Begins after Naruto leaves Konoha from Sakura's point of view.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you leaving too?" my pained voice asked from behind the jonin ninja of Konoha.
"Only for a little while. It's an extended mission. I'll only be gone for a few months."
"Oh, well... that's good, I guess."
Kakashi turned to me from his packing and I knew what he saw. A girl almost thirteen years old with dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep and dull, short pink hair. He'd invited me to his apartment one afternoon after my training with Tsunadae-sama and had said to come there any time. I'd come to make him dinner every night since.
And now he was leaving. I'd prayed that he would never leave, not like Sasuke and Naruto, and not like my parents...
He smiled and ruffled my hair.
"Don't worry, Sugar Cube. I'll be back before you know it."
I sighed and looked up at him.
"Kakashi-sensei, I'm not a kid anymore."
If he had been anyone else, I would have said that Kakashi was checking me out. He sighed.
"Believe me, Sakura, I know. You haven't been for some time now."
I snorted.
"Most people consider under about 20 a kid."
"You became an adult before your parents died, Sakura. Whether you are an adult or not isn't measured by age to shinobi, but by your maturity."
I smiled tirely at him.
"So, in your book, how old am I?"
He thought for a second, then smiled.
"You are about 24. Young enough to enjoy life yet old enough to be responsible at the same time."
I smiled at my sensei.
"And you?"
"Hm? Well, I'm REALLY old."
I laughed and hugged him.
"No you aren't, Sensei. Tsunadae is nearly three times as old as you and she's still not THAT old."
He smiled under his mask and hugged me back.
"Thanks, Sakura."
After a moment I looked up at him and he looked down at me. I don't know what it was, but I saw something that frightened me in his eyes.
"So... when are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow at noon."
I smiled at him.
"So I can cook for you tonight?"
He rubbed his neck a little.
"If you want to. I really should pay you for that."
We'd had that conversation before.
"No. All I do is cook you dinner-"
"You cook me lunch every day and you always seem to get some cleaning done behind my back. I found a few of my vests clean and hanging in my closet yesterday when all I should have had was the one I knew was there."
I blushed.
"I had laundry to do so I-"
"Uh-hu. I really appreciate it, but I can't let you keep going this and not be paying you. I feal bad about it."
"Put it in a savings account for your kids," I said and he snorted.
"Yeah right."
"You can't tell me that you're not going to have at least one kid."
"Once a year I go to the hospital to have a sperm retrieval. I'm not going to have kids until I'm dead."
"Why?" I asked him.
He shrugged.
"I don't date, so without a woman to-"
"There are plenty of women who would date you, Kakashi-"
"And I don't want to have someone else to worry about loosing. You and Naruto are enough as it is."
I nodded.
"Kakashi, I'm not going anywhere."
He smiled sadly under his mask.
"Don't make a promise like that, Sakura. No one can guarantee that."
"Shizune-san?"
"Sakura, we have an ANBU team that just came in. Only two of them lived through thier mission and they're both in critical condition. We need you at the hospital."
"Give me a second to get dresses."
When we got to the ER we immediately started healing the ninja. Only of them were contous and he looked up as we walked in and began healing him.
"Sakura-"
"Be quiet, Genma. Save your strength."
He held up his hand and shakily opened it. I looked at it and stopped.
"He wanted me to give it to you. Said he ad a few things for Team Seven in his room."
I shakily took Kakashi's house key from him and just looked at it.
"Kakashi isn't the other ninja we have to heal, is he?"
Shizune shook her head. I nodded and started healing Genma again. Kakashi was gone and I would never see him again. He'd left me too.
When I left the hospital I didn't go home. I went to Kakashi's house and lay on his sheets, smelling his pillow and crying my heart out, screaming.
"KAKASHI!"
"Sakura, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, it's a big thing, and if you aren't strong enough to look at a dead man every day-"
"I want to do this, Tsunadae-sama. I... I can't imagine anyone of the woman in Konoha really being able to be the mother to his child. What would she tell him? Your father was a ninja I never met and knew nothing about and I only had you because he died?"
"I understand that, Sakura, but you're only 16-"
"Kakashi said to me that whether or not I am an adult isn't based on age for a shinobi, but maturity. He said," I smiled," he said I was 24 and he was REALLY old."
She smiled at me in sympathy.
"All right. Let's get over to the hospital and we'll get the specimen ready."
I nodded. Everything was settled. In ten months I would be a mother.
To baby Hatake.
I shivered.
Somewhere, hundred of miles away, a pained male voice called out her name.
A year later
-KPOV-
I huffed and puffed as I stopped in front of the gates I hadn't seen in so long. Gates I thought I'd never see again thanks to a certain someone.
The guard at the gate looked at me like I was a ghost.
'Guess they thought I was dead. So did I.'
"H-Hatake?"
"Yo."
"I... I should get you to the hospital-"
"No, thanks. I'm not injured, just tired."
"Y-you might want to see the Hokage first thing in the morning, Hatake."
"Hai."
"And welcome home."
I smiled and nodded.
"Thanks. Do you know if someone moved into my appartment yet?"
The guard smiled.
"The lady living there would be glad to let you stay, Hatake. She's as sweet as sugar, so no worries. Just get some sleep."
"Thanks again."
"No problem."
I sighed and just walked into the apartment and was surprised to see not much had changed. My Icha Icha books no longer sat on the coffee table and the kitchen had stuff on the counters, but all of the rest of my stuff was there.
I walked into the familliar hallway and saw that the spar bedroom light was on dimly. I opened the door and saw a breathtaking sight. Sitting on the window seat holding a small bundle to her breast was a pink=haired young girl with bright green eyes.
"Sakura-chan."
She looked at me with wide eyes full of tears.
"K-Kakashi?"
We met halfway and she cried on my sholder.
"You're alive! Everyone thought you were dead!"
"I know. I'm sorry I scared you."
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