A stack of files rested on his desk that he had yet to open. Kakashi had wanted to shove them in the trash and never look at them—but it was Sensei's son that was on his team and he can't. Can't think about him. Can't look at him. Can't be reminded of every way he had failed.

He takes the top two files off the pile and reached for the one labeled Haruno Sakura. A young orphan girl, civilian born. Sakura wasn't interesting. She couldn't be on a team with the last Uchiha and a Jinchuriki.

Her file was thin and contained only her academy scores and a brief history. Forgettable, thought Kakashi. An extra, whispered another part of him. If she died, she died. The Hyūga girl and Yamanaka were too important to be placed on a team meant to be on the front lines.

Her only living relation was a kunoichi named Suzuran—the woman he'd met earlier. A rank wasn't listed next to her name. She was five years younger than him, separating them by a generation.

He can't go ask the Hokage for her file. No rank meant that she was slotted for ANBU out of the academy. Her missions wouldn't be public records. But—Kakashi has enough leverage that the Hokage probably wouldn't mind answering a couple of questions.

"Haruno Suzuran." He threw the name out casually, placing Sakura's file on the Hokage's desk. The Third's mouth curled around his pipe, blowing out a puff of smoke. When he pulled his pipe away, a frown remained.

The Hokage gave a heaving sigh that rattled in his chest. He stood from his chair, moving to the window overlooking the village below. Kakashi crossed the room to stand next to him.

"Suzuran," he started, her name falling out with a great deal of effort. A hardness lined his voice that was usually reserved for mission talk.

"Slated for ANBU, right out of the academy. We were lacking the forces for the missions we had, and she showed tremendous ninjutsu skill at school." The Hokage paused, lost in memory.

"She was the obvious choice. What faults she had—a lack of respect for authority, stubbornness, and pride—would be removed in ANBU. She passed her training but, she failed missions left and right. She spent an entire year in T&I for reconditioning."

"She was a threat," Kakashi summarized. "Disloyal? Or was it something else?

"No," the Hokage disagreed. "She's loyal—more than most—but she has a soft heart. Some people aren't built for all the killing that comes in ANBU. Suzuran was not the type to easily take a life, no matter the circumstances. Reconditioning worked for a while, but she was no longer herself. The Yondaime gave her infiltration and retrieval missions under Shikaku's watch. Once the killing stopped, she calmed down considerably."

"And now?" asked Kakashi. "Her sister is my student."

"She won't cause you any issues, so long as you do your duty properly."

Kakashi nodded, understanding the hidden message in the Hokage's words. He can't slack off this time, not the way he had for all the genin teams assigned to him previously.

He bid the Hokage goodbye, leaving the old man to his paperwork and used a body flicker to return home. Despite the Hokage's reassurance that Suzuran was not a problem, Kakashi still wanted her file.

Going into a situation blind wasn't how he usually did things. If she had been ANBU, he must have at least seen her, but he has no memory of pink hair in his head. She was younger than him when she entered ANBU forces. He can't help the small bit of pity that rose in him at the thought—even Itachi was older.

But pity has no place in the world they live in, so Kakashi shook the thought away. He instead focused on the more important part of his encounter with Suzuran, the loss of his precious book.

Kakashi spent the next day hunting for a flash of pink hair throughout the village. He didn't know if she was avoiding another confrontation or if she was just good at hiding.

Momo-chan, as Sakura's sister has been dubbed in his head, stole his favorite Icha-Icha. It's a cute enough nickname that he can almost image the distaste on her face. Her scent still lingered in his mind, like cold peaches dipped in syrup, little crescents of summer. Not that he knew what she liked or disliked, but he got the general vibe that she was a little uptight.

He doesn't know what the woman was doing with his precious Icha-Icha or why she went after the book in the first place. Part of him was afraid that she was a lot more prepared for their encounter than he was.

He resorted to following Sakura around. If anything, he could anger Momo-chan to revealing herself and figuring out his student at the same time. Two birds, one stone.

Following Sakura around was a lot more boring than he wants to admit. Watching her pining over the last Uchiha was mind numbing, but Sakura did have a good sense of chakra. He noticed the way her eyes would stray from whatever she was doing whenever there was a sudden jump of chakra around here.

For an hour, Kakashi amused himself with testing the skill, creating random spikes in his chakra until she finally pulled her friends away from the edge of the training groundse.

He taijutsu skills showed some promise, but not once during her spars did she try using ninjutsu. Was she hiding it? Momo-chan had been enough of a ninjutsu master to be pushed into ANBU. Sakura has none of that flash.

Did Momo-chan not teach her sister anything? Or perhaps the girl didn't possess the skill? Sakura was young and flighty. She was loud and quick to anger. She didn't seem like a child raised by a shinobi.

He sighed, closing his eyes, and pushing his chakra outward. He wasn't a sensor by any means, but at the very least he can find out what he's working with. Sakura's chakra reserves are far less than the boys, but there's a steadiness to it that neither Sasuke or Naruto have.

"Ino-chan," the girl shouted, pulling her friend up from the dirt she had just thrown her in. The two clasped hands, Sakura guiding the blonde up and helping her dust off.

She was too soft.

The other terrible truth was that she was too much like Rin.

He turned away, suddenly disinterested in watching over Sakura. Slowly, Kakashi made his way over the training fields, his feet taking him on a path he knew far too well.

Training Ground Three gave way to a small clearing where a large, black gleaming stone loomed over him. The dull throb in his chest stretched past his ribs and heart making it hard to breath. He let the sadness swell inside him.

He could go back to being a ninja afterwards.