Title: Remembrance
Author/Artist: nostalgic-maiden
Pairing: Kakashi/Sakura
Fandom: Naruto
Theme: #11 - gardenia
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and co, no matter how much I want to.
"Fancy seeing you here."
She turns to face her ex-sensei, a small smile on her face, a small bunch of flowers in her ungloved hands.
"I'd like to say that the same goes to you," she begins, and then she turns back to the headstone in front of her. "But I know better."
He gives a small chuckle and replies, "True."
A moment passes in silence until he finally asks the question.
"How long ago?"
She doesn't answer for a moment, but slowly bends down and places the bunch of gardenias on the dark gray stone, slowing running a slender finger along the words etched on its surface.
Abruptly standing up again, she answers him.
"Today is the fifth year."
He absorbs that fact before opening his mouth again.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
She smiles again, a sad one. Shaking her head slightly, she answers, "Sasuke had gone, Naruto had gone, you were gone…everyone else had their lives to go on with. They knew but somehow, it just never occurred to me to tell you guys."
She fidgets with the hem of her skirt-like apparel sheepishly.
"By the time we saw each other again, I was busy trying to prove myself to you and Naruto, and then Gaara-san got into taken by the Akatsuki. And then there was more Akatsuki drama and then, before I knew it, several years had passed."
He nods and sighs, hands stuck in his pocket like they always were when he was here.
"I'm sorry."
She looks away from the headstone and stares at him. "Whatever for?"
"Not being there when you needed me the most."
Her smile turns slightly wistful as she replies. "You may have been my sensei, but even you are only human."
I understand. It was a tough time for all of us.
"No, not only then," he insists. "I was your jounin sensei, I should have been able to see that hidden potential in you."
"Yeah, probably," she agrees. "But you didn't. And really, it's alright. I would never have went to Tsunade-shishou if you had anyways, right?"
He snorts and says, "Yeah."
Her jade gaze turns curious as she asks, "Ne, Kakashi-sensei, I never got to ask you. Who are you here for?"
He wordlessly gestures for her to follow him and she does so without question. They end up in front of the memorial stone, the large, black object that Kakashi had spent so much of his life in front of.
They are quiet for several moments, as if praying for the departed souls whose names were engraved upon the rock.
He lifts a hand and points to a name near the middle-left of the rock.
"My best friend."
Sakura's gaze follows his friend and comes upon the name – Uchiha Obito.
She is surprised, to say the least, but is quickly able to draw the connection between this particular Uchiha and Kakashi's transplanted Sharingan. She wasn't Konoha's top medic-nin for nothing.
She, too, lifts her hand and traces the name with the finger, and their fingertips meet for the briefest of moments. And then both hands drop but their respective owners continue to stare at the memorial.
As the rays of the setting sun lightly kiss the skin of her cheeks, Sakura realizes exactly how long she has stood in front of the memorial. And she finally understands why Kakashi is habitually late. It is hard for her to tear her eyes away from all those who had given their lives in their service to Konoha. And yet, it filled her with such a sense of pride that these fighters were from her village.
She smiles widely, and just for a moment, it is as if the worries of the world have been erased. She looks up at him and finds him looking at her. She smiles, and he returns it, giving her that familiar and comforting eye-crinkle that he always does.
"Wanna go for ramen, sensei?"
"Of course."