Author's Notes: Heya! This is chapter one of a seven-part lyrical summer contest going on over at deviantART in the group KakaSakuDevotion. The only requirements are KakaSaku, and the relationship between them can be anything: friends, enemies, lovers, whatever. Read on to find out what they end up being in mine ;)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! I've had a good time writing this, so I hope you have a decent time reading it!

ALSO, minor spoilers up to chapter 675 in the manga (which means the one that just came out earlier this week 8/8/2014). Just as a warning. You can read on and pretend I made all of it up if you'd prefer ^_^ It's cool with me, whatever you do!

Vickerooni out!

xxxxx

Chapter 1: Love is Evil

I am strong, love is evil

It's a version of perversion that is only for the lucky people

Take your time and do with me what you will

You know I'm ill

Hit Me Like a Man by The Pretty Reckless

xxxxx

The bar doors blasted open as a flurry of pink and red shot out into the street, the sun blazing down on her desperate, upturned face. Angry tears formed in her eyes when a voice filtered through the swinging door after her, wrapping about her neck like a noose.

"It was never going to be you."

Sakura spun around to glare at him, at Sasuke standing dead-faced behind the bar before shoving her way through the crowd and swatting off the yummy smells emanating down the street.

Quickly she mounted the houses to the rooftops to avoid curious eyes and sprinted home, propelled by her frustration and heartbreak, the tears whipping soundlessly off her face. They formed against her will – she had been able to train herself not to give in to the weakness of crying, as showing any deep emotion was against shinobi code, but right then she felt an exception to the rule.

Two months had passed since the end of the war, two months since Sasuke was brought home and thoroughly interrogated. He'd been released to live in the abandoned Uchiha portion of the village if he so chose, albeit under close watch. Though he assisted the shinobi in winning the war against Madara, the wrongs he had caused in the past were still fresh enough wounds to warrant some distrust. Still, he had yet to cause any more trouble, as much as he hated being followed around.

Sakura, and Team 7 as a whole, were relieved to have him back in Konoha, and Sakura had reverted back to her younger self, rapidly growing infatuated with Sasuke again. Naruto of course didn't approve of it and Kakashi remained reserved though wary. Sakura brushed off any of their words of warning and began attempting to rekindle what might have been there before Sasuke went rogue.

Unsurprisingly, it blew up in her face. Sasuke toyed with her emotions for a while, luring her into fooling around with him in the alley behind the bar, and in her little lovesick mind, progress was progress, even if all he ever did was feel her up and make out with her when he wanted to. Hardly any words were ever exchanged. That should have been her first red flag, but she ignored it.

Moments before she slammed through the doors of the bar, she had plucked up enough courage to sidle up to Sasuke, working as the bartender, and ask him exactly what their relationship was and where it might be going. With his typical dead expression and blank eyes, he told her he'd chosen Karin to be the one to help him breathe new life into the Uchiha name. (He of course never spoke of "girlfriends" or marriage – "child bearer" was about as close as he would ever get to such names.)

Her brain couldn't compute the blatant error. She asked him to repeat himself, and then it clicked. He didn't want her. He didn't want her.

She'd flung a few colorful insults his way and promptly stormed out, though her emotions were a knotted mess and she was feeling nowhere near as confident as her words had made her seem. In that moment, she'd almost rather have gone back to fight in the shinobi war all over again than hear Sasuke utter those seven words, each a sure strike on the chisel poised at the center of her heart. He'd made his decision and she was a helpless ragdoll beneath the churning waves of the aftermath he had so carelessly discarded her in.

What an ass! she exclaimed in her mind through clenched teeth as she sprang from roof to roof. She might have felt at least a little better if he had showed even the slightest modicum of reluctance or even regret. But no, she would never be so lucky; from the very beginning he had decided, and that decision only included her as his temporary plaything, tossed aside once he grew bored with whatever game he was playing.

Her initial shock and sorrow began boiling into steaming rage just as she arrived, sniffly and deflated, at the end of the footpath to her apartment. A sudden blur of blue caught the corner of her eye and nearly ploughed into her, but with his trained reflexes and agility, he grabbed her about the waist and spun around her in order to displace the momentum. He dropped his hands and she blinked at him in surprise. Hurriedly she scraped off her sad-sack, vengeful expression combo and pasted on a slightly happier one. It was a feeble attempt, though, since this man had known her for most of her life.

Though she didn't know it, he had already guessed in his head, and guessed correctly, what had caused her mood. He figured it better not to bring it up.

"Kaka-sensei, I didn't know you were a mailman," Sakura chirped as it dawned on her why he was wearing a giant sack slung over his shoulder and clutched a few pieces of mail addressed to her in his gloved hand. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? Since the end of the war?"

Kakashi nodded and placed her mail in her hand before pushing his own hands into his pockets. Typical.

"You've been stuck in long shifts at the hospital, I've been stuck in the mail routes – we generally wouldn't cross paths."

Sakura agreed with a small nod and a twisted lip.

"Can't complain about the work environment, though some of the poor bastards I see on a daily basis are still recovering from their part in the war. Speaking of recovery, how's your…?" she inquired, motioning generally to his eyes.

"My new sharingans are good, less headaches and less bleeding. It's strange, having both – before when I had only one I didn't realize just how unbalanced I felt. Having both makes things much easier." Kakashi rubbed his right eye (the newest sharingan) and blinked, training it again on her visage. Obviously his body wasn't quite used to having two sharingans yet, either.

Sakura laughed and nodded. "Well the medics at the hospital thank you. I'm not sure how many times we have written on your report that you came in with blood spewing from your eyes. You know, you used to cause so many messes, Kakashi," Sakura teased.

Kakashi shrugged noncommittally. "Nothing I could do. I'm certain that you'd rather clean me up than deal with what put me in that state anyway, so I was doing you a favor. It seems I failed to dedicate enough time to teaching you three how to be gracious." He sighed in a defeated way and slumped his shoulders even further. Sakura managed to resist the flinch that even indirectly bringing up Sasuke caused. She could very easily confirm for Kakashi just how ungrateful and selfish he was, but she held her tongue and took the safer route.

"Eh, is Naruto driving Tsunade crazy?"

"If he wasn't such an outstanding candidate to succeed her as Hokage, she'd have thrown him from the heads long ago. I hear he is being groomed well and is enjoying it, though, despite his obnoxious tendencies." He ran a hand through his hair and began to back away. Sakura felt her heart sink in a strange way the further he retreated.

"As much as I'd love to stick around and chat, I should get back on the route. Time is money, so they say. I would much rather stay and catch up – this gets so monotonous I sometimes find myself falling asleep as I run, but I can't disobey orders."

"Oh, boring, huh? Hmm, perhaps I'll start leaving little notes in my mailbox for you, you know, to make the day less boring," she offered jokingly.

Kakashi pondered this for a moment before giving her another shrug and smiling. "That wouldn't be so bad," he commented as he waved. "See you around, Sakura."

"See you, Kakashi."

With that, he jetted off, throwing the mail in the boxes and slots as if they were shurikens. Sakura's eyebrows rose in approval of his use of ninja skills in his mundane job. It would be such a shame for him to become even the slightest bit rusty. That thought became a springboard and off of it leapt an idea hanging in the air as a pondered invitation to spar with him sometime out on the old training grounds. It had been much too long since Sakura used her chakra for more than healing, and considering everything, a long, challenging spar would be good for her.

She unlocked her apartment door and tossed her things onto the table close by, welcoming the familiarity and comfort her small habitation brought her. Her mood was lifted by the encounter with Kakashi, and for a sweet moment she couldn't remember exactly why she was feeling down, until it all rushed back, and she recalled what she had been running so ferociously from.

A solid thump in the wall rattled the door as she slid down it, pooling onto the welcome rug, leaving the cracked drywall shaped like her fist behind.