My mum saw the no. of reviews on my stories and was like, you should write a book

Mother.

Mother. I am a gremlin with the emotional maturity of a five year old. How do you expect me to write a whole ass book when I can't even remember what week it is at university?

Also. My most popular work is about dramatic god-llama creatures and a fucking magic mountain. Like.

I also gave you guys the wrong info last chapter. I said Minato was 23 years older than Sakura because she was 23 when she died, but that's incorrect since there was a 2 year gap between Obito's death and Minato's. Minato is 24 in canon when he dies, but I think I said in the last chapter that he was 25.

Look, the point is, Minato is 25 years older than Sakura, so he would be 48, not 46.

Enjoy degenerates, I'll see you all in hell.

Control

Sakura sighed heavily, rubbing her neck as she hefted the stack of charts upstairs. Technically, she was supposed to hand these off to the junior doctors, give them the experience in checking over patient files and making sure that dosages and follow ups were correct.

But after her disastrous confrontation with Minato she had thrown herself into work, hoping that it would distract her from everything that had happened.

It had, but she knew it was a stopgap, nothing more.

They couldn't avoid each other forever, no matter how much she would like that.

"Good lord, Sakura!" The head nurse on shift laughed as Sakura walked by. "You're not going to do all of those by yourself, are you? I thought you and your team were heading out for dinner tonight?"

Sakura paused and then remembered. It was Wednesday, so it was team dinner night, which meant scoffing down some of Mr. Teuchi's delicious ramen while Naruto talked everyone's ear off. She had tried, unsuccessfully, to try a new restaurant each week, but Naruto was adamant that it was ramen or nothing. "Oh- I completely forgot."

Momo snorted. "You're working too hard. You shouldn't be slaving away over those files, girl! You're young, go out, have some fun!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at the older woman. "Someone's got to do them."

"Yeah, that's what the newbies are for!" Momo crowed as Sakura continued down the hall to her office. "You're going to give yourself carpal tunnel!"

Sakura bumped into her office door with her hip, trying to get the handle down. She had half an hour before she was supposed to meet her team at Ichiraku, and she reasoned she could get a few done between now and then.

The stack of charts swayed, and she steadied it with her chin. The last time she had dropped the charts, Lady Tsunade had made her write them out by hand. you never know what information could get mixed up or lost when you scattered hundreds of pieces of paper around.

Tongue between her teeth, Sakura finally got the handle open and pushed the door open, backing inside gingerly.

"Need a hand?"

Sakura jumped when a warm hand touched her shoulder, and the stack of clipboards swayed.

Minato smiled at her, steadying it and her easily. "You couldn't take more than one trip?" He chided, taking a few off the top of her pile.

Sakura stared in shock. She hadn't noticed him in her office at all. She hadn't realised she was so distracted that she would miss one of the most powerful men in the world. "Lord Hokage, I-"

Minato set the charts down on her desk, looking back at her with a tired, sad sort of smile. "Sakura, please." He said quietly, almost pleading. "After everything I've-we've been through, you can't call me Minato? We were teammates once."

He looked so much like he did, back in her apartment. Expression open as he offered her a chance. It was the worst thing he could have done.

"You kissed me."

"I thought you were about to die!"

"That night-"

"Was a mistake. Nothing more."

"Minato." She said carefully. The door felt heavy as she pressed it shut quietly. She sighed, moving over to put the rest of the charts on her desk, doing her best to avoid his intense blue eyes. "I'll only call you that if you promise to look after yourself. Kakashi-sensei is worried." She said meaningfully, trying to keep things light.

Minato gave her a tight, drawn smile. "He's in no place to talk."

It was a quiet acquiesce to her request. "You look awful. Have you slept at all since the last time we-" Her voice faltered as his eyes slid to meet hers, stormy, "Since the last time we talked?" She said, voice weaker than she liked.

"It's a little hard to sleep when my best friend and teammate is back from the dead." He said, mild. His eyes darkened to a deep grey-blue that reminded her of the violent summer storms that hit Suna. "Gets harder when you factor in that she lied to me about it for twenty plus years."

Sakura took a deep breath to keep her composure. "I didn't lie to you."

"A lie of omission is still a lie, Sakura."

Sakura tapped her fingers on her arm. She licked her lips. She could see where he was coming from. When she had found out about the Uchiha Massacre, and the fact that both Naruto and Kakashi-sensei had kept it from her for years, she had been so angry with them both, furious enough to demand that Lady Tsunade remove her from Team 7.

Sasuke was her teammate too. And they had kept the very reason for his rage a secret from her, in the misguided name of protection.

And she had told them that if they ever did it again, she would never speak to them again.

And then she had turned around and done the same thing to Minato. "I'm sorry." She whispered, tears leaping to her eyes. She hated them because she shouldn't be the one crying, knew that it would only make Minato comfort her and it should be the other way around.

Making it about herself, again.

"I'm so sorry, Minato." She whispered, scrubbing her sleeve over her eyes harshly, the fabric of her lab coat painfully harsh. "I have no excuse other than I was a coward. I didn't want to face it- you. I couldn't. I thought if I pretended nothing happened that it would just go away."

Minato did as he had always done, moving over to comfort her. He didn't hug her, for which she was grateful, but he did wipe away her tears with soft thumbs. "Oh, Sakura." He murmured, his own eyes growing wet. "You've been carrying this burden all alone, haven't you?"

Sakura took a deep breath, chest shuddering. She had. Nearly forty years she had carried this burden, keeping her mouth closed, striving and working and pushing until things were set right and all the hurts that the future promised disappeared.

"It's okay." Minato murmured, crowding closer. The thumbs brushing away her tears turned into palms, tilting her head up. "You don't need to carry it alone anymore, Sakura. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."

She relaxed, almost basking in the feel of his skin on hers. Palms calloused, the same as they were when he was younger, and things weren't so complicated. He smelled the same, and if it weren't for the years on his shoulders, one might think no time had passed at all. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She murmured. "Would you have believed me though?"

His smile was almost teasing. "You're a mirror image." He murmured. "I think I always knew."

"I'm sorry." She said, and she felt lighter. Carrying the burden as she had, for so long, it was a relief to finally share with someone. Death had never told her not to and she didn't expect it would care so long as it got what it wanted. "I wanted to tell you, so many times, but… but then…"

"There would be questions." He finished. His expression was almost achingly forgiving. "I understand. Sometimes… for a mission, we do things that are… unpleasant."

Sakura thought about the kunai she had shoved through Madara's skull. The groans of rock as she smashed the horrible, ugly statue meant to act as a conduit for the tailed beasts. The screams of Kaguya's will personified as Sakura dug her fingers into its head and used her chakra to forcibly purify it.

"But… I can't stay angry at you…" Minato said, eyes falling half shut.

Sakura didn't even try to stop him from kissing her.

As much as she loved Sasuke, she couldn't deny that there had been a part of her, long ago when Minato had asked, that had seriously considered staying in the past. She knew he would make her happy, knew that she could love him almost as much as she loved Sasuke.

Minato's chest rumbled with a happy hum, hands sliding from her face to cup her neck.

She shouldn't. But she was tired of holding herself to all these impossible standards. Sometimes she just wanted things to be easy…

Minato pulled her close and she let him, winding her arms around his neck. The kiss deepened, not heated, but something deeper than that, almost desperate.

His hair was slightly lank, a sure sign he hadn't been taking care of himself and Sakura's heart hurt.

What had she done to this man?

Minato sighed against her hips, tilting his head. He pulled back, but only a hair. "God, I missed you so much." He whispered. "So much. You have no idea how many nights I would dream about this, just being able to hold you again."

They needed to stop.

But Sakura didn't have the willpower to push him away when he pressed his lips against hers again.

She knew it was wrong. Knew that she was leading him on when there was no chance in hell they would ever be a couple.

Minato pulled her even closer, fingers raking through her hair at the nape of her neck. It made her shiver and she gasped when he swiped his tongue across her lips. He was solid and strong under her hands, just as muscular as he had been when he was a young man.

His hands and lips grew urgent, more heated.

Sakura's back bumped into the door, hands tangling in his hair, still soft.

Minato's hands slipped down her arms, brushing against her sides in a way that made her gasp and arch against him. "Fuck-" He growled against her mouth. "Fuck, do you know what you feel like?"

He lifted her up, pulling her legs around his waist. He was hard in his pants and Sakura couldn't help the gasp, the slight tingle of pleasure that pooled in her stomach at knowing that.

Minato pressed even closer to her, like he was afraid she would melt through the door, pressing his hips against hers. His hands were everywhere, tangled in her hair, cupping her breast through her shirt. And his lips were hot and insistent, almost dizzyingly pleasurable as he kissed her.

Sakura gasped. She shouldn't be doing this. She needed to stop this right now, before they both did something they would regret.

But hadn't she dreamed about this, back when she was play acting as Hana? Just, pressing herself up against him and-

Sakura pulled her lips away from his, ready to protest, to push him away.

Minato didn't seem to mind, trailing kisses that were too hot and intense down her neck.

The protest died on her lips when he sucked at the spot on her throat, the one just under her jaw.

"I would have slaughtered a thousand Iwa shinobi if it brought you back." He murmured, nipping at the mark he had just left behind.

Sakura froze at his words.

"I killed all of the ones I could find." He continued, apparently unaware of how awful his words were. His lips mapped out a trail down her throat. "I swept that forest clean, and when I ran out of the ones on the field, I found their medical camps."

Sakura shoved him away, nearly tripping as he dropped her, elbow smacking against the door behind her.

Minato stumbled, catching himself on her desk before he could trip. His eyes flicked up to hers in shock and his lips parted in a way that was far too innocent, far too gullible.

He had to know.

He had to know how horrible his confession was.

"Hana-"

"Sakura!" Sakura gasped, elbows knocking against the door. "Sakura. Sakura. Sakura, my name is Sakura!" She repeated, for him or for her, she didn't know. But she did know that she was Sakura. Had always been.

Minato straightened; hands out like she was a frightened animal. "Sakura- What's wrong?"

"Did you hurt-" Sakura's outrage and horror made her throat close around the words. "Minato, did you even hear yourself? What you just confessed to?"

His back straightened, eyes falling into a familiar face of Hokage. "I would do it again. I do. Every night, in my dreams."

"What are you saying?" She whispered. "Minato… You killed injured shinobi. Medics. Even in war, there are rules, you can't- you don't-"

What had happened to the sweet, goofy man she remembered from her childhood? The one who abhorred war and the unnecessary death it brought with it? The one who promised to reform things, change things.

"They started it."

Sakura sagged, the words hitting her like a blow. "They started it. They started it." She gasped in disbelief. "They were injured! Dying! Those medics had oaths to uphold-"

"And I had mine." He snapped. "They would have done the same had they got the chance. They already did. They killed you- you were a medic and they killed you!"

"I was a combat medic!" Sakura cried, hands fluttering. She didn't know what to do. Looking at him, she only saw righteous fury. "I knew the risks! I knew what I was getting myself into! I agreed to it!"

"Well I didn't!" Minato said harshly, eyes flashing with rage. "I didn't agree to you dying."

"It's not about you!" She cried. "You killed unarmed non-combatants! Injured shinobi!"

Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked at him, looking for any hint that he was playing a joke on her.

"There are rules for war, conventions you just don't break. You don't kill medics, you don't kill the injured, Minato. You know this." Her voice cracked in the middle of her sentence and her voice nearly failed her.

"They would have done the same."

"You don't know that!" She said, tears blurring her vision. "You killed innocent people-"

"Innocent?!" He spat. "None of them were innocent, Sakura. None of them. They were all complicit in your death. I found the orders from the Tsuchikage, ordering your head by any means necessary."

"It was war!"

"He took you away from me!" Minato roared.

Sakura recoiled at the absolute loss of composure. She didn't recognise this man. He looked like Minato, talked like Minato, but the things he was saying were monstrous.

Minato's eyes flashed with pain, piercing blue. "They took you away from me." He repeated, voice cracking. "So I showed them what happens when you take something of mine. I left enough of his generals for him to find, so he would know exactly what he had done."

Sakura thought she was going to be sick.

"It was war." He threw back at her.

"War. Not war crimes." She spat, but her horror was ruined by the shake in her voice. She pressed her hands together, lacing her fingers together too tightly. "You committed war crimes, Minato. Slaughtered medics and injured shinobi."

"I did it for you!"

Sakura's heart dropped, stomach swooping. "I was dead! I told you, and told you and told you, Minato, that it was never going to work between us!" She yelled, at her wits end. She didn't know how else to get it through to him.

His expression darkened into rage. He swept a hand out towards her desk. "Wouldn't work?" He hissed. "Then what the fuck was that, Ha-Sakura? I know you, your dreams, your fears, you shared them with me, not this… this… other person!"

"You only think you know those things!" Sakura hissed.

"I know every inch of you." He continued, advancing towards her. "The spot behind your ear, the crease of your hip, under your ribs. I know you, Sakura. And you know me. It would work, if you would just let go of this person that keeps getting between us-"

"Doctor Haruno?" A muffled question came through the door, accompanied by a short, confident knock.

Kimiko.

They both froze at the interruption. The walls were soundproofed, they had to be. Sakura was the head of a hospital, and patient privacy was paramount, especially when her patients included the likes of the Hyuga and Uchiha.

Minato's eyes bore into her, challenging her. Completely alien.

"Doctor Haruno?" Kimiko asked again, pleasant and completely oblivious to the heated argument. "Sasuke's downstairs. He said you were late for dinner."

"Dinner?" Minato breathed and his eyes are an accusation.

Sakura swallowed. Team 7 had dinner, that's right. That's what she was getting ready to go to when she had seen Minato in her office. "I… I need to go." She said. She didn't know what else to say. Minato was clearly unstable after her confession and subsequent rejection. "I… You shouldn't come to see me again."

She fled her office at the look on his face, abject pain and rage, a mixture that made him look every bit like the dangerous shinobi he was.

Sakura sprinted down the hallway, away from the horrible confession Minato had spoken, the feelings swirling around her mind. She didn't know what to do, what to think. Minato had changed. She didn't know him anymore.

She heard her nurses, friends, colleagues, calling out laughing goodbyes, but couldn't find it in her to say goodbye.

She slammed into Sasuke in the lobby, nearly knocking him over.

"Sakura!" He snapped, catching her and steadying them both. He wasn't annoyed but taken by surprise. "What the Hell?"

"Sorry, sorry- I… Lost track of time." She babbled; aware she probably looks a sight as she ushers him towards the doors. She gave him a smile. "Dinner, right? I completely blanked, stupid me!" She said quickly, laughing a little as she smacks her forehead.

Sasuke's expression morphs slightly, eyebrows lowering in concern. "You're not stupid." He said shortly. His eyes narrowed and he looked at her more closely. "Have you been crying?" He demands harshly.

Sakura swipes her eyes guiltily. "No! No, Sasuke it's fine. I just got a bit upset. A… A patient." A lie. But it's better than Sasuke storming off in anger to find whoever it was that made her cry. He did it more often than not, especially when they were children and it had led to some angry tears from Ino more than once.

He pressed his lips together. He doesn't say it, but the slight tilt to his head is enough.

"I'm fine for dinner." She said with a smile. He never spoke much, but she had never needed him to, to understand him. "It'll help talk my mind off things." She reassured him, pressing a little closer to him, closer than maybe he would have let her before, but now there was something more between them.

Sasuke grunted, jaw tight but he didn't say anything else. "Where are your things?" He asked, gesturing at her lack of coat and bag.

Sakura looked down. She hadn't taken them with her in haste to get away from Minato and that horrible, oppressive atmosphere of her office. "I… I'll come get them later." She said. "It's fine, we won't be out too late."

Sasuke's frown deepened.

"It's fine." She said, tugging on his arm and surprisingly, he let her pull him towards the door. "I'm fine, I promise."

Sasuke didn't relax but he did stop digging his heels in.

She swallowed, the tension easing from her shoulders slightly. Sasuke was safe, and familiar, comforting. He was Sasuke. "I don't know why we keep doing these dinners," She said, the urge to talk filling her. She needed to forget what she had heard. "It's not like we ever try anything new." She joked as Sasuke pushed open the door.

Sasuke looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "There's a new place." He said stiffly. "It's not ramen."

Sakura felt her face heat up. She hadn't pushed Sasuke for a relationship when she had gotten back from Suna, too busy dealing with Minato, and too afraid that she had been reading too much into it. "How did you convince Naruto to go somewhere else?"

The tips of his ears reddened ever so slightly and Sasuke just shrugged.

Despite her unease with Minato, the fear and confusion and all of it, Sakura smiled at Sasuke, touched. Kakashi-sensei didn't give a damn as long as he didn't have to pay, so it had to have been Sasuke's doing. "Do they do tempura?" She asked.

Sasuke snorted, actually looking at her this time, a brief hint of his sardonic humour on his face. "Of course they do. I don't want to listen to you and Naruto whining all night." He said, rude to everyone's ears but hers.

His hand brushed against hers, and it's not an accident. Sasuke doesn't let things happen by accident. He doesn't pull away when she winds her pinky finger with his. "Thank you, Sasuke." She murmured, brushing her hair behind her ear.

He made a low humming noise and laced their fingers together properly.

That was his smile.

Minato watched Sakura walk down the street, away from the hospital, hand in hand with the Uchiha boy. All the while, she looked up at her companion with a bright, beaming smile that belonged to Minato.

She only ever showed the outside world her careful, polite smile. Not insincere, but it was always guarded, just a little bit held back.

She had only ever smiled at Minato like that. The first time she had, after a training session with Jiraiya -the first one they had ever won-, Minato's breath had been stolen from him. That had been the moment when he had promised himself he would anything to protect that smile, see it again.

Han-Sakura.

Sakura had only given him that smile occasionally. When they found each other after being separated on the field. When Yoshino and Shikaku announced they were dating. When Minato had brought her fresh tempura. The night they had slept together.

Minato swallowed, heart aching with yearning as he remembered the look Sakura had given him as they lay next to each other, all those years ago. Soft, loving, eyes bright, and lips curving just so, fingers pulling through his hair gently.

And now she was just giving it away to the Uchiha boy.

He had suspected that it was Sasuke, the one Sakura had mentioned back in his office. It certainly wasn't Naruto considering the fact that there had never been any indication of reciprocation on her part.

And he wasn't stupid. He saw the way she looked at the Uchiha boy.

Still. To know he had been cast aside for someone younger…

Minato's hand tightened around her old headband, the hard metal plate digging into his fingers and palm. The metal was old, partially rusted and weakened by twenty five years in the dirt.

It creaked in protest, but Minato couldn't bring himself to care if it broke.

He didn't need the scraps of mementos anymore. Didn't need to cling to the one photo he had, the shirt she had left behind in his room that didn't even smell like her anymore. He didn't need them anymore, because the gods had seen fit to give him another chance.

And he would be damned if he let anything happen to Sakura.

"Lord Hokage."

Minato turned.

Genma was standing by Sakura's desk, mask in place and the picture of ANBU professionalism. There was, however, a slight air around him, something almost disapproving in his body language.

Minato had ensured that Genma was the only one to know about Sakura's former identity as Miyou Hana. He hadn't said a word to Itachi or Shisui, because if it was Sasuke that Sakura was in love with, then neither could be trusted.

A woman like Sakura, the best medic in the world, the most powerful Kunoichi in generations, accomplished and beautiful, the Uchiha clan would be more than happy to let her marry their heir.

"Danzo would like to speak to you." Genma murmured, voice dropping into hatred.

Minato turned back to the window, but Sakura and Sasuke were already gone. "What does he want?"

"He didn't say." Genma said quietly. "But I suspect he's somehow found out about Sakura."

Minato felt a flare of rage and protectiveness. It was no secret that Danzo almost obsessively hated Sakura, if only because of her connection to Tsunade and the fact that she, and not one of his little puppet shinobi, had been chosen to lead the hospital.

"He'll try to kill her if he knows she's a weakness." Genma warned. "Sir, let me-"

"No." Minato said, spinning away from the window and tucking the headband into his pocket. It would stay with him in place of Sakura. "He's still a member of the council and while we have no concrete proof of his treason, we cannot kill him."

Genma hissed behind his mask, almost sounding like the reptile on his mask. "The evidence would be easy to plant."

"Let's see what he has to say first." Minato cautioned. Genma was perhaps a better student than Kakashi, less prone to fits of depression and self-loathing. And he had learned the Flying Raijin at twelve, mastered it at seventeen, something even Kakashi hadn't been able to do.

What's more, he was loyal.

"Send a clone to keep an eye on Sakura." Minato ordered. "And tell Shisui and Itachi they have the night off. I'll arrange a meeting with Danzo."

Genma murmured an agreement before vanishing.

Minato smiled at Sakura's nurses as he left. She had done such a good job with the hospital, and under her and Tsunade, Konoha had become the pinnacle of medical research and care, unparalleled, around the world.

Most importantly of all, though, here, in the village, surrounded by the best shinobi in the world. The strongest shinobi clans in the world, she was also safe.

And he intended to keep it that way.

Some literary parallels in here because I'm a lil bitch for that shit. I do it all the time and I'm surprised no one's called me on how much I use it lmao.

So I watched Under the Red Hood and I have some feelings

First of all, I love Jason Todd now. I haven't read any comics with him in it, and I literally only found out he wasn't an edgelord left over from the 90's like four days ago, but I love him, and I would literally die for him.

I am the epitome of bandwagon fangirl lmao.

Can only hope that we get to see him in the next season of Young Justice. Also, Wally. DC YOU HEAR ME I WANT WALLY AND ARTEMIS. IN LOVE. BEING CUTE. I ain't care about Miss Martian and Superboy, I want my WALLY AND ARTEMIS.

Now that's outta the way, I'm off to buy everything related to Jason Todd that I can find because I am shameless.