A/N: So I wrote a thing. It's my first KS fic and the longest fic I've ever written by far. It's beta'd only by me so there's probably something wrong in there somewhere. But yeah, I hope you enjoy it! It was getting stupid long for a one-shot so I split it into a couple parts and decided to just bite the bullet with this first bit.
The first time Sakura tasted a pomegranate she was a freshly minted genin and Kakashi was still the omnipotent leader of an awestruck young Team Seven. It was a flawless summer day on Konoha's training grounds and Kakashi, as per usual, was lazily watching the three run through their chakra control exercises. He sat under a particularly comfortable-looking tree, avidly reading a certain trashy novel and slowly working his way through a pomegranate, one seed at a time.
"Again, you two," he called in a bored voice to Naruto and Sasuke, who were starting to show their hours of exertion. Sakura, her chakra control already leaps and bounds beyond her teammates', ran over to the three Kakashi had situated himself under.
"You're dismissed for today," he said in a bored voice. "Want some?" Kakashi proffered a few seeds to his student, eyes still focused on the engrossing novel. He handed her a few precious arils and she bit down. As the sweet-tart-bitter taste filled her mouth Sakura couldn't hide the twist her mouth made in response, nor the blush that filled her cheeks and crept dangerously close to her pink roots, accelerated by her mounting embarrassment at her childish palate. But Kakashi just shrugged it off the way he seemed to with everything.
"Mah, there's more for me…"
By the time Sakura was sixteen, she had been promoted to chuunin under the capable tutelage of Senju Tsunade, and was poised to become tokubetsu-jounin. She had not yet lost her unyielding hope that her childhood love would return, and she had grown to care for Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi as their close friend and confidante. Every time Team Kakashi returned from a mission, she would host her boys and feed them their favorite foods in celebration of cheating death once again. Raspberry cheesecake and lemon tea for her, beef ramen for Naruto, coffee and noodles for Sai, and miso soup with eggplant and a pomegranate fresh from the market for Kakashi. Though she prepared all the other food, she left the pomegranate whole. A busy medic-nin barely had enough time to cook, let alone painstakingly break down the fruit into glistening seeds; whereas Kakashi seemed to have infinite time and patience for the task, peeling it piece by piece and eating one seed at a time, watching his grown students banter the night away.
After the war ended, word of Kakashi's incredible power and Sakura's miracles spread far and wide in the Five Great Nations – and all the others besides – and as mission partners, they became Konoha's two most in-demand ninja. Sakura, the last of her team to turn twenty after the war, was finally a full jounin, promoted for her feats during the war. Their first mission as a team of two came exactly two hours after Sakura received a messenger hawk with a missive signed by Morino Ibiki himself, inviting her to join ANBU. Sakura, good nin that she was, didn't let on to her partner at the gates her deep discomfort at being asked to use her medical knowledge for even more immoral purposes. She arrived two hours after their agreed-upon meeting time, just as Kakashi arrived from his visit to the cenotaph. They set out for Snow County at a determined pace, to her surprise, the younger nin kept pace with her team leader for the first time in her 6-year career. She followed him doggedly, sublimating her roiling anxiety and pride into a quickening pace.
Sakura didn't know how exactly she managed to carry Kakashi all the way back from Sound. All she remembered was the desperation that consumed her as she downed enemy after enemy with brutally efficient fists as her partner lay helpless under a nearby tree, Mangekyou dripping blood. She dumped him somewhat unceremoniously at the hospital and barely made it to her office's cot before she too passed out from chakra exhaustion. When she woke up almost a full day later, she found herself tucked under her blanket, with a glass of water on her bedside table. She laughed softly, appreciative of Shizune's attentive kindness and resolving to take a drunk Tsunade off the older woman's hands at the next village festival.
An icy realization filled Sakura as she sat on her tiny cot behind her desk – Shizune hadn't left a note regarding her partner's health. She leapt up, putting her white coat on in one fluid motion, and raced to the room Kakashi usually stayed in, when he could be convinced or sedated enough to stay. Panting, she ran into the room, lab coat flapping, and found the old bastard sleeping peacefully, blanket tucked firmly around his face. Though her first instinct was to yell at him for being so inconsiderate as to almost die on her, the relief she felt was so powerful that she found it enough just to sit by her teammate as he slept on.
After a few hours of keeping vigil by her partner's beside, Sakura grew restless and wandered off in search of something to do when he woke up, leaving a short note by his bedside informing him of both her survival and her whereabouts. After darting through Kakashi's window to fetch the rest of his Icha Icha collection and some fresh clothes – hospital stay essentials – Sakura made her way to the market, figuring that Kakashi's favorite fruit would cheer him up at least temporarily. Or at least make him stay put while he ate it.
When Sakura arrived with her bounty, she found Kakashi awake and looking vaguely uncomfortable as Tsunade hectored him for overreaching the Sharingan yet again. Upon hearing her protégé's footfalls, the Hokage stopped abruptly in her lecture and wheeled to face Sakura, hands on hips. The younger woman was unfazed, greeting her mentor with crossed arms. Tsunade's expression softened, taking Sakura off guard, and she began to leave the room.
"I've reassigned your shifts for the next three days so you can recover. Get some rest because I need you in good shape. I don't want any argument, and I don't want to see you set foot in this hospital unless you are right here."
Sakura was frozen for a moment in shock, as she had been expecting a fit of rage over her own negligence from her fiery mentor. The door to Kakashi's hospital room slammed shut and Sakura jumped, snapped out of her brief reverie by the sound.
It seemed that Kakashi had fallen back asleep, though Sakura detected a hint of color in his skin that hadn't been there before, undoubtedly the result of Tsunade's medical jutsu. Sakura had already made up her mind that she would spend the rest of the day with her mission partner, since the rest of her boys were out on missions of their own. She set about unpacking her knapsack, neatly stacking the precious books on Kakashi's bedside table. The fact that Sakura was allowed to touch them at all was a testament to exactly how much Kakashi trusted his medic.
The first time he had landed in the hospital after a mission with Sakura, Kakashi's first request to his teammate upon waking was for his beloved books. Sakura was so relieved they both survived that she went and retrieved the books without question. When she returned to Kakashi, books in hand, both of them started at the realization of what she'd just done. Kakashi dismissed it quickly, figuring that if he could trust her to put his vital organs back where they belonged, he could trust her with Icha Icha. Sakura, on the other hand, obsessed over the request for weeks, worrying about his clear lapse in sanity. Finally, after much deliberation, she decided to let it go and not push her luck by touching them ever ever again.
Sakura pulled two heavy, ruby-red pomegranates out of her backpack with one hand and drew out a thick medical journal with the other. She placed the fruit gently by the books, stretched her back, and settled as best she could into the uncomfortable plastic hospital chair. After one article she, known for her deep concentration, was reading and re-reading the same sentence without any comprehension.
With a sigh and a snap, Sakura closed her journal and stuffed it back in her backpack. Kakashi continued to sleep, his unconsciousness filling Sakura with nervous energy that she attempted to dissipate by violently tapping her toes. When this didn't suffice, she alternated between jumping up to pace the small room and shifting ceaselessly in her seat. Midway through getting up, her eyes fell on to the pomegranates on the end table and she impulsively grabbed one. Kakashi's eye cracked open at the subtle bitted smell and quiet sound of the fruit's skin ripping open. Sakura cocked an eyebrow at him and continued to methodically pull the tough skin away from the delicate interior. He continued to watch her as she peeled. She broke the seeds from their thin membrane a few at a time, wordlessly handing them to Kakashi, who ate them gratefully, his back turned to Sakura.
After creating a pile of debris, Sakura reached the last chunk of seeds in the fruit and hesitated a moment in handing Kakashi a piece, opting instead to eat it herself. Sakura's mouth puckered involuntarily and Kakashi, masked again, gave a quiet laugh. She handed him the last of the seeds with a wry smile. Their hands brushed briefly and though Kakashi remained stoic, Sakura's face and neck dusted lightly with pink and she hurriedly busied herself with closing her knapsack and brushing invisible dirt off her skirt. She left in a hurry, leaving a slightly bewildered Kakashi with a pile of pomegranate skin and no companion. Sakura spent the last two days of her leave downing trees on the training field and aggressively shopping with Ino, all in a futile attempt to get Kakashi's touch - and the spark of electricity that had jolted her - out of her head. Kakashi, meanwhile, lay in bed and tried – unsuccessfully – to not obsess by reading and re-reading Icha Icha.