Breathe – Prologue

Kurai-Hisaki

Summary: They haven't spoken for a year now. Like light and darkness, they were opposites. Due to unforeseen events and a little bad luck, Sakura has to live at Kakashi's apartment for a while. What could possibly happen during this time of chaos? Kakashi x Sakura

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.


"What are you doing here?"

She kept her head down and her eyes glued to her feet as she heard that ever-familiar, baritone voice. His voice had always sounded slow and lazy, but patient – or maybe he just didn't care. She didn't know. She remained silent as her short pink hair started to stick to her face and hid her face from him. She felt drops of water hitting her feet. She was tired, angry and wet. Yes, what was she doing, standing in front of Kakashi's door dripping wet, at 6am in the morning. Oh wait; it went a little something like this…


It was late at night when Sakura had just finished her shift at the hospital. It had been a busy day as several ANBU squads had returned from their missions and over a dozen of them had injuries. Some had been minor injuries while others had gaping wounds and holes through their arms and stomach. She had to admit, a lot of them were big babies when it came to getting treatment. Needless to say, Sakura had drained a lot of her chakra healing these injured ANBU members and had spent a lot of her energy calming the ones around them. The night before, she had stayed up to write a report about her recent mission. Her hospital shift was supposed to be at night, so she figured that she could sleep after finishing her report at 5am in the morning. She had gone straight to bed, and at 8am, someone had woken her up to tell her that she was needed at the hospital for an emergency. By the time her shift was over, she was completely spent. It was just one of those nights where she had wanted to go home, soak in a nice warm bath, lie in her comfy bed with a book or magazine then sleep for hours. But fate didn't like her, it never did.

Once she left the hospital, the late autumn winds had picked up and while it was warmer in the afternoon, it was now freezing. The sun was bright and the rays were warm this morning, whereas now it was cloudy. The moon can't even been seen tonight and the only lights lighting her path were the few streetlights that just happened to be scattered around the long road that she walked on. She had left this morning without a jacket, thinking that it would be warm enough to go without one. Of course, she had never anticipated that she would be at the hospital till 3:45am in the morning, and she had never expected that the temperature would drop past 5 degrees Celsius. Or perhaps, she was just too tired to think about anything at all when she woke up this morning.

Upon walking home on her tired and slightly throbbing feet, it had started drizzling. She didn't think much of it as rain never bothered her. If anything, she would say that it normally comforted her, but tonight with the combination of the strong wind and rain, it was beyond cold and it had started to hurt as the rain hit her face. She swore that it was mildly hailing when her face started to sting. Running the rest of the way home, she was grateful when she finally reached the main gates to her apartment.

She made her way up to her unit and saw this big, fat red notice stuck to the front of her door.

This apartment is going to be torn down in less than a week as a new building is going to be built in a couple of months. Please evacuate your unit as soon as possible.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
-Apartment Management

Her inner voice screamed at her. If looks could kill, her eyes would have burnt the front door of her apartment down.

Inconvenient, my ASS! This downright just ruined my life! What do I do now?!

Sakura should have known that this was coming though. The apartment was old, but it wasn't completely falling apart. She had lived here for quite a while now, maybe a couple of years. It wasn't in the safest neighbourhood, but hey, what did she have to worry about. Common thugs and thieves didn't concern her, and Konoha was quite protected against most ninja's attacks from other villages. Besides, she didn't have anything of value in here anyways. She didn't have much besides basic daily needs, furniture and clothes. She spent most of her time in the hospital anyways; she never felt the need to buy so much for her home. The rent was cheap and therefore, when she first moved out of her parents' house, she moved here. It had been enough for her to stay here and even though she had the money to move somewhere else, she had never bothered to look for a better place. At least moving wouldn't be hard… she should have guessed that the landlord would sell the land for money and a new building would be built.

The problem was… where am I going to go now? It's such a short time.

Deciding to think about it after a hot shower, she entered her apartment without turning on the lights and began to strip off her wet clothes as she made her way to the bathroom. Turning on the facet, no water came out. This had just made her night, the worse night possible.

Wait, she took that back. Her night just got worse as she remembered that she left the window opened in her bedroom and living room to air out the apartment this morning. Her palm met with her face. Why did the autumn weather have to be so unpredictable in Konoha? It was great this morning! Growling, she wrapped a towel around herself and made her way to the windows. Everything was drenched as the rain had been blown in. The carpet was soaked and it puddled and squished as she walked through it to shut the windows. She had never felt so stupid in her life. She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

She wanted to scream.

Keeping her chakra laden fists at her side, the door handle bent a bit as she opened the front door and stuck her head out of it. None of the other units seem to have this notice stuck to their doors. Had she been so busy that she hadn't seen other people move out? Had most of the tenants moved out already, so the landlord cut the water? Then again, she wasn't surprised if she really hadn't seen the other tenants move. She was at the hospital or on missions at least till midnight, every night – and no one moved during midnight.

The apartment was old enough to not have heating. That had never been a problem as she had enough blankets and clothing to keep her warm. She had always had a high body temperature and she warmed up pretty easily anyways. Though, being wet and freezing, if Sakura didn't get warmer, she'd die of hypothermia. Upon wanting to make a hot chocolate, she had also noticed that the power was cut.

F my life.

She knew that she couldn't stay here tonight and she knew that if she did, she'd probably get really sick… if she didn't already. Kicking her brain into high gear as fast as she could, she brainstormed all the places where she can crash for the night.

Parent's house – She wouldn't go back there even if she was starving and in debt. She had spent years convincing her parents that she was responsible enough to live on her own. Once she had turned into a legal adult in the eyes of Konoha, she had moved out. She had the money to support herself from all her missions and ever since becoming a medic, the pay was even better. Her parents had always said that she would come back home soon enough because she couldn't take care of herself. Her pride simply wouldn't let her do that. She had to show them that she was a mature, responsible adult that could take care of herself. She had moved out for years now, and now at age 20, there was no way in hell that she was going to show them that she couldn't fix this herself.

Ino's place – It wasn't a bad idea as Ino had her own place, but seeing how it was in the middle of the night (or rather, early morning), Ino would probably kill her for waking her up from her beauty sleep and give her hell for it. She'd probably end up having to owe her favours for the rest of her life. Plus, the medic wasn't too fond of finding out what Ino did in the night as she always had guys over at her place. Whatever it was, she didn't want to interrupt.

Naruto's place – Was that place even habitable? The last time she had visited his apartment, she swore there had been eyes looking at her from behind the piles of trash and clothes he had lying around. Don't even remind her about his kitchen. His fridge definitely had things that stopped moving and just stared at her (like she was the odd one) once she had opened the door. It was amazing that the place didn't smell as bad as it looked.

Sasuke's place – They had been on good terms once he had came back to Konoha, and to her and Naruto, it was like he never left. To the rest of Konoha, he was being observed very carefully as people still thought of him as a bit mentally instable. But that didn't say much as she was never that close to him before anyways. She would have to say that he was a bit more social now, when he actually made the effort to be around the team. It made him a little bit easier to be around with, but she had always felt inadequate when standing beside him – maybe it was a childhood scar. Even though she could now punch through a 3 feet wide, concrete wall now, it didn't make her feel any less awkward to have him around. Plus, she could just imagine the rumours that would spread once Ino found out and the things Sasuke would say to her when she showed up at his door – weak.

Then there was her shishou's house… but living with her mentor was really not a good idea. As much of a second mother Tsunade had been to her, she just couldn't imagine living with her. That would be crossing all lines of professionalism.

So who did that leave her with? She didn't feel comfortable living with any one of the other rookie nine members. Hinata might have been a good choice as they have worked together a couple of times at the hospital, but it was the rest of her family that scared her. She wasn't talking about Neji, he was a nice guy once you got to know him, but the fact that the Hyuuga's had so much power scared the crap out of her. Their family house was so big that if she crashed at their house, she'd probably get lost multiple times while trying to find the bathroom and her parents would find out for sure – even if her parents didn't socialize with the ninja circles.

She was sure that Lee would be more than glad to keep her company and let her crash at his place for a while, but her mental state couldn't handle him at the moment.

Thinking some more, she could only think of one possibility.

Hatake Kakashi.

Sure, she knew the guy, but there was something odd about Kakashi these days. It wasn't because of the fact that he was her teacher years ago, but perhaps it was the fact that he either treated her like a total stranger or like a child. She wondered if he did this with the rest of the team, or if it was just to her. Whenever she saw him and waved to him on the streets, he would either ignore her (which totally made her feel like an idiot by the way) and go on reading his porn, or he would give you a glance and sometimes a nod. Once in a blue moon, when he was feeling less lazy, he would lift his hand and give you a 'yo'. She hadn't seen the guy in a couple of months, hadn't had a decent conversation with the guy in a good year or so and there could be that possibility that he just didn't want her around, so he avoided her… but right about now, she was pretty desperate for a nice warm roof over her head and couldn't care less about what he thought.

Kakashi's place – The only reason she knew where he lived was because she had to stalk him to his house during one of the early days and it had become her hobby. The reason for that? Well, there were multiple reasons.

1. To wake him up for practice and find him before he can claim to have gotten lost on the path of life.
2. To drag him to practice before the rest of the team had to wait for hours – she was not a patient person, or to find something to do before she blew a fuse.
3. To give him a piece of her mind for dropping her in the lake during one training session.
4. To take revenge for scaring the crap out of her during the bell test in the early days.
5. To find out what he looked like under his mask – while she had that bet going with Naruto and Sasuke.

By no means was she a stalker, but before she knew it – this had become a game to her. She was just an overly curious person. After multiple failures of trying to find out where he lived, she had finally succeeded during one of the times when she was working in the hospital. When he was still her teacher and when she was still a Genin, he had always somehow managed to lose her when she was following him – but not this time. This happened when Kakashi was injured and was walking home from the hospital after getting treated. For him to be in the hospital, it had to be a pretty serious injury, but despite the seriousness, he had wanted out as soon as possible. The staff had let him out, and Sakura took this opportunity to find out where he lived. By then, she didn't need to know, as he was no longer her teacher, but her curiosity got the best of her. She was picking on the injured, but it was Kakashi. He picked on her, someone who was almost half his size a couple years ago, multiple times – so she didn't really care. She presumed that he was pretty out of it, because he was tired enough to not notice her presence – therefore not using any ninjutsu to disappear in the middle of thin air. Success was hers.

But she had never personally been inside his house. She knew that she didn't have to worry about gossip as not a lot of people knew where he lived nor would he talk to anyone about it, if she moved to his house for a while – he was just anti-social like that or maybe he would just rather read his porn than talk to anyone. She wasn't sure, but she was sure that her parents would never know. And unless Ino found out, it was perfectly safe. The blonde didn't know where Kakashi lived anyways, nor would she ever look for him like she would look for Sasuke. And if, by any chance she did find out, there could be a good chance that she wouldn't care. A bonus was added as he was no longer her mentor or teacher. They were of the same rank ever since last year – therefore no lines of professionalism were being crossed.

But one question remained.

Was Kakashi's house habitable?

When her fingers started getting numb, she decided that she really had no other choice. She started to grab some warmer clothes and got dressed. She started to look for her umbrella and as luck would have it, she couldn't find it in the dark. At times like these, she had wished that she purchased some batteries for her flashlight. One would think that she would have been more prepared as a kunoichi. Giving up after getting frustrated, she continued to pack up some stuff for the night and headed for the door without the umbrella.

Here's to hoping that Kakashi's place is better than Naruto's.

Just when she thought that her night couldn't get any worse, half way through her jog to Kakashi's house, it started to pour. Looking up to the dark hazy sky, she could only think of one thing.

Why me… I never did anything to upset anyone, did I?

By the time she reached Kakashi's door, she was completely drenched and her hair was hanging all over her face and eyes. She wasn't sure if she was thankful for not using any make up – at least she didn't look like she got punched or had a panda looking face. Judging from the faint reflection in a puddle, she knew that she looked like a miserable half-drowned cat. But she didn't care at the moment. She wanted warmth and sleep. She could only pray to God that Kakashi wouldn't make fun of her for it for the rest of her life. Maybe if she drugged him during his sleep, he wouldn't remember how she looked like right now. With an exasperated sigh, she knocked on the door.

And that's when Kakashi answered the door.

After several minutes of silence, he never shut the door in her face. He just simply stood there, leaning against the door frame while she stood in the rain. He never invited her in nor did he tell her to go away. She didn't know what he was thinking. His tone, as normal, had no emotions and she could feel that he was just staring blankly at her. She was glad that she hadn't heard the door close yet and that he wasn't mad for her waking him up so early in the morning. She knew that he needed his rest as much as she needed hers, and sleep was more than needed now. At least she had to be thankful that her shift didn't start till 6pm today.

When Sakura finally gathered up the courage, she looked up at her ex-sensei and met his mismatched eyes.

And that's when Sakura's heart stopped.

Suddenly, she felt, as if coming here might have been a bad idea after all. And living here for a while might be more than she can take.


Well… this is the second KakaSaku story (that is more than a one-shot) that I will be writing. Hopefully, I have improved and have gotten better than my first time when I wrote Catching Up.

Thanks for reading!
There is more to come!