Sakura stared, unabled to fully grasp what had happened. She felt her hands trembling and quickly trapped them between her knees. She tore her eyes up to the ninken, all eight, who had gathered around them. This had to be a joke, she thought, waited for everyone to jump up and shout "Gotcha!", and laugh.
But no one jumped up, no one laughed.

"You... really think it is Madara?", she finally managed to say, forced herself to look at Kakashi. All he did was shrug, he could not think who else it might be.
Sakura's gaze wandered to Pakkun. She wondered what it had been like, to have the one person you trusted the most threaten to kill you... Her thoughts momentarily drifted back to Sasuke, to the point when he had been fully consumed by his hunger for revenge.
"You understand that no one can know about this?", Kakashi called her back to his rooms.
Sakura nodded her head. She understood. Should anyone find out, he – Kakashi – would be considered too much of a threat to the village's safety and, in a worst case scenario, the opposition of his alliance-friendly policy would take advantage of this.
Why did you tell me?, Sakura wanted to ask, but the words that tumbled out of her mouth formed another question:
"What are you going to do?"
For less than a split second she saw something flickering in his eye. Fear? Helplessness? Before Sakura had had the chance to fully realise it, it was gone, replaced by the same optimistic smile she knew all too well from all too many hopeless situations they had faced together.
"I'll figure out how to seal him off", Kakashi said, as if there was nothing to it. Then his expression grew more serious. He looked at Sakura, looked at the way she was kneeling next to him, her hands still clasped between her knees, her shoulders hunched, her teeth chewing on her lower lip. Maybe he had misjudged her, maybe she really was much weaker than he admitted her to be? Kakashi pushed that thought back to the dark and and easily forgotten corner of his mind where it had come from.
Sakura's own habit of underestimating herself made it so much harder not to do the same.
He nodded towards Pakkun, who growled something unintelligable, and the next second vanished, leaving nothing behind but a small cloud of dust.
"Untill I have done so, I need you to-"
Sakura's eyes briefly met that of Kakashi, then she turned her head. Of course, there was no way he would have let her in on something like this because he actually needed someone to confide in.
"I need you to keep an eye on me."
"I thought that's what the dogs are here for"
"Hmm", Kakashi gave his ninken an apologetic look before he explained, there was only so much they could do.
"Sakura, we don't know to what extend he can make use of my body."
Sakura swallowed. Even if Madara wasn't able to use his own powers, to think that he could access each and every one of Kakashi's jutsu was beyond unsettling.
"So, what am I supposed to do? I wouldn't stand a chance against you- him"
Kakashi didn't answer. He didn't have to. At this moment Pakkund had reappeared, a small, plain-looking scroll between his teeth, which he dropped in Sakura's lap.
She picked it up, looked at it. There was nothing remarkable about it, nothing to even hint that it was anything more than a piece of rolled up parchment.
She tried to open it, but to no avail, although nothng suggested the scroll to be sealed shut. She was just about to try and slide her thumb's nail (which was a little longer than those on her other fingers) under the parchment's edge, when Kakashi reached over to her, for an instant his hands covered hers, then he gently pulled the scroll from her grasp and opened it without any difficutlies. He unrolled it and placed it on the floor infront of them and once again Sakura was left staring and unable to fully comprehent what her eyes were seeing.
There was the same symbol Kakashi, like anyone who was or had once been a member of the ANBU, had tattooed on his shoulder, surrounded by a circle of letters and symbols which only slowly, almost unwillingly, revealed their meaning to Sakura.
"This is...", she breathed.
"...a precaution", Kakashi finished the sentence for her.
He could feel Pakkun glaring at him, could swear that the other ninken were doing the same.
"How can you ask this of her?", their eyes said and "Why don't you just trust us to take care of it?"
"I need you to sign it", Kakashi almost whispered, as if that would allow the request to escape his dogs' ears.
"I can't!", Sakura wanted to say, wanted to scream, wanted to tear the document infront of her to little pieces, but she couldn't. She understood the gravity of the situation, trusted Kakashi enough to know, that he would never ask this of her if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
She bit her finger to draw blood, and – her hand shaking – signed the contract.
"I'm sure it won't come to this", Kakashi said, when Pakkun had once more vanished to take the scroll back to its place. He did not sound half as convincing as Sakura would have liked him to.
"...but if things should get out of control", his hand moved hesitantly in her direction, but stopped before it came to touch her shouder, "I need you to – act accordingly."