Hello! It's An.(: Just wrote out this little one-shot during lunch break and decided to post. Nothing remotely sexual, which is a feat for me in and of itself. And, in addition, it's a straight and non-cannon couple. Kind of unusual for a BL lover? I hope every one likes it, even though it's not exactly my best writing.
I may turn this into a one-shot series. Thoughts?
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or its wonderfully developed characters.(:
Sakura Haruno sat, on the rock closest to Konoha's memorial stone, with a pen in hand and notebook in lap.
She didn't know why exactly she'd purchased the damned thing in the first place, let alone taken it to such a morbid location to use. It was no secret that the medic nin, master of facts and brute kunoichi strength, wrote with an equal amount of passion as a five year old forced to take piano lessons.
You need a hobby, her friends had all told her at one point or another. To find the differences between yourself and others.
She stared at the white page before her, empty aside from the scribble of a heart on one corner. When she thought about it, she'd already found a difference. Pretty good, she had to admit—until she really thought about that incredible difference between her own and Sai's artistic abilities.
A thousand miles, she concluded.
Sighing, Sakura shifted her gaze to stare at the only water some feet away from her: a small puddle from the rain some hours ago.
In some aspects, Sakura was a puddle.
She was a girl—albeit a slightly brutish one—with many striking qualities. Bright, pastel pink hair, like Sakura petals, just like her name, so perfect, so suitable. Who else had such a name to suit them so obviously? Even her ridiculously wide forehead, at just exactly the proper angle, could manage to have some kind of strange decent-looking appeal. She was a master over her muscles! It may not have been discovered on her own, but it was hers. She had good control over her very life's energy, and a slight but built form.
She was compassionate, too. It was a gift, even though it could one day be the death of her.
Her qualities, while none of them actually one of a kind, made Sakura an individual, incremental pond.
But sometimes, she looked for other puddles.
When she was little, Sakura had two loving parental puddles. They protected her, fed her, raised her well into her violent schooling. During this, the Haruno had developed bonds with friend puddles. Ino had been her first, and later her fellow comrades. Along the way, the pink haired girl had tried to force her way to join Uchiha Sasuke's puddle. Her attempts, unfortunately, had been unsuccessful. She'd begun to figure that out when he knocked her out with a lousy excuse of a Thank You, and left her on that bench by the village gate.
She'd begun to figure it out a little more when he'd come back years later in an attempt to destroy Konohagakure.
Sakura had only fully realized that her puddle had been rejected when he'd almost succeeded.
Now, even though Sakura still had friendship puddles and a job to keep a raincloud over her head by her own self, Sakura was left wanting her final puddle merging. A water binding of sorts, so that in a few years she might be able to raise a small pond of her own.
When she looked to the other puddles to fill this void, she found herself to be a lonely puddle yet again.
Maybe the water was simply a sign of her shinobi perseverance instead? Last puddle sitting, last woman standing? A comment to her skills would be much preferred over a blow to her ever-decreasing love life, after all…
As the sighed, the Haruno noticed a group of kids laughing gleefully as they passed her. In their wake, one child's foot accidently kicked a rock into the small water basin. Sakura snorted, rolling her sea-green eyes sarcastically.
Life was always kicking rocks in her puddle.
Sakura hated that rock. She glared at it, growling slightly as if to remove it without simply touching the hardened sediment.
As she glowered at it, she realized how completely similar the situation was to her academy days—the days in which she would glare at any girl getting close to her "Sasuke-kun!"
Maybe it was her that was this ugly and obnoxious rock, forcing herself into Sasuke's pond by playing off life's opportunities? The rock wasn't so ugly anymore. It kind of gleamed in the shallow water… But it didn't need to be kicked to get into a pond, did it?
Life was always kicking her around.
Life needed a good kick to the balls.
Sakura wasn't a bad catch—she was just picky with her men. Her puddle-crushes had to only have non-ugly features, be dedicated and kind, and love her honestly… She only asked for the most basic of things, but life had decided against her this time around. Life wouldn't deliver, no matter how much she offered.
She imagined herself bargaining with her higher being; "I'll ride your shoe a thousand times! I just want a good husband…" The thought made her sick with her pride eating its way into her heart.
"I'm sorry to inform you, Sakura-chan, but I do believe that life doesn't bargain."
Twisting her head rapidly, Sakura gawked at her former-sensei with wide eyes.
Dear god, if anyone, anyone had read what she'd written, she didn't want it to be Kakashi. God no. "H-H-How?" She demanded through embarrassed clenched teeth, seething with the red-hot burning in her face at the man before her.
"I believe I read over your shoulder." His visible eye creased, and she could almost imagine the smile behind his mask. "I never knew you had such a hobby, Sakura-chan."
Looking down at the paper before her, she almost dared to smile triumphantly at the masses of paragraphs that she had filled without realizing.
She hadn't known that this was how writing worked—so simple, so fun. Her hand felt stiff, but the weight of her words were welcome. "Kakashi-sen—senpai?" She asked lightly, staring at her heavy hand.
"Hmm?" He replied, lazily dragging his eyes back up from the paper to look at her.
The kunoichi sighed. "Do you think I'm more like a pebble or a puddle, senpai?"
He chuckled, feeling that emotion-betraying crease underneath his eye deepen. Gesturing with a head toss to their feet, he replied, "I personally compare you more to that flower, Sakura-chan."
She felt her eyes shoot open with shock, until she spotted the slightly wilted sweet pea at her feet. "Leave it to you to ruin the moment, Kaka-sensei," she retorted, snorting.
He remained smiling, and after a few moments, Sakura had to join.
Maybe her wet rock had finally kicked itself into gear.