Rain. Wind. Snow. Fog. No matter what the conditions, he was there. Sitting silently, no expression and no voice– some even mistook the silver-haired jounin for a rock just like the one he wasted away in front of.

Because that's what it was, really. Just a rock inscribed with name after name after name of ninjas who died protecting their village. A noble way to die, they said. It was an honor to have your name on this stone. An honor to be cold and lifeless, six feet under the ground.

Sometimes (and there was safety in 'sometimes'), Kakashi thought people put to much stock in how a person died. Who died was exponentially more important. . . Right?

Days like these (humid but not quite hot; sky cloudy and somehow smug) made Kakashi doubt himself. What are we but mysteries all too easily solved? What am I but a mask?

The jounin sighed, and shifted from one foot to another. The thoughts filtering through his head were unbidden, unwanted; he was mere seconds away from whipping out Icha Icha Paradise when a distraction occurred in the form of a pesky, irritating insect.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

This from Konoha's number one hyperactive knuckle-headed ninja, Uzumaki Naruto.

Kakashi produced a long-suffering sigh and shifted his weight back to the original foot. His gaze never wavered from the memorial stone in front of him, his expression never altered. "Yo."

"ME AND SAKURA-CHAN ARE HEADED FOR THE RAMEN STAND! BELIEVE IT!"

Kakashi's shoulders slumped. He knew what was coming, and as much as he hated to disappoint his former student–

"I'm not going with you."

His typical response elicited a giggle from the pink-haired kunoichi at Naruto's side. A kunoichi who would've given Naruto the same response if she hadn't been so hungry.

The fox boy scowled. "What makes you think I was going to ask?"

Another shift of weight from the infamous copy-nin. Today (humid but not quite hot; sky cloudy and somehow smug) he was not in the mood to deal with a certain blonde-haired nuisance. His shoulders, already half their usual width, slouched even further in a futile attempt to disappear.

"Why don't you go on without me, Naruto?" Sakura asked the orange-clad future Hokage gently. "I'll catch up in a minute."

Kakashi tensed imperceptibly. She was staying? No one ever interrupted him here. Those who knew the story behind it all (days on end of staring at this rock of no emotion, days on end of trying to pretend he had no emotion himself) gave him as much room as possible to mourn, or not mourn, or whatever it was that he did. Those unwise enough to think he was hiding a physical deficiency under his mask simply paid him no mind. Which was ridiculous, anyway, because everyone knows that ninja only wear masks to hide the scars on their souls. Ninja are proud of physical scars; but the emotional scars, now those are something to bury as deep as you can without forgetting yourself. Or maybe as deep as you can without remembering. Days like these, after all, made Kakashi doubt himself.

Perhaps Sakura saw all of this. Perhaps this was why, when Naruto complained ("Aw, but, Sakura-chan!"), she merely gave him an irritated look and stood her ground.

"Oh, alright," Naruto sighed after a pause, raising his hands in an 'I surrender' sort of way. " But I'll probably be finished with all my ramen by the time you get there!"

"You? Finished with ramen? Did I just mishear that?" Sakura laughed, watching Naruto sprint off to be with his one true love.

Kakashi stayed quiet. Patience was something he had in abundance today; hell, he was the copy-nin. He always had patience. It was only a matter of waiting her out, and, Sakura being Sakura, it shouldn't take too long. So he settled himself more comfortably on the ground, as did she, and together they waited.

It probably should've been awkward. He was her sensei, yes, but he was always more of an enigma to her than a person. And now she was a full-fledged kunoichi, but she had always been merely a love-sick little girl in his mind. They barely knew each other. It really should've been awkward.

Somehow, though (and there was safety in 'somehow'), Kakashi didn't mind her presence as he thought her would; the hesitant way she shifted every few minutes was no distraction. He stayed concentrated on the stone; emotionless.

After a while she spoke, murmuring the words so quietly he could have mistaken them for the breeze. "Isn't it funny, how we can make even something as impersonal as this stone have feelings?" As if to illustrate her point, the girl reached out and caressed the name of some forgotton chuunin, fingers tracing the imprinted letters with gentle ease.

The copy-nin felt some measure of alarm in her statement. The memorial stone? Feelings?

These were the two things he had once thought impossible to mix; yet here was his student, putting them together so effortlessly he had to check again to make sure it wasn't some sneaky friend of his wearing a disguise.

But no, no, this strange person was Sakura all right. His student, albeit a stranger. And, as her teacher, he felt a strong urge to correct her misguided statements.

She never gave him the chance. The silver-haired jounin felt a strange dissatisfaction as she stood to leave, brushing the seat of her pants off casually (when had she started wearing pants?).

"Well, I'll see you later, sensai!" she chirped. "Naruto won't wait forever."

She turned and walked away, leaving Kakashi with his sorrow. He watched her, wanting to call her back and demand an explanation (what made you so wise all of the sudden? how can you switch emotions so fast? and where the hell did your dress go?), but not even bothering to open his mouth.

Maybe he wanted one mystery to remain unsolved. For the time being, anyway.

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Sakura blushed the entire way to the ramen stand.

Baka! How could you be so stupid? she berated herself. He probably thinks you're the biggest loser to ever hold a kunai.

She wasn't sure why, exactly, she'd said what she did, or even why she sat with him in the first place. It certainly wasn't for the stimulating conversation; not that she would've had any with that idiot Naruto. He'd just seemed. . .

The girl sighed, unsure of herself. Kakashi had always been slightly different, but she'd never needed to know why until now. A single hand made its way absently through her hair. She must've seemed like a complete imbecile, babbling on about a rock having feelings. A rock having feelings. Really.

She wasn't sure what came over her. One minute she'd been sitting there, studying that rock he apparently found so fascinating, and the next minute her mouth had been forming words without first informing her brain. Words that felt strange on her tongue, because normally she hid them so deep inside, nothing could free them. Something had turned her inside-out so her most precious secrets were right at the top, for anyone at all to see. Kakashi had just been an innocent bystander.

That still didn't change the fact that he was probably questioning her sanity right now. No doubt about it, Sakura would have to go back to set things straight. Just not today, when the humiliation was still fresh in her mind.

Well, she told herself dryly, at least I know where to find him.

And with that last thought, she forgot about the silent, masked figure who mourned with no emotions by a rock that seemed so alive. She let him slip back into his own little world; saving him, it would seem, for another (humid but not quite hot; sky cloudy and somehow smug) day.

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That's all for now, but I'll try to update soon. I'm not making any promises, though (consistency is not something I do well). Review if you feel like it, but if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all! And it's not like I'm going to hunt you down if you read it but don't leave a comment. Not that I can tell if you do that, but--

Sorry, I kind of went off on a wild tangent. See ya!

-Mere Anarchy