A Fear like Falling

Authors Note:

This story is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Cymbeline written for the KakaSaku: Love's Not Time's Fool Competition on LiveJournal.

Please read and review the other submissions, there are some very talented writers participating who would love your support!

So...keep an open mind, also bare in mind that this is unbeta'd so there WILL be errors and grammar sins. I hope you can enjoy it anyway!

Prologue

The sky, rendered a chalky powder-blue from rising midday steam of Konoha's restaurants and bathhouses, was reflected with mirror-like perfection in the glassy surface of the great Nakano river.

At the height of summer Konoha was at its most beautiful, the riverbank was dotted with pearlescent pink flowers which nestled amongst the plate like lily-pads, jutting weeds and bulrushes. Only the gentle hum of electric-coloured dragonflies disturbed the silence.

Sakura's hands gripped a gilded railing which ran the circumference of the floating pagoda, allowing heat from the warmed metal to spread through her palms and wrinkled finger tips. Idly, she swayed back and forth, watching crystalline droplets of water fall from her wet-hair to make dark spots on the sun-bleached decking.

In such a serene setting it was easy to believe that the war brewing along Fire Country's western border was happening in another world or another lifetime altogether.

"Sakura, please put some clothes on, you'll catch a chill."

"It's high summer. I could fry an egg on a rock in this weather." Sakura scoffed gently before turning to throw her Hokage, adoptive mother and mentor an overly exaggerated look of incredulity.

She hooked her thumbs behind the thin red spaghetti straps of her bikini and stretched them away from her body to expose the twin streaks of milky white hidden beneath. With a light giggle she released them to slap loudly against her damp skin and cocked a pink eyebrow in mock challenge. Her gaze briefly skimmed over the two ANBU who stood on either side of the village leader, as unmoving and unemotional as the pagoda's supporting columns.

Tsunade's lips quirked into a half smile before she schooled her expression back into one of disapproval.

"That excuse for a swimming costume would be better used as dental floss."

Sakura gave a dramatic sigh and released her hold on the railing, bending slowly and sinuously with swan-like grace to pluck a towel from the decking. She draped it about her shoulders and began to massage her long damp hair with one corner.

"Would you rather I went swimming in my uniform?" She asked with a coy smile.

A slight tremor ran the length of one of the ANBU's body.

Sakura's smile broadened.

Finally! - a reaction.

She skipped over to where her Shishou was sitting and placed her dried hands on the Godaime's shoulders and began to inject soothing medicinal chakra into the knotted muscles. Tsunade gave an appreciative sigh as the tension in her back lessened and allowed the weighty paperwork clutched in her hands to drop into her lap.

"You seem stressed Tsunade-sama. Let me iron some of those creases out." Sakura commented jovially as she worked.

Tsunade's voice was flat when she responded, "Who are you calling creased, eh?"

Sakura laughed - a light bubbling sound that matched the lapping of water against the decking.

With a gentle sigh Tsunade continued, "Danzou seems to think we should be formulating an offensive strike...but we are barely holding our borders as it is, especially since the insurgents began interfering. He thinks I am being cowardly by even attempting to negotiate. And if we attack? Well, that will be the final nail in the coffin for Suna. They will never consider accepting a new alliance if things escalate to that point." She pinched the bridge of her nose tightly to push back the encroaching headache needling at her temples. "Can you believe all of this stems from just one missing boy?"

Sakura's fingers continued to work as she reasoned, "I know the Kazakage is a sensible man, he would understand if you just explained it to him. I don't see why you can't just tell them the truth."

"No...Danzou has assured me that if Sunagakure were to find out that we no longer have the Kyuubi then they would jump at the chance to invade, or alert the other countries to our predicament."

Sakura's hands stilled, frustration burning in her gut as she spat,

"I don't even know why you listen to that man. He's clearly just a war monger. As for why you married him, I have no idea what possessed yo-"

"Sakura, that's enough!" Tsunade roared, throwing Sakura's hands from her shoulders to stand and whirl on the young women, the paperwork bunched and twisted in her clenched fist,

"He has been nothing but kind to you and you still treat him with suspicion! Your attitude towards him is disgusting. You have been nothing but unpleasant to him from day one and your treatment of the suitor he found for you has been deplorable."

Sakura felt her face flush and ears heat with a mix of embarrassment, anger and confusion. It baffled her. It truly baffled her.

Long seconds passed in which the two women simply glared at each other, neither willing to back down. From the corner of her eye she could see the two ANBU readying to interfere. They shifted their balance from foot to foot, neither wanting to get between a furious Hokage and her irate apprentice.

When Sakura was sure that she could speak without screaming, she made sure to speak slowly, emphasising every syllable,

"I am not going to marry that marble mannequin. I refuse. The sooner Danzou gets that idea into his thick skull the better."

Tsunade's fiery gaze seemed to harden at Sakura's words, her amber eyes becoming a dead, stony brown. Her face arranged itself into a mimicry of a smile which held about as much expression as a death mask.

When she spoke her voice was a flat monotone,

"You will do exactly what you are ordered to. You will marry him to strengthen the relationship between Root and the rest of the shinobi populous. You will do this for your country. You will do it because I tell you to. You may leave. Now."

With that Tsunade turned and sat back in her seat and stared blankly out over the Nakano river.

Sakura, chewing on her lip in utter frustration, spun on her heel and started running down the thin wooden jetty towards the Hokage's sprawling gardens. She had seen it a thousand times over the past few months. That vacant, dead look in Tsunade's eyes.

It broke her heart to see her once proud and strong mentor reduced to a simpering coward clutching to Danzou's coat tails. She didn't know how he had wormed his way so insidiously into her Shishou's heart and she didn't care. The whole situation made her nauseous. Her country was on the verge of collapse, her personal life was up for auction and nobody seemed willing to do a damned thing about it. Not for the first time she wished she knew what had become of Naruto, the boy - no man – who had disappeared from their lives at the same time Danzou had become her mentors husband and closest advisor. He should be Hokage. He should be here to help her out of this mess.

The prickling moisture in her eyes could not be tears, she told herself stubbornly. She was not crying. It was residual water from her midday swim.

She swooped low to pluck a pebble from the pier mid-run and hurled it hard, with just a little chakra behind it, into the perfect inverted world surrounding her. With a perverse sense of achievement, she watched as Konoha shattered into a million rippling pieces.

He found her later that day in a sheltered grove of sycamores, seated in one of the oldest trees, on its thickest bough with her back against its ancient mottled trunk. One leg was tucked up under her chin while the other hung loosely over the edge swinging to and fro to some unheard song. If she had noticed his presence she didn't acknowledge it, instead she continued her task of stripping away the green papery flesh of a leaf from its delicate supporting structure of veins, with quick and jerking movements of her nimble fingers. Feather light fragments spiralled down in a slow waltz to rest on the manicured lawn, creating a tiny nucleus of chaos in an otherwise perfect, little universe.

She had changed, replacing that microscopic bikini for her usual ensemble of canvas medic apron and figure hugging maroon tank. She had tied her long, still slightly damp, hair back into a messy plait that started at the nape of her neck and reached the bottom of her shoulder-blades. The pale fabric of the half-apron resting against her thighs enhanced the deep golden tan she had developed these last summer months. Due to the weather she had forgone the addition of gloves, leggings and thigh-high-boots. He knew if he touched her there, bare skin to bare skin, she would feel like honey, smooth and warm - and yet, still break out in Goosebumps in response to his touch. The thought made him smile.

Channelling a little chakra into his feet he leapt up to join her.

"I thought I'd find you here." He said carefully, fearful of the strained silence surrounding her.

He tried to plunge his hands into his pockets out of habit but they glanced awkwardly off the sleek black material of his ANBU pants. Instead he hooked his thumbs into their waistband and slouched over her awkwardly, waiting for her to speak.

The skeletal remains of the leaf spun between her fingers. Once. Twice. Three times.

"I can't do this anymore." She whispered, finally looking up at the smooth planes of the grinning wolf's face.

A sudden hot swell of panic filled his chest in that moment. The air left his lungs in a gasping stream of disbelief as he immediately understood what it was that she couldn't do. He wasn't ready for this conversation.

"Do what?"

"This." She waggled the leaf-skeleton back and forth through the space between them.

"Of course you can." The Wolf growled fiercely.

"I can't." She stated firmly but quietly, "You heard her didn't you? They're going to marry me off. Hell, I'll probably be led down the aisle with a Kunai held against my back."

"We won't let them do that. We won't."

"We don't have a choice."

He could see the salty tear tracks standing out starkly against her skin but they had long since dried and now her vibrant green eyes were dulled by resignation. He hated that. Sakura was a fighter; it wasn't in her nature to give up. He didn't want her to give up on him.

He pushed away the wolf visage, allowing the grinning porcelain to sit high amongst a nest of coarse silver hair and reached out to hold her chin, fixing her in place so that she could see the determination in his face and the sincerity in which he spoke his next words.

"There is always a choice Sakura. Marry me."

There was a quick spark in those expressive orbs, a strike of flint against metal. He just needed to coax that spark into an ember and that ember into a consuming fire.

"Marry me," he repeated, "Right now."

"K-Kakashi...are you..."

He nodded the affirmative, "I am serious."

She looked so unsure. Her lip trembled ever so slightly, but her eyes never left his mismatched ones. Gradually she began to smile, a genuine smile, and to him it lit the shadowy grove as brightly as if the sun itself were sitting next to him on the branch.

Still smiling she questioned him, her voice rising in pace and pitch until he could barely distinguish one question from the next,

"...You are serious? You want to marry me? What about Tsunade-sama? What will they do when they find out? You love me? Do you really love me enough to..."

He slipped his gentle grip on her chin to touch a fingertip to her mouth. She instantly quieted down, beseeching him to answer with large glistening eyes.

"Sakura, I really don't care what they think, and yes. I love you."

He flicked her hard on the nose and his eyes folded into their trademark 'happy' crescents.

Then Sakura was upon him, throwing her arms around his neck with such vigour that he nearly lost his carefully maintained balance on the tree-bough. He returned the embrace, fisting long fingers into her top and cradling the back of her head with his other hand. Soon she was tugging impatiently at the black cloth covering his face, and planting hungry open-mouthed kisses across his cheeks, his nose, the crook of his neck...

"We" a kiss, "can go" another kiss "now?"

"Well first," he murmured against her wet onslaught "I thought I might teach you a lesson for parading around all day in that tiny bikini."

"Yes Sensei," Her musical giggle was light and caressing against his mouth while he worked his hands under her top and began struggling with the clasp on her bra,

"I should probably change into something more appropriate." She thought aloud, arching into his insistent touch.

He distractedly replied, "You look fantastic," His head dipped to nuzzle against her cleavage.

She gasped breathily when she felt teeth grazing against a sensitive nipple and then his hot mouth engulfing her left breast while a hand moved to caress the other.

"Kakashi...shouldn't we wait?"

"mmhm?" His mouth moved against her.

"I said shouldn't we wait? You know, till after the wedding?"

He drew away from her suddenly, astonishment clearly visible on the handsome lines of his bare face,

"Sakura...I don't think it counts if we've already done it before the wedding."

She snorted, sounding a lot like Tonton and replied, "No, I guess not."