The nurse took Sakura behind the nurses' station and helped Sakura clean herself up a bit, and finding the exhausted girl a fresh and abrasively clean-smelling set of scrubs. Sakura smoothed the pastel blue polyester over her stomach and tried to gather herself. She circled around the nurses' desk and met Sai in the hallway.

Sakura saw them before they saw her.

Naruto and Hinata stuck out in the NICU like sore thumbs, the harsh fluorescent lighting reflecting off of their heads in cruelly ironic halos. They both hunched over something Sakura couldn't yet see, but it was a posture that she recognized all too well.

A jolt of pain shoved its way up through Sakura's gut, and she swallowed the bile that threatened to force its way out of her mouth. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

Sakura bit her lip and repeated her age-old mantra silently to herself. "Bedside manner, Sakura. Bedside manner, bedside manner."

She took a deep breath and glanced sideways at Sai. His eyes flicked from Naruto's bent back to Sakura's face, and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.

"It's going to be the first thing he asks."

"That seems quite likely."

"I don't…I don't know how to tell him," Sakura took a short pause, "I don't want to tell him."

Sai made a small little noise of pity, or maybe it was empathy. He sighed, and then, in a move that took them both by a fair amount of surprise, raised a hand to Sakura's shoulder to give her an awkward half hug. Sakura found herself holding her breath as they each looked studiously at the other's aching expression.

"I'll tell him."

"You don't have to do that, Sai."

"Isn't that what friendship means?" Sai asked, very matter-of-factly. "To do things for the people you care about, even when you don't have to?"

Sakura just stared at him. It was unsettling how right he could be, especially when it came out of the blue like that. She smiled weakly and leaned into his side, just the smallest bit. Sai gave her the shyest, most awkward hug to ever occur in history, and it calmed the trembling in Sakura's chest.

Sakura squared her shoulders and turned back to the impeccably clear glass that separated her and Sai from Naruto, Hinata, and the fragile little heartbeat that hid beneath them. She opened the door and the hinges screeched in protest.

The expression of pure happiness and relief that spread across Naruto's face when he saw her made Sakura's stomach hit the floor with a wet slap.

She refused to make eye contact. Her gaze slid silkily off of Naruto's face and to Hinata's instead. The woman's expression of exhaustion and pain was so much easier to take in this moment. Hinata, at least, reflected Sakura's own anguish.

"Sakura! You're finally home! How'd it go at the islands? Are you good? Did everybody come back oka-"

Sakura walked right past him, straight up to the shiny plastic case of the incubation unit. Naruto trailed off mid-sentence, glancing back and forth from her to Sai with his brows twisted in confusion.

"Wha-"

"We should step outside for a moment, Naruto."

Sakura released the incubator's latch with a soft click.

The noise echoed eerily around the room.

Naruto's face drained of color.

Hinata came to life, a cold fire burning in the pits of her eyes.

The air itself seemed suddenly stale, rank, and ominous.

Sakura's stomach churned with violent waves of chakra, and she closed her eyes. For a second, the most fleeting of moments, she prayed. And when she prayed, there was no god listening to her words. Instead, all of her hope, all of her desperation, all of her need burned on the surface of an unforgiving sun.

Sakura heard the door to the little room drift shut, and the muffled sounds of Sai speaking to Naruto as calmly as possible on the other side.

"Sakura-chan."

"Yes, Hinata?" Sakura didn't look at Hinata, even as she picked up Hinata's tiny, silent baby. His eyes were a disarming shade of sky blue that took all of the breath out of Sakura's lungs. He made no noise, and the grip of his little fist around Sakura's index finger was so pitiful she thought she might just begin to cry all over again.

"Gran-" Hinata caught herself mid-sentence and started over. "Lady Tsunade insisted that we name him, but-"

"She's right."

"I don't want to dishonor my family. The traditions are important."

Sakura hummed for a second as she thought of what to say. Something in her chest sparked with anger as she turned the thought over and over in her head. How dare anyone refuse to give something so simple as a name to this child? What had he ever done wrong? Was his heartbeat, however pathetic, not worth the same as the rest?

Sakura finally turned to look at Hinata, cradling the baby delicately in her arms. The words felt alien and brutal as she spoke them, but they also felt necessary.

"Without a name, there is no reason for him to live. Without a name, he will have never existed. Is that what you want, Hinata? For him to have never existed?"

Hinata's mouth was agape, her eyes spilling over with tears. The words were no more than whispers when she spoke them.

"N-No. That's not what I want."

Sakura carefully lowered herself to the floor. Her legs crossed beneath her and the baby's weight, and her jaw tightened at the burn of cold tile against hot skin.

"Then he's going to need a name."

Sakura readjusted the little baby in her arms, staring deep into his eyes. They focused straight back on hers, something surprising for an infant. Sakura pressed a finger lightly against his right temple, just a gentle exploratory touch.

Beneath the pad of her fingertip, there was sharp crackle of energy, and the child's right eye shivered with a tell-tale buzz of chakra.

That's curious, Sakura thought to herself silently.

Hinata whispered something, quietly enough that Sakura couldn't hear it the first time.

"Hmm?"

"Boruto. His name is Boruto."

Sakura glanced up at Hinata, but she was looking only at her son, barely even aware that Sakura was still there. All of Hinata's love and loss and hope and pain was centered in on that tiny little body that was just barely hovering on the safe side of death.

Sakura smiled and looked back down.

"Hello, Boruto, aren't you just the sweetest little thing?" Sakura cooed to him, tickling his chin. Boruto smiled a chubby little smile, one that made Sakura laugh. The fuzzy cap of golden blonde hair that clung to his skull glittered as Sakura raised him up, carefully cradling the back of his neck with her left hand.

She looked deep, deep into his eyes as she concentrated chakra into that hand. Just beneath Boruto's skin were perilously delicate bones that threatened to shatter at the slightest touch. As Sakura probed with her chakra, she even felt the slushy pressure of excess spinal fluid flooding his brain.

It was a miracle Boruto had survived this long.

Sakura bit her lip and focused. She wanted to be fastidious and careful with this-

But of course, nothing in Sakura's life ever went as she intended.

Sakura's healing chakra threaded into Boruto's body slowly at first, but as her energy met his chakra pathways, she lost almost all control.

Sakura gasped out loud, startlingly enough that Hinata snapped upright, the veins around her eyes straining and bulging.

Boruto's chakra network dragged on Sakura's, an invisible force that pulled harshly enough to make Sakura's chest ache. His infantile eyes never left hers, and Sakura could have sworn it was if this child, this little half-dead person that hadn't yet lived for a week, knew exactly what it needed in order to survive.

Sakura stared at Boruto in open-mouthed shock, mind racing through every ounce of medical knowledge she knew to try and rationalize what was happening, but there was nothing she could come up with.

Sakura's chakra barreled into Boruto's body, down his spine and into his brain. It swirled through his blood and deep into his bones, it filled his chakra network until it was a raging river in his limbs, until his chakra points shone like hundreds of blinding stars and Hinata could no longer look at him.

As suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

Sakura blinked a few times, slowly, floating back down into her physical self. Her eyes swam back into focus, and she realized just how tightly she was clutching the baby, tightly enough to feel a strong heartbeat that hadn't been there before pounding in his ribs.

Then Boruto gurgled, an actual vocal sound that bubbled its way out of his lips, and Hinata was immediately on her knees on the ground. She wept openly, throwing her arms around the baby and Sakura both, peppering them both all over their faces with hysterical kisses of joy.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," Hinata cried, over and over and over again, pressing her son tenderly against her chest. There was a half-second where Sakura thought that Hinata had calmed down, but then Boruto nuzzled greedily into the softness of Hinata's breast, and she broke down crying again all at once, smiling and laughing through the tears as she pulled back the soft cotton of her robe for Boruto to nurse.

Sakura scooted back from Hinata, giving the mother some space, and rose to her feet.

Her vision turned to cotton, and her ears rang, and Sakura had to fight to keep her balance. After a moment, when she could see again, Sakura looked out of the wall of glass, and her heart broke.

Naruto was standing there, limp and ashen faced. Loss and guilt draped themselves across his shoulders and weighed on him as heavily as a corpse. Maybe it even was a corpse, Sasuke's invisible, rotting body wrapping its cold arms around Naruto's throat in a final, soul-reaping embrace.

"I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun, I'm so sorry."

"Stop apologizing."

"It doesn't have to be this way!"

"It does, Sakura."

This was a memory that would haunt her until the day she died, Sakura was sure of it. The smell of Sasuke's infected wounds sinking into her hair as she held him, the boiling heat of his inflamed body so intense that she was surprised her tears didn't fizzle into steam.

"I can't do it. I can't do this."

"You have to."

"I won't!"

Sasuke's uncharacteristically soft eyes – surely just a result of sheer exhaustion and nothing at all more – were staring into hers, both pleading with her and commanding her to action. Sakura hadn't been able to stop herself from weeping as his hand curled around hers, the both of them tightening their grip on a sickeningly sharp kunai.

Sakura had never imagined that this would be how they held hands for the first time.

She squeezed her eyes shut, forced every thought from her mind.

"I love you."

"I'm so sorry."

Those were the last words they would ever share.

Sakura forced her hand forward and met the squishy resistance of flesh. After a few seconds, the weight pitched backward and hit the ground with a nauseating thump.

She couldn't force herself to open her eyes, not yet. They were beginning to burn.

"I'm so

sorry, Naruto. I'm so so sorry."

Sakura had no idea how she'd gotten to Naruto's side, but there she was, clutching at him as he clung to her.

They both slid down to the floor, and Sakura's tears began anew. She really didn't know how much more she could take.

At least the worst of it was over. Healing Kakashi…and then Boruto…both had taken so much of the pent-up chakra from inside of her that it was a noticeable release. But there was still so much left, and Sakura felt like she was beginning to go totally numb. A cold spot was growing in between her shoulder blades, making her back tingle with a billion pins and needles.

Naruto sobbed into Sakura's shirt as she carefully leaned her shoulders against the wall. She tilted her head back to let her own tears roll silently down her cheeks. Her shoulders shook with gentle sobs as the physical and emotional pain both rooted themselves so deep in her consciousness that she could barely remember what life before it had been.

Had there really been a time when her life had been as simple as a silly unrequited crush? Had she ever really known peace, a time when she was safe and protected-

"Naruto," Sakura croaked. She shook his shoulder a little bit, getting his attention as his sobs finally started to stop.

"Hm," he grunted, wiping his eyes with his sleeve and then very unceremoniously blowing his nose into his shirt.

"His name is Boruto."

Naruto's head snapped up at that. The name grabbed him by the collar and forced him to his feet, and the massive smile that ripped across Naruto's flushed and tear-stained face the second he saw his son brought life back into Sakura's exhausted heart.

Naruto leaned down and helped Sakura rise shakily to her feet. No sooner than she stood, Sai was supporting her weight with one cautiously placed arm around Sakura's waist.

"Sakura, is there anything I can-"

"Just go give that kid a kiss for me, will you?" Sakura said, cutting him off with a forced smile. She didn't even blame him for how quickly he did just that. More than anything, she wanted that same joy. Anything other than the utter emptiness and ache she was feeling.

Sai and Sakura stood there for a second, watching the little family that was sitting right in the middle of the floor without a shred of awareness of anything outside of themselves. The purity of it, the simple sweetness, it bathed Sakura in a warmth that she could just barely remember. A warmth from some long-ago dream…

Sakura shook her head and sighed.

"Can you help me get home, Sai?"

"Are you really in any condition to be leaving the hospital?" Sai asked, his face as placid as ever, but a twitch in his voice betrayed his concern.

Sakura looked down at her feet. She had to focus to move one in front of the other. The numbness was spreading down her spine in cold, wet waves. Exhaustion curled in around the edges of her vision, darkening the hallway.

"I don't think there's any point. I just want to fall asleep in my own house."

Sai looked at her and she looked at him.

Sai, for his part, seemed to understand. Sakura was glad then for his brutalist nature; he at least could respect wanting to die on one's own terms.

Sai gently picked Sakura up, cradling her in his arms the way one does with a child. Her body felt weightless, airy and without form as he carried her down the hall and into the elevator.

Sai had paused in front of the exit doors of the lobby, taking a moment to consider how he would open them without letting Sakura to her feet, when Sakura heard Kakashi's voice. At first, she thought she might be hallucinating – the stars in the sky outside were starting to fade into the very first rays of sunrise and it was making her feel even more immaterial than before for some reason- but no.

"You weren't just going to leave me here, were you?"

Sakura peeked back over Sai's shoulder to see Kakashi, standing there, all on his own and looking remarkably healthier than he had been upon entering the hospital. A surgical mask was perched perfectly across the bridge of his nose. To Sakura, he looked absolutely resplendent.

"I would never. Too many nurses for you too hit on around here," Sakura said, smiling dizzily. Even as exhausted as she felt, just having Kakashi that close, that alive, made her feel like she could do anything…including tease him.

Kakashi came up to Sai, patting him on the shoulder. The two exchanged a very meaningful glance, and something in Kakashi's face suddenly became much more somber.

"What was that?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, nothing. Although, I believe that Kakashi would like to take over from here," Sai said, quickly painting a cheery smile across his face as he looked at Sakura. The men passed her between them like a fragile doll, and it made Sakura blush.

But the second she was in Kakashi's arms, it all felt okay. It all felt right. Sakura smiled and nuzzled into the soft fabric of his shirt and took a deep breath. He smelled like antiseptic and sweat, and it was so perfectly familiar that Sakura felt like she could be at peace now, no matter what happened.

Kakashi elbowed the doors open and stepped out into the misty street of a Village just minutes from dawn.

"You're going the wrong way."

"No, I'm not."

"But my apartment is back that way, Kakashi. I just…I just want to go to sleep."

"You aren't going to sleep yet."

"Kakash-"

"I know what it is you want, Sakura. And I…" Kakashi choked on his words. He turned his chin away from her even as he leapt from the last rooftop to the forests, moving as quickly as he dared with Sakura in his arms.

Sakura reached up and pulled the mask away from his face. She had thought once that his face must show more than his eyes ever could, and she had been right. His lips were twisted in a near grimace, and a single tear was making its way down his cheek.

"Okay," Sakura whispered. She nuzzled her face deep into Kakashi's chest and breathed in deep. Just the smell of him filled her up, made her feel more whole, less like the death that skirted around her body.

Maybe if she could just melt into him entirely, body and soul, she could live. The thought made her smile ruefully. If only.

Sakura didn't peek out of her place against his chest until she felt Kakashi touch down to the ground.

The sun was truly rising now, throwing a dazzling light along the rainbow of wildflowers that was stitched across the green fabric of the clearing in the forest. It took Sakura's breath away.

The leaves were beginning to change color, and the grass was drying into a crunchy pastel yellow, but still the flowers bloomed heavily across the ground. It was all so picturesque, as if it was a painting; warm oils of ochre and gold and emerald melting into each other, spatters of bright blue and orange flung across the canvas.

The sky was brightening, fading into the soft salmon pink of an autumn dawn. Dew was collecting on the grass underfoot, making the ground chilly as Kakashi let Sakura down.

Kakashi sat with his back against a tree, and Sakura wasted no time in crawling into his lap. She melted onto him, warming them both. The smell of her skin was overwhelming to Kakashi's senses, and he only barely managed to keep his tears in check.

Kakashi had lost so many people already, you would have thought that by now it would just be another drop in a very full bucket.

But this, losing Sakura, would be so much more. This wasn't loss, this was fucking devastation. It was life, it was God taking the last thing he had ever dared to love and destroying it as part of some sick and twisted game. She wasn't even dead yet, and Kakashi was already mourning her.

"This is so beautiful," Sakura said. Her cheek was propped up on Kakashi's shoulder, and her breath was hot on his neck. Kakashi sighed painfully.

"You're beautiful," he whispered back, running his fingers comfortingly through her hair. He twirled the ends between his fingertips, watching them shine in the light.

Sakura hummed contentedly.

"I love you, Kakashi."

"I don't want to lose you, Sakura."

"This doesn't have to be as sad as you're making it out to be, Kakashi," Sakura said. She twisted in his lap, until her knees were on either side of his hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly.

The kiss was slow at first, salty and wet as their tears mingled together between their lips. Sakura's hand cradled the back of Kakashi's skull, bringing him closer to her, needy for his warmth and his touch. It filled her with something powerful that she couldn't really describe – but it made her feel more alive.

Sakura nipped at Kakashi's bottom lip as warmth spread outward from her chest, overwhelming the coldness that had settled its way deep in her bones.

Kakashi placed a hand on either side of Sakura's face, cradling her jaw as his tongue slipped across her lips. She released a soft little sigh as her mouth opened and her knees squeezed on either side of Kakashi's hips.

"Sakura, is this really-"

Sakura kissed Kakashi again, wanting and needy.

She could feel his hands a million times over as they traveled up and down her arms, could feel the warmth of his chest pressing against hers, the weight of her hips sinking against his. It sparkled, it flared inside of Sakura, making her skin prickle. Her hair even fanned behind her, as if she had been hit with a sharp gust of wind.

Sakura stood abruptly, pulling Kakashi along with her by the hand as she walked into the middle of the clearing. There, she dropped into the grass, delighting in the noises it made as it crunched into dust beneath her polyester scrubs. She pulled Kakashi down alongside her, rolling over onto him as soon as he fell into the grass. Flowers pillowed around his head, vivid drops of color splattering a silvery canvas.

Sakura kissed him, deeply. Heat pooled in her stomach, in a hard, twisting knot that begged for release. It curled and pulsed like a ball of hot, boiling water. It drove her to act in a way that Sakura almost didn't understand, but happily accepted.

Sakura tore off her top, and with a relatively innocuous tug of that monster strength ripped the scrub bottoms right off the side of her waist.

Kakashi just stared, a little dumbfounded. The sun shone brightly down from behind her, haloing her pink hair with fiery light. Her skin was glowing and flush, and the heinous bruise that had stained her hip so recently was almost completely gone already, just a faint yellowish wash across her thigh. Sakura didn't even flinch as Kakashi's hands squeezed greedily on her hips, only rocking them instinctually as she clutched his body tighter to her own.

Sakura allowed Kakashi to sit up and gently pushed his vest off over his shoulders, quickly pulling his shirt along with it. His chest was clear, but still peppered with slight bruises, bruises that disappeared under Sakura's soft, warm fingers as she trailed them gently and admiringly across his skin.

But in the sunlight, his Sharingan eye sparkled beautifully, as if nothing at all had ever happened. The scar extending over his brow and down his cheek was still red and irritated, as scarlet as the glittering eye itself, but otherwise perfect. Sakura half-wondered if Kakashi even realized, even really knew what had happened, was even aware of whose eye it was that was now rolling around in his skull.

Sakura leaned down to gently kiss Kakashi's scarred brow, half out of love, half out of thanks to whatever gods had listened to her fervent prayers in that misty hellhole. Then her lips dropped lower, to meet his again, and all semblances of coherent thought left her for a good long while.

Sakura's entire body felt silky and warm in the late morning sun, as if she would melt entirely into the thirsty ground. But it was a welcome tiredness, entirely different from the painful exhaustion that had been wracking her body for so long now.

The shuddering, all-encompassing thrum of chakra had abated, now just a throbbing heat deep in her gut, a frothy feeling that streamed around her body and back between her hips.

Other than that, she felt fine. Wonderful, even. The warm smell of sun-drenched, dry autumn leaves on the ground bathed her, and Sakura melted deeper against Kakashi's side. She smiled when she felt him nuzzle into her hair and plant a soft, affectionate kiss against the side of her head.

It felt like hours passed that way, with their bodies pressed against each other's, every single inch.

They snuck back into Sakura's apartment that afternoon, her wearing his rumpled, dirty shirt, and Kakashi henge-d into Ino for the sake of not being seen bare-faced. They were both still a little worse for wear, climbing up the stairs instead of even attempting to scale the balcony.

Sakura got her spare key from Mrs. Kobayashi, apologizing for her being barefoot and covered in dead leaves. Mrs. Kobayashi, for her part, said nothing, smiling knowingly and having over the key with no comment.

Sakura opened the door and spilled into her apartment, sighing tiredly. This was all she had honestly wanted for days, was to walk into her bedroom, collapse on the bed, and sleep for a week straight. She was about to do just that, when Kakashi pulled her gently to the shower instead.

Sakura smiled happily as Kakashi started the water, taking her shirt and balling it up into the trash. She stepped into the shower and let the water pour over her head and body, swirling around the drain in a murky, muddy foam. A heavy, satisfied sigh rolled from Sakura's lips as Kakashi joined her in the shower, washing her hair for her, rinsing and massaging the bubbles through her hair until she was drenched in the scent of strawberries. As he rubbed body wash across her skin, the muscles of her shoulders, her back, her stomach, she felt an odd twist in her stomach. Not unpleasant, but different.

However, Sakura forgot about it immediately as Kakashi began working conditioner through her hair, coaxing another hearty, relieved sigh of pleasure from her lips.

When they were done, Kakashi didn't even bother with waiting around for Sakura to get her own towel and walk back to the bedroom herself. Instead, Kakashi wrapped a fluffy pink robe around Sakura on his own, then swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed.

Kakashi dropped her onto the mattress with a gentle bounce, gazing down at her softly. Sakura looked up at him, water still dripping slowly from the ends of his silver hair and rolling down the muscles of his chest, the towel slung around his hips, the afternoon sun making his skin glow…the smoldering heat in those two beautifully mismatched eyes that followed her every move and made her blood feel like languid, liquid flame.

"I can't believe you're alive," she whispered, reaching out to take his hand. Kakashi wrapped his fingers around hers and sat on the edge of the bed as Sakura moved to make more room for him.

"I was just thinking the same thing," he murmured back, taking her features in greedily, now all too aware of how easily he could lose them forever.

Sakura pulled him into the blankets, wrapping herself around him and pressing her wet hair tightly into his bare chest.

"I love you, Kakashi."

"I love you too, Sakura."

Sakura didn't get out of bed for three days, her entire body aching and jellylike and doing its best to recuperate. Kakashi spent most of the time lying prone beside her, nursing a terrible headache as his brain and body acclimated to the new Sharingan crocheted into his nerve endings.

Tsunade came by once, with Hinata in tow. The younger woman had Boruto cradled against her chest the entire time, swaddled in a cozy black blanket that the boy found endlessly entertaining. His crystal blue eyes focused tightly on each individual velour fiber as he toyed with them, with far more visual acuity than any infant his age had the right to have. Sakura didn't stop smiling at him, not once, just so overwhelmed with love for him, with thankfulness and pride that he was alive.

Tsunade did a minor physical on both of them, but it was Sakura she focused more heavily on. In the living room, with Sakura perched on the edge of the coffee table as Tsunade checked her over, the questions just came one after the other.

"You said that you broke the seal, correct? And all of the chakra returned to your body?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And you expended most of it when reviving Kakashi, when healing Boruto?"

"I wouldn't say most of it," Sakura struggled to say through a yawn, "but quite a bit of it, yes."

"Then what happened to the rest, Sakura? You aren't telling me it just came out of your ears like steam, are you?" Tsunade questioned, narrowing her eyes at Sakura.

Behind Tsunade, Hinata tightened her focus on Sakura, still quietly playing with Boruto. Her eyebrow twitched curiously as she looked over Sakura's chakra network. It still pulsed and hammered with thunderous quantities of chakra, but her body seemed to have steeled around it...and something else inside of her drew upon it. Something that didn't really exist yet, but was kerneling inside of Sakura regardless, with a pinprick beam of overwhelming brightness.

"I don't know, shishou. I feel like I've been trampled but other than that I'm fine. You know I'd tell you otherwise. Medic's honor," Sakura said, trying to convince Tsunade.

"Somehow I'm not convinced of that, but fine. If you die, I told you so."

Sakura rose shakily to her feet, leaning on Tsunade and letting the older woman deposit her on the couch.

"You'll come to the meeting tomorrow morning, yes?" Tsunade asked, more serious now.

"For Saya?" Sakura asked, surprising even herself with the relative ease with which she said the Blood-nin's name. It rolled off her tongue with no bitterness. Sakura herself could not explain the protectiveness she felt over this last surviving woman.

It was completely unwarranted – Sakura knew this. Saya was older than Sakura was, by probably 20 years. She had committed countless crimes of war, murdered more than could probably ever be known.

But Sakura also could see the regret, the devastation, the wreckage of a human being that lived deep inside Saya's ribs. The rest of the Blood-nin had been crazed, sadistic, soaked to their cells with the noxious, toxic hatred of the Blood. Yet, in Saya's eyes, Sakura had seen something that hadn't been in any of the rest. Sakura had seen fear, and she had seen penance.

When Chi had still been pounding through Sakura's veins as an unadulterated force of chakra energy, Sakura had stared deep into Saya's face, watched the woman fall to her knees and begin bleeding onto the sharp stones. Had seen the atonement in her soul.

"I will be."

"You know she's probably going to be executed."

"I won't let that happen."

"I don't know if you can stop it."

"I will."

There was a moment of tense silence, and then Tsunade nodded. The sincere determination painted across Sakura's face was not something that could be argued with.

Tsunade stood up and straightened her sleeves, sighing. Across the room, Hinata rose as well, bundling Boruto snugly into his blanket. As Hinata walked closer to say something quietly into Tsunade's ear, Boruto's pale newborn eyes locked uncannily onto Sakura's.

Her breath caught softly on the back of her tongue, the chakra in her body beginning to sparkle in time with the infant's eyes. It was both eerie and…oddly familiar. Something was flickering warmly between them. Sakura reached out mindlessly, as if to tickle Boruto, and felt his pulse ticking perfectly in time with her own, oddly aware of her own heartbeat in her throat.

And a strong heartbeat it is, isn't it?

Sakura's eyes widened as she caught herself thinking that, patting Boruto's chubby little cheek and pulling her hand away. Tsunade and Hinata were both quiet as they watched this interaction, exchanging a wordless glance.

"I'll see you in the morning, Sakura," Tsunade said. Her voice was jarringly loud in the silent room, and Sakura had to blink a few times to refocus before nodding and politely saying her own goodbyes, if still a bit absentmindedly. With Tsunade mentioning the morning meeting again, Sakura's mind had traveled back to the piles of intel scrolls clogging her apartment's surfaces.

The lock clicked into place behind Hinata and Tsunade as they stepped out into the hallway, the new mother fussing affectionately over Boruto while they descended the stairs.

"What was it that you saw, Hinata?"

"…I think…I think I saw-"

The morning fog was achingly cold as Sakura trudged her way through it. Its chill settled on her skin, seeping into her clothes and weighing her down almost as much as her own melancholy that morning.

Dawn was just barely beginning to creep over the edge of the forests while Sakura made her way to the memorial yards.

She had woken up feeling heavy inside, the set of her jaw already serious. She and Kakashi had said little to each other before they each left, knowing that they were only going to take different routes to the same place without saying a word. They each needed time alone for this.

He was probably already there, Sakura thought, thinking about how often he made his way to the largest memorial stone. It was well ingrained for him, but for Sakura, its rawness was borderline overwhelming.

The memorial she was heading for was very, very new. As she finally came upon it, Sakura could have sworn she still smelled the heat from the diamond-tipped drills that had shaped it clinging to the stone.

Sakura sighed softly to herself when she realized she was not alone. Naruto was already kneeling in front of the fresh memorial marker, his forehead touching the wet, dewy grass.

Sakura stopped to light a stick of incense in front of the marble slab, then took her place to kneel beside Naruto.

After a moment, Naruto lifted his head, still staring straight at the marble slab. His eyes did not waver, but Sakura could see the quivering of his bottom lip in her peripheral vision.

Naruto never was good at hiding his emotions. He was a man who lived life with his heart on his sleeve.

Sakura guessed that that was what had always been the problem. She and Naruto both loved hard, loved loud, didn't hide beneath flawless porcelain veneers. Not the way Sasuke had.

They had almost cracked that shell, just with the force of the love they had for Sasuke, but it had just…just never quite been enough.

Despite all that, Sakura felt less pain than she had the first time around.

Sasuke's memorial stone was not so intimidating, not so cold and black. The loss was not so piercing, so ragged. And she was comforted too, by the last words Sasuke had said.

Sakura turned to look fully at Naruto, at how haggard he looked, strained both by loss and the tiredness of newly minted parenthood. At that moment, she realized those words weren't only for her. Maybe they had been spoken only to her, only for her ears, but Sakura's was not the only heart that needed them.

"He loved you, you know," Sakura murmured, reaching out to rest her hand on Naruto's shoulder and squeeze.

"Huh?" Naruto managed to say, sniffling and scrubbing his sleeve across his face before looking at Sakura. His face was ruddy, pinched, and his eyes were glittering with hot tears.

"Before I…Before he…," Sakura gulped, forcing herself through it. Her hand flexed unconsciously, as gripping the unseen handle of a cold knife that was only present in her memory. "He said 'I love you.' He loved me, and he loved you, Naruto. He wanted it to be said before he was gone."

The last word came out garbled, Sakura choking it out like rancid bile. It still burned in her throat when she tried to say it aloud.

Naruto shoved his head into Sakura's shoulder, hiding his eyes before he dissolved into tears again.

They stayed like that until the sun rose in full, Naruto's tears soaking Sakura's shirt while she traced her gaze over every minute fleck of mica in Sasuke's gravestone, until she had it memorized.

When the sun's heat dissipated the last scraps of fog, Naruto heaved in a great breath of air and sat up, wiping his face clear.

"Will you do me a favor, Naruto?"

"Yeah, sure," Naruto replied, his voice gravelly and still shaking from restrained sobs.

"Someone important should be arriving at the gates in the next hour. A few someones, actually. I need you to bring them to me in the Hokage Tower?"

"What cause can you give for her to not only live, but to be freed?! This demand is beyond frivolous, it is obscene!"

Sakura's mouth set in a grim, focused line, and she uncrossed and re-crossed her legs, never breaking eye contact with the shrieking elder across from her. She noted the spittle flying from the wrinkly corners of his lips even from this distance, twitching one eyebrow in clear annoyance.

Several council elders sat around a large table, as well as Sakura, Tsunade, Shizune, and those who had been at the island. Sakura's eyes flicked past the yelling elder to the quiet figure kneeling in the corner, hands bound behind their back and head bowed to the floor.

Saya had not looked up from the ground since she had been brought into the room, nor had she uttered a word in her own defense. Sakura had not really expected her to. Something told Sakura that this red-haired woman was not averse to joining the Blood, and most especially Chi, in death. But, from the telling flinch every time execution was mentioned, Sakura also knew that confronting death wasn't terribly welcome either.

Sakura turned to her left to look at Kakashi, exchanging a telling glance. In her eyes, he could see the same determined brand of mercy and compassion in her eyes that had made him fall in love with her. The expression brought a rolling wave of goosebumps down his arms as he was reminded of the snowy hills, and he was suddenly very sure that Sakura would succeed in whatever the hell it was she was aiming to do here.

Sakura turned to look back at the still-standing elder, rolling her eyes while he stood aggressively, leaning over the table with his hands balled into fists. She shrugged her shoulders, unaffected by the pitiful attempt at a show of dominance.

"Saya is a refugee."

"A refu-" The old man just about busted a vein in his forehead when Sakura said this, dropping heavily into his chair with raging frustration.

"She is a war criminal!" The even older woman beside him hissed. She was shaking with anger, the long pins in her hair shivering. The ornaments that dangled from them clinked against each other with a light, shaky melody that irked Sakura's nerves almost as much as the woman's voice itself.

"She was a child soldier, one who only existed because of, and what a surprise this is, another war crime," Sakura said, setting her shoulders. Her eyes roved over everyone in the room, settling on the top of Saya's head.

"Killings are not solved by more killing. She does not deserve to be executed, no matter what she did. More blood won't cancel out her debts to the Villages."

"And you suggest that her debts be paid by freeing her?"

"I never said Saya should be freed. I said released from our Village's custody."

"And what, pray tell, is the difference?" The old man seethed from between clenched teeth.

"If she is reclaimed, Saya will no longer be a refugee. She will face punishment for her crimes in her own country. That is international law, no?" Sakura asked, more rhetorically than anything, glancing at Tsunade for confirmation. The Hokage nodded, cautious, not quite sure of what Sakura was leading up to. "Those who have committed international crimes face justice in their own countries of origin, if I recall correctly."

Fire raged in the elders' eyes.

"As far as we are aware, she is of Ketsu origin. Her blood was tested and confirmed that fact."

"So would mine."

Sakura sat up straight in her seat to match the man across from her, refusing to submit to what she was quickly beginning to see as overzealous bloodthirst. He was not trying to achieve justice, but to set an example. To rouse fear. To say something to all those enemies of the shinobi villages.

And this trivial, blood-soaked warmongering was something Sakura would tolerate no longer.

"We know of no other country, no other village that she could have come from. Therefore, she faces judge and jury in ours, young lady," he said derisively, almost sniveling. Sakura's eyebrow twitched dangerously high.

"Saya could tell you where she's from," Sakura said, staring again at Saya's curly red scalp.

The elder's lip curled into an agitating smirk.

"She refuses to speak. Therefore, we proceed."

Sakura's head tilted almost imperceptibly to the side, her focus flitting to somewhere in the halls for half a second. Then she came back to herself and rose to her feet. Her chair scraped out behind her, a sharp squeal that forced everyone to stare.

"Therefore," Sakura replied snidely, "I took things into my own hands since I knew things would go pretty much like this."

Just as Sakura finished speaking, there was a sharp rap on the door. Several of the elders shot up now as well, the racket of their rising objections and scooting chairs melding together.

Tsunade stood, her hand smacking down onto the table with an intimidating thud that silenced the room.

Tsunade looked at everyone in the room as if daring them to speak. Wisely, no one did.

"Come in," Tsunade said, raising her voice. When the door opened, at first they all only saw Naruto, all bright eyes and orange fabric, and a ripple of confusion spread across the room. Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura even saw Saya's head rise the slightest degree to look through the open door.

And then a violently red shock of hair followed Naruto into the room and anyone who had still been seated shot to their feet.

Across the room, Sakura watched as Saya's back straightened hard enough to have given her whiplash, her eyes widening while she tried to press herself into the wall as if she could disappear into the wooden panels.

"Lord Kazekage-" someone gasped quietly.

Gaara stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. Temari stood behind him, a look of shock on her face as she saw the woman in the corner of the room.

"Is it really-" Temari said, her voice half-strangled.

Gaara made a characteristically nonverbal murmur to answer her, and Temari's mouth slammed shut.

Gaara and Saya stared at each other, something going back and forth between them that Sakura could not hope to define or describe.

Gaara broke that eye contact first. He looked at Sakura, and they traded a nod, one that was missed by absolutely nobody. He then looked at Tsunade, and although they said nothing aloud, the two Kage came to some silent agreement.

As all this happened, most of those present were still whipping their eyes back and forth between the matching set of cherry-red heads on either side of the room.

The likeness was even more apparent in person than Sakura had expected, even after having found Saya's journals buried deep in the recovered intel, just a few nondescript scrolls among other unimportant papers.

She had suspected that Saya was from Sand Country upon first seeing her, but those childlike scrawls from decades ago had confirmed it. Journals that detailed her mother's death in graphic detail, journals that referenced an absent father with more assassins than could be guessed at. A father who held a very specific political office and could not afford "ill-chosen breeding" with poor women who couldn't afford to live within village walls.

Their hair was identical in color, their eyes the same soft almond shape. Besides their skin, his milky white and hers rich brown, they were almost twins. Both were small, waifish, unnervingly ageless and pallid.

Tsunade chewed on her lip for a moment, then came to some decision.

"Sakura, bring the Blood kunoichi. The rest of you, feel free to leave."

There was a chorus of protests from others in the room, but Tsunade dismissed them all with a scathing look.

"Yes, Tsunade-taichou," Sakura said, an edge of triumph crawling into her voice as she walked around the room to help Saya rise to shaky feet. Tsunade strode out of the room, Shizune following hurriedly behind. With a jerk of her chin, she motioned for Naruto and the two Sand sibling to come as well.

Sakura peeked over at Kakashi, sharing a small smile of victory with him as she went out the door.

The moment the group was out of earshot of the conference room, Tsunade spoke.

"You didn't think of telling me about this beforehand, Sakura?"

"Well-"

"I'd appreciate it if you would stop purposely leading me into things uninformed."

They all reached Tsunade's office door as the flush of shame began to creep up the sides of Sakura's neck. Tsunade opened the door to let the group inside but held her hand up to stop Sakura.

"No, you wait outside with her," Tsunade said brusquely, looking at Sakura with disapproval.

"But, Tsunade-taichou!"

"No. You're far enough in the loop as it is." Tsunade closed the door unceremoniously in Sakura's face, leaving her outside with one hand tight on Saya's upper arm.

Sakura huffed and pushed Saya toward one of the chairs along the wall before dropping into one herself. There was a terse, uncomfortable silence for several long minutes before either said a word.

"Wha-"

"I pr-"

Both women flinched as they tried to speak at the same time, stumbling over each other's words and back into silence for a few minutes more.

"What is the purpose of this?" Saya asked, finally. Her voice was quiet and level, but Sakura could detect the shakiness there, just beneath the surface.

"What happens to you is legally up to the Kazekage. I just made sure things actually happened that way."

"I will only face death in the Sands. That is why I left, my Lady," Saya whispered. "I was never meant to return there, never to live. I will face worse than I would have faced here."

"I wouldn't have made him come here if I thought you would die there."

"But the Kazekage is-"

"There's no love lost between Gaara and your dead dad, Saya. You weren't the only child he tried to have murdered."

Sakura paused, but Saya had nothing to say to that.

"Gaara is the Kazekage now. I don't think anyone will be letting you run free in the wild anytime soon, but I promised I would not let you die, and I am keeping that promise."

There was a moment of silence as Saya stared funnily at Sakura.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Stop it."

"Who did you promise, my Lady?"

"I don't…why are you calling me that."

Saya's gaze changed into one of dire seriousness, and she rested her palm over her heart. Sakura could suddenly hear it, could hear Saya's heart pounding beneath her ribs, exactly in rhythm with Sakura's own.

"The heartbeat is inside you now, can't you tell?"

"No, what the hell does-"

Sakura was cut off by Tsunade's door opening. Both women whipped around to look inside. Naruto held the door open for Gaara and Temari to pass through.

Saya and Sakura both stood as the Sand sibling walked up to them. As Temari removed the Leaf's restraints to replace them with her own, Gaara spoke.

"She will be returning with us."

Sakura bowed deeply. "Thank you, Lord Kazekage. I hope you know how much I appreciate what you've done today."

Gaara nodded, dismissing Sakura's bow.

"Thank you as well, Sakura. She…is owed a debt for my father's violence. I cannot ignore that you gave opportunity for that debt to be repaid. It will be remembered."

Sakura just nodded, as chilled as ever by the strange and formal way Gaara tended to speak.

Saya bowed to Sakura, throwing Sakura even more off guard, before being led away and down the hallway by Temari's gripping hand.

"What're they going to do with her?" Sakura asked, looking over at Naruto.

"They're gonna basically put her under cushy arrest for now. Gaara thinks she'll shape up if she's shown kindness, the same way he did, yknow? They were forced in the same place by their shitty dad, so they should get the same chances to redeem themselves, was his reasonin' basically," Naruto said, followed by a long, slow whistle. "You really saved her life, Sakura. Even I wouldn'ta expected that to happen."

"Well, I said I would. I had to. She didn't…" Sakura paused, not even sure what she was trying to say. "She knows she's guilty. She can change for the better."

"I'm proud of you for that, Sakura," Naruto said, ruffling Sakura's hair. "I gotta take them to the gate, but I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah. Bye, Naruto," Sakura said, smiling softly as Naruto trailed away down the hall in the Sand siblings' wake.

"Sakura."

Sakura turned around and faced Tsunade, with an apology already rushing its way out of her mouth.

"No, Sakura. Just come in."

Sakura walked in cautiously, now more than a little worried. Shizune was watching Sakura with wide, quivering eyes, and Tsunade was guiding Sakura to her seat much more purposefully than usual. She didn't speak until Sakura was firmly in a chair.

"Hinata brought something to my attention yesterday, Sakura. Something I think I should tell you now, before you find out on your own."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

Tsunade squatted in front Sakura, putting her flat palm on Sakura's stomach. The familiar hum of medical jutsu flooded the air, making Sakura's belly tingle.

At first, listening to Tsunade explain, Sakura was just staring at her with pinched, confused eyebrows. Then, as the humming warmth seeping into her belly twirled around another thrumming kernel of heat, her ears began to ring, and her eyes glazed over. After a few minutes more, with her retaining absolutely none of the words leaving Tsunade's mouth, Sakura's muscles turned to liquid and she melted into the chair.

"I should go," Sakura managed to say, without moving at all. She just kept staring out of the window.

"Shizune will walk you home."

"No, no. I want to be alone," Sakura mumbled, finally pushing herself out of the chair. Sakura walked absently to the door, saying something resembling a goodbye as she wandered out of the office and in the direction of her apartment.

Sakura pressed her hand tightly against her belly the entire time she walked, her brain running circles around the changing arrangement of her chakra system.

Can I do this? Sakura asked herself as she made her way up the stairwell, unlocking her front door and walking into her apartment.

Propped up on the dining room table was a note scrawled in Kakashi's quick, unconcerned hand.

Can we do this?

Sakura picked up the note to read it.

Meet me in the field after you get home.

Kakashi had signed the note with the same funny face worn by most of his ninken, a little tic that brought a bright smile to Sakura's face even in this very stressful moment. Then reality smacked her in the face again, and Sakura dropped the note and went to the bathroom for the scalding hot shower that her tense shoulders desperately screamed for.

Sakura walked slowly through the woods to their field, wrapped in a pale green canvas coat. She moved slowly, taking her time as she considered her life.

She was satisfied, wasn't she?

Before all this…all this wreckage, she had been happy. Life had been going well. Promotions in the hospital, grant proposals being reviewed by international committees, even some steamy romance to liven things up a little.

Yes, she was satisfied. Sakura had worked hard to achieve her goals.

But didn't that just mean she had to set new ones?

And with Kakashi…Sakura was happy. She felt settled. Like she had made her choice, one that was final, and she was fine with that. These last weeks had proven to her that it was the right choice.

But what was the right choice for this? Sakura wrapped her arms tighter around herself and shivered, but it wasn't from the growing cold.

Sakura sighed as she saw the break in the trees up ahead, strangely lit from the other side. Kakashi must have built a fire to ward of the chill, and she was very much ready to settle down next to it.

But when Sakura crossed through the treeline, it was not just a fire that she saw.

A long wood cabin rose out of the field, blooming from the grass as organically as any of the autumn flowers surrounding it. Lamps dotted the outside, and through the glassless, open windows Sakura could see a glowing fire inside.

Sakura walked up to it, open-mouthed and shocked. The door hung open, and as she stood on the rough pathway of stone leading up to it, Sakura looked indoors to see a familiar array of camping gear arranged comfortably around a flickering fireplace, piles of blankets stolen from her apartment and nested on the fresh oak floor.

"How anticlimactic. I was supposed to greet you at the door."

Sakura turned around to see Kakashi walking around from the side of the cabin, a pile of chopped logs in his arms.

"I can leave and come back if you want."

"Well, it would certainly be more novel if you did," Kakashi said, passing Sakura and walking into the cabin. Sakura followed him inside, watching while he dropped the logs next to the fireplace, throwing a couple into the fire.

"Yes, because my main goal is to make sure we're always living out an Icha Icha plotline," Sakura said, looking on with the slightest amount of awe as a shower of sparks rained back on Kakashi, making him glow. He was all stark contrasts, silvery white hair and pale skin, sparkling eyelashes and inky dark eyes, that captivatingly scar that painted his cheek like scarlet lacquer; harsh, mesmerizing flecks of colors that glowed in the firelight.

"I really doubt anyone would write a book about a story as boring as ours," Kakashi said, settling down into the blankets and motioning for Sakura to do the same.

Sakura nestled down into his lap, leaning her head back against his shoulder. "I think you'd be surprised," she said, taking his arms and crossing them over her middle in a comforting, loose hug. "It's not as boring as you make it out to be."

"Well, maybe 'ridiculous' is a better word for it."

"Describing my life as ridiculous is very apt, thank you."

"You're welcome, any time."

The two settled into comfortable silence, both watching the flames and thinking to themselves.

"I can't believe you followed through on the house."

"I told you I would."

"Yamato must have felt really bad about what happened back in the Mist."

"Don't we all?"

"True."

"Don't give him too much credit. I bribed him."

"Telling someone you'll pay them back for all the bars tabs they've covered doesn't count as a bribe."

"That's your opinion, and you're free to have it."

Sakura giggled and kissed Kakashi's cheek before settling back against his chest, roving her eyes around the cabin, the sliding paper doors and open windows waited to be filled with glass.

"Why now?"

"You deserved it, after all the good you've done in the last few days. You took down a terrorist cell arranged to have a death sentence commuted, I think that earns you a house in a flower patch. It's the least I could do."

"Hmm."

"What?"

"Did it earn just me a house? Can I share these valuable, tax-free winnings?"

Kakashi smiled, and Sakura was struck again by the beauty of his bare face, even the uneven tan line that spanned his cheeks was enchanting in the firelight.

"Only with approved individuals."

"Well, it is your flower patch."

Kakashi smiled again and leaned to kiss Sakura on the nose.

"Don't get too excited," Sakura commented, a little more serious now.

Kakashi perked up a little.

"Why not?"

"I care about my job. I work long hours and come home late."

"So do I."

"Housework piles up. I leave dishes for a week until I have time to do them."

"Why do you think I never had my own kitchen?"

"I'll take up the entire closet with my clothes. I have at least 9 robes alone."

"I had Yamato build an extra closet."

"I'll take up half of your closet too, Kakashi."

"I said extra. His, hers, and a third in the bathroom."

Sakura grinned dumbly for a second, then sobered herself.

"I won't clean up after you. I won't handle your finances and we won't share accounts. I won't cook you dinner every night or wash all your underwear each week. I want to be with you, to be together here, Kakashi. But I still need to be me, and you still have to be you before I'll accept an us."

Kakashi pulled away from Sakura and pulled her around in his lap to look her in the face. She hid in the shadows made by the fire directly behind her back, but she knew it was pointless as she watched Kakashi's Sharingan eye twirl around and look in her face.

"What aren't you saying, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, worry creeping into his voice.

Sakura sighed, taking Kakashi's hands in hers and trying to calm them both. She laced her fingers with his in her left, and with her right brought their clasped hands against the lower part of her ribs.

It wasn't a bad thing unless they made it one, right?

"There's something I have to tell you."

And all that's left is an Epilogue!