Growing Up Sakura
folder
Naruto › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
7
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1,294
Reviews:
4
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Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Naruto › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
7
Views:
1,294
Reviews:
4
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Ch.1
Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto. ( I don’t believe in slavery, I just like to think the show stays in my heart because it wants to, you know if you love something let it go free and if it comes back…okokokokok! I know that’s stupid! Anyway don’t you all think that these disclaimers are stupid? After all I think everyone knows the writers of these stories don’t own the Naruto series otherwise we’d be able to watch these stories on TV or in the Manga and it’s not as if by saying the above that our stories wouldn’t get ripped out of cyber space if the real “owners” of Naruto felt like it. In any case I put it there anyway. Guess I’ve got lemming syndrome :-)
In case anyone noticed this is slightly different from my entry into the regular FF because since I have already written it I can combine the chapters into how I actually write them. I usually do pretty short chapters in FF so I can update faster.
Chapter one: The Day Begins, Chapter two: Good Morning Good morning, Chapter three: Tales from a mission.
Sakura slowly opened her eyes and blinked away the tears that had begun to dry in the corners of her eyes. Slowly the memories of what had just occurred rushed to the surface and she screamed out the name of the dark shinobi that she had loved since she was a little girl.
“Sasuke!”
The overwhelming feeling of emptiness and loss was too much to bear. Sasuke had abandoned their village, abandoned his friends and teachers. Abandoned her. After all she had said to him, all of her love and concern for the troubled young man pouring straight from her soul to his ears, he had still left. Didn’t he realize that he was doing exactly as Itachi wanted? Didn’t he realize that in a way he was killing his family all over again by turning his back on the village that the Uchiha clan had spent generations protecting? Not to mention the people who had become his new family, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun and most of all herself. He left all of them just to gain power from a ninja as evil or more so than the older Uchiha he had sworn to himself to destroy.
A wail of despair racked through Sakura as she again cried out his name into the night sky , “Sasuke!”
Sakura quickly opened her eyes. She had been dreaming again. Ever since that fateful night over three years ago she still kept confronting Sasuke in her dreams as if that could somehow bring the lost Uchiha back to her. Sometimes he listened to her in those dreams and let her embrace him, let her hold him close and turn him back to the village. Most of the time though, it was like this. A useless attempt to save him and she woke up with the pain fresh in her heart as if it had just happened.
“Get a hold of yourself girl,” A panting now 17-year-old Sakura said to herself. “It’s time to move on.”
Although her dreams still troubled her, Sakura had been telling herself for a long time now that life had to go on and even though the saying went that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” it also tended to change the way you looked at things. The more she thought about how Sasuke had left, the more she couldn’t get over his selfishness. She still cared for him, but her interest had gone from an intense schoolgirl crush to pity and a sincere desire to rescue him from himself.
All the members of team 7 couldn’t help but feel that they might have somehow prevented Sasuke’s leaving. Sakura knew from long talks with Kakashi that he felt that he had failed in teaching Sasuke the importance of teamwork and how the people you cared about had to be more important then a mission. Kakashi saw much of his younger self in Sasuke and it pained him that he was unable to get through to the troubled boy. Naruto and Sakura both felt that if they had been stronger they could have stopped him from making such a horrible mistake, so Sasuke’s disappearance had spurred a season of new growth into the two of them.
Naruto had been studying with that pervert Jiraiya and had become remarkably stronger, his chakra control was immeasurably better and he had learned some amazing new techniques. He has also grown up a lot and since he had begun dating Hinata he was remarkable easier to get along with. Sakura herself had matured immensely from the 12-year-old girl that had fallen head over heels for the ultra cool Uchiha heir. The loss of Sasuke had made Sakura want to be as strong as she possibly could and her memories of her constantly staying on the sidelines in the battles of team 7 shamed her, and to this day she still kept her pink hair short in remembrance of the day she decided she would change. Her training the past four years with Tsunde had made her remarkably stronger and her abilities with her Chakra were getting even better than before with all of her practice as a med-nin. She continued to grow her skills by practicing with that lovable baka, Naruto, and training with Kakashi.
Tsunde, Naruto and Kakashi had become her closest friends in the years since Sasuke’s disappearance. Tsunde was a beloved mentor, role model and friend, someone that Sakura felt she could learn so much from. She hoped that she would one day be able to compare herself at least in some ways to the current hokage. Naruto was a ramen buddy and all around fun guy to hang with. She liked talking to Naruto a lot too but he could be so blond and very naive about some things. Naruto and Sakura even helped each other with their training whenever they had time, Sakura giving advise about Chakra, Naruto giving advise on workouts and how to raise stamina. Both Naruto and Kakashi had an incredible sense of humor and each of them could cheer her up in their own way, Naruto’s humor being more prankish and child-like, and Kakashi’s . . . well, more perverted and cynical.
As for Kakashi, she and her former sensei had developed a special friendship. In the first year after his disappearance, they had spent many hours together talking over the lost Uchiha. In that time Sakura and Kakashi had become comfortable sharing things with each other, Sakura more than Kakashi in truth. In fact Sakura talked to Kakashi about a lot of the things that went on in her life. He was the one person that she thought she could tell anything to. He could be surprisingly wise and knowledgeable about things and as he helped her through her difficulties over the years he had let her see glimpses of his inner world. In some ways the copy-nin was as sealed to her as his face was behind his mask, but in others she could see through him as clearly as if she had borrowed his Sharingen. She had come to love his “cool” and sometimes quite blunt way of expressing things. Sakura knew that nothing she said to Kakashi in private would be spoken to anyone else and there had been times in the past four years where she needed that more then anything else.
Sakura glanced at the alarm clock that sat on her bedside table. Its green light flashed 5:30 AM at her in the darkness. Tsunde had decided it was time to bring Team 7 back to life and they were all going to meet at the old bridge where they had always used to wait for Kakashi as genins. Soon the new Sasuke-less Team 7 would be meeting for the first time to train for their next mission. She had heard Kakashi would be returning from his last solo mission last night, and Naruto had been back from training with Jiraiya for the past two weeks so now all the members of their team had arrived. Excitingly Kakashi was now “just” their team leader not really their sensei anymore, even though in a way he always would be. Officially at least they were now considered equals, teammates. After all her hard work and training she was excited to see how she would perform in the new team 7’s missions. Kakashi had been gone on his latest mission for two months and Naruto had been too busy training and hanging out with Hinata to spend any leisure hours with Sakura so she had a few surprises for the two ninja’s. Not the least of which was that she had created her first original Jitsu!
“Better get up,” she thought, “I wouldn’t want to be late for Kakashi’s excuse on why he’s late.”
Sakura pulled herself out of her sheets and zombie walked to her closet to get her typical sleeveless red tunic shirt and legging style black shorts, she took her Konoha forehead protector off the dresser and tied her bubblegum pink hair out of her face with it, showing off a forehead that had finally grown into her face (at least a little). Lazily she pondered whether it was finally time to change her style a bit, after all this was supposed to be a new team 7, should she really wear the same clothes she’d been wearing since she was a child? Putting that pressing issue aside for the moment, she walked into the kitchen of her apartment and started to pour some cereal thinking how much she really wished someone would cook her breakfast in the mornings like her mom used to. She was glad to be on her own but she missed the companionship in the mornings. She sat on the bar stool at her kitchen counter pondering who might be up this early to get something hot to eat with when suddenly an amusing idea came over her.
“Why don’t I go over to Kakashi’s and see if he wants breakfast?” Sakura mused, “Maybe I can also fool him into being on time, and then getting up at this ungodly hour wouldn’t have been for no reason!”
Sakura grabbed her pouch filled with her ninja gear, strapped it to her leg and rushed out of her apartment locking the door behind her and giggling as her idea seemed to sound better and better to her. Why hadn’t she done this before? Maybe she could turn this into a training exercise and somehow sneak into his place to wake him. Maybe he would even make breakfast; he had to have some cereal in that pigsty of his. There was even a chance that if she were stealthy enough she would finally see what was under that stupid mask of his. Oh Naruto would be jealous!
With an early morning fogged mind and her “brilliant” idea getting her going, Sakura skimmed quickly through the lamp lit streets of Konoha towards Kakashi’s apartment. Just ahead she could see the red tiled roof of his building and as she slowed down and peered around the corner of the tea house that was next to his place. She looked towards the darkened window that she knew was his bedroom. It remained open a crack, presumably so the cool night breeze would take away some of the heat that had been settling in ever since spring began.
“He’s not awake!” Sakura thought grinning like a mad demon inside. “Hehehe it was totally worth coming here this early!”
“You go girl! Show that copy ninja whose sneaking skills rock and teach him how to get somewhere on time!” Inner Sakura cheered.
Stealthily, Sakura padded to the wall directly underneath his window suppressing her Chakra so that he wouldn’t be able to sense her and concealing herself in the shadows, Sakura carefully channeled her Chakra to her hands and feet silently crawling up the side of the building towards the tempting opening of her former sensei’s room. Cautiously she raised her head so that only her green eyes popped above the windowsill. As her eyes adjusted to the rooms’ darkness she could just make out a figure sprawled face down on the bed. Carefully directing Chakra to her eyes, the room became clearer and she could see that her sensei was in a deep slumber and to her great disappointment he was still wearing his Jounin uniform, mask and all. He hadn’t even bothered to take off his sandals.
“Men!” Sakura thought with disgust, mad that at the very least her attempt to see Kakashi’s face had been foiled again. “Typical. I wonder if he ever takes off those clothes at all! Does he even wash them? Or is that why he wears the same thing every day even on his days off? Does he just never remove his clothes? Maybe all men do that, Naruto never seems to wear anything besides that silly orange jumpsuit either and come to think of it-“
“Sakura?”
Startled, Sakura fell the two stories down to the pavement and rubbed her head where she banged it, just managing not to kill herself by landing in a bush. Storm clouds gathered fiercely over her head and lightening bolts shot from her eyes as she glared towards source of her distraction.
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Kakashi, awakened by the fuming sounds coming from his bedroom window peeked a droopy eye towards the green eyes and pink hair that were just visible above the windowsill.
“Sakura?” he called tiredly.
As he spoke he saw the green eyes widen and seconds later heard a crash in the bushes below his window. Painfully he limped to the window to look out and see if his little pinked haired Shinobi had come to any harm. Seeing the storm clouds brewing in her eyes Kakashi crinkled an eye at her and said “ Come on up Sakura, I’ll unlock the door for you.”
Sakura grumbled to herself as she made her way up to Kakashi’s door.
“GREAT way to start the day Sakura, he’ll be really impressed with your ninja skills now, and why not when you plan things out so carefully and…” Sakura growled quietly until the last few bits were unintelligible even to herself.
Inner Sakura slumped exasperated in her head, adding to the berating.
As she reached for the knob and began to turn, the door suddenly flung open and she impressed herself by not jumping back 10 feet with her hair standing on end. Instead she merely made a small “ahh!” sound as the dark clothed Jounin smiled at her with his one exposed eye.
“Morning Sakura. Any particular reason for coming by my window 5 hours after I return from an A class mission?” Kakashi inquired amused by the wide-eyed pink Kunochi standing just outside the doorframe.
At that Sakura’s mind went blank, after the mess that she had made of her plan, confronted with this question all she could seem to get out was “ Uhhh.”
It was at this time that she could clearly see the infamous copy-nin and what she saw didn’t startle her as much as she thought it should. Kakashi’s exposed eye had a deep purple black bruise around it and the gloved hand that rested on the door looked a bit swollen. He was also clearly favoring his left leg and slouching a bit more than was usual even for him. She had healed him many times over recent years after returning from missions and she was instantly irritated with him for not taking care of himself or at least calling her over to heal him.
Forgetting his question Sakura blurted out scolding “Kakashi! You’ve been hurt, and you haven’t gone to the medics again!”
Kakashi removed his hand from the door to embarrassingly scratch the back of his silver haired head.
“That was going to be my excuse for being late this morning,” he replied sheepishly, eye crinkling.
“That’s no excuse! You could have internal injuries, you should have taken care of this as soon as you got back!” Sakura charged as she strode through the doorway grabbing her former sensei’s hand and leading him over to the couch.
“Now lay down there and let me examine you,” Sakura commanded, all business and already preparing her chakra to perform the mystical palm technique. Starting at his head and slowly moving down his body Sakura held her hand above Kakashi’s body and began to diagnose and heal his injuries.
“Cuts to the scalp, black eye, bruised ribcage, sprained wrist, minor cuts and scrapes, no internal injuries, just a bit dehydrated, and a hairline fracture on your shin,” Sakura said monotone as she concentrated all her chakra into a healing blue light mending his abused body.
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Kakashi began to feel instantly better as all his hurts from his previous mission begin to melt away with Sakura’s influence. He really hated going to the hospital and secretly hoped that Sakura would come over to heal him, just not at 6:00 in the morning. He had planned to give her a call when he woke up and get her to come over somehow. She had healed him many times in the past as he continued to go on missions and she stayed studying with Tsunde. He felt comfortable with her, and from his own observances and from talking with Tsunde, he knew that with more practice she was going to be perhaps one of the best medic-nin’s that Konoha had ever had. She was already highly skilled. Watching Sakura as she concentrated on her task Kakashi wondered on how much she had changed since they had first met that day when he showed up late in the classroom, Naruto placing an eraser to fall on his head as he opened the door. At that first meeting he had said that from his first impression, he hated all of them, and in the beginning she was practically useless on their missions. But as time went on she had become a real asset to their team and a trusted friend. She had exceeded his expectations of her and as he saw her finishing up, and feeling greatly refreshed, he decided that he would just let the window incident go without a fuss.
Sakura finished her work on the Jounin and leaned back giving him an appraising look. He looked much better then he had moments ago and he was probably hungry after having his cells regenerate like that. Thinking of hunger, her original reason for coming over to his house struck her and she instantly blushed wondering why he hadn’t brought up her unusually placed call to his house again.
Sakura scrambled up from her knees as Kakashi began to sit up, and took a chair next to the sofa. Looking anywhere but at the copy-nin, Sakura blurted out that they should get something to eat and to emphasize this her stomach made a loud embarrassing growl.
Kakashi was hungry, he hadn’t eaten the day before, wanting to get back to Konoha as soon as possible after his hellish mission to Sunagakure, the hidden sand village, and he could hear that she was hungry after her exertions on him.
“Thanks Sakura, I feel much better” Kakashi said crinkling his eye at her, “ Why don’t I take you out for something to eat to say thanks for rescuing me from the medics.”
“Great!” Sakura replied happy that he hadn’t seemed to notice her gastric voice.
“Let me take a shower and change really quick, I’ve got dried blood on these,” Kakashi told her indicating some dark reddish brown stains on his green vest.
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“Well that answers one question from earlier, at some point men do shower and change their clothes,” Sakura thought.
“Ok, I’ll just sit here and read a book,” Sakura said mischievously picking up Kakashi’s copy of Icha Icha, or Make Out Paradise that had been lying on the table.
“No no!” Kakashi said, deftly snatching the book from his former students hands and placing it in his belt pouch. “Nothing you’d be interested in in that one!”
“How would you know? I want to know what’s in these books that the Great Kakashi-sensei the Copy-nin finds so fascinating, and after all, I’m almost 18 you know” Sakura replied smiling evilly.
“And when your 18… Well you still shouldn’t read these, they’re really only good for tactical reasons that you’re not ready to, um,” the 31 year old Jounin sputtered not knowing how to finish. “I’ve got to shower! Wouldn’t want to be late for meeting the team if we’re still going to get breakfast!”
Kakashi rushed out, backing towards his bathroom door and hurriedly shut it behind him.
Sakura chuckled to herself as she leaned back in her chair and listened to the sound of the water running from the bathroom. She was hungry and a little tired after healing Kakashi and getting up so early.
She propped her feet up on his coffee table and began to doze, the sound of the shower from the next room lulling her to sleep.
***
Kakashi undressed quickly and hopped into the shower, quickly lathering himself with soap and washing away the only remaining signs that he had been injured just moments before.
“Almost 18,” Kakashi thought as the hot water poured down on him, “I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. 18, Sakura you were just kid it seems like just moments ago, I can’t get over how much you’ve matured.”
Kakashi continued to wonder over where the time had gone and how much little Sakura had grown from the fragile Sasuke-crazy genin she had been to the full fledged well-rounded medic-nin she was now.
Stepping out of the shower and covering himself with a towel he realized that in his haste he had forgotten to bring fresh clothes into the bathroom with him. Forming the proper seals for the transporting Jitsu, Kakashi flashed himself into his bedroom and got dressed. It felt so good to be clean again after so long in the field and putting on fresh clothes was a luxury he hadn’t had for the past week or so.
Kakashi pulled up his mask, tied his Konoha leaf forehead protector so that it covered his Sharingen eye, and walked out into the living room using his towel to dry his messy silver hair.
He saw Sakura dozing in his chair and was tempted to startle her like she had done him after peeking in at him through the window that morning but he figured that her falling to the ground and her healing him evened things out so instead he gently placed a hand on her shoulder to rouse her and in her sleep she leaned her soft cheek against his hand contentedly and softly murmured his name. Startled by this reaction he jerked his hand back and Sakura came fully awake.
“What was that?” he thought startled.
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“What was that!” thought Sakura as she came to. She had been so comfortable and she seemed to remember feeling a strong gentle hand rest itself on her shoulder making her feel safe and at home, in her daze she whispered out the name of the ninja that…
That what? He was her teammate and her former sensei but…
Halting that line of questioning she blurted out “Breakfast?!”
“Yeah, let’s go eat…” said her former sensei. Deciding that at least for now he wouldn’t go down the line of thought he had been about to.
At first walking down the streets of Konoha together at 6:45 in the morning there was a bit of an awkward silence between the two ninjas, both slightly disturbed by the series of events that morning. Sakura peeking in at his window and then leaning her warm soft cheek…
“No!” Kakashi thought sheepishly, “no thoughts like that! Young former student! She was just sleeping and her head fell over and the reason she was peering at me through my window… Ok I can’t imagine why. Well I can but…NO. No thoughts like that! Start talking and change the subject man!”
***
“Kakashi,” thought Sakura, “I’ve missed you so much these past two months. I guess that now that you were home and I knew that you were ok I just felt safe. Your hand was so warm and gentle, but also firm and- NO! No thoughts like that! Former Sensei! Smart, skilled, reliable, hot-“
“Hot!” screamed inner Sakura, “Where the hell did that come from girl! You’re too tired to think straight! It’s been way to long since you had a boyfriend!”
“I know, I know!” argued Sakura with her inner self, “This silence is making me have crazy thoughts! We’ve got to start talking about something else!”
***
Simultaneously Sakura and Kakashi said, “So the mission!”
Laughing, slightly nervously, with anime style sweat drops and head scratching for both they continued their walk to a little bakery and tea shop that they had gone to eat at together for years.
“I have some news that will interest you Sakura,” Kakashi told her.
“She’ll totally forget about that situation this morning after I break this news,” Kakashi thought, perhaps a little disappointed.
“Let’s go in and eat and we’ll talk about it,” Kakashi said as he held the door open for her and they took a booth by the window so they could see the sites of Konoha waking up and beginning to bustle.
***
“I wonder what he’s going to say?” thought Sakura as she took a menu from the waitress and looked unreading at the page.
“Rice soup please,” said Sakura.
They came here so often and she knew what she was in the mood for this morning, she didn’t want to eat too much and spoil their practice later.
“Miso soup and rice for me,” requested the Jounin, “also, pickles, fish and some natto. Oh and green tea for both of us please.”
“Hungry are we?” asked the waitress with a smile as she took their menu’s back and went to place the order.
“Little piggy are we?” smirked Sakura as Kakashi scratched the back of his head again.
“I haven’t eaten for a long time, I wanted to get home as soon as possible,” replied Kakashi, “Besides you know how hungry I get after being healed, I’m surprised that you’re not eating more after healing me.”
“We have training today Kakashi, I know that you’re able to read your books while you spar with us, but we have to work,” answered Sakura remembering her new Jitsu and hoping that maybe she would be able to get the famous copy-nin away from his annoying orange books today.
“That’s true, you will have to work pretty hard this morning,” Kakashi replied with a hint of amused cockiness.
“Right,” snapped back Sakura, “So what’s your news?”
“Right,” said Kakashi getting serious, “Sakura, I’m not sure how this news is going to effect you so just prepare yourself, ok?”
“Ok,” said Sakura nervously.
“Why do I need to prepare myself,” she thought, “Kakashi just returned from Sunagakure, could it be about Gaara? Is he sick? What was his mission about?”
“Sakura,” the Jounin said seriously wondering just what this would do to the pink haired Kunochi, “There’s news about Sasuke.”
“Sasuke…”whispered Sakura as all the emotions the thought of the dark young genius always stirred in her washed through her like a flood.
“It seems that there has been some activity between Akatsuki and Orochimaru. We’re not sure of the details but it seems that there was going to be some sort of collaboration between the two for an unknown purpose. From our intelligence gathering it looks like Sasuke highly opposed the dealings, presumably because of Itachi and had a falling out with Orochimaru. We know that there was a battle but we don’t know the outcome for sure. We do have reason to believe that one of the two was killed. Sound country, Otogakure, has been very close mouthed on the whole thing. We were collaborating with Sand to find out what happened but after two months that’s all we’ve been able to come up with. Akatsuki seems to be unharmed but there are rumors of great instability within Otogakure. I made the report to Tsunde last night as soon as I got back. Sakura…We’re not sure but, my guess would be that Sasuke would have been the one destroyed, Orochimaru should have been to powerful for him to handle,” Kakashi finished with a whisper as he studied the reaction from the young Kunochi.
Sakura found herself remarkably numb. Secretly she was always afraid that something like this would happen and she had cried over it for years, but it seemed now that after all that crying before, she just couldn’t cry about it now that it had actually happened.
“I suppose it’s for the best,” Sakura said quietly as their food was set down on the table in front of them.
Sakura began to pick at her soup as she tried to let her brain catch up to her body after a knockout like that.
“Maybe he was able to weaken Orochimaru somehow,” Sakura thought out loud, “Maybe there is a chance that we can take him out now.”
“Perhaps,” the copy-nin replied studying her carefully.
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“I was almost sure that she’d break down over this news,” he thought, “Maybe after all these years she’s really moved on.”
As if hearing those words Sakura said, “You expected me to start crying didn’t you?”
“Well…” replied Kakashi.
“It’s been four years Kakashi, I’ve had other crushes. True they went almost as badly,” Sakura blushed wiping out the memories, “and it’s true in a way I still have…had…feelings for Sasuke but recently they were mainly to try to save him from himself and less like, well, the way they used to be. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, I understand Sakura,” Kakashi said quietly, “I’m really proud of you you know. You’ve grown up so much.”
Sakura smiled slightly.
“You have no idea,” she replied. “But maybe during practice you’ll get a better one.”
In case anyone noticed this is slightly different from my entry into the regular FF because since I have already written it I can combine the chapters into how I actually write them. I usually do pretty short chapters in FF so I can update faster.
Chapter one: The Day Begins, Chapter two: Good Morning Good morning, Chapter three: Tales from a mission.
Sakura slowly opened her eyes and blinked away the tears that had begun to dry in the corners of her eyes. Slowly the memories of what had just occurred rushed to the surface and she screamed out the name of the dark shinobi that she had loved since she was a little girl.
“Sasuke!”
The overwhelming feeling of emptiness and loss was too much to bear. Sasuke had abandoned their village, abandoned his friends and teachers. Abandoned her. After all she had said to him, all of her love and concern for the troubled young man pouring straight from her soul to his ears, he had still left. Didn’t he realize that he was doing exactly as Itachi wanted? Didn’t he realize that in a way he was killing his family all over again by turning his back on the village that the Uchiha clan had spent generations protecting? Not to mention the people who had become his new family, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun and most of all herself. He left all of them just to gain power from a ninja as evil or more so than the older Uchiha he had sworn to himself to destroy.
A wail of despair racked through Sakura as she again cried out his name into the night sky , “Sasuke!”
Sakura quickly opened her eyes. She had been dreaming again. Ever since that fateful night over three years ago she still kept confronting Sasuke in her dreams as if that could somehow bring the lost Uchiha back to her. Sometimes he listened to her in those dreams and let her embrace him, let her hold him close and turn him back to the village. Most of the time though, it was like this. A useless attempt to save him and she woke up with the pain fresh in her heart as if it had just happened.
“Get a hold of yourself girl,” A panting now 17-year-old Sakura said to herself. “It’s time to move on.”
Although her dreams still troubled her, Sakura had been telling herself for a long time now that life had to go on and even though the saying went that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” it also tended to change the way you looked at things. The more she thought about how Sasuke had left, the more she couldn’t get over his selfishness. She still cared for him, but her interest had gone from an intense schoolgirl crush to pity and a sincere desire to rescue him from himself.
All the members of team 7 couldn’t help but feel that they might have somehow prevented Sasuke’s leaving. Sakura knew from long talks with Kakashi that he felt that he had failed in teaching Sasuke the importance of teamwork and how the people you cared about had to be more important then a mission. Kakashi saw much of his younger self in Sasuke and it pained him that he was unable to get through to the troubled boy. Naruto and Sakura both felt that if they had been stronger they could have stopped him from making such a horrible mistake, so Sasuke’s disappearance had spurred a season of new growth into the two of them.
Naruto had been studying with that pervert Jiraiya and had become remarkably stronger, his chakra control was immeasurably better and he had learned some amazing new techniques. He has also grown up a lot and since he had begun dating Hinata he was remarkable easier to get along with. Sakura herself had matured immensely from the 12-year-old girl that had fallen head over heels for the ultra cool Uchiha heir. The loss of Sasuke had made Sakura want to be as strong as she possibly could and her memories of her constantly staying on the sidelines in the battles of team 7 shamed her, and to this day she still kept her pink hair short in remembrance of the day she decided she would change. Her training the past four years with Tsunde had made her remarkably stronger and her abilities with her Chakra were getting even better than before with all of her practice as a med-nin. She continued to grow her skills by practicing with that lovable baka, Naruto, and training with Kakashi.
Tsunde, Naruto and Kakashi had become her closest friends in the years since Sasuke’s disappearance. Tsunde was a beloved mentor, role model and friend, someone that Sakura felt she could learn so much from. She hoped that she would one day be able to compare herself at least in some ways to the current hokage. Naruto was a ramen buddy and all around fun guy to hang with. She liked talking to Naruto a lot too but he could be so blond and very naive about some things. Naruto and Sakura even helped each other with their training whenever they had time, Sakura giving advise about Chakra, Naruto giving advise on workouts and how to raise stamina. Both Naruto and Kakashi had an incredible sense of humor and each of them could cheer her up in their own way, Naruto’s humor being more prankish and child-like, and Kakashi’s . . . well, more perverted and cynical.
As for Kakashi, she and her former sensei had developed a special friendship. In the first year after his disappearance, they had spent many hours together talking over the lost Uchiha. In that time Sakura and Kakashi had become comfortable sharing things with each other, Sakura more than Kakashi in truth. In fact Sakura talked to Kakashi about a lot of the things that went on in her life. He was the one person that she thought she could tell anything to. He could be surprisingly wise and knowledgeable about things and as he helped her through her difficulties over the years he had let her see glimpses of his inner world. In some ways the copy-nin was as sealed to her as his face was behind his mask, but in others she could see through him as clearly as if she had borrowed his Sharingen. She had come to love his “cool” and sometimes quite blunt way of expressing things. Sakura knew that nothing she said to Kakashi in private would be spoken to anyone else and there had been times in the past four years where she needed that more then anything else.
Sakura glanced at the alarm clock that sat on her bedside table. Its green light flashed 5:30 AM at her in the darkness. Tsunde had decided it was time to bring Team 7 back to life and they were all going to meet at the old bridge where they had always used to wait for Kakashi as genins. Soon the new Sasuke-less Team 7 would be meeting for the first time to train for their next mission. She had heard Kakashi would be returning from his last solo mission last night, and Naruto had been back from training with Jiraiya for the past two weeks so now all the members of their team had arrived. Excitingly Kakashi was now “just” their team leader not really their sensei anymore, even though in a way he always would be. Officially at least they were now considered equals, teammates. After all her hard work and training she was excited to see how she would perform in the new team 7’s missions. Kakashi had been gone on his latest mission for two months and Naruto had been too busy training and hanging out with Hinata to spend any leisure hours with Sakura so she had a few surprises for the two ninja’s. Not the least of which was that she had created her first original Jitsu!
“Better get up,” she thought, “I wouldn’t want to be late for Kakashi’s excuse on why he’s late.”
Sakura pulled herself out of her sheets and zombie walked to her closet to get her typical sleeveless red tunic shirt and legging style black shorts, she took her Konoha forehead protector off the dresser and tied her bubblegum pink hair out of her face with it, showing off a forehead that had finally grown into her face (at least a little). Lazily she pondered whether it was finally time to change her style a bit, after all this was supposed to be a new team 7, should she really wear the same clothes she’d been wearing since she was a child? Putting that pressing issue aside for the moment, she walked into the kitchen of her apartment and started to pour some cereal thinking how much she really wished someone would cook her breakfast in the mornings like her mom used to. She was glad to be on her own but she missed the companionship in the mornings. She sat on the bar stool at her kitchen counter pondering who might be up this early to get something hot to eat with when suddenly an amusing idea came over her.
“Why don’t I go over to Kakashi’s and see if he wants breakfast?” Sakura mused, “Maybe I can also fool him into being on time, and then getting up at this ungodly hour wouldn’t have been for no reason!”
Sakura grabbed her pouch filled with her ninja gear, strapped it to her leg and rushed out of her apartment locking the door behind her and giggling as her idea seemed to sound better and better to her. Why hadn’t she done this before? Maybe she could turn this into a training exercise and somehow sneak into his place to wake him. Maybe he would even make breakfast; he had to have some cereal in that pigsty of his. There was even a chance that if she were stealthy enough she would finally see what was under that stupid mask of his. Oh Naruto would be jealous!
With an early morning fogged mind and her “brilliant” idea getting her going, Sakura skimmed quickly through the lamp lit streets of Konoha towards Kakashi’s apartment. Just ahead she could see the red tiled roof of his building and as she slowed down and peered around the corner of the tea house that was next to his place. She looked towards the darkened window that she knew was his bedroom. It remained open a crack, presumably so the cool night breeze would take away some of the heat that had been settling in ever since spring began.
“He’s not awake!” Sakura thought grinning like a mad demon inside. “Hehehe it was totally worth coming here this early!”
“You go girl! Show that copy ninja whose sneaking skills rock and teach him how to get somewhere on time!” Inner Sakura cheered.
Stealthily, Sakura padded to the wall directly underneath his window suppressing her Chakra so that he wouldn’t be able to sense her and concealing herself in the shadows, Sakura carefully channeled her Chakra to her hands and feet silently crawling up the side of the building towards the tempting opening of her former sensei’s room. Cautiously she raised her head so that only her green eyes popped above the windowsill. As her eyes adjusted to the rooms’ darkness she could just make out a figure sprawled face down on the bed. Carefully directing Chakra to her eyes, the room became clearer and she could see that her sensei was in a deep slumber and to her great disappointment he was still wearing his Jounin uniform, mask and all. He hadn’t even bothered to take off his sandals.
“Men!” Sakura thought with disgust, mad that at the very least her attempt to see Kakashi’s face had been foiled again. “Typical. I wonder if he ever takes off those clothes at all! Does he even wash them? Or is that why he wears the same thing every day even on his days off? Does he just never remove his clothes? Maybe all men do that, Naruto never seems to wear anything besides that silly orange jumpsuit either and come to think of it-“
“Sakura?”
Startled, Sakura fell the two stories down to the pavement and rubbed her head where she banged it, just managing not to kill herself by landing in a bush. Storm clouds gathered fiercely over her head and lightening bolts shot from her eyes as she glared towards source of her distraction.
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Kakashi, awakened by the fuming sounds coming from his bedroom window peeked a droopy eye towards the green eyes and pink hair that were just visible above the windowsill.
“Sakura?” he called tiredly.
As he spoke he saw the green eyes widen and seconds later heard a crash in the bushes below his window. Painfully he limped to the window to look out and see if his little pinked haired Shinobi had come to any harm. Seeing the storm clouds brewing in her eyes Kakashi crinkled an eye at her and said “ Come on up Sakura, I’ll unlock the door for you.”
Sakura grumbled to herself as she made her way up to Kakashi’s door.
“GREAT way to start the day Sakura, he’ll be really impressed with your ninja skills now, and why not when you plan things out so carefully and…” Sakura growled quietly until the last few bits were unintelligible even to herself.
Inner Sakura slumped exasperated in her head, adding to the berating.
As she reached for the knob and began to turn, the door suddenly flung open and she impressed herself by not jumping back 10 feet with her hair standing on end. Instead she merely made a small “ahh!” sound as the dark clothed Jounin smiled at her with his one exposed eye.
“Morning Sakura. Any particular reason for coming by my window 5 hours after I return from an A class mission?” Kakashi inquired amused by the wide-eyed pink Kunochi standing just outside the doorframe.
At that Sakura’s mind went blank, after the mess that she had made of her plan, confronted with this question all she could seem to get out was “ Uhhh.”
It was at this time that she could clearly see the infamous copy-nin and what she saw didn’t startle her as much as she thought it should. Kakashi’s exposed eye had a deep purple black bruise around it and the gloved hand that rested on the door looked a bit swollen. He was also clearly favoring his left leg and slouching a bit more than was usual even for him. She had healed him many times over recent years after returning from missions and she was instantly irritated with him for not taking care of himself or at least calling her over to heal him.
Forgetting his question Sakura blurted out scolding “Kakashi! You’ve been hurt, and you haven’t gone to the medics again!”
Kakashi removed his hand from the door to embarrassingly scratch the back of his silver haired head.
“That was going to be my excuse for being late this morning,” he replied sheepishly, eye crinkling.
“That’s no excuse! You could have internal injuries, you should have taken care of this as soon as you got back!” Sakura charged as she strode through the doorway grabbing her former sensei’s hand and leading him over to the couch.
“Now lay down there and let me examine you,” Sakura commanded, all business and already preparing her chakra to perform the mystical palm technique. Starting at his head and slowly moving down his body Sakura held her hand above Kakashi’s body and began to diagnose and heal his injuries.
“Cuts to the scalp, black eye, bruised ribcage, sprained wrist, minor cuts and scrapes, no internal injuries, just a bit dehydrated, and a hairline fracture on your shin,” Sakura said monotone as she concentrated all her chakra into a healing blue light mending his abused body.
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Kakashi began to feel instantly better as all his hurts from his previous mission begin to melt away with Sakura’s influence. He really hated going to the hospital and secretly hoped that Sakura would come over to heal him, just not at 6:00 in the morning. He had planned to give her a call when he woke up and get her to come over somehow. She had healed him many times in the past as he continued to go on missions and she stayed studying with Tsunde. He felt comfortable with her, and from his own observances and from talking with Tsunde, he knew that with more practice she was going to be perhaps one of the best medic-nin’s that Konoha had ever had. She was already highly skilled. Watching Sakura as she concentrated on her task Kakashi wondered on how much she had changed since they had first met that day when he showed up late in the classroom, Naruto placing an eraser to fall on his head as he opened the door. At that first meeting he had said that from his first impression, he hated all of them, and in the beginning she was practically useless on their missions. But as time went on she had become a real asset to their team and a trusted friend. She had exceeded his expectations of her and as he saw her finishing up, and feeling greatly refreshed, he decided that he would just let the window incident go without a fuss.
Sakura finished her work on the Jounin and leaned back giving him an appraising look. He looked much better then he had moments ago and he was probably hungry after having his cells regenerate like that. Thinking of hunger, her original reason for coming over to his house struck her and she instantly blushed wondering why he hadn’t brought up her unusually placed call to his house again.
Sakura scrambled up from her knees as Kakashi began to sit up, and took a chair next to the sofa. Looking anywhere but at the copy-nin, Sakura blurted out that they should get something to eat and to emphasize this her stomach made a loud embarrassing growl.
Kakashi was hungry, he hadn’t eaten the day before, wanting to get back to Konoha as soon as possible after his hellish mission to Sunagakure, the hidden sand village, and he could hear that she was hungry after her exertions on him.
“Thanks Sakura, I feel much better” Kakashi said crinkling his eye at her, “ Why don’t I take you out for something to eat to say thanks for rescuing me from the medics.”
“Great!” Sakura replied happy that he hadn’t seemed to notice her gastric voice.
“Let me take a shower and change really quick, I’ve got dried blood on these,” Kakashi told her indicating some dark reddish brown stains on his green vest.
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“Well that answers one question from earlier, at some point men do shower and change their clothes,” Sakura thought.
“Ok, I’ll just sit here and read a book,” Sakura said mischievously picking up Kakashi’s copy of Icha Icha, or Make Out Paradise that had been lying on the table.
“No no!” Kakashi said, deftly snatching the book from his former students hands and placing it in his belt pouch. “Nothing you’d be interested in in that one!”
“How would you know? I want to know what’s in these books that the Great Kakashi-sensei the Copy-nin finds so fascinating, and after all, I’m almost 18 you know” Sakura replied smiling evilly.
“And when your 18… Well you still shouldn’t read these, they’re really only good for tactical reasons that you’re not ready to, um,” the 31 year old Jounin sputtered not knowing how to finish. “I’ve got to shower! Wouldn’t want to be late for meeting the team if we’re still going to get breakfast!”
Kakashi rushed out, backing towards his bathroom door and hurriedly shut it behind him.
Sakura chuckled to herself as she leaned back in her chair and listened to the sound of the water running from the bathroom. She was hungry and a little tired after healing Kakashi and getting up so early.
She propped her feet up on his coffee table and began to doze, the sound of the shower from the next room lulling her to sleep.
***
Kakashi undressed quickly and hopped into the shower, quickly lathering himself with soap and washing away the only remaining signs that he had been injured just moments before.
“Almost 18,” Kakashi thought as the hot water poured down on him, “I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. 18, Sakura you were just kid it seems like just moments ago, I can’t get over how much you’ve matured.”
Kakashi continued to wonder over where the time had gone and how much little Sakura had grown from the fragile Sasuke-crazy genin she had been to the full fledged well-rounded medic-nin she was now.
Stepping out of the shower and covering himself with a towel he realized that in his haste he had forgotten to bring fresh clothes into the bathroom with him. Forming the proper seals for the transporting Jitsu, Kakashi flashed himself into his bedroom and got dressed. It felt so good to be clean again after so long in the field and putting on fresh clothes was a luxury he hadn’t had for the past week or so.
Kakashi pulled up his mask, tied his Konoha leaf forehead protector so that it covered his Sharingen eye, and walked out into the living room using his towel to dry his messy silver hair.
He saw Sakura dozing in his chair and was tempted to startle her like she had done him after peeking in at him through the window that morning but he figured that her falling to the ground and her healing him evened things out so instead he gently placed a hand on her shoulder to rouse her and in her sleep she leaned her soft cheek against his hand contentedly and softly murmured his name. Startled by this reaction he jerked his hand back and Sakura came fully awake.
“What was that?” he thought startled.
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“What was that!” thought Sakura as she came to. She had been so comfortable and she seemed to remember feeling a strong gentle hand rest itself on her shoulder making her feel safe and at home, in her daze she whispered out the name of the ninja that…
That what? He was her teammate and her former sensei but…
Halting that line of questioning she blurted out “Breakfast?!”
“Yeah, let’s go eat…” said her former sensei. Deciding that at least for now he wouldn’t go down the line of thought he had been about to.
At first walking down the streets of Konoha together at 6:45 in the morning there was a bit of an awkward silence between the two ninjas, both slightly disturbed by the series of events that morning. Sakura peeking in at his window and then leaning her warm soft cheek…
“No!” Kakashi thought sheepishly, “no thoughts like that! Young former student! She was just sleeping and her head fell over and the reason she was peering at me through my window… Ok I can’t imagine why. Well I can but…NO. No thoughts like that! Start talking and change the subject man!”
***
“Kakashi,” thought Sakura, “I’ve missed you so much these past two months. I guess that now that you were home and I knew that you were ok I just felt safe. Your hand was so warm and gentle, but also firm and- NO! No thoughts like that! Former Sensei! Smart, skilled, reliable, hot-“
“Hot!” screamed inner Sakura, “Where the hell did that come from girl! You’re too tired to think straight! It’s been way to long since you had a boyfriend!”
“I know, I know!” argued Sakura with her inner self, “This silence is making me have crazy thoughts! We’ve got to start talking about something else!”
***
Simultaneously Sakura and Kakashi said, “So the mission!”
Laughing, slightly nervously, with anime style sweat drops and head scratching for both they continued their walk to a little bakery and tea shop that they had gone to eat at together for years.
“I have some news that will interest you Sakura,” Kakashi told her.
“She’ll totally forget about that situation this morning after I break this news,” Kakashi thought, perhaps a little disappointed.
“Let’s go in and eat and we’ll talk about it,” Kakashi said as he held the door open for her and they took a booth by the window so they could see the sites of Konoha waking up and beginning to bustle.
***
“I wonder what he’s going to say?” thought Sakura as she took a menu from the waitress and looked unreading at the page.
“Rice soup please,” said Sakura.
They came here so often and she knew what she was in the mood for this morning, she didn’t want to eat too much and spoil their practice later.
“Miso soup and rice for me,” requested the Jounin, “also, pickles, fish and some natto. Oh and green tea for both of us please.”
“Hungry are we?” asked the waitress with a smile as she took their menu’s back and went to place the order.
“Little piggy are we?” smirked Sakura as Kakashi scratched the back of his head again.
“I haven’t eaten for a long time, I wanted to get home as soon as possible,” replied Kakashi, “Besides you know how hungry I get after being healed, I’m surprised that you’re not eating more after healing me.”
“We have training today Kakashi, I know that you’re able to read your books while you spar with us, but we have to work,” answered Sakura remembering her new Jitsu and hoping that maybe she would be able to get the famous copy-nin away from his annoying orange books today.
“That’s true, you will have to work pretty hard this morning,” Kakashi replied with a hint of amused cockiness.
“Right,” snapped back Sakura, “So what’s your news?”
“Right,” said Kakashi getting serious, “Sakura, I’m not sure how this news is going to effect you so just prepare yourself, ok?”
“Ok,” said Sakura nervously.
“Why do I need to prepare myself,” she thought, “Kakashi just returned from Sunagakure, could it be about Gaara? Is he sick? What was his mission about?”
“Sakura,” the Jounin said seriously wondering just what this would do to the pink haired Kunochi, “There’s news about Sasuke.”
“Sasuke…”whispered Sakura as all the emotions the thought of the dark young genius always stirred in her washed through her like a flood.
“It seems that there has been some activity between Akatsuki and Orochimaru. We’re not sure of the details but it seems that there was going to be some sort of collaboration between the two for an unknown purpose. From our intelligence gathering it looks like Sasuke highly opposed the dealings, presumably because of Itachi and had a falling out with Orochimaru. We know that there was a battle but we don’t know the outcome for sure. We do have reason to believe that one of the two was killed. Sound country, Otogakure, has been very close mouthed on the whole thing. We were collaborating with Sand to find out what happened but after two months that’s all we’ve been able to come up with. Akatsuki seems to be unharmed but there are rumors of great instability within Otogakure. I made the report to Tsunde last night as soon as I got back. Sakura…We’re not sure but, my guess would be that Sasuke would have been the one destroyed, Orochimaru should have been to powerful for him to handle,” Kakashi finished with a whisper as he studied the reaction from the young Kunochi.
Sakura found herself remarkably numb. Secretly she was always afraid that something like this would happen and she had cried over it for years, but it seemed now that after all that crying before, she just couldn’t cry about it now that it had actually happened.
“I suppose it’s for the best,” Sakura said quietly as their food was set down on the table in front of them.
Sakura began to pick at her soup as she tried to let her brain catch up to her body after a knockout like that.
“Maybe he was able to weaken Orochimaru somehow,” Sakura thought out loud, “Maybe there is a chance that we can take him out now.”
“Perhaps,” the copy-nin replied studying her carefully.
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“I was almost sure that she’d break down over this news,” he thought, “Maybe after all these years she’s really moved on.”
As if hearing those words Sakura said, “You expected me to start crying didn’t you?”
“Well…” replied Kakashi.
“It’s been four years Kakashi, I’ve had other crushes. True they went almost as badly,” Sakura blushed wiping out the memories, “and it’s true in a way I still have…had…feelings for Sasuke but recently they were mainly to try to save him from himself and less like, well, the way they used to be. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, I understand Sakura,” Kakashi said quietly, “I’m really proud of you you know. You’ve grown up so much.”
Sakura smiled slightly.
“You have no idea,” she replied. “But maybe during practice you’ll get a better one.”