Author's notes: AW CRAAAP! GOMEN GOMEN! Gosh I am such an idiot :S I submitted the worng chapter, damn. I skipped chapter twentyone and went straight to chapter twentytwo. I am so sorry, I feel so embarrassed right now. But anyway, here we have it, chapter twentyone (the ACTUAL chapter now) Again I am really sorry and I hope I can make it up to you somehow. Perhaps updating sooner might work, but that's up to you. So yeah, here you go, chapter twentyone, enjoy
CHAPTER TWENTYONE: TIME OF UNCERTANTY
Kakashi focused his chakra to his right arm and allowed it to flow into Sakura's body so she could use it. Immediately Sakura grasped tight on the Jounin's arm, making him flinch at the sudden force placed on his forearm. Sakura felt the familiar chakra flow in her system and used it right away; allowing it to climb to her other arm and into the man's left eye.
Now the normal flow of chakra and the process was underway and Sakura was finding things a lot easier now that she was able to use chakra. She knew that Kakashi had a lot of chakra capacity and a lot of chakra left from the fight. Now all Sakura had to do was hold out long enough for the progression to finish up so she could rest and regain her chakra.
What Sakura didn't expect was the pounding headache that was slowly starting to develop during the task and she was finding it hard to cope with the problem and deal with Kakashi's pain at the same time.
Kakashi felt most of his chakra being almost sucked out, but not quick enough for him to be affected by it in any way. Sakura quickly pulled her attention from the pain in her head to the man sitting in front of her. She felt more sweat run down the side of her face and noticed Kakashi's strain to keep his flow of chakra under control. The second Sakura saw Kakashi flinch at the sudden pressure in his eye, she knew the process was now complete and pulled her hand away, while still holding on to Kakashi's arm.
She was breathing heavily and felt her body weaken under her commands, "it's done," she muttered tiredly and leaned forward and rest her head on Kakashi's chest, still holding onto his arm as if she would fall if she let go.
Kakashi sat there with the tired medic resting against him and sighed, "thank you, Sakura-chan," he said calmly, feeling rather tired himself and sighed audibly as he loosened his grip on the medic's wrist.
Looking up, Kakashi noticed dark clouds forming in the sky and covering the sun's rays and making everything feel gloomy and depressing, "looks like it's going to rain soon," he said calmly. Sakura lifted her head and looked up at the grey sky, "so it seems,"
"We'd better set up camp before it starts raining," Kakashi reminded, pulling Sakura from him and shuffling his way to his backpack and pulling out the things needed to pitch a tent. Sakura stretched her arms and rubbed her temples tiresomely before helping out; grabbing the massive sheet Kakashi laid out.
Not long after, the tent was set up, secured and watertight so if it did rain it wouldn't drown the two Jounins in their sleep. Sakura and Kakashi made sure all their belongings were inside along with the two sleeping foxes.
The sun had long set and the two Jounins spent the rest of the evening in the tent, even though they were bored out of their minds. Sakura stared aimlessly at the ceiling of the tent out of boredom and sighed longingly. Kakashi had himself occupied with the latest Icha Icha volume, but found himself mentally bored after a while.
Sakura knew she was tired and telling herself that many times over, she knew she had done something good today and that was help Kakashi with the pain in his left eye. Not only that, she still had some of Kakashi's chakra in her system and needed to sleep it off; knowing that having someone else's chakra in your body too long could actually do damage to your muscles, but Sakura didn't mind a bit of pain; she's a medic, she could handle it.
Later in the evening, Sakura could hear the whistling sound of the wind against the trees, making it sway in the breeze. She looked to her left to find Kakashi already asleep; she had to tell herself that she earned some rest after today and so she allowed her tired state consume her conscious mind and let her sleep.
The rocks came crashing down and all Sakura could see was a young boy with silver hair running for his life to get out.
"Kakashi look out!" cried out a voice from afar.
'Kakashi?' Sakura thought in surprise. She watched as the dark haired boy ran towards Kakashi after being knocked out by a rock.
Everything was happening so quickly, Sakura was barely able to see what was happening, 'what the hell is going on here?' she wondered, watching a massive cloud of dust form before her eyes.
Sakura rubbed the dust from her eyes, wondering what just exploded and what didn't. She was still very confused; she saw a small and young version of Kakashi running for his life and someone calling out to him.
"OBITO!" screamed a female voice.
Sakura looked around, trying to find where she was exactly. A cave; a large cave that had just collapsed. She looks around and finds Kakashi lying on the ground before getting up in shock.
"Obito, no!" cried the young silver haired boy.
Sakura noticed half of the dark haired boy Obito's body crushed under the massive boulder. Her eyes widened at the sight; blood sprayed all over the ground and both other ninja sprawled around the crushed boy.
Sakura could hear Kakashi cursing himself many times over, telling himself that all this was his fault. Obito spat out mouthfuls of blood and gasped for air. Sakura was immediately caught off guard when Obito uttered those words, "I'll give you my Sharingan," he ordered the brown haired girl to transplant his only remaining eye to replace Kakashi's injured eye.
Things suddenly felt cold around Sakura and the environment turned to blackness. She could hear voices of the people she was watching before and saw the dark haired boy standing afar from Sakura with a serious gaze upon his damaged face. Sakura noticed how he looked like someone had lifted the boulder from him and made him stand; the blood was all over his right side.
Sakura was scared, tears welling up in her eyes and she couldn't hold them back any longer. She saw young Kakashi standing in front of him, reaching out to him but Obito backed away, staring at him with a cold glare.
Sakura awoke from out of fear, sitting up straight away and panting. She could already feel the tears down her cheeks and on her chin, 'what the hell just happened?' she said inwardly.
"Sakura-chan?" came a tired voice next to her.
The medic felt her heart racing from the strange dream she was having. Was it a dream or a nightmare? Sakura didn't know. It seemed scary to her, but didn't really know how to describe it.
She looked to her left to find Kakashi, staring at her lazily with mismatched eyes, "are you alright?" he asked, tilting his head to the side with furrowed eyebrows.
Sakura blatantly nodded but Kakashi could tell that wasn't all she had to say. The medic frowned deeply before something from the dream she had brought up a question, "Kakashi," she started calmly.
"Hm?"
"H-how did you get the Sharingan?"
Silence ensued and Sakura felt the need to apologise for even asking in the first place. Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment, not too sure whether he should finally tell her about his past.
Kakashi hummed a bit before finally saying, "it happened when I first became a Jounin," he paused looking up at the pink haired medic, who now seemed to be paying a lot more possible attention than before.
"When I was twelve years old, me and my team went out on my first Jounin mission. Of course at the time it was the Third Great Ninja War and we were needed to destroy the enemy bridge of the Rock village," Kakashi paused again to gather his thoughts, "my sensei went off to accomplish his part of the mission, leaving me in charge of ours. Unfortunately we were ambushed by enemy Rock ninja and my teammate Rin was kidnapped, leaving me and Obito,"
Those names were finally starting to make sense in the medic's head. Instead of asking about it, she just sat there and listened, "Obito wanted to go after the Rock ninja and save Rin, but I told him that the mission was more important than the safety of a comrade," Sakura was surprised at what Kakashi had just said. Kakashi overruling mission status against the lives of others? What was he thinking? It was unlike Kakashi to think that his teammates meant nothing to him.
Kakashi noticed the surprised look in the medic's eyes and chuckled before resuming the story, "we both went our separate ways, Obito going off to rescue Rin and me resuming the mission, but something that Obito said made me reconsider my earlier decisions," Kakashi thought about those specific words Obito left him to ponder about and continued, "I went after my teammates to help them, leaving the mission behind for the time being,"
That put a smile on Sakura's face, but only a small smile, 'thats the Kakashi I know,' she said inwardly, waiting for Kakashi to carry on.
"When I finally caught up to Obito, he was fighting against the Rock ninjas on his own. He had let his guard drop when the enemy ninja jumped behind him and attempted to take a piece out of him with the kunai he had, but I came in at just the last moment and took the hit instead of Obito,"
Kakashi lifted his forehead protector to reveal his red Sharingan eye, "that's how I got the scar on my left eye," Sakura leaned a little closer to observe the vertical scar across the man's left eye.
'Okay, that answered one question. Now how about the others,' Sakura noticed how Kakashi was watching her before she leaned back to listen to his story.
"After I told Obito why I returned, Obito awakened his Sharingan and took out the Rock ninjas. We found Rin in a cave being interrogated; she was under a Genjutsu technique and couldn't escape. Obito and I leapt into action and freed Rin from the jutsu. Unfortunately our luck didn't change when the enemy ninja used an Earth Style jutsu that caused the cave to collapse on us,"
Sakura started to catch on to where this was leading but didn't want to interfere.
Clearing his throat, Kakashi continued, "a rock had hit me on my blindside and fell to the ground. I heard Obito call my name when I tried to regain consciousness, but I felt my body being thrown away somewhere," there was a sad pause, "when I woke up, I found Obito crushed under a boulder," Kakashi's face spoke seriously. Sakura couldn't believe how much he had been through at such a young age.
"Knowing he would die, Obito gave me his left eye to replace my damaged one. Obviously he still had the Sharingan activated and when Rin implanted the eye we had to make a break for the surface," another pause; Sakura couldn't help but feel so sorry for the man.
Kakashi noticed the sorrowful gleam in the medic's emerald eyes and grinned to reassure her, "Obito wanted to take back all the bad things he had said to me; we were always at each other's necks," the older Jounin chuckled to himself, looking off at his feet.
"After trying to defeat the enemies with my Chidori, I passed out from the lack of chakra I had. When I woke up I was safe with Rin and my sensei. He'd heard about what happened to Obito and wished he could've been there sooner," Kakashi frowned a little and looked up, "we managed to complete the mission successfully and never going back on what Obito had said to me: in the ninja world, those who disobey the rules and regulations are called trash…that's what I had lived with for the past two years back then…" Kakashi paused again with a grin and closed his eyes.
"But those in the ninja world who abandon their comrades are worse than trash…that's what Obito had said before going off to save Rin," Kakashi sighed deeply, ridding himself from the regretful memories from when he was a child.
Sakura frowned before saying, "sorry…" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "what are you apologising for? You didn't do anything," he replied, watching Sakura's face speak nothing but sadness.
"For bringing up the subject," Sakura murmured, not really wanting to say anything more about the subject.
Kakashi shook his head with a sigh, "Sakura, I don't mind telling you about my past; all you did was ask and I'm just answering your question," he smiled softly and placed his hand on Sakura's shoulder for reassurance.
Sakura sat with a blank expression fazed on her face and looked down at her sleeping bag, "the reason I asked was because I saw a younger version of you and your fiend Obito crushed under a rock and giving his Sharingan to you. I then saw a younger version of you, and you were in the darkness…" Sakura sounded as though she was about to cry at the visions of her dreams.
"I guess you still had some of my chakra in your system," Kakashi noted, rubbing the back of his neck tiredly.
Sakura stared at her hands, slight puzzlement in her weary expression. She glanced to the older Jounin beside her and a small smile tugged at her lips. She saw Kakashi return the smile in the same state she was: sleepy.
"We'd better get some rest so we'll be up and ready for anything," Kakashi advised, lying back down on his side and his back facing the pink haired Kunoichi.
Sakura felt the need to hug him, but she couldn't just hug someone; besides, it was Kakashi she would be hugging, her former sensei and someone who probably would show no emotion if need be. Sighing softly to herself, Sakura lay down with a light huff and drifted off to sleep again in hopes of a better dream than the last.
Unfortunately, Sakura's dreams didn't get any better; in fact, they got worse. More dreams about the loss of a very close friend, who had torn her heart to shreds after his death, taunting her, torturing her in every possible way. Sakura didn't know how long it would take before her actions got the better of her and she'd end up killing herself because of it.
She sat up, sweaty from the dreaded nightmare and panting heavily. Only now did Sakura realise that Kakashi wasn't in the tent and nor was her surroundings so dark. It had to be only one thing: Kakashi was awake and it was already morning. Before Sakura decided to make an appearance and breathe in the fresh air, she felt a cold pang in her heart; something she knew would come up eventually. It was guilt. Yes, Sakura was feeling guilty, but over what?
'I have to tell himbut I dont know if I should,' she thought, fearing her own memories.
Slowly, Sakura tidied herself up to make herself ready for the day. When she got out of the tent, the day had started out cloudy and noticed that it could rain at any time. This meant that Sakura and Kakashi had to keep a close eye out.
Standing to take in the fresh scent of the morning rise, Sakura sensed a familiar presence behind her, "morning, sensei," she started in a slight tease. Kakashi, who was lazily standing behind her to greet her to the cloudy morning, rolled his eyes.
"Morning kid," Kakashi slurred, ruffling the medic's pink hair playfully.
Sakura pouted frustratingly and swatted the man's hand away from her head and folded her arms across her chest. Ignoring the already annoyed Kunoichi, Kakashi gazed upon the grey sky and sighed, "I'm guessing it's going to rain today, no doubt about it," he shifted his weight to the other leg and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
After breakfast, Kakashi and Sakura packed their things and carried on with their journey to the next village in hopes of a warm bed to sleep in and a well earned hot shower. Sakura's mouth watered at the thought; she really needed the pampering right about now.
It started calm, despite Kuro and Kitsune racing about in between the two Jounins' legs to play with one another. Suddenly there was a loud thundering sound, frightening the two foxes out of their skins and instantly jumped up to the nearest person: Kakashi.
Sakura giggled at Kakashi's sudden expression. Kakashi chuckled at the two foxes as they tried to find every way to hide from the thunder and lightning, "it's okay you two, you won't get hurt," he assured, trying to pat the trembling foxes without dropping them. Sakura rolled her eyes and made her way to Kakashi's side, "Kitsune, it's alright," she said, reaching under the silver haired man's arm where the brown fox clung in fear. The medic felt Kitsune's body quiver against her touch and popped her head from under Kakashi's arm and saw Sakura's trusting smile.
Gently the Kunoichi pulled Kitsune from Kakashi's arms and into her own. Kitsune warily eyes the dark clouds above, growling at them. Again, Sakura rolls her eyes and started walking, "we'd better hurry if we want to stay dry," before Sakura could get any further ahead of Kakashi, she felt something on her head that she didn't want to have happen so soon.
Sakura looks up, squinting her eyes the second she felt the rain drop on her face. Nooo, rain! Not only was Sakura feeling miserable about wanting to tell Kakashi the truth, but it was raining too? This was something she should've seen coming.
"Lovely," Kakashi sighed, allowing Kuro to hide under his arm without getting wet.
The two now disappointed Jounins staggered their way down the road in the rain, not really bothered by the fact that they were soaking wet.
As the day progressed, Sakura was getting cold and it was still raining; she just wanted to reach the next village in time and get herself cleaned up and warm. Kakashi wasn't really bothered by the rain, in fact he rather enjoyed it, getting a bit wet here and there and smelling the fresh scent of rain on the ground and forestry.
He thread his fingers through his wet and silver hair, flicking the water from his hand that he had collected in his silver mane. Sakura didn't bother; she was too perturbed about telling Kakashi the truth, 'I have to tell himbut I dont know how,' she told herself inwardly, sighing deeply as she felt Kitsune moving around in her arms.
Sakura had thought that this day could not get any worse, but she spoke too soon. In one careless and almost blind step, Sakura had face planted right into a muddy puddle. Kakashi immediately rushed over - without slipping over himself, and checked to see if his former student was okay.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" he wondered, trying his best to hide the amusement he found just by watching Sakura try and sit up.
"Yeah," Sakura spat out a mouthful of mudded water and wiped her face.
Kitsune leapt straight out of the puddle and onto the path, shivering immensely and looking so freaked out. Again, Kakashi tried not to laugh but he couldn't help it. The light chuckle turned into a laugh he couldn't hold back.
Sakura looked up with one eye closed, "what's so funny?" she asked, trying to get up but kept slipping back into the mud.
"I'm sorry Sakura…I just haven't seen something…this funny in a long time," he bellowed, making an effort to control his mirth.
Soon, Kakashi gained control of himself and put his bag down, reaching out a hand, which Sakura gladly took without any objections. Slowly Kakashi pulled the medic to his feet before being pulled down with Sakura the second she skidded along the slippery surface of the mud and plunged into the puddle with Sakura on top of Kakashi.
Sakura sat up, wiping the mud from her eyes and spat out more water, "aw man," she moaned, glancing down at Kakashi, who bore the same expression as she and sighed audibly, "sorry about that," he uttered, sitting up as well and wiping the mud off his mask.
This rain wasn't getting them anywhere. Each time Sakura and Kakashi tried to get up, they fell back down in a more awkward position, "this isn't working," Kakashi said finally, looking over to the two drenched foxes and sighing again for the nth time.
Sakura said nothing, but gave Kakashi a mischievous look that made him feel very suspicious about what the medic was about to do next.
"Damn it," she hit the water with her hand and splashed Kakashi.
Kakashi shook his head and rubbed his lone visible eye, "hey, what was that for?" he asked, ready to splash her back. Sakura gave him a glare, "what? This?" Sakura splashed him again, this time on purpose.
Kakashi felt the cold water splash on his face and in his eye, "okay that's it," he stated plainly, dipping his hands in the water and throwing two big handfuls of sloppy mud at the medic's face. At an instant, Sakura flicked the mud from her eyes and dove at the silver haired man. The two rolled around in the muddy puddle for god knows how long, wrestling until both were exhausted.
Mud thrown at each other and both perhaps covered in soon-to-be bruises, Sakura and Kakashi finally stopped; both resting next to one another, panting heavily and now already tired.
"Well…" Kakashi said, catching his breath, "that was fun,"
"Yeah…" Sakura sat there, completely muddy from the wrestle and totally soaked.
They looked at one another before both bursting into laughter, "you should've seen the look on your face," Sakura started, laughing hysterically as she pointed at the muddy Jounin next to her.
Kakashi shook his head while laughing still, before finally containing his mirth and noticing that Sakura seemed a bit uneasy about something, "come on, we'd better get out of here before we get sick," he finally gained the balance to stand up straight and he held out a hand to Sakura.
Slowly, Sakura took his hand and was steadily lifted to her feet, slipping only once before being grabbed. She felt Kakashi's arms pull her up and being lead onto a more solid place to stand.
Author's notes: Okay...yeah, this is the real chapter twentyone okay? Yeah, and again I am really sorry for submitting the wrong chapter. I just hope it won't happen again :S. So anyway, I liked this chapter because it had a funny scene with Kakashi and Sakura wrestling in the mud with each other in the rain. I hoped you liked this chapter, and I'll have the next one up as soon as I can XD.