Scenario Six: In the Universe of Returns
One moves away but comes back years later AU
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Sakura looked out at the impressive view before her. While her home town was small, the trees that surround it were magnificent, especially when coupled with the late afternoon lighting. The soft sunlight contrasted with the dark greens and browns to create an array of juxtaposition. A fox darted out, long tail swaying behind it, to join the warmth of the sun momentarily, before ducking out of view again.
Sighing, she got up from her perch on the railing to stop sitting and watching. While Sakura had not made any plans with Naruto, it would be obvious which restaurant he would be at this time of day. Hopefully some of her older friends would be there as well. But before she did that, she wanted to stop by her old school.
Leisurely she ambled down the long road she had hiked up, glad she had worn her practical boots. Once she got in to town she walked the familiar streets until arriving at one of the oldest buildings in the village. Looking up, she noted that they still had not fixed that broken clock. In all her childhood years, that clock remained broken, frozen in time despite its purpose.
"Sakura?"
She blinked, and thought it was fitting that he would be the first one to notice her. Or maybe that was why she had come to the school first, and at this hour when she knew students and teachers would be leaving.
"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said easily, voice not betraying the turmoil of emotions under her vest, or more specifically beneath her ribcage.
Despite how she had not seen him for over eight years, he did not look much different. He still covered his face with those silly medical masks, and he refused to wear an eyepatch to cover up the scar on his left eye. His other right eye seemed as stoic and unfeeling as before. Maybe he looked more tired, but he had always looked exhausted.
"You cut your hair," Kakashi said as he approached her, his satchel bumping against his hip as he went. She noticed the unruly angle of his tie that was only outdone by his hair.
She smiled lightly, and refused to reach up and feel the short length of her bob-cut. The man stopped in front her now, and Sakura found she still had to look up to meet his eye. Kakashi continued staring at her silently, eye open but unreadable. She always hated how emotionless it seemed, even more so than his fake smiles.
"Why are you here?" he asked over the distant sounds of children playing sports. Sakura herself had been on the track team, where she got to know and become close friends with Lee. She wondered if he was doing alright, and hoped he would be competing in the Olympics next summer like he had always dreamed of.
"I can't come and visit home?" Sakura asked, hands moving from staying limp at her sides to her vest's pockets. It was getting cold, and she was glad she had grabbed it as she went out the door this morning to catch her train. She only wished she had remembered to grab a scarf as well, or her trusty black gloves.
"Not when you left and then never came back until now."
Sakura pursed her lips thoughtfully before turning and walking; she heard Kakashi's feet shuffle to follow her. They walked in silence, him trailing behind her like one of his loyal dogs. She also wondered if they were all still alive and healthy. They had been well past pups when she left, but Kakashi had always been so adamant about giving them the best of care. He would starve himself to pay for outrageous vet bills.
As the sun continued its decent, their shadows stretched out further and further before them. Like all the memories and days she could have had here if she had stayed, or even visited. But her pride had been bigger, longer. Sakura finally turned off the old road to come to a small playground, the swings rusty but still working.
"Remember how you used to take me here?" Sakura asked as she went up to the swings, grabbing onto the chain and yanking to see if it could still support her weight.
"With Naruto and Sasuke. That was a long time ago," Kakashi said as he stood beside of her.
"Before you were our high-school teacher," Sakura said as she sat down, the swing creaking in protest but not giving up. "Before I confessed to you."
Kakashi stared at her some more with that hollow eye that reminded Sakura of the unwanted pit of a lychee. She saw Kakashi move out of her peripheral vision to stand behind her. She tensed as his large, warm hands pressed against her back and pushed her forward lightly.
The swing creaked louder than before, and despite its grating tone, it was a welcome sound to fill the silence between them.
"Did you ever manage to find Sasuke in the city?"
Sakura kicked out with her feet, annoyed that he still felt she needed his strength for something so mundane.
"Naruto did," Sakura said as she continued pumping her legs, and Kakashi moved away when he realized he was now just in Sakura's way of swinging freely. He leaned against one of the support beams, the yellow paint flaking off to show the deep rust underneath.
She swung higher and higher, until she threatened to tip herself off at the top angles. Slowing down, and feeling dizzy and more than a little nauseous, she let herself settle. Her feet dragged on the wood chips, dirt puffing up to cling to her black boots.
"Why are you here?"
It was the second time Kakashi had asked it, and she was going to ignore him again just like before.
"I got a scholarship at a high-school there, after convincing my parents to move because I was too smart for this dingy place. And I kept studying, and got a scholarship to go to one of the best medical colleges around. I graduate from it in a few weeks time. Crazy, isn't it? The girl you ignored, going off and taking on the world."
Kakashi sighed, moving a gloved hand to rub at his eyes tiredly.
"Naruto is apprenticing with an author. He wants to be a writer, he'll probably go in to sci-fi or something. He always has the best dreams and imagined scenarios. He still makes us play ninja. Sasuke, he's doing alright. After years, we finally convinced him to leave that horrid man who was extorting him for his family's remaining wealth. He might even be returning here soon, since he can never leave Naruto alone for long. The dope's already here, but you probably already knew that. He really is just that loud."
Her mouth stopped its ramblings and she became entirely still, feet planted squarely on the rotted wood chips. She felt Kakashi's gaze still on her, the stare unwavering and incessant. She refused the wish to turn and glare at him, or to slap him. Anything to make him have some sort of reaction to her.
"I meant what I said. Even if I was only fifteen, I meant it. I still do."
"Sakura…"
"I remember, when I was six, I fell trying to keep up with Naruto and Sasuke. I scrapped up my knees and palms really bad. You were just wandering along, probably walking home from high-school, and literally stumbled over me. You helped me up, and ruined your handkerchief to wipe up the blood. And then you bandaged me up, as if it was entirely normal for a teenage boy to have a full-stalked first aid in his bag."
"Obito was quite reckless back then."
Sakura looked over at him and smiled, but he was not looking at her. Instead Kakashi's eye focused on the last remaining lights against the tree tops. Street lights were popping in to existence with their warm glow.
"When I was eight I realized I was in love with Sasuke, and you helped me make him valentines day chocolate. I let you have all the ruined chocolate, and you ate it even though you hated sweets."
"I threw up because of it," Kakashi said lightly.
"I remember when I was twelve, when you came back from the war, a friend and eye forever gone. You never were the same after that."
Sakrua could remember it, how his hair was sheered short, as well as his hope. He had always covered up his face, but after his return it became an obsessive habit. Maybe because Obito's own face had been blasted off, or because Kakashi did not want the world to see him anymore. To see the failure he believed he had become.
When Sakrua had seen her hero, her forever-protector come home broken, she had cried and cried like never before. She would only cry like that again when Sasuke had left, lured away with false promises by a man who had no good intentions for the youth.
"You convinced Ino to give all those flowers for Obito, and even Rin," Kakashi said, and Sakura jumped when she realized he had moved to stand behind the other swing. With a slight huff, he took a step up to stand on the plastic strip. Kakashi's hands held on to the chains, body tense but balanced as he swung a bit before settling.
"And then you became my teacher," Sakura said with a bitter laugh.
She remembered the days in the halls, distancing herself from him so there would be no suspicions despite their past familiarity. She remembered how easily she passed all the math tests he gave, and how he gave her the same stupid cartoon face in celebration for perfect marks. Those test were still stored in her desk drawers at home, no doubt dusty and nearly eaten through by bugs. She hoped at least one of the smiling faces was still intact.
She had only stayed one year at the high-school, but she had learned so much. Not only about subjects she had no problem memorizing, but her friends and the complicated reasons people acted the way they did. Their town was small and secretive, not many people knew about it or where it was, but it still had a good amount of histories and dramas between the established families.
"And then you apparently realized you had feelings for me," Kakashi answered. "Is that why you stayed away?"
"Did you get my postcards?" Sakura asked lightly as she begun to swing again. This time it was only her legs that propelled her, and not Kakashi's warm hand against her back to push her off. He remained still before Sakura, the only movement coming from his hair that hair ruffled in the occasional gust of wind.
"Genma makes fun of me for pinning them up," he shared. "And always postcards, so I didn't have a return address to send anything back. I see you haven't lost any of your craftiness."
Sakura continued swinging; Kakashi continued standing; the chains continued squeaking.
"Why are you here, Sakura?"
Maybe that saying about third time is the charm was correct in some way. Sakura stopped swinging, feet planting on the ground harshly and suddenly. She got up and stood, grabbing on to Kakashi's swing.
Kakashi looked down at her, and he seemed truly inquisitive as Sakura took a step, placing her feet between his on the thick slab of plastic. She balanced precariously, grabbing the chains just below his own fists. They swayed together slightly, and Sakura noticed that the sun had set. Kakashi's silver hair seemed eerily beautiful and illuminated in the encroaching darkness.
"You're going to break the swing."
"I wanted to tell you again: I love you."
Kakashi sighed, and then leaned forward to rest his chin against her head. She could feel his heartbeat against her own chest as she rested her forehead against this collarbone.
"What now, Sakura? What do you want me to do?"
Of course he would offer his help, as he always had. Her own personal guard Sakura had always depended on.
"I'm going to study with Dr. Tsunade now. I'm moving back here."
Slowly, and gently so as not to rock the swing, Kakashi moved a hand to curve around the back of her neck, fingers rough but so painfully soft in their gesture. His thumb passed along her artery, and Sakura resisted the urge to shiver at how trusting she was with a soldier that had killed.
Kakashi had always done this same gesture when she was younger: put a hand on her neck like a mother lioness picking up a cub. But she had never felt any parental feelings from it, and instead thought of it as Kakashi's most intimate gesture to her. He was offering nothing and there was nothing to take from it, but still Sakura cherished it.
"I missed you," he admitted, and Sakura shivered as she felt the reverberations from Kakashi's confession echo through her chest and up to her head. She knew he missed her in a different way, that it was not the same yearning she felt for him. Just like his touch. But if she had come across his mind at least briefly in the near decade she had been away, she would accept it.
But she would not live off of these tentative scraps of platonic affection any longer.
Leaning back and away from him, Sakura gave him a tentative smile before leaning up and kissing his masked cheek. Just like she had in thanks for all their previous adventures together, from the cuts to the chocolates. Then she carefully dropped down from the swing, the rusted metal giving out another threatening squeal.
"I'll see you around, Kakashi," Sakura said with a smile and parting wave that was signaling not a parting, but the beginning of something new. Because Sakura was not going to give up, now that she was back and confident in her ability and self.
She almost felt bad for Kakashi, knowing how much Sakura was going to make him love her in return.
Sakura heard squeaks and rattles of metal and turned around curiously. She nearly tripped at the sight of Kakashi swinging, his hair a blur of silver and his slacks becoming rumbled from his activities. He was finally moving, rocking madly as he continued standing, and Sakura found herself grinning wide at the sight. She had to believe it was a sign of things to come: it just had to be.
"It's nice to have you back, Sakura," Kakashi called, voice nearly overtaken by the swing's squawking.
Posted: 11.9.2014
