Fandom: Naruto
Author: neela
Rating: T (PG-13)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto at all. It all belongs to Kishimoto-sama...

They knew it might be their last night.

War was upon them; friends had been slaughtered before their eyes, the number of orphans littering the streets among broken ruins was growing rapidly every blood-filled day that passed. Those veterans still alive, who could remember back to the Demon Fox's attack on the village, would say that this was much worse.

Lately, the mortality rate had been picking up. People were dying in greater numbers, civilians and shinobi alike. There had been little breaks between the waves of attack striking against Konoha yet suddenly, today, it had stopped abruptly. Scouts had reported a temporarily retreat among the enemy. Meaning only one thing: regrouping. Tomorrow would be a clash of fates, a battle foregoing every battle they had seen thus far.

As a result of this, the Hokage made a speech, the second longest since his taking of office. It was to the people, those still standing, those hidden away in secret locations so that they were not caught up in the battle, and those unable to do anything but lie still with bandages wrapped around their bodies. A speech filled with determination and heart, telling volumes of the love he held for the village that had been his home for the last twenty-five years. Just looking into those blue cerulean eyes had broken the last barrier of doubt in the people's mind.

It had been such a strong, numb-sensing experience that people's spirits were dragged out of the dark holes they had fled to after what seemed like a futile defence, and into the light with a tentative smile.

As a closing suggestion, in some ways an order, but spoken so softly none found it in their hearts to refuse him, he had told them this was the most important night of their lives, so live without regrets, seize the night. Or in common tongue: find your loved ones and spend this fateful night with them. No one knows what tomorrow brings.

The very epitome of shinobi life—you never knew when the luring darkness would consume you and embrace you in its cold. And he told them to have no regrets, to do exactly what they wanted without remorse and live their lives to the fullest.

No one had cheered, but the air felt cleaner, more hopeful. The morale of the broken village was lifted sky-high because of one man's words, a young man who had sworn his life to protect the village he loved like his father before him. There were smiles of secrecy, happiness and pure euphoria on everyone's faces. Even those who knew for certain that their lives were ebbing out of them through wounds acquired in earlier battles could not help but crack a grin at the comrade lying next to them. For certain, everyone would follow the Rokudaime's suggestion and had already begun to break up.

She knew the Hokage himself had gone straight to the Hyuuga compound with his wife and son; there was no doubt about it. Others around her had also dispersed with their respective or not-so-respective ones. Everyone was seeking comfort in some way, even the most hardened of warriors. As for her…the ones she really loved, the reduced band of friends, those she really cared about, had already been swallowed by evening shadows as they sought the heated embraces of others or each other. And there she stood, alone on the hill overlooking the faces of previous heroes, the cold wind biting into her skin where her clothes were torn from this morning's battle.

No, not exactly alone. There was one other person, a man that she still cared a lot about, more than she had wanted to admit. They had barely seen each other in the past five months since the whole damn war began, but the brief moments when they met had seemed like both eternities and short-lived meetings.

Something had rapidly changed between them during that time. They were no longer viewing each other as sensei and student. In the furious battles they had fought as fellow jounins of the Konoha Leaf, protected each other's backs as the enemy rolled over them, treated each other's wounds with no thought whatsoever that they might show more of themselves than they would have had the war not happened. Their pasts, background history and age had disappeared in the heat of the battle, leaving only a male and female shinobi doing their utmost to protect the village and people that they love.

Neither spoke their feelings out loud, but just a look into each other's eyes was enough to speak volumes. It was a mutual acknowledgment that she had grown up beyond her years due to the war, but he obviously did not think it was a bad thing. Neither did her; if she had to admit so.

She found him by the memorial of fallen friends, past and present, the silver in his hair caught by the moonlight. He did not turn as she approached, but she knew he would sense her presence. Though greatly improved in stealth, even masking her chakra, she could never fool this man. He knew her too well.

Taking up the space next to him, she did not look at his face as her eyes sought automatically down to the names engraved into the stone. Write something in sand and it would disappear with the harshness of wind or water. Write something in stone and it would last for eternity, no matter how many hardships it faced.

And there were so many faces to connect to the stone.

Tears were no longer part of her person. She had seen too much, learned too much, heard too much and felt too much to let even a single tear roll down from the corner of her eye. All in the space of five months, the war had hardened her, made her rock-hard and sharp around the edges. There were barely any memory left of things such as emotions. She had become a tool and tools do not cry. Because of this damned war she had lost many things precious to her. Her past, her present, even possibly her future, had all but gone in the drain. Everything was buried six feet under.

And yet...

Tomorrow was the day the outcome of this war would be decided. Rokudaime had advised them all to spend this night without regrets, without personal limits, to live their life truly to the fullest. In a way, that would ensure them a happy death. She had to admit, before the Hokage's speech, she had been uncaring of whether she died happily or not. It all came to them in the end, so what did it truly matter if she had but a shred of light in her heart or not? Death was the same to all people, shinobi or civilian, rich or poor, evil or good. There were no differences in the afterlife.

At least that had been what she had thought.

The Hokage had made her view it from a different angle. Even after all the cold shrugs and icy responses she had fed him, he was stubborn enough to still try and rub off his kindness and happy smiles as always. Especially when he realised her situation was not unique to her, that in fact almost every shinobi went to their battles with darkness and doubts in their hearts. So he set to change them all, which he did.

"Seize the night, seize the day, and receive with pleasure what life gives you. Let your heart rejoice this night, let the life be embraced totally without regrets. No thoughts of tomorrow. No thoughts of the future. Banish the stone walls around your hearts and cease to be tools for the night.

And most of all: let the light stream into the dark cavern of your hearts."

She hoped she was able to do it, if not for her sake then for the Hokage's. If there was one thing she hated, then it would be to let him down, to sit with guilt over not being able to carry out his "command". But she guessed it all came down to one thing; whether or not her intended partner was thinking along the same lines or not.

He could really be a cold-hearted perverted bastard most of the time.

They stood in complete silence, watching the never-fading names on the stone and the faces on the mountains. Six in total, the last one only half-finished as it had not been that long since the Rokudaime was chosen. Just before the war, in fact. He had been overjoyed when the Godaime had finally managed to convince the council who her successor would be when she retired about a year ago. Since then he had constantly done his best to gain the respect and love of the people in the village.

When the war began, people had still carried some of their grudges of old, but it had been thrown to the wind when he defeated the remaining Akatsuki members in the first battle. People loved him now, looked to him for hope even as their light diminished in their hearts. He had turned what would have been utter defeat into a five month long stance against the enemy. He had shown there could be light in the end of the tunnel, and that he would give his life for it without question.

Standing beneath the moonlight, gazing on memoirs of a past long gone, she felt the silence was starting to cooperate with the heavy push of the night, beginning to slowly suffocate her. Everyone else was probably already getting their comfort somewhere, with friends or lovers, whereas she was still too caught up in her past to think about the present. No thoughts about the future, not tonight, that she had promised during the Hokage's speech.

'Follow your heart to your greatest desire. Don't let tomorrow dictate your present. Live free.'

Those words had remained in her heart. Who had been the one to tell them? Not the Hokage, as his statement had been much subtler. Not the Pig—she would never be so considerate to her feelings. It had been…

Her eyes opened before she realised she had closed them. The moon seemed to have moved just a breath since she had come here, and yet it felt like an eternity. It always did in his presence nowadays. Him, the man standing beside her like he had no care in the world.

But the truth was that he did care, quite a lot actually, even more than he seemed to allow himself. She had noticed after their former team mate's defection. Especially the time said person had been killed in his fight with the then ANBU captain, now Rokudaime. He had cared quite much in those days, even opened himself to the remaining two to share their common grief. And knowing what had happened in his past, the events that made him pay homage to this particular memorial site every morning, she knew he still cared. No erected shields around his heart or blank expression would ever fool her again. She had seen and she would never forget. But for his sake, she would keep it secret, even if to her own mind.

The darkness of night was creeping over her again, the light of the moon diminishing as her thoughts were forced onto another topic, which unfortunately was tomorrow. She sighed lowly, hoping both that he had heard and not. She hated being weak and admitting she needed something, especially after she had grown used to being a heartless tool...just like him.

Gazing up at the moon, her heart constricted painfully beneath her skin as more scenarios rolled off into her mind of the possible outcomes and happenings of the impending battle. It was almost enough to wound up a treacherous tear (wow, the heart really took its liberty to the limit once she let it). However, no matter how much she tried to not think of it, the darkness only drew her closer and embraced her, sending cold shivers up and down her spine.

Her fists tightened as her eyes closed, letting herself be swallowed by the empty vastness.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a soft brush across her knuckles drove away all the darkness and left her once again on the grass-covered hill overlooking the Hokage statues, breathing a little heavily next to the man with silver hair. Her eyes were trained on the memorial, breath caught in her throat as the brush disappeared as soon as it had come. Nothing else met her skin, no follow-up on the tantalizing caress. Disappointment churned uncomfortably in her stomach.

Her heart clammed up again, but not without thumping sharply against the wall of her chest.

Turning around with every intent of leaving, she was shocked when a hand suddenly shot out and grasped around her upper arm firmly, drawing her back from the first step. Eyes swivelled around, only to meet…the profile of one silver-haired jounin staring down at the memorial. No, not staring, his visible eye had closed. But his grip did not relent, as if it had been instinct that drove his body to do this, and its message was clear.

Don't go.

And she found that she could not. Even if her life had depended on it, she could not leave this man alone in the night.

She opened her mouth to speak, only to have a tilt of his head pop his eye open to look down at her. No lazy smile, no indifferent expression, no trademark expressions at all. Only the bottomless blackness of his orb, drawing her into the depth she had not wallowed in before, not even during the most intimate moments while they were fighting.

Then another emotion entered his eye, his face, his entire body. Intensity so great the air was crackling with electricity. There was only one emotion connected to this type of intensity…and she suddenly realised who it had been to tell her to live free.

The walls crumbled immediately.

Before she knew it, a second hand had come and grasped her other arm firmly, with no hesitation in its actions as they drew her closer far too quickly to pull away. A fire sprung up in her belly, making her toes curl and her eyes blaze with a new spirit. Moving towards him in a moment far more intimate either of them had been in before, she remembered something. Something vital.

Even in the darkest and bloodiest of places, this man had made her feel alive, even if there was nothing in her mind at the time she could find to live for. Nothing except him.

There were no limits between them any longer, they had both acknowledged that fact long ago, but never acted upon it. But now, fuelled by the Hokage's suggestion and the path of darkness looming in front of them, they threw caution to the wind. No words were necessary; they both understood their bodies' call. No limits, no regrets, only pure passion—live freely.

They knew this might be their last night.

Owari? To be continued? (REVIEW!)
I've been writing fan fiction for years, but this is the first time I've done anything from the Naruto universe, so I hope it'll fit in when all the other outstanding stories will overshadow it... Kakashi and Sakura are decidedly my top favourite characters, and together they just kick ass and make quite the lovely couple! I've got great faith in this pairing, though I doubt the great Kishimoto Masashi will ever make them hook up...

In this story, Sakura's 25 while Kakashi's 39. I'd never make write her as underage in a love story, unless it was a infuatiation... Oh, and does anyone know when the legal age is in Naruto? I remember the episode with Naruto fighting Gaara/Shuukaku together with Gamabunta, where Naruto complains about the frog saying they hadn't drunk sake together and he's not 20 yet. For future references, I will assume that the legal age is 20...

I'd love to continue this little piece with three more chapters, but it depends a little on what feedback I get and how inspirational/creative I get. If my muse won't be cooperative, I'm sad to say there's not much to do about it... But I AM WORKING on them, as well as another KakaSaku story that might come out soon if I manage to finish the first three-four chapters... We'll just have to wait and see. :)