Hey there readers. This is the start of my second fanfic (yay). I have yet to actually complete the first one for which I am terribly sorry. The ending has been a source of endless hours of hair pulling. I want to make sure it feels right to me and so far it hasn't. But don't despair, I am still working on it! Hopefully, it will be completed soon.
Now, on with the show. This one will hopefully be just as good and have a bit more humor. =]
"I don't think we are ready for this!"
A hand landed on her shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. "No matter what goes down today, I know that we are gunna win this fair and square. You can count on me!"
She turned back and wearily eyed the tall men behind her. He was the epitome of sunshine. She couldn't help but give a small smile in return.
"I hope you're right about this one," she grumbled, turning back around to face the open field.
"Trust me, ne Sakuraaaaaa-channn? I will keep this village and you safe no matter what!" He boasted as he jabbed a thumb into his chest and gave her his usual goofy grin.
She caught the gesture out of the corner of her eye and felt warmed by it. Suddenly, it seemed like things might take a turn for the better. Maybe they would make it out of this war alive.
Slipping between the alleyways made it easier to get home unnoticed which was exactly what she was hoping for.
Dodging rain was much less important than dodging people. Getting soaked mattered so little in comparison to having to see the disappointment, thinly veiled, in everyone's eyes. They tried not to show it but it was so hard to deny; she had let everyone down.
How could she not have saved him?
It was as if everyone thought she didn't ask herself that question every day. Didn't they all know that she would gladly switch places with him. Even now, she was willing to give up her life so that he could live to fight another day.
It was him that should be here in Konoha, not her. She knew it and so did everyone else.
But, while they all wanted their hero back, she wanted her friend. It was him that would have told her to cheer. He would've picked her up despite her protests and spun her around in a big bear hug; he would have been the one to make her smile even as she cried, a talent that only he seemed to possess.
Sakura stopped for a moment at the bottom of the first flight of steps that led to her place.
She had always loved the rain. Even as a child she would sneak out of her family's house to frolic in the downpour. She would always end up sick with a fever but it was worth it for those moments of pure bliss.
Rain was a piece of heaven falling down on her; it always had been.
Letting her head tip back, Sakura closed her eyes as rain kissed her lids, her cheeks, her lips and her disproportionate forehead.
After a moment she righted herself and began to ascend. She didn't feel any cleaner than before. Rain was just water falling from above; there was no heaven.
Sakura slipped inside her apartment and sucked off the shoes, not caring how they bounced off the wall and left scuff marks. She continued through the living room and peeled off her clothing as it stuck like a second skin. Her shirt came off first, followed by bindings, her medical belt and her shorts.
Sakura let them fall on the floor, not bothering to take into account where anything landed. It didn't really matter in the end.
She lived alone. There was no parent to scold her, no roommate to complain she was a pig. It was just her and her storm cloud of misery, forever raining on her parade.
She made her way into her bedroom almost naked and stood in the center for a moment, listening to the rain on the roof.
Her hand shot out as she turned on the light and shuffled over to the closet.
Clothing hung off of every available surface, chairs, the dresser and lamps alike. She had been meaning to clean up the place for weeks but never seemed to get around to it.
At least she could safely say that all food containers were only in the kitchen/ makeshift dining room. She prided herself for this fact as it meant she wasn't quite as bad as a bachelor, unlike Kakashi. Not that she had ever seen the inside of his apartment since the rebuilding.
Carelessly tying her hair up into a messy bun, Sakura pulled on an oversized t-shirt and flicked off the light. There wasn't anything worth seeing and the light would have given away that someone was home.
She made her way into the tiny living room to which her bedroom was connected and plopped down on the threadbare couch.
Her legs splayed out haphazardly. One arm dangled off the edge at an awkward angle, letting her knuckles brush the floor. The other was slung across her face, blocking out what little light there was at night as it filtered in through her blinds.
She wondered, not for the first time, why she had moved into his apartment after he died.
It was probably equal parts comfort and torture. Living where he once did was the closest she could come to feeling him near. At the same time, roaming the halls he once resided in was a constant reminder of what she had lost, what everyone had lost.
All because of her.
It was a nagging voice, always in her ear, reminding her that the losses she had sustained were her own doing. Despite what everyone had tried to tell her, she knew that they only said it out of pity for her sorry state. They didn't want her to blame herself even though deep down they all did.
How could not they not? She was the one who had carried his limp body through the streets on Konoha and to the Hokage tower.
Damn them all to hell and back again.
None of them knew how badly she ached. He had been a precious piece of her soul; one that could never be replaced. He died in her arms with a smile on his face, knowing that he had won the war, that the fighting was over, that peace had been reclaimed.
He died regardless of how much chakra she pumped into him because he stopped fighting to live. In this classic case of mind over matter, the mind had given up and so the matter didn't, well, matter.
It wasn't a defeat on his part, not by a long shot. He simply felt he had done what was needed and it was his time. Unfortunately, he had been wrong.
The sorrow left in his wake was a gaping hole in the Hidden Leaf. Every ninja felt it, some more than others.
The Rookie 9 was in shambles. Having already lost Shino and Ino in the endless violence, his death was the final blow.
Yes, the war was over and yes, the rebuilding was complete and life was back on track. But Sakura was stuck in the past and couldn't manage to find the willpower to lift herself out of it. She had lost her two closest friends. No one could ever come close to replacing them in her mind, not that anyone had even tried.
The what if's never stopped. Sometimes she could hold them at bay and plaster a smile on her face. Other days, like today, it took all her strength not to fracture into a million indiscernible pieces.
On days like this, where it felt like the whole world was closing in on her, she hid away in his place, on his couch and wished for a better life. A life where no one knew her mistakes. A world where Naruto was still alive.
Sakura curled up, bringing her knees to her chest and hooking her chin over them. Her arms came up to cradle her shins as she slowly rocked herself to sleep.
It was an odd thing, rocking oneself to sleep but Sakura had grown quite accustomed to being her only source of comfort.
Kakashi nursed his sake quietly at the far end of the table while the rest of group was having a grand old time parading around the bar and roughhousing in a drunken stupor.
It wasn't that Kakashi minded. In fact, he would be more than happy to join them. The simple fact of the matter was that no matter how much he drank, he would never be able to reach their level of intoxication.
Sakura had once mentioned that it had to do with his regenerative process. His extremely fast healing rate went hand-in-hand with his metabolism. She had basically told him that the closest he would get to tipsy was alcohol poisoning, the one thing he apparently wasn't impervious to.
So rather than ending up hospitalized with a dying liver, he chose to stay out of the way and quietly enjoy the fact that he wasn't alone. He still had his friends. Even if they all weren't particularly close, they had a bond that was thicker than blood.
Their numbers had decreased over the years. Asuma had been the first. Aoba, Izumo, Ebisu and Shikaku to just name a few, had followed after.
The loss of every ninja reverberated through each and every living member but those that fell were not mourned in their deaths but celebrated for their lives.
Oh yea, everything was celebrated in Konoha now.
The fact that it still existed and that it had been rebuilt to all its former glory and beyond was a good enough reason. There was also the fact that the greatest threat every faced had been neutralized and that all the nations were now at peace. All-in-all it was a victory for Konoha and its people.
Kakashi looked down at his barely touched drink and sighed. There were so many things to be happy for and yet he couldn't find it in himself to even crack a smile.
The sacrifice had been high, just as it was before.
The first war he fought in had cost him his entire team and family. After it had ended, he'd made a promise to never get that close to anyone again. It was a promise he had miserably failed at keeping.
This second war had cost him two students, one AWOL and the other the hero of the village. Both had far exceeded what he had ever thought possible and both died at the hands of each other.
No death would have been more fitting for the pair, or more tragic.
What was left of his team was fractured beyond repair. Only he and the pinkette were from the original Team 7 but its other two members still felt the sting.
They were a group that could barely look at each other without being thrown into a nostalgic fit of despair.
Sakura, namely, was the one who did it for him.
Every time he was forced to look into those jade pools it was like staring into a dying doe's eyes. Her pain was so present and her gaze so alluring that he was always drawn in and forced to feel as she did.
He saw her jaded eyes, devoid of their innocence and immediately wanted to go back to the times where she was a whiney brat, Sasuke was a miserable prepubescent bad boy and Naruto was an obnoxious loudmouth filled with good intentions and a lack of wherewithal.
But that was gone. The past was just that, the past. No amount of wishing or hoping would restore his team and take away the pain.
Kami, he wished he could forget them, push them back into the dark recesses of his mind where he kept all of his pain. It was the place he held the memories of his father, his mentor, his first team.
Kakashi downed the alcohol in one chug and got up to get another from the barkeep. He didn't want to feel anymore.
Maybe it didn't matter if he couldn't get drunk; he could still pretend he was.
A trick of the mind as it were.
Sai sat on the western wall of Konoha under the cover of an immense tree. It was his usual perch on warm summer nights.
He had a tendency to watch people walk by and draw them in their intimate moments when they thought they were truly alone.
Sakura had once accused him of being a "pepping tom" but since he had no idea what it meant, he brushed it off as another one of the irrelevant things she usually shouted at him.
He was simply on a mission to catch a glimpse into the real life of average human beings and then capture it on paper. He didn't see the harm in being curious about the inner workings of the lesser folk.
A couple stopped a few feet to his left. The man took the woman's hands in his own and gently steered her back into the wall. She willingly obliged and soon their bodies melded together against the stone.
Sai began to sketch. His hand moved methodically over the paper. He didn't hurry even though the couple could shift positions at any moment or simply walk away. Art was not something that should be rushed.
As the fates would have it, the couple stayed as they were far longer than needed for Sai to complete his drawing.
He gave the sketch a once over before he flipped the page back and sighed.
Another drawing of another couple that held no artistic value. Sure he had captured them as they truly were, held forever in a suspended moment of time and so on and so forth. It hardly mattered; there was no life, no reality to it.
Sai set his charcoal and pad down beside him and for the first time ever turned to look outwards rather than in.
There was a soft breeze and the sounds of the forest beyond Konoha's borders were calling to him.
Sai tucked his art supplies into the folds of his clothing, storing it in some hidden compartment that only he knew about. Sakura had accused him of "cheating" when he did so in front of her. He hardly saw how that was the case as they hadn't been competing in anything.
His first thought was the jump into the unknown darkness beyond but he held back at the last second.
After a moment's thought, Sai turned back around and effortlessly flung himself off the edge of the wall, into the calm village.
Almost everyone was asleep or on his or her way home. This time of the night used to bring him peace. It was one of the few quiet points in his otherwise tumultuous life but lately he dreaded seeing the sun set.
Sai was not one for emotional bonds but even he could recognize that the issue stemmed from the lack of the Dickless Wonder to which he had developed a certain level of kinship.
Yes, kinship. That was the word used in "Making Friends, Volume IV".
Naruto's loud, boisterous nature had always been something he needed a break from. He only found it when the blonde was asleep. Now, without him there during the daylight, the silence that ensued afterhours was deafening.
Sai eventually touched down on a shop's balcony and slipped underneath the awning there. He sat down cross-legged and took out his supplies. He hadn't paid too much attention to where he touched down but after taking in his surroundings, he allowed himself a lopsided, awkward albeit genuine smile. It was odd how his body instinctively went here when his mind was occupied.
Across the way from him was an image worth drawing. Though it was hard to make out in the darkness the moon provided just enough light through the shades behind the image he planned to capture.
As singular lines met and formed shapes, blocks made way to shading and blended into an intricate pattern on the page, Sai hummed contently.
Humming had originally seemed odd to him. The idea of using ones vocal chords to illustrate a tune without actually singing was peculiar. But after giving it a try, he found that he quite enjoyed the rumbling sensation it created in his chest.
He had no songs to hum and his imagination was lacking in terms of melody so he hummed single notes.
Sakura had once told him that it sounded like he was meditating. Although he disagreed with her, since people do not hum when they meditate, he understood where she was coming from. He therefore refrained from doing it in her company as it seemed to irk her. The kind of irk that got him sent through a wall, that is.
But, alone on the rooftop, there was no one to bother him about it.
Sai set down his pad on his bent knees and tapped his forefinger against the edge of the page.
For the first time in a while he didn't feel the urge to flip the page and try again. It was soft and hazy. The body wasn't definitive or perfect. The face was distorted by the hand covering it and there were parts totally obstructed by the lack of light. Overall, the page was mostly black as were his hands from smudging. The body seemed to be floating in the blackness making the specimen appear more like a spirit than flesh and blood.
A soundly sleeping Sakura.
Sai looked up and sighed. Sakura was staying in Naruto's apartment. Nothing in his books of human behavior gave him an answer for this situation.
He doubted he should mention it to her but he didn't want to be purposefully deceitful. He was fairly sure that staying in a dead friend's apartment shortly after their untimely demise was not a proper way to handle grief. Maybe if he – Another chakra signature cut his thoughts short. Sai let his chin fall into his upturned palm as he propped his elbow up on his knee.
He certainly hadn't expected their white-haired leader to show up.
Kakashi waved his goodbyes in his usual nonchalant manner before leaving the "party" and beginning his journey home.
He walked aimlessly through the streets. He was fairly certain his feet knew the way back to his apartment even if his mind was wandering off to distant locations.
Kakashi passed by the complex Naruto used to live in, as he always did on his way home. The place seemed so solemn now. Though the building was still inhabited by other tenants, it didn't seem to radiant exuberance anymore despite its bright coloring.
His eyes unconsciously darted over to the apartment. He looked first at the faded red door and then over at the only east facing window. It was open.
A part of him, the wiser part in his opinion, said to just ignore it. No one lived there now so it didn't matter if it got wet tonight from the constant downpour. But the part of him who had loved his student as he had loved them all, simply wouldn't allow it.
He slowly made his way up multiple flights of stairs until he stood before the apartment. Once again, the more self-serving part of him said to book it while he had the chance but he squashed it down. He moved over to face the wide-open window and drew in a deep breath. His hands hooked up on the inside and gripped the ledge.
One smooth tug and lightening fast reflexes would have it firmly shut with no one the wiser that he had been there.
The tips of his fingers were poised, ready to swiftly dispatch his commands when he froze, sensing a chakra signal from within.
For a moment his heart sped up at the familiarity of it.
Could it be..? No…
It wasn't Naruto. It was… He stood there for a long, long moment puzzled.
What in Kami's name was Sakura doing in here?
Rather than closing the window, as was his initial plan, Kakashi opened it further and stuck his head through.
The scents that greeted his nose were a combination of strawberries and rotten milk. It was not a pleasant conglomeration for his rather sensitive appendage.
He shook his head slightly and took a moment to decipher that they were, luckily, not coming from the same location.
The uniquely strawberry scent was from the living room, presumably where Sakura was lying, while the rotten milk was only a few feet ahead of him somewhere in the kitchen.
Kakashi slipped through the window with ease and landed soundlessly on the hideous orange tile floor.
He slowly made his way over to the fridge and opened it carefully. The light flickered on, dimly illuminating the otherwise dark room.
A quick glance around told him nothing had changed. The walls were still a vomit worthy green that clashed with the equally nauseating orange floor. The cabinets were a dirty white turned brown while the counters faded and chipped.
Ducking his head down into the refrigerator, he found what he would have expected in Naruto's apartment. Quite a few take out dishes were scattered on the shelves and upon opening one, Kakashi decided that they all were science experiments rather than food.
He threw everything in the refrigerator out, careful not to touch any of the contents within. Who knew what new disease was being cultivated in the refrigerator. Maybe Sakura had decided to take her work home with her? He was aware that she had taken an interest in poisons.
When the fridge was cleared out, Kakashi straightened up and let the door shut with a soft click.
The only source of light was now gone but Kakashi was a ninja and therefore didn't need light to make his way around. At least, that was what he thought until the front of his sandal caught the edge of a haphazardly placed floor mat.
Who in Kami's name put a random floor mat in the middle of their kitchen?
He quickly steadied himself and muttered a string of curses under his breath. He was the aloof Copy Ninja; he didn't trip over carpeting.
With a sigh he adjusted his hitai-ate, glad that no one was there to see his minor mishap. Or rather, no one he was aware of. Sai was still across the way watching him intently, not that Kakashi knew it.
Kakashi continued on his venture to the other side of the rather cramped kitchen and picked up a milk container left out on its side. He already knew something was wrong by the fast that an open milk container wasn't spilled all over the counter.
As a general rule of thumb, Kakashi knew that milk left out was never good. This milk, however, was past the point of not good. Not only was it sour from being left out for Kami knows how long, but upon further inspection Kakashi found that it had expired over a month prior.
It wasn't even milk at this point.
Far closer to some form a cheese.
"Lovely," Kakashi scrunched up his nose in distaste as he deposited the carton into the half full garbage bag.
After a few more minutes of searching, Kakashi found that most of the cupboards were devoid of anything eatable aside from several packages of instant ramen, which honestly, he didn't think were all that eatable.
So the question was; what should he do? He still wasn't sure why he had decided to play housekeeper for the night but at this point it was too late to turn back; he had thrown out everything.
Kakashi slipped out of the apartment the same way he had come and as the cool night air hit his face so did an idea.
Jumping off the balcony he made his way to a twenty-four hour grocery store.
To some, such a store would seem odd. After all, who would buy groceries at two A.M.? But, this was a ninja village and it was widely known that ninja definitely didn't keep regular nine to five hours.
Sai watched the scene unfold in the same manner a scientist uses when observing his rats during an experiment.
He took note of every action, from the time Kakashi stopped closing the window and opted to enter, to the moment he left with a "mischievous" glint in his eyes. At least, Sai supposed it was mischievous; it certainly fit the description in his books. But then, did that mean that Kakashi was about to do something surprising? If so, was it positive or negative?
This was Kakashi, after all, so it seemed unlikely that he would do anything to harm Sakura. But after witnessing him throwing out all of her food…maybe he wasn't quite as good natured as Sai had previously thought.
It seemed like a rather rude thing to do on Kakashi's part. Though never mentioned explicitly, Sai had gathered from all of his reading that it was bad form to sneak into another person's place of residence at night and throw away all of their sustenance.
Sai brought his hand up to his face and rubbed his chin in a manner he had seen many do when they were confused or contemplating.
At first, he had thought that the gesture would somehow stimulate his brain but after a few tries he realized it held absolutely no value. That didn't stop him from doing it, however. He found it do be rather comforting.
Sai looked through the window again to see that Sakura was still sound asleep. He knew better than to wake her. It seemed as though the only options available at this moment were either to leave or wait for Kakashi to reappear.
After a moment's thought, Sai chose the latter option as it had a far greater chance of proving to be interesting.
After a long moment of staring ahead at nothing in particular and fighting himself on whether or not to turn around and forget about this whole endeavor, Kakashi found himself wandering through aisle after aisle of the grocery store, picking up various containers and tossing them into his cart.
He wasn't sure what he was looking for but it wasn't as though he was on a tight budget. After years of being stingy he had managed to amass a small fortune and what better way to spend it than on his under-the-weather teammate.
He picked up a large container of what seemed to be strawberry flavored lollipops and turned the box over several times as if looking for a "Sakura approved" sticker.
Kakashi sighed and drew a hand through his silver tresses, mentally berating himself for taking this all way too seriously.
It was just groceries!
Having made it from one side of the rather large establishment to the other, Kakashi decided he probably had enough food to feed a small army or in this case, a depressed Sakura. If he remembered correctly, she was an emotional eater. He knew that he probably shouldn't enable bad habits but what else could he do for her? It wasn't like he was the consoling type.
He wheeled his full cart over to the cashier and began to unload. While doing so, Kakashi mentally registered items as he placed them on the scanner belt. Miso soup packets, strawberry mochi, green tea, Panko, and fresh shrimp along with numerous other purchases. Hopefully she wouldn't let all the fresh food go to waste.
As he placed the last item, a half-gallon of milk, onto to belt, Kakashi sighed contently. It felt as though he was getting a shit load of good karma for doing this. But as the price rang up, Kakashi did his best not to pay too much attention to the number the cashier rattled off. Rather, he repeated the mantra It's for a good cause as he opened up his wallet and poured its contents into the woman's outstretched hand.
Sai stretched his legs out in front of him as he further contemplated what to do. He could always just tell Sakura that Kakashi had thrown away all of her food though past experience had shown him that "don't kill the messenger" rarely -if ever- worked.
He supposed he could also confront Kakashi about his actions but that probably would not end well either. Kakashi and he were never what one would call close, even by Sai's standards. He was pretty sure nothing would be solved through that altercation.
Perhaps the most plausible solution would be to replace what was taken but without rummaging through the trash he had no real way of doing so.
Sai brought one leg up, bending it at the knee to create an armrest while letting the other dangle off the roof's edge. This was all a few steps above where he was up to in his "human interaction initiative." At this point it seemed that any action taken had a very high probability of backfiring.
Luckily, Kakashi chose that moment to reappear in front of the apartment thereby pulling Sai out of his rather conflicting thoughts.
Sai leaned forward and watched intently as Kakashi gently placed four large brown bags of what he surmised to be groceries, down on the balcony. The bags slumped forward, leaning against the front door.
Quickly, Sai took out his pad and drew Kakashi crouching down by the door, unloading the bags onto the ground. If he was going to learn from this experience it seemed wise to document it thoroughly.
As Sai did his finishing touches, Kakashi stood up, surveyed his packages and with a quick nod, disappeared into a cloud of smoke without further ado.
After waiting a few minutes to be sure he wouldn't return, Sai tucked his drawing pad away again and decided that this was a good opportunity to go look at what Kakashi had left behind for Sakura.
Sai jumped across and landed on the railing of the balcony. He reached out and carefully prodded the closest bag. It seemed safe enough.
Sai climbed down and peered into each bag, noting how most of the contents where what Sakura considered her "favorites".
Odd how that was accounted for...
A few more moments of inspection were enough for Sai to come to the conclusion that Kakashi had thrown away her food only to replace it. The question was why?
Perhaps there had been something wrong with the food already in her custody. If so, why had Kakashi chosen to go about replacing it through such devious methods?
Maybe it could be attributed to Kakashi's odd tendencies in general. Sai did vaguely recall Sakura muttering something under her breath about Kakashi being "more of a dog than a man". It had seemed quite logical at the time considering how Kakashi had a pact with ninkin though Sai had learned long ago to take every Sakura said with a grain of salt. She did tend to natter quite a lot.
That aside, it would explain this whole event. This could all be chalked up to some sort of territorial dispute over who should be the one to purchase Sakura's nourishment.
With that resolved, Sai clambered up onto Sakura's roof and laid down under an overhang to keep himself relatively dry.
The only thing yet to be explained was why Kakashi had taken it upon himself to be the one to "claim" Sakura as it were.
Well, that and what would happen when Sakura found everything gone from her apartment. Hopefully, she would notice the food waiting outside for her before she blew up.
Sai closed his eyes and began to hum again.
This was something he felt he needed to stay and watch in its entirely. It could provide valuable insight into the human condition.
Sleep slowly seeped into his being and he slept well or as well as a ninja could sleep during a rainstorm on a roof. He was vaguely aware of the rain ceasing, the sun rising and the heat returning to the world, making it almost unbearably humid. None of this was monumental enough to make him get up. It would have to be something rather "exciting" for Sai to move at this early point in the morning. Something like- A loud crash resounded from below which was quickly followed by an even louder curse.
Sai flipped onto his stomach and peered over the edge of the roof just in time to see Sakura open her door and mindlessly storm out of her apartment, not even realizing the bags in her way.
Sai quickly took into account how her ninja skills were apparently dulled this early in the morning. He watched closely as she pitched forward and face planted the balcony floor, her legs up in the air balancing on the groceries.
After a few moments of internal debate over whether he should go down and help her, Sakura pushed her upper body up and while balancing on her palms shot a look over her shoulders at the offending bags.
Her pause as she assessed the items gave Sai an opportunity to get a good view of her face. He took out his pad and jotted down the scene. He captured her hair, sticking out in every direction, her slightly puff eyes and her stained light blue shirt that was at least four sizes to big for her rather petite frame.
All in all, she looked much more like a Hag than usual.
Sai nodded at the drawing in self-affirmation and leaned back against the roof. With a smile tugging at the corner of his lips Sai returned the pad to its place and looked up at the clear blue sky.
This was shaping up to be very informative.