She remembered that day all too well

She remembered that day all too well. There are moments where you believe that if you just don't think of it, the memory will eventually soundlessly fade away, and give you the bliss of not remembering. However, this was not the case. Sakura couldn't stop thinking about it.

She would lie awake every night, thinking about it, trying to figure out what it meant. Eventually her head would ache, and she would want to drink some water. She would go down the stairs, pass the phone, go back, look at it a long time, thinking about the number she could say in her sleep by then, and then pass it again. It wasn't going to change, even if she knew she wouldn't make the call she would want to.

Then all of a sudden the idea of just dragging on a warm coat and running to his house would overwhelm her, and she would already have opened the door when she slammed it again and proclaimed herself silly.

She would stamp into the kitchen, going over the memory for the millionth time, seat herself in the sofa and then eventually—when she sighed and her mind had worked furiously all for nothing—fall asleep.

She had just left the hospital after another day of work. It was cold outside and she dragged the coat closer around her small body, her hands went cold and useless from trying to zip the unzippable zipper. The warm colorful autumn had gone over to a grey cold winter, and she soon would have to fix it.

She assumed from the look of the dark-grey clouds it would surely be raining soon and she wanted to be home with a nice cup of coffee before it started.

She began her walk towards her new apartment, silently celebrating (once again) the feeling of being alonely apartment-owner. Her mother had kept her home as long as she could, but by then Sakura had finally managed to persuade her parents to let her move out. So she did.

It was a small apartment, with hardly any furniture. (for the hundredth time she promised herself to buy something, something that wasn't a silly new frame for their team-seven picture('s) like the ones she had begun buying each month for no reason at all. A sofa maybe...)

The small's' had been added on the picture some months ago when Naruto had finally achieved his goal to buy a camera, and then had totally overused it. Taken pictures of everything, everyday, every moment. They had all been so annoyed that Kakashi finally managed to destroy the miracle-mashine one day, of course it had been an 'accident'.

It was a fine home nonetheless. And every home became cosy with a cup of tea and a cookie. Maybe she would call someone, maybe Ino. Probably not.

Going through all the people she knew in her head she realized she didn't have a cosy-person. She had people to talk with, friends most people would say, friends to train with, friends to get out her aggressions on (mostly referring to Naruto) and girls to go shopping with, but she didn't have a cosy-person. Maybe because no one ever had such a ridiculous idea as being a cosy-friend, it was only she who could think of such a thing. Or maybe the really did exist, and she wasn't granted one. Maybe she was just thinking too much about those incredibly uninteresting and inconsequential questions of her weird world. She would have to stop.

She had actually never thought about it, but she wanted a person to snuggle up with, a person to talk on the phone with for hours, buy a chocolate bar and dip in tea with while the rain was smashing down outside the window.

She supposed ninjas just weren't those type of people.

She really liked the idea of a sofa though, a red one. It would not be one of the cosy ones, those where you sank in and felt like sleeping in. A red, hard, sitting-sofa. Sakura didn't like sofas much and thought it was just an excuse for sitting in a bed in the middle of the day, not to mention sleeping in the middle of the day. It was just too Shikamaru-like.

So it had to be an impersonal, uncomfortable red sofa.

Somehow she had managed to go further than she wanted, because she couldn't recognize that part of the city. Without thinking about it much she turned around and went back the way she had come from, which eventually turned out to be another direction. She considered her possibilities for a long time, seating herself on a bench under a tree on the side of the road; she was looking through the houses and their numbers and name-signs when she recognized one.

Kakashi Hatake.

She smiled. At least she knew someone in this part of the city. She hadn't even thought about where Kakashi lived at all, but logically he had to live somewhere.

Tsunade had made the new deal that every ninja would have signs with their names and rank on their doors. It made it a lot easier to send the ninjas an urgent message, the messengers wouldn't have to have an address-list with them and they wouldn't have to search for house-numbers and so on. Though of course Naruto had pulled his sign off, exclaiming that if someone needed him they could at least know where he lived. "AND REMEMBER IT! BRATS!"

She was rather exited to go knock on her former sensei's door; she hadn't seen him in a long time, there had just been so much to do at the hospital, it seemed like every normal man was sick with floo, and at least 3 of 4 insisted that it was serious and they would have to stay in the hospital.

She missed her team though. It had been a long time since they had been on a mission together, Naruto and Sasuke had their own things, Kakashi had a new group of ninjas from the school. (and they hadn't failed their test, yet)

But all in all team 7 didn't talk to each other much anymore. Kakashi didn't anyway, but she didn't even know if they were continuing their missions or if they would travel like they had said.

They really needed to have lunch together someday, and if they wanted to have Kakashi there they should probably tell him they would gather two hours earlier. Last time he had arrived when they were done eating. Lunch had actually turned into quite a tradition since everyone a hoped Kakashi would drag down his mask and eat something, their plan hadn't worked yet though.

First, no one answered the door, and Sakura was about to step away and try to find her apartment on her own when the door was suddenly ripped open. There was no one, but she heard steps tumbling out of the hall and further into the apartment. There was loud music as well, and it sounded like a whole bunch of elephants were dancing in the living room. Sakura peeked her head in curiously.

Kakashi sensei was having a party.

She couldn't believe it. A party! Her old sensei!

Sakura couldn't help but laugh. Not sure whether to enter or not, she finally stepped into the apartment and closed the door silently after her. She found a whole bunch of jonins and chunins in the living room, some dancing, some laughing, and talking. She made her way through the people and got into the less-filled kitchen.

It was there she saw him. It was weird though, typical but weird. The two of them were all alone on the kitchen, Kakashi hadn't even noticed her, but was sitting with his precious little perverted book wide open, gashing into it greedily.

While all the others are having the time of their life, she thought sarcastically.

"Umm…" She eventually tried getting his attention, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Kakashi?" He looked up with a lost expression. A very typical, lost expression, that was just about saying: where exactlyam I?

She smiled. He just looked at her for a few minutes before eventually realize she was actually there. And not just a fragment of his, surely perverted imagination, from reading too much Icha-Icha Paradise.

"Sakura!" He smiled beneath his mask and his eyes crinkled in that special way that let anyone see the only way to detect a smile on Kakashi's up-covered face. He then seemed to consider a thing for some time. "How do you know where I live?"

She smiled, flushing slightly, trying to talk over the music. "Umm… that's why; I don't even know where I live."

He furrowed his brow in thought. "You are suffering under… memory loss?"

She couldn't help but giggle. "No," she said between giggles, Kakashi just looked confused. "I am not." He seemed to be rather relieved. "I'm just lost. I didn't recall this part of the city and saw the sign on the door…"

"I'll help," he answered gladly, "I'll just go… Tell Genma…" He quickly got up and placed the book carefully on the table. Considering a moment, he took it again and laid it back in the pocket he always had it in. "Sit." He nodded towards the sofa and Sakura reluctantly sat down while he disappeared into the crowd in the living-room.

Of course it was one of the typical bed-like sofas. Could she expect anything else from Kakashi?

But it smelled lovely of the silver-haired jonin and Sakura just leaned back and drowned in the cosy smell a moment.

"Sakura?" He had appeared again and waited for her in the doorway.

"Ready to go." Without waiting for her to answer he headed for the living-room, making his way through the dancing people, Sakura quickly followed and only barely got out without being squeezed between the people. There certainly wasn't much space in his apartment. Not the ideal spot for throwing a party.

When they finally pressed themselves out, after having been held inside for some time by a drunken Genma blocking the door, proclaiming that they surely didn't want to goand that it was cold and raining outside. Genma hadn't even given in for a persuasive Kakashi, who told him first to let them pass, then to bugger off. Luckily for them some girl came and began snogging Genma, Sakura looked the other way, not really wanting to see her teacher's friend sucking the brain out of someone.

The both breathed in the fresh air with relief when they got out.

"Why are you…" Sakura trailed off, but Kakashi seemed to get it, rubbing the back of his head as he always did in blush-moments.

"Genma's idea. I don't really like… parties." He took a red umbrella that was hanging on the door-knob of the apartment opposite his own, explaining he was only borrowing it.

Sakura smiled at the thought of the enthusiastic Genma dragging a horde of people into the unwilling Kakashi's apartment. She could clearly imagine them arguing at the door.

"So, shall we?"He held out the umbrella for her and both, a bit embarrassed, shared it through the rain. Sakura actually didn't mind getting wet instead; rain in Konoha at spring was always warm, and she used to welcome the feeling as she walked through it when it was raining after work. Maybe it was also because of the fact that her new apartment, even though it was great, was still expensive, and she didn't have money for everything. That included a new umbrella.

She didn't actually remember much of their conversation on the way to her apartment,not because they talked much. Sakura didn't know what to say, and Kakashi wasn't really the chatting-type, but she remembered when she realized for the first time there was something wrong.

"How do you even know the way to my apartment this well?" she chuckled. It had been more like a laughing-question, not one that she actually thought there was an answer on.

"Well." He rubbed the back of his head again, ruffling his grey hair so it lay even weirder. It was a freakish hair-color too, just like her annoyingly pink hair, she thought. He wouldn't have to worry of becoming grey-haired at least.

"I've walked it off several times."

Several times?

"What do you mean walked it off?" she laughed.

"Well," He seemed rather embarrassed. "You know."

"No I don't, enlighten me?"

He chuckled embarrassed. "Umm," he started. "I kinda…"He turned quiet for a while and stopped walking, Sakura stopped too and looked curiously at him."I kinda have to go this way to get to my own you know." At least that wasn't true, he didn't work in the hospital and a supermarket or anything else needed was in the totally different direction, so he did not go this way for necessities.

He suddenly moved a bit closer under the umbrella. She could feel his body-warmth through the fabric and his soft breath in her hair just over her forehead. It was the first time she noticed that she was quiet short, compared to him at least; the top of her pink hair only just reached his jaw-line. Of course she knew that she had been short as a kid too, but she had thought that at some point she would be as grown up as him, at least.

His voice felt raspy and raw when he spoke again, like it hadn't been used for days.

"I should be going." He suddenly seemed to change whatever he had had in mind and took a step back so his shoulder peeked out into the pouring rain.

"Sakura you should…" He trailed off when their eyes locked. Sakura's emerald ones were wide in question, shining with curiosity.

"Get inside," he finished, his voice not more than a mumble.

She nodded her head slowly, while Kakashi took one more step back out into the rain.

Water poured over his hair instantly and made the tips that used to stand so characteristically straight up hang down into his face instead. The rain also poured down the tip of his nose; it made him look funny, wet, lost and totally silly. Most of all she wanted to invite him in for tea, or something less grandmother-like, but the strange situation couldn't allow it.

Even slower, looking back over her shoulder questiongly, unsure about what all that had been about, she took a few steps out in the rain and up the stairs, dwelling on the third.

Then, before she really understood what happened a hand took hold of her wrist and swirled her around, he was there, just below her. The stair made them become about the same high, and taking away her breath he kissed her quickly, softly, though she believed she had tasted a slight hint of alcohol in it, enough to make her feel bad afterwards.

A thousand thoughts shot through her head in that split-second, but even if it was all confusing, there was a part of her deep inside, in the darkest corner of her confused mind, that wanted it to last longer. Not forever, but just slightly longer. She had wanted to wrap her arms around his warm neck, but it still was her ex-teacher for God's sake!

It hade been an annoyingly small and innocent kiss, such a one that Sakura would lay awake night after night, trying to understand its meaning.

Then he turned around quickly, without a single explanation, walked a few long steps, and disappeared as he used to. The memory about the time they had tried to follow him and get to see what was under his mask brought a small smile to her lips. When he had disappeared that way all the time, which always made her remember how great a ninja he was.

Sakura stood there staring out into the air. She could still feel his hair tingle on her forehead, and the smell of Kakashi around it. He had had his mask down and she hadnt noticed his face, not even looked at it. She had been so surprised she had missed the chance of a lifetime.

After a while she raised her hand to touch her lips where his kiss still felt warm, as if to confirm he had really kissed her. She couldn't believe it. A really real kiss. From Kakashi.

A blush as pink as her hair shot over her cheeks and a fluttering feeling crawled up her spine. She knew somehow it wasn't only embarrassment.

The rain suddenly felt much colder.

And he had even forgotten his 'borrowed' umbrella.