title: in the magic hour

by: whisperedsilvers

prompt: "Maybe you're the miracle I've been waiting for."

summary: It's not perfect, but everything is beautiful. —Minato/Sakura

note: Look. This is a purely self-indulgent fic. Okay, because I have a lot of feels and too much time on my hands. Don't take it too seriously, because I don't take it too seriously and just have fun. Okay? Okay.

I. windy in the city

"I'm exhausted," Sakura rests against the tree, fingers rubbing the back of her neck, watches Sai draw a dragon on his scroll, and infuses chakra into the ink until it gallops towards Naruto.

"We have twenty minutes until you have to meet the Daimyo," Sai says to Kakashi once Naruto rasengans his summon into oblivion, watching Sasuke from the corner of his eye.

"Don't remind me," Kakashi groans and then glances at his pink-haired student, "Are you sure you don't want to take up the post as the Hokage's administrator, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura snorts, "I had enough time playing assistant when Tsunade-sama was in office."

"Worth a shot,"

Sasuke huffs.

Sai starts to draw again.

"Alright, last run Sakura-chan," the Hokage claps his hands together, "You've gotten through the second-level of the sharingan, but now I'm going to activate the last part."

"The Kamui?" Sasuke pauses and then looks at him in disbelief.

"If Sakura-chan can stop Susanoo with her bare hands, imagine what she can do if she can predict where each attack is going to come from," Kakashi explains simply, though he sounds a bit crazed – she wonders if the lack of porn and high-amounts of stress has finally caused him to snap – and pulls up his headband.

"But you just started learning how to use Kamui," Naruto has the nerve to point out.

Kakashi may be old, but he isn't inept, "Naruto, you know each eye has different abilities. I was called a prodigy for a reason."

The blonde snorts.

He really did hurt his feelings.

"And I am Hokage."

Sakura can see the beginnings of a pissing match and decides to intervene before Naruto decides to let Kurama out for a run. She gets up, her shoulders ache and she's thirsty, but one more run won't kill her. "Fine, just don't pull me into Ichiraku or the men's hot spring or something."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Sakura-chan," he smiles behind that stupid mask of his and she wonders if she should just run.

"Ready?"

Sai's drawing is finished and he disperses chakra into the bird; Naruto might have to use his special shuriken for that, she thinks absently.

"Yes, sensei," she gives a mock-salute and shifts her stance.

"Kamui—" his voice cuts off when he yelps, Sai's bird attacks his face – because what kind of idiot keeps food in his jacket pocket? – and scratches the hell out of his eye.

And before she can get to him, there's a vortex and she knew this was a bad idea. She screams out in alarm, "Kakashi-sensei—!"

Even Sasuke isn't fast enough to reach her in time because the speed of Kamui is just unprecedented—

—she should've stayed home.

And it fades to black.

.

Minato stares at his students in minute amusement and a lot more exasperation, he huffs, "Obito, Kakashi—enough! You guys are a team! You're supposed to be working together, not going at each other's throats. Do you think the answer to our training is just going to fall out of the sky?"

But all the shinobi on the field can feel a hum of chakra—so swift and powerful that it nearly knocks Minato to his knees.

He looks up and the sky opens up like a chasm.

A black line, with crackles against the clouds and the blue lines, bleeds into black, and then there's a flash of pink.

A girl drops from the sky and onto the ground with a heavy thud.

Rin stares at her, "Woah."

.

Once Sakura gets home, she's going to throttle Kakashi. She's always been terrified of free-falling – especially if no one is there to catch her – she holds the scream in her throat and pretends, swears she's fine because she believes the more you lie to yourself, sooner or later that lie becomes the truth.

When she sees the blue of the sky and the smell of leaves, she is both relieved and terrified. She can't lessen her fall because the chakra from the Kamui leaves her immobile and vulnerable, so Sakura closes her eyes and braces herself as she plunges onto the ground back first.

She groans at the solid rock beneath her spine and—

"How are you even alive from that drop?" A voice asks with amazement.

Sakura snaps her eyes open.

.

Minato stares at the Konoha nin – her headband glints like water ripples in the sun – he's never met a shinobi with pink hair before; he thought red was strange, but pink is downright bizarre. He watches from the side, his kids are more than suspicious, but he needs to keep the perimeter, just in case.

The pink-haired woman blinks and then frowns at the small child, "Obito?"

Obito blinks, "Do I know you?"

"Sort of," she answers and then winces when she is jostled by Kakashi. Kakashi who is quite frankly, adorable – he's a kid and what – he's all scowly and teenage; she's supposed to be mad at him.

"Who are you?" he demands.

Minato sighs.

"Gods Kakashi, put that kunai away before you poke someone in the eye," she grumbles to hide her surprise and pushes him back with two fingers, "I didn't know you were a brat."

Rin giggles at his scowl and then asks, "Here, let me help you. You need medical attention—"

"Seriously, it's fine," she waves her off and Minato has to raise a brow at her stupidity. She's clearly broken some bones, is in pain, and she waves off medical attention? She winces again, sits up and doesn't even perform a seal, but there is medical chakra running down the edges of her wounds and bones.

Minato's eyes widen at her skill.

She sighs, her throat bare and open, "Much better."

.

"That was amazing!" the brown-haired girl beams. She looks vaguely familiar, Sakura thinks back. What's her name again—? Shin? Rin?

"Thanks, kid," Sakura resists the urge to tussle her hair because damn, she's old, "It's just basic medical ninjutsu."

"But that's not normal medical ninjutsu, is it?" the blonde—oh shit.

Sakura's eyes widen as she takes in the Fourth Hokage.

"You didn't even perform a seal, you targeted the wounds and bones with chakra control. How else were you supposed to heal yourself? You didn't even use your hands and I only know one person who knows how to do that. Tsunade-hime hasn't been in the village for some time," he narrows his eyes. "Are you a Senju?"

"Do you not see the headband?" she shoots back with irritation, later she'll feel guilty for snapping at him, but right now she feels like she's been sent through a cheese grater from training. She's been shot through a space-time ninjutsu with no way of getting back and she's hungry. Sakura emphasizes sarcastically, "Shinobi of the Leaf."

"I've never seen you before," Minato answers calmly.

"And you know every shinobi in the village?" she asks in disbelief.

"Yes," he says simply.

She mutters underneath her breath; he can hear her, but he chooses not to comment, "Unbelievable."

.

Sakura walks to the Hokage's Tower determined to get back to her own time. She supposes that the Third may not believe her – well she hopes he believes her because she has no other choice and quite frankly, this time period scares her – but, if she offers some proof, her Yin seal for one or—or maybe her slug summon, he will believe her.

It doesn't help that the Fourth is hot on her heels.

So she stops abruptly, half-nervous, half-irritated, turns and faces him with a scowl, "Is there a reason you're following me?"

"Making sure you're not a foreign nin here to attack the village," the blonde answers seriously.

He gets points for being a model shinobi, but he loses her respect with the suspicion in his gaze.

She gets it, she really does, but there's only so much claustrophobia she can take.

"Don't you have a team to teach?"

He shrugs, "They're on break."

Sakura decides that she really can't wait and uses shunshin to reach into the tower.

.

Sakura stares at the door for a moment and then rubs the back of her neck. With Minato practically breathing down her neck, she knocks twice on the door before poking her head in and asks in all her Kakashi-like glory, "Ah, can I ask for an audience, Hokage-sama?" she looks pointedly at the ANBU guards, "In private?"

Hiruzen raises a brow and dismisses his guards, he can sense Minato next to her and that's enough of a guard for him.

Speaking of which, Minato makes it a point to press open the door next to her, his shoulder brushes the short strands of her bob and he stands beside her in the space of the doorway. She glares at him before stomping into the office.

Hiruzen sets a sound barrier.

"I can't say I've seen you before, nin-san," he says politely but the accusation is heavy in the air, and Minato stiffens next to her.

She bites the inside of her cheek and tries to remain calm, "You probably won't, until maybe a year or so."

The Third blinks.

She sighs, "My name is Sakura Haruno. I am a Jounin of the Leaf and I've gotten caught in a space-time ninjutsu."

Minato gives her his full attention, but she doesn't look in his direction.

"A space-time ninjutsu, you say?" The Third repeats and stares at her yin seal, "How far along?"

"How old is Obito?"

"Eleven," Minato says slowly.

"About twenty years into the future then," she shrugs her anxiety away, "Give or minus a year. Look I know it's a longshot but—"

"I see," The Third sighs and suddenly, he looks very old.

.

"Make sure Tsunade-sama gets this as soon as possible." Sakura reminds her for the nth time, tying the scroll to her tail. She hates herself for acting like this, treating Katsuyu like a child, but the anxiety and nerves is starting to catch up to her, "Or Shikamaru."

"How about Kakashi-san?"

Her eyebrow twitches and she's hasty when she speaks, "No. It's his fault that I'm out here. If he wasn't so keen on using us as practice dummies, I wouldn't even be here!"

"Kakashi did this?" Minato interjects from the corner of the room.

Katsuyu's eyes widen in recognition.

"You're taking this surprisingly well, Sakura-san," The Third notes with an eyebrow, "I'd expect hysteria and maybe a bit of tears too, from anyone for that matter."

"This isn't the first time I've traveled to another time period," she says dryly, "Or dimension."

Or maybe she's just waiting for a complete nervous breakdown.

Minato just stands there stupefied.

.

There's a lot of information to process, she thinks. Settling into an apartment isn't just realistic for her at the moment, because this is temporary, she believes. The Hokage tells her, that it is imperative that she conceals her identity from everyone, if they ask, she is a shinobi who has gotten back from a very, very long mission.

It's the gist of the matter.

Only those of Minato's team, the ones who know where she comes from, know her identity, because it would be impossible to hide from. She butters up to Kakashi – even though she desires to wring the older version's neck – and he allows her, quite gruffly, to stay in one of the houses in the Hatake compound.

She wouldn't tease him, but she can't help but ruffle his hair when she realizes that he picks the house closest to him.

Kakashi is just too cute.

.

"This is what I look like?" Kakashi's eyes widen as he takes in Sakura's team photo. She has both photos: the old, pre-teen picture that's beaten up and faded at the edges, and the new one, with Sai, Yamato, Sasuke, and Kakashi in his Hokage robes.

Though she doesn't show him that one, at least not yet.

"Your hair is just longer and your nose is always stuck in a porn book," she snorts.

Rin flushes brightly, "He—what?"

"Kakashi-sensei is a whole pervert," Sakura raises a brow combatively, "And he reads porn. Religiously. I'm determined to figure out the culprit who gave him this habit, however."

"Hah! Kakashi's a pervert!" Obito laughs loudly, ignoring his scowl, he focuses on the picture, "You're pretty with long hair, Sakura-sensei."

Sakura didn't want to join Minato's team, to be honest; it's just a little too weird for her and out of her comfort zone. But Rin needs a teacher and she couldn't let her die when that mission came. Kakashi didn't necessarily need his sharingan, but she needs Obito's Kamui to go home and she couldn't tell him that.

"It wasn't exactly practical at that time," she responds and brushes the ends of her hair in a thoughtful manner.

"Did you accidentally set it on fire?" Kakashi comments bitingly.

There are shadows in her eyes, Minato sees. He scolds Kakashi with a look but doesn't say anything otherwise. There is something—something odd about her. She's young, he knows, but there is something odd about her, something ancient, and prophetic. He cannot put his finger on it, but it's awkward and nerve-wracking to be around her.

"No," Sakura says, but it doesn't bother her when she says, "A rogue-ninja, grabbed me by the hair and threatened the lives of my teammates."

The trio falls in silence.

"I wasn't very strong at the time. We had just made Genin six months prior to this assignment," she wouldn't explain that exam and the Third Hokage's murder because that's just a fuck up waiting to happen. "My teammates were beaten badly. I had to find shelter and keep them safe. Take care of them until they were better," she sighs. "Then one of the ninja got past my traps and we fought. He grabbed me by my hair and told me that he was going to have fun killing my teammates. I took a kunai and sliced my hair off."

Rin looks horrified.

"I learned that day," Sakura attempts to finish, avoiding Minato's eyes – because this is his philosophy – and puts the picture back in her pouch, "That my teammates are my family and I have to do everything I can to protect my family and my village, and long hair just didn't cut it."

.

"Those ninja," Minato starts off when he concludes training and his students have disappeared to do what pre-teens do, "Were they from Iwa?"

Sakura looks at him shrewdly, "No. The war ended long before."

"Can I ask where this mission took place?" he asks curiously.

"It wasn't a mission," she says firmly, but her anxiety peaks inwardly.

Minato's eyes narrow and determines, "It was an exam."

Fake it till you make it, Sakura.

"Yes."

"Chunin," he confirms.

She nods.

And then he winces, "How old were you?"

"Almost thirteen," Sakura thinks and then shrugs, "Kakashi-sensei was…ambitious."

"You mean reckless," Minato says evenly.

Her lips quirk upwards, "Not much has changed then."

.

"One of the reasons, Sakura-san," Hiruzen starts off, "Why I didn't have you restrained when you entered the Hokage Tower, why I didn't have ANBU incapacitate the moment you walked into my office, why I do not have a guard shadowing your every movement, is because of your chakra."

Sakura blanches at the tone, the chakra that switches from hostility to something calmer, makes her wince, because no one should ever underestimate the Hokage. "My chakra, sir?"

"It feels like Kizashi," his eyes wrinkle when he smiles, "You're his girl, hm?"

She chuckles sheepishly, "Yes, sir."

"Mebuki isn't pregnant," Minato blinks; she forgets that he's there.

Sakura ignores him though, "What was the other reason?"

"Minato," Hiruzen says his name like it's the answer to all his problems.

And in some way, it is.

She almost rolls her eyes, but holds her temper.

The Hokage pulls out his crystal ball from his box and places it on the cushion that sits on top of his desk. He starts, "This is my tracker. The user can see the current activities of anyone whose chakra signature they know, regardless of the location and obstructions. It's ideal for intelligence gathering. I figure that even though we do not have anyone in the village who knows any space-time ninjutsu – you said that the sharingan brought you here, correct? – I thought we could at least see the effects of you in this dimension."

Sakura glances at Minato and then asks, "Is it okay for," she points at the blonde, "Him to be here? I don't want to mess up the timeline."

"You being here already disrupts the flow," Hiruzen doesn't mince words.

Sakura wants to wince, but this is Kakashi's fault, "I guess, we can start with sensei?"

The Third nods in approval.

The tōmegane no jutsu spins with clouds as chakra is added to the glass and both Sakura and Minato peer into the crystal. They see Kakashi – student Kakashi – sleeping under a willow tree, a book on top his head, and a pug near his foot.

"You know Kakashi as a kid, Hokage-sama," Minato points out after a moment, "Not as an adult."

Hokage-sama looks pointedly at Sakura and then grimaces, "Looks like it's up to you, Sakura-san."

"Er, how do I…" she looks at the crystal ball suspiciously, "Just put chakra in it?"

"Chakra and thought," Minato answers for him, "Half of a tenth, think of Kakashi and—"

The image changes again, but instead Kakashi is in his house, making himself tea and a riceball.

"Wait, let me try something," Sakura interrupts herself, her hand rubs the red Kyuubi mark hidden behind her armband, and then she pulses a spark of green chakra.

The image changes and her favorite blonde appears in the clouds.

"Naruto!" she grins and gets closer to the crystal—she ignores Minato's startle and watches.

"—sensei! What do you mean you can't find, Sakura-chan?" Naruto's scowl is ferocious, "You use Kamui all the time, even when we spar!"

"I've been ripping into portals for two weeks, Naruto," Kakashi replies, sitting behind the Hokage's desk. "I don't know which portal she fell into. Remember the dimensions we were in? Or when you met Menma? If I didn't lose sight of her—" he runs his hand through his hair and breathes, "And Sasuke, did he find anything?"

Sakura flinches at that.

"Sasuke's rinnegan takes a lot out of him. Even though he can travel through dimensions, if he doesn't know what period Sakura-chan is in or where she is in that dimension it's useless. We don't know when time starts and we don't know when it ends."

The cloud pulls back.

"Rinnegan?" Hiruzen exclaims with wide eyes, "This Sasuke person has the rinnegan?"

Sakura winces, "It's a long story, Hokage-sama. One that I don't have the details of."

Minato interjects, "But it exists?"

"Yes,"

The Third sighs, "Looks like you're stuck for some time, then."

.

"It's fine," Sakura giggles hysterically, she's drinking herself stupid in her own home because the alternative is to sob like a child and she doesn't want to wake up with puffy eyes for her first shift at the hospital tomorrow. "I'm perfectly fine."

Kakashi watches her from the counter with concern knitting his forehead, "Er, Sakura-sensei, maybe you should slow down."

"Why?" she shrugs violently, "I feel great!"

"But you're drunk!" Obito exclaims.

And she shoots him a glare, "This all your fault, you know!"

"I thought it was Kakashi's!" he pouts.

"But it was your sharingan!"

Obito's jaw drops.

"What do you mean it was Obito's?" Minato enters the house through the window, Rin hot on his heels and she looks worried.

"I said what I said," she yanks on her hair, grabs her jug of sake and stumbles into her room.

Minato stares in her direction for a very long moment, then, uncharacteristically, he huffs and swipes the left side of his face in irritation. His students stare at him in shock, unused to his sudden burst of frustration.

"I'll take care of this," he tells them roughly. "Go home."

They disappear, though Kakashi is slower.

.

"Sakura, get off the table,"

"No!"

"You'll break it," he warns.

She snorts, "I won't, so you can—woah!"

.

Sakura wakes up on Minato's chest and she realizes that there are shades of mortification. More so than shadows, even when she squeaks in embarrassment because what the fuck. Her head aches, the sudden pull of nausea puts her back on her knees and she twists until she's curled into a ball.

He was asleep; she could've gotten up and saved herself the embarrassment, but the Gods are out to get her.

She swears on Ino's prized peonies.

Minato awakens to her groan. Her fetal position on the floor almost makes him feel sorry for her, but instead, he sighs and tosses the empty sake jug into a nearby garbage. He brings her a glass of water and some painkillers he has stashed in his back pocket.

"Here," he gives her the pill.

She peers at him through the cracks in her hand and then takes the pill; she dry swallows and Minato has to fight a frown. He passes her the glass of water and watches as she drinks from the cup, carefully.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura rubs her temples with her fingers and groans again.

"Rin was worried," Minato answers after a moment, he crosses his arms and furrows his brows. "She came and got me. She thought you were going to give yourself alcohol poisoning."

She snorts and points to her seal, "Who do you think my mentor is?"

He looks at her.

"I can't believe you thought I was a Senju," Sakura almost laughs. "I don't think any of them have pink hair."

"The Second had white hair."

"You may have a point," she comments thoughtfully.

"It was irresponsible of you to worry my students like that," Minato tries to center himself because he needs to—to fix this dynamic; he can't have her running reckless like this. He may not trust her, but his students do and even though he supervises nearly all of their meetings, their safety is his priority. "You put them in a situation where they could've been hurt—"

"Your students are smart enough and strong enough to take care of themselves," she interrupts him and is almost angry when she finishes. "I'd never put them in danger and I most certainly would never hurt them," she pauses, "On purpose, but that's beside the point. Why did you stay?"

Minato blinks, "Stay?"

"The night," Sakura clarifies, "You could've left. Left me to wallow in my misery and wake up with a hangover as my punishment for overindulging. But you stayed. Why?"

He is incredulous, "What if you had hurt yourself?"

"Drunk?"

"Cut yourself on the jar or something? I wouldn't leave you unprotected or vulnerable."

"I'm a medic; I think I'd be okay if it came to that," she shrugs, "But thanks anyway. That…was considerate of you."

He swallows and tries to change the subject, her sudden sincerity makes him uncomfortable, "Is that what you were doing?"

She blinks lazily, "What?"

"Wallowing in your misery?"

"Drinking is much better than crying, isn't it?"

Minato doesn't answer.

.

Sakura hates the hospital.

It's a sentence she never thought she'd say.

Konoha's hospital, before Tsunade-sama's arrival, is in a word, chaotic.

The filing system is horrendous. There are files, medical records, and reports mismatched or misplaced. The medics have basic training, but with the war happening, they aren't able to receive the advanced training that they need to keep up with time-consuming and intricate surgeries.

The medical supplies are, at least, well-stocked.

Somewhere in between high noon, making a supervisor cry, and demolishing a part of the ICU, Sakura lays on the bench on top of the roof. It brings back memories, painful and good. The one where Naruto and Sasuke almost ends her life is the one that makes her shiver with discomfort.

"I heard you made a few people cry," The Hokage is quiet when he appears on the roof, even quieter when he takes a seat beside her. "You truly are Tsunade-chan's apprentice."

Sakura sits up abruptly and smiles sheepishly, "Sorry about that, Hokage-sama. I," she looks around, "Is Minato here?"

"Is he supposed to be?"

"Doesn't he shadow you?"

"Sometimes," Hiruzen shrugs. "I left him with some of the Elders. Even Hokages need a break."

"It's good practice, isn't it?" she says slyly.

Hiruzen almost grins.

.

Sakura had never really been close with the Third Hokage growing up. She saw him as a kind, old man, one who loved his village and the people in it. She most certainly did not agree with most of his policies and decisions that he's made for the citizens – Naruto mainly – but he checks up on her almost daily.

Her arrival throws everything into a bit of a loop. There's mainly suspicion, doubt, and the occasional scorn, but that mellows out within a month.

The only thing that doesn't change is Minato.

.

"So?" Shikaku raises a brow, his fingers roll over the edge of his desk and contemplates the way Minato's face mars into something like confusion. "You don't need to know everyone, Minato."

"I don't know how to talk to her," he says suddenly, "She's just different."

Chouza blinks, "Do you like her? Or something?"

The blonde stammers, "I—I don't even know her!" He scratches the back of his head and continues, "The Hokage put her on my team, I didn't even know that was possible."

Minato doesn't reveal her identity, but he still isn't comfortable with her. Even though he doesn't deem her a threat, that doesn't mean she's not dangerous nor is she someone he considers a friend or comrade. His classmates—friends really, are the only people he could come to in times of peril or, in this case, bewilderment.

"Two teachers on a team?" Shikaku asks he thinks for a moment. "It's not very likely, but it does happen. Remember when we were recruited for ANBU, we had Boar and Snake as our leaders? It can happen. I mean it's still team Minato, right? It hasn't changed?"

"Not to my knowledge, no," Minato replies dryly.

"Plus, it's been a month," Inoichi joins in. "You need to get over it Minato," then he looks at him. "Why haven't we met her, yet?"

"She works in the hospital. She's the one who took care of Akira, Tsume and Kei," Minato supplies, he grabs his cup of tea and looks into the jasmine. "She's on par with Tsunade-sama, apparently."

Fugaku looks interested, "Really?"

The blonde's expression doesn't change, "Her apprentice."

"I thought she only had one," Shikaku offers with a frown.

"So did I."

.

"Are you Sakura-san?" A woman with indigo-colored hair pops into her new office – one that the Hokage gifted her after saving a slew of Jounin from a rare poison. She has a small smile on her face, "Tsume-chan sent me to get you."

Sakura blinks slowly, "Who?"

"Tsume-chan?" she frowns and tries again. "Inuzuka-san?"

"Oh!" she sits up abruptly. "Sorry, it's been a long day," and then shakes puts her files into the drawer of her desk. "Is she alright? In pain? I told her to take it easy."

The dark-haired woman shakes her head quickly and assures her, "No, she's fine. She just wanted to buy you dinner to show her appreciation." She pauses, "All of the girls will be there."

Sakura stares at her and then laughs nervously, "It's not really necessary—"

"She said to take you by any means necessary," her smiles sharpens. When she comes closer, Sakura notices the lavender of her eyes, the fluidity in her steps, and the elegance in her posture.

A Hyuuga.

"Right," Sakura forgets to take off her medical coat, "Lead the way, Hyuuga-san."

"It's Hikari, Sakura-san."

.

"—then I told the fucker if he even thinks of wagging that sausage he calls a dick in my face, I'd chop it off!" Tsume laughs hysterically, her bandaged fists banging the table, and Sakura has to fight back a wince.

"It's the drugs," the time-traveler whispers to Yoshino who tries not to giggle.

"This really happened on the mission?" Mikoto blinks with disbelief.

"You can even ask Akira!"

"He really took off his pants and waved penis at you," Sakura tries to make it sound as clinical as possible because all she wants to do is laugh.

"It was a sex ring, Sakura-chan!"

.

"You look happy," Kakashi comments when he notices her carrying quite a few shopping bags, "And those are a lot of bags."

"Why thank you Kakashi," Sakura replies sarcastically, "I am so grateful that you came to help."

He rolls his eyes, "You're a jounin, you're more than capable of helping yourself."

"That doesn't mean I don't like it when people offer me help," she chides back. "It's called having manners."

"Must've missed the lesson."

Sakura tosses an empty shoebox at him.

"I thought you said staying here was temporary," Kakashi follows her into the house, she puts her bags in the corner of the room and grabs a glass of water. "That's a lot of things to carry back."

"I can't exactly wear the same clothes over and over again," Sakura tells him, she's been wearing her medical coat to cover up her clan symbol, but it's been a month and she can't keep wearing the same pieces of clothing over and over again, sans her leisure and nightwear. It starts to wear out after a certain amount of time.

Kakashi tilts his head.

"And, I met the girls today. You know Tsume, Mikoto, Yoshino, and Hikari," she smiles lightly at the memory. "They took me shopping."

It's a bit of normalcy, Kakashi thinks.

"Minato-sensei told them," he blurts out, then winces at his tact; he didn't mean for it to come out like that. He just wants it, this tension, to stop being awkward, "To visit you. Said that you haven't been back to the village in a long time and wanted you to stop working so hard."

Sakura stiffens, "What?"

.

"I mean you haven't even attended a team training session since that one time," Kakashi tries to cover up for his sensei's thoughtfulness. "He thinks that you're working too much and that you should take a break."

"So he sent them to spy on me?" she flushes with irritation.

"He sent them to make sure you have friends to rely on and not burn yourself out."

.

"The eggplants aren't finished yet, Hatake!"

A slap.

"Sakura-sensei!"

She tells him much later that night, "And the reason I didn't attend your training sessions is because he didn't tell me when and where to go!"

.

Kakashi gives her the directions, the time, and instructions on what to bring to the training ground. Obito and Rin's surprise is visible when she walks towards them and it makes her feel the tiniest bit guilty.

"Sakura-sensei!" Rin smiles up at her and the guilt churns in her.

Dammit.

"Rin-chan," she pats her head, "I hear you've been practicing diligently."

She nods and Obito whines, "What about me, Sakura-sensei?"

"I heard you fell out of a tree," she deadpans. "Aren't you supposed to be a ninja?"

Kakashi snickers.

"You jack—"

"How nice of you to show up, Sakura-san," Minato joins the group on the grass, his shoulders brushing hers as he takes a stance next to Rin.

Surprisingly, it is Kakashi who comes to her aid, "She would've shown up sooner if you told her where and when to meet up, sensei."

The expression he makes is the same one Naruto makes when she swings a tree with her two fingers.

.

"Sorry about that," Minato walks with them to Ichiraku, Obito already planning on swallowing at least three bowls of pork and a plate of gyoza, "I thought you had known."

"We haven't exactly spoken since that night," she points out and takes a seat away from the kids. "You've been kind of MIA."

"Missions," that's his excuse, he sits next to her – forces himself really – and grabs a pair of chopsticks, "Shadowing the Hokage."

"If you say so," Sakura won't take it personally, it is a weird situation, but at the same time, they—he would have to learn to coexist with her.

Minato furrows his brows, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura breathes a laugh and grabs a gyoza with deft fingers, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were avoiding me."

.

Minato does not know how to deal with confrontation. It is a pure and simple fact. He can mediate, dictate, and resolve political, domestic, and commercial issues, but when the problem is directed at himself, he just doesn't know what to do. Out of balance, out of orbit, he is stumbling through his thoughts and that just isn't what he does, "I'm not avoiding you."

Sakura snorts and takes another gyoza, "Please. I have enough experience knowing when I'm being ignored."

She aced the exam with Sasuke, of course.

"I'm not ignoring you," he repeats firmly, "I have been busy."

"Right," she shrugs, orders miso, and smiles at a young Ayame, "Look it's not a big deal. I get it."

"Get what?" Minato asks with a lilt of exasperation.

"That you don't trust me," Sakura looks at him then and her eyes are almost glowing, he notices; they aren't a true emerald, but sea-foam dipping into aqua, and they hold him with a grip that has the insides of him shaking.

She inhales and leans over the counter then, "It's understandable. I'm a shinobi whom you have no background experience with and by background experience I mean familiarity. I didn't grow up with you, not like nearly all the shinobi you're comrades and friends with. That's what you meant when you said you know all the shinobi in the village and when you told Shikaku you didn't know how to speak to me."

His mouth parts, ears tinge red, and he hisses "How do you know that?"

"Yoshino talks too," she chuckles when he scowls and says, "I'll give you some advice – it relates to girl-talk so you can take notes if you want – you obviously need some help in that area," Sakura snickers when his face burns brighter. "If you want to be Hokage, you can't know everyone. Not everyone will want to be your friend and you will find yourself on uneven ground more times than you can count."

"Are you patronizing me, Sakura?" Minato drops the honorific the moment she starts a lecture and it startles her for a moment.

She blinks away the nerves and replies, "Again, advice."

"Hokage advice, you say."

"No," Sakura takes her ramen to go and pays before Minato can blink, "Advice on how to speak to me."

.

"The Tales of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi?" Minato repeats the words and looks at his master with disbelief.

"You wanted advice kid," Jiraiya says solemnly and tosses him the book, "Educate yourself."

.

Even though Minato doesn't know how to talk to Sakura, Sakura doesn't know how to act around him. She would like to be his friend, but he's—there are no words to describe his behavior.

She knows his Naruto's father, he's the Hokage, or was or will be. She slams her head on the countertop and huffs. She wants to be polite and cordial, but the way he looks at her, like she's a specimen under a microscope, just grinds her gears.

And he's also, really, really pretty—

"Sakura-sensei!" Rin breaks her out of her thoughts, she appears on her windowsill with a new holster. "I finished my first hospital shift!"

—which is really not all that important.

.

"Land of the Sea?" Minato repeats with a strange look on his face. "Is that a good idea? To go? Especially since we're at—"

"—war?" Shikaku finishes for him with a raised brow.

"It's a scouting mission," Hiruzen almost rolls his eyes, he's Hokage for Gods' sake, he knows what he's doing. "We need the funds and all you need to do is look for a scroll."

"What kind of scroll?" Shikaku asks.

"A medical one," he replies. Minato's eyes shift to Sakura – he files that piece of information for later – and reads off the list on his desk, "Herbs. The person who is funding this mission is in need of some rare herbs for his sick granddaughter. Apparently this scroll is full of herbs, but it has been stolen by many people over the years. The merchant is desperate."

"How do we know the herbs are in this scroll?" Chouza inquires.

"We don't," The Third admits, "I was tempted to have Sakura-san look over her, but she said that she would still need the herbs to heal her , the ones listed on the scroll, if his granddaughter's diagnosis is correct."

"You could do a diagnosis on the patient before we leave," Shikaku points out.

"I could," Sakura muses, "But it wouldn't matter. The herbs in the scroll can heal nearly anything. Even if I did diagnose her, she would still need the herbs to stop the spread. Regardless of her stage and symptoms, when those herbs – powerful and rare as they are – make contact with her bloodstream her antibodies will take care of the rest."

.

"So you're the infamous Sakura," Shikaku drawls out, he fingers the edge of his kunai strap and smiles wryly. "Yoshino tells me you're a hardass."

Sakura snorts, "She's not wrong."

Chouza laughs, "What year did you graduate? I can't believe we missed a nin with pink hair."

Minato turns to look at her.

"A few years after you," Sakura makes it a point to look more interested in her leather gloves, fingers tightening over the straps. "I had enrolled in the medical program almost instantly and then I met Tsunade-sama there. I had to beg her to take me on as an apprentice."

"What about your team?" Shikaku asks curiously.

"Abandoned after the chunin exams," she winces. "It wasn't a good thing. Tsunade-sama took me traveling with her after, but when I came back Hokage-sama told me to go back to her and train. I had other assignments, of course. It took almost ten years."

"Of traveling?" Chouza exclaims.

"Basically," Sakura nods and then shrugs, "But I was also scouting and doing a lot of intelligence work. Hokage-sama thought it was a good idea to have a shinobi patrolling the area and level out the playing field."

"I wish I could travel for a while," Chouza hums, "It sounds freeing."

.

Sakura is a terribly good liar, Minato notes.

Tsunade must teach her a lot more than medical ninjutsu; he had noticed that during their training sessions, Sakura never once went on the offense, but she would use her chakra scalpel like a blade.

Sakura is both magnificent and horrifying at the same time.

Because she could heal and cause inconceivable pain.

.

When they reach Hahajima, the main island, they need to take a boat to reach Jiro. It would've been fine to run there, but the water is unpredictable now that it's monsoon season.

So they take a boat and Sakura's new outfit is plenty distracting. She wears simple black shinobi pants and an off-shoulder kimono top, the sleeves reach the ends of her wrists and when the spray of water from the boat hits her, it sticks to her skin like a leech.

It's just distracting.

She scowls and huffs, Chouza laughs when her hair slaps her in the face and Shikaku manages to swallow his chuckle when the water shoots up her nose.

But then things get bad when the pirates decide to ambush their ship.

.

Minato, is monikered the Yellow Flash for a reason. He is bright like lightning, twice as fast, and just as dangerous. Sakura watches him almost in awe, even as she swings a man into the ocean without batting a lash. Nothing can touch him, but he can touch everyone.

There is a limit, she recognizes.

In the boat, he has limited access to space. The mechanics of using the Hiraishin within this space, depends on the angle of the boat and how the terrain can work to his advantage. The thing is, it's a moving vessel, the boat churns and sways. Minato can't put his seal everywhere and the ground is wet.

So when Minato uses the Hiraishin to cut into a pirate's lightning jutsu, he steps into the stream of water laying on the floor of the boat and Sakura moves without thinking.

"Minato," Sakura exclaims, but she doesn't stop, not until she fists the back of his shirt, pulls him back – his eyes widen and exhales roughly – and shoves a foot into the pirate's stomach that sends him back to land with a speed that even the Second couldn't catch.

Minato stares at her with incredulity and before he can ask what the hell she's doing—she points to the ground.

"Water is a conductor, you dolt," she hisses out. Though she is not standing in the water, she's still damp, the lightning makes her skin extra sensitive – even though she used her own chakra to lessen the sting – and she fumes, "For someone who's a candidate for Hokage, you sure are careless."

And this is how Sakura earns Minato's trust.

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