The sun was beating down on his neck as Kakashi watched Sakura cross the street. He hadn't seen her since Naruto told him about the accident a year ago. The news hit closer to home than he would have liked, causing Kakashi to ask for mission after mission, ensuring that he was never in Konoha. He had hardly slept in his bed for more than seven days this past year.
If he was to be completely honest, a little part of himself expected Sakura to seek him out, looking for advice like she always used to. And, while he was still being honest, a little part of him was upset that she didn't. But things are different now; he had to remind himself of that. Things are not even remotely similar to how they were before.
The hash conditions of his highly classed missions weathered his skin. Kakashi, the infamous Copy Nin was beginning to look his age. His hair was messy and unkempt and, if you could see past the bright orange Icha Icha volume that was constantly in front of his face, a dark circle was visible underneath his uncovered eye. His skin was paler than normal and, not for the first time in his life, Kakashi was lonely. No, time had not treated him well.
The kunoichi crossing the street before him, however, had never looked better. Her pink hair fell down her back in soft curls and her shoulders were unscarred and sun-kissed. Although he could only see her from behind, it was without a doubt Sakura and, judging by what she was wearing, she was headed to the training grounds. Deeming it a good time for a reunion, Kakashi followed her.
She'll be happy to see me, he thought to himself. It's been a long time.
As he entered the clearing he noticed she had stopped in her tracks and was clenching her fists at her sides.
"Yo."
"What do you want?" she growled out.
"It's nice to see that you still train," he said, ignoring her previous question.
"Why wouldn't I?" she snapped.
"It's just… I heard about your injury. The one you got a year ago. I assumed you would have been removed from Jounin status."
"You assumed wrong."
As she reached for some kunai in the pouch on her thigh, Kakashi saw the black swirls that had been permanently drawn on her smooth skin.
"ANBU?" he asked, clearly shocked. He knew for a fact that they did not admit Shinobi with disabilities. Their line of work is too dangerous to allow it. It was sad that she had to lose the honor and the title due to something that was an accident.
"Don't sound so floored," she said, turning to him fully for the first time in over a year. Her face had thinned out, her cheek bones more prominent. The smile that used to be ever-present on her face was replaced by a sneer that did not fit her features. Most noticeable, however, was the pink eye patch that adorned her left eye. She had lost it on that mission.
"Sakura," he began, "Sakura, I'm so sorry. I wish I was there to stop you from losing…"
"From losing what?" she snapped. She was beginning to lose patience with this man that she had once called family, with the man who had abandoned her when she needed him most.
"Your, you know," he said, motioning to his eye.
She looked at him as if he were an idiot.
Of course she wouldn't want to talk about it, he scolded himself. Smooth, Kakashi.
She turned away from him without giving a reply, instead opting for throwing a kunai at the target on a tree a good distance away. Bulls eye. As she continued to practice, he stood there, watching, all while fiddling with a kunai Sasuke had given him as a thank you gift for years of training. Engraved on the handle was the one word, 'Family.' While it was strangely unlike him to throw around that word, Sasuke had meant it. Both he and Kakashi had the Sharingan, the Chidori, and no true family members. They only had each other and the rest of Team 7.
"May I," he cleared his throat, "may I see it?"
"See what?"
"You. Without the eye patch." He felt awkward asking this of her, but he felt it needed to be done. By seeing her empty socket, he somehow thought he would come to terms with the situation. With everything he had been running from the past year.
"You have your own face. Look in the mirror," she replied.
He was a bit confused, and it must have shown on his face. As crazy as it sounds, Kakashi sort of wanted to see how his eye would have looked had Obito not given him his Sharingan.
Sakura's shoulders slumped. She must have known he would have wanted to see it. She relented.
"Only once," she clarified. "I don't like taking it off when I don't have to."
If the situation weren't so serious, he would have laughed to himself. He doubted she ever needed to take it off. And so he watched. Her fingers hooked underneath the straps that held the pink fabric to her face. Her eyelid was closed and Kakashi noted that she, too, had a scar running across her face. Sakura opened her eye.
A Sharingan stared back at him. Red and black, just like his.
The shock must have shown on his face because Sakura hastily replaced the eye patch.
He swallowed loudly. "How come… How come I didn't know he gave it to you?"
"You never came to his funeral," she answered bluntly. "Naruto waited all day and all night for you. You never came. So he waited for you by the memorial. You never came. I was still in the hospital on the day of Sasuke's funeral. You never came. Why is that?"
Kakashi fished for words he knew he would not find. Sakura continued to speak, as if she never expected him to answer.
"I already know. You never forgave him for saving me. You never forgave me for not being able to heal him. You probably never will."
Sakura pulled her kunai out of the tree bark and placed them back in her pouch.
"That's where you I are startlingly similar, Hatake-san," she said formally. The honorific hurt him more than he expected it to. "I don't know if I could ever forgive you for leaving Naruto and I the way you did."
Kakashi was silent. He didn't know what to say.
"Good bye, Hatake-san." Sakura turned and walked away, the way she slouched oddly reminiscent of a certain Uchiha.
"Sakura," he called. "Do you think…" things could have turned out differently had I not left? The unspoken words hung thickly in the air.
"Hn." She didn't even bother to turn around.
It was a bit odd, he thought to himself, that Sakura would end up with a personality similar to the one Sasuke had during his short lifetime. She always seemed to hate the way it made him seem so icy.
Thinking back on the past year and toying with his engraved kunai, Kakashi realized that everyone handles their own grief in their own way. Watching the retreating form of his former student, the Copy Nin could only wish that he had handled his differently.
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