The day before exams begin, and my muse decides to start beating me over the head with this little gem. Well, it's been lurking around for a while actually, generally imparing my concentration and making it difficult to focus on any other fic.
So now I've succumbed to KakaSaku again. And introspection. At least it's out of my system now, and I should be able to focus on other things (yeah, I'm aware the update for Test is running very late, but I'll try to catch up with it soon, honest!)
Anyway, this is for the 100 Themes Challenge over on dA. Enjoy!
24) No Time
Kakashi always used to hate hospital beds. They were too crisp and constricting; too impersonal with their perfectly folded blankets and matching bedside tables. But these days, it's different.
Now there's more than endless white walls and the hum of machinery. Now there's a familiar face bending over him, or sitting by him, or, this time, asleep alongside him in the bed exactly as she's not supposed to be. But of course, the medic's professional codes are meant for strangers, and Kakashi is no stranger to his pupils.
Sakura has broken protocol for him, and he for her, a thousand times. They're teammates, the two sane ones, the ones that hold together their unstable team. The boys have broken the rules too, savagely and kindly and ever more freely – they get away with it because they're geniuses, the leaders of tomorrow. Well, they will be if they live long enough to fulfill their potential. It falls to Kakashi and Sakura to make sure they last that long, however weary the time may stretch.
Kakashi fights and trains and guides, he leads in such a way that they will copy him unconsciously as power comes to them, as much as he can. Sakura heals, and chastises, and holds the emotional tangles together in her iron fists so they can't fall apart, even though they're a bunch of shattered lives bound only by stubbornness and habit. She's a leader too, having learned sooner than the boys what he has been trying to teach them all from the start – that the work put in, in friendships and in training, matches the outcomes and respect garnered.
He knows she works the hardest of them all, so it's almost unsurprising to see her taking charge now, directing medics in that strident voice and calmly putting people back together with nothing but her gloved hands. She was always good at fixing things, even before she knew it. He finds it strange to see her now, careworn but confident, when he can so clearly remember the girl she was not long ago. How fast the time has flown.
Kakashi hasn't changed much since the day he first met her. Not as a ninja at least. His senses have become sharper, of course, but only as much as experience has directed him. His power has remained largely unchanged, though his collection of techniques has grown by necessity. His personality though...
He has bonds again, real ones that extend beyond casual acquaintance and reach the level where he could be hurt again. At the same time, he's less afraid of the loss than he used to be, more accepting that some day the people he loves will have to die, and that they will mean no less to him for it.
That is entirely her fault. She came and fixed him, the way she does everybody, with bright smiles and quick fists, and an odd balance of rationality and eccentricity. She might well be insane (he's heard her arguing with herself aloud before, many a time), and she may not have as much raw power as the men in her life, but she's quick like a knife and she uses efficiency to make what she has go further. Perfect chakra control, total dedication, quick mind, and open heart.
She's his best student, though he can't claim all the credit.
Right now though, none of that matters. Right now, he's in a hospital bed with a sleeping woman next to him, and everything is okay.
Maybe later, when he shifts and wakes her, he'll tell her so. Maybe he'll tell her why. He could tell her how he loves her, as the student she was and the woman she's become. He might explain how she's fixed him, how she's patched him up so often without asking a word of thanks, how she's mended him in every way. But of course, major healing cuts a ninja's lifespan. He won't need to tell her he's only got a decade or so left at best, because he knows she knows it. He'll die and she'll cry for him, because not everything can be healed.
He'll never be old for her though, never need caring for while she's still young and beautiful. The time is slipping through his fingers like water, and maybe in the future he'll have her for a while, or maybe he'll stay away to protect her from the eventual loss. Right now though, there's no time, and all is well, because he's with her.
Yeah, it's short. Sorry. I might expand on it later and see if I can actually get some KakaSaku action rather than just fluffy thoughts, if people are interested. Let me know if you're keen!