He's a liar.
He says "Hi," like he's glad to see you, when he'd rather have not noticed and you return that same favour.
When you ask him how he is, he knows you don't really care, but he'll answer, and his answer is always a default "fine," even though he really never is. If he respects you – note, not like, because he's personally quite sure that his heart froze over a long time ago and he is incapable of feeling that emotion – he'll even tack on a "how've you been?" even though he isn't interested either. He'll let you jabber on about your life for a few minutes, adding appropriate noises of sympathy/understanding/congratulation where he can see they belong.
Then when you part ways, suggesting that perhaps he could come over for a drink or a meal, or even meet up somewhere, he'll say "sure," but then he never does. Every thing is a stock answer and he doesn't mean a word of it.
--
He's brutally honest.
Every single reason and excuse he ever gave for being late was completely true and can be verified, it's just that no one ever does because they all assume it's a lie.
Every training session, he won't sugar-coat the truth, soften his words or give redundant, false praise. As a man ill-at-ease with conversing in the first place, everything he says regarding skill levels is completely true and to be taken with as much seriousness and consideration as it is given.
If what he says upset you, it wasn't because he intended it to, it's simply that you had never been faced with so much honesty about your skill levels before.
--
He is a coward.
It has nothing to do with his skill in battle, and very little to do with the mask that he wears.
His is a coward because he hides behind the bravado and mystery that those around him have built up on his behalf, without ever consulting him.
He hides behind the Icha Icha books and the label "pervert" they give him, hiding that at just past 30, he's still a virgin, never even been kissed properly, though the mask has gotten in the way of a few drunken kissed plastered to his face by random women. They were the drunk ones, not him.
He hides behind rumours that he is a sex-god, so that he can pretend to be picky when really he is terrified of what the women may want from him, and the let down should they ever learn the truth.
--
She had learned the first and the second facts of him rather quickly. Having been placed in his team, the only girl and a good deal smarter than she looked, it hadn't been hard. It wasn't until her curiosity got the best of her and she picked up one of those orange books, however, that she began to get an inkling of the third truth of him. The plot was fascinating, the characters involving, the action sequences finger-bitingly good, and the sex scene, right back near the end, was tasteful more than it was hot-and-heavy.
Then again, if it had been, she supposed he would have been walking around with a boner all day, every day, unless he got really good sex every night. Except that if he were, he wasn't getting it from any of the places he went by on his way home each night. She watched him go into the bar with Kurunei and Asuma – whom she knew were in a relationship – and she watched him leave alone, completely sober and… slightly tense. Which didn't really make sense either, since people went to the bar to drink and relax, and he seemed to have done neither.
--
Sasuke returned not long after he had turned twenty. After he had sorted out the disciplinary issues with Tsunade, he had sought out Sakura. They sat in a tea house and calmly discussed their feelings for each other. Yes, they did care about each other. No, it wasn't romantic, and romance would never work between them.
--
Naruto had returned from training with the pervert, again, and upon seeing Sakura had jumped her. Again. Before he closed his arms around her, the Hokage's apprentice had flicked his forehead protector with one chakra-infused fingertip and sent him flying, a bored expression on her face.
--
Sakura studied the files, memorised the scrolls, improved her chakra control and ran a lap of the village wall at the beginning and end of every day. She trained in the more common arts of ninja – ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu – whenever she could make time, but that wasn't nearly as often as she would have liked, and she sacrificed any social life she might have had in order to get it in.
One day, she walked into a bookstore, needing a distraction, and with a rueful smile and a shake of the head, she took an orange cover off the shelf and headed to the checkout. She was nearly 28, and still a virgin – a rare thing for a kunoichi. Not that it really mattered one way or the other. Sakura knew better by now to believe that sex meant love, so that wasn't it. She was simply to busy to even get a one-night stand, unless she wanted to sleep with Genma. Frankly, the idea of contracting something did not appeal to her, and she had read his file.
The only reason she had time to read Icha Icha now was because Tsunade had decided her apprentice was becoming a little much of a work-a-holic. Otherwise, Sakura was sure she wouldn't have had time for her ex-sensei's favourite literature either.
When she returned to her duties, Sakura's first patient was Kakashi.
--
He was lost.
He knew why he was there, at least on face value. It was a party, and he had been invited. After he had been invited very politely, his two male ex-students had shown up at his door and threatened him in most impolite terms that he was going to go to this party or they would kill him.
It wasn't a big party really, just the old team 7 really, but it quickly grew to all of the 'Konoha Twelve' and all the more senior ninja who were still alive. Their numbers were dwindling on both sides. The twelve was down to eight, and of the ninja that were … older than what remained of the twelve, there were only Kakashi himself, the Hokage, Ibiki, Anko and Kurenai. Shizune could have been there also, but was running around doing the paperwork that Tsunade had neglected in order to enjoy Sakura's 30th birthday celebration. Still, the thing about gathering together was that it highlighted all the people who weren't there. A bit depressing as far as he was concerned.
That Tsunade managed to get drunk enough to pour cranberry juice into his hair to see if it would go pink like Sakura's hair only made it worse. Particularly since he was still mostly sober. The way Sakura face-palmed and rose from the table indicated that she was too, and thoroughly embarrassed with her shishou.
He watched as she performed a sleeping justu on the blonde, busty woman and ordered Naruto to take her back to her office. Naruto was unsteady on his feet, but fine enough to carry out Sakura's orders.
Sakura walked with Kakashi back to his place to help him get the juice out of his hair.
--
He was terrified.
He had no idea how it had happened, but somehow Sakura had stayed the night at his apartment rather than returning to her own a mere two blocks away. He knew this because when he had left his bedroom and stumbled into the living room, intent on the kitchen and coffee, she had been asleep on his couch. Furthermore, she had been asleep on his couch with a copy of Icha Icha rumpled on her stomach, and it wasn't his. His copy of that volume was on the shelf above her.
He stood there staring at her for a full minute, all thoughts of coffee flown from his mind. He nearly jumped out of his skin when her eyes fluttered open and those green orbs fixed on him.
"I've been meaning to tell you," she said, sitting up, apparently oblivious to the fact that Kakashi was rooted to the spot and staring at her like a deer caught in headlights. "I think I've figured out your secret, Kakashi," it was like she was determined to give him a heart attack. "Of course," she continued, "I have the same secret."
He broke down and cried then, and he wasn't sure why. He just held her around the waist and cried on her knee.
"I've got another secret, Kakashi," she said softly when he had calmed down. Stroking his hair, she bent to whisper the words into his ear. "I think I've fallen in love with you."
His head jerked up and his one visible eye searched her green orbs. Gently, she kissed his forehead and smiled down at him. Kakashi shifted up to sit beside her and pulled his mask down.
"Thank you Sakura," he said, leaning in to capture her lips in his own, for his first kiss.