alphabet meme
ganked from redbrunjaFor those unfamiliar, first you pick a letter. Then you pick a fandom (or a crossover) and a character or pairing. So an example would be E is for Educational - Iruka/Anko (Naruto). In turn you'll receive a ficlet of some kind
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He figures it has something to do with her duty as a medic. Being so used to spending her energy to save perhaps leaves less for the opposite. She still fights expertly and downs whomever she's fighting, but where Kakashi makes certain any potential for retaliation is snuffed out, she seems fine to leave them unconscious and bloody, but capable of coming back for her later.
He's always thought this was particularly reckless, and on one mission, he is proved right.
On their way back to Konoha, expensive trinket they had been sent to grab tucked safely in her pack, Sakura is struck by a kunai through her bicep. If Kakashi hadn't heard it coming and pushed her out of the way, it would have hit her heart.
As she heals herself, he leaps into the trees, disables the ninja and brings him back to her, still breathing.
There are many ways he could have taught this lesson -- certainly better, kinder ways -- but he chooses to lift the man's face up to hers, put a kunai in her hand, and pull it up to his neck.
"Kill him."
"Kakashi--" she starts to protest.
"Do it."
"I-I--"
"If you don't do it, I will recommend to the Hokage that you are no longer fit for duty, and suggest you work full-time at the hospital. Because if you can't do this, then you aren't."
The man splutters and begs, blood from his mouth flying and decorating her cheek. She stands frozen except for the trembling hand holding the kunai. Finally, she looks back up at Kakashi and begins to shake her head slowly.
"But Kakashi, I thought if you were-- I wouldn't--"
And then he understands. He plans then and there to go to the Hokage and get off assigned missions with Sakura, and move the few things that had migrated to her apartment back to his own.
"You're a disappointment," he lies as he drops her wrist. He moves to kill the man himself, but suddenly they're both sprayed with blood as his neck hangs open. He drops the body lazily onto the ground and lifts his eyes back up to hers.
She isn't crying like he suspected she might, though she is trembling a bit. He feels almost as proud as he does sad when she tells him never to come near her again and speeds off towards Konoha on her own.
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Oh, god, Sakura.
And I assume she thought she was safe if she was with him and wouldn't have to kill?
Oh, the poor girl.
Even if Kakashi's right.
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Yup yup. I don't like to think of Sakura as naive, but the way she probably saw it, Kakashi's always protected her, and even though she can protect herself (and him) now, he wouldn't ever stop protecting her. And if they're in a relationship, he'd be even more sure to protect her. Why take a life if it isn't necessary if there's someone around who will if it becomes necessary?
But yeah. Kakashi's right. Though he certainly could've been a little less blunt about it. (Which is why he isn't the most popular teacher, but a damn effective one, anyway.)
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Oh, you crazy kids.
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However, this... I really can't count all the ways I'm a huge fan of this. Even though I like Kakashi/Sakura a whole lot, I can preferably see this as gen where they aren't in any sort of sexual or romantic relationship at all. I simply see it happening at one point in shippuden/beyond. It's so Kakashi, probably a little disturbed at that much trust when he doesn't see himself as having the greatest track record. Maybe even temptation because Sakura just sounds so young in my head when she stumbles through her reason, and it tricks him into thinking that she hadn't grown up and he hadn't fucked up with team 7 and she hadn't rightfully given the "sensei" position to someone else and now it's really only decoration for him. So he has to fix this. Now. Because, again, he doesn't seem himself like she does, and he'll get her killed letting them both be indulged by her trust. Because there's teamwork, and there's inappropriate. How quickly he detaches himself as seeing the enemy nin (and human) as an appropriate learning tool is both appalling (because this is a sixteen or thereabouts old girl), yet necessary/practical (because she's a fucking ninja duh).
And Sakura I just sldkjflsdjfsd. Her need for approval from like, everyone, that she isn't useless is so subdued in the manga but really hurts when you think about it. She feels like she's never anyone's first choice (and if she is, it won't last), not even her own teacher. Kakashi's observation that Sakura doesn't kill her enemies in his presence made me think of Wave Arc of all things, that's how amazing you are. I feel like Sakura's lasting impression was not just she shouldn't cry, but also how equally horrible her enemy's life might have been. And with Kakashi there, she thinks it's all right to indulge in that when she really can't, esp on missions to steal/kill where it's emphasized to be impersonal -- which would only make her think of her enemies life more BECAUSE she doesn't know them/if they're "evil" etc. Rather than, say, her fight with Sasori, where she was literally fighting for her life, Chiyo's, indirectly Naruto's, and the guy was plain in her way finding Sasuke again. Her emotional nature is her strength and weakness. Tsunade would have similarly done something just as tough love, but probably more sensitive to emphasize it as a lesson, in being a ninja, than being an asshole.
ALL those different angles were hitting me in the gut throughout this. I want to wrap Sakura up in a feather down blanket and set fire to the ninja system of making children grow up too fast. I can't even hate Kakashi, because he's only doing what he knows, how HE'S stayed alive so long.
This is so short and brief, but it was an amazing character-driven piece. in a way it was almost itachi/sasuke-light-ish teaching via death/pain? /ending stupid thoughts THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GIVING ME THIS. &hearts
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