Yay! I've written something! It just happens to be a KakaSaku based off of a Placebo song called "I'll Be Yours".
Consequently, please be kind to me. I wrote this on my phone. Yes. My phone, using Word Mobile.
Btw, I can't log into my beta profile from my phone, but I am currently not taking any Beta requests.
I do not own Naruto, nor anything by Placebo. But I wish I did.
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She really shouldn't have been so surprised. Konohagakure was a moderately sized village. The Daimyo himself had even made the effort to visit three months back. So when there was yet another full scale attack on the village, Sakura was surprisingly not prepared.
She was caught off guard.
The casualties were extensive, much like attack mounted by the remaining Guardians seven years back. Only this time, there was no Asuma to help with strategy.
Ino was not in their group either, having been injured when the enemy attacked the hospital as their second target. She miscarried a half day later. Chouji was not their to hold her, he was busy being buried.
It seemed the enemy knew their village. Knew them. The 'Rookies'.
When the surprise wore off, it ebbed again. Their enemy had a leader, and a name. Team Hebi. Their own remaining Uchiha, having left on a mission 5 months prior, returned with his newly reformed group, to take control from Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.
She was dead before the ANBU she had requested as her guard had arrived. On her desk, her nomination for Rokudaime.
'Uzumaki Naruto, son on Namikaze Minato'
As they quelled the forces of Team Hebi back, Sakura came face to face with her once love turned friend turned brother turned target.
"Sakura," he said, voice like silk on sandpaper, "you wouldn't lose yet another precious person, would you?" The look in his eyes was unsettling. Sharingan spinning, they didn't stop until his head was four meters from his body.
Sakura violently threw up next to his warm legs, and muttered her apologies to his deceased family. For taking the last one. For ending their corrupted bloodline.
And as Hebi realized their leader was dead, they retreated to die of their injuries in the woods surrounding Konoha. A deserved death.
She didn't find her parents until almost six hours later, crushed under their house. A wry thought crossed her mind, 'I always thought the house was too small. I was wrong.'
Not taking the time to mourn, she made her way to the Hokage's tower, in which a makeshift hospital was set up.
She healed herself into a coma.
In the month and a half she was out, Naruto had been officially made Hokage, Ino had visited Chouji every day, Kurenai and her son had visited Shikamaru in the hospital(he was incidently released on the anniversary of Asuma's death).
"Uhnn..." A gasp, feet running, yelling, beeping.
"..Hokage!" A woman's voice.
"Hai, Shizune!" More footsteps.
"Shi... Uhnnn..." Her hand twitched. Her eyes moved back and forth behind her lids.
Footsteps again, murmering. A sudden "Hokage!"
"So my friend is coming back." She knew that voice. 'Hokage?' A conscious thought flittered through. A floodgate of memories opened.
The beeping increased. "Her BP is rising! I need a crashcart, 10cc's of thorazine, AND GET THE HYUUGA IN HERE!"
As quickly as the memories came, they stopped, and she screamed in her grief. For everyone in the room, it was like watching the beginnings of an exorcism. She thrashed and cried out. She spat and swore. And finally. Her strength gave, as Naruto and Hinata stumbled forth to hold her down.
Three hours later, she came back from a tormented sleep to see familiar silver hair in the chair next to her bed. Loking around the room, she noted they were alone.
"Finally coming to." His voice brought her head back to face him. What he saw in her eyes should have taken him aback, but he had had that same look in his own eyes so long ago.
"Kakashi..." He said nothing in reply. No words of comfort, no understanding. She needed to grieve in silence. He came to her everyday after and they sat in silence.
A month later, she was released. Conditionally. Naruto had set up an apartment for her in the jounin quarters. Ino helped decorate, with Hinata. The girls stayed until Sakura arrived. They left shortly after, not understanding her silence.
Kakashi caught them on the way out. "She appreciates it, and so do I." Ino nodded, Hinata's gaze turned to the floor.
"Goodnight Kakashi-sensei," Ino said quietly. She passed by and made her way home, back with her father at the shop.
"Kakashi-sempai," Hinata nodded at him, and turned to leave. Three steps. "Kakashi?" Her small voice would always surprise him.
"Hinata?" She didn't turn, but tilted her head. "Please take care of her. Only you understand."
He made a noncommital noise and that seemed to pacify her. She nodded her head and left, a 'thank you' murmured.
When he went to Sakura's door, it was half-open. He could see her on her couch, wrapped in a blanket, lights off.
"Sakura." Her head lifted toward him. He nodded and entered, sitting next to her. She moved and crushed her head to his chest, finally crying, after so much silence. He held her close, and let her.
He woke up in much the same position the next morning, with no Sakura in sight. He heard clattering from the kitchen and craned his neck to see.
There she was, all puffy eyes and mussed hair, making coffee and eggs. She dropped the spatula and tsk-ed. He stood and stretched.
"Want a hand?" She turned her back on him and nodded, hiding herself away.
He sighed and began searching for plates and cups. Another clatter, and a sniffle.
He turned and saw that she had once gain dropped the spatula. And was crying over it. "Stupid, ne? I'm supposed to have this amazing chakra control and I can't even hold a spatula."
He put an arm around her and turned the small stove in front of her off. "I was the same way after Obito and Rin. That's why I saved myself the trouble and started going out to breakfast."
Kakashi picked the pan up from the stove, surprised that Sakura was actually trying to protest, and deposited the eggs in the trash. He pointed to her room. "Go, get some clothes, take a shower. I'll be back in a half hour to get you."
She stood there for a moment, chewing her lip, and finally turned to trudge to her room.
Sure enough, a half hour later, Kakashi was sitting on her couch waiting. She managed a small smirk as if to say, 'You're on time now?'
He crooked a finger at her and crinkled his eye. "Now now, I have my reasons to be on time. Ready?" He stood and held her door open.
"One thing," he said, lightly grasping her wrist. "I have to stop somewhere first to see someone."
Somewhere
was the cenotaph, someone was Obito and Rin. "Guys? Sakura.
Sakura? Guys. She's lost people too, guys. She needs us right now."
Sakura
just stood silently dumbfounded, as this man, her former sensei
turned friend, had a conversation with a stone.
Another half hour, and they were walking to breakfast. Quietly, Sakura spoke, her voice hoarse from it's lack of use. "So... Is that why you were late every morning?"
He gave her a sidelong eye crinkle. "One of the reasons." He motioned to a small eatery and held the door for her.
After sitting, she continued. "And the other reason?"
He waved his hand nonchalantly. "I was trying to be fashionable." She laughed then, the first time in nearly three months. Kakashi noted in the back of him mind that he had missed the sound.
Their breakfast arrived, and they continued to have small, quiet conversation. To anyone else, they looked like a couple, having been together for years. To them, it was a silent agreement to stick with eachother, for they had so few people left.
They walked back to their apartments and agreed to meet that night for pizza.
Another month, and Sakura had finally gotten up the courage to visit her parents' graves. Naruto had had them buried underneath the biggest sakura tree, as an homage to family and its importance. As a personal favor to her.
She sat there all day. Belatedly, she realized she should've packed a lunch, not realizing Kakashi already had. As she spoke to her parents, for the first time since the afternoon of their death, Kakashi popped up next to her, bento in hand, and sat against the tree.
She filled them in on past events, her coma, getting back into training, and Kakashi occasionally threw in words of approval at her progress and reminded her of funny stories. Naruto as Rokudaime Hokage, Hinata finally getting the courage to confess her love.
The conversation slowly turned sad, as it eventually would, as she related Ino's loss, Shino's death, Kiba's paralysis.
At sunset, Kakashi's hand on the small of Sakura's back, she turned to say one last thing.
"Kaa-san, 'tou-san... I'm sorry. I love you both, and I'm so sorry." She smiled, then, a glimmer of the girl she was, and promised to meet them every evening for the sunset.
Upon arriving at her apartment, movies and pizza in hand, Kakashi asked her why it was every evening. She replied simply, "Obito and Rin every morning, and my parents every evening. Family is important, even in death."
He fell a little in love then, but wouldn't realize it until seven months later, on the anniversary of the attack.
Knocking on her door, he waited patiently. Sure he had a key, but that was mostly for emergencies. A couple minutes later, and no answer. Now it was an emergency.
Unlocking the door, he called for her. His attention was drawn to the low table in the common room.
A note.
'Kakashi,
At the store, be home soon. Not meeting the parents. They understand.'
He didn't, but he was certain there was a good reason that would eventually be made known to him. She hadn't shown up this morning to see the guys, but he hadn't thought anything of it as he'd see her later.
'Liar,' said a small voice that had progressivevly been making itself louder in the past months. He hated it. Wanted it to be silent.
Kakashi shrugged upon reading the note a second time, and proceeded to set out plates and cups for pizza night.
"Kakashi? You here?" Her voice rang clearly through the entry way.
He poked his head out and replied with a telltale "Yo."
Sakura smiled at him, in a way that he'd never admit made his heart skip, and waved him over. "Gimme a hand, will ya?"
Sauntering over, Kakashi noted several bags. Upon inspection, most were either liquor, things that one mixed with liquor, or foods that one ate while consuming liquor.
He raised his visible eyebrow then. "Uh, Sakura?" She smirked and shook her head.
"I have my reasons, Kakashi." And with that, she spun and made her way to the kitchen.
"You, know," Kakashi began, while trailing behind her with four bags in hand, "the path of enlightenment begins with reason."
She chuckled and bent to put bottles and condiments in the fridge. He wondered if she knew she had a nice ass.
"I do now," she replied. Had he said that out loud? Crap. He had. As she passed by, she patted his own, and commented, "Yours ain't so bad either, babe." Wait, what?
He shrugged and turned back to the bags. Oh. A half empty bottle. That explains it. She's tipsy.
"You have no inner monologue when you're confused, by the way. And another thing, I'm not tipsy." He hadn't expected her to be right behind him.
His shoulders visibly relaxed when he noted the pop and pizza she carried.
Her laughter caught him off guard, and he eyed her. "Man, Kakashi, you didn't think I'd forget, did you?"
Stiffly, he passed by her and made his way to the couch with the plates and cups in hand. Yes, he had thought she had forgotten. Today was cracking up to be an odd day.
Oh. Today.
She sat next to him and set out the pizza. "You just realized, huh?" she asked quietly.
"Sorry."
"It's fine." She poured herself a bit of pop and followed it up with whiskey. Again, his eyebrow raised. She ignored it and offered him some. He shrugged and held out his own glass.
Standing, Kakashi walked toward Sakura's tv, movies in hand. He stopped short, just now having noticed her movie selection. He spun and eyed her.
"Really Sakura?! You chose these?" Both were tragic action movies in which no one lived.
She waved him off. "Really Kakashi, you chose Icha last week." He stormed over to her.
"This is hardly the same thing. No one dies in Icha, there's no misery," he opted to ignore her quiet response of "Unless you're the viewer."
His shoulders sagged and he sat heavily. Her hand found one of his, and he met her eyes. He was surprised to find them solemn and pleading.
"I need this, Kakashi. I need to come to terms with everything." He nodded then, and put in the worst of the two, allowing for her to calm down with the second movie.
Strangely, she watched in rapt silence, only her eyes belying her comprehension. She knew what the lead was going through. She had been there.
Halfway through, his arm wove around her shoulder and his hand traced circles on her arm. Calming, familiar. Safe.
Her head buried into his side and she made little noises of comfort every so often.
As wrong as it was, at that moment, Kakashi realized he wanted her. She must've notice the change, because she sat up and scooched a little.
He did not remove his arm, merely loosened it to allow her movement, and leaned back a little more.
Soon enough, she laid her head back on him. And subsequently laid her arm around his midsection.
They stayed like that, curled around eachother, until the credits. She sat up again and looked at him. "You're a good pillow." She was really saying. 'Thank you for being here.'
He nodded and gave her a crinkle. "You're a good blanket." In other words, 'You're welcome.'
As she rose to put the second movie in, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. She gazed at him in surprise and he stood instead. "I'll do it."
And he did. As he turned to sit back down, she was right behind him, head down.
His hands met her shoulders and moved down her arms, rubbing, soothing, moving around toward her back. Their first real hug.
He rested his head on the crown of hers and murmured, "What am I going to do with you?"
Not expecting and answer, his heart stopped when he heard a muffled, "Love me?"
She noticed his tenseness and stepped away, turning to take the dishes to the kitchen. He stood there, awestruck.
She was fourteen years his junior.
'Rin was two years older.'
She was his former student.
'Rin was your teammate.'
He wasn't ready.
'You never will be.'
He couldn't love her.
'You already do.'
With that, his head snapped up to her small form in the kitchen. He raced in, and grasped her shoulders. She turned, mild surprise in her eyes.
"Kaka-?" Sakura never finished her sentence, as his mask was ripped down and he dipped in to meet her lips.
She made a small noise of surprise and belatedly wove her hands around his neck and into his hair.
The force of his kiss pushed her back into the counter and, as a good shinobi, he took advantage of the situation, lifting her onto it.
"Mmm.. Kakashi..." she murmured. Sakura was still very confused at his reaction, but made no move to end the kiss. It would always be referred to as 'The Kiss'.
"Hmm?" He murmured back, through small, peppering kisses on her jaw.
"When?" she was slightly breathless now, gasping every so often when he would kiss the spot beneath her ear.
"...Family..." was all he said, and she made a noise of comprehension.
His mouth worked down to her collarbones, and she arched slightly into him. His hands were stroking and gripping her thighs, driving her to near insanity with need. Too much, it was too much.
She pushed him away and they stared at eachother for a moment, breathing uneven. Finally, she smirked and pushed off the counter, sauntering over to him.
Grabbing his forgotten mask, she led him back into the common room.
He cleared his throat in question, and she tossed back, "Wanna pretend to watch a movie?"
That same night, Kakashi learned he had his own Inner. And at that moment, he pumped his fist and yelled "Shannaro!"
