Prompt: Death
Title: i got soul (but i'm not soldier) - 505 words
Series: Choices, Chances, Changes, Part 2
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Kakashi doesn't know what he was thinking.
Mostly it's that he wasn't thinking. He was feeling. Feeling guilty he forgot, feeling hope in his shriveled heart, feeling moved in a way he hadn't allowed himself for a long time. (You couldn't be affected by a person if you didn't let them in. This is survival if you are a long-lived ninja.)
What he hadn't accounted for was that she was a teenage girl, and there were no boneheaded brats to be his buffer.
It was all fits and starts.
Sakura increased her stamina and speed, and he worked her doggedly in taijutsu. Her chakra reserves increased. But it was slow-going.
Kakashi learned his words were explosive tags. Some made her eyes well up in a way that made him feel sub-human. Others made her immediately combust. Sometimes tears. Sometimes anger.
Sakura learned all of his hiding spots, and how to get inside his guard, and that lightning jutsu just wasn't for her.
Kakashi learned he would never understand her (or any teenage girl), and that he shouldn't try. (After getting over his trauma at her mood swings, he learned it was quite fun to piss her off.)
Surprisingly, she took to blades. Perhaps not so surprisingly, fire was her element.
It was inevitable she'd get assigned to a higher ranked mission with him.
...
He had everything under control. Two nin for him to deal with, one for Sakura to battle. Considering they were taken by surprise, everything was going quite well. Sakura was handling herself, and it would only be minutes until he disabled his own opponents.
But then there were more ninja, and he lost sight of her, and then she was screaming for him and Kakashi was like a man possessed.
One, two, three, four out of the way, and then everything was a blur as he dashed through the trees, following his nose (jasmine and blood). And then he saw her and the enemy nin, and he reached for a kunai, but it was too late. The nin was mid-air, a split second from impact…
… his heart stopped …
… and then time sped up, the nin landed, and Sakura cried out.
"Get him off, get him off, get him off!" She was pushing, and Kakashi was pulling, and then the body was gone and there was blood everywhere (a stained kunai in her hand).
"I killed him," she said, and her eyes were too wide, breathing too fast. "There's blood on my hands, and I killed him, and…" she looked up at him, eyes glassy. "… I tried not to, but he wouldn't stay down, and then.. and then.." and then she started to cry.
It was her first kill.
Kakashi reached out, pulled her into the frame of his body. Given the permission, slim arms went around his waist and were too tight, but just right. (Kakashi had also learned that a touch went a long way. For both of them.)
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A/N: This one was actually two ideas smashed into one 500 word piece. I was sadful to have to cut it back so much.
It's also a continuation of yesterday's drabble (which is now a tiny miniseries called "Choices, Chances, Changes"). Kakashi's a jaded prodigy in his mid-twenties who's been through a war, the deaths of his best friends and mentor, and made it through an extended period of service to ANBU. Sakura is a thirteen-year-old girl who hasn't shown any real promise as a ninja, but is absolutely determined - and who is also going through puberty and is having all of the Epic Feels. The clash is amusing... also, dichotomous enough to prod each other into personal growth.
