What the New Year Brings

Happy Halloween, everyone! ^_^

Chapter 56-The First Time KakaSaku Celebrate Halloween

Another group of high pitched screams emanate from the apartment hallway.

I roll my eyes and shake my head before making my way to the front door and popping my head through it.

"Kakashiii..." I say in exasperation.

"What?" he asks innocently.

"Haven't you had enough?"

"But they like it!"

The terrified look in the children's eyes as they look over their shoulder and runaway from us (or should I say Kakashi?) say otherwise, but what can I do? It's Halloween. The kids do want to be frightened, and it's not like Kakashi isn't letting them take any candy before he scares the crap out of them. In fact, the huge orange plastic bowl with bats printed flying around its rim is surprisingly almost empty, which means that either our candy is better than the neighbors' or Kakashi has been very, very generous in handing out the sweets. Seeing how things rarely happen for one reason alone, I'm guessing that it's a little bit of both.

I shake my head and sigh.

"Alright, but once that bowl is empty, that's it, okay?"

Kakashi gives me a happy eye crease and a two fingered salute before going back to reading his book, and I go back inside the apartment to finish sprinkling chocolate sprinkles on top of orange colored icing spread over freshly baked chocolate cupcakes.

Really, Kakashi is enjoying his role as "scarecrow" a little bit too much. Who knew he'd take a comment, an observation, really, so far? I once told him that he really was like his namesake, scarcely moving an inch as he read his book. And from that one little comment he decided to take it one step further and dress up as a scarecrow for Halloween, sitting in a chair by our front door, reading his book with a huge bowl of Halloween candy sitting on a small table next to him. As Kakashi had suspected, what really scares people can sometimes be the simplest things. In this case, all he has to do is suddenly raise his head up from his book and say a cheerful "Happy Halloween!" with his trademark happy eye crease and the neighborhood kids run away screaming their little heads off.

About half an hour and several tiny more screams later, Kakashi walks in through the door, carrying with him his book, chair, and a completely empty bowl.

"That was fun," he says cheerfully.

"For you or for them? Because I'm pretty sure that little pink fairy princess is going to need to get her diaper changed once she goes home now!" I say loudly over the rushing faucet water as I wash the last of the dirty dishes.

"For both of us, of course." Kakashi says, plopping down onto the sofa.

"I swear, you're only good with kids when you're tormenting them!" I say, drying my hands on a dishtowel before joining him in the living room.

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

"C'mon, Kakashi! One of the first things you did to me when I first met you was starve me and make me believe that my childhood crush was dying! You don't count that as torture?"

"I fed you afterwards, didn't I? And that little genjutsu only made you more wary of them from there on out. All and all, I think I did a pretty good job in teaching you guys. What?..." Kakashi asks, confused by the face I'm making at him.

"You might have been good with the boys, but if we had a girl, Kakashi, I seriously don't think you'd know what to do with her!"

"Now what makes you say that?"

"Are you kidding me? When I was a genin, you spent all your time teaching Sasuke, when I was a chuunin, you spent all your time teaching Naruto, and now that I'm your fiancée, you still won't teach me anything one-on-one!"

"That's not true, Sakura. We've done plenty of things together one-on-one and I've taught you more than a few new things while we were at it, too!" Kakashi says with a lascivious smirk.

I feel the vein in my forehead start to throb.

"Kakashi, that's not what I meant and you know it!"

"I know. I'm sorry, Sakura. It's just so much fun teasing you, that's all," he says, reaching his hand out and playfully ruffling my hair the way he used to when I was younger.

"Stop that!" I say, swatting his hand away.

Kakashi, however, just looks back at me with an amused look in his eye.

"I'm serious, Kakashi! Try being the only girl in your team and being overlooked because of it!"

"Is that what you think?" Kakashi asks, taken aback. "Sakura, I never meant to overlook you on purpose and if I spent more time teaching the boys, it was only because you were the one person I didn't have to worry about."

"How's that?"

"Well, for one, you didn't have a big, angry beast sealed up inside of you and you didn't have a blood inheritance you didn't know what to do with since your entire clan had been killed off. In fact, you were the complete opposite. You actually had control of your abilities. No...You had precise control of your abilities. Just look at how quickly you caught on to walking up trees in comparison to the boys."

"That's true. They were the ones watching my back for that particular lesson." I say with pride.

For a fleeting second the look of amusement returns to Kakashi's eye, but just as quickly as it came, it disappears.

"Second, you still had a family to go home to. Sasuke and Naruto didn't, which is why they were in more need of my guidance and why I could relate better to them, too: Because we all lost our families. If Minato-sensei hadn't been there for me-"

Kakashi pauses.

"All I'm saying is that when you're alone in the world and someone finally reaches out a hand, it really does make all the difference in the world. In a way, I just wanted to return the favor."

"I'm sorry, Kakashi. I didn't know-"

"Don't be. I'm just telling you this so that you'll understand why I didn't pay as much attention to you as the boys. And the last reason, the main reason is because Tsunade was simply a more fitting teacher for you than I ever would have been. Both of you possess similar abilities and interests, not to mention tempers-"

I scowl at him for mentioning that, but somehow my reaction only makes his grin even bigger.

"And, well, you're right. In a way, I did pass you over because you're a girl, but-" Kakashi cuts me off before a word of protest can pass through my already open mouth, "Not for the reason you think. During that time, you were at an age where all these changes were happening to you physically. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was happy to hand you off to Tsunade so that she could help you deal with all that instead."

"So you did pass me over because I'm a girl, but not because I was weak?"

"Sakura, you're anything but weak."

"Well, now I'm not and only because of Shishou! Even I know that I was pretty much pathetic and useless back then!"

"You were never weak, Sakura. Your fight with Ino in the chuunin exam proved that, but you were less focused and determined than Sasuke and Naruto back then."

"That's true, but I did wise up and become more focused and determined after I achieved chuunin."

"Yes, you did." Kakashi agrees, nodding his head.

"But then why didn't you start teaching me then?"

"Because by that time I was too focused on teaching Naruto. You saw how it was. I even had to get Tenzou to help me contain the Kyuubi's power."

"And after that? That's almost ten years that you could've focused on teaching me."

"Sakura, Tsunade's already taught you everything you need to know. I don't know what else I could possibly teach you now that you haven't learned already."

"But you're the Copy Nin! You've copied over a thousand jutsus! There has to be something more you can teach me!"

"Well, yeah, but in my mind I was thinking more in the bedroom department." Kakashi says, the lecherous look returning in his eye.

At that moment I feel something inside me snap.

"Ugh! You've got a one track mind!" I glare at him. "To you a woman's worth is only what she can do in those Icha, Icha books of yours!"

"What? Sakura, that's not true!"

"Really? What is it then? Is it because I'd be such a waste of your time? Because heaven forbid I take you away from your precious books which I'm sure you already have memorized by now anyway!"

"Sakura, that's not fair!"

"I'm being unfair? Try having a male chauvinist for a boyfriend!"

"Sakura, you've gone too far." Kakashi says evenly.

"Have I? Or does it just hurt to hear the truth about yourself?"

"Sakura, that's enough. Stop now before you say something more that you'll really regret."

"Why would I regret telling you exactly what I think about the way you treat me? The key to a good relationship is good communication, right? Well, I'm telling you this: Start taking me seriously and start teaching me something, and I don't just mean some kinky thing in the bedroom either! When I'm being serious and you suggest something like that, it's demeaning!"

"Sakura, your temper is demeaning. How can we make this relationship work if you don't know how to control your anger?"

"I have a right to be angry, Kakashi! And if you can't see that, if you can't see why I'm angry, then maybe you don't know me at all!"

I feel his eye burning into my back as he watches me get up and storm away, slamming the front door shut behind me. I do it with so much force that I hear it consequently fall off its hinges and collapse and crash to the floor, but I don't care! I just need to get as far away from him as possible! I just need to breathe, yet I'm walking so fast that ease of breath is the last thing that I'm achieving.

Eventually, I plop down onto a bench to try and get a hold of myself. After wiping tears that I didn't know I was crying away and looking around me, I come to realize where I am. I've walked so fast and so far away that I've found myself near the Great Konoha Gates. A part of me had sensed it and automatically stopped me from actually exiting them. And, as irony would have it, ended up sitting and crying on the very bench I sat and cried on when I tried to stop Sasuke from leaving Konoha and consequently, me, forever.

I should chakra punch this stupid bench to dust, but I'm too drained right now and it's the only thing supporting me and keeping me comfortable at the moment. Again...the irony.

At that moment, a group of children dressed up in costume pass me by, too caught up in their own joy and excitement to give me any notice.

I wipe away the remaining hot tears soaking my cheeks with the heels of my hands.

When you're little, your greatest fears can be about what's hiding in the dark or under the bed, but as you grow older, you come to learn that there are other things to fear besides ghosts and monsters. Right now, with so much at stake and with so much left uncertain, my big fight with Kakashi is the scariest thing of all.

To be continued...

~*~*~*~

Please don't get mad at me! There's a first for everything and in a real relationship you will end up fighting at some point. It would be inhuman and unnatural if you didn't. You just have to figure out a way to work things out. Yes, easier said than done, but that's how lasting relationships come to last.