Complete, nearly-unadulterated angst with a happy ending. Intrigued? Please continue.

Warning: Kakasaku. Don't like, don't read. All characters are well above legal age.

Disclaimer: I own about 60 billion ideas but not much else.

Sakura stood completely still as her heart shattered. She didn't move, didn't speak and didn't cry. She did none of those things because really... she wasn't surprised. She gave a small smile and then turned away, with no great haste-she didn't want to alarm anyone-and just as slowly walked away.

She didn't see his already droopy eye fall with sadness. She didn't her him whisper that she would thank him for it later.

Instead, Sakura concentrated on the simple movement of putting one foot in front of the other. It was comforting, the familiarity of it. And she tried to feel each individual muscle as it did its own small job in moving her forward. In this way the blocks between the bar and her apartment fell away, as she simply lived in the walking, always with that tiny smile on her face.

She barely noticed when she began to climb the stairs to her apartment, and was only roused from her meditative state by the sound of the door closing behind her. Sakura stood completely still for a moment to full appreciate the sharp pounding ache in her lungs that made each breath come out as more of a gasp. Well, what did she expect? She had left her heart in the middle of the dirty street somewhere, no wonder it was hard to breath. Dimly she acknowledged that she should, and probably could, heal the throbbing hole where her heart used to sit. But she just couldn't bring herself to make the effort. Who's silly idea was it to need a heart anyway? They were such fragile, breakable things: too much stress, a glancing hit, hell even an air bubble could destroy a human heart. What a useless contraption.

Sakura wasn't sure how she ended up on the floor and she wasn't sure when the tears had started, maybe they had been there all along, but she was just barely aware that her gasps of pain were transforming into choking sobs. And all the while her lips were twisted into a little smile. Because she had known, she had known all along that this was going to happen. It made sense that he would never feel anything for her. She always had been weak. She had called Naruto Dead-Last but really she was the one who always came up last, always needed looking after. So, when she heard, when she saw for herself that it was true. It made perfect sense.

Over the years she had heard of the Famous Rin, teammate to Kakashi and healer second only to Tsunade-and herself-but somehow seeing her, smiling and beautiful tucked under Kakashi's arm, made everything unbearably clear. Rin had loved him since she was a young girl, they had lived through death and war together. Now that she was back, Sakura knew what would happen next. He loved Rin, Rin loved him. She was unnecessary, repetitive even. After all, who would pick a crystal when they could have a diamond?

So, when she looked into his cool black eye with one arm slung casually over the her shoulders the other dug deep into his pocket, when he had said those terrible words in that terrible nonchalant voice -'How could I forget? Rin, this is Sakura-san, my former student. Sakura-san, meet Rin.'- she wasn't really confused because it made perfect sense, she had expected it all along. So, why did it still hurt? Why was her first reflex to let that hurt and bewilderment show on her face? To ask him what he was talking about? After all it had been many years since she had been Sakura-san, his former student?

You would think that someone with hopes as low as Sakura's would never get disappointed.

But she did. She had wanted for Sasuke to love her back, but secretly she had known it would never happen. So why was she dismayed when it didn't? She had hoped that Naruto would stay after Sasuke left, because she needed him, she needed his warmth and his confidence that everything would work out in the end. But she had known that her need wasn't enough to keep him there. He was destined for greatness, after all-everyone she knew was-and she was always just plain old Sakura. And so Naruto left and she wasn't surprised but she was still hurt. She had dreamed that after training so hard for so long she would finally be able to stand beside her teammates as an equal, but that hadn't happened, would never happen because Sakura lacked that certain something, that spark of talent, of genius that her friends had. She had always known it and she was proven right, but there was no satisfaction in the victory, only pain. She had seen it all coming but yet was always surprised when it happened. And now this.

Sakura can't remember when she fell in love with Kakashi. Whether it was during those long years where they were the only two left behind. Or if it was later when he finally acknowledged that she had progressed far enough that he was proud to call her his student. Or maybe even after that when they had stopped being just teacher and student and also started to be friends. Either way, she had woken up one morning to the strange joyful sensation of loving someone completely. But Sakura was not the same naïve girl she was 8 years ago when she first joined Team 7. She did not doubt even in the farthest corner of her mind that Kakashi would never love her back. She was 14 years his junior and he still saw her as a child. She was fully aware that he thought of her at best as a friend and at worst as a daughter. That was alright, she was used to loving and not being loved in return, just now it was a little more quietly. So the weeks fell away and the months ran together and Sakura was happy in strange small ways, like how her heart lifted whenever she got a passing 'Yo' or how she smiled just a little bit wider when he deigned to come to one of the weekly team lunches. And she decided that she could live like that, that she could cope with being hopeless. But now as she lay curled up in a ball with blood still slowly seeping out between her ribcage and her lungs, she cursed him, and herself, and her hopes, and her pain, and everything about everyone because it wasn't supposed to hurt, because she had no hope for love and yet it was still a shock to see it with her own eyes. And most of all because there was no going back. There was no living through it, no grin and bare it, because it was too much, and she always had been the weak one.

When, three days later at the weekly team lunch, no one had seen Sakura, Kakashi looked at her teammates with dark regretful eyes and told them to give her time.

When, four days later, Sakura's landlady opened her apartment after complaints about the smell, she realized that Sakura was not breathing and screamed for the police just before fainting.

When, five days later, a team of medics stood before the grieving Hokage they told her that there was no cause of death, that it seemed as if she just stopped breathing.

When, ten days later, Sakura was placed in a beautifully carved wooden box lined with black satin, everyone placed a single pink sakura bloom into the open casket, and each person saw that tiny sad smile on her face.

When, two weeks later, Rin left town again, everyone said it was probably for the best.

When, six months later, Kakshi Hatake came back from his 328th unranked mission in a body-bag, no one was surprised because they all knew that he had been dead for months.

When, six years later, Hinata and Naruto brought their 5-year-old son to visit his 'Auntie Sakura' and 'Uncle Kashi' Naruto told him that there lay two people who loved each other so much it killed them, but that they were together now, and he knew they were happy.

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Sakura sat on the sump in the old Team 7 training ground. She smiled at the man slowly loping towards her.

"Hey. What took you so long? You're late!" She said happily. Her former teacher just waved his hand airily.

"Oh, you know, I just got lost on the road of death." At this Sakura couldn't help but let out a surprised laugh.

"That was rather macabre, even for you Kakashi." He gave a eye crinkle but said nothing for a long moment.

"So how have you been, Sakura." And the way he said her name made her mouth turn upward into a small content smile so different from the one he had last seen on her face.

"You know? Not bad. Oh, and that saying about all life's questions being answered when you die? That's bullshit." Kakashi chuckled.

"Yeah, I noticed. But still, you seem a little more... at peace... than I expected." She shrugged.

"I don't think I was really cut out for life. It's too hectic, too competitive. Here, I'm not the weakest, because things like that are no longer measured." Kakashi stared at her for a long moment and finally nodded.

"I know what you mean. Life was more a chore than anything else. I stuck around just long enough to finally die in the line of duty but this was where I always wanted to be. And now you're here with me." He smiled and so did she.

"Don't sound so pleased. I'm sure you'll grow tired of me before eternity is over." She joked. He just kept grinning that unworried, peaceful grin.

"I'm not so sure."

You might be wondering how on earth this is going to be a two-shot. Well... the second part is a similar situation only from Kakashi's POV. Which I find very enjoyable indeed. I have a few doubts about this one, in-particular about its coherency. I only added Rin in the second draft, at first it was just Random Woman #362 but I thought that didn't seem very realistic. I hope this is better but I have my worries. Anyway, I hopped you liked it, please review with any thoughts/constructive criticism.

~Necessity