Three years ago...
Sasuke left to go train with Orochimaru.
Naruto left to go train with Jiraiya.
Sakura...had gotten left behind. Though a part of her wished she could get away from the Leaf and go training, the other part of her told her to suck it up considering she had officially became Tsunade's student.
Even so, without pause, she had walked to Team Seven's training ground.
She didn't expect to see anyone there. It really was just routine for her. Wake up at the crack of dawn, meet up with her teammates and wait hours for their sensei to arrive with a shitty excuse. It was when she arrived that she remembered that she was the only one left of Team Seven.
Briefly, she remembered about Kakashi.
Annoyance flared. Naruto and Sasuke had left. But what was his excuse? He never showed up.
The annoyance died down.
What would he show up for anyway? To apologize? To tell her she wasn't cut out to be a shinobi?
She slumped against one of the tree stumps.
"Sasuke...Naruto..." Her eyes closed as she uttered their names.
She could almost imagine them there with her.
Sasuke calling Naruto a dobe.
Naruto calling Sasuke a teme.
She almost drifted off into a sleepy daze.
Almost.
If Kakashi hadn't appear at that exact moment.
"Sakura?" He asked in surprise.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yelled pointing at her teacher.
"You see, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." Was Kakashi's automatic and cheery response, but Sakura could see that it clearly didn't reach his eye.
Her shoulders slumped as she looked down. "Sasuke and Naruto...they left."
"Yeah."
"You didn't."
"But you didn't even visit me."
Kakashi didn't respond.
"Why? And don't use any of your stupid excuses."
She half expected Kakashi to just walk away. Instead, he simply sat down next to her.
"I didn't know how to face you."
Sakura's eyes widened at the confession. But she didn't say anything.
"I couldn't do anything about Sasuke leaving. I barely got to Naruto in time. I'm a failure as a teacher. Aside from the tree climbing exercise, I didn't teach you anything."
"You taught us teamwork." Sakura quietly mumbled.
"Was that enough to stop Sasuke from leaving?"
Sakura winced at how broken Kakashi's voice sounded. She wasn't used to this side of Kakashi. "Why was teamwork so important to you anyway?" She curiously asked, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.
"My best friend died because I failed him. My other teammate died as well because I wasn't strong enough. My sensei died because I was weak. Somewhere down the road I realized that I was strong on my own, but that doesn't mean I could do everything on my own. If I had stopped working on my own and actually worked with my team, maybe at least two of them would be alive today."
Sakura quietly listened.
"I didn't want the same to happen to you and the others. But it seems like I spend too much time on teamwork, that I forgot that individuality is also important. If I was a good teacher I would have taught you instead of doing nothing. I failed you. I failed Naruto. I failed Sasuke. I failed my old team."
Sakura awkwardly gave Kakashi a pat on the head, hoping to comfort her teacher.
'This probably isn't working.' She thought to herself.
She stood corrected when Kakashi leaned in to the touch despite being tense.
Sakura waited for a bit, wanting Kakashi to relax before she continued to speak.
"Your best friend probably doesn't blame you. If he does then he wasn't your best friend. Same with your other teammate. As for your sensei, don't be stupid. He was probably proud of you."
She was absently brushing her fingers through Kakashi's hair at this point.
"As for Team Seven. Naruto supposedly hates Sasuke but he still went after hik right? You did teach us teamwork. And Team Seven? We're alive. You must have done something right."
Kakashi didn't say anything.
"And living means chances. Which means you can fix things. For now we're the only ones left of Team Seven. You only have me and I'm not leaving anytime soon. That's a promise."
"I heard you're now Tsunade-sama's student."
Sakura blinked at the change of topic before nodding yes.
"Busy schedule?"
"Depends. She is the Hokage after all, so sometimes I'll probably have to do theory on my own."
"Well, when you have nothing to do come find me. I'll teach you a thing or two."
"Eh?"
"Living means chances, right?"
Kakashi gave her a closed eye smile.
Present time.
Sakura huffed as she sat down next to Kakashi. "I should have known you'd be passing time by reading that book." She noted. "Sometimes I think that book is more important than me."
"It is."
Sakura twitched. "Remind me why I fell in love with you again?"
"My dashing looks."
"Of course, you're even better looking than Sasuke-kun after all." Sakura dryly said.
"And it took you two years to realize that."
"Though maybe I should break up with you and go hook up with Kiba."
"We both know you won't do that."
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What makes you so sure?"
In reply Kakashi swiftly kissed her. Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned forward to deepen the kiss. She could feel Kakashi's smug smile, but she didn't care. He was right, both knew that she loved him too much to even consider breaking up with him for real. And both knew that when push comes to shove, Kakashi would pick her over that damned book of his any day.
"Naruto! Those two aren't your opponents! Your opponent, is over there!"
Kakashi quickly leaned out of the kiss.
Sakura pouted, but lifted his mask up to cover his face for him. Only she was allowed to see his face after all. "Naruto's already annoying me." She said before stepping away.
"He wouldn't be Naruto otherwise."
"Which one of us is going to tell him we're dating?"
Kakashi simply offered a close eyed smile. "We'll let him figure it out himself." He said before turning to look at the window, just in time to see Naruto. "Naruto, you've gotten taller."
Sakura rolled her eyes, trust Kakashi to not greet someone normally. "It's been a long time Naruto." She smiled at her teammate.
"Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-chan!" The blonde grinned. "You two haven't changed at all!"
Kakashi grimaced as Sakura swiftly kicked Naruto away. "Haven't changed at all, huh? That should have showed him." She huffed while cracking her knuckles.
"I see you've cloned yourself Tsunade." Jiraiya noted.
In response Tsunade simply smirked. "Oh, you'll find out I'm not the only one she's taken after."
"That was mean Sakura-chan~!" Naruto whined opening the door to Tsunade's office and re-entering.
"Next time don't insult me then." Sakura blandly said.
"Oh right! I got you a gift Kakashi-sensei!"
"Really? You shouldn't have."
Sakura quietly watched as Naruto pulled out a book from his pouch. She released a quiet gasp at seeing the tittle. Now believe it or not, Sakura was a huge fan of Icha Icha. She's been a fan for almost three years.
It started off as mere curiosity regarding her crush's taste in books, but then turned into a full blown obsession.
So while Kakashi was distracted due to having a fanboy moment, Sakura leaped.
Naruto could only yelp in surprise as the book was taken from his hands and the only sign that it was Sakura who took it was the pink flash that flashed in the corner of his eyes. "S-Sakura-chan?!" He yelled in surprise as the girl leaped off the tower.
"She'll be fine." Shizune assured. "She's done that a thousand times already."
"My book!" Kakashi cried jumping after her.
"Kakashi-sensei?! What about our fight?!" Naruto yelled jumping after Kakashi.
"Good riddance, they've always been a noisy bunch." Tsunade said with a fond smile.
"That girl, shouldn't she hate my books? Considering you do and she's a copy of you." Jiraiya noted.
"Didn't I tell you? I'm not the only person she takes after." Tsunade smirked.
"Oh?"
Shizune giggled. "She takes after her boyfriend too."
Jiraiya's eyes widened. "No way. Her and Kakashi?"
"They've been together for almost three months now."
Jiraiya hummed. "And her parents approve?"
Tsunade grimaced. "They...had some difficulties with it."
"By that she means they disowned her." Shikamaru bluntly informed ignoring Temari's glare, it wasn't like Sakura was trying to hide anything. "She's living with Kakashi. The council gets troublesome about it, but she shuts them up every time."
Tsunade crossed her arms with a scowl. "I'll replace those stupid old geezers one day."
Jiraiya flinched back as a menacing aura surrounded Tsunade.
"...they did almost force those two to have kids after all..." He heard Shizune mumble, an equally dark aura surrounding both the woman and her pet pig.
'Those geezers are idiots...' Jiraiya quickly concluded. Who else would mess with Tsunade's surrogate daughter?
Though he couldn't help but wonder how exactly such a short tempered girl managed to snatch the infamous Kakashi.
After spending no less than three hours escaping from Naruto and his clones, Kakashi had finally managed to disappear. He had one goal in mind, to find his girlfriend and his book.
'It still feels odd calling Sakura my girlfriend.' He reflected.
Five months ago he kept fretting over their age difference. It took his friends and Sakura's friends two months to beat some sense into him and make him realize that his and Sakura's feelings were mutual and that those who judged them because of the age difference didn't matter. Now they've been dating for three months.
He opened the door to his apartment and made his way to his room. He knew that Sakura would probably be on his bed. They haven't gotten to the whole sex part of their dating lives, but neither planned to rush it.
"Welcome home." Sakura greeted him with a smile before holding up the book. "Did you and Naruto have fun?"
"We had a blast." He sarcastically answered. "He chased me all over Konoha with his clones. I don't know where he gets that energy from, I bet even Gai would get tired of him." Kakashi sighed taking a seat on his bed.
"Naruto's always chasing after the guys I'm crushing on." Sakura said in amusement. "First Sasuke-kun and now you? I really am questioning Naruto's sexuality."
Kakashi sweat drop. "I don't think he's ever found a male attractive before."
"Remember Haku?"
Kakashi hummed, maybe Sakura did have a point.
"But~!" Kakashi tensed as Sakura wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her mouth leaning in to whisper something in his ears. "You wouldn't cheat on me with Naruto, right? You value your books too much, right?"
"Right." Kakashi agreed without hesitation and Sakura planted a quick kiss on his cheek before handing him the book. "This was by far the best of the series so far."
Kakashi perked up as he finally opened the book.
He felt Sakura snuggling up to him and absently played with her hair as he read his book.
Chapter End.
Author's Note: This was a prompt by a friend of mine. KakashixSakura taking on the timeline, lightning blade and super powered punches destroying everything. I know in most of these stories there's a lot of angst about the age difference, but in this one it'll only pop up occasionally. I don't like writing angst all that much that's why.
Will this story follow canon?
Um. No.
Pairings will either be NarutoxHinata and KarinxSasuke or NarutoxSasuke, HinataxShino/Kiba and KarinxSuigetsu/Jugo. Depending on what you guys want.