AN: Okay, guys, this is one huge honking chapter considering it was written in about an hour's time. I swear, this is going to end soon... ish. I have plans for a related KakaRin story after this. Then, maybe, a SasuSaku turned KakaSaku story... no, no harem crap out of me. It's not going to be overnight changes in pairings. I just really want to get this one out of the way to work towards the rest in different stories.

As always, suggestions and ideas are welcome! Can't be a good writer if you can't do your readers some service here and there. Which, by the way, does mean we'll get some more YamaSaku lemons in this story.

He knew this was coming. In all honestly, he was surprised it didn't happen sooner. Then again, he had never actually had to be the one to plan, set up, and carry out a funeral and burial before. He had always come to the event, never taken care of it. The man and woman standing across from him in the office looked worn out both from exertion and lack of sleep. He knew why, and he didn't want to do this. He didn't want to lie to their faces.

"Did he steal her body?" Haruno Kizashi demanded. "Is that Yamato man the reason we don't have a body to bury?"

Well, on this part, he didn't have to lie, Kakashi thought thankfully. "Yamato-san is in special custody right now. He did not leave the jail until I collected him and transferred him into more capable hands. They report no bad behavior. The search for your daughter's body is ongoing. Considering the number of people who would have interest in her, there is an extensive list we must go through."

And the conversation went on to the other possibilities. Mebuki brought it back to Yamato, of course.

"He really seemed to care about her..." she sighed. "If he's in your custody, as you say, then why is there a nation-wide search for him right now?"

Kakashi's face fell. How did she know about that? The official story was that he was, indeed, in a ANBU holding cell. Only ANBU were told to look for him and bring him in to the council or Kakashi himself.

"Don't look at me like that!" Mebuki rebuked the question in his eyes. "Uzumaki Naruto has been staying with us since she died. He has connections, as you know."

Ah, that explained that. "Haruno-san, both of you, will you join me for an early lunch?"

This threw them both off. They probably didn't realize that Kakashi was also under suspicion for the dual disappearances.

"Please. Let's get out of here," he motioned for the door.

...

"I'm sure you understand that there are too many ears in my office," Kakashi said as the trio walked through the forrest to one of the training grounds. "And I can't have Naruto hearing what I'm about to say, either, because he'll give everything away to the real enemy by suddenly becoming more cheerful, then attacking part of our governing body."

"Just say it already," Kizashi threw his bento to the ground, squaring off against Kakashi.

"Sakura-chan is alive and recovering in a secret location," Kakashi winked at him, refusing to acknowledge the threat Kizashi wanted to pose. "Yamato-san is with her as a part of her protection detail."

Mebuki's ass hit the ground. Kizashi stood frozen, jaw dropped.

"You're a liar," Kizashi found the courage to speak after a few seconds had passed.

"I can send for a friend to come by this evening with proof," Kakashi shrugged. "Would a photo of the two together suffice? I can always ask someone to write a letter she dictates for you... she's still not really strong enough to write for herself, yet. Even though the cancer was removed, other things happened. She's recovering from those problems now. I have eyes and ears in the hospital itself investigating in ways that Shizune-san would be suspicious if she tried. It's still slow going, but my source is bringing more names every couple days."

"I want to see her," Kizashi said, relaxing a little. His daughter was a very accomplished and smart young woman in both the ninja and medical fields. If anyone could properly fake a death, it was her.

"I can't allow that," Kakashi shook his head. "The more people who know her location, the more likely she and her protectors are to be killed. We're working on a much bigger case over all. She is a key part of it. If the council were to obtain proof that I'm hiding her, they may, also, find proof of what else I know. All the others and myself will be at far greater risk. A photo or a letter can be destroyed. The emotional change you'll experience from seeing her again cannot be so easily hidden. I would like to wait for the proper time for that to happen. In reality, I want to stand by her side when she attacks those who put her in this situation. I want her to do it."

...

Sakura was bored. She was bored of the now unnecessary heart monitor's beeping, the irritating sensors against her chest, the intermittent grumbling of the generator outside her window, the barking of dogs that randomly startled her awake at any damn hour they pleased, the four hour-checks of her blood pressure and temperature, the daily blood work samples Rin and Shizune took, and being told to rest after each brief encounter she had with anyone. Didn't they know she wanted to go outside? Even if it was just outside the room, it would be better than this. She wanted to eat her dinner with the group, to see more than Shizune, Rin, and Yamato. She knew there were others there, and that Kakashi's pack, along with what sounded like many others, were out there, too. Nobody, it seemed, was allowed to come in without scrubbing up properly, first. She didn't feel as fragile as they made her out to be, and moving around would probably help her not only recover, but maintain what muscle mass she still had. She needed to maintain it, badly. The urge to stand up and punch her way out through the smooth wooden wall to her right was getting stronger by the day for two weeks, now by the hour over the last three days.

How she managed to refrain was beyond everybody.

So, when the door opened, and it wasn't Shizune, Rin, or Yamato stepping in, Sakura brightened greatly... and then wanted to scream, punch out the wall, and go as far as her weakened body would allow.

Uchiha Itachi was bringing her lunch while dressed in full ANBU gear, mask pushed to the side.

"Please explain how you can hound my baby-brother for years, but want nothing to do with me?" Itachi asked, setting her plate and glass on the night stand. Well, what a way to say hello! NOT!

"How long have you been here?" Sakura demanded, curled into a ball at the head of the bed.

"Here with you?"

She nodded.

"Since your friends got you out of the hospital and Tenzo-senpai was broken out of jail by Kakashi-senpai."

Tenzo? Oh, yeah, Yamato. Wait. "How do you know the name Tenzo?"

"Long story short, the three of us were the youngest ANBU in Fire history, so we worked on the same team. Your boyfriend has had a lot of names, but that's the one I called him the most. Kakashi-senpai insisted on it."

She couldn't think of anything else semi-safe to ask, but he knew what was on her mind.

"No, he didn't help me with what happened," Itachi explained. "None of the team did. They didn't know. I'm here for the same reason you are. We were being used by the council to do their dirty work... we have to stay safe until Kakashi-senpai has enough people on the same side, willing to throw out the current council and punish them for their crimes. You know, the ones they threw onto all of us?"

"So, you're not going to kill me?"

He smiled. He actually smiled, and it practically melted her heart to see the little blush on his cheeks. He smiled the smile of a bashful man, not a mass murderer. Yes, there was sadness at the corners of his eyes, definitely put there from guilt and the stigma he'd lived with after his clan was massacred, but that didn't change the way he slightly wrung his hands as he sat down in the chair near her bed.

"As long as you don't break Tenzo's heart the way you did my brother's, you're safe."

Sakura frowned. "I didn't break Sasuke's heart. He broke mine. I moved on, then found out my friend was sent by him to collect me for sex... just sex. He follows me around, but hardly says anything. I won't be his baby-maker. That's all he wants from me anyway, right?"

"If that was all he wanted from you, he wouldn't have helped get this place running," Itachi told her. "He's helping Kakashi's dogs train the Inuzaka dogs in the surrounding woods here. He asks about your condition every day."

"And what about Yamato? I only see him at the end of his shifts for a couple hours at a time. Doesn't Sasuke know I want Yamato?"

Itachi nodded. "He does. It's causing tension between them. Sasuke is jealous of Tenzo-senpai. He won't say it, but he is."

"Just tell him to go get laid already," Sakura waved her hand dismissively, deciding the food he brought probably wouldn't kill her... that or her stomach didn't care either way. "Ino sure wants him. There are other girls he can have."

"I was hoping you would explain it to him," Itachi said, leaning back in the chair more comfortably. "Perhaps, if he hears it from your mouth, in your words, he can start to move on."

"There's nothing for him to move on from... He tried to kill me several times."

"Let's be fair. You were plotting to kill him, too."

Sakura rolled her eyes, tearing through the grilled portobello mushroom sandwich eagerly. "I'm ready to get out of this room. Think you can make a distraction for my escape? Sneak me out during your shift?"

"We were going to let Tenzo give you the good news tonight," the smile came back to Itachi's face, this time touching his eyes slightly. "You're going to be unhooked from all this stuff tonight. Start walking around tomorrow. Your parents found out you're still alive. It's only a matter of time before one of them slips up and says something to Naruto-kun. You know what will happen then."

"So, you're saying the time schedule for my recovery has been shortened significantly. I have to be back to normal quicker."

"Essentially. We're going to capture the council in their work soon. At that time, Kakashi-senpai thinks you, Sasuke, Naruto, Tenzo, and myself should all be a part of capturing and imprisoning the council. He thinks you should get first blow, but I disagree... You might slip up and kill one of them."

"She won't be fighting even for training for a long time," Shizune corrected, walking in with a fresh bouquet. "Leave. I have to speak with her on a doctor-patient level right now."

Itachi frowned a bit. He was starting to like Sakura. But, Yugao and Shizune were the rule makers around here right now. He had to obey.

"See you tomorrow, Sakura-chan," he waved good-bye, closing the door behind him.

Sakura smiled up at Shizune, "So, I hear you're going to take me off these damned machines today?"

"Lee can't make any more runs for fuel," Shizune answered matter-of-factly. "You wouldn't need monitoring for much longer under normal circumstances anyway. Right now, I want to talk to you about that surgery... and about your options."

Sakura was confused. She knew she had gone under the knife, even if the healers had put her back together so well that there wasn't even a scar. She could feel the change, and remembered the pain the next day after waking up. She just assumed they had taken the cancer out, leaving her one kidney short of when she had arrived at the hospital. What options were there? It had saved her life.

"Sakura, they took more than your kidney," Shizune revealed.

"How much more?" she asked after a moment.

"Your ovaries... both of them."

One fist balled in the sheets, the other hand laying possessively over her stomach.

"And they replaced them with someone else's," Shizune continued quickly. "Yours were ruined with the chemo, and the donor was executed last week. Our source found out that they really wanted to preserve her line for some reason, and that, if you didn't respond to the experimentation they were doing on you, they were going to get you healthy as quickly as possible, but pregnant. He never found out who the intended father was to be."

Sakura's initial reaction was to want to rip the other woman's parts from her body. What was to stop the bastards from swooping in here through an unguarded break in the line and do it anyway? But, more importantly, who was the woman? If they knew who the woman was, they might know who the intended father was, and he might be involved in all of this.

"Who was she?" Sakura demanded, biting back tears of fury.

"Uzumaki Karin."

The IV bag, hangar, and line (needle pulled out right before hand) were flung out the window. Sakura unattached herself from the blood pressure cuff and the heart monitor in a flash, rushing out the door as fast as her unused muscles would allow. She was going straight for Uchiha Itachi. He had to know. He should know. He spent a lot of time with Orochimaru in the past, and he was used by the council of elders in one of the worst ways possible. Perhaps, even, he was the intended man, him or Sasuke. One of them had to know about this, and if Itachi didn't, he would rightly suspect his little brother. Wouldn't he?

Shizune caught her just before she fell down the front steps, succeeding only in falling with her. Such was the momentum of a pissed off Haruno Sakura even while suffering muscle atrophy.

"Let me go!" Sakura shouted.

...

"Let me go!"

Yamato dropped to the ground as silently as he could in a panic. The sound of a female voice screaming those particular words would get his attention under any circumstances. The fact that it was here, where they were trying to hide and wait for Sakura's recovery, made it all the more important to be careful about what he was approaching. They could have missed something, left a gap in the patrol or failed to notice some particular entry point. Either way, someone was outside yelling for release, and he was the closest one to provide back up. He had to do this smart, even if it was Sakura yelling.

He was glad he slowed down. The real problem wasn't an outside source. Shizune was doing her best to hold on to a squirming bundle of pink hair, night gown, and flailing limbs... a ball of furious kunoichi not yet ready for so much activity.

"Sakura, calm down!" Yamato snapped at her in a authoritative manner common among team captains. It worked. She was so used to not being in command, and to obeying his voice in the field, that she froze and dropped to her knees in a resting position automatically. Shizune was sprawled in a heap on the steps, gasping for breath.

He would have laughed at the situation, but Sakura was crying, slowly curling into a ball and punching the dirt, her body shaking.

The dogs were on their way now. Yugao was right ahead of them. Itachi and Sai were moving in from another direction. Rin was coming from the river. He couldn't let them all converge on her while she was like this. It would be embarrassing, and the hyper young dogs might run her over in their eagerness. Acting quickly, he scooped her up, stepped around Shizune, and took her to the second story of the house he had grown for them all, locking them inside his personal room. Shizune had forbade him from staying in her room in case there was an emergency, but he had put his room right over hers for the purpose of slipping in when the medics weren't around just to watch her sleep. Now, he knew, the familiar view, but lack of medical equipment, would put her at ease.

Sakura remained curled up in his arms as he lay her on his small futon, lying next to her so she could either cry herself to sleep or slow herself down enough to talk. It seemed it would be the former option, there for a while.

He could hear Shizune warning the others to stay away. Footsteps of all sizes slowly made their way in different directions, all of them somewhere other than near this room. At that point, Sakura rolled away from him.

"Don't touch me anymore," she sniffled.

"Please, can we at least talk?" he asked, respecting her wish not to be touched as he sat up, cross legged on the floor, looking at her back.

"I don't want to talk to you right now... I want to talk to Itachi-san."

His lips set in a grim line. "Looked more like Shizune was trying to stop you from tracking him down and killing him."

"He knows something... he must!"

He was right. She did want to talk to him, not Itachi. If she didn't want to talk, she wouldn't.

"I take it she told you before I could... about the switch."

Sakura nodded. "I bet you must think I'm not worth it anymore. If you get me pregnant by accident, it won't even be my baby."

This time, he really did laugh.

Sakura was confused as she looked over her shoulder at him. "How is that supposed to be funny?"

"Your mother asked me about grandchildren, Sakura," he reached out and caressed her shoulder. "I was so focused on your current state of well being that I just couldn't imagine that far ahead. I guess I just figured you would tell me straight one day that you either wanted them right away or not at all. It didn't matter then. It only matters now because... Did you really give up on the possibility of ever being a mother?"

"Had to," she sniffled again, nose stopped up and drippy from crying. "I can't have my own kids now... but I can have the children of a criminal... I don't want that."

"Sakura, in a manner of speaking, I am a criminal. There was also a time you wanted to have Sasuke's children. He is definitely a criminal."

"Okay, fine, I wanted to be a mom. Now it wouldn't be right because, even if I get to go through the pregnancy, it still won't be my kid. The decision was made for me by people I don't know completely against my will. And now I find out they even had a fucking stud lined up and waiting to father the bitch's kid. Who? Did he know? What method did they hope to use to accomplish this goal? It's sickening, Yamato!"

Yamato laid back down beside her, pulling her close. "First of all, I don't like the sound of it, either. Second, we have a man looking into this. Third, what is it that really makes a mother? I like to think of parents in two separate ways. You have the biological parents, the ones whose genetics determine your physical characteristics, and you have your real parents, those you trust, learn from, respect, and love. You, Sakura, are a lucky person. Your biological parents, and your real parents are one in the same.

"For me, things were different. I don't really remember my biological mother. But, when I joined Kakashi's team, Yugao treated me like a kid, showed me the ropes when Kakashi wasn't there, played doctor when I got hurt, made me eat my food and drink something other than soda pop... She was kind-of a mom to me. As far as a father figure goes, I originally looked to my biological father, yes... but then the Third stepped in. I respected him more.

"Then you have people like Kakashi-senpai... He admitted once that he once thought Tsunade-sama was his mother. She was there for all the major milestones as he grew up. The first word, first steps, first day of school... everything. If it weren't for the fact that his father showed him photographs of his mother, he would have never known. So, I say, if you carry the child, you raise it, you love it, and you treat it right, you are the child's real mother. DNA can't do a damn thing about that."

He brushed a strand of hair from her face (was it starting to get thicker again?), "Besides... red-hair is a co-dominant color. It's why your hair is pink. If you and I have a child now, it will most likely have brown or auburn hair, which would be the same likely outcome as if it were your child genetically since Karin's hair was red. Look at Naruto. His mother had red hair, and it served to give him a slightly bolder blond than his father, nothing more. Nobody will be able to tell by looking at your kids that they're not yours. I've been to your parents' house and seen some of the family albums. You have Uzumaki relatives, which could account for your hair and any resemblance your child might have to them."

And with that talk, she was much more relaxed again. "I still want to know who they wanted to father the child. I don't want kids yet. If the intended father knew what they wanted to do, I want to rip his balls off and feed them to him."

Yamato just smiled and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"By the way, how do you know so much about genetics?" she asked, honestly curious.

"It was a hobby study as a teenager... I wanted to learn what I could to try to better understand what was done to me."

"Did it help you?"

"It's helped me to help you, it seems."

"Oh," she shrugged, wrapping an arm around his waist and snuggling back into him. "Sorry about that. Can we lay here a while? That tantrum took a lot out of me."

"I'll stay with you," he agreed. "Hey, Sakura?"

"What?" she raised one groggy pair of eyes to meet his.

"I still love you."

"I still love you, too." The faintest smile played at her lips as she fell asleep.