A/N: I never planned on crossposting my tumblr oneshots to , but a lovely anon asked me to, and I am easily led through compliments and appeals to my ego, so. I do solemnly swear that I am, in fact, mouseymightymarvellous and not a dastardly impersonator.

I know that oneshot collections can be hard to navigate, so I'll do my best to tag every chapter individually so that readers can avoid anything they don't want to bother with. Let me know if there's something you would have appreciated having tagged and I'll do my best to fix it.


trompe l'oeil

rating: g
genre: friendship/romance/family
pairings: kakasaku, naruhina
POV: Naruto
warnings: Naruto's obliviousness and emotional infidelity? (I dunno guys, can canon sasusaku even be considered a real relationship?)
word count: 709


"Hinata-chan," Naruto asks his girlfriend. "Is it just me, or is there something," he pauses, shakes his head.

Hinata turns to face him from where she's picking out tomatoes. "Naruto-kun?"

"Never mind, it's nothing," he tells her. Because it is nothing.

It's just Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei walking down the street together. Nothing interesting about it. They aren't even talking, let alone brushing shoulders or holding hands or kissing. Just, walking together.

##

Weeks later, Naruto is in the Hokage's office with Kakashi-sensei, going over the reports that Naruto will need to be able to understand when he replaces his teacher in a few years.

Sakura throws the door open and walks in without knocking, which isn't unusual per say. Sakura has been acting as Kakashi-sensei's assistant since Shizune-neechan took over running the hospital; she spends most of her time in and out of this office and the Tower in general. It's just that, for a moment, Kakashi-sensei relaxes fully into his seat, the tension Naruto hadn't even noticed he was carrying bleeding out of his shoulders.

Sakura smiles at them, trills out, "Afternoon Naruto! Afternoon Hokage-sama! Hard at work?" For some reason though, Naruto almost thinks that Sakura-chan's smile catches on the masked man for a moment too long.

It's nothing. It's just Sakura being happy after a lunch time snack of dango.

##

The next month, a group of the old-crowd are at the bar. Kiba and Genma are attempting to out do one another with terrible pick-up lines, the rest of the large group heckling and voting on best word play.

But not Sakura and Kakashi/. The two of them are huddled together in the corner, snickering at something over their shared bottle of sake.

There is nothing about their posture that should catch Naruto's eye: there's the proper couple of inches between them and their heads aren't even bent together. It's just, when he looks closer, Kakashi-sensei's right index finger rests gently on the delicate bones of Sakura-chan's wrist.

It's nothing.

##

Years later, Naruto catches Sakura walking back from the gate, Sarada running up ahead. He isn't too surprised to spot Kakashi at Sakura's shoulder, the two of them walking slowly side-by-side.

"He's gone again, then?" Naruto asks her.

Sakura's face drops out of the smile that has been teasing her lips. "Yeah."

"You think the teme is ever going to stay longer than a few weeks? He has to have repaid his karmic debt by now, what with how often he sleeps on rocks." Naruto jokes.

Sakura smiles again, but only weakly. "I don't know, Hokage-sama."

Naruto frowns at her. "Sakura-chan! You aren't supposed to call me that!"

Sakura's smile warms a bit at his whining, but doesn't thaw completely.

Suddenly, a screeching "Kaka-tousan! Kaka-tousan!" reaches them, and Sarada throws herself at Kakashi. The man catches her effortlessly in midair, and spins the little girl in circles.

"Sara-chan," he scolds her, teasing. "No yelling in the market!"

The girl pouts from her perch on the man's hip.

Naruto freezes in place, because Sakura has just shifted to push the bangs out of Sarada-chan's face, putting her in front of Kakashi. His friends, his old teammates, they don't touch, but Sakura arches her back so that she can look at Kakashi's face, and Kakashi angles himself to align with her, and it is a natural, unconscious dance.

Naruto freezes in place, because Kakashi is holding Sakura's daughter, and they look like a family.

Naruto freezes in place, because it is a thousand little gestures that he has caught over the years coalescing into one moment of understanding. But he cannot be seeing what he is seeing.

Sakura has loved Sasuke since they were children together. She bore Sasuke's child.

Naruto is not seeing what he is seeing because there is nothing there to see.

That is what he tells himself as he bids his friends goodbye, sorry, urgent Hokage business to attend to.

It is nothing. There is no quiet intimacy in the scene he is leaving.

(He leaves the little family behind him. Sakura and Kakashi bending towards each other like flowers to the sun.)