11 Ways

Eight: Absence

The first time Sakura was
gone for a long-term mission Kakashi was cranky.

She’d been assigned for a
seven month jaunt that had now turned into nine and a half and they still weren’t
sure exactly when she would be back.

Not only was she out there
without any of the remnants of team 7…

Not only was he not
there to work beside her and protect her if need be…

Not only was she being
delayed for who knew what reasons…

Not only had the last
communication from her been over two weeks ago…

Not only did they not know
how much longer her mission would take…

But...but...he missed
her.

That did not sit well with a
ninja who had practiced emotional distancing for all of his adult life.

The woman didn’t even have
the decency to be around for him to pin the blame to; at least then he would’ve
been able to get angry at her, maybe take it out in a spar, or at the very
least he could’ve pointedly ignored her to get the point across to all those
watching that he was not attached.

However, with her not being
there he could only get mad at himself and mentally beat himself up as he tried
to convince himself over and over that what felt like missing her was actually
just indigestion. A continual indigestion...that just conveniently happened to
have been plaguing him for the past few months…and refused to go away from the
antacids prescribed to him by the medic nins even when they couldn’t find
anything physically wrong with his stomach…or intestinal tract…or well, anything.

He was normally reticent and
silent, a man-of-few-words type. The fact had not gone unnoticed by his friends
that he spoke even less than normal now and that when he did speak it was
typically to snap at someone. Even his trademark glares at some of the more inane
antics among those around him (namely Genma) had taken on more of a lethal
quality.

However they learned quickly
that one absolute way to incite his ire was to ask him about it and show
concern about the way he was acting. That was sure to involve a quick kunai to
the head and each of them had to face enough enemies that they didn’t want to
face it on the home front too.

Which is why when a certain
pink haired kunoichi finally arrived home – four months later than expected –
no one bothered to inquire as to why his rampant ‘indigestion’ had
suddenly disappeared.