When Sakura was seven, she found out what the words "do not cross" meant and when it says do not cross, do not cross. Her being curious and what not decided she was a big girl and a big girl didn't need to listen to a stupid sign in the first place. So with a puffed up chest, clenched fist and determination in her eyes, Sakura crossed the sign…only to trip and fall off a ledge. A sprained wrist and a whole lot of scratches later, courtesy of the giant ditch she fell into, she realized she would have to tell her parents. Sakura wasn't too keen on the idea, seeing how she ignored the warning before had, but what can one do? With her childish nature, she didn't know what "fear" was yet, all she knew was that she had this 'icky feeling in her heart' that wouldn't go away and it keep building. When Sakura was seven, she felt her first panic attack.

The one she is currently having now by far wins by a long shot.

'Okay, breathe. In and out. In and out, in and ou-oh who am I kidding. Some one save me!'

Sakura gripped her shirt tightly and tried to control her breathing, her knuckles whitening from the force. Seeing that it wasn't working as planned only made her matters worse, causing her practically hyperventilate in the street.

'Relax, it could have been worse, Inner Sakura replied calmly.

'Yeah? How is this not worse? ' Sakura replied sarcastically, 'I'm living with a bunch of testosterone-filled males in the middle of freaking-nowhere!'

'It's not in the middle of nowhere, it's just secluded.' She replied with her nose in the air. Sometimes Sakura wonders if her alter ego was really a part of her seeing they are nothing alike. But she guesses that is why they call the alter ego, the alter ego. Great, now she's babbling to herself.

'Oh yeah, that's a big difference.'

'The bright side of this is that you get have your own male Harem at your disposal.' Inner Sakura replied, drooling over the imagery. 'Mmm…just think of all those bodies, hard, stro-'

'Okay, that's enough.' Sakura said shaking her head to get rid of the thoughts. She was really a pervert. Does that make her a pervert as well, considering it is her Inner Self. Sakura paled at the thought.

'I need to weigh in the Pros and Cons of this.'

Pros:

Don't have to pay bills anymore.

Can finally eat on a regular basis.

Finally be able to sleep more than five hours a night. (How she is looking forward to that)

Won't be alone.

Cons:

Have to deal with ten unknown males. (A horrifying thought)

Having to deal with Kakashi.

Will have to start a new life including new friends (not that she had any before)

Won't be alone.

Sakura sighed deeply and ran her hand through her pink locks in a confused manner. What's a girl going to do? She didn't necessarily mind living with Kakashi, she knows him pretty well. He was her teacher for and good friends with her parents; he is practically a surrogate father to her after the years spent with him. She could handle it seeing that she knows almost all of his eccentric ways and habits (Heck, she can even tolerate his stupid little book…well…maybe not) and she could have handled living with another person too, but ten. Now that's cruelty to the extreme.

"What kind of an idiot loses a bet with Tsunade. It's beyond me," Sakura proclaimed out loud in disbelief, rubbing her chin in a thinking manner. Her god-mother was famous for two things: her being drunk half the time and gambling the other half. Tsunade always loses a bet, which caused her many enemies in the casino business (particularly loan sharks) and debts a mile high. Sakura is surprised that she still held her Hokage position for so long.

"Sakura-chan, I'm hurt. I'm no idiot," The said man replied, his silver hair glinting in the afternoon sunlight, his dark grey eye never leaving his orange little book. Sakura frowned disapprovingly the object in his hand and replied angrily.

"Well you have to be an idiot to lose, Baka. Tsunade has the worst poker face in the world and luck around. How much did you have to bet for you to rent out all the rooms in your house?"

Kakashi paused and lifted his head to stare at the sky thoughtfully, his grey eye slightly narrowing in a thinking manner. Several moments stretched tensely around them and just as Sakura was about to wring out of the poor silver-haired man, he finally spoke.

"Hmm…about hundred-"

"Well that's not ba-"

"Thousand."

.

.

.

"WHAT?"

"Well you see, Tsunade bet against me that I wouldn't show up at her office on time. Of course, me being me, I objected and said I would. I couldn't have her think I was incapable of doing such a simple task.

"Apparently you are," Sakura muttered under her breath sarcastically. Kakashi ignored her snide remark, or didn't hear and continued to tell his poor excuse of a story.

"Though, fate was not on my side that day. I was prepared to head out to her office, I was even an hour ahead of schedule I might add but as I went out to into the streets, I came across a black cat and-"

Sakura clenched her fists, veins popping and gritted her teeth in annoyance. He always did this. Always. Sakura couldn't count how many times she waited outside in the training grounds for hours on end for him to show up, and when he did, he always had a lame excuse. Always. Kakashi stopped momentarily and stared at the girl, wondering if she was going to get an aneurism.

"How long?" She asked with barely restrained anger, her fist rising in the air.

"How long what?" He asked lightly, having no clue of her anger what so ever.

"How long were you late?"

"About…four hours?" He replied scratching his head and closing his eye in a sheepish manner.

'That's it. Kick his ass. Cha! '

"Kaka-SHI!"

A smack echoed throughout the grounds.

"A-who, a-who!" A black crow screeched into the afternoon air.

"I hate you, you know that," Sakura grumbled crossly and lifted up her bag's strap on her shoulder to better accommodate the weight. Her luggage was wearing her down now and made it harder for her to keep up with him. She asked if Kakashi could help her out, her being a girl and what not, but he merely chuckled and replied coolly that if she was a very capable young woman of holding her hold own in training, so she must be capable of mere bags. Sakura's only reply to that was a string a curses and a death glare at his back. Kakashi Hatake was a very lazy man.

"How could I not know when you have been repeating it every five minutes, and did you really have to punch me that hard? "

Sakura looked over to Kakashi, seeing him rub his jaw to soothe the now swollen flesh and allowed a self-satisfied smile to creep on her lips and turned to look at the road ahead of her. She remembered this path; it was the one she used to always take when she came to visit or train in his dojo. Now it was the path she will always be taking to her new home.

"Why couldn't we get a ride to your place," She whined childishly. Normally she wasn't one to complains but three days of traveling, sore feet and throw Kakashi in the mix, you get a very moody Sakura," we've been walking for an hour already and my back hurts from my bags."

"Can't. Don't have enough money." He replied smoothly as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Figures as much," she muttered forlornly.

After that, a silence filled the air between the two travelers. Kakashi happily reading his book and Sakura…well, Sakura was dying from boredom.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"What are the guys living there like?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Oh."

With that the silence once again covered them and Sakura hated it. One would get the hint that he wanted to be left alone, but Sakura Haruno was not one to be deterred.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Let's play a game," she said excitedly, emerald-colored eyes sparkling at her brilliant idea of breaking the ice.

"No."

Sakura sighed dejectedly, shoulders slumping forward slightly and looked at the ground. The man was no fun at all, Sakura concluded. One would think that training a bunch of young pupils, the laid-back man would learn some social skills in dealing with kids and how the needed interaction. But Sakura guessed that wouldn't be the case, considering he was always a little…detached when teaching people. She sighed again and turned to look at him with a bored stare, when she heard him giggle and raised an eyebrow.

In all the years she known him, he always had that book with him (well one of the books from the Icha Icha Series) and it always piqued her interest what was in that book that made the usually stoic I'm-always-lazy-and-too-cool-to-show-emotions-other-than-the-occasional-eye-crinkle man become such a… girl. It was probably one of the eighth wonders of the world. (Another being Tsunade, she must be immortal to still look that good for her age.)

"…Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you reading?"

"The title is on the cover." He replied droned out, more out of being obliged to in order get her to be quiet than actually wanting to reply. He lifted the book up slightly, eyes never leaving his page, to prove his point.

Sakura looked and the title and furrowed her brow in exasperation.

'Icha Icha Make-Out Tactics: Special Edition? With more love to go around? What the hell? How could he read that? Correction, how could read that in public?' She thought in horror. Does this man have no shame?

"You know, it's impolite to judge so openly like that," he drawled lazily, "It hurts my feelings."

Like hell it does. The man was probably so used to it that he just shrugs it off like a fly on his shoulder. Sakura scoffed and turned her head to side; the nerve of that man. Kakashi looked up momentarily and chuckled at her antics.

"Just like your father but you get your temper from your mom, though. Such a ball of spit fire, that one was. But I guess they complimented each other pretty well. Kyo was always understanding and never quick to anger but stubborn and Ayame with her bold attitude and fierceness. They were a pair to reckon with." He mused soberly, his grey clouded with an unreadable emotion.

Sakura couldn't have agreed more. How she missed her parents so very much. How long has it been? Four years? Yes… four; it would be the fifth this coming year. Sakura's throat seemed to clog with raw emotion and she had to gulp to try clear it. It seemed so much longer than that. Her green eyes brilliant shine that was held inside them seemed to fade away as she thought about their death. Tears started to cloud her vision, but she couldn't allow them to fall.

It would be the end for her.

If she gave in to that dark emotion that threatened to pull her under and never let her go, she would break all over again and she won't have that, couldn't have that. She spent years trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and she was now to the point of where she had some semblance back into her life and could actually be the same again; even if it was only a mere shadow of what she was.

Kakashi glanced at her and frowned at her inner turmoil. He shouldn't have mentioned her parents, Tsunade was right.

"Kakashi,"The blond buxom woman said with slightly narrowed eyes, "how is she?"

He looked up at the ceiling, book forgotten and replied seriously, "As good as someone who lost her parents will ever be."

Tsunade sighed and knitted her fingers together in front of her, head leaning in over her desk. "I see…I was afraid of this. She was always such a bright, heart-felt girl, that it probably affected her more than most people. They were her life after all; they were all that she knew."

Kakashi stared out through the window solemnly. Pedestrians werebustling throughout the busy streets of Konoha. Everything was just like all those years ago; life seemed to go on, no matter what he had lost, what they had lost that fateful day. "I know Kyo and Ayame wanted you to look after her, but seeing that you prefer living alone, I wo-"

"No," he interjected softly but the undertone was strong. He turned his attention away from the window in order to look at Tsunade with determination radiating off from him. He couldn't allow her to take her. Kyo wanted him to do this," I'll look after her. I owe it to them."

Tsuade gave him a pained look, her lips forming a grim line. "Kakashi, you don't have to do this, it was an accident. I was there, you couldn't ha-"

"I'll look after her," he repeated with more conviction. Tsunade sighed and put her head in her hands in defeat. Seeing him, the once laid-back man looking so troubled and so serious was not something she wanted to see again. Kakashi like this was a pain; he didn't need to redeem himself. It wasn't his fault. It was just the wrong place and the wrong moment. Kami, she needed a drink. A strong at that.

"I understand."

"Kakashi, Ka-ka-shi-sen-sei," Sakura practically yelled in his ear. The man was not only half-blind but also apparently deaf as well. The said man broke out of his reverie and stared down at the girl, green eyes flashing at him in annoyance.

"Oh, sorry. Just spaced out a bit. Heh heh…," he replies lightly.

Sakura scoffed at him and put her bags down in an undignified heap. "Sensei, it wasn't just a bit. I've been calling your name for five minutes and all you did was kept staring ahead with a damn faraway look on your face."

"Really, I didn't notice. Hey…why did you stop?" He asked not seeing they have not moved from their previous position.

"Why di-I, wh-I?" Sakura sputtered in anger and put her hands on her hips. Kakashi nodded much to her chagrin.

"Me?" Sakura poked his chest in anger," It was you who suddenly stepped and I practically ran into you doing so, "She gritted out through clenched teeth.

"Ah. Sorry."

Sakura practically growled at him and was about to give remark a nasty comment when Kakashi (he seemed to sense her killer aura this time) interrupted smoothly.

"Oh look, we're here. Isn't that great." He stated merrily.

Sakura followed his line of sight and nearly had a heart attack. How the hell did she miss his house? Her mouth gaped opened in surprise. It was a massive thing, almost as massive as she remembered; it wasn't something that a person could pass by and not notice. And yet there it was, his house, standing in its fine glory. It was very traditional with giant white walls with tiled roofs obscuring her view. From what she could remember the house was a two-story traditional Japanese house, one like a noble's. She always wondered how he got such a luxurious house and asked him once about it but he just ruffled her hair and said that wasn't always a teacher. Till this day, Sakura didn't know what on earth he was talking about, but this was Kakashi Hatake; the man was always confusing and vague.

"Yeah, awesome," she muttered sarcastically, her anger slowly ebbing away towards him. Sakura wondered the best ways to kill oneself as she stared at the erect structure before her, but quickly dismissed the idea when she thought about the funeral costs; she would not only have killed herself but also Kakashi as well seeing he would have to pay for it. With that in mind, Sakura picked up her bags and followed Kakashi inside the gates. She won't do anything drastic…yet.