja become more frequent. One day they run into a group of Konoha shinobi and there is a horrifying moment where Sayuri thinks they might recognize him and brand him a traitor.

But he is clever, so much cleverer than she'd given him credit for, and he has transformed himself into a non-descript Snow ninja before she's even realized the Konoha shinobi are near.

He is injured in the scuffle that follows, a nasty blow to the shoulder that would have left a lesser man writhing in pain. In her rage Sayuri calls upon a storm and devastates their enemy, intent to leave nothing whole.

His eyes are fearful when he witnesses her power, but the set of his mouth is determined. "They're just doing their job," He argues. "Please come away with me,"

She takes his hand and the storm slowly rages down.

Part 9

They return to the cave, shivering and afraid, but quickly find solace in each other's warmth. He whispers his name into her ear and she can finally bring herself to call him by it. He's more than just a Konoha Chunin, now.

"You could have gone with them, you know," Sayuri says after, her head on his chest.

He sighs deeply. "I could have," He admits. "But I have so little to live for in that village."

He looks at her and she realizes with a sudden shock that he probably loves her as much as she loves him.

Part 10

It all ends a few weeks later. Konoha has sent its jounin after them and Kumo its hunter nin, and either way there is no more escaping. Sayuri knows he wants to stay with her. She also knows that if he does, he will be killed, either by the Konoha shinobi branding him as a traitor or by one of the many, many dangers that chase her.

She cups his face in her hands and gives him one last smile before the Konoha shinobi's turn the corner and spot them. When they do, she pushes him away from her and shouts as loudly as she can.

"I trusted you! I- you've betrayed me!" She lies. His eyes go wide with confusion and fear, and he shakes his head-

But before he can open his mouth she screams and nimbly runs away. The last thing she sees is the betrayal in his eyes, but she cannot go back now; to do so would be to kill them both. Now Konoha will never know the truth of their relationship.

Her Konoha shinobi watches as she moves away. He cannot move.

A Konoha jounin approaches him and places a hand on his shoulder. "Karasu? Are you alright? We'll get her some other time, don't you worry,"

Karasu numbly shakes his head and thinks he is a fool to love her, but he cannot stop himself from doing so.

Sayuri finds out she's pregnant barely two weeks later. The Kumo Hunter nin pick up her trail a few months after that.

Part 11:

The child is found a few miles from Konoha when a group of patrolling chunin hear his cry. One of them picks the child up and recognizes the poor thing for what he is- a foundling. The boy is once again nameless, has no identity, no family, no past.

Konoha protocol dictates the chunin name the boy and take him to the nearest Konoha orphanage. But first, he needs a name.

"Oh, I know," One chunin smiles. " 'Hatake' for his last name, after the field we found him in, and 'Sakumotsu' as his first name,"

"'Crop'?" His colleague echoes incredulously. "That's a crappy name! At least give him a proper name!'

"Why don't you name him then, since you know everything," The chunin bites back angrily.

"Ah- err, Hatake… Sakumo!"

"That's exactly what I said!"

When Karasu first lies eyes on his son, almost 12 years later, he doesn't recognize him at all.