Touch - Chapter 13
Title: Touch
Fandom: Naruto
Rating: PG-13
Content Notes: None
Disclaimer: I have no rights to or claims on the Naruto franchise, trademark, copyright, or characters. This is for fun, not profit.
Summary: In the future what's left of humanity sends the Rokudaime Hokage back in time to make some changes. Sadly, they can't send all of her. When a seven-year-old Haruno Sakura decides to take an interest in Hatake Kakashi, the timeline shifts in some... unique... ways.
Friday morning, Ino staggered out of bed and threw on a set of mostly clean practice gear. She dragged a brush through her hair, washed her face to be more alert, and tied the coveted red ribbon into her ponytail just to stick it to Sakura.
Because she was on a diet, Ino skipped breakfast.
I don’t know why Sakura has to have her ass kicked so damn early, Ino fumed. Why can’t she wait for a better hour? Like ten in the morning!
When Ino got to the field, the sign had already been flipped to ‘occupied.’
Forehead’s early! How can she be early when it’s so damn early?
Huffing with irritation, Ino slipped into the enclosure.
Ino had never trained in a practice field that required prior reservation before. Most of Konoha’s practice areas were first come, first serve. The only ones that had to be reserved were the special environments.
Curious, Ino studied her surrounds as best she could in the early morning twilight. What she saw as she searched for Sakura did not inspire confidence.
The training ground seemed to be a large swamp. Mud, dirty water, and long, slim grass surrounded her on all sides. Her nose wrinkled, Ino picked a careful path through the filth as she looked for Sakura.
Sakura, of course, was waiting for her in the middle of the swamp. She was standing on top of the sludge.
So not fair! Ino fumed. Why does she always have to show that off?
“C’mon Ino! Come fight me!”
Ino glared at Sakura. “Come fight me on a proper training ground.”
Sakura smirked. “Forfeiting, Pig? I never pegged you as a quitter.”
Ino gritted her teeth. “You know that I can’t walk on water!”
“Yeah? Other genin can walk on trees and water.”
Ino’s eyes widened. “Sasuke can -”
“Pffft! Who cares what that bastard can do?” Sakura skipped closer to the dry patch of ground Ino was standing on. “You have way better chakra control than he does.”
Ino blinked. “I do?”
“Yeah. This’ll be a snap for you.”
Ino smiled, that secret place in her heart fluttering at Sakura’s complete faith in her abilities.
She tied their ribbon to a weedy looking shrub, just in case.
Two hours later Ino conceded (temporary) defeat.
“Look at me,” she snarled at Sakura. “I’m covered in filth! I reek! My hair’ll never be the same again!”
Sakura, who was untying their ribbon from the bush, hummed sympathetically.
Her false sympathy only made Ino angrier.
“Don’t pretend that you aren’t enjoying this! And don’t get used to wearing that,” Ino snapped as Sakura carefully tied the red ribbon around her own bicep. “We’re having a rematch next week!”
Sakura smiled that horrible, infuriating smile of hers. It was equal parts smugness and fondness.
“Whatever you want, Ino-chan. Challenger gets to pick the terrain. You know that.”
“Be ready!” Ino ordered with a final, furious glare.
She turned on her heel and slogged back the way she had originally come, no longer worried about getting dirty.
Step one: get clean. Step two: have breakfast. Step three: get Daddy or Asuma-sensei to teach me how to walk across a damn pond!
* * * * *
Breakfast with Tenzo-nii was in a cute little bistro in the trendy part of the shopping district. He ordered breakfast bagal sandwiches complete with scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese, and spinach, a sugary sweet confection that masqueraded as coffee for him, and grabbed two bottles of Sakura’s favorite juice.
Sakura, who had showered and picked Fu up between meeting with Ino and Tenzo, tucked her little sister away for a morning nap in a booth and joined Tenzo in the corner booth right next to Fu’s booth.
“So? How’s it going?”
“Fine,” Sakura said unconvincingly.
Tenzo must have just gotten back from a mission because there was a bandage around his forehead instead of his usual forehead protector and he moved his right shoulder very carefully.
I really want to peek at his injuries… Is that being nosey? Will it hurt someone’s feelings if I just take a little peek?
“I see you won your ribbon back.”
Sakura immediately straightened up. One of her hands rose to touch the ribbon she had tied around her bicep.
“Yeah! I got it, like, an hour ago. Ino-chan and I had an epic water battle.”
“With water jutsu?”
“Ah, no. On a lake.”
Tenzo sighed at her. But there was the faintest smile hovering around his lips.
“What’re you going to do with your spoils?”
"I’m thinking about putting it in my hair this week and wearing my forehead protector, well, on my forehead.”
Tenzo smiled. “That sounds lovely. What else have you done lately?”
“Pet rescues and restaurant restocking and gardening and a lot of physical conditioning.” Sakura slumped. “It’s all very boring.”
“Have you learned anything interesting yet? I learned a great deal from Kakashi.”
“So far I’ve learned that all boys are stupid.”
“I thought Kakashi was male,” Tenzo said mildly.
“Kakashi-sensei is stupid and a crazed hardass.”
“I’m male.”
Sakura fluttered her eyelashes at the shinobi across from her.
“But there’s nothing boyish about you, Tenzo-nii.”
Tenzo flushed scarlet.
“Don’t - Don’t say such things,” he blustered while gulping down his coffee-flavored sludge. “And don’t flutter you eyelashes like that. It makes you look like you have an eye infection.”
“You’re almost as mean as Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura pouted. She slumped back in her chair and folded her arms across her meager chest. “And I don’t mean that in a fun way.”
“And you’re too young to say things like that,” Tenzo countered as a nice civilian girl set their breakfast sandwiches in front of them. “To anyone.”
“I’m almost thirteen! I’m nearly a woman! I’ve got to practice this stuff on someone.” As an after thought, Sakura added, “Someone who isn’t stupid.”
“There is a world of experience contained within that word ‘nearly.’” Tenzo picked up his sandwich. “And I’m on the other side of it. And you’re not allowed to flirt with me until you’re on the other side of it too.”
“Hmph!” Sakura shot the chewing Tenzo a challenging look. “When I’m on the other side of it, I’ll be too old to flirt with anyone.”
Tenzo shot her an offended look. “I’m not that old!”
Sakura shrugged and smiled. “If you say so.”
“You’re a wretched brat.”
“But you adore me.” Sakura said around a mouthful. “I’m your favoritest shinobi ever.”
Tenzo cleared his throat. “What else have you learned?”
“Physical condition is boring. And I’m slow at it which means I get less instruction time with Kakashi-sensei than Naruto and Sasuke do. It’s a drag to be the only person without a bloodline limit on a team where everyone else has amazing genetic advantages. And even if people don’t call me ‘kunoichi’ they’re thinking it which means that they still treat me like I’m automatically less than them. And I’m not less than Sasuke or Naruto or anyone else!”
“Of course not,” Teno agreed warmly. “I’m sure that your teammates will come to see that too.”
Sakura nodded sharply in agreement then added, “I thought I’d like being Kakashi-sensei’s genin student. But he doesn’t like me anymore and he’s being weird and I hate it.”
“Kakashi-senpai adores you.”
“Not anymore. Now he adores Sasuke,” Sakura sulked. “All his best training goes to Sasuke. And Naruto gets the scraps. And he never has time to work with me. I didn’t tell you ‘cause I was too angry to talk about it…” That was only true for the first couple of days. After that, it was too painful to even think about. “Kakashi-sensei tried to pawn me off on the hospital! I was so mad at him, I kicked and hit and tried to bite his fingers off!”
“Did you bite him?” Tenzo asked with open interest.
“No.” Sakura became even sulkier. She slouched and glared at her juice. “I was out of chakra. And I’m not strong enough to do one measly pull up on my own apparently.”
Tenzo’s smile was a bit too evil in Sakura’s opinion. His words were kind though.
“Kakashi-senpai always has the best intentions. But off of the battlefield, Kakashi-senpai is clumsy in his execution. You know that. And there is not a single doubt in my mind that you would’ve ultimately let Kakashi-senpai keep his fingers - even if you could’ve gotten up to them.”
Sakura shrugged, uncertain of what to say in the face of his faith in her good nature. If it had been anyone other than Tenzo sitting across from her at that moment, Sakura would have died before breathing a word about Kakashi’s truly poor opinion of her.
“It’s just… It hurt… ‘cause he doesn’t want me and he said that I’ll be a good medic but I’m hopeless as a ninja.”
Sakura’s voice was higher and thinner than she wanted it to be. And somewhere near the middle of her sentence her voice trembled. She damned her voice. And her eyes for being mysteriously blurry and hot. They ached.
I’m definitely, positively not going to cry over stupid Kakashi being disappointed in my skills as a shinobi. I did all of my crying over stupid Itachi and stupid Nagato and those stupid dreams. I’m not a crier any more.
Tenzo frowned at her. “I’m sure Kakashi-sempai didn’t say that.”
“He told me to quit wasting my time trying to be a combat ninja ‘cause I’ll never be able to keep up with Sasuke or Naruto.”
Which is awful. Who’s going to kill Sasuke this time around if he goes mad? How am I supposed to help kill Madara before the Zombie and Cannibal Apocalypse if I can’t even keep up with two genin? What am I going to say to Itachi when I see him again? He believed in me and ruined his life and I can’t even live up to Kakashi’s expectations. How am I ever supposed to live up to Itachi’s?
Sakura rested her wide forehead on the table and willed her eyes not to cry. Her breathing, too fast and too harsh, rattled in her ears.
It’s stupid and useless and embarrassing and - and dammit. The table’s getting wet. I’m screwing everything up! How can I waste my time helping Hinata when I can’t even help myself?
A large hand, roughened with callouses, gently came to rest on the back of her head. It gently smoothed her hair, lifted up, and did it again. Over and over and over again.
“Ssshh, Sakura. It’ll be alright.”
“No it won’t.” Sakura mumbled miserably into the tabletop. “I’ve worked really, really hard and I’m still not enough. I just want to be enough.”
“For Kakashi-senpai?”
“For now.”
There was a pause. She had said too much and Tenzo was probably trying to figure out what she meant but Sakura was too miserable to care. She just wanted someone to understand her problem and comfort her.
Unfortunately, her inability to admit to anyone outside of Tenzo that Kakashi thought she was hopeless made it impossible to confide in someone who genuinely understood what she was talking about.
“You’ve never let Kakashi-senpai’s words bother you in the past.”
“He didn’t mean them.”
“He didn’t mean this, either.”
“He did. I could tell.”
Tenzo sighed. His hand kept smoothing her hair while Sakura made ugly noises at the back of her throat and got the table wet.
I’m such a complete embarrassment. Sakura thought angrily. I’m a crap ninja and we won’t be able to come back here ever again. The only way this could possibly get worse is if Fu wakes up to see me making an idiot out of myself.
“What are your plans for the day?” he asked, shifting the conversation into a more innoculous direction.
“Missions and conditioning. The boy’s’ll probably get some taijutsu lessons,” Sakura told the table and the side of her arm gloomily. She viciously kicked the heel of one of her boots backwards and into the slats supporting her side of the booth. She was very careful not to actually break anything. “And there’s the party tonight. You’re coming, right?”
“Of course. I’ll even try to make Kakashi-senpai be close to on time.” Sakura smiled at the inside of her elbow, imagining that she could feel the smile that she could hear in Tenzo’s voice. It felt sort of like the sun before the day heated up - warm and friendly and important without scorching her fair skin. “I could work with you this afternoon. When I’m in the village, we could spar together.”
Sakura’s entire world view brightened then dimmed again.
“You look awfully banged up. And something’s wrong with your shoulder. And I’ll probably miss our practice time. I never know when Team Seven’s going to break up for the night.” Sakura grimaced. “If I don’t get home with plenty of time to get dressed, Momo will kill me for being the Ruiner of Parties. She’s seriously put as much effort into it as you’d put into planning an assassination.”
“We could work on your ninjutsu this time. And leave Kakashi-senpai to me. I’ll make sure that you have the afternoon off.”
“That’d be awesome,” Sakura enthused. She enjoyed one more head pat from Tenzo then sat up and briskly rubbed an arm across her eyes. If I’m not enough yet, I shouldn’t be stupid and cry and mope about it. I just have to work harder. And if Kakashi won’t help me become enough, then I’ll work harder with other people. Sakura eyed Tenzo’s stiff posture and lumpy shoulder. It’ll just be the tiniest little peek ever. Just in case. She nodded at his bandages. “Can I take a look?”
Tenzo smiled. “Of course.”
* * * * *
Sakura waved. “Morning, Naruto-kun.”
“You’re late, Dobe.”
Whoever the last non-Kakashi person was to arrive was always deemed to be late. Since Sakura rarely showed up before eight-thirty (and Kakashi never arrived before eight-thirty-seven), it was usually her. Breakfast with Tenzo was good for Sakura’s sense of punctuality.
“Bastard.”
They waited for Kakashi in silence. Sakura pulled a scroll on sealing out of her kunai pouch. Sasuke stared at the water flowing beneath the bridge. Naruto fidgeted and frowned at them both.
“Hey, hey! This is boring. Let’s spar!”
Sasuke wiggled his fingers at Naruto in a ‘bring it on’ gesture. “Pure taijutsu.”
“Three way?” Sakura asked hopefully.
The boys hesitated.
“You can be on Naruto’s team,” Sasuke said magnanimously.
“Hey! I don’t need any help! She can be on your team!”
“Hn!”
“Hey! I can be on my own team! I know two styles of taijutsu!”
“It’s not really your sort of thing,” Naruto said. “No using any chakra which means no smashing up the ground or anything.”
“Hnn,” Sasuke agreed. “No medical jutsu either.”
“I still want to be on my own team!”
The boys traded a long suffering look between themselves.
“Never mind!” Sakura snarled. Her hands shook with her desire to pound their stupid faces into the ground. And then maybe keep pounding until someone pulled her off of them. “I don’t want to spar with you anyway! I’m going running.”
She left before they could say or do anything else.
* * * * *
Kakashi’s glowing fist went through the other man’s chest with ease. Blood and chunks of organs splattered him, damping his skin and clothes and weighing down his hair. There was the scent of cooking meat, a spasm from the body, and the sound of a thousand angry birds in the air.
“How could you Kakashi-chan?”
Kakashi blinked. Over the target’s orange-clad shoulder, Kakashi could see his sensei. His arms were crossed and he was frowning.
“Sensei?”
“Naruto!”
At Sakura’s scream Kakashi looked into the target’s face. Uzumaki Naruto, his fangs glistening with blood, grinned back. His eyes burned bright with the demon’s flames of destruction.
I killed him, Kakashi thought. Around him, the world was crumbling down under the weight of his horror and Sakura’s hatred. Naruto’s corpse leaned against him. I killed my own student.
“What sort of sensei are you?” Tenzo demanded. He had his arms around a sobbing Sakura. “I’d’ve made a better one.”
“What sort of sensei takes an assassination mission on his own students?” Sakura demanded. Minato-sensei appeared next to her and Tenzo. Kakashi shrank away from the burning hatred in their eyes. “We’ll never forgive you!”
One of Naruto’s arms went around him. His clawed hand dig into Kakashi’s back - through his spine and past his ribs as he reached into Kakashi’s chest, yanking at his heart.
His entire existence was excruciating, unending pain.
Kakashi screamed.
“I don’t want it.”
Surprised, Kakashi stopped screaming. His heart was safely in his own hand. Rin was sitting across from him, her hand up in denial.
“I thought I did,” Rin said. “But I don’t anymore. It’s too slow.”
“It’s worth waiting for,” Sakura argued, appearing out of nowhere as she so often did.
Rin hummed, unconvinced. “It only loved Obito after he was too dead to enjoy it.”
“I’m too dead to enjoy a lot of things,” Obito agreed.
Kakashi was in that collapsing cave again. Obito still had his eye. He was also pinned under that boulder again. Somewhere nearby, Rin was crying.
“Too bad Sakura-chan isn’t here to break it,” Obito said. He smiled. His mouth was bloody and his teeth were stained red. In his one free hand, he held Kakashi’s heart. “She’ll break a lot of things, I think.”
“She’s always been destructive,” Kakashi agreed. He touched the corner of Obito’s smile. “She’d’ve liked you.”
In the background Rin’s cries were changing tone and pitch. They were becoming higher and hoarser.
“I’d’ve liked her,” Obito said. “Not as much as Rin though. Never as much as Rin.”
“You never liked anyone as much as you liked Rin,” Kakashi said with a smile.
“Not true,” Obito disagreed. “I was willing to die for you too.”
“You did die for me,” Kakashi softly corrected. He petted Obito’s bloodied hair. It was stiff and coarse under his fingertips. “Everyone dies for me, sooner or later.”
Rin’s cries were a child’s cries. They were his own.
Red lines inscribed themselves into his bare knees and the base of his hands. They were in the pattern of the old tatami mats in his father’s study.
“I won’t,” Tenzo said. “I’ll suvive no matter what. I’m like a starfish.”
Kakashi was still petting coarse and bloodied black hair but it was Sasuke’s now. The boy was lying in a puddle of blood with no boulder to be seen anywhere. His sharingan eyes were wide and empty. There was a gaping hole in his chest.
Chidori.
Kakashi leaned forward, peering down through the hole.
Inside Sasuke’s chest was a hospital room. It was bland and white and stank. Rin was lying in the bed, her eyes closed and her breath labored.
She was dying again.
“Rin.”
Kakashi reached through the hole.
The eyes that snapped open were green. Rin’s brown hair grew longer and turned pink.
Sakura reached for him, her pale hand curling around his bare, red-lined one. Her eyes were very bright and hard as she looked up at him. Her soft, pink mouth curled up into a small, cruel smile.
“We’ll destroy you.”
With a sharp tug, she wrenched Kakashi through Sasuke’s chest.
Kakashi lurched upright, his hands gripping his futon and his chest heaving. His eye darted around his one room apartment - bookcase, table, plant, window, closet, kitchen, desk, other window, and bathroom doorway.
He leaned over, his forehead resting on his upraised knee. Kakashi’s heart pounded in his ears.
We’ll destroy you.
Kakashi heaved a shuddering sigh.
Time to visit the Memorial Stone, he decided as he heaved himself out of bed. Then breakfast. Then the genin, maybe.
It turned out to be a stone, breakfast, stone, Tenzo, and then Team Seven sort of morning.
When Kakashi arrived at the bridge, two of his genin were apparently sparring; or possibly just roughhousing. The wet willies made it hard to decide which it was. The third was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Sakura?”
“Running laps,” panted Naruto. “And you’re late!”
“There was a cute little kitten and she was hungry so I -”
“LIAR!”
“Hmmmm,” hummed Kakashi. “Why aren’t you running?”
The boys traded vaguely guilty looks. Then they scrambled off to do their own laps.
When the girl in question ran past the bridge, she failed to stop and berate Kakashi. Her steps were slow but dogged. She waved at him in passing.
Her stamina is improving.
He patiently waited, reading Icha Icha Paradise and monitoring his students’ progress. Under his watchful eye, Naruto and Sasuke ran without stopping and Sakura ran thirteen laps before she took a walking break.
“You’re late!”
Kakashi flashed a bright, insincere smile at her. “As I’ve already discussed with Naruto, there was this kitten and -”
“Liar!”
“Good morning to you too, Sakura. You do realize that this exchange is going to cost you another ten laps, right?”
Sakura shrugged. “I’ve already stopped to rest once.”
“Ah.” Kakashi’s eyes lingered on Sakura’s boots. “Those shoes are impractical.”
“These boots are awesome!”
“They have high heels. You’ll have better mobility with a standard set of sandals.”
“These aren’t heels. They’re chunky soles. And I’m just slower than Naruto and Sasuke.” She glared. “I know you’re trying to help me but you’re making it very difficult to apologize.”
Kakashi blinked. “Apologize?”
“For kicking you the other day. And attempting to bite you.”
Kakashi narrowed his eye. “I don’t remember the biting.”
“I couldn’t pull myself up high enough to get to your fingers. But if I’d been able to pull myself up, I would’ve tried to bite them off.”
“Ah. Good to know.” Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’d already forgotten about that.”
“Liar,” Sakura said fondly. “I was just… I need to be here. On this team and with you and Naruto-kun and Sasuke. And I was just so mad at you for trying to get rid of me after only one day.”
“No one was trying to get rid of you.” Kakashi sighed and then added, “You’re my student.”
It physically hurt him to call her that.
His students were not his friends.
He had accepted a conditional assassination contract on two of his students.
He had nightmares about his students.
I wish she’d gone to someone else. Kakashi had trouble thinking of who, precisely, he wanted to actually be her genin teacher other than not him. Tenzo, maybe?
“It was a logical conclusion.” Sakura hesitated. “But I should’ve had more faith in you. I’m sorry for that too, Kakashi-sensei.”
Kakashi flinched, hurt by the suffix to his name. He looked away from her, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand.
“Don’t you have laps to run?”
The boys finished all of their conditioning before Sakura so Kakashi killed time until she was finished by teaching the boys some taijutsu stances and combinations.
When Sakura finished her conditioning, Kakashi declared practice to be over. Sakura, who was sprawled out under a giant oak tree, scowled as the boys joined her.
They’re coming together, Kakashi thought, feeling quite smug in his decision to bring them closer together through shared suffering and his chronic tardiness. He carefully ignored that his tardiness had nothing to do with his students and that in fact it affected nearly every facet of his life.
To reward his team for their steps in the right direction, Kakashi chose a pet retrieval mission after lunch over restocking the kitchen for another restaurant. His genin, hardly more than children even if they thought otherwise, were excited as they fumblingly donned the microphones and earpieces most commonly used in intelligence operations.
At Kakashi’s direction, his students trustingly split up to search in different sectors for the missing feline.
“I can’t believe that Kakashi-sensei’s making us do all the work while he sits around reading porn!” Naruto grumbled into the microphone. “Again! I don’t -”
“Naruto-kun, he can hear you.”
“Eep! Eh heh! Sorry Kakashi-sensei!”
Kakashi smiled to himself. He pulled his earpiece away from his head as he said, “Eh? Did you say something? I wasn’t paying attention. I was at a very interesting point in my book. Junko had just -”
“PERVERT!” screeched two enraged voices.
“Hn!” agreed Sasuke.
Kakashi giggled, enjoying their whimpers of agony.
Once his genin had had enough time to get far enough apart from each other, Kakashi set out to spy on them.
Sasuke was silent and methodical in his search.
Naruto was loud and haphazard.
Sakura was trailing Team Eight.
As Kakashi watched his only female student, she watched Team Eight carry groceries into an apartment building.
Kakashi turned his attention to the other genin team just in time to watch the Hyuuga girl stumble. A loaf of bread tipped out of the top of her bag.
If that girl was on Team Seven, both she and that loaf would have hit the ground.
Instead an Inuzuka boy steadied the Hyuuga while their other teammate, a boy in a long coat and dark glasses, twisted to gently catch it. Rather than disparaging his teammate, he just carefully deposited the loaf back into the young kunoichi’s bag.
The Hyuuga heiress was bright red. “Thanks Shino-kun.”
Kurenai smiled at her genin.
She’s proud of her team. Well, she should be.
Kakashi tried to quash his annoyance that his team seemed incapable of such flawless teamwork.
The team trooped into the apartment building and Sakura loitered in the shadows, apparently waiting for them to come out again.
When they exited the building, Kurenai was all smiles and fond looks. Kurenai hugged her students, one by one, and murmured in their ears. Her hair fell in such a way as to hide her mouth from Kakashi’s gaze. The genin all blushed but leaned into the contact.
A glance at Sakura’s profile arrested Kakashi’s attention. Normally Sakura displayed three emotions to her teammates: happiness, ferocious rage, and grim determination. But at that moment Sakura’s expression was open and soft. Kakashi had trouble identifying her expression but whatever it was it seemed slightly sad.
Sasuke’s voice crackled through their earpieces. “Have you located the target yet?”
Sakura jumped, visibly biting back a shriek.
“No, not yet,” she said breathlessly.
She backed away from the other genin team while Naruto’s grumbles rumbled in their ears.
Kakashi watched her search for awhile. She was methodical but clearly bored with the mission. He was about to leave her and go check on her teammates when Sakura suddenly stilled. Konohagakure’s foot traffic buffeted her small, bright form.
A glance showed that Team Ten was further down the road and coming out of the Korean barbeque restaurant. As Kakashi watched, a pretty, blond girl hugged Asuma and kissed his cheek and thanked him for buying lunch. He hugged her and tugged at her ponytail, his smile fond.
Sakura had that soft, indefinable expression again. It was definitely tinged with sadness.
The blond girl darted off, leaving behind her two teammates and their sensei. Asuma lit up a cigarette, slung an arm around both boys’ shoulders, and started meandering down the sidewalk with them. They were moving toward Sakura.
Sakura slipped down a side street, avoiding Asuma and his brats entirely.
Kakashi followed her for awhile longer but when she failed to do anything else that he found interesting, he left to check on Naruto.
Kakashi was unsurprised that Sakura failed to find the cat. That Naruto did find it was vaguely shocking however.
As a gift to his cute students, and because he was having lunch with Tenzo, Kakashi let his students go early. It was never a good idea to deliberately work against free food.
Fandom: Naruto
Rating: PG-13
Content Notes: None
Disclaimer: I have no rights to or claims on the Naruto franchise, trademark, copyright, or characters. This is for fun, not profit.
Summary: In the future what's left of humanity sends the Rokudaime Hokage back in time to make some changes. Sadly, they can't send all of her. When a seven-year-old Haruno Sakura decides to take an interest in Hatake Kakashi, the timeline shifts in some... unique... ways.
Friday morning, Ino staggered out of bed and threw on a set of mostly clean practice gear. She dragged a brush through her hair, washed her face to be more alert, and tied the coveted red ribbon into her ponytail just to stick it to Sakura.
Because she was on a diet, Ino skipped breakfast.
I don’t know why Sakura has to have her ass kicked so damn early, Ino fumed. Why can’t she wait for a better hour? Like ten in the morning!
When Ino got to the field, the sign had already been flipped to ‘occupied.’
Forehead’s early! How can she be early when it’s so damn early?
Huffing with irritation, Ino slipped into the enclosure.
Ino had never trained in a practice field that required prior reservation before. Most of Konoha’s practice areas were first come, first serve. The only ones that had to be reserved were the special environments.
Curious, Ino studied her surrounds as best she could in the early morning twilight. What she saw as she searched for Sakura did not inspire confidence.
The training ground seemed to be a large swamp. Mud, dirty water, and long, slim grass surrounded her on all sides. Her nose wrinkled, Ino picked a careful path through the filth as she looked for Sakura.
Sakura, of course, was waiting for her in the middle of the swamp. She was standing on top of the sludge.
So not fair! Ino fumed. Why does she always have to show that off?
“C’mon Ino! Come fight me!”
Ino glared at Sakura. “Come fight me on a proper training ground.”
Sakura smirked. “Forfeiting, Pig? I never pegged you as a quitter.”
Ino gritted her teeth. “You know that I can’t walk on water!”
“Yeah? Other genin can walk on trees and water.”
Ino’s eyes widened. “Sasuke can -”
“Pffft! Who cares what that bastard can do?” Sakura skipped closer to the dry patch of ground Ino was standing on. “You have way better chakra control than he does.”
Ino blinked. “I do?”
“Yeah. This’ll be a snap for you.”
Ino smiled, that secret place in her heart fluttering at Sakura’s complete faith in her abilities.
She tied their ribbon to a weedy looking shrub, just in case.
Two hours later Ino conceded (temporary) defeat.
“Look at me,” she snarled at Sakura. “I’m covered in filth! I reek! My hair’ll never be the same again!”
Sakura, who was untying their ribbon from the bush, hummed sympathetically.
Her false sympathy only made Ino angrier.
“Don’t pretend that you aren’t enjoying this! And don’t get used to wearing that,” Ino snapped as Sakura carefully tied the red ribbon around her own bicep. “We’re having a rematch next week!”
Sakura smiled that horrible, infuriating smile of hers. It was equal parts smugness and fondness.
“Whatever you want, Ino-chan. Challenger gets to pick the terrain. You know that.”
“Be ready!” Ino ordered with a final, furious glare.
She turned on her heel and slogged back the way she had originally come, no longer worried about getting dirty.
Step one: get clean. Step two: have breakfast. Step three: get Daddy or Asuma-sensei to teach me how to walk across a damn pond!
* * * * *
Breakfast with Tenzo-nii was in a cute little bistro in the trendy part of the shopping district. He ordered breakfast bagal sandwiches complete with scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese, and spinach, a sugary sweet confection that masqueraded as coffee for him, and grabbed two bottles of Sakura’s favorite juice.
Sakura, who had showered and picked Fu up between meeting with Ino and Tenzo, tucked her little sister away for a morning nap in a booth and joined Tenzo in the corner booth right next to Fu’s booth.
“So? How’s it going?”
“Fine,” Sakura said unconvincingly.
Tenzo must have just gotten back from a mission because there was a bandage around his forehead instead of his usual forehead protector and he moved his right shoulder very carefully.
I really want to peek at his injuries… Is that being nosey? Will it hurt someone’s feelings if I just take a little peek?
“I see you won your ribbon back.”
Sakura immediately straightened up. One of her hands rose to touch the ribbon she had tied around her bicep.
“Yeah! I got it, like, an hour ago. Ino-chan and I had an epic water battle.”
“With water jutsu?”
“Ah, no. On a lake.”
Tenzo sighed at her. But there was the faintest smile hovering around his lips.
“What’re you going to do with your spoils?”
"I’m thinking about putting it in my hair this week and wearing my forehead protector, well, on my forehead.”
Tenzo smiled. “That sounds lovely. What else have you done lately?”
“Pet rescues and restaurant restocking and gardening and a lot of physical conditioning.” Sakura slumped. “It’s all very boring.”
“Have you learned anything interesting yet? I learned a great deal from Kakashi.”
“So far I’ve learned that all boys are stupid.”
“I thought Kakashi was male,” Tenzo said mildly.
“Kakashi-sensei is stupid and a crazed hardass.”
“I’m male.”
Sakura fluttered her eyelashes at the shinobi across from her.
“But there’s nothing boyish about you, Tenzo-nii.”
Tenzo flushed scarlet.
“Don’t - Don’t say such things,” he blustered while gulping down his coffee-flavored sludge. “And don’t flutter you eyelashes like that. It makes you look like you have an eye infection.”
“You’re almost as mean as Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura pouted. She slumped back in her chair and folded her arms across her meager chest. “And I don’t mean that in a fun way.”
“And you’re too young to say things like that,” Tenzo countered as a nice civilian girl set their breakfast sandwiches in front of them. “To anyone.”
“I’m almost thirteen! I’m nearly a woman! I’ve got to practice this stuff on someone.” As an after thought, Sakura added, “Someone who isn’t stupid.”
“There is a world of experience contained within that word ‘nearly.’” Tenzo picked up his sandwich. “And I’m on the other side of it. And you’re not allowed to flirt with me until you’re on the other side of it too.”
“Hmph!” Sakura shot the chewing Tenzo a challenging look. “When I’m on the other side of it, I’ll be too old to flirt with anyone.”
Tenzo shot her an offended look. “I’m not that old!”
Sakura shrugged and smiled. “If you say so.”
“You’re a wretched brat.”
“But you adore me.” Sakura said around a mouthful. “I’m your favoritest shinobi ever.”
Tenzo cleared his throat. “What else have you learned?”
“Physical condition is boring. And I’m slow at it which means I get less instruction time with Kakashi-sensei than Naruto and Sasuke do. It’s a drag to be the only person without a bloodline limit on a team where everyone else has amazing genetic advantages. And even if people don’t call me ‘kunoichi’ they’re thinking it which means that they still treat me like I’m automatically less than them. And I’m not less than Sasuke or Naruto or anyone else!”
“Of course not,” Teno agreed warmly. “I’m sure that your teammates will come to see that too.”
Sakura nodded sharply in agreement then added, “I thought I’d like being Kakashi-sensei’s genin student. But he doesn’t like me anymore and he’s being weird and I hate it.”
“Kakashi-senpai adores you.”
“Not anymore. Now he adores Sasuke,” Sakura sulked. “All his best training goes to Sasuke. And Naruto gets the scraps. And he never has time to work with me. I didn’t tell you ‘cause I was too angry to talk about it…” That was only true for the first couple of days. After that, it was too painful to even think about. “Kakashi-sensei tried to pawn me off on the hospital! I was so mad at him, I kicked and hit and tried to bite his fingers off!”
“Did you bite him?” Tenzo asked with open interest.
“No.” Sakura became even sulkier. She slouched and glared at her juice. “I was out of chakra. And I’m not strong enough to do one measly pull up on my own apparently.”
Tenzo’s smile was a bit too evil in Sakura’s opinion. His words were kind though.
“Kakashi-senpai always has the best intentions. But off of the battlefield, Kakashi-senpai is clumsy in his execution. You know that. And there is not a single doubt in my mind that you would’ve ultimately let Kakashi-senpai keep his fingers - even if you could’ve gotten up to them.”
Sakura shrugged, uncertain of what to say in the face of his faith in her good nature. If it had been anyone other than Tenzo sitting across from her at that moment, Sakura would have died before breathing a word about Kakashi’s truly poor opinion of her.
“It’s just… It hurt… ‘cause he doesn’t want me and he said that I’ll be a good medic but I’m hopeless as a ninja.”
Sakura’s voice was higher and thinner than she wanted it to be. And somewhere near the middle of her sentence her voice trembled. She damned her voice. And her eyes for being mysteriously blurry and hot. They ached.
I’m definitely, positively not going to cry over stupid Kakashi being disappointed in my skills as a shinobi. I did all of my crying over stupid Itachi and stupid Nagato and those stupid dreams. I’m not a crier any more.
Tenzo frowned at her. “I’m sure Kakashi-sempai didn’t say that.”
“He told me to quit wasting my time trying to be a combat ninja ‘cause I’ll never be able to keep up with Sasuke or Naruto.”
Which is awful. Who’s going to kill Sasuke this time around if he goes mad? How am I supposed to help kill Madara before the Zombie and Cannibal Apocalypse if I can’t even keep up with two genin? What am I going to say to Itachi when I see him again? He believed in me and ruined his life and I can’t even live up to Kakashi’s expectations. How am I ever supposed to live up to Itachi’s?
Sakura rested her wide forehead on the table and willed her eyes not to cry. Her breathing, too fast and too harsh, rattled in her ears.
It’s stupid and useless and embarrassing and - and dammit. The table’s getting wet. I’m screwing everything up! How can I waste my time helping Hinata when I can’t even help myself?
A large hand, roughened with callouses, gently came to rest on the back of her head. It gently smoothed her hair, lifted up, and did it again. Over and over and over again.
“Ssshh, Sakura. It’ll be alright.”
“No it won’t.” Sakura mumbled miserably into the tabletop. “I’ve worked really, really hard and I’m still not enough. I just want to be enough.”
“For Kakashi-senpai?”
“For now.”
There was a pause. She had said too much and Tenzo was probably trying to figure out what she meant but Sakura was too miserable to care. She just wanted someone to understand her problem and comfort her.
Unfortunately, her inability to admit to anyone outside of Tenzo that Kakashi thought she was hopeless made it impossible to confide in someone who genuinely understood what she was talking about.
“You’ve never let Kakashi-senpai’s words bother you in the past.”
“He didn’t mean them.”
“He didn’t mean this, either.”
“He did. I could tell.”
Tenzo sighed. His hand kept smoothing her hair while Sakura made ugly noises at the back of her throat and got the table wet.
I’m such a complete embarrassment. Sakura thought angrily. I’m a crap ninja and we won’t be able to come back here ever again. The only way this could possibly get worse is if Fu wakes up to see me making an idiot out of myself.
“What are your plans for the day?” he asked, shifting the conversation into a more innoculous direction.
“Missions and conditioning. The boy’s’ll probably get some taijutsu lessons,” Sakura told the table and the side of her arm gloomily. She viciously kicked the heel of one of her boots backwards and into the slats supporting her side of the booth. She was very careful not to actually break anything. “And there’s the party tonight. You’re coming, right?”
“Of course. I’ll even try to make Kakashi-senpai be close to on time.” Sakura smiled at the inside of her elbow, imagining that she could feel the smile that she could hear in Tenzo’s voice. It felt sort of like the sun before the day heated up - warm and friendly and important without scorching her fair skin. “I could work with you this afternoon. When I’m in the village, we could spar together.”
Sakura’s entire world view brightened then dimmed again.
“You look awfully banged up. And something’s wrong with your shoulder. And I’ll probably miss our practice time. I never know when Team Seven’s going to break up for the night.” Sakura grimaced. “If I don’t get home with plenty of time to get dressed, Momo will kill me for being the Ruiner of Parties. She’s seriously put as much effort into it as you’d put into planning an assassination.”
“We could work on your ninjutsu this time. And leave Kakashi-senpai to me. I’ll make sure that you have the afternoon off.”
“That’d be awesome,” Sakura enthused. She enjoyed one more head pat from Tenzo then sat up and briskly rubbed an arm across her eyes. If I’m not enough yet, I shouldn’t be stupid and cry and mope about it. I just have to work harder. And if Kakashi won’t help me become enough, then I’ll work harder with other people. Sakura eyed Tenzo’s stiff posture and lumpy shoulder. It’ll just be the tiniest little peek ever. Just in case. She nodded at his bandages. “Can I take a look?”
Tenzo smiled. “Of course.”
* * * * *
Sakura waved. “Morning, Naruto-kun.”
“You’re late, Dobe.”
Whoever the last non-Kakashi person was to arrive was always deemed to be late. Since Sakura rarely showed up before eight-thirty (and Kakashi never arrived before eight-thirty-seven), it was usually her. Breakfast with Tenzo was good for Sakura’s sense of punctuality.
“Bastard.”
They waited for Kakashi in silence. Sakura pulled a scroll on sealing out of her kunai pouch. Sasuke stared at the water flowing beneath the bridge. Naruto fidgeted and frowned at them both.
“Hey, hey! This is boring. Let’s spar!”
Sasuke wiggled his fingers at Naruto in a ‘bring it on’ gesture. “Pure taijutsu.”
“Three way?” Sakura asked hopefully.
The boys hesitated.
“You can be on Naruto’s team,” Sasuke said magnanimously.
“Hey! I don’t need any help! She can be on your team!”
“Hn!”
“Hey! I can be on my own team! I know two styles of taijutsu!”
“It’s not really your sort of thing,” Naruto said. “No using any chakra which means no smashing up the ground or anything.”
“Hnn,” Sasuke agreed. “No medical jutsu either.”
“I still want to be on my own team!”
The boys traded a long suffering look between themselves.
“Never mind!” Sakura snarled. Her hands shook with her desire to pound their stupid faces into the ground. And then maybe keep pounding until someone pulled her off of them. “I don’t want to spar with you anyway! I’m going running.”
She left before they could say or do anything else.
* * * * *
Kakashi’s glowing fist went through the other man’s chest with ease. Blood and chunks of organs splattered him, damping his skin and clothes and weighing down his hair. There was the scent of cooking meat, a spasm from the body, and the sound of a thousand angry birds in the air.
“How could you Kakashi-chan?”
Kakashi blinked. Over the target’s orange-clad shoulder, Kakashi could see his sensei. His arms were crossed and he was frowning.
“Sensei?”
“Naruto!”
At Sakura’s scream Kakashi looked into the target’s face. Uzumaki Naruto, his fangs glistening with blood, grinned back. His eyes burned bright with the demon’s flames of destruction.
I killed him, Kakashi thought. Around him, the world was crumbling down under the weight of his horror and Sakura’s hatred. Naruto’s corpse leaned against him. I killed my own student.
“What sort of sensei are you?” Tenzo demanded. He had his arms around a sobbing Sakura. “I’d’ve made a better one.”
“What sort of sensei takes an assassination mission on his own students?” Sakura demanded. Minato-sensei appeared next to her and Tenzo. Kakashi shrank away from the burning hatred in their eyes. “We’ll never forgive you!”
One of Naruto’s arms went around him. His clawed hand dig into Kakashi’s back - through his spine and past his ribs as he reached into Kakashi’s chest, yanking at his heart.
His entire existence was excruciating, unending pain.
Kakashi screamed.
“I don’t want it.”
Surprised, Kakashi stopped screaming. His heart was safely in his own hand. Rin was sitting across from him, her hand up in denial.
“I thought I did,” Rin said. “But I don’t anymore. It’s too slow.”
“It’s worth waiting for,” Sakura argued, appearing out of nowhere as she so often did.
Rin hummed, unconvinced. “It only loved Obito after he was too dead to enjoy it.”
“I’m too dead to enjoy a lot of things,” Obito agreed.
Kakashi was in that collapsing cave again. Obito still had his eye. He was also pinned under that boulder again. Somewhere nearby, Rin was crying.
“Too bad Sakura-chan isn’t here to break it,” Obito said. He smiled. His mouth was bloody and his teeth were stained red. In his one free hand, he held Kakashi’s heart. “She’ll break a lot of things, I think.”
“She’s always been destructive,” Kakashi agreed. He touched the corner of Obito’s smile. “She’d’ve liked you.”
In the background Rin’s cries were changing tone and pitch. They were becoming higher and hoarser.
“I’d’ve liked her,” Obito said. “Not as much as Rin though. Never as much as Rin.”
“You never liked anyone as much as you liked Rin,” Kakashi said with a smile.
“Not true,” Obito disagreed. “I was willing to die for you too.”
“You did die for me,” Kakashi softly corrected. He petted Obito’s bloodied hair. It was stiff and coarse under his fingertips. “Everyone dies for me, sooner or later.”
Rin’s cries were a child’s cries. They were his own.
Red lines inscribed themselves into his bare knees and the base of his hands. They were in the pattern of the old tatami mats in his father’s study.
“I won’t,” Tenzo said. “I’ll suvive no matter what. I’m like a starfish.”
Kakashi was still petting coarse and bloodied black hair but it was Sasuke’s now. The boy was lying in a puddle of blood with no boulder to be seen anywhere. His sharingan eyes were wide and empty. There was a gaping hole in his chest.
Chidori.
Kakashi leaned forward, peering down through the hole.
Inside Sasuke’s chest was a hospital room. It was bland and white and stank. Rin was lying in the bed, her eyes closed and her breath labored.
She was dying again.
“Rin.”
Kakashi reached through the hole.
The eyes that snapped open were green. Rin’s brown hair grew longer and turned pink.
Sakura reached for him, her pale hand curling around his bare, red-lined one. Her eyes were very bright and hard as she looked up at him. Her soft, pink mouth curled up into a small, cruel smile.
“We’ll destroy you.”
With a sharp tug, she wrenched Kakashi through Sasuke’s chest.
Kakashi lurched upright, his hands gripping his futon and his chest heaving. His eye darted around his one room apartment - bookcase, table, plant, window, closet, kitchen, desk, other window, and bathroom doorway.
He leaned over, his forehead resting on his upraised knee. Kakashi’s heart pounded in his ears.
We’ll destroy you.
Kakashi heaved a shuddering sigh.
Time to visit the Memorial Stone, he decided as he heaved himself out of bed. Then breakfast. Then the genin, maybe.
It turned out to be a stone, breakfast, stone, Tenzo, and then Team Seven sort of morning.
When Kakashi arrived at the bridge, two of his genin were apparently sparring; or possibly just roughhousing. The wet willies made it hard to decide which it was. The third was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Sakura?”
“Running laps,” panted Naruto. “And you’re late!”
“There was a cute little kitten and she was hungry so I -”
“LIAR!”
“Hmmmm,” hummed Kakashi. “Why aren’t you running?”
The boys traded vaguely guilty looks. Then they scrambled off to do their own laps.
When the girl in question ran past the bridge, she failed to stop and berate Kakashi. Her steps were slow but dogged. She waved at him in passing.
Her stamina is improving.
He patiently waited, reading Icha Icha Paradise and monitoring his students’ progress. Under his watchful eye, Naruto and Sasuke ran without stopping and Sakura ran thirteen laps before she took a walking break.
“You’re late!”
Kakashi flashed a bright, insincere smile at her. “As I’ve already discussed with Naruto, there was this kitten and -”
“Liar!”
“Good morning to you too, Sakura. You do realize that this exchange is going to cost you another ten laps, right?”
Sakura shrugged. “I’ve already stopped to rest once.”
“Ah.” Kakashi’s eyes lingered on Sakura’s boots. “Those shoes are impractical.”
“These boots are awesome!”
“They have high heels. You’ll have better mobility with a standard set of sandals.”
“These aren’t heels. They’re chunky soles. And I’m just slower than Naruto and Sasuke.” She glared. “I know you’re trying to help me but you’re making it very difficult to apologize.”
Kakashi blinked. “Apologize?”
“For kicking you the other day. And attempting to bite you.”
Kakashi narrowed his eye. “I don’t remember the biting.”
“I couldn’t pull myself up high enough to get to your fingers. But if I’d been able to pull myself up, I would’ve tried to bite them off.”
“Ah. Good to know.” Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’d already forgotten about that.”
“Liar,” Sakura said fondly. “I was just… I need to be here. On this team and with you and Naruto-kun and Sasuke. And I was just so mad at you for trying to get rid of me after only one day.”
“No one was trying to get rid of you.” Kakashi sighed and then added, “You’re my student.”
It physically hurt him to call her that.
His students were not his friends.
He had accepted a conditional assassination contract on two of his students.
He had nightmares about his students.
I wish she’d gone to someone else. Kakashi had trouble thinking of who, precisely, he wanted to actually be her genin teacher other than not him. Tenzo, maybe?
“It was a logical conclusion.” Sakura hesitated. “But I should’ve had more faith in you. I’m sorry for that too, Kakashi-sensei.”
Kakashi flinched, hurt by the suffix to his name. He looked away from her, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand.
“Don’t you have laps to run?”
The boys finished all of their conditioning before Sakura so Kakashi killed time until she was finished by teaching the boys some taijutsu stances and combinations.
When Sakura finished her conditioning, Kakashi declared practice to be over. Sakura, who was sprawled out under a giant oak tree, scowled as the boys joined her.
They’re coming together, Kakashi thought, feeling quite smug in his decision to bring them closer together through shared suffering and his chronic tardiness. He carefully ignored that his tardiness had nothing to do with his students and that in fact it affected nearly every facet of his life.
To reward his team for their steps in the right direction, Kakashi chose a pet retrieval mission after lunch over restocking the kitchen for another restaurant. His genin, hardly more than children even if they thought otherwise, were excited as they fumblingly donned the microphones and earpieces most commonly used in intelligence operations.
At Kakashi’s direction, his students trustingly split up to search in different sectors for the missing feline.
“I can’t believe that Kakashi-sensei’s making us do all the work while he sits around reading porn!” Naruto grumbled into the microphone. “Again! I don’t -”
“Naruto-kun, he can hear you.”
“Eep! Eh heh! Sorry Kakashi-sensei!”
Kakashi smiled to himself. He pulled his earpiece away from his head as he said, “Eh? Did you say something? I wasn’t paying attention. I was at a very interesting point in my book. Junko had just -”
“PERVERT!” screeched two enraged voices.
“Hn!” agreed Sasuke.
Kakashi giggled, enjoying their whimpers of agony.
Once his genin had had enough time to get far enough apart from each other, Kakashi set out to spy on them.
Sasuke was silent and methodical in his search.
Naruto was loud and haphazard.
Sakura was trailing Team Eight.
As Kakashi watched his only female student, she watched Team Eight carry groceries into an apartment building.
Kakashi turned his attention to the other genin team just in time to watch the Hyuuga girl stumble. A loaf of bread tipped out of the top of her bag.
If that girl was on Team Seven, both she and that loaf would have hit the ground.
Instead an Inuzuka boy steadied the Hyuuga while their other teammate, a boy in a long coat and dark glasses, twisted to gently catch it. Rather than disparaging his teammate, he just carefully deposited the loaf back into the young kunoichi’s bag.
The Hyuuga heiress was bright red. “Thanks Shino-kun.”
Kurenai smiled at her genin.
She’s proud of her team. Well, she should be.
Kakashi tried to quash his annoyance that his team seemed incapable of such flawless teamwork.
The team trooped into the apartment building and Sakura loitered in the shadows, apparently waiting for them to come out again.
When they exited the building, Kurenai was all smiles and fond looks. Kurenai hugged her students, one by one, and murmured in their ears. Her hair fell in such a way as to hide her mouth from Kakashi’s gaze. The genin all blushed but leaned into the contact.
A glance at Sakura’s profile arrested Kakashi’s attention. Normally Sakura displayed three emotions to her teammates: happiness, ferocious rage, and grim determination. But at that moment Sakura’s expression was open and soft. Kakashi had trouble identifying her expression but whatever it was it seemed slightly sad.
Sasuke’s voice crackled through their earpieces. “Have you located the target yet?”
Sakura jumped, visibly biting back a shriek.
“No, not yet,” she said breathlessly.
She backed away from the other genin team while Naruto’s grumbles rumbled in their ears.
Kakashi watched her search for awhile. She was methodical but clearly bored with the mission. He was about to leave her and go check on her teammates when Sakura suddenly stilled. Konohagakure’s foot traffic buffeted her small, bright form.
A glance showed that Team Ten was further down the road and coming out of the Korean barbeque restaurant. As Kakashi watched, a pretty, blond girl hugged Asuma and kissed his cheek and thanked him for buying lunch. He hugged her and tugged at her ponytail, his smile fond.
Sakura had that soft, indefinable expression again. It was definitely tinged with sadness.
The blond girl darted off, leaving behind her two teammates and their sensei. Asuma lit up a cigarette, slung an arm around both boys’ shoulders, and started meandering down the sidewalk with them. They were moving toward Sakura.
Sakura slipped down a side street, avoiding Asuma and his brats entirely.
Kakashi followed her for awhile longer but when she failed to do anything else that he found interesting, he left to check on Naruto.
Kakashi was unsurprised that Sakura failed to find the cat. That Naruto did find it was vaguely shocking however.
As a gift to his cute students, and because he was having lunch with Tenzo, Kakashi let his students go early. It was never a good idea to deliberately work against free food.