a/n: Last chapter! If you've enjoyed it thus far, please review. I'll really appreciate it. Either way, I hope you enjoy the ending!

viii.

Through her pounding headache, Sakura could discern the stale smell of old cigarettes.

For a moment, Sakura remembered that she was hungover. She shut her eyes tighter. No. She squirmed in the bed. It smelled of Kakashi. The whole room smelled of Kakashi, the Kakashi who smoked like a chimney. She still couldn't believe he smoked so much. That's what I get for kissing him last night, she though, wishing she could go back to sleep.

But then she remembered. She remembered everything from the end to the beginning: the syringe, Kakashi, the stage, the paper lanterns, the strange men, and finally, the bang of the misfired firework where it had all begun.

She opened her eyes.

The morning light leaked in the blinds, reminding Sakura of her kiss with Daichi. Was that really just last morning? It felt like an eternity ago. She blinked and stared up at a crack in the inn ceiling. She could hear the pipes running, but not in her room; not Kakashi. Kakashi. He was the one who'd shaken her back to her senses.

Sakura felt a warm sense of gratitude toward him. For the first time since their embarrassing encounter, she felt reassured.

Although it did concern her that there didn't seem to be a doctor around, or anyone else for that matter. Frowning, Sakura slipped off the covers and got to her feet. They were shaky. She realized someone had dressed her in her pajamas, and, quite considerately, her Rice sweatshirt. The fact that someone had changed her without her consent didn't bother her. She figured it hadn't been Kakashi, and if it had been someone else, what did she care? She looked down at the sweatshirt fondly. Its warmth had grown on her, even if she still thought it looked frumpy. Oh well.

She peeked her head out the door. Kakashi stood a few paces down, leaning over the railing. The sun blurred his figure at its edges, made them glow; Sakura could smell the smoke and make out a few cigarette stubs at his feet. She opened her mouth to scold him, but the image struck her.

For a moment, Sakura watched the smoke dissipate into the foggy morning sunlight. Her gaze wandered back to Kakashi himself. The most surprising thing about seeing Kakashi unmasked was how normal it was. Sure, she was staring at his jaw for the novelty of it, but she could see it growing on her.

Sakura shut the door gently. The click of it gave her away anyway, and Kakashi looked over in her direction. Tentatively, he turned back to the sunrise. Sakura crept up, arms crossed against the cold, and leaned over the rail next to him.

"Glad to see you're feeling better, Sakura."

"Glad to see I was being well taken care of, sensei."

"Oh," he said, after a moment. "That."

"Did you even get a doctor to treat me?"

"Of course I did," he said. "Although there wasn't much for her to do. You must have built up quite the immunity."

Sakura shrugged like it was no big deal. "Part of my training," she said. Her fingers tightened their hold in her sweater, straining for warmth. "Are – you're okay, right?"

He gave her a look. Sakura thought it was fond. Maybe the same sort of fond look that she'd just given her sweater, she thought. She was trying not to read into it too much, although the numerous cigarette stubs returned to her mind's eye. How long has he been out here? How much has he been smoking? This was excessive, especially for Kakashi.

"Of course," he said. "I had one of Konoha's best treating my lethal wounds, didn't I?"

Sakura stared out at the sky, a smile playing on her lips. "So how did it all go?"

"Oh, you know. We saved the day. The villagers showered me with feasting and women. It's too bad you missed it."

"Damn. I always miss the god bits."

"Just so you know, we're still undercover. Ishikawa seemed eager to keep our secret if we kept his." He looked slyly at her. "It seems you know something about his performance that he doesn't want public."

Sakura swatted his arm half-heartedly. "Haha," she said, "Not funny."

"Mmm. He's agreed to comply with Konoha's agenda."

After a moment of silence, Sakura asked, "Was there anything in the study?"

"There might be something hidden in the house, but nothing that we could find. I expect that his mother burned any correspondences she and her husband had with the usurpers. Any remaining ninja fled. I think you killed their ringleader."

"So we don't know if it was Orochimaru or not?"

"No clue. From what Ishikawa's said – and from some valuables we've found – it would seem the family had ties to various conspiracies dating years back, but we can't be sure how many, which ones, or if any of those involved Orochimaru."

Sakura sighed and rubbed at her shoulders absently. "It seems like we'll never figure out the truth, then, will we?"

"Probably not," Kakashi said, in a way that indicated to Sakura that he didn't really care. She cast an irritated glance in his direction.

"Would you stop smoking that right next to me? I'm getting cancer just smelling it."

He surprised her by stubbing it promptly. "Are you cold?"

"A little," she admitted.

"You should go back in," he said.

Sakura looked down at her feet. She saw the three previously stubbed cigarettes, joined by the new one that still burned red-orange at its tip. "How long have you been out here? You could have come in, you know. You're recovering every bit as much as I am."

He sighed.

"Kakashi-"

"-Don't."

The sudden, forceful interruption surprised her into silence.

The echo of his name rang in her mind: Kakashi.

"Kakashi," she said again, more softly.

He sighed and rummaged through his vest for another cigarette. She reached out and stopped him. Just the lightest touch on his wrist, but he stilled like her touch was fire.

She gave a fluttering laugh, born of nerves and the butterflies in her chest. It beat quick and shallow, like her heartbeat. "That's what I already call you in my head."

"Really," he replied. His facial expression looked like it had been made from plaster, carefully maintained.

"Really," she said. She hesitated. Her head was leaning toward his. His was leaning toward hers, an open invitation that she couldn't bring herself to accept.

"I'm not kidding. I-"

"-I know how you feel, Sakura," he said. He sounded tired, even to Sakura's ear. "And I've been wrong to encourage it in any way." A long silence. Slowly, he drew his head away. Sakura's hand, light on his wrist, began to feel like a statue's. She felt her smile slipping.

Poison was nothing compared to this.

"You haven't encouraged me," she said. "At all. I've thought – all this time I've felt so stupid. I've felt so angry at you, for never talking about it. But mostly I felt angry at myself."

He was silent.

"If I've saved your life," she said, very quietly, "Then who are you to say I can't care about you… this way?"

"I'm old," he said.

"Not really."

"I'm a smoker, Sakura. A smoker. You hate those."

"You don't smoke that often. You've just been on kind of a binge lately, because you stole Daichi-kun's cigarettes. I told you that was a bad idea."

For a moment he ran out of things to say. Sakura had actually expected him to mention his porn collection sooner. Hmm.

"You don't want me, Sakura."

"I do. Stop trying to discourage me."

"I'm-"

Sakura kissed him.

He tasted of warmth and smoke again. This time the crisp morning air mitigated the taste of cigarettes. It differed wildly from the chaste brush of lips she and Daichi had shared the day before. This was a rush, a thrill; her lips parted for him. He felt hot, burning to the touch. She caught her breath when he paused to pull her closer, close enough to feel his body heat. No half-hearted hands on her waist this time. Her fingers buried themselves in his hair. She pressed herself against him, wanting to feel him closer than close, and she caught the quietest moan between kisses.

Then he pushed her away.

"Sakura?"

"What?"

"… I think I'm sick."

"Kakashi," she said fiercely, "You have to accept this. You're not sick, or dirty, or-"

He took her hand in his and put it to his forehead.

She gasped, clapping her free hand over her mouth.

"You're feverish! Oh gods, you've been standing out here all night with a fever!"

ix.

Terumi was sulkily silent all the way back home, but Sakura and Kakashi were happy enough to sit huddled on the seat next to her. Perhaps that was why the ride was so bumpy. Terumi, Sakura thought, was spiteful and petty. Even so, Sakura couldn't help but feel sorry for the pyrotechnician when she sniffled.

"Don't feel too bad," Sakura tried gently, "You'll get to visit him."

"You'll inherit," Kakashi said bluntly. Sakura jabbed him in the ribs, but he seemed not to notice it much.

"I'm not sniffling because I miss him," Terumi said irritably, "I'm sniffling because you gave me your goddamn cold."

"Oh," Kakashi said. "Well then. Perhaps they should disinherit you from their will, if you're going to be like that."

Terumi gave a wry, wistful smile. It only lasted for a second, but Sakura saw it nonetheless, and she could finally find it in her heart to sympathize with the older girl.

"I know how much he looks up to you," Sakura said, "He won't forget you. Or your family."

"Like you would know. How could he not?" Terumi asked bitterly. "He's going to be living in a damn mansion. He never liked living all the way out near the border, anyway. Or fireworks." In a very tiny voice: "Or me."

Sakura thought that this was probably true, except for the last part. "Trust me, he'll miss you."

Sakura glanced at Kakashi, who was smirking a little behind his mask. She could tell more easily, now, having seen his bare face. Or maybe she was just imagining it. She wiped her runny nose on her sleeve while he wasn't looking and thought of Daichi. Things made a lot more sense now. With Hiroto, too. Although his secret was going to be a pretty open one, at this point, he'd still cheerfully agreed to cooperate with Konoha nin in the future.

She laughed softly to herself.

"Ishikawa liked your fireworks plenty," Kakashi said.

Terumi 's mouth slipped into a bleak, proud smile.

"At least Daichi chose someone with taste," she managed. Terumi had sworn she had no inkling at all that Daichi wasn't interested in girls. There'd just never been any around, she'd sworn to them, so no one thought anything of it. Sakura hadn't seen it either, until she'd noticed the way they smiled at each other awkwardly, hopefully. The way their touches lingered a little too long…

It surprised her how pleased she was by it, to be honest. She'd grown fond of both of them, and had worried a bit for Hiroto living alone in the house after all that bloodshed. He'd seemed shaken over the past two weeks. The only thing that had made him smile was Daichi.

Sakura dared to rest her head on Kakashi's shoulder. What they had was a tentative, nameless thing. He'd not touched her since their kiss the week before, though they'd slept in the same bed the rest of that morning (before Hiroto invited them all back to the manor), because they both agreed that the cot was horrid and the bed was warmer and screw it, they were both sick anyway.

Maybe it was because he had been feverish and she had been cold, but she had never felt something so warm.

Sakura didn't mind leaving things this way if they would calcify into something more tangible. Anyway, the namelessness alone didn't make it not-real.

Suddenly, she couldn't wait to get back to Konoha. The fact that she had (without sex, she'd like to add) created a glowing relationship between Konoha and this region of Rice would account for a glowing jounin recommendation.

"Your shoulder is bony," she told Kakashi. Muscular, too, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "It's not very comfortable." He's still feverish, she thought. He'd gotten the worst of it. Try as she might, Sakura's best answer for the common cold was still fruits, liquids, blankets, and lots of warm soup.

"I'm sorry for that," he replied mildly. "Perhaps you should find a less bony shoulder."

"No," she said, "I like this one."

Terumi stared hard at them. "Right. Not a couple." She turned away, mumbling something that Sakura didn't care to discern. Sakura felt her eyes slipping closed. She felt herself being rocked to sleep by the cart.

"Do you two even know the story behind the Aki-hime?"

Sakura opened her eyes. "No," she said. "Weren't you going to tell us?"

Terumi sighed like she was doing them both a big favor, even though she'd been the one to bring it up in the first place. "I guess I could tell you," she said. "I can't believe you went through the whole festival without knowing."

"Let me guess: it has something to do with light," Kakashi said.

"It does," Terumi replied. "Practically the only reason anyone knows about the Ishikawa estate is because the legend originated there. That's why the Moonfire Festival is such a big deal."

Sakura really couldn't imagine a middle-of-nowhere estate like Ishikawa's getting any attention otherwise.

"In the legend, the moon goddess grows tired of living alone in the dark and promises a man – the first Ishikawa, as it so happens – that in return for light, she'll give him great wealth. The man agrees. He's not sure whether or not he believes she's actually the moon goddess, because she appears as a poor but beautiful traveler. But he agrees because he falls in love with her right away. So he gets the whole town to help him light candles and lanterns and everything, and they set them into the sky. The moon goddess is impressed and touched by the act. No longer lonely, she marries the man, gives him a large portion of her temple-lands, and bears him many children. She also immortalizes the light into the stars, so when she has to leave her husband – after his death – she never has to feel alone again."

Terumi looked out over the horizon. Sakura wondered if she was thinking of her brother, herself, or something else entirely. "Once a year, during the full moon, her husband visits her from the afterlife, and she'll make the moon shine brighter and more brilliant than any other time of year. But only if the people make enough light." She smiled a little. "I help make the light."

Sakura pondered. "So the Aki-hime is a sort of stand-in for the moon goddess?"

"Sort of. Actually, it's just a way for the Ishikawa to screw random women, but you know. Whatever works."

"Ah," said Sakura. She put her head back on Kakashi's shoulder and closed her eyes again.

For a moment, thinking of Kakashi, she thought that she understood why the moon goddess so loathed being alone.

She was half-asleep when she caught the scent of a smoke. She didn't say anything this time. There would be time later for thinking and other similar pursuits. At that moment her nose was pink with chill, her body wracked with a cold, and her mind at ease with its future. She slept peacefully until they got to the outskirts of Konoha.

x.

When Sakura would recount that mission – the mission that got her a jounin pass - it always started with a bang. In the middle there was some quibbling, some blood, some darkness. At the end of the tunnel, a light.

It ended with a cigarette.