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"I was late for this, late for that,
Late for the love of my life"
The arrow goes straight through her heart—no pain or cognitive response to commemorate the moment of end, only nothingness.
Her body immediately starts to heal the injuries, but the effort is wasted on a departed consciousness. The Yin seal has wasted its efforts on an unresponsive body.
How peaceful , she thinks. Something that has always been within her—only never in a tangible form— that makes her her —rises out of her body and reaches curious fingers to the heavens.
One moment her heart beats loud and the feeling of life floods her body with warmth and the next it just…
…stops.
…
"SAKURA!" Naruto scream rips through the air.
It's too late.
Kakashi stares in horror as Sakura goes limp and slumps to the floor. The projectile was too fast, too fast.
The moment she shoved him aside and acted as the cushion for the arrow meant for him is seared into his brain with minute clarity; the moment the soft thunk of the weapon entered her body resonated sickeningly in his ears; the widening of spring grass green eyes; a small gasp—the last. Finally, possibly the worst, is when her heart stops beating and he feels his putter along with her failing tempo.
Her body starts the futile healing process and one minute later it's as if she only slumbers. There are no wounds to heal, but he feels like screaming too because she's gone away from him. He wants to scream, but where has his breath gone?
Sasuke immediately throws a kunai with stark precision, eliminating the offending shinobi who had just taken the life of their friend.
Yamato and Sai kneel next to Sakura's prone form, similar expressions of shock on both dirtied faces as they stare at the open eyes of their teammate—they are glassy and unseeing, drained of life.
Naruto stars to cry while shaking the unresponsive arm of Sakura.
Sasuke bends down and gently closes her eyes with sorrow etched onto his face.
Not even ten seconds has passed.
Everything is so quiet, Naruto's small hiccupping sobs hardly reaching the ears of a floored Kakashi.
How?
They'd only been returning from Suna, traveling along a familiar path and the impossible has happened. He'd never wanted—had dreaded—to watch one of them die right in front of his wearied eyes and useless hands— especially her.
How?
Kakashi feels the flood of familiar grief that is never far away, only the pain is different this time; the pain is sharper of something that could have been. This something grates heavily on his mind.
"Hm, how sad, she's so young," says a scraggly voce next to him. Kakashi starts; it's been quite some time since anyone has ever been able to catch him unawares. In fact, he couldn't seem to remember a time where this occurrence has ever happened.
His sorrow makes him clumsy and he only stares at the wrinkly old woman who has just apparently appeared out of the blue. Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, and Yamato are immediately upon their feet not having noticed the new person standing next to their group until she had spoken. They stare half-holding their weapons once they realize it is only an old woman.
Kakashi stares numbly at the decrepit woman wearing a purple shawl and leaning heavily on a polished walking stick with a jewel ornately inlaid. Wispy white hair blows gently in the cold wind as she speaks again.
"Shame really, had lots to do still." At this statement she looks at Kakashi and he wonders if it's because she knows the arrow was meant for him and he should be the one lying so still in the dirt.
"It should be me," he whispers. It should be him.
The old woman snorts, jaws flapping as she stares down at Sakura again. "Boy, if it was meant to be you then you would be in her place right now, so obviously, it was not meant to be you." She then mumbles something about 'consistent martyrs' and eyes surrounded by deep folds and lines deepen even more as she squints at Sakura's still form.
"Waste, really," she mumbles some more, her peculiar shade of violet colored eyes brighten slightly.
"W-who are you?" says a broken-voiced Naruto, tears leaving streaks down his dirt-smudged face.
The woman does not grace him with an answer and only cackles loudly. "Wouldn't you like to know, eh?!" She laughs and starts hobbling away towards a dense clump of trees, leading from the well-worn dirt path they are standing on.
"Come, come!" she barks. She then turns to Kakashi and snaps, "You, boy! Bring the girl."
Kakashi only dumbly stares at her. Who the hell is she and why is she ordering him around?...And boy ?
Sure it had been a long time since he had been caught unawares, but it had been an even longer time since he had been referred to as boy .
Though, he supposed anyone would be considered young next to the ancient woman.
The four men look to the wobbling old woman in numb shock before she shouts at them again. "Be quick about it! Do you want her back or not? There is hardly any damage to the body which is a very good sign on her part. Though, by the looks of this girl her soul will be traveling quickly and she will not take long to figure out how to reach where she needs to be."
The group slowly awakens from their stupor and ambles along behind her, still shell-shocked.
Kakashi scoops up Sakura, trying not to notice that she is growing cold in his arms with the autumn chill.
The fact that they might be being led into a nefarious plan on the old woman's behalf is a small and inconsequential nagging inside their minds; they want Sakura back and this woman has just offered it, no matter how impossible her offer may sound, they will follow her.
They are led through honey and orange leafed colored trees and into a small clearing which holds a squat stone cottage, spewing welcoming smoke through a tall chimney.
Was it possible that they did not notice the smoke before? Or the sound of the woman approaching when the ground is littered with stale leaves?
The six are ushered into a cramped living space and kitchen, almost bumping their heads in the low-hanging entryway as they enter. The studio is decorated with the loveliest trinkets and well-picked furnishings, adding to a pleasant aura in the room.
Kakashi only notices enough of his surroundings to not bump his head while entering; he occupies himself instead with staring at Sakura, even more pale in death but no less lovely.
Kakashi should have told her that in life. He should have told her many things, but he was too daft and clumsy to have done so.
The old woman indicates for him to place Sakura on her plush bed in the middle of the room and he does so. She examines under one lid first and nudges her mouth open slightly to place a crushed red berry in her mouth. The juice stains Sakura's lips as red as the blood on her shirt.
The all stare quietly, engrossed by her task and almost allowing themselves to believe this will actually work.
The old woman starts speaking. "This will only slow her for moments, we must be quick. Sit down, sit down," she ushers, waving her came avidly, "I won't have you falling all over my possessions when you go!" Her cane starts ominously emitting silver smoke.
"Go where?" asks Sasuke, seemingly the only one able to voice his thoughts. Kakashi knows it is not because he feels less but because he wants to.
Naruto still stares at Sakura in shock as well as Sai and Yamato.
Kakashi has unconsciously held onto Sakura by her small pinkie finger, not willing to let her go completely for fear that she might get further away from him even though she has already gone as far from him as one can go.
He stares at their two hands, wishing he could transfer his fickle warmth to her.
His attention is brought back to the old woman as she speaks again, waving her cane as smoke now saturates the air. "On, of course," she says as if they could gather context clues from that statement.
She looks up to find blank faces staring at her.
"Oh!" she grouches, "you can't tell me you young ones don't know the legend!"
"Uh," Yamato utters, dumfounded.
The woman snorts, folds of skin rippling again. "Well, I don't have time to play storyteller so I will paraphrase: loved ones who have left this world can be recalled by the right person back to the word of the living. There, is of course, a time limit to all of this, also restrictions, because apparently, I don't make the rules…" She grumbles to herself, disgruntled, before she seems to shake herself and continue. "Right! Back to the subject at hand. Which one of you would consider yourself her partner in this world?"
Kakashi had actually heard the story the woman was referring to, much to his surprise. It went somewhere along the lines of two lovers being separated by death and the gods, seeing their grief, allowing them a chance at being together again. The catch, though, being only a soulmate could recall and reach the ears of the lost one. Kakashi, not being one for legends or fairytales, thought it romantic drivel when he had read it all those years ago and chose to put it aside for more scintillating typography. The story had always oddly enough stuck with him, though.
Knowing exactly how the tale had played out, Kakashi knew what, or rather, where the old woman meant when she referred to 'on'.
"Partner?" asks Naruto, confused. He has moved his red-rimmed eyes to peer at the old woman.
"Yes, yes!" she huffs impatiently. "You know—lover, friend, or what have you! What is that other one, oh!" she searches for the word eluding her.
"Soulmate?" Kakashi offers, voice soft.
"Yes, "she exclaims, "thank you, young man!"
In unison, Naruto, Yamato, Sai, and Kakashi turn to regard Sasuke, although it causes Kakashi difficulty to do so. The assumption that Sasuke is the one rubs him the wrong way—that even though Sakura and Sasuke have never even dated, he is immediately thought as the one she is meant to be with.
The old woman makes a face. "You, eh? Hm, I knew he is among you five, but I couldn't pinpoint who, ah, well." She only shrugs. Sasuke blinks and looks completely bewildered and a little offended. "You must get her to turn about and take your hand, do you hear me? She'll be reaching where she needs to go soon, I warn you, and there will be no getting her back once she's crossed." And before Kakashi has time to warn Sasuke, the old woman raps him on the head none too gently with her cane, surrounding his head in that thick floral smoke and Sasuke slumps sideways, unconscious.
"Whoa!" Naruto shouts, jerked out of his stupor by Sasuke's predicament. "What did you do to him?!"
The old woman ignores him and stares at Sasuke's prone form for about five seconds before shaking her head. "He's taking too long, you next!" She promptly taps Naruto next rendering him equivalent to the unmovable heap that subsists as Sasuke. She moves her head in self-negation and strikes Yamato and Sai next.
Kakashi, still standing, watches with frozen fascination as the old woman finally turns to behold him.
Eyes beyond age turn to behold him with unearthly gloat. "Oh don't look so distraught about it! I only sent them first for show. Do not waste what I am about to give you as I only do it on special occasions. Go get her, Hatake."
Kakashi sees her cane extend towards himself, a soft tap, and he is gone.
He opens his eyes and all around him is grey. No trees, only harsh, dense grass. Above him the cavernous sky broils with grey clouds with splotches of black, swelling and thunderous they threaten to swallow him. The air is thick and cloying in his nostrils as he opens eyes that seem opaque in their lightness. Even greyer and denser shadows move about him and every now and then he recognizes facial features to one of them.
They seem utterly lost and he shudders.
Were it not for his resolute mindset, he might have been lost, too. But, no, he has something to do.
Kakashi hears them first; they shout her name over the smothering mutters and whispers of this place. "SAKURA! SAKURA!" they shout, but no one answers.
And then Kakashi sees her.
She is the color of light in the wasteland. Feet move under her and she runs, as light as a feather, ghosting over the ground. Naruto, Sasuke, Yamato, and Sai chase after her. One grabs for a piece of clothing, but it slips from his fingers like water. She does not turn, keeping on her path as if no one is calling out to her.
There! He sees it, across a rocky shore and a black river, gates stretch as far as the eye can see. They are infinite, but with a sense of finality that chills him down to his core, because Sakura is heading straight towards them with purpose.
"You're not calling loud enough!" shouts Naruto desperately to Sasuke, voice overcome with panic, because he must have reached the same conclusions as Kakashi about the obsidian gates.
"I'm trying!" Sasuke shouts back, voice hoarse.
Kakashi moves his feet and suddenly her finds himself right beside them.
Kakashi looks towards glinting pink hair that the murky light animates with its poor light as she reaches closer to her destination.
His heart—if it is still in its rightful place behind his left side rib-cage—feels heavy. He holds out a hand to stop their advancement. Kakashi's breathe catches in his throat.
"Sakura," he breathes, voice barely louder than a whisper. It seems to carry over the echoing masses of murmurs.
Sakura, so far oblivious to their calls, now stiffens and stops completely. Neck nudges to the side and she turns fully, so bright green eyes regard him intently.
She is pale, but unaffected by the dull landscape. Green eyes that always remind him of a warm spring day are a vivid as ever. The finality of the situation settles on his skin soothingly, but with heaviness of the enormity
Kakashi breathes deeply, the peculiar feeling of being out of a mortal body making the action odd and unfitting.
"Sakura," he says again softly. He is being cautious, because he somehow knows that if she steps foot on that river, she will be absolutely beyond his reach. He will not let that happen.
Sakura tilts her head to regard him curiously as he beckons a hand towards her. She does not take it but stares at his masked face intently.
"Sakura, can you come with me, please?" His request is not a command because he knows her stubborn nature that has grown even more resolute at the age of twenty-two. She only stares at him.
"Kakashi," she says with a tone of being successful in remembering a once obscure thought. "You're Kakashi."
"Yes," he breathes. "I need you to take my hand and come with me. We need to go home."
"Home…," Sakura ponders that thought with a scrunched brow.
"Home, Sakura," Kakashi urges, "with me to Konoha and Naruto—"
"Oh!" Sakura exclaims, "Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, and Yamato! I remember now."
"They want you to come back, too," Kakashi explains, keeping his eyes locked on Sakura, because he fears that if he looks away she might leave him. "They're here, telling you to come home."
Sakura looks around him, puzzled.
She then turns to him with a look that says he's being silly and a small grin "What are you talking about, Kakashi? There's only you."
Right then he wishes he could turn and send the others away, turn their eyes away from a moment that should be completely private between himself and Sakura.
He will not, though. Where would he send them in this barren place? He fears they would get lost among the sharp whispers burdening this echoing wasteland.
Still, he resists the urge to tell them to at least pretend they're not boring holes in his back with their stares.
They thankfully stay silent.
Sakura's last statement leaves him feeling satisfied, but weary in equal measures; satisfied, because he's the only one she sees, not Sasuke, or Naruto, or Sai, or Yamato. Weary, because he finally accepts what's been on the edge of his consciousness for years now. He has been foolish.
She's it.
Finally he can recognize the feeling.
All those infinitesimal moments of her —her smile, her laugh, her smell, her eyes, especially her eyes, fit snugly in his mind.
But then, there's also that feeling that kept him from her all those years:
Shame.
The times he gazed at her too long or when he dared to imagine how she would look under him, how she would feel, sound, always encouraged a sense of wrongness within him.
He couldn't, not with her.
She wasn't for him to hold or share her life with.
And it wears him down even more.
Now she looks to him, eyes hooded with sadness.
"Will you take my hand, Sakura?" he asks, willing her to do just that. "So we can go."
She turns away from him and looks back toward the enormous gates. "Don't you hear them? They're calling me. There's something there across the river and it's meant for me."
"Not yet, Sakura, please." He knows he sounds desperate and frightened for once in his life, but he cannot help the helplessness, because he recognizes that this is a choice he cannot make for her and she might choose to turn away forever.
Sakura turns back to him, and oh , he can't stand the weight of sadness in her eyes.
She speaks, voice wavering, "I've seen the way you look at me when you think I haven't noticed, and then how your eyes fill with shame. You think loving me is wrong, but it isn't. You fear the others would shun you should you ever act upon it. I'm so tired, Kakashi. This world is so cruel, so maybe it's better this way. We'll meet in another life and see it clearer in a different light. But I'm no fool, Kakashi, I know there's a reason why, at the end of the world, you're the last thing I see."
Kakashi stands still at her words and confession. Sakura has always been smarter than him and it stands to reason that she would have it all figured out before he did. An unpleasantness in his chest squeezes knowing that Sakura is already resolved in turning away from him. He shakes his head, deciding to ponder later on the fact that he is such a huge ass—of course he wasn't the only one enduring. That would come later, though, he couldn't let her leave.
Kakashi has never been one for finding the right words at the right time, but for her he will try. Only for her.
What can he say? How can he convince her that if she comes back with him he will make everything alright and all their persistent obligations why they shouldn't he will make go away when he does not even believe it himself?
"It's not," he forces out of his clumsy mouth, "It's not better this way, Sakura. At all." He searches her face, her expression of doubt and he needs to try harder. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm such a mess and that I don't handle things the way I should. Just come back with me and I'll fix everything. I'll make everything alright, just take my hand." Empty promises or not, but he is saying what he means and what will make her come towards him.
Sakura is wavering and he takes a plunge into that vulnerability. There is hesitation beholden in her vibrant eyes and a willingness to believe what he says is true because she wants a chance to find out, too. "Please, Sakura," Kakashi pleads. "You can't die. Not yet." Not before they have a chance to find out.
She stares at him, deciding, and she doesn't turn back to look at the beckoning gates. Sakura only looks at him, but doubt remains.
"Why?" she asks him simply, daring him to say it aloud.
Because I love you . "Because-because if you don't, well, you know how you remember to remind me to be on time for appointments? And-and if you go I'll have no one to do that for me." He finishes lamely and completely self-conscious because right now this is the only way he can tell her he loves her.
Sakura seems to understand, though. Her eyes are even more vivacious and she breathes an airy laugh at his expense, biting her lip to hide her amusement at his lameness.
"You know, you can be very convincing when you want to be?" Sakura tells him.
Kakashi only shrugs his shoulders, hand still held out before him, waiting for her to take it.
She regards it cautiously, but he sees her resolve when she takes a deep breath and looks into his eyes.
Sakura takes one step forward and grasps his hand firmly. Sakura's small hand, calloused with strength, as rough as his, fits perfectly.
Kakashi laces his fingers tightly through hers as the world disappears again.
…
Even before opening his eyes—already smelling that thick floral smoke that sent him away the first time—Kakashi lunges to his feet, having woken on the floor, and rushes to Sakura's side, needing to see her alive.
Her chest rises and falls steadily as she breathes in through her nose. Her eyes remain shut.
" Oh-ho ! You've done it, Hatake," says the familiar voice of the old woman from across the bed that Sakura lies on.
Kakashi looks away from Sakura to regard the ecstatic old woman. "Will she remember any of what just occurred?" he asks.
He hears shuffling noises behind him, probably the others sorting themselves out after their adventure, as he watches the old woman shrug her shoulders. "I don't know. Some do and some don't, while some remember later."
Kakashi turns to face Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, and Yamato. They stare at him wide-eyed. Then they shuffle awkwardly.
He'd expected as much. Honestly, he'd expected Naruto—and maybe Sasuke—to punch him.
"Don't tell her anything," he commands. Empty promises it is. People don't change that fast, especially him, and he's still scared and a coward and reasons why he shouldn't have come flooding back into his mind. But she's back and that's all that matters right now.
Kakashi ducks right in time just as an object swings over his head, making a swishing sound through the air with its momentum. Kakashi twists in time to catch the old woman finishing waving her scepter in his direction.
"Foolish boy!" she chastises. "I did not go through all that trouble to help bring back your soulmate so you could be a complete moron about it!"
" What would you have me do ?" Kakashi almost shouts, waiting for another attack.
The woman snorts condescendingly. "I don't know, maybe love her ," her voice drips with sarcasm, "Or make love to her, I'm sure she'd appreciate either one."
Kakashi hears choking noises behind him and the tops of his ears sting with heat even though he'd appreciate both, too.
Kakashi is spared from making a response as Sakura suddenly jolts in to a sitting position and her eyes snap open. Her breathing is harsh and the first eyes she meets are his.
Sakura stares at him briefly, eyes narrowing in concentration, but then there is the old woman peering at her intently and invading her personal space and Sakura starts, attention diverted.
"W-what are you doing?" she splutters, befuddled at the proximity of the stranger. Sakura looks around at them all, turning her head this way and that way, seemingly utterly confused. She looks at the old woman again who hasn't budged her gaze from Sakura. "Who are you? And what happened? I don't really…" she trails off, running a hand through her hair.
Out of nowhere, the old woman jabs Sakura in the side with her cane, making Sakura yelp in surprise and maybe pain as she lurches off the bed. She would have fallen were it not for Kakashi who caught her, but quickly released her once he saw everyone watching. He wasn't one for a crowd.
Sakura wasn't even paying him any mind, though.
"Ouch! What the—What is your problem?" Sakura glares daggers at the old woman while rubbing her sore side.
"Everything seems to be in order," is the only thing the woman says.
"What are you implying?" asks Sai, making his voice heard.
"Well, young man," starts the old woman while dusting off her hands and smoothing out her rumpled bed, "sometimes what you want to come back doesn't always, you see? We could have dragged back something nasty."
Kakashi hasn't moved his eyes from Sakura the entire time since she had awoken, so he saw the moment her jaw dropped open in complete astonishment and disbelief.
"OH MY—, I WAS DEAD!" Sakura yells, wide-eyed. Naruto, Yamato, Sai, and Sasuke jump at her outburst and stare at her as she stares back, looking at each of them in turn. "What the hell did you guys do to bring me back, you idiots! You didn't sacrifice anything did you? This isn't natural!"
"I don't deal in sacrifices, dear," responds the old woman matter-of-factly. She pauses, "Well, not always."
"What does that even mean?"
The woman brings a hand to her chest. "My specialty lies in love." Seeing Sakura's still terrified expression she elaborates, "The point is that they gave me nothing in return. I did it out of the goodness of my own heart."
"How can you have the power to do such a thing?" asks Sakura in incredulity.
The older woman only glances sideways at her with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Oh, I can't wait to see how yours turns out. I always love the complicated ones."
At once Kakashi knows why she chose them in particular: him and Sakura were certainly wonderfully complicated with their budding relationship.
This woman wasn't nice, she was sadistic.
But she had given him his Sakura back.
Kakashi focuses back on Sakura to see her pull her bloodied shirt down over where her injury had been, yanking the fabric halfway down her left breast. Since her breast bindings are bloodied and torn, she exposes a swell of flesh and Kakashi has half a mind to go stand in front of her because the other men are looking and he feels ridiculous because he knows he shouldn't feel as if he is allowed to look and the others are not.
Even though he kind of is. Sort of.
She thankfully covers herself quickly because he was starting to get fidgety, and she looks around again, blinking.
Yamato clears his throat. "You…don't remember anything else, Sakura?" he asks, glancing not so covertly at Kakashi.
Sakura blinks some more. "No, why do you ask?"
"No reason."
Kakashi glares at him.
The old woman giggles.
Sakura heaves a big sigh. "Can we go home? This has been really…weird."
The old woman claps her hands. "Yes, yes, away with you!" She starts ushering them out the door, muttering. "I'm going to get in trouble, I just know it." As she finishes her sentence the sky flashes with a brilliant bolt of lightning, illuminating the oncoming darkness of dusk. "Oh dear, there he goes. You youngsters just stay in the shadows for an hour or two, alright?" She grumbles to herself again. "He'll occupy himself with the next pretty young thing soon enough anyways."
Kakashi whispers a quick and sincere 'thank you', no matter her intentions, before she pushes him completely out the door. As she pushes Sakura, she too utters a confused, 'uh, thanks?' as she walks through the door.
At the last second they all turn back to see not a wrinkly old woman, but a beautiful young woman grinning at them with white teeth, alabaster skin glowing in the dusk. "Of course, dears. Make it count!" She then slams the door shut and it's as if trees jump in front of her little cottage, obscuring it from view.
There is silence.
"Are we on drugs?" Naruto asks, blinking.
"I hope so," Sasuke murmurs.
She couldn't have been…could she?
Kakashi shakes his head and turns away.
"Whatever, lets just go home," Sakura suggests, and starts walking. "I'm so tired."
Kakashi trails right after her, scanning the trees for anything suspicious as he walks practically glued to her back. He ignores the blatant stares from the others.
Kakashi waits and lets them go on ahead a little ways, before he spins around and grabs Sakura by the shoulders, surprising her. His grip is as firm as his voice. "Don't ever do that again. Just don't. Don't think you are doing me a favor by giving your life in my stead. Because you're not."
Sakura's eyes, at first flabbergasted segue into stubbornness and he groans internally.
"Usually, when you save someone's life, a thank you is in order, not a scolding," she says coldly.
"Just don't do it," he repeats.
Sakura knocks his hands off of her shoulders, now affronted. "Don't tell me what to do." She jaunts away.
Kakashi turns as she walks by him, eyes following her, to find Naruto turning away, whistling and pretending like he wasn't watching. The others are more subtle about it.
Since privacy is scarce, Kakashi doesn't bother to lower his voice. "Don't be stubborn, Sakura."
"My stubbornness knows no bounds, Kakashi," she answers him, not turning. "You see, I fully believe I came back from the dead just to have this argument with you."
Kakashi rubs a hand tiredly over his face. He wants to kiss her so much. He wants to hold her and he fully recognizes the urge and he doesn't block it because some dynamic has changed between them and he knows exactly why but she can't even remember.
If only once, he would like to feel the touch of her lips against his.
He does nothing.
Kakashi watches Sakura walk closer to Naruto and when she gets close enough, he embraces her tightly.
"You scared us, Sakura," he tells her, voice hoarse. "I'm really glad you're not dead." He stiffens then, blue eyes snapping open, he meets Kakashi's gaze. "In a friend way though. A big friend way, y'know?" he says loudly enough so he makes sure it reaches Kakashi's ears. He gives her a friendly pat on the shoulder for good measure.
"Yes," Yamato pipes up, "we're all happy you're okay in a big friend way, too." He says this while his eyes vigorously dart between Kakashi and Sakura. Sai and Sasuke nod eagerly to agree with Yamato.
Kakashi sighs. They're all a bunch of idiots, including him.
Sakura arches her brow in bemusement. "Okay. You guys are acting weirder than usual…and you're not telling me something. I can tell. Ever since I woke up you've been keeping something from me. Tell me," she commands.
"Don't know what you're talking about, "Naruto replies unconvincingly.
Sakura opens her mouth to retort, but Sasuke cuts her off. "Let's go, it's getting late and getting later the more you keep talking." And without further ado, he starts walking on ahead.
Sometimes Kakashi really appreciates Sasuke's propensity towards tactlessness.
Sakura makes a face at his back, but follows.
Kakashi resumes his place at her back again.
"Aren't you happy in a big friend way, too," Sakura whispers sarcastically to him.
Kakashi half-smiles. "Something like that."
…
They make camp later that night when the moon is a Cheshire cat's grin in the sky. Safely within Konoha's forest's borders, they are more relaxed.
Kakashi finds Sakura staring at him intently with her intense viridian eyes over the campfire. He wants to look away, but he doesn't.
"I have the funniest feeling it has something to do with you, but I can't remember," she murmurs, gaze locked onto him, but far away at the same time. The others are as still as he remains.
Her gaze focuses back on him and she shrugs nonchalantly, smiling slightly. "It can't be that important if I can't remember it, right?"
A vice squeezes Kakashi's chest. "Right," he replies.
He turns onto his back and looks at the sky instead.
…
She is sleeping when Naruto calls out to him softly. The faintly glowing embers of the once-was fire now only glows dimly. "Kakahsi-sensei? It's okay, you know. I-I mean with me. You didn't have to be unhappy for so long. I'm sorry you were." Kakashi blinks against the graininess of his eyes, sleep impossible for the time being.
Kakashi shifts awkwardly. "Thanks, Naruto, but it's not that simple."
"Okay," Naruto replies, simply.
Sakura snaps into a sitting position so suddenly that she startles the others. Her breathing remains harsh for a minute, chest rising and falling rapidly.
"Did you have a bad dream, Sakura?" Naruto asks worryingly.
She smooths her hair down and pats herself as if making sure she is actually there and not in some far off dream she has just awoken from. "I-uh, no. No, it wasn't bad dream. Just…different. I'm fine, go back to sleep." Sakura quietly lies back down, back facing him. She pretends to go back to sleep, but she remains tense.
…
Kakashi knows how to avoid her since he started several years past; he refines those skills down to a T once they arrive back.
Well, he tries to.
Kakashi suspects Sakura of knowing his avoidance of her and letting him get away with it to make him feel better.
At least that's the only explanation he derives because when he tries to circumvent any interaction with her, she's right there, delicate smile in place—although he knows a farce when he sees one because nothing about Sakura can be called delicate.
Sakura visits him more often. She always brings tea or some kind of food before storming into his apartment and making herself comfortable. Kakashi wants to deny the feeling that elevates his mood every time there is a knock on his door and the person behind it turns out to be her, but he doesn't. He lets her do whatever she wants, whatever makes her happy.
He refrains from all conversation and allows her to do most of the talking. Sakura cajoles and she knows how to talk to him in a way that has him talking more than he ever has in his life about any kind of subject.
Sakura sits silently when she knows he needs it, but she doesn't leave, which he appreciates. Sometimes she just sits next to him and the feel of her leg pressed up against his subsists as more than enough.
Among his many other nightmares, a new one makes itself at home and settles within the hours of his unconsciousness.
Kakashi still dreams of her death, so he lets her do whatever she wants.
…
The first time he kisses her, they are in the middle of an argument.
He doesn't remember what the argument was about, only that he started it with his passive-aggressive comments made to incite her volatile temper, because he's frustrated and he knows it's not her fault he feels that way, but she's there almost every day and he doesn't allow himself to touch her and she has no idea how much he wants to and she's just so lovely. Kakashi knows he shouldn't be getting so close, but she's yelling at him and he's responding and before he knows it, he's crowded Sakura against a wall and she's looking at him with those beautiful green eyes and his mask he has pulled down and his lips are moving furiously against hers.
So intense are his actions, he fails to realize how there is no hesitation in the way she immediately responds by pressing herself closer to him and tangling her fingers through his hair. All he knows becomes her lips moving against his in equal fervor and two hearts beating in unison.
Clarity of his current actions knocks him into reality and he pulls away quickly. Sakura hasn't let him go yet and he watches as she slowly opens her eyes, chest heaving and breasts pressing against his chest. Kakashi's eyes dart to her pink lips, swollen with his urgent kiss and he wonders if she'll let him do it again and then he realizes who he is and who she is.
Kakashi pulls away completely and he has a chance to catch her exasperated expression of anger before he poofs away in a cloud of silver smoke, leaving her alone in his apartment.
…
Sakura allows him to avoid her for an entire week after their kiss.
Kakashi caves on the eighth day and crawls through her widow, leaving misshapen plants in his wake.
Sakura sits on her couch, reading a heavy medical textbook and she does not deign him her attention even though he knows she felt his chakra signature since he did not bother to hide it. She flips a page lazily.
Kakashi clears his throat. "I brought this back for you, you left it at my place."
Sakura finally turns her head to look at what he has proffered in his hand and promptly rolls her eyes.
"Kakashi, it's a spoon," she says matter-of-factly. "I have plenty here, you didn't have to bother."
She's peeved at him, obviously. Kakashi shuffles his feet. "I know, I just thought you might like this one more than the others, so I came to give it back."
"Obviously I don't, or else I wouldn't have forgotten it."
He's really not good at this. "Okay, I'll just leave it here and I'll go."
Sakura sighs and sets aside her textbook, getting to her feet and making her way towards him. Kakashi observes her in the time it takes her to make her way around her coffee table.
Sakura wears simple sweatpants and a t-shirt, nothing fancy, but he still finds himself daydreaming. Kakashi's remembering their kiss and he knows he shouldn't have come, but there he is and there she is right in front of him, gazing at him through dark long lashes.
Sakura takes the spoon from his hand. "Thank you." Sakura then sets it beside her and wraps her arms around his middle, burying her face against his collarbone.
Sakura breathes deeply, nose pressed on his shirt. Kakashi stands dumbly with his arms at his sides, gazing down at the top of her pink head.
Kakashi doesn't know how to do this, but he brings his arms around her hesitantly and she rewards him with a smile. Kakashi lets his head fall forward, so he can bury his face in her hair. In that moment he is surrounded by her and the feeling can't get any better.
He hasn't bothered to wear his mask around her for a long time now, so there exists no deterrents when she decides to stand on her tippy toes to kiss him again, softly.
Sakura pulls away first this time, but he pulls her back immediately because he's indulging himself for once and she feels so good against him.
She tastes him with her tongue and he returns the favor, tilting her head for better access.
He doesn't remember moving towards the couch or exactly when Sakura shifted onto his lap with a leg on either side. He only feels his lips on hers and his hands on her back with her heat radiating through them.
Kakashi is on the edge, teetering. He's never wanted anything so bad, let alone someone.
Sakura shifts against his lap and makes a small noise in the back of her throat, making clear to him what she wants from him.
It's too far, he knows that, but even so he takes a moment longer before poofing away again, hearing an exasperated "Hatake!" before he fully leaves.
…
For the next few weeks this similar scenario plays out to Sakura's ever increasing frustration, but she understands. She does not get angry towards him in any form. She understands he needs time, because this is not easy for him and so she is patient, but Sakura's patience, and his for that matter, can only last so long.
He caves somewhat only once during those weeks; somewhat only because he knows the tension he is building inside her night after night and he doesn't want to leave her like that again. So Kakashi one tense night reaches down in between her legs with no protest whatsoever from her and moves his hand against the thin fabric of her underwear until she is a writhing mess underneath him.
He keeps his face firmly buried in the crook of her neck, not daring to glance at how beautiful she looks when she comes, body shuddering against his with intensity, because he knows he won't be able to hold back any longer. He's still not sure that that would be such a bad thing.
He leaves again right after, deserting her hands of his tightly clutched hair and warm breath against her neck.
…
He evades her presence for another week after that particular night. She does not seek him out during that week, which leads him to believe he did something wrong, validating his logic which has never really parted with him.
Kakashi stands around his apartment, fidgeting on the eighth day before remembering that he seemed to recall Sakura having a mission that week and maybe the reason she hasn't come to see him was because she was in trouble in one way or another and so on and so on. Kakashi works himself into such a state that he sprints from his apartment to hers and once reaching it, barreling through her window to find Sakura coming out of her bathroom with only a towel wrapped around her, freshly showered.
Sakura starts in surprise and stares into his widened eye, taking in his frazzled state.
Sakura looks abruptly worried. "Kakashi, is something wrong?"
Kakashi swallows, fully comprehending his stupidity, before slowly shaking his head.
Slowly, the worry ebbs from her features and is replaced with puzzlement. "Then what is it?" she asks softly.
Kakashi only breathes and stares at her, lost for words.
He stands numbly in the middle of her room as her face takes in that look she gets right before she's about to win an argument or a victory from an opponent, knowing all she needs is one more well-placed punch, verbal or otherwise.
Sakura's jaw is set in an obstinate determination when she lets the towel drop away from her naked body, her green eyes daring him to look away.
Kakashi doesn't—he knows he should, but he doesn't.
Dusty pink pert nipples harden with the cool air drifting in as Sakura walks slowly over to him. Kakshi notices her hesitation in the form of shyness through her movements, but she does not pause in her movements. Sakura makes sure her breasts bounce with every step and Kakashi knows what she's doing, but it doesn't matter because he's already a fucking goner.
Sakura reaches around him to close the window, before she lets her hands travel along his vest clad chest until she reaches his mask, pulling it down revealing his shortness of breath.
Sakura presses her lithe body against his wound one and kisses him lightly. "Why did you come then, Kakashi?"
Sakura moves her mouth down to kiss his neck. "Why?" she asks again, breath whispering over his skin.
Kakashi's arms, formerly two useless pieces of bone and meat at his sides, now reach to embrace her.
She tenses, holding him tighter, probably thinking he will push her away like every other time before now. A small gasp leaves her lips before Kakashi crushes her body against his, letting her know how much he really wants her.
Kakashi tilts her head with two shaking hands before sealing his lips to hers with unchecked need. He bows her backwards slightly, so his mouth can travel to one full breast, sucking and nipping her into a state until she is moving insistently against him, wanting more.
Kakashi, needing to feel her skin against his, moves away slightly to rid himself of his clothes…
…Or at least he tries to because he then finds himself flung onto the bed by Sakura.
Kakashi lands among ruffled bedsheets and finds that Sakura has straddled him, pinning him firmly to the bed.
Sakura glares at him with piercing green eyes, frustrated and pouting. "You're not going anywhere, Hatake. You're going to stay here and you are going to make love to me, dammit!"
It seems she misunderstood his intentions.
Her tone, exasperated and commanding at the same time, makes Kakashi drop his head back onto the bed and start barking out laughter.
It feels good. The laugh starts low in his stomach and rumbles through his chest in mirth. He can't remember the last time he laughed with so much exuberance.
He knew it was only a matter of time before she jumped him. Well, he'd never had a woman outright demand sex from him, but Sakura was a first for him for many things.
He'd have to have the self-control of a saint to turn her away now, and saint he was not.
Sakura, affronted, glares away, and he is most pleasantly reminded of their positon when she bounces on his lap to gain his attention.
Gain his attention she does, when his laugh splutters out and he kind of chokes at the intense jolt of pleasure.
She stops and he groans, eyes clenched shut to stop himself from grabbing her hips and repeating the motion. She has to feel how hard he is, but she does nothing to either of their satisfaction and only chastises him. "Don't laugh at me, Kakashi. Do you know how many dreams I've had only to wake to find they weren't real? There's only so much sexual frustration a girl can bottle inside before she snaps! I could fuck you for a week straight and not get tired."
Kakashi's eyes widen somewhat at Sakura's last statement, but he blinks a few heart pounding moments to get his thoughts straight. "I wasn't going anywhere— I was only going to…undress. And I'd like to test that last statement."
To his credit, Sakura does appear bashful for one full second, verbalized by a soft "oh", before she shrugs and reaches down to unzip his trousers.
He thinks she means to aid him, and so he manages to kick his boots and socks off before her slim digits are abruptly grasping him and with no hesitation she takes him within her in one quick thrust. By instinct and pure overwhelming sensation, he bucks to meet her thrust as she surrounds him in throbbing heat.
Kakashi thinks he can finish just by the sound she makes, deep down in her throat, guttural and completely sensual. But not yet, not yet. She shifts in his lap, adjusting to his size, and he feels himself twitch inside her. Sakura's eyes flutter shut and she squeezes him until he can't think anymore. Everything he becomes exists as Sakura's bare skin against his and where her flesh yields to his.
Sakura presses her chest against his, kissing him chastely before moving back so she rest fully on his lap again. Sakura places a hand on his chest and it's all Kakashi can do to hold on when Sakura gives Kakashi a pointed stare and starts pumping her hips against his with abandon. She seeks relief from Kakashi's body from all the tense days Kakashi left her wanting. She offers no respite—which he would never in his right mind ask for—or mercy and rides Kakashi until they are both on the brink.
Their skin is slick with sweat and they slide in quick ruts against each other, desperately reaching that moment of bliss.
When it finally happens, it happens at the same moment. Sakura closes in around him even tighter than before, digging her nails into his chest and he, he swears his heart stops for a second and he can't breathe with the sensations running through his body. He closes his eyes and wraps his arms around a shaking Sakura, clutching her trembling body to his.
He comes back to the world to find Sakura pressing soft kisses to the heated skin of his face and chest. She meets his half-lidded gaze—doesn't say anything—only smiles sweetly at him. She seems to say with her gaze, See, was that so bad?
Kakashi lets his head drop back onto the mattress and grins at the ceiling.
A quiet calm settles in around them as Sakura breathes with him and atop him.
Sometime later, Sakura moves off him and burrows against his side, for all intents and purposes seeming as if she is going to go to sleep.
He's not having any of that.
Kakashi quickly maneuvers a surprised Sakura onto her back as he kneels in between her legs.
"I don't think so. What was that about 'fucking for a week straight' again?" He looks at her with a challenge in his eyes.
Sakura meets his challenge head-on, with an equal look of her own, as she has always done.
Kakashi thinks that he should have known sooner that they were meant for each other: she was his equal in every way.
She will regenerate him with a vengeance.
…
They certainly try their best to go at it for a week, but that same night they stop at five times, all of them more fantastic than the last.
Kakashi gazes at an exhausted Sakura, hair splayed against the pillows and face smooth and serene, with a crease of worry in his brow.
He has dressed again, knowing he will leave before the night is through and knowing he will disappoint her yet again. He's come back to himself after their coupling and realizes he's no good to her when he's stressing about them, their relationship, so much.
No one knows yet of what happened those weeks ago to Sakura and how he brought her back, except those four others and they have kept quiet so far. No one knows that he and Sakura are fated and he doubts anyone would believe the story of what had transpired with what he was now sure was a powerful goddess.
He worries not for himself—he has dealt with gossip before—but for Sakura and how she would be subjected to rumors and malicious remarks.
He takes another longer look at his slumbering girl and leaves.
…
In the days that follow, Sakura makes not one comment of his leaving her that night. She smiles just as sweetly and embraces him just as tightly. By now, he's completely in love…if he wasn't before.
It's strange, he thinks. He's never looked forward to seeing one particular person so much each and every day. Hearing her voice, seeing her smile, just wow .
He's sure he's become a cheesy piece of crap but he couldn't care less.
Kakashi still hasn't spent one night with her, though. He feels as if actually spending the whole night with her would be some kind of milestone. That would be it, no more running or doubting. He would just have to get the fuck over everything. Kakashi just needs to find that one final push to get him where he wants to be.
…
He's eating at Ichiraku's on evening with the others when Sakura stops by.
"Here," she proffers, handing him a shiny silver key. "You need to stop coming in through my window—you're smushing my plants." And leaving it at that, she pats his head and walks off.
Kakashi swallows his mouthful of ramen with some difficulty. He doesn't want to look at the guys, since he hasn't actually told any of them that he and Sakura were, well, together.
"When did this start?" asks Sasuke.
Naruto, who had been staring, mouth open and noodle hanging down, shakes himself and surprises Kakashi. "That's none of our business, Sasuke."
"That's right," Sai says, going back to his food.
"Yeah," Yamato concurs.
Sasuke just shrugs.
They're minding their own business.
Huh.
…
Kakashi makes his way over to Sakura’s after Ichiraku's, using his shiny new key to open her front door once he reaches it.
Sakura's on her couch, mindlessly flipping through another heavy medical textbook.
"That was mean," Kakashi chides. He knows that she will understand that he is referring to Sakura all but feeding him to the sharks in the manner that she handed the key to him.
Sakura shrugs. "They'll understand, you know, you being my soulmate and all that."
"Alright, but…wait, what did you just say?" Kakashi's heart stutters. Did she just say what he thought she said?
"You heard me," she responds, "any soulmate of mine gets a key to my apartment. Congrats."
Kakashi stands still and dumbfounded. Sakura takes her eyes away from her book and eyes him with a searching gaze.
He still doesn't move.
Sakura sighs and gets to her feet, making her way over to him. She smiles sunnily at him, love and warmth in her grin.
"I remembered everything since that first night after it happened," she grabs his hand in her warm one and presses it to her face, kissing his palm. She keeps a firm grip on him. "Why are you so scared? It's only love."
…
That night she falls asleep and he stays.
Sakura opens her eyes the next day to find him lying right next to her, right where he should be.
It's a new day and she greets him with a grin.