Believe it or not, I actually intended this story to be a sad, bittersweet sort of story.

Unfortunately, leaving it where I did on tumblr, gave you all the wrong impression.

And now, you all think it was Yandere. I mean, that's not a bad thing, because I'm just as much of a degenerate as anyone else and I love Yandere!Minato, so. Here we are.

I fixed up some of the conflicting info about how Sakura went back in time. I also added MORE yandere-ness.

Control

Sakura keeps her distance with Minato as best she can. Naruto is a force of nature no one can resist, and she often finds herself dragged to the blond's house against her will.

While they are children, the resemblance is barely there. Hana's body had been blonde as a child, her hair only darkening to pink as Sakura replaced her fully. But there was no denying the colour of her eyes.

It is when Sakura is sixteen that he begins to look at her strangely. There was no denying that her skills were almost a mirror image of Hana's, if more powerful and refined now that she had more time to train.

Sakura is careful to keep her distance around Minato from then. The resemblance between her and the woman he knew as Hana was far too stark for him to miss and she knew he had to have looked into her background. She wondered if he thought her a relative of Hana's or just a coincidence.

Either way, she was carefully distant and polite around him, scampering off whenever he came too close or playing the role of shy little girl.

She knew he was suspicious of her. He asked carefully veiled questions about her family, did her mother have any siblings? What about her father? And her extended family, what about them?

Sakura told him the truth. Her mother and father were only children and any family they had, had been scattered by the warring era and the Uchiha and Senju clans taking their land. She saw the frustration in his posture at her replies, knew he was angling to see if Hana had been a relative of hers, a cousin or a sister or something.

He sometimes dropped hints about her parents, that he might like to meet them one day. Sakura knew exactly what he was looking for. He was looking to see if there was any Hana in their faces, or if they were hiding something.

They weren't. And Sakura could see his confusion grow at their cheerful demeanour and honest earnestness. Sakura had her mother's green eyes, her father's hair, but physically, they couldn't be more different. She half expected another joke about being adopted, but instead, Minato just smiled, a fake thing that looked real enough.

She knew that he was looking for answers and often saw him watching her when Team 7 trained together. She was careful then, careful to reign in her true skill, hide the techniques she had learnt with him and instead fall back on her strength and genjutsu.

She slipped once.

Naruto had come at her with a Rasengan and she had reacted without thinking, vanishing into the cracked earth in a technique that she had learnt with Minato.

The very next day, Minato had asked her about the person who had taught her such a move and she'd babbled something stupid about reading a scroll. He had stared at her for a long time until Kakashi laughed and said that only Sakura would learn a jutsu that useful from reading, and rubbed her head violently.

It had broken the awkward tension in the room and Sakura resolved to be more careful from then on.

As she got older, she made sure to keep her hair short. 'Hana' had always kept hers long, had cared for it religiously, even on the battlefield. Sakura kept her hair short, and wore her headband as she had always done, in her hair.

'Hana' had worn her headband around her forehead, something Sakura had done simply to hide her Yin Seal.

She slipped again.

They were being extracted from a two-month mission gone wrong. Naruto was out of commission and Sasuke was barely holding it together. Sakura's hair had grown long over the two months, an infiltration and assassination mission. Covered in sweat and blood, the long strands kept sticking to her forehead and irritating her eyes.

As she was healing Naruto, it kept falling and she had torn her headband out angrily and slapped it around her forehead. The fabric was just thick enough to keep the long, bloody strands from her eyes and she could focus.

The sons of Uchiha Fugaku and the Yondaime Hokage and the honoured apprentice of a Sannin enough to warrant a full squad of eight. Minato had met them at the gate and done a visible double take at her.

It was only after Kakashi-sensei had unwound her headband from her forehead that Sakura realised what it must have looked like. Her sensei had never said a word about her resemblance to the woman who had occasionally showed up to take his sensei away for sensitive missions, but sometimes, sometimes, he watched her with sad, lonely eyes.

Minato though, had known 'Hana' much more intimately, had grown up with her, been in a war with her. And when he visited in hospital, Naruto at his side, Sakura had been grateful for Sasuke and Izumi's presence in the room.

His eyes were no less piercing with age, perhaps even more so now that he had settled into his role.

When Sakura was discharged from the hospital, she found a blood comparison request on Lady Tsunade's desk.

A vial of her own blood and an older vial simply labelled M.H.

Miyou Hana. The Hokage's long dead, former genin teammate.

Sakura tipped the blood down the sink and cleaned the lab so thoroughly Ino whined about the stink of bleach. Then Sakura destroyed the old, emptied vial, and knocked the new one onto the ground. She smashed a second over it, as if they had just fallen off by accident.

And when Tsunade asked whether Sakura had accidentally knocked anything off her desk, Sakura feigned ignorance and instead teased her mentor, just enough to distract the blonde. Sakura had made herself scarce when Tsunade had told Minato, but Sakura had heard about the fallout soon enough.

Minato was furious, and even Kakashi-sensei avoided him.

Sakura let things lie for a few months, until Minato's rage had subsided into resigned exhaustion.

Then she broke into the records room at the hospital and destroyed any mention of Miyou Hana. She was careful to make it look like a break-in, destroying other non-essential and retired files indiscriminately. After that, she hunted down any last biological trace of 'Hana' and destroyed those as well, covering her tracks to make it look like the samples had simply degraded over time.

The breach had been enough to put the village on high alert. Minato's foul mood returned, and Naruto whinged about it, complaining to a long-suffering Sasuke and a guilty Sakura about his short temper and the fact that he didn't come for dinner anymore.

Minato watched her with hawkish attention now, but Sakura did her best to play her role as a good, ignorant little Jonin. She smiled and argued with Naruto and Sasuke, pestered Kakashi-sensei, swooned with Ino and Tenten about the handsome shinobi visiting from Kumo. She even went to Minato, asking him for advice on her skills, as if she was just his son's teammate.

Minato's eyes grew a little less sharp during mission briefings.

Until she slipped again.

Minato had been invited to Kumo for a summit with the other four Kage. Kumo was chosen for its large plains and intersection with each of the other four great nations.

The summit went south quickly, Iwa was still smarting over the strong alliance between Suna and Konoha, and their own failure to secure the Raikage or the Mizukage as an ally. The Raikage's deciding vote that the Chunin Exams should be held in Suna and not Iwa, had been the last straw.

Iwa had attacked, and Minato hit with a slow acting toxin. The toxin, if left untreated, would slowly paralyse the victim, forcing them to live out the rest of their days trapped in their own mind. A cruel jab at the speed that Minato was so well known for.

Sakura was called from the village, escorted by the Hokage's own student, Uchiha Itachi. She had arrived only two days after Minato had collapsed, seen Gaara's white face. The famous Sand Siblings themselves, minus Temari, stood guard at Minato's door, alongside Kakashi-sensei and Chouza. The other two ANBU that normally shadowed the Hokage were missing.

Sakura knew where they were.

If there was any Iwa shinobi still in the lightning country, they would soon be dead.

The Raikage was furious, predictably, and attack on his own soil made him look weak and threw his own allegiances into question. The Mizukage just watched everything with narrow eyes.

"He called for you specifically." Itachi said quietly, pushing open the door to Minato's room.

Sakura had gotten to work immediately. The Raikage's personal medic was there as well, a sharp, talented man called C. He had fallen in behind Sakura, following her orders without question.

Warm water. Towels.

That was all Sakura needed to begin.

The first extraction had made Minato scream and Sakura clenched her jaw. The nurses in the small, rural hospital had looked horrified. But C had understood immediately. Sakura had pioneered the technique after all, and he stepped in when the nurses faltered in holding Minato down.

The fourth time Sakura made to extract the toxin, Minato had woken up. He grabbed her wrist, tugging her to him, eyes wide and clear on her face.

"Hana." He said. "Hana."

Sakura couldn't help the spasm in her arm at the plea. It had sounded so much like the one he had cried out when she had died, trapped under all those rocks.

Sakura told everyone he was delirious and to hold him still for her.

Minato looked betrayed, face furious as the nurses in the room did as she said.

"Hana, please."

Someone asked who Hana was. Sakura pretended not to know, ignoring Minato's desperate eyes. She looked away from his face, commanding C to strap him down.

She worked through the night to save him, straining even her considerable control to the breaking point as she repaired all the damage. Finally, Kakashi-sensei had pulled her away, face kind.

"He's as healed as he'll ever be." He said quietly. "You did good, kid."

She waited out the rest of the summit with shaking hands and her heart in her throat. Thankfully, the attack had left the Mizukage and Raikage understandably spooked, and they were both eager to hash out new treaties and alliances.

It kept Minato busy, despite recovering, and Sakura was thankful for that.

When he had woken, grabbed her arm, and looked at her with those piercing blue eyes, Sakura's heart had gone cold.

He knew.

Somehow, someway, he knew.

On one quiet evening, when Sakura had shot out of their accommodations before Minato could arrive back, Gaara found her and asked if she might think about coming to Suna as a medical advisor. He said, mistaking her stiffness for nervousness, that she would have room and board and a generous salary.

Sakura had been more than happy to agree.

Suna was known for their excellent poison department, not their flourishing medical techniques. Sakura knew what Gaara was asking.

Minato's face had looked like thunder when the younger Kage had asked for permission. But Sakura knew that he would not refuse Gaara, not in front of the keen eyes of Kakashi-sensei, who looked pleased as punch at the honour.

So, he said yes.

And when the summit was over, Sakura ran with the Suna shinobi instead, past the road that would take her back to Konoha and instead into the desert.

She stayed away for two years.

Naruto wrote to her sporadically, long rambling letters about the goings on in the village. Shikamaru and Ino had broken up again, Neji had caught Kiba scuttling out of the Hyuga compound at five am, Asuma and Kurenai had eloped, to the shock and horror of the council, and Naruto's glee. He only mentioned his father a few times, confiding in her that Minato was overworking himself, withdrawn and barely coming home at night. Naruto was understandably worried, asking for her advice on how to help his father, of remedies and teas he could take Minato to help him sleep and relax.

Surprisingly though, it was Sasuke who wrote to her most often. His letters were short, to the point, just like he was. But the fact that he even bothered touched Sakura more than she could admit, and the first time she had gotten a letter addressed to her in his neat, matter of fact script, she had cried.

After all, all she had done, everything she had given up, had been for him.

They were only a few sentences. Shisui had finally agreed to help with his genjutsu. Itachi and Izumi were thinking about getting married. Naruto was still an idiot.

His inquiries after her health were a bit awkward, and very short.

But it was Sasuke. And she didn't expect more.

She kept his letters in her pouch, where they would be safe, and sometimes, when she was homesick, she pulled them out to read.

For a time, things seemed almost normal. Naruto sometimes sent her packets of exotic ramen flavours, and Sasuke's letters stayed short and to the point. Temari dragged her out into the village, showing her all of the unique sights Suna had to offer, showing her the best hole in the wall restaurants, the shopping district.

As time wore on, Sakura was sure that Minato had forgotten about her reaction to him.

But that hope was dashed when she got an official summons from Minato.

The letter had been sealed with his personal seal, not the Hokage's, and Sakura knew that he hadn't forgotten.

She dragged her feet returning from Suna, making excuses to stay longer until Temari chased her out of the hospital, laughing. Gaara insisted on a team escorting her to the border, reluctant to let anything to happen to her, a dear friend.

"Besides, Naruto would be insufferable if something happened." He said dryly, handing her a little white and seafoam green scroll stamped with his insignia. Sakura knew immediately it was for Naruto. She wasn't quite sure what was going on between the two Jinchuuriki, but it was rather cute. Even if neither of them really fit the description of 'cute'.

When the Suna team left her at the border, Sakura delayed even further, a cold feeling starting in her stomach the closer she got to home. She hoped that the summons were simply because her mission had run over by a full year, and not because Minato had figured her out.

The scroll in her pouch, stamped with the gold Namikaze symbol reminded her otherwise.

He was in the welcoming party that met her at the gates. All smiles and holding a cheerful sign in Hinata's handwriting.

But his eyes were stormy and dark when she met them.

"Sakura!" Ino and Naruto cried in unison, bounding forward to hug her. Sasuke followed a step behind, face soft with a smile as he touched her arm, and Hinata beamed, face red and sleeves covering her hands as she asked if Sakura's trip had been nice.

Kakashi-sensei had shown up, late, of course. He had ruffled her hair and loudly told her she was too pretty for her own good now, and what were these freckles, hm?

Minato had waved them away with a smile, pleading off with an excuse of paperwork and leaving the group at Ichiraku ramen.

Sakura knew that he would call for her soon enough.

And the beaver masked ANBU appeared on her doorstep at nine pm sharp, ordering her to his office immediately.

Sakura felt sick, clutching her mission scroll as well as the well wishes Gaara had given her.

The Hokage tower was quiet, everyone having gone home for the night and Sakura knew that was why he'd done it. Less chance for someone to barge in and interrupt, less chance of her using other people as a distraction to get away.

His office was bright and cold when she walked in. The door closed behind her with a click.

"Your trip back was uneventful, I take it?" He said in lieu of greeting.

Sakura nodded, trying to smile and failing miserably. She set the two scrolls on the desk. "Suna's hospital is running well."

"Hm." He wrote something down, not looking at her. "And their training? Will they be good enough to support a talent exchange program next year?"

Sakura relaxed slightly. This she knew. "Yes, I believe so Lord Hokage-"

She saw him twitch but hurried on nonetheless.

"- They're small, but hard working. I believe that both countries would benefit from an exchange program. Our poison department will do well if we can have a few specialists work with them. Ino would be a good candidate."

He looked up then, setting down his pen. Sakura's heart sank as he made a single sign and the privacy seals in his office flared for a moment. The windows flashed and then grew opaque and there was a heavy pressure on the back of her skull for a moment as the silencing seals took effect.

The room was silent for a long time, him staring at her with those eyes that saw through her, no matter how hard she tried to hide herself. Finally, he tossed something onto the desk with a clang.

"You know, I thought it was just gods way of punishing me when you looked just like Hana, the same eyes, the same hair, the same smile." Minato said, voice tight.

Sakura stared at her old headband with a clenched jaw. The day before she had died as Hana, Sakura had buried her headband. While she yearned to return to her own time, with her own friends, she had grown to love the younger, smaller Konoha, and burying the headband had felt like she was burying Hana too, returning backing to being Sakura.

When she was Sakura again, she had gone back to the spot in the training grounds, where she and Minato and Ryusei had spent hours chasing Jiraiya around.

While that part of her life was finished, Sakura still had those memories, and to remind herself why she had done what she had, she had dug it back up, and locked it in a box in her room.

"I thought someone was laughing at me when you decided to become a medic."

Sakura wanted to leave. This was exactly the conversation she didn't want to have with Minato. When it came to matters of the heart, Sakura wasn't a brave Konoha kunoichi, but a cowardly little girl who ran and cried.

"For a long time," Minato said quietly. "I thought that you might be Hana's last gift to me, but the ages didn't match up." He looked terrible, face drawn and pale. "I thought maybe a relative, a distant cousin, anything."

"So, I requested a comparison between your blood and hers." His eyes were sharp as he stared at her. "Only to have the vial to fall from Tsunade's desk and only a few months later, the records department was ransacked and everything relating to Hana destroyed."

"An accident." Sakura whispered, looking anywhere but him.

"An accident." He agreed quietly. "But after that, you avoided me like the plague, you flinched when I came into the room, looked away every time there was a mission briefing."

Sakura felt a bit sick.

"If you hadn't done those things, I might have written it off as a bad coincidence, gods joke to drive me insane." He said, voice carefully practiced calm. "But you did. And then Iwa tried to kill me."

He was angry.

Sakura flinched, remembering his too pale face and ragged breathing as she had worked through the night to stabilise him. She had never seen Minato that vulnerable and it had torn at her to see him lying in the Kumo hospital.

"And I called you Hana and you reacted. You looked at me like she used to, when I did something stupid and she had to fix it." He continued, rising slowly. He touched the headband fleetingly, brushing his fingers over the metal before he threw it at her.

She caught it automatically.

"I found that in your room." He said.

She clutched the headband tightly, body coiled like a spring.

"Do you know that the seals for Hirashin never disappear once marked?" He commented idly.

Sakura blinked, confused.

And then reared back when he appeared in front of her. His eyes were burning as he glared down at her. He took her hands in his and flipped the headband over, just in time for her to see his seal, the one he had placed all those years ago, fade from view.

Sakura had nothing to say to him.

"I thought you hated liars." He snarled.

"I didn't lie!" She shot back without thinking and then stiffened at the triumphant look in his eyes.

Caught you, they said.

There was a beat of silence in his office.

Sakura bolted.

She flung the headband at Minato's face and sprinted for the door. He caught her as her hand was on the handle, slamming her up against the door hard enough to push the air from her lungs. He twisted her wrist up into the small of her back, kunai at her neck.

"No. More. Running." He snarled. "You lied to me."

Sakura squirmed as he crowded closer. He smelled as he had always done, of sandalwood and iron. "I didn't lie." She repeated, hating the quiver in her voice. "I just-"

"You are her, aren't you?" He demanded, moving closer, chest pressing against her back, pushing her further into the door. "Aren't you!?" He repeated, louder, more insistent.

Sakura sagged against the door, letting her forehead hit the heavy wood with a thunk. She couldn't get away from him. He was far, far too fast for her to outrun, and besides, where would she go? Out of the village? Become a fugitive? "Lord Hokage-" She tried.

The tip of his kunai pressed on the sensitive skin under her jaw warningly.

Sakura swallowed.

She pressed her forehead harder against the cool wood of the door. Biting her lip, she remembered his stricken face when she told him there was someone else, that she would never love him.

And there was. She had agreed to go back, knowing it would change everything, knowing that she might fail. But everything she did, it was all for Sasuke. It was always Sasuke.

But she had loved Minato. That, she had lied about.

He shook her a little. "Answer me." He demanded, voice growing louder and more insistent with desperation and hurt.

"I…" Sakura sagged. What else could she do but tell the truth? "Yes."

His hand tightened to the point of pain. "You…"

Sakura drew chakra to her first, his grip now bruising on her wrist. She didn't think he realised how hard he was holding her, but she also didn't feel like standing here like a lemming.

It didn't matter, because he let go of her abruptly, almost shoving away from her in his rage. "All this time." He hissed. "All this time, and you never even said a single word to me. Not one." He accused, voice ragged.

Sakura rubbed her wrist, healing the red mark he had left behind, turning as she did so. She had never seen Minato this angry before.

His chest was heaving, and his eyes were bright with hurt and anger. Like this, with no trace of the jovial man he normally was, it reminded her of their missions during the war. But even then, he had never directed such a cold look at her.

"I…"

"How?" He demanded harshly, knuckles white around his kunai.

"Minato-"

"How!?" He said over her.

Sakura looked away. His eyes were too bright, too knowing. He always could see straight through her. "We were at war. We were losing- we had lost. Someone offered a chance to make things right." She said stiffly.

Death hadn't told her not to tell anyone, but Sakura had kept her mouth shut anyway.

"I took it. And when my job was done… it sent me home." Sakura said quietly. Saying out loud, made it sound so simple, like just another mission her Hokage had sent her on.

Minato's jaw was tight, sharp. It made Sakura realise that he had lost weight, leaving him as lean and lithe has he had been on their longer missions during the war. "And that was it."

"And that was it." She echoed quietly. "I never meant for… this… to happen." She said, almost whispering.

"You were never going to tell me, were you?" Minato accused.

Sakura knew he didn't want an answer. He just wanted to hear her agree. He had already made up his mind. "No." She answered anyway.

His office was silent for a long time, and not long into that silence, Sakura had to look away. His eyes were too piercing, too hurt for her to meet them.

His computer thrummed quietly in the background, and above them, on the roof, the languid chakra's of his personal guard.

"Do you know what it did to me after you died?" Minato choked out finally, voice ragged with unshed tears and emotions. "I found you- under all those fucking rocks. You didn't even know who I was."

Sakura swallowed at the raw hurt on his face. She didn't like to see Minato in pain, and she wished with all her heart that things had gone differently. She hadn't meant to hurt him.

"I had to hold you as you died!" He cried, eyes screwing up in pain. "And I couldn't do a goddamn thing. All I could was watch." His voice cracked, and he looked away, swallowing hard.

Sakura was surprised and not to see that he was crying. Her heart ached. Minato didn't hide his emotions like the Uchiha, but even so, he didn't often let the hurt come out. "Minato…" She murmured, taking a tiny step forward, tears springing to her own eyes. "I-"

He swallowed. "Why didn't you tell me?" He begged.

She didn't know what to say. In her mind, this wouldn't have happened.

He took a step towards her, and then another, and another. Reaching out, he brushed a shaky hand over her arm, seemingly to reassure himself that she was there. His face creased in pain when he touched her and before Sakura could even think, he swept her into a hug so tight that it took her breath away.

He hugged her like he was afraid she would disappear, arms wrapped tightly around her back, shoulders hunched, and the side of his face pressed against her hair. One of his hands cradled the back of her head, achingly gentle.

Sakura knew she shouldn't, because what good would it do?

But she couldn't help it, and as she slipped her arms around him, the tears came out. She pressed her face into his shoulder, sagging against him, just as he did with her. she had been holding on so tight all this time and-

Minato hummed when she hugged him back, the sound rumbling through his chest. "I dreamed about this day for years." He murmured, voice thick with tears. "How I would do things differently. I wouldn't let you come with us, would make you stay behind where it was safe."

Sakura closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of him that was so familiar.

Someone had to die that day. A life, for a life. And Obito needed to live, just a bit longer, just a little while longer so as to avoid being corrupted by Madara's influence. He had still died with Rin, but this time, as a sweet, brave young man, who had died as a hero, not as a criminal.

"It's too late for that now." She said into his white coat.

"I missed you so much." Minato said again, pulling her even tighter against his chest. Pressed up against him like this, it reminded Sakura of another time, when despite the war, things were infinitely simpler. "We all did."

Sakura's guilt came back in full force. But she didn't know what she could say to him.

Minato didn't say anything more.

The hug dragged on and Sakura knew enough was enough. This was a different time now, and dredging up old, forgotten memories would do neither of them good. "Minato." She murmured, unwinding her arms from around him, and pushing on his shoulders gently.

He drew back, but his arms didn't drop away, instead, they fell to circle her waist. "It's been twenty three years, Hana-"

"Sakura." Sakura corrected.

"Can't you just let me have this?" He asked, begged, as if he hadn't even heard her speak. "I wanted you, even before you died, and now that I have you back, you're asking me to let you go-"

Sakura knew she had to end this. Minato was obviously exhausted, wrung out to nothing, and her confession had tipped him over the edge. He needed to rest, space from her, time to get his head around things. "And I made it clear that it wouldn't work between us."

Minato let her go, jaw working. "We have another chance, Hana." He said, expression hard. "I promised you once, that I would give you the world, if you would just let me. Let me do that, please-"

Sakura took a deep, shuddering breath, rubbing her eyes harshly. "Don't say things like that, Minato."

"Why not?" He begged. "I waited so long to see you again, and now you're here- we can-we can-"

"We can what?!" She cried, unable to quell to hot tears that spilled over. "What, Minato? Be in a relationship? Is that what you want? Because I told you, it's not going to happen. It wasn't going to happen then, and it isn't going to happen now. I have someone- and you have…"

His expression shuttered. "Do they really mean that much to you? That you would go back in time to change things for them?"

Sasuke's smile leapt to her mind. The one from when he was twelve, and they had just captured Tora for the fifth time. He had been happy then, and she would do anything to protect that smile. "…Yes."

Minato swallowed, backing away a few steps. He put a hand on his desk, as if to steady himself.

Sakura rubbed her eyes again. "I'm going home. You should too." She said quietly. "Naruto's really worried about you."

"But not you, though." He snapped, and Sakura was shocked by the sudden accusatory tone and angry expression.

Sakura didn't understand what had gotten into him.

"Dismissed." He snapped, turning his back on her.

Sakura chewed on her lower lip. Minato was acting erratically, something she had never seen before. He was always so composed and calm. But he had visibly lost weight, was dehydrated, sleep-deprived, running on fumes. "Yes, Lord Hokage."

His head jerked as if he wanted to look at her, but he didn't.

Sakura closed the door quietly.

One of his ANBU was outside the door.

"Jonin Haruno." He said, Snake mask almost comical in the fluorescent lights. "Is everything alright?"

Sakura smiled thinly. "Yes, yes of course. Thank you."

The ANBU said nothing else, stepping aside to let her pass. She felt his eyes on her all the way down the hallway.

Ehhhhhh