Reciprocate

A/N: This will be a two part story. I will add the second part when I finish writing it. Enjoy the first part.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Reciprocate:

1. To give or get reciprocally.

2. To do or feel in return.

There was a strange noise coming from training area three.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

As Kakashi walked near the training area he paused to listen to it. Being a ninja for so many years had left Kakashi with unusually sharp senses and an ability to distinguish between nearly identical sounds. This particular noise which he was listening to was not very unusual to hear in the training grounds. It was the sound of three kunai hitting a wooden post. What was unusual about the sound, and what caught Kakashi's attention was the force with which the kunai were being thrown at the wood.

He paused in his walking and listened more closely to the sound. After listening to the kunai hit the tall blocks of wood one more time, he was almost certain that the thrower of the kunai was his own student Sakura. After silently walking forward another few steps, his guess proved to be correct as he caught sight of her pink hair.

Sakura had not seen him yet and he carefully pondered if he should go talk to her. The unnecessary force with which the kunai were being thrown told him Sakura was very angry. Or maybe unhappy. Kakashi could easily distinguish small differences in sounds, but distinguishing small differences in emotions was not his strong point.

Kakashi studied the set of her shoulders to try to more precisely determine her current mood. This did not help him at all since Sakura was throwing the kunai so fast and with such fury that she hardly remained still.

Kakashi thought about this. There had not been any recent attacks or deaths in the village, so whatever Sakura was worked up about, it was probably a personal problem. The workings of a teenage girl's mind had never been fully understandable to Kakashi, and Sakura was no exception. It was not that he did not want to talk to her, he just never seemed to understand her. Quickly deciding that he would be no help to her he turned to walk away, but just as he was leaving he heard a loud voice call out.

Both he and Sakura turned in the direction of the voice. It was Naruto.

"Hey!" exclaimed Naruto, "There you are Kakashi!; I've been looking all over for you." Naruto ran up to Kakashi and noticed that Sakura was standing nearby. "Heyyyy" he said, drawing the word out with suspicion "Have you been training one on one with Sakura? Is that why you're late for practice today?" Naruto scowled, pointed a finger at Kakashi and said "That isn't fair! If Sakura gets one on one training, then the rest of us should get special training too, believe it!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes at Naruto's assumption and was about to respond to him, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by Sakura.

"Naruto!!" Sakura screamed, "Why do you always show up at the worst times?"

Naruto was taken aback by Sakura's unusually angry tone. "Sakura-chan…" he started to say. He did not get any further than that before Sakura threw one of the three kunai she was holding at him.

Kakashi had been expecting her to do something like this since she was so angry (or maybe upset?) and was ready for the kunai when it went sailing towards Naruto. With a movement so fast it could not be seen, Kakashi plucked the weapon out of midair, and turned to stop Sakura from attacking Naruto.

"Naruto" Kakashi called over his shoulder as he restrained the struggling Sakura, "Go and wait for me at training area seven."

"We were supposed to meet in training area eight." Naruto countered.

"Err… yeah that one" Kakashi said.

Naruto gave him a suspicious look, but ran off anyway.

Kakashi regarded the girl he was restraining thoughtfully. There was no getting out of talking to her now; he would just have to do his best to find out what was bothering her, even though delving into other people's problems was not his thing.

He let go her and cautiously asked if everything was alright. The only response he got from her was an icy stare.

"Sakura…" he said and allowed just a hint of his irritation to show, "I can't have you fighting with your teammates." He softened his tone slightly and added "If anything is bothering you I would like to help."

She continued her icy stare in his direction so Kakashi decided to try something else. He had read somewhere that females responded well to light touches. Time to test out that theory.

He slowly extended one hand and let it lightly rest on her cheek. "Please Sakura, I really do want to help you if anything is wrong."

When his hand touched her face, she seemed to be startled. She put her own hand on Kakashi's as if she could not believe it was there.

It was Kakashi's turn to be startled as the next thing Sakura did was let out a moan of despair and threw her arms around Kakashi's waist. After Kakashi got over his initial moment of surprise, he lightly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and asked "Sakura?" She started to talk hesitantly to him, punctuated by the occasional sniffle or sob.

Later, when Kakashi tried to remember what it was Sakura had told him was bothering her, he found he could not remember exactly what she had told him. What he did remember about their conversation was the last part.

After she had finished pouring out her troubles to Kakashi, she had let go of him, smiled and said "Thanks Kakashi sensei that was exactly what I needed."

He had smiled at her and said "You're quite welcome Sakura. Are you ready to start training now?"

Her response was a cheerful "Yep!" and she ran off to join her teammates.

Maybe, thought Kakashi, Sakura was not as hard to understand as he thought.