Chapter 2 - Tea with Milk

"Pink", she mumbled to the mirror while rubbing some strands of her shoulder length hair between her fingers. For half an hour, Sakura had been standing at the bathroom mirror in her hospital wardroom, gazing at her reflection and memorizing every inch of skin visible.

When she had awoken this morning to the mechanical florescent light of the hospital room, Kakashi was already standing at her bedside. With his mask down, and apologetically, he explained that he needed to leave for a little while. But his promise to return to see her that afternoon was enough to ease her mind and allow him to go. He spent an hour talking with her before leaving, giving her insight into herself and everyone around her. He told her who her friends were, about their country, and what it was like to be a ninja and a medic. She liked to hear that she'd saved lives.

Sakura was still baffled and a little taken aback by the fact that she was someone like he described, so she was quite thankful to have the rest of the morning to contemplate and digest his words.

After another short nap and some blood tests, she now tried to escape for a while. Being poked and prodded periodically with needles and instruments that she could easily name and tests she could easily explain was getting tiring. She wanted to be alone.

The bathroom was the only solace and so Sakura took refuge and tried to find a little of herself in the few moments she would have. She blew a few of those long messy pink strands out of her face as she leaned closer to the mirror.

The fact that her hair was pink (and naturally at that) was a small shock, but she liked the way her green eyes looked deep and bright, translucent almost. Her nose was small and a little too cute for an adult woman, but the light touch of freckles, barely visible across it unless you really looked, was something she felt suited her. She had a young face, and was more pretty than beautiful.

She stripped off her hospital gown to stand naked in the small sterile room. With cool fingertips on her shoulders, she watched her own gentle ministrations as she stroked her skin there.

At the first touches, she found she had an "L" shaped scar on the right shoulder, and her skin was warm and smooth. Slowly she moved over her arms, feeling the hard curves of her biceps, another scar at the back of the right, and the little rough patch behind her left elbow. She touched the edge of her eyebrow, her chin and throat, and finally the outside curves of her breasts. She stared in the mirror at the taut plane of her stomach where a small round birthmark sat just below her navel to the left.

Running along her hips, she continued to trace her belly button before lightly brushing across the area between her legs. Her thighs were muscular and hard under her palms and when she finally sat down on the lowered toilet seat, she leaned over and touched her toes, picking at the cracked pink nail polish and the chipped baby toenail.

How could she ever be normal? Who was she really besides this woman in the mirror, besides skin and bones, and unusual hair and vibrant eyes?

A more abstract view of her body revealed that the medics or nurses had done a good job healing her. With just a stain of a yellowish brown bruise along her temple, Sakura had an absence of injuries. She felt healthy and stronger – and slightly desperate to get out of the hospital room all together, but where to go to was a different matter. It was like a fishbowl that had nothing outside of it that she could see.

Picking up the thin blue cotton gown from the basin edge where she dropped it, the reluctant patient poked her arms through the armholes and reached behind her to tie up the ties. A long last look at her face preceded her emergence from the bathroom to find Tsunade sitting there at the bedside waiting for her. The Hokage had actually been in and out of the room all day so it wasn't a surprise to see her there again.

"Are you feeling better?" the blond woman asked.

"Much," Sakura replied evenly. "Thank you."

"You look rested...healthier," she continued.

For Sakura, it was just another pointless bantering between herself and this woman. She could see that Tsunade cared deeply for her, almost motherly, but it was so difficult to respond to a stranger in the way she was asking for with her piteous gazes and long pauses.

Sakura nodded and then wandered to the bed to find the light cotton garment that the hospital provided as a housecoat, tugging it on. "I am feeling better. I'm wondering when I'll be able to leave. I see Kakashi still isn't here and I was hoping that he'd take me home today. He promised to tell me more about myself."

"He's on a mission as he mentioned to you this morning. Not a long one, but he won't be back until this evening." Tsunade sat back and her smile disappeared. "You seem to be very attached to Kakashi."

Sakura shrugged a little. "He saved me. I suppose it's only natural. And I trust him." She wandered over to the windows to see the brown sparrows dipping and sweeping past. She looked beyond them at the wall of trees, dark and green at the tips where they met the bright blue cloudless sky. Sad that even her hospital room had no view to gaze out on.

"Kakashi is trustworthy. You have a lot of good friends here that you can trust. But Kakashi is also an elite so he'll often be gone. I'd feel better if you let some other people into your life."

Sakura nodded, still not looking at Tsunade. She knew that was true, but couldn't concern herself with it at that moment. "Could I ask you a question, Hokage-sama?"

"Of course," Tsunade answered, pushing herself up and out of the chair to turn and face Sakura.

"Who is Kakashi to me?"

"I'm...I'm sorry?"

Sakura noticed Tsunade's brow crease when she glanced back at her. "I want to know who he is to me. Is he a friend, acquaintance...relative?"

"Well...I'd suppose I'd say at this point in your life he's a friend. He taught you when you were younger, and then you were a subordinate and medic in his team for a number of years as a teenager. I'm quite sure you aren't related. Why do you ask?" Tsunade's tone was fraught with curiosity, more so than Sakura had wanted to inspire.

"Just wondering. He seems to know a lot about me." Sakura had spent part of the morning reliving the moment when she first saw his face. She had been waiting to die in that cold room with no one but a corpse to keep her company, and no memories of why she was sentenced to an end like that. Pain and death, and then Kakashi and hope. How could that not affect a person?

"I have some theories about your memory loss, but I think we should give you a little time to heal on your own and to see if your memories come back. I'm confident that they will, but I have no way to know how long it might take." Tsunade walked toward the door.

Sakura turned to her and leaned back on the metal windowsill. She nodded her understanding, but could tell by Tsunade's tone that she was being vague. Head injuries were a mystery. Sakura knew from her medical knowledge that they had to wait and see. She liked Tsunade, but it upset her that she didn't have enough respect to tell the truth of what she believed.

Her memories might never come back – Sakura already knew this.

"Oh, there's Naruto and Sasuke," Tsunade said absently as she pushed open the door to the hallwayand looked out. "I'll have them come see you in a moment."

"Who?" Sakura said quickly, remembering something of names Kakashi had mentioned that morning. Turning to look at the two tall men standing in the hallway looking in she could see the blond one was carrying a bundle in his hands and his look was full of concern.

The dark haired one looked completely indifferent.

Kakashi and Genma stood outside the hotel entrance and nodded a fast agreement of what they were there to do. Four hours of chasing a false lead had left Kakashi in a quiet mood. They'd achieved nothing for their trouble and were no closer to finding out who had tortured Sakura.

Genma was more or less pissed, and Kakashi could almost see his irritation as if it rose off him like hot steam.

"He's on the top floor," Genma grunted.

"Penthouse?" Kakashi mumbled.

Genma nodded, brow furrowed as he pushed into the swanky lobby and swiftly passed the concierge, who put a finger up and opened his mouth to stop them. Kakashi glanced in the man's direction and shook his head once. That was all it took to silence his protest.

Genma was first to the door of the penthouse on the fourth floor after quickly flying up the stairs two at a time. There were actually two extravagant hotel rooms on that floor; the tall cherry wood double doors with gold handles faced each other inside a large marble entryway filled with art and antiques. Konoha was not a tourism spot so the rooms were used as a place for V.I.Ps and delegates to the Fire Country – and on an occasion such as this, a safe-house.

It made Genma angrier that this man, Tsutanai Ito, was being treated to an all expense paid vacation on their ninja profits, especially after what he had caused. With as much self-control as he could muster, Genma thumped the door with a fist while Kakashi leaned casually to the side. Both still wore the standard black outfits, but had worn black vests and black katana for their recent jaunt through the Fire Country.

When the door finally slid open, a woman dressed in a white bathrobe bowed them in silently. And as the two men sauntered by, her eyes met Kakashi's dark one and understanding passed between them. She was a special escort. It wasn't something he expected, but when they laid eyes on each other they instinctively knew that they both had a part in doing the dirty things for Konoha. They were both paid to perform the less than admirable tasks that others didn't have the stomach for.

"Who's there?" a gruff male voice shouted from a room off to the right of the main room.

The smell of fresh flowers and sandalwood filled the penthouse and tickled Kakashi's throat. Steam rolled along the floor from an open door like a fog over a river and so they headed toward it.

"Someone you probably want to avoid," Genma growled as he stepped into the large open doorway of a room with shiny wooden floors, a large sunken bath filled with steaming water and one very pale, skinny man. A woman was in the tub with him, and neither was clothed. The second woman who had let them in hurried around them toward the pile of plush white towels in the corner.

"Ninja," he huffed. "Can't you see I'm busy?" Sweat dripped off Ito's gaunt straight face and the woman wiped at his forehead with a soft wet cloth.

"Your lead was bogus," Kakashi said smoothly. "I came to let you tell me what happened on that escort."

"Did I stutter? I said I'm busy. Come back later," the man half laughed with a hint of impertinence.

By now, Genma had just about enough as he stepped forward, making Ito's eyes snap up to look at him. In a smooth motion, the tall ninja slid his katana from the sheath on his back and pointed it at the couple snuggled to the back of the bath. The girl in the water made a noise of fright and slid to the far side, holding her hand out for the other girl, who took it and pulled her out. They grabbed a towel and fled. But before they left, the woman in the bathrobe bowed respectfully and then darted away.

"Looks like your night just got a little duller," Genma laughed, dipping the edge of his sword in the water.

"I'm protected here by your Hokage. Your people failed to keep me out of danger and this is the reason I'm stuck in this place. I'll have you punished for this intrusion." He rubbed at sweat on his face with a shaking hand, far less brave now without an audience.

Kakashi shook his head and decided he'd had enough waiting. With unseen movement, he appeared crouched behind Ito and held a kunai to his throat. The tip of the weapon pierced the layers of Ito's skin and a warm line of blood ran down his chest into the water, mixing in like ink.

"Let's try this again. Our escort was enough for the mission you had asked for. Withholding details from a squad captain is what gets people killed. I knew every man in that squad and the medic is a subordinate of mine. You can understand how I feel close to this situation," Kakashi said so quietly and coolly that it didn't seem menacing, but had the desired effect.

"Y...yes...that's true. I forgot to mention the delicate matter of the documents we carried," Ito mumbled fearfully.

"Yes, you did." Kakashi said evenly. "Now is your chance for disclosure. Please begin at what you were carrying and why the medic wasn't killed. And be aware that I'll know if you lie."

"Of...of course. Please, allow me to get out of the tub and we'll sit in the main room. I'll tell you everything I know." Ito waved a wrinkly, trembling hand toward Genma as if to tell him to leave, but he didn't dare move anything else with the kunai practically scratching his voice box.

"Go ahead and get out then," Genma laughed without moving, "unless you have something you're embarrassed for us to see."

The sunshine was warm on Naruto's face as he stepped out of the door of the hospital. He took a deep breath to appreciate the sweet smell of fresh cut grass and the ramen cooking at the stand nearby. Naruto was always one to take a moment to enjoy the smaller things in life – unlike Sasuke who seemed to ignore even the pleasant minutia.

The sun was lower in the sky than when they arrived and now had that dramatic bright orange-yellow colour that seemed to stain the clouds around it.

He turned back and smiled widely, seeing Sakura take a step out behind him. She looked nervous – something he hadn't seen on her face in a long time, but remembered vividly from their younger days. His heart nearly stopped when he received the message that she'd been injured.

He and Sasuke had returned from an ANBU mission with special orders from Tsunade to come and see Sakura immediately. Naruto had considerately stopped to grab her some clothes from her apartment, of which the key was always hidden under the terracotta flowerpot on the neighbour's concrete step.

He'd grabbed a dress from her closet, being that he didn't want to rummage in her drawers, but took a pair of panties anyway with a swift grab into her linen drawer. Sakura didn't wear dresses often, but it was easier than looking for shorts and t-shirts. He'd snatched up a pair of sandals from the entryway to her apartment, and then they were off to the hospital to get her.

"It's perfect out today," he said happily.

Sakura tried to smile but her nervousness was getting the better of her. But true to her previous self's boldness, she took another step to stand next to him. It had taken an hour to convince her that they were people she could trust and that she would safely be escorted to her apartment. It seemed that she'd instantly liked Naruto, but Sasuke seemed to be the thing holding her back.

Four times she'd mentioned just wanting to wait for Kakashi.

Sasuke wandered out behind them, arms crossed and silent as usual. He'd never admit his concern for Sakura, but Naruto knew him well enough to see that he wouldn't be anywhere else at this moment. Sasuke's initial unguarded moment of minute panic when they got a message to return for Sakura was another good indication that he was still hiding his feelings.

"Don't worry. We'll take you to your apartment and you'll start remembering things," Naruto added and held out a hand for her.

Sakura looked down at his spread fingers and hesitated.

"It won't bite," he laughed and glanced at Sasuke who shook his head.

"Come on," Sasuke uttered smoothly, evenly. He wasn't about placation or time wasting. He took a step beside Sakura, taking her arm with his hand and tugged her gently. She moved along with him silently, not openly protesting but looking at Naruto like she was frightened.

"Don't worry, Sakura, he doesn't bite either," Naruto chuckled and caught up with them. "Do you remember anything about this place?"

"N...no," she stammered, shaking a little in Sasuke's light hold. "What are those faces?"

Her eyes were wide and they darted from thing to thing.

"That's the Hokage monument. The five faces are the five Hokages the village has had over the years. See Tsunade. It's a decent likeness. My father is the good looking one next to her," Naruto said happily.

Sakura felt small and insignificant against the backdrop of such a huge city and the mountainous faces looking down on it. It was a surreal sight and she had been unprepared for what strange things she'd encounter with just a few timid steps outside the hospital.

"Hey, guys. Hey, Sakura," a voice yelled from on top of a nearby roof.

"Kiba," Sasuke mumbled as they all looked up. Naruto gave a quick hand up to his fellow ninja who was walking with his dog, Akamaru, along the rooftop.

As they looked up, three more ninja ran by, one careening along the side of a building precariously. Two more jumped up to the high wall to the far left and leapt off to the other side. Another voice called a hello from somewhere and that appeared to be just about enough for Sakura.

"What is this place?" she whispered fearfully, her breathing was hard enough for them to see and hear it.

"It's too much for her," Sasuke said to Naruto who had taken Sakura's other arm now. Naruto placed a hand on her back and whispered to her to breathe slowly. It was then that her eyes rolled up in her head and she fell limp as the two men held her up to keep her from falling to the dirt.

Naruto allowed Sasuke to scoop up the unconscious kunoichi into his arms. The Uchiha sighed and shook his head, holding her tightly to him.

"She's like a lost kid or something. Usually if you grabbed her like that she'd belt you," Naruto said with awe.

Sasuke's sharingan flared red and he looked her over from head to toe. "Her chakra isn't being produced but there is a touch of it in her brain – pin sized and hard, almost too little to notice."

"Let's get her to her place. Maybe she'll remember something there," Naruto added, producing her apartment key from his pants pocket.

Kakashi walked slowly with Genma from the hotel. He'd managed not to kill Ito and had gotten more information to go on. The man gave up everything while faced with the business end of a kunai so things went smoothly enough.

Ito had told them that in the melee of the beginning attack, he'd confessed quickly to the squad leader that he had documents that the invaders were probably looking for, and that it could mean the financial destitution of his home village if someone else got a hold of them. Sakura was assigned by the captain to take them and hide them somewhere in the Cloud Country forest near where the ambush took place. All Ito could tell them was that she was tracked, and that after she ran off he didn't see her again.

It seemed that she'd managed to hide the item before she was caught and the interrogation resulted. The attackers knew she had taken it so Kakashi was quite sure Ito had given her up to them to save his hide. He was the only survivor they found when they came across the squad.

"It might have been nice to put my sword up his..."

"Genma," Kakashi said quietly, "I know you didn't have to do this with me. Thanks for tagging along."

"Nonsense," Genma said smoothly, drawing a cigarette from a pack in his pocket. "Sakura's a good kid and I know what she means to you. You know all you have to do is ask and I'm there."

It was absolutely the truth, Kakashi thought. He didn't have enough appendages to count all the times Genma had been in the fray with him.

After lighting the cigarette, Genma stood at the road edge and leaned against a telephone post to breath in the first drag. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll probably get changed and go see if she settled in all right. Tsunade thought it would be better for Naruto to take Sakura home. She's worried that she's attaching herself too much to me." Kakashi turned toward the sunset and scratched at his head where the knot in his headband rubbed.

"Does that bother you?" Genma asked evenly.

Kakashi closed his eyes and thought on the question, but didn't answer. Before anyone had ever said it, the first moment Sakura had calmed down at the Abbey when he touched her, Kakashi knew she was latching onto him.

And truth be told, it didn't bother him.

"Sakura?" Naruto's voice sounded distant, but loud enough to wake her.

"Naruto..." she breathed out, finally opening her eyes to find herself on a double bed in a small, light blue room. The bed was soft; a goose down duvet was under her body and she could hear the dull creak of the bed-springs when she moved slightly. The room was dark with only a street lamp outside of two long, uncovered windows for light.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

For a moment, Sakura lay still and pieced together what had happened. When emerging from the hospital, she still felt moderately weak, but capable to walk. Sasuke had made her quite nervous; she could sense something darker and dangerous about him - much more than Naruto. Then the strange things she saw in the way of people leaping off walls and walking up buildings and the monumental faces staring down at them was making her head spin.

When her heart began to pound with the excitement, her mind had given up and everything went black.

"Where am I?"

Naruto smiled when she turned her head to look at him. The damp washcloth on her forehead fell to the pillow beside her.

"We're at your apartment."

Slowly Sakura sat up and looked around the room. It was a bland room but not much else could be expected for an apartment. It was neat and tidy, and there was a dresser with some pictures tucked in the wooden frame of the mirror on top. A clothes hamper stood in the corner and a table stood between the long windows with a few pictures in frames there as well.

"Where is Sasuke?" she asked.

Naruto sat back in the chair in the corner near the closet door. "He had to go home for a bit. We just got back from missions today so I said I'd stay with you until you woke up. He could tell he made you nervous. He comes across as cold like that but cares a lot about you. "

That Sasuke had left was almost a relief. He didn't seem cruel or someone she might hate; he just made her tense.

"You look relieved!" Naruto laughed. "He's not so bad when you get to know him. Well...you do know him. Actually you had a thing for him since you were twelve."

"I liked the moody guy?"

"Yeah. Loved more like."

"I don't think so. He seems like he'd be a little too intense for anyone to want to deal with."

Naruto covered his mouth with his fist while he belly laughed. His eyes creased up with his smile and Sakura found that she liked him even more. It was the first person to genuinely smile at her. It made her smile too.

"Hey, you smiled. Did you remember something?" Naruto asked happily.

"No, I just feel a little better. So this is my apartment?" Sliding off the bed, Sakura got up and wandered out into the small living room. It had one soft, blue, crushed-velvet loveseat that was worn and used looking, but stylish. The walls were an eggshell colour and a few black and white pictures hung on the walls. A coffee table stood in the centre of the room and a stereo sat in the corner. It was quaint and personal.

A tidy looking kitchen adjoined the living room which had only an electric tea kettle and a basket of tea on the dark blue counter. The apartment door, just passed the kitchen, had a silver umbrella stand next to it with one red umbrella inside. The floor was dark wood and her shoes were lined up in a neat row at the entryway.

A bookshelf full of books, some medical, some fictional, stood between the bathroom and her bedroom door which was almost part of the living room as well.

"How long have I lived here?" she asked while running her fingers along the book spines neatly lined up in alphabetical order."

"Probably three years now. You moved out of your parent's place when you turned eighteen." He followed her out of the bedroom.

"My parent's place..."

"They don't live far from here. They've been told what happened and they are waiting to hear that it's all right to see you. Tsunade felt integrating you slowly was the way to go."

"Having two strangers walk me home in such a place is integrating slowly?" she scoffed quietly.

"Better than having twenty people lined up outside your hospital room, I suppose." Naruto wandered over to the door and began to slip his shoes on. "I'm sorry to do this, but I have to run back to my place. You can come if you like. I just live in a building one road over so I shouldn't be long."

"It's all right. I think I want to be alone for a bit." She spotted a large black steamer trunk in the corner of her living room. "I'm going to just look around and try to figure a few things out. Thanks for bringing me home though."

"Anytime," he said with another large smile. But this time, his eyes didn't crease happily like the last time. He was having mixed feelings about leaving her. She didn't have to know him to be able to tell that he was experiencing some inner turmoil.

Sakura's own smile left her face. "I'm frightened, but I'm all right. I think I should spend some time finding out who I am here. Why don't you come back tomorrow morning and we'll have tea." She glanced at the basket on the counter loaded with small paper packages of different colours. "At least I know I have tea." She tried to laugh a little but it sounded strained and sad.

Naruto walked back over to her and placed his hands on her arms, almost holding her in place. She had to look up to see his face.

"I promise we'll take care of you. We care about you so much, even Sasuke, so we'll be here for you whenever you need us. You aren't alone."

His words struck her hard. It made her long for Kakashi to come back too. Already she missed him and wondered if he'd keep his promise to come and see her.

"Thanks," she whispered and nodded a little.

Reluctantly, Naruto left, stepping out into the coolness of the night-time air.

Now she was alone and she could feel her stomach tie into knots of anticipation and a little bit of fear of what she might discover about herself. Even with Kakashi's hour of talk this morning, she still knew virtually nothing about the person she was.

Her first step was the trunk. It seemed like the place to start.

She flipped open the brass latches on either side and then lifted the heavy lid to prop it against the wall. Her first instinct had been the correct one as she gazed down at piles of papers, photographs and documents. Scrolls of different colours and symbols were stacked in one corner and a wooden box with an intricately carved design of bamboo lay under a bundle of dried flowers.

One by one she pulled things out, reading them and then moving onto the next thing. The pictures were of different times in her life. The first looked like some sort of graduation, another looked like a flower arranging class, and another was something at the hospital with Tsunade. Nothing made much sense and she splayed her belongings all over the floor around her.

Lastly, she pulled out the wooden box to find that it needed a key to open. It would be a shame to wreck it, she thought, as she contemplated using a kitchen knife to pry it open. It smelled like cedar and the wood was soft and unlacquered. Sakura ran a finger over the carved the top, and then the small silver lock on the front.

It was then that she sat back on her heels and sighed. For the last twenty minutes, she had felt her heart pounding through all the things she was finding, hoping that there would be some perfect answer to reveal all to her, but it wasn't to be. It was like going through a stranger's belongings.

A sense of loss filled her and she put the box back into the trunk, then sunk down a little and laid her forehead on the edge.

A light knock at the door made her flinch slightly, but the despair she was feeling was enough to quash her ambition. "Come in," she said quietly, not really loud enough for anyone to hear.

But the door opened quietly and then snapped shut just as easily.

Sakura lifted her head and turned to see Kakashi standing next to the silver umbrella stand. Just as she laid eyes on him, a flash of pain seared up from the base of her skull into her eyes like a shot of hot steel pushing through her head. She hissed and fell forward, feeling papers against her cheek and hearing the rustling in her ears along with the loud thump of her heart. Her head was on the floor and her hand was groping at the documents, scrunching them up in her fists.

White light flashed behind her eyes and she shrieked with pain.

A warm hand was suddenly on the back of her neck and another on top of her hand.

Her heart was pounding and she felt nauseous, close to passing out. "Ka...kash..." She groaned again and gritted her teeth.

A few seconds went by like that, immobile and in anguish, and then the pain began to trickle away just as swiftly as it had come. It was like hourglass sand, dropping away, grain by grain. In just a moment, she could breathe again.

"Can you speak?" Kakashi said softly from beside her as her muscles lost some strain. Her fingers loosened from their clench and her arms lost their rigidity. She just lay still for a moment breathing through the last little bit of it as it finally disappeared.

"Y...yes," she breathed. "I'm...I think I'm all right."

"What happened?" he asked a little louder, lifting his hand from the tight grip he had on her wrist, but not taking his other from her neck.

Slowly, Sakura rose up and found herself almost knee to knee with Kakashi, his fingers just at the bottom edge of her hairline.

"It was a sharp pain, like someone nailed a spike through the back of my head to my eyes. But it's gone...just like that." Sakura was amazed at how strange she felt. Her skin tingled a little and her arms felt weak. She was overcome with the stress of it, and then it was like it had never happened.

"Maybe we should get you back to the hospital."

"No...please, I'm fine. I don't want to go back. Could you just help me to the sofa?" Pushing papers and things out from under her hands, she tried to stand up. Kakashi's hand was under her elbow and another was at her back, helping to bring her to her feet. The last thing she wanted was to be back in that room, examined and poked every few minutes by curious nurses and overeager medics.

They walked slowly to her sofa and she slumped down, pulling a blue throw pillow from the edge and hugging it to herself. Kakashi remained standing and when she looked up at him, he'd pulled his mask down.

"Let me make you a tea," he said calmly.

"I'd like that," she said softly, trying to smile but just finding herself staring at his face blankly. He had a nice face, attractive and friendly. Fleetingly the question was on her mind again about his mask, but now wasn't the time for that.

Kakashi swept around the couch and to the kitchen area behind it. Sakura could hear him run the tap for water and then he flicked on the electric kettle. She didn't look back at him; instead she just listening to what he was doing.

A drawer opened noisily and then a cupboard door creaked open and one mug and then the other hit the counter with dull thuds. He didn't ask her how she wanted it or even what tea she'd like. Funny enough, her brain had retained which tea she preferred - orange pekoe, overly sweetened with a drop of milk.

For a moment, she waited for the sound of the water boiling and then the light flick of his thumb turning off the kettle while she stared at the still life painting on the wall across from her.

"Kakashi," she said softly, with a sudden strange impulse, "Can you put mine in the red mug?"

When the light had popped through her eyes and her head was on the edge of exploding, she had seen something, a quick flash of memory - a second of something she didn't understand. Maybe it was seeing the red umbrella in the stand or her shoes lined up or something in the trunk that sparked it, but it was there.

A red mug...in a man's hands.

"Sure," Kakashi said quietly. He poured the water into the mugs and Sakura again listened intently. He didn't open the cupboard again. It appeared that he had pulled it out before she asked.

She was suddenly curious as to how many red mugs she owned.

When he swung back around the sofa with two mugs in his hands, he gave her the red one and his was black with diamonds on it. Sakura took the hot porcelain between her fingers and drew it up to her nose.

Orange pekoe with milk.

A sip told her it was sweetened just the way she liked.

Thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to icarust for her help as always. I apologize for the wait. I was planning on trying to post once a week and already i'm behind. This chapter got written twice - the first was a little too dramatic so I changed it quite a bit.

I would like to say I'll have another done within a week, but I got some things happening next week and it may take me longer. Thanks again for all the considerate and encouraging things everyone said.

Love Leafy.