What hope remains for these two tired warriors? The bliss of death seems the only option.

"Open Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol

Kakashi, against his wishes, had finally fallen under the wave of unconsciousness, but he had let Sakura know that he was still fighting the good fight by grunting and groaning in his tired and weary state.

Sakura struggled to keep her own eyes open and alert for any possible trackers that had decided to sniff them out. It wouldn't take much to find them, but Sakura was grateful that no one had tried. Yet.

The minutes dragged by as Sakura attempted to deny herself the pleasure of giving into her unfocused vision and closing her eyes. Her head felt heavy even while it rested on Kakashi's shoulder. She could hear him breathing softly beside her and it was the only noise in the forest that she deemed important.

Watching the sunspots leaking through the swaying leaves, Sakura wondered how they were going to get back to Konoha. Neither of them was in walking condition and Kakashi wouldn't last much longer among the trees, and although she was in a better state, she couldn't even dream of carrying him. She barely had enough chakra left to sustain herself.

She could have cried for all the frustration and anger that swelled in her gut.

I got all the way out here to aid him in whatever he needed. Look at the wonderful job you've done, Sakura. Can't even make it home.

But she didn't let any tears drop. Dying hand in hand with the one she loved sounded like a better ending than living without him because of her cowardice and inability to follow him into battle. Truthfully, if she hadn't lent him her assistance, he would have been slaughtered. At least now they could see each other one last time before they met their doom, and then they could greet it together.

Distant footsteps crunching through the foliage roused Sakura out of her exhausted stupor and dread settled heavily in her stomach. Her hand gripped Kakashi's tightly as she prepared to meet her end.

They've found us. And I can do nothing to stop them.

A few thundering heartbeats later, a team of five ninja pushed through the shrubbery nearby and examined the couple against the tree. Sakura exhaled and nearly fainted at the relief that drowned her worry.

Naruto stood at the head of the group and kneeled down in front of Sakura. Another comrade knelt to check Kakashi's vitals and confirmed he was still alive. The blond placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder and he gave her his signature grin.

"Summon a messenger to send ahead of us back to the village," he called to another team member. "Tell Tsunade we found them."

Sakura had never been so happy to see a team of reinforcements in her life. They had arrived somewhat late, as far as the fighting went, but they arrived at all, and that was the only thing Sakura cared about.

The team had brought a few medics with them and they set to work almost immediately. Rolling out their supplies, they laid Kakashi and Sakura down on stretchers to begin healing them. They wouldn't do the nitty gritty stuff out in the forest; they would only do what was necessary to keep them sustained until they made it back to the village and hospital, where proper beds and operating tables would be awaiting them. But until then, chakra hummed from their hands and soothed the injured.

It had taken Kakashi a full day to get from Konoha to mission ground zero, but he had been running full speed nearly nonstop. Carrying a pair of wounded shinobi would elongate the rescue team's trip by a whole day at least.

Kakashi had surfaced for a short while before the medics raised his stretcher off the ground to tote him back to the village, and he was soon lulled back into a relaxed sleep that lasted most of the trip home. Sakura was in and out much more frequently and every time she came to, she glanced over at Kakashi to see if he was gazing at her also. She knew he was alive – that was a solid fact in her mind – but with a desperation she couldn't put to words, she needed him to open his eyes and look into hers, to see the flickering flame of life dancing in his irises and feel that he was truly there alongside her.

During the chaos of battle, she had been acutely aware of him; when he dodged a fire attack, she felt the heat; when a kunai had sunk deep into the sinew of his shoulder, she had felt it buried in her own. Now that the fury and flurry of it was over and they were lying close to each other on sickbeds, her sense of him was so heightened it was painful. She could feel in him like it was her own body aching down to the bones and struggling to wake from unconsciousness. Though he had been healed, he still radiated an air of injury, leaving Sakura to wonder and worry what it was that was troubling him so much while he was under. She had witnessed patients experiencing nightmares while balancing on the fence between awake and comatose, but this wasn't Kakashi's issue. Lack of a concrete answer bothered her all the way back to Konoha.

They finally arrived in the late evening of the next day and were promptly signed into the hospital for treatment. To Sakura's relief, they were placed in the same room and only divided from one another by a thin privacy curtain, allowing her to hobble over in her wrap-heavy leg and check on her roommate from time to time. Even though she was one of the injured, she couldn't quash down her medical inclinations.

Kakashi remained still and unaffected for a long time while a few medics worked on the wounds that needed chakra attention. Once he was done being healed up and his lesser injuries had been wrapped in gauze, Tsunade had come to visit them.

Kakashi hadn't stirred at her presence, but Sakura had been awake, watching the little twitches that came over his face every now and again.

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura greeted, bowing her head.

"Sakura," Tsunade replied in kind. She pulled up a chair and sat next to the pinkette's bed. "I understand you were primarily successful in your mission." She motioned to Kakashi with a red-nailed hand.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"Kakashi will have to write up a report later, but I want to hear your side of the story. Please, enlighten me."

Sakura spent the next few uninterrupted hours explaining her side of the mission to the Hokage from the very start of her journey to the moment Naruto found them covered in wounds and waiting to die. The older woman simply sat there and nodded her head at the critical moments, but otherwise didn't say a word.

Once Sakura had finished, she asked Tsunade a question that had been tickling at the back of her mind.

"Tsunade-shishou, how did the team meant for our rescue get to us so quickly? It's easily a day's travel, but they got to us shortly after our battle was over."

Tsunade smiled and pushed herself up from the chair.

"The day after you left to go after Kakashi, I received a scroll from Pakkun. At first I had thought he was delivering Kakashi's report of failure and death, but it turned out to be a simple request of a small team of reinforcements to come aid him. Instead he got you, but it seems that was for the best. Naruto's squad had originally been sent out to assist in battle, but their purpose shifted to rescue since they got there just a little too late."

Sakura didn't say anything for a long time and stared down at the ugly blanket covering her toes.

"Thank you for fulfilling his request. I understand it was technically against the rules to send out a squad for a mission such as that."

"I deemed the mission lacking proper explanation and description, thus rendering it over-qualified for a one-man only operation. He won't be penalized for requesting backup; it was the proper thing to do in his position. If he had an ego on him, though, he probably would have been made into a trophy. That's what makes him very nearly the perfect ninja: he's not in it for the money, or the glory, and he can think logically despite numbers and threats, and can admit when something is too difficult for him alone."

Sakura bent at the waist in her bed and almost touched her nose to her knees in the grandest bow she could manage.

"Shishou," she began.

"You don't need to thank me again, Sakura," Tsunade murmured. "If it weren't for you, he wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed and the sheet would be pulled all the way over his head."

With a nod and a grateful smile from Sakura, Tsunade clasped her hands behind her back and left the room, leaving Kakashi and Sakura alone once again.

He still remained motionless.

The next few hours found Sakura drifting in and out of sleep as the sun finally sank away from the village, withdrawing her warm, reaching fingers and replacing them with a sheen of white light that turned everything ethereal.

She had finally fallen into a dreamless sleep when she began to hear her name called out to her in the darkness. She heard it three times before she awoke to find out it had been Kakashi shouting for her.

He was shifting restlessly in his bed under the covers, nearly kicking them all off, and continuing to call out her name. Throwing off her own sheets, she hobbled over to the chair next to his bed and grabbed his hand, kissing his bruised knuckles to calm him.

"Kakashi, I'm here," she whispered into his ear. He sucked in a deep breath and settled back into bed instantly, appearing appeased for the moment.

Sakura gazed at him, bathed in moonlight, and gave a tired smile. Yawning, she lay her head down on the bed beside their intertwined fingers and in seconds, sleep claimed her once more.

The next morning Sakura awoke to her hand still firmly holding Kakashi's. Recalling the memories of the previous night, she touched a gentle kiss to his knuckles again and watched him wake up for the first time. She smiled at him as he blinked the bleariness from his eyes and observed his surroundings.

"Good morning," she greeted, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand.

"Good morning," he replied. He looked down at her with a confused expression gracing his face. "Why aren't you in your own bed? Surely that chair wasn't comfortable to sleep in."

Surprised at this, Sakura scrutinized him for a few seconds before realizing he had called out to her subconsciously, while still very much in the depths of sleep. He hadn't been aware of his calling out to her in the middle of the night.

"You seemed lonely," was all she said in reply.

His eye crinkled in a smile.

"Not anymore."

A little while later, Naruto came in to visit with them, having been notified that Kakashi was conscious again.

He sat with Sakura beside Kakashi's bed and recounted his experience of the last few days.

"Tsunade called me into her office and I thought I was in trouble, but then she told me to create a team of ninja to go after Kakashi since he had requested back-up. She told me that you had already gone ahead, Sakura-chan, and that I should leave as soon as physically possible. I didn't waste any time, but when we came upon you in the forest looking pretty dead already, I was never going to forgive myself for not being faster.

"But then our medics checked your vitals and you woke back up, Sakura, if only for a moment, and I couldn't believe my luck."

Sakura placed a hand over Naruto's.

"It was good that you came when you did; if you had been slower, we might not be here, as alive as we are," she said gently.

He grinned hugely and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"Thank you, Naruto," Kakashi said with a nod. "I should reward your efforts."

Naruto's eyes lit up.

"Does Ramen sound good?"

The blond leaped from his chair and punched a fist up at the ceiling.

"Sensei, you're the best!"

Sakura giggled and laced her fingers through Kakashi's, feeling his icy cold skin. Being in the hospital for such a long time was not doing him much good besides the treatments.

Naruto was completely oblivious to the way they looked at each other and instead bounced around the room in excitement before leaving to attend to some other duties Tsunade had for him.

Almost immediately after he had jumped out of the room, Shizune came by to inform them on behalf of Lady Tsunade that they were allowed to discharge themselves from the hospital if they desired. She looked pointedly at Kakashi as she said this, as he had many a time slipped from the building without proper clearance to leave. The man simply smiled back at her, feigning innocence.

Without a word of discussion, they both made their way back to his apartment. It was late in the day, bordering on evening, and the sun was falling away and taking the heat with it. The lack of sunbeams did not extinguish the fire in her soul, though; she was getting more and more charged with each step closer to his apartment. This was because she knew there would be no public boundaries to keep them from each other behind closed doors.

We can do what we like.

Kakashi seemed to feel it too, despite his achy muscles, and escorted her through the door without slowing the pace.

Once inside and the door was latched home, he tangled her in his arms and fell back onto the couch, bouncing them softly. Sakura laughed and curled her own arms around him. He sighed into her neck and she felt his eyelash brush her skin as it closed, sending a shiver through her.

"You are so warm," he murmured, bringing her tighter to his body.

Sakura smiled and placed a slow kiss on his cheek.

"After these past few days, this feels so strange. So…untrue. In those last moments fighting, I wasn't thinking about afterwards, because there didn't seem to be one, and now that it's happening…well, I'm glad it's happening," Sakura said while brushing her fingers through his unruly silver hair.

"And now that it's happening," he replied in a soft voice, "I won't waste a single minute without you."

In a mutual action, they knotted their fingers together and lay there on the couch in silence and contentment.

It wasn't until Kakashi's breathing slowed and Sakura realized he was falling asleep that she felt the weight of the mission on them both. Their bodies were exhausted, and the adrenaline that had washed through their bodies and dripped away left them in a bit of a daze.

Moving like a drunk, Sakura managed to pull Kakashi up from the couch and stagger them both into the bedroom. He fell onto the coverlet in a heap as Sakura untucked it and drew it close around the two of them. His eyes were open, just a little, watching her; as soon as she crawled up beside him and laid her head on his chest, he fell back asleep.

A few hours later, Sakura's bladder had bothered her enough to wake her. Very quietly, in a way only a ninja has mastered, she slithered from Kakashi's arms and disappeared into the bathroom to do her business quickly.

Still as soundless as could be, she reappeared through the bedroom doorway to find Kakashi sitting up beneath the covers, head back against the simple wooden headboard and eyes half-lidded. Sakura slipped back under the blanket to his side with a gently expression softening her features.

Immediately Kakashi's hands went around her waist and pulled her as close to him as he could, trapping her in his strong arms. Sakura stroked a finger over his closed sharingan eye before laying her palm over it to pump a trickle of chakra into it.

"I was so quiet, I didn't think I would wake you," she whispered.

"It had nothing to do with noise," he replied, bringing his forehead down to hers and shutting his other eye. "You were gone and I felt it. That was it."

Sakura made a sad noise and laid her head on his chest.

"As long as you want me here, Kakashi, this is where I will be. Right beside you."

He opened both his eyes and gazed deeply into hers. The look in their depths nearly brought Sakura to tears; it would take a while for her to get used to his tender, vulnerable side.

"Would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to stay…forever?"