Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Sakura could practically feel her finger tips burning in anticipation as she peeled back the opening cover of Kakashi Hatake's file. She didn't know if it was the fact that she was looking at classified information, or if it was the fact that this classified information was about her sensei, but Sakura felt a burst of adrenaline as she began to read the first page.

The first section was the standard information found in all shinobi files such as name, date of birth, blood type, rank and so on. Even though this information was bland and data Sakura already knew, she felt that she couldn't afford to miss out on any detail of this man's life. That even the smallest most insignificant line of writing in this file could provide some clue to understanding the beautiful boy she saw in the picture.

She bit her lip as she took in the compulsory, maskless mug shot clipped next to the basic personal information. It looked recent as the face staring back at her was the one she had grown accustomed to. The scar looked faded a painful but suppressed reminder of a past tragedy, and there was a sharpness hidden in the sleepy expression that suggested years of seeing and feeling too much. A sharpness that hinted at the weight of a terrible knowledge. A knowledge which the boy in the other photo had yet to experience to a full extent. Even with this sharpness Kakashi still retains his youthful, near perfect facial arrangement, and Sakura has to hold back a growl of annoyance.

How is it this man can look so good in a mug shot Polaroid picture? Sakura's own file photo was updated only a few months ago, and had produced an image of a slightly crossed eyed, grumpy looking girl. Sakura quickly pulled her eyes away, knowing if she didn't she would sit and analyse that one photo all day. She began to read the block of writing directly below and noticed with a pang of sadness the statement:

"Mother died due to complications after child birth."

A frown developed across her brown as she re-read the line. She couldn't imagine her life without her mother; she was her strength and was able to pick her up from even the most horrific of crashes in her life, to be without her was something Sakura just couldn't wrap her mind around. There was little information about Kakashi's time at the academy, simply comments of his developing genius and his impressive graduation aged only six. Sakura thought back to when she was six, and memories of playing with pony dolls, plating hair and sitting on her father's shoulders rushed back to her.

A far cry from the six year old boy in the photo she held now. The young Kakashi depicted was stood with The Third Hokage, a couple of elders and what Sakura presumed to be his father. What Sakura believed to be Kakashi's father had placed a proud hand on his son's head, and the young Kakashi had tipped his head to look up and smile at his father. Next to the picture was the headline, "Prodigy becomes chunin aged six."

Sakura quickly realised that the newspaper clipping had served more than to report Kakashi's genius and potential. It had managed to capture a truly genuine moment between a proud father and his son. The raw pride and happiness Sakura felt through the photograph made a feeling of contentment settle on her chest. And a small smile played on her lips as she thought of her own father, and his moments of pride when she achieved her own goals.

The smile quickly fell as she turned the page and saw a grim picture of a young Kakashi stood in front of a grave clinging to an umbrella with his eyes downcast. Her eyes flickered across words such as "disgraced", "failed" and "dishonour". And finally the word "seppuku". A slow anger and grief began to well in Sakura's throat, anger for what the village caused and grief for the young Kakashi in the photo, orphaned aged seven.

"I can't believe you're still here." Tsunade remarks as she closes her door behind her, eyebrows raised in slight disbelief. Sakura jostles slightly, turning her head sharply toward Tsunade.

"I thought you would have scampered by now. Remember it was who you requested the afternoon off to train with your team." Tsunade said as she slid into her chair.

Sakura's body ran cold for a moment before she looked hastily at the clock. In an instant she was on her feet barrelling toward the door.

"Ah! I'm going to be late! Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Hey remember I want you here bright and early to sort out the rest of those files!" Tsunade called after her.

Sakura felt a small amount of relief as she flew down the streets of Konoha toward the training grounds. She always loved the feeling of release she felt when she ran, especially after a day stuffed up in the Hokage tower.

When the training ground came into view Sakura was greeted with the sight of Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto greeted her with his usual rush of energetic, vibrant chatter, whereas Sasuke's only acknowledgment of her was his gaze slightly lifting from the rock he had been kicking.

"Hey Sakura how come your late? I thought sensei might even get here before you!" Naruto said quickly whilst beaming at her.

Sakura gave a bashful smile as she fiddled with the hem of her skirt. She didn't really want them to know her absence had been due to fawning over their sensei's file, the incessant questions that would be fired off by Naruto simply wouldn't be worth it. Besides, she didn't want to share what she knew. It seemed too special to just chat about without thought, and it made Sakura feel unique knowing she was one of only a few people who had seen that file.

"Yeah I guess I must have just lost track of time."

Naruto seemed pleased with this response and dived into a story about his and Sasuke's latest duel, and how close he was to perfecting some new super duper technique. Sakura couldn't help the smile that developed at his story. She didn't think there was anyone in the world that could resist liking Naruto once they listened to the unrestrained joy that emulated from his stories.

"Now now Naruto lets calm down before you burst a blood vessel in excitement."

Sakura couldn't begin to explain the rush of excitement she felt at the sound of Kakashi's voice. She had never felt the sudden lurching of her stomach, or the flash of heat that rushed to her face when he spoke in the past. She pushed the reactions to the back of her mind, and spun round on her foot to offer a smile to Kakashi, who was perched with perfect balance on the branch of an overhanging tree.

"Sensei your late!" Naruto shouted, pointing one finger at Kakashi while a smile played on his lips. Sakura spared a glance at Sasuke who was also gracing them with a slight smirk, before looking back up at Kakashi who was sporting his tell tale crinkled eye smile. She knew what they were all thinking, it was great them all together again like this. It was a simple but important pleasure that Naruto was able to point out Kakashi's lateness, and that the rest of them could pretend to still be annoyed by his quirky trait.

A simple tradition that Sakura would cling to ferociously for the rest of her life.

Kakashi dropped from the tree with such grace only a cat could muster, and Sakura felt the small swirl in her stomach all over again.

"Shall we get on with it then? Taijutsu today I think, Sasuke and Naruto you two partner up, I'll be your partner ok Sakura? Hey and you two, no cheating I'll be watching." Kakashi said cheerfully tapping his concealed Sharingan.

The two boys nodded before taking off in a whirl of fists and kicks, leaving Kakashi and Sakura standing in the dust trail they left.

"That goes for you to by the way. No monstrous strength, I quite like my facial arrangement as it is thank you."

Evidently so did Sakura.

"I'll do my best." She replied smirking as she lifted her fists.

Kakashi has always been a tough teacher, he was a firm advocate of fitness, that if you didn't have solid base level of fitness then there was simply no point in focusing on taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu, because as he explained, "you'd been too busy huffing and puffing for air that you'd be dead before you even thought of drawing on those three areas."

Sakura remembered every painful, gruelling run and fitness circuit that he had inflicted upon them. He never seemed to understand that just because he was a fitness machine it didn't mean his students would be also.

He also never failed to push his students to near breaking point in their training sessions. From day one he had been intent on installing a single minded desire to survive in his students. Telling them that in every training session they needed to push themselves to the point where they believed they couldn't go any further. Because when the time came in a real fight when they and their opponent got to that point, it would be the one who was tougher in the head, and the one who had gone that extra inch in training who would survive.

Sakura used to think that if you just trained your body to be hard then you would make it as a ninja. But as she watched her sensei survive situations that seemed impossible, she realised that strength of mind was just as, if not more important.

Kakashi stepped forward.

"Ready?"

A firm nod from Sakura confirmed she was, and she unleashed a series of attacks that she knew so well she could do them in her sleep, blindfolded and juggling kittens. This of course unfortunately meant that Kakashi knew them far too well also.

"Come on Sakura you're better than these tired old tricks." Kakashi goaded as he effortlessly dodged and blocked her attacks.

And the truth was she was better, but Sakura didn't want to try and push herself today. Rather ashamedly she admitted to herself as she had launched her attack that she didn't want to focus on her skills, but rather focus on Kakashi's.

She had seen this man fight many times before but now she wanted to fully appreciate him as a fighter. She wanted to engrain in her memory the way he moved, the way each movement was fluidly linked to the next. The way his breath caught just a little before he dodged, and how his feet seemed to only lightly skim the ground before dancing away to the next motion. She wanted not only to see it all, but feel it too, to be caught up in it the way he was.

However it seemed the Kakashi was not as content as she was to let her coast along appreciating his skill, and quickly dropped down to use his foot to sweep her feet from under her. Sakura let out an oomph as she landed on her back, and remained there staring up at the sky breathing heavily.

"What's up? You seem a little distracted." Kakashi said tilting his head to look down at her.

Sakura sighed before propping herself up on her elbows.

"I guess you could say I am. I had another fight with my mother about the whole ninja thing."

I t wasn't a lie, Sakura and her mother had fought the previous night about her occupation as they often did, but it wasn't what was distracting her, not really. In fact the distraction was moving to sit down right in front of her now.

"Again? Do you want to talk about it?" Kakashi asked propping his elbows on his knees, and resting his chin in his hands.

"She just doesn't get why I want to be a ninja, I know she just wants me to be safe but she just can't see my view point." Sakura bemoaned, shaking her head as she thought of the arguments they'd had.

"It must be rough for her, being a civilian and having a daughter who's a ninja." Kakashi offered

"I know, and I love her but she needs to just accept I can look after myself."

"You are only seventeen, your parents still have the right to worry."

Sakura rolled her eyes at this.

"I'm not exactly a typical seventeen year old girl. I can punch holes in concrete walls without breaking a sweat. I'm not really what you would call vulnerable sensei." She snorted as she kicked at a rock near her foot.

Kakashi smiled at this and leaned forward to look her in the eye.

"True but your still their little girl."

Sakura nodded she supposed he was right, no matter how strong she was or how old she got she would still be their baby girl.

"I bet you never had any of these problems, not with your dad being such a famous ninja." Sakura said after a few moments silence.

"No, not really."

Although his tone or body language hadn't changed, Sakura could swear she could almost feel him tense up.

"It must have been pretty cool to have such a revered ninja for a father, kind of like us having such a well know badass for a teacher." Sakura said playfully, and Kakashi let out a soft chuckle.

"Yeah it was for a time, right up until people stopped looking up to him." He answered softly, still smiling at her.

"What happened?" Sakura asked slowly, holding her breath as she awaited his answer.

Normally this would be the point where Kakashi would quickly change the subject to avoid further prying into his past. She watched him carefully, trying to determine if today was the day she would actually learn something about him. Kakashi exhaled a breath he had seemed to be holding, before glancing across the field to glimpse at Sasuke and Naruto's fight.

"He messed up a mission, he put his teammates first as because of this the mission failed. It was costly for Konoha, a lot of people were hurt because of it. Things changed pretty quickly then." He replied in a draw out tone, his eyes still trained on the two boys.

Sakura was enthralled; she licked her lips before questioning him further.

"How did it change?"

She watched his throat as he swallowed hard, and his hands that moved to grip his knees.

"People said he was disgrace, that he had failed Konoha. Even those he had saved turned on him. It got pretty bad for a while, people were so angry." His voice trembled slightly on the word angry, only the lightest vibration that Sakura wouldn't have picked up on had she not being listening so closely.

"People blamed me too, by association I had failed as well. It didn't let up until my father...passed away when I was seven."

The word Seppuku flashed across Sakura's mind as she formed her next question, wondering how far she could push the conversation before he turned away.

"Is that who you go to visit at the memorial?"

Sakura knew for a fact that it couldn't be. She knew Kakashi's father must be buried in a graveyard, because in Konoha those who take their own life are not memorialised on a stone for fallen heroes.

And although some part of her felt it was wrong to manipulate him like this, to try and make him answer about his painful past when she already knew the answer, another part felt that she needed to hear him say it to her. That she needed to hear it from him to understand. To understand what it felt like, what it still feels like. She needed him to make her understand.

Blood rushed to her head as she watched him wince slightly as the question, and her heart constricted painfully as she watched the reaction she had caused.

"No. My father took his own life." Kakashi said quietly, eyes still staring away into the boys fight.

She understood now. She understood the pain he felt of losing his father; she understood the anger that ran in his clenched fist that those who had turned their backs had caused. She understood the tremble in his voice at the injustice his still felt. She recognised the tenseness in his shoulders as the shame he had carried at being angry at his father for his own exclusion as a child.

"I'm sorry."

Even with all her new found understanding of him she still could only manage a weak whispered reply. It didn't seem good enough, not when he was so strong. Kakashi turned his head slowly to regard her, his eyes searching her face looking for any signs of insincerity or pity, only to come across none. Sakura almost felt as though she would be able to touch the memory lingering between them, as something unreadable flashed through Kakashi's eyes as he looked over her face.

"It's ok. You know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Speaking of which, I think it's time you and the boys went for a little run."

And just like that the moment evaporated, and things were how the always were.

"Ahh sensei come on have a heart!" Sakura moaned as she watched him rise to his feet. Kakashi smiled and offered out a hand.

"Nope. Come on up."

As soon as she grabbed his hand she felt a jolt that rushed through her arm to her stomach, and she blushed slightly as he held her hand gently that fraction too long after she got to her feet. The blush spread as he dropped her hand slowly, before blinking hastily shaking his head only slightly.

"Go on; go tell the boys the good news." He said regaining his composure.

Sakura nodded and spinning on her heel started toward the boys.

"Oh and Sakura, talk to your mother tonight. Don't miss out because of a silly argument."

Even though it was advice he had given many times before when she fought with her mother, Sakura now felt the weight behind it. Speak to your mother because she never know when she might be gone. She comprehended the serious message behind the smile he gave her. Don't miss out because your mad at her, don't miss out like I did.

"Sure thing, thanks sensei!"

Sakura flashed her brightest smile before jogging toward the boys.

The smile remained even when her legs burned and her lungs felt as though they would burst during the seventh mile. The smile remained.