I'm not going to bother to try to apologize. I don't own Naruto. Pwease don't sue.


Sakura stood frozen for a few long moments before the puddles swimming around her ankles dragged her back to reality. She turned sharply on her heel, not bothering to wipe the angry tears from her eyes as she ran drunkenly down the streets, narrowly avoiding running into buildings and fences. She weaved her way through the familiar streets, not even aware of where her feet were leading her. She eventually found herself tearing into the apartment building, storming up the stairs, throwing open the door and flinging herself down on the couch, sobbing into one of the worn beige pillows.

Her anguished screams and relentless sobbing rang throughout the whole apartment, startling its other two inhabitants. Pakkun and Kakashi were in the bathroom when they heard her crying, raw and loud; Pakkun was nearly submerged in soapy water, grumbling as Kakashi, who was now wearing his forehead protector, scrubbed furiously at the dog's matted fur. His heavily bandaged hand fell limp, however, as he straightened his back, listening to Sakura's sobs. The echoes of familiar cries mingled with the very real ones coming from the main room; Kakashi shook these out of his head, frowning.

"'Zat Sakura?" Pakkun said curiously, poking his head out over the edge of the tub. His half-lidded eyes looked hopeful; a glorious savior had descended from the heavens in an effort to halt the dreaded bath time and whisk him away to a world of dirt and grime and…

Kakashi stood up, interrupting his gleeful thoughts; this sent Pakkun sliding down the tub as miniature waves of water spurred him forward. By the time he had slid headfirst into the wall, Kakashi was already hurriedly drying off his long, pale legs with a stiff white towel. He cast the towel aside and hurried out of the bathroom, determined to find out what the hell had gotten Sakura so worked up.

She did not look up when she sensed him coming; she merely cried harder, pressing the pillow against her face.

He approached her cautiously; offering comfort had never been his specialty, particularly when it came to teenage girls.

"Er, Sakura…?" he ventured, crouching beside the couch. She squirmed away from him, her sobs doubling in volume. The last thing she felt she needed was Kakashi trying to comfort her like he would a small child. Already she felt her tears of despair being replaced by hot little tears of humiliation; she was not a little girl and didn't think or feel like one —despite what Shikamaru had to say, the bastard— and certainly did not need to be treated like one.

"Get away from me!" The words were barely discernible through her heavy sobs. "I don't need you!"

Kakashi shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot; he was balancing on the balls of his feet, afraid of saying too much— he knew how dangerous it would be to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Scratching the back of his neck, he said lamely, "Is everything all right?"

Even through her tears, Sakura managed to throw Kakashi the dirtiest glare she could muster. The expression was fleeting, however; her face quickly scrunched together as sobs overcame her again.

Why the hell am I crying about this? Inner Sakura raged, rubbing her fist menacingly into the palm of her other hand. I should be beating the shit out of that good-for-nothing, lazy-ass Shikamaru if anything, not sitting around sobbing my apparently girly little heart out—

Inner Sakura's enraged ramblings were drowned out by Sakura's renewed tears, which washed over all traces of anger, leaving them bubbling mutinously beneath the surface.

Kakashi blinked once, his only visible eye slightly wider than usual. He leaned forward, still perched in his favorite position, his palms resting firmly on his knees.

"Sakura, what happened?" he asked, his tone more serious this time. Sakura turned her head farther away from him, still crying shamelessly into the damp pillow. She was digging her fingers into it so fiercely that her nails had started to tear at the fabric. She was forcing her foot against arm of the chair, which caused some unpleasant creaking noises that Kakashi tried, for the moment, to ignore.

"Sakura?" Kakashi leaned ever forward, his head cocked to the side and his usually emotionless black eye widened in concern. His face was now dangerously close to Sakura's, by her standards, which managed to upset her even more. She shifted her head so that she could see him through blurry eyes, her face contorted with anger. In the blink of an eye, she had raised her right arm and aimed a punch at Kakashi's long, cloth-covered nose. Just as fast as the attack had come, however, it had been blocked; Kakashi had caught Sakura's punch (weakened rather than strengthened by her emotional state) in the palm of his right hand, firmly gripping her clenched fist with his other.

"What. Is. Wrong?" Kakashi demanded calmly, tightening his grip on Sakura's violently shaking fist. Her clouded green eyes flickered to his politely concerned black one; she scowled angrily, clenching her teeth together.

"Let go of me," she hissed dangerously, her arm writhing as she tried to free herself.

Kakashi's expression remained unchanged as he answered her with an even-tempered, "Tell me what's wrong."

Sakura's left hand flew to Kakashi's; she tried to pry his fingers off of her own, digging her nails into his unmoving appendages.

"Let go of me, you perverted bastard," she seethed, threatening to crush the delicate bones in his fingers with her feverish clawing.

Kakashi raised a pale gray eyebrow. In a flash of motion he had both of her hands clasped in his own, pressing down on them tightly.

"What happened?" he repeated in that unnervingly calm voice.

Sakura let out a low growl, her entire body shaking as she tried to escape from his grip; she was now propped up on her elbows, her body twisted to face Kakashi. She was digging her toes into the crevice between the cushion and the firm arm of the groaning couch.

Kakashi glanced at the muscles tensing and the blood vessels throbbing in her lower neck as she struggled to escape his grasp; Sakura mistook this as an unbelievably casual sweep of her cleavage, which was being increased by her forced-together biceps. Unaware of the misunderstanding, Kakashi was mildly taken aback by the look of fresh rage that was quickly contorting Sakura's beet-red face.

"Pervert!" she shrieked indignantly, spit flying from her mouth and landing on Kakashi's dark mask. "How sick are you, is this the type of situation you fathered me in?" Her chest heaved with her labored breaths as she glared at him, fire jumping from her eyes as she glowered at him.

Kakashi's eyebrow flew even farther up in confusion. He was a pervert, yes, but certainly not in an incestuous manner; why did she seem so upset about this all of the sudden? And was the slight about Rin entirely necessary? Maybe she met a drunkard out on the streets? He mentally shrugged, returning his attention to the situation at hand.

A distraction, however, arrived in the sound of the muffled sounds of four stubby legs trotting across the carpeted floor. Leaving a trail of water in his wake, Pakkun came to a stop a few feet away from where Kakashi was crouched. His two droopy eyes lazily swept over Kakashi and Sakura; if he couldn't sense the anger radiating off of the pink-haired teen, he would have wheezed with mirth at the sorry sight of them.

"And what's got your panties in a bundle?" Pakkun asked Sakura, cocking his head and scratching at one of his floppy ears. Kakashi's visible black eye flashed in his direction, giving Pakkun a look that quite clearly told the dog that he had said the wrong thing.

Sakura let out another angry growl; Kakashi felt the skin on his palm break as she tore at it with her nails.

"So the dog's a pervert too?" Her tone was jarring and unpleasant, carrying a hint of distasteful sarcasm. "Poor animal, you probably abuse him just as much as you abused my poor mother, huh?"

Pakkun whimpered, realizing that the anger Sakura was directing at Kakashi wasn't the same type of anger she channeled into the muttered threats she regularly gave Naruto and Sai. He scurried to Kakashi's side, peering at Sakura with a mix of curiosity and fear from behind the Copy Ninja's back. In Kakashi's brain, too, it finally clicked that Sakura was genuinely pissed.

His eye narrowed as it flickered back to Sakura. "What the hell has gotten into you?" he asked, his frown evident even through his mask. "What happened while you were gone?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Sakura spat. "Since when have you given a damn about what happens to me, you hardly even talk to me—"

"I care very much about what happens to you." Kakashi's words pushed their way through gritted teeth, and a bead of sweat rolled down his face; it was getting harder to restrain Sakura, as she was focusing her anger into the effort of removing his hands. His eye traced the path of a bead of sweat running down her cheek, but swiveled back to meet her angry gaze as she let out a derisive snort.

"I'm sure that's what you said to my mother, too," she jeered, a sneer twisting her face. "Before you raped her—"

"I did not rape your mother!" This time, he was not so good at hiding his anger; it was clear to Sakura that he was growing upset.

"Then you were drunk, probably," Sakura said loudly, "or at least she was, if my mother was as great as everyone says she was there's no way in hell she'd sleep with someone like you—" Someone like Shikamaru, the bastard…

Kakashi's grip slackened only the slightest bit as he blinked, a blank look on his face as he drank in such a low insult; Sakura took advantage of this and tried to force her way out of his grip, but Kakashi noticed immediately and forced her wriggling wrists against her chest, leaning in even closer to her in order to put more pressure on her arms. Her entire body tensed at this new closeness; she scrunched her face up, reared her head back and spat in his face.

Kakashi concealed a gasp as he felt the moistness through his mask. His eyes widened in shock; Pakkun's fur bristled accordingly as he growled at Sakura, letting out a low, warning bark.

"What in hell is wrong with you, Sakura?" Kakashi said, astonished. "What happened while you were—"

"I'll tell you what happened," Sakura snarled, her anger increasing as she felt her own knuckles being pressed further into her chest. "A little pervert like you with… with an attraction, apparently, to older women decided that I was some preppy little bitch with a schoolgirl crush on a dead boy and wasn't worth his time!"

The last part had flowed out of her in one breath; her chest was heaving as she tried to force herself to calm down (although it was rather late for that now). She couldn't bring herself to look into that dull black eye, instead focusing on the wad of saliva currently decorating Kakashi's masked cheek.

Kakashi felt a plunging sensation in the pit of his stomach; so Shikamaru had dumped Sakura, and she was channeling her anger into forcing empathy down his throat. Judging by what she had just exhaled, Shikamaru had tried to use taking care of Kurenai (the "older woman" he was "apparently attracted" to, Kakashi assumed) as a reason (although Sakura had taken it as an excuse) to terminate the relationship. When Sakura had protested, he had made a low blow and brought up Sasuke… An inadvisable move, but the damage had been done and now Sakura was feeling sorely heartbroken and negatively disposed towards the world of men. And, unfortunately for me, I just happened to be the next man she ran into…

He considered his sigh before he let it out: on the one hand, Sakura did not need any further prodding in a bad direction; on the other, she had just spit on him. No rejection, no matter how cruel, merited spitting on your own father, for heaven's sake.

The sigh had the predicted effect, which was causing the level of red in Sakura's face to go up a few notches; her teeth were bared as she readied herself for all-out attack, dredging up the little bits of information she had gathered about her father over the years and planning out a way to spit them at him (perhaps not as literally as she had earlier) so that they would stab at him in the worst way. She was enraged that he had had the nerve to waltz right in while she was clearly at a very fragile emotional point and obviously needed to be alone. And then, of course, he had gotten so damn close to her and continued to badger her after she had made it pain-stakingly clear that she did not need his support.

Before she could open her mouth to dish out some fresh insult, however, he spoke quietly.

"Sakura, it's not the end of the world."

She blinked twice in shock; could he honestly be that clichéd? Seemingly oblivious to her indignation, however, he continued, uttering his words carefully in a way Sakura wished she could call "understanding" so that she could hate him for all the standard reasons.

"Shikamaru's just working out his priorities right now," he said, his voice quieter than Sakura had ever heard it, "he's a fifteen-year-old boy who promised his dead sensei he'd watch over his wife and kid… He's just a teenager and isn't ready to—"

"Oh, don't even start with that," Sakura said shrilly; "I don't want to hear that from you, of all people—"

"Because I actually know where he's coming from?" Kakashi's voice was still quiet, but now it was angry, too.

"Because it's terribly hypocritical of you," she said, her eyes moving up to lock with his. They were alight with the fire of her fresh anger for him. He would bring that up, trying to use that in his defense, the typical bastard!

"Is it hypocritical to understand one's own mistakes and apply them to current situations?" he asked smoothly. All traces of anger had been erased from his tone.

"No, it's just—it's just so typical of you, siding with Shikamaru, the lazy genius so much like your goddamn self, even after what he—"

"I'm not siding with anyone, I'm simply reminding you that your side of the story isn't the only one—"

"Because you're some all-knowing being with all of the answers, of course, who can magically solve any—"

"No, because I've been fifteen years old before, and I was stupid then too—"

Sakura laughed shrilly. "Oh yes, I know all about that, Mistake Number One is sitting right here in front of you—"

"Sakura!" Sakura was taken aback by the forcefulness with which he said her name. "Will you stop the personal attacks and just look at this situation reasonably—?"

"Easy for you to say!" she shouted. "I suppose you've never been dumped before—"

"That's irrelevant, I've seen enough people end relationships to know that people move on in life, especially when you're only a teenager—"

"You never 'moved on in life!' " Sakura said. "Fifteen years since my mother died and you've never seen a woman since—"

"Your mother died, Sakura!" Kakashi was shouting too now, and Sakura could almost sense a hint of desperation in his voice. "She died because of something I did, or didn't do— she didn't… didn't 'dump me and go on with her life'—"

"No thanks to someone—"

Kakashi looked like he was about to keep arguing, but was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought that it simply wasn't worth it. There was no point trying to reason with Sakura, he figured; she had always been exceptionally difficult, particularly when it came to romance. He fixed her with a weary look, mentally summarizing the situation. Sakura was beyond his grasp; no amount of reasoning would shift her pessimistic disposition. Trying to calmly present the other side of the situation and prod her towards a mental compromise hadn't worked out; not only had it pushed her even farther towards breaking point, but her jarring comments had sent a stabbing sensation plunging farther down into his heart than he was comfortable with. If things continued in this direction, they'd be tangled up in a violent shouting match inside of five minutes. His only choice was to resign in not so many words, backing out of the argument before it got too… messy.

He almost sighed before deciding that it would be a bad way to start the retreat that needed to be so expertly executed. Instead, he prepared himself by shutting his eye for a few seconds before cracking it open again, his gaze harder than before.

"Sakura." It wasn't a question; merely a calm statement, theoretically innocent. The glare she gave him in return certainly wasn't soft, but it wasn't accusing either (at least not as much so as before); he took this as an invitation to continue speaking (although he would've continued either way).

When he did so, he focused his concentration on keeping his tone as level as possible. "We're obviously not seeing eye to eye right now; I understand that you're feeling pretty stressed, and I'm sorry that I was naïve enough to intrude upon your… grieving—" (Although such a trivial situation hardly merits the term) "—but I do want you to understand that I was — and still am — genuinely concerned about you." He tried not to make the look he gave her too meaningful, knowing full well how much teenagers detested that look. He certainly refrained from squeezing her hand, himself unable to stand that particular comforting gesture. A pause hung in the air, as if he were going to say more, but he decided against it and let the opportunity die.

Sakura waited to make sure he was done talking before speaking herself— if she interrupted him, he could use it as ammunition later. After all, it's what she would do.

"No offense," she started, struggling to keep her voice civil, "but I don't—" She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. Don't let him win, she warned herself. You can't let him be the "mature" one here. "I'm just not… just not comfortable with you getting… getting involved with my personal life."

Doesn't being your father automatically include me in at least some aspects of your personal life? Kakashi wondered immediately. He firmly decided against saying this, of course; he could see the game she was struggling to play and wasn't about to walk into such an easy trap— he was the adult here.

"I can respect that," he said, the default response coming so easily out of his mouth. He had been careful not to use the word "understand"; in his experience, teenagers were automatically turned off by that word— they didn't want adults to understand them, they wanted to be respected. He cocked his head to the side; he had pulled it away from her at some point during his deliberations. "Still, I would hope that you'd be more concerned if I hadn't bothered to find out what was wrong with you." Making it a statement seeking confirmation made it seem as if Sakura had the power here; it was much better than putting it into a question, which could hint at underlying accusation.

Sakura could tell what he was playing at, inwardly scowling at how carefully, how easily he was toying with her. Minutes before she would have spat something back at him, but she was cooling down now, wizening up; that would be dancing right into the palms of his hands. Biting back the retort she longed to give him, she instead adopted the pretense he had and spoke coolly, if not calmly.

"I'm not upset that you're concerned," she said, wondering dimly if she could have phrased it in a less… assuming way? She wasn't quite sure how to put it, nor did she care. "I'm just not a big fan of how you're trying to put yourself down on my level, getting involved with my personal business." Okay, so much for calm and collected… But it got the point across. After all, someone like Kakashi was smart enough to understand the meaning of what you say no matter how you say it; trying to sound clever is just a waste of brain power after a fashion.

Kakashi's head cocked a fraction of an inch further, his one-eyed expression remaining impassive. It was almost funny, how much her words mirrored things that he himself had said. Almost.

Wheels were spinning rapidly in Sakura's brain; without her even noticing, more words came tumbling out of her mouth before Kakashi could so much as blink. "I mean, I don't get involved with your business, right?"

A pale eyebrow raised in response.

"Well…"

Sakura nearly rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, Kakashi—"

(He decided to let the first-name use slide…)

"— When have I ever gotten involved with your romantic life?"

A pause.

"Sakura…" Kakashi began slowly, something that wasn't quite sadness creeping into his voice, "I don't have a romantic life."

That one threw Sakura off; her mouth had been open in preparation to continue with her little plan. She closed her mouth once before opening it again to speak.

"Still, I haven't asked you about it, have I?" she pressed. "Or—" (here she was crossing into dangerous waters, but desperate times call for desperate measures) "— When I've heard you— When I've heard you crying over my mother, I haven't—"

In a blur of movement, Kakashi's hands were no longer holding Sakura's against her chest. They were held up defensively, palms out, and in his single black eye there was now a frightened expression; that of a cornered animal, Sakura thought.

"All right, all right…" Sakura blinked once; his voice sounded irritable, and when she looked at him again the scared look had vanished from his eye. "Let's not go there, okay?"

It was Sakura's turn to raise an eyebrow. He definitely looked annoyed, but she privately felt that it was pretty shallow. It seemed a poor attempt to hide the emotions becoming apparent in the way the color in his face was rising.

"Kind of late for that," she said, surprised at the frostiness of her own voice.

Kakashi closed his eyes, keeping them shut for several moments and secretly basking in the comfort of not having to meet Sakura's gaze. He took a few deep, steadying breaths, reminding himself that this was Sakura, she always said things like this (but you know she doesn't, don't you?), and there was no reason to take it personally (but what other way could it possibly be taken?).

Her impatience radiated off of her like a demonic aura, dragging his eyelids apart. As he glared at her with a watering eye, she shifted into a sitting position on the couch, crossed her arms against her chest, and made a soft clucking noise with her tongue.

Kakashi blinked again, this time to chase the water out of his eyes. When he returned his gaze to hers he looked for all the world as if he were holding all the cards again, showing polite interest in whatever she had to say.

"You were saying?" he said, praying his voice wasn't as unsteady as it felt.

Sakura hesitated before starting again. "The point is that I haven't bothered you and you haven't bothered me, and we've been getting along reasonably well, haven't we?"

But you know that's not what you want, a small voice whispered in the back of her mind. Weren't you the one so excited to see him when he came back from his mission? Hadn't you resolved to foster a better relationship?

She pushed the voice away, focusing on him. Normally she'd be able to see the wheels working furiously behind peoples' eyes, but when she bored into his solitary black eye all she could see was lonely resignation, colored by sadness.

You see that? That's not what he wants to hear, he wanted to get to know you better too—

Why couldn't she read him? Everyone was readable; Tsunade had taught her that much. You could tell from a person's eyes what they were going through; she had been made to practice this delicate art form.

Stop lying to yourself, you can read him just fine—

"Reasonably well, yes."

His voice took her by surprise; she had been so busy trying to block that other voice out of her head, the one sort of like her own but quieter, calmer. She swallowed once, chasing the voice away and gathering her thoughts.

"So why don't we keep things that way?"

No eye movement. She plowed on.

"I mean, up until now it's been an unspoken code, sort of—"

More like unspoken fear—

"— But now, I think, we should 'officially' establish it."

"Establish what, exactly?" Smooth as glass.

"That you keep to your business and I keep to mine."

She was surprised to see his eye widen slowly, slightly. Afraid of his reaction, her eyes swiveled down to his hands, which were still being held up rather limply. She squinted in spite of herself; were they… trembling?

Her eyes snapped back up towards his as he cleared his throat; a quick glance towards his fingers told her that either she had been imagining things or the shaking had stopped. He looked unsettled, as if he were hiding his true colors but wasn't sure that he ought to be. He brought his head back into a straight position, looking her hard in the eye. She focused her concentration on looking at his eyes without really seeing them, which proved hard to do seeing as she had been trained to do the exact opposite. Still, she thought she managed rather nicely, ignoring the emotions so clearly coming across from his troubled expression.

"That sounds reasonable, I suppose," he said carefully.

Normally, Sakura would have challenged his hesitancy, but here she felt the matter should not be pressed.

Or you just don't want to question your own reasoning.

Sakura mentally growled at the voice, warning it to slither back to whatever dark crevice it had crawled out of. Her exterior, however, portrayed a politely pleased image—nothing too suspicious.

He's always suspicious. Or just worried.

"All right then," she said delicately, brushing imaginary dust off her knees. Kakashi backed out of her way as she rose to her feet, a bounce in her step that she couldn't help but feel was forced. Her father remained crouched in front of her, his dog sitting loyally at his feet. Pakkun's permanent frown was more pronounced than usual, the folds and creases of skin around his muzzle making it look like his face was melting.

Sakura's eyes, having nowhere to go, skipped over the tips of his spikes and swept the room, trying to land anywhere but on him. Eventually she blinked and shook her head briskly, sidestepping him to walk towards her room without sparing him a glance.

Kakashi did not move his head as she left the scene, staring at the spot she had been sitting at with a look of dull recognition on his face. After the bedroom door slammed shut behind Sakura, Pakkun lifted his gaze dolefully to Kakashi. His master blinked slowly, closing his eyes on the third blink and letting out a deep breath he didn't know he had been holding. He ran his fingers through his hair, turning to return Pakkun's gaze.

"Well…" he muttered, bringing his hand down to scratch Pakkun behind the ear, "I suppose it could've been worse."

Pakkun let out a low chuckle.

"'Swat they all say, innit?" His low, appreciative growling blurred his words.

Kakashi couldn't bring himself to smile.