Disclaimer: I do not ownNaruto - Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei. I do own the plotline of this story.
Author's Note: Voilà! My first KakaSaku, or at least the first Im posting. Just this evening I got a sudden flash of inspiration and I wrote this in less than half an hour. Then I spent two hours editing errors and mistakes, adding scenes and delting sentances, and here it is. I'm quite proud of this piece, so if you would be so kind as to leave a review and tell me what you thought was good, bad, outstandingly subtle and horribly obvious. I need an outsiders opinion. Please note that since my loyal Beta-reader Hannah is on a school trip and not allowed any from of communicatin with the outside world while she is away, this was only edited by me and my brother also passed a brief glance through it though I don't suppose he's very much trustworthy. Still, I cannot wait for Hannah to return to the world of the living. Anyhow, please let me know what you think. Flames will be used as kitty litter.
Read and Review, Onegai!
-xx- Nika
They were never ment to be.
That's what Neji would say. It wasn't his call to judge upon their destiny though, their fate. And even if it had been the Hyuuga's place and he would've had something to say about it, they would not have told him. It was not his business.
It started on September the Fifth, the day that the body of the once great Godaime was buried underneath the face of Konoha's great cliffside. The only woman of the Sannin had diminished. In time, even her image on the mountain side would fade away and leave nothing but memories. However, she had been the first Hokage of the Fire Country to die a natural death of old age, for though she hid her true appearance, the life renewal justu had taken it's toll and shortened her life considerably. She had just barely hit the age of sixty when she collapsed without any apparent reason at all. the medic-nin to save her life had been Haruno Sakura, though the girl failed to bring her former teacher back among the living. She suffered great trauma, and blamed herself for letting go, for running out of power, for not having enough damned strength.
The pink-haired girl, only nineteen when placed such great a regret on her shoulders, did not attend the funeral. People found her absence worrying and even rude, for it had been her leader and her personal teacher. She especially should have been there!
Many people, ninja and villagers, visited the gravesite the first months after Tsunade-sama's death and they left huge bouquets of flowers there to pay a final honour. Years later, the only ones who still visited regularly were the only other Konoha-loyal Sannin alive, Jiraiya, and his former young apprentice, Naruto. Especially the young blonde was often seen at her tomb, mumbling to himself. He never sticked around long though.
Sakura refused to visit the burial site, but she was often seen staring up at the face of the mountain when she crossed Konoha's mainstreet on her way to work at the hospital, focussing on one sturdy face in particular.
What not many people knew was that she had instead of attending to the funeral, been at the ancient monumental stone that night.
The both of them had wondered why no one connected the dots, and why no one had noticed that they had both been absent at the Fifth's funeral. But then again; they were ninja's. They were supposed to be good at covering up their tracks, after all.
She never asked him who he was there to remember. The clearing which held the stone was of old a place to remember, reminisce, and recall. Somedays there was a happy air about it, but usually a slightly depressing feeling overcame the visitors of the memorial. She never wondered why he had been there - he could have his reasons without her knowing. She wasn't foolish enough to believe he had come for her, to comfort her, eventhough that was how the evening had turned out. She had no reason to believe so; many names upon the marble surface were thos of his precious people.
His mother, killed in the line of duty. His father, robbed of life on a suicide mission. His best friend, who died a painful death to save him. His teacher, sacrificing himself honourfully for their home.
She needed comfort. He could give it to her. She needed a helping hand. He could lend it to her. She needed a sanctuary. He would be it.
Even before the... complications of their relationship, she had admired him. He was strong, he was gentle, he was kind yet harsh and ruthless if he had to be. He was always there to save her, Naruto or Sasuke back in their Genin days when the four of them were still merrily together, joint as Team Seven.
Back then there had been no feelings she held for him but a light companionship; they were a team, he was her teacher and he was there to guide her through hardships and the general complications of ninja life until she could handle herself without needing any aid.
However, she needed his aid that night. Maybe it was the fact that he was there, when all the other guys she had ever been romantically involved with were not. Sasuke-kun had been spoilt, rotten from the inside with the dark shadow of power Orochimaru promised him. Two years after his departure, she had slowly fallen for Nara Shikamaru unconciously, but then again she had always imagined him to end up with Ino so she dared not interfere with what was just about beginning to take shape between those two back then.
Neither had been there for her when she needed them the most, and even Naruto had not taken a seat beside her, though she knew it was only because he felt obligated to attend the cerimony. Kakashi was there when she needed someone, anyone to cling on to.
And so she clinged.
It took long for the both of them to acknowledge the fact that they had fallen in love. Kakashi sturggled with the moral issues, for she had been his student once long ago and he felt somewhat of a child molestor if he touched her. Though she quickly talked him out of his doubts every time they arose, the older man still felt not completely comfortable with the age differance. He felt too old, and he had decided she deserved better, she deserved a man that would at least outlive her, she deserved better than the scarred and dishevelled person he was inside. But Sakura did not hesitate to convince him of the fact she was not at all like the ignorant and shallow little girl she had once been. She was a young woman now.
Her doubts weren't so much doubts, but more of insecurities, for she did not worry abour age differance or any sort of those matters. She feared she'd not be able to give him the kind of love he needed; as her heart had been betrayed too many a time to have healed fully by the time they reached awareness of the feelings underneath the surface. She was the one who worried the most, yet she was also the one to convince Kakashi to give them a shot,
and the one to first initiate romantical behavior.
Their first kiss at the memorial clearing was an akward one. She had leaned up towards him from lying in his arms and enjoying his warmth, softly pressing her lips to his. He had pulled away jerkily, but before Sakura had the chance to apologize for acting so rashly, he was already pulling her back into another kiss, smothering her lips with such force she could do nothing but submiss.
Kakashi never realised how much she'd meant to him already, even in their days as Team Seven, and she had never realised how much more he was than just a guide, a guardian. The both of them chose to have their relationship remain a secret though. Why?
Because there really wasn't supposed to be any sort of relationship. And so no one found out.
Once the Byakugan master had revealed suspicions about the secret couple's sudden appearances together when they really hadn't been all that close for quite a while, though always remaining on excellent terms with eachother. The following weeks she refused to meet him anywhere but at their old training ground where no one ever came since hardly any people knew the way there, and only when their remaining teammate Naruto was out of town. The whispers eased down afterwards, though they remained cautious.
Once, the always cheerfull Gai had badgered up to his apartment door when Sakura was showering right in his very bathroom, proclaiming that his dear rival needed a fine woman to marry instead of wilting away in loneliness and wasting away his youth. After offering to introduce his silver-haired sort-of-friend to a nice marriage candidate, Kakashi had personally chased the spendex-clad man for miles. Gai also received a nasty punch from Sakura the next day when she ran into the man in town, although he never discovered the reason for her actions.
Not long after that day, Sakura was sent on a 'kunoichi mission' to gather informations on the remnants of Akatsuki, of which all but one member had been killed by Konoha and Sand's joint legions years before. It was on that mission she found out her once beloved Sasuke-kun was no more; he had died in the last desperate attempt to kill his brother, the last living family-member he had, and also the last Akatsuki member to their knowledge. Knowing Uchiha Itachi was deadly injured, she sacrificed her own life to deliver the deadly blow her former teammate had not been able to deal. She bought it with her life, and though she died alone without any kind of last words ('cept for her silent whisper of "I love you, Kakashi..." which was the first and last time she openly proclaimed her love - He never knew for sure if she cared for him as much as he did for her), Sakura was aware that she had destroyed the last threath there was to her village, her friends, for Orochimaru had fallen victim of his own mis-used techniques years before.
Kakashi spent hours by the memorial stone, and he was there when Naruto carved the name of his teammate in the black marble. Sasuke's name was added also, because eventhough he had betrayed the village, the Sixth could not leave him unnamed as he had been of great service to them all, consious or not. Sakura was burried next to her former teacher, the first 'normal' ninja to ever be burried side by side with the great Kages. Uchiha Sasuke's remnants were lowered into the earth at the gravesite by the old Uchiha estate. Some of the eldars of the Hyuuga clan were fiercely against the burial of a traitor in their town, but their complaints were not heard by the Hokage or the council.
They were truly never ment to be, Hyuuga Neji would have said. But it was not his, not anybody else's business. And when Kakashi left Konoha without a trace the night after her body was buried under the face of the mountain, no Anbu squad was sent to follow him. Naruto knew his old sensei would never be seen again, and one night after a horribly realistic dream he knew it was over. The next morning he sprinted towards the dew-kissed clearing holding the memorial with a kunai firmly clasped in his hand, fully aware he was the only one remaning of their once glorious team.
They were never ment to be.
Click on the pretty button, come on!