Summary: Sakura left her parents' house on a bluff. Suddenly homeless, she takes shelter in the abandoned Uchiha compound…

The Room

1. Now What?

She'd finally done it, and she'd never felt better. Sakura Haruno had finally sat down and told her parents that she wouldn't spend another night under their roof. She'd done it calmly, like an adult, explained in straight terms why, exactly, she needed to move out. They had smiled and nodded and listened politely, and her mother had even told her that they understood! Clearly, though, they hadn't; had they been half so patient, treated her with half as much respect as they'd treated her during their conversation, she wouldn't be moving out.

It was true that teenage girls and their parents were prone to fights. However, when those teenagers happened to be fully trained ninja, and those parents were civilians, there were definitely more fights than the norm. Ninjas followed a different set of rules than civilians, and often the two sets of values clashed. By ninja standards, for instance, she'd been a legal adult since she'd received her forehead protector. By civilian standards, she belonged to her parents until age eighteen. This particular small difference had been the basis of many of their worst conflicts.

When she came home wearing her brand new protector, she'd gotten congratulations, warm smiles, and so on from both her parents. However, to her parents, that protector was a piece of metal on a headband, not a symbol. They didn't understand that the protector was the difference between a girl and a woman, the physical evidence that her village had deemed her worthy of protecting it. Sakura hadn't really expected anything more.

And so, when they continued to treat her as they always had, she smiled and bore it, both sides unaware that there was a deep-seated frustration slowly building. Oh, she knew it could be worse. She preferred over-protective parents to no parents at all. Still, hanging out with her team at night, forced to leave just as things started to get interesting because she had to make her nine o'clock curfew… it got very old, very quickly. By the time she was fourteen, she found herself snapping at her friends for no reason, angry over the smallest things. Despite being the "brain" of her team, it'd taken her another two years to realize that maybe the real problem was at home.

She was a little bothered that her parents hadn't really put up a fight, that neither of them had done more than nod along as she spoke. She'd prepared for violent outbursts, for cries of indignation, for promises of an improved living situation… It wasn't till she stood on the street, knapsack in hand, that she realized she'd been expecting it, that she'd wanted them to offer her a compromise of some kind. She didn't want to be out on her own. She was only sixteen! Wistfully, she glanced back at her home. They would welcome her back like they always did.

…and then give her the dreaded nine o'clock curfew, only very reluctantly making exceptions for missions. She'd finally made some progress. They had treated her like a responsible adult while she spoke of leaving. To return now would be to prove that they were right, that she really was just a child.

Her resolve hardened, she turned back to the street.

*

The first night was the easiest, if not the most comfortable. She slept outside near the training grounds. Thanks to many long missions over the years, it was at least bearable. Conveniently, she even forgot that she was voluntarily homeless. The only hitch in the whole thing was when Team Gai showed up at the youthful hour of four in the morning. She almost screamed when she woke up to Lee's curious prodding.

"What are you doing here, my beautiful blossom?" he asked curious. Behind him, Neji watched her quietly, while Tenten used the distraction as an excuse to lean against a tree and doze off inconspicuously.

"I…" she searched for an excuse. She didn't want to tell Lee she wasn't going home, because then he would no doubt offer his couch, or perhaps his bed, indefinitely. Lee wouldn't have been so bad, either… if he hadn't started living with Gai at age fourteen. She reached for something he wouldn't question, something he would understand. "It was training!"

"Training?"

"Yes. I was practicing sleeping outdoors, so that the next time I am on a long mission, I am… better at it?" The last part wasn't meant to come out as a question. Lee accepted it regardless.

"Ah! I see!" cried Lee, and before he could continue, his green master cut in just as vibrantly. "The idea is ingenious! Such training would benefit my team greatly!" He turned to his trio of students. "Tonight, we shall sleep here, beneath the stars!"

There were no groans of protest, perhaps because Lee was much too excited, Neji much too controlled, and Tenten much too asleep. Sakura did her best to ignore them as she lurched to her feet to find herself a decent spot to catch a few hours more sleep.

It was then that Lee, helpful as he was, called out, "Gai-sensei, may Sakura train with us today?"

"Of course!" exclaimed Gai. "Such a youthful flower is always welcome to train with us!"

It was on that morning that Sakura learned the true meaning of "hell."

That evening, instead of taking her ritual hot bath (the best cure for a painful workout), Sakura found herself an especially secluded tree and draped herself over its branches, as high up as she could possibly manage without breaking anything. She was asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.

After a night spent contorted in an odd shape to fit the branches, she would, under normal circumstances, have been stiff. After a workout with Gai, she would, under normal circumstances, have been sore. The combination of the two left her unable to move. She did eventually manage to get up, but only after she remembered that she'd promised to meet Tsunade for training that day.

Between the agony in her tired muscles, the tiny headaches behind her eyes from too little sleep, and the inability to really move properly, it was so obvious to Tsunade that something was amiss, she commented on it. As soon as Sakura confessed that she'd been conned into working out with Gai and his team, the woman's expression had softened. She made Sakura promise to go over extra drills once she was a little less tender to make up for the missed session, and prescribed a long, slow jog.

"And everything else is fine?" the older woman called after Sakura as the girl started running.

"Of course!" No doubt Tsunade already knew that Sakura was on her own but didn't want to say anything. She affirmed this when she said, "No training till next week. I'm going to be busy with that delegation from Sand."

Sakura smiled and nodded. She couldn't tell Tsunade of her circumstances. Though she knew that Tsunade would take her on in an instant, the Hokage was the last person in the world she wanted to bother with her living situation. The woman had more than enough to deal with as it was.

And so it was that the third night found her hesitating before a heavy brown door, her eyes searching for an apartment number that had probably been worn off years ago. She knocked once, tentatively, then again. Hopefully, she'd gotten the address right.

There was no answer, so she waited a few moments and knocked again. After repeating the gesture two more times, a bleary-eyed stranger opened the door. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Kakashi Hatake," she said, surprised at how calm her voice sounded.

The man gave her a critical look and pointed behind her. "Wrong side. He's right there."

"Thanks," she tried to say, but the man had already shut the door in her face.

Nervous, she knocked on the correct door and was rewarded when her former teacher opened it. He looked a little surprised to see her, but he recovered quickly.

"Hi," she said.

"How did you…"

"I'm the Hokage's student. I have access to personnel records, among other things."

There was a silence.

"I heard you left home," he commented lazily, looking straight at her with his eye. He already knew exactly why she was here.

"Yeah," she said. "In my enthusiasm, I forgot to find another place, and…"

"You'd like to stay here?" he finished.

She nodded. This was awkward. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, too…

"I'll clear a spot on the couch."

And just like that, she had something soft to sleep on. Too bad she didn't catch the bit about "clearing" a spot until she walked into the apartment and saw Kakashi literally moving piles of crap from his couch to his overcrowded floor. He then proceeded to shuffle through the mountains of filth in search of a blanket that he knew was "here somewhere." He didn't have an extra pillow; she assured him it was fine.

She was too tired to really care about her surroundings. She was warm, the couch was soft… it was a welcome change.

The night was over too quickly. She woke early, fresher than she'd been since leaving home and thoroughly relaxed. Really, she hoped that she could stay here for a while. Finding her own place could take a…

Had the place looked like a disaster area when she'd stumbled in the night before? She stared in horror as the early morning light illuminated things better left hidden: half-empty bowls of festering ramen, bloody, filthy clothes, Icha-Icha books strewn carelessly across the floor. There was a pair of boxers hanging from the tall lamp at one end of the room; she could only hope they were clean. Mountains of bowls were stacked on the floor, leaning crazily to one side or another. What carpet could be seen was stained with substances she didn't want to analyze.

She checked the time. It was still early; since Tsunade had given her the week off, she didn't have anywhere to be until that afternoon, which she'd promised to Naruto. Though the previous night she'd planned to use this time for training, the apartment was definitely more than filthy enough to qualify as an excuse for a break. Besides, she was still sore from Gai's training.

And so Sakura stood up and began to tackle the daunting task ahead of her.

To start, she sorted things into three piles: absolutely filthy, beyond saving, and Icha-Icha. By the time Kakashi emerged from his room half an hour later, still wearing his trademark mask, she'd cleared a path through the mess.

"I'll be right back," he said as he eyed her handiwork.

He vanished out the door without breakfast (she'd bring that up with him later, breakfast is the most important meal, after all), leaving her to her work. She didn't mind; he was letting her stay, after all.

It was two hours before he returned, a bag of takeout in one hand and a shiny new key in the other. He handed it to her wordlessly, all the while studying the nine giant black garbage bags that had sprung up out of nowhere. Before going into his room, he picked an Icha-Icha book from the top of her pile and waved casually. Apparently, the Copy Nin also had the day off.

As soon as he was gone, Sakura studied the key with a smile. At least she didn't have to worry about a place to stay anymore; he'd made it clear enough that she was more than welcome here. It wasn't like she was just sitting around doing nothing, either. She could keep the place clean, since he didn't seem inclined to. Hell, had she known that her former teacher was living in such filth, she would've done this years ago. Maybe.

By mid-afternoon, she had scrubbed her way to exhaustion. She was a half-hour late to her meeting with Naruto. When the boy confronted her about her tardiness, though, she only smiled. Already, she was picking up on her teacher's bad habits.

*

In the darkness, her eyes shot open. There was something here, a great beast of some sort. She could hear its deep rumbling growl. It had started quietly, so quietly it could be ignored, but the beast had slowly, surely grown bolder as the night wore on and now… now it was too loud to be denied. Perhaps… one of Kakashi's dogs? No. She'd seen them all. Not one of them could make such a sound. Silently, so the predator wouldn't know it had woken her, she slipped a kunai into her hand and searched it out.

This, she noted, would've been much easier if she could see a thing in the darkness.

Slowly, she made her way through the apartment; the kitchen was clean, the living room was clean. She checked the bathroom, and aside from an unpleasant odor, it too was clean. Then what…

Sakura's eyes fell on Kakashi's bedroom door, outlined in moonlight. The beast was attacking her host! Lightning fast, she rushed to the door, threw it open silently with a fluid movement, and readied her kunai. It was in that moment that she discovered two things that no student (even a former one) ever needs to know about her teacher: he snored an inhuman snore, and he kicked during his sleep. Not a problem normally, but because he'd kicked off most of his blankets tonight, she could see that he was not a fan of pajamas. Or underwear. Both of these things she could see very, very clearly, thanks to the moonlight shining through his wide open window. Ironically, he still wore that damn mask.

Thankfully, he continued snoring ignorantly. Rather than give him a chance to wake up, she very, very delicately returned to her couch, careful to close the door behind her. Even knowing that it was Kakashi snoring behind that door and nothing really dangerous, she couldn't seem to close her eyes. Also, the more she thought about it, the less sure she was that he'd been as completely unconscious as he'd seemed during her late-night adventure. That would make for a very, very awkward conversation in the morning…

At some point she must have fallen asleep, because she remembered waking up to the sound of Kakashi shuffling around in the kitchen. "Did I wake you?"

She shook her head in response. "I need to get up anyway. There's training to be done!" She tried to sound cheerful. She wasn't going to blame him for her lack of sleep, no matter how loudly he'd been snoring. He was generously letting her stay with him, she was most definitely grateful, and a little bit of snoring wasn't anything to be concerned about. She could get used to it. Maybe she'd even learn to love it.

Three days later, she realized that she could no longer live with Kakashi. Sure, she might get used to it eventually, but she couldn't afford the months and months of absolute exhaustion it would require. She needed a full night's sleep, and she needed it immediately.

It was as she lay on the couch that night, staring at the ceiling while trying to ignore Kakashi's snores, that the idea came to her. Perhaps it was the result of too-little sleep, but suddenly she remembered a day when Sasuke had been late to training. She and Naruto had gone off in search of him, and found themselves at the Uchiha compound, which had been nearly abandoned since the massacre. "Nearly" abandoned because Sasuke had insisted on living there, but now that Sasuke was gone…

The place was as eerie as she remembered, as though the souls of all those dead Uchiha remained to haunt the compound. Ninja weren't common thieves, but they weren't saints, either. It was a tribute to the Uchiha legacy that the sprawling home remained untouched. Would-be looters steered clear, perhaps for fear that the mighty Uchiha would return from the grave for vengeance. Once all the corpses had been buried, the blood scrubbed from the walls and floors, the place had been essentially devoid of life.

She didn't realize how tense she was until there was a sudden yowling screech and two cats raced across her vision. Her heart was beating too fast, her breath quick and shallow.

"Calm down, Sakura. You're being ridiculous. You know there's no one here."

'Yeah,' added inner Sakura casually. 'They're all smart enough to stay away.'

Yet she continued to put one foot in front of the other. If she went back to Kakashi, she'd be giving up her sleep; if she went home, she'd be giving up her pride. If she went here, though, there would be no sacrifices. All she had to do was put up with the eerie atmosphere…

She wandered among the buildings, wondering which one to stay in. The compound was built like a maze, slowly drawing her deeper and deeper, towards its heart. Sasuke, she remembered, had lived in the flat building that wrapped around the open training ground at the compound's center. When she'd pressured him about it, he'd commented that this was where the main family stayed, with the various branches living further and further away, depending on their relative importance. Standing before the building that he'd lived in, she wondered if she'd be defacing it by sleeping there.

Ignoring the shiver that moved down her spine, Sakura opened the door. It was unlocked; the Uchiha had no need of locks. During their heyday, none had entered the compound without an invitation. Even the Hokage had been wary of the clan.

Tentatively, she peered inside the building. It was dusty, but otherwise clean. The floors were deep brown hardwood, polished smooth. The walls were mostly bare, the house mostly empty. What few furnishings she could find were elegant, but clearly well-made. She didn't like it; it felt empty and barren. This place… she couldn't stay here.

Still, she remained reluctant to leave, and found herself meandering through empty hallways. The bedrooms were as sparse as the rest of the house. There was no personality to any of them. It was true that they'd not been lived in for years; still, she imagined that nothing had changed since their original inhabitants had passed on.

Finally, after a twenty-minute search, she found what she hadn't realized she sought: Sasuke's room. She'd never seen it before, but she knew that it had to be his. Of the entire compound, it was the only one that had any kind of decoration. There were two paintings on the wall, not by some great master like all the other paintings in the house. These were the handiwork of the room's inhabitant. She could tell by the signature, which clearly read "Uchiha," though the first name was illegible.

Such a discovery counted for little by normal standards, but for an Uchiha? Definitely unusual, like her Sasuke. She'd hardly known him before the massacre (they'd only really been on speaking terms since being assigned to the same team), but she'd always pictured him to have a sensitive soul. He had been a poet, an artist, before his brother's betrayal had driven him on his quest for revenge. Naturally, she'd never seen evidence of this side until now.

Without noticing, she'd drawn closer to the paintings. They were both landscapes; one was a fiery representation of a sunset over an empty field and the other a lonely cherry-blossom tree, twisted and withered as it struggled to grow in a rocky crevice. The paintings were perhaps lacking in terms of technique, but Sasuke more than compensated with his careful attention to every detail.

There were more paintings in the closet. These were less empty than the two on the walls. Some brimmed with life, so full of things to see that every time she looked again there was something new to be discovered. Most of these, though, looked older than the bleak landscapes; she could tell by the way that Sasuke's already rough technique seemed even less practiced, the colors less well-blended. His palette grew bleaker as well; by the time he painted some of the most recent images, green and yellows had faded from his paintings entirely, and all of the other colors had become so de-saturated that they were almost grays. The sunset was the single exception to this rule.

Sakura spread out the paintings, leaning them against the wall and eying her handiwork. All told, there were a little more than a dozen. This would do. She could stay in this room. It was quiet here, peaceful, lacking the deadness of the rest of the compound.

That night, she couldn't help but shiver with delight at the fact that she was doing something so intimate as sleeping in Sasuke's bed. She fell asleep smiling. Finally, she had a place to stay, a place she could claim as her own (if only until Sasuke returned). If only her parents could see her now.

Perhaps it was the fact that her routine had just radically changed; perhaps it was because she'd seen a side of the boy she loved that no one else knew about. Whatever it was, Sakura couldn't help but feel that nothing would ever be the same again…

CY: Arr. This was beta'd by Super Sheba. Starting a new multi-chapter story... Pairings aren't quite set yet, so I'll remain silent on the topic.