A Girl Thing…ch.2

By: firefly

Hair Therapy

Sakura glanced at the dying sunset, her face dissolving into an expression of relief when she saw that it was almost late evening. Her feet were killing her. After managing to get through the Muddy Forest of Doom, she and her team had to climb a sheer vertical cliff, and then walk uphill for three hours.

She was right. This mission did rot.

But there was one little thing she was looking forward to…

Sakura let a small, appreciative smile appear on her face as she looked ahead and saw Kakashi restraining Naruto, who was trying to get at Sasuke to kill him, obviously because of another stinging insult.

She sighed in content, forgetting her aching feet as she imagined a quiet, reserved evening of doing her teacher's hair and discussing useless topics.

Pure…bliss…

"DIE!" Naruto screamed as he lunged at the expressionless boy with a kunai knife in hand.

Sakura sighed again, twirling a lock of pink hair around her finger and smiling happily, as Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the scruff of his neck and tied his arms together, with Naruto screaming obscenities at Sasuke all the while.

Yes, pure bliss.

Sakura fumbled around for her bag, feeling slightly nervous as she waited for her teacher's much-anticipated arrival. Hell, he'd probably be late like always, and think nothing of it. But for her, this happened to be a big deal.

She sat outside her tent, looking through her bag to make sure she had everything she needed, the dim firelight just shy of her frame.

"Aha!" She said to herself as she found her favourite hair brush, buried under an arsenal of hair ties and clips, all in different shapes, sizes, and colours. And there…lying under a packet of tissues, were a pair of gleaming scissors.

Slowly, she let her hand close around it as she raised it in front of her eyes, a small grin appearing on her face. Quickly, she shoved the scissors into the bag and got to her feet.

I'm sure Master Kakashi won't mind if I take a teensy bit off the top…when he's not looking…Sakura thought, giggling.

"What's so funny?"

Sakura whirled around, her heart beating a mile a minute from the sudden disruption of silence. Kakashi stood there, staring at her with one brow raised, an amused look on his face.

"Oh…Master Kakashi," she stammered, finding her voice unnaturally high. "You scared me!"

"Sorry," he said, before lowering his visible eye to the enormous duffel bag Sakura held. "What's that for? Are you planning to kill me?"

It took a moment for Sakura to understand his warped sense of humour, and she shook her head dumbly.

"Okay then, let's go," he said, turning his back and walking in the opposite direction. Sakura wasn't expecting this, but said nothing as she followed from behind, a smile growing on her face as she remembered the pair of scissors in her bag.

He led her to his own tent, which was considerably larger than her own. Sakura blinked, finally realizing the obvious. Her tent was way too small for both of them to sit comfortably in.

As soon as she entered, she dropped the duffel bag to the ground and came to her knees, her hands reaching inside for her tools.

Kakashi sat down and watched her, a sweat drop forming on the back of his head as she started to mutter to herself.

"Marshmellows…check. Hair brush…check…" and so on for about five minutes.

Then finally, "Okay! I'm ready!" Sakura chirped happily, lugging the bag up to Kakashi, who was admittedly nervous about what the large bag contained.

But to his relief, she dropped it nearby and settled herself in front of him, a bag of marshmallows held in her hands.

"Want one?" she offered, popping one of the masses of sugar and starch into her mouth. Kakashi shook his head, wondering if Sakura had diligently planned this after he had agreed to have one on one "girl talks" with her.

Chewing thoughtfully, Sakura picked up a small booklet she brought and looked inside, before raising her eyes to him inquisitively.

"When's you birthday, Master Kakashi?"

The question caught him off guard.

"What?"

"When's your birthday?"

"Erm, September 15."

"Hmm…"

He watched her flip through the pages of the book until a look of enlightenment crossed her face.

"A Virgo, huh?" She said, grinning as she flopped down on her stomach, leaning on her elbows as she read through the booklet. "I bought this from the last village we stopped at. I decided that I needed to get to know the real you. I mean, you never tell us anything about yourself." She mumbled, chewing on her thumb nail as she looked up at him innocently.

He was drawing a blank. What was he supposed to say? This was a girl, a young adolescent girl. He decided to blurt out the only thing he could think of.

"Sakura, weren't you going to do my hair?" He asked, his voice somewhat desperate.

"Oh yeah!" Sakura exclaimed, snapping her fingers and scrambling to her feet. "You can tell me about yourself while I do your hair!"

Sighing inwardly in relief, he gladly made room for her, sitting cross-legged on the ground as she came up behind him, sitting on her knees. Humming contentedly to herself, Sakura reached for the hairbrush, holding it in one hand, the other occupied by her little booklet of horoscopes.

"Virgo is the sixth Sign of the Zodiac. The first five Signs represent the growth of the individual, and Virgo brings their skills and talents together for the good of others. Virgo is the Sign of Service. Despite their inherent modesty, people born under Virgo are industrious and efficient when working for a good cause. They are neat and well organized. As the sixth Sign, Virgo also rules the sixth House: the House of Health," Sakura read from the booklet, glancing down at her teacher.

"Hmm, that sounds pretty accurate, except for the 'neat and organized' part, you're never on time!" Sakura said, giggling as Kakashi shrugged, clueless, unaware that he even was a Virgo.

"Master Kakashi, can you ditch the headband for a while? It'll be hard to do your hair with it in the way," Sakura suddenly asked sweetly, pleased when Kakashi complied and pulled it off, his normally hidden Sharingan eye squinting at the fire light that enveloped the inside of the tent.

Sakura found herself staring at the blood red eye in fascination, having only witnessed it once before. Her face grew warm, her cheeks flushing slightly when she realized that Kakashi really did want to help her…because he never removed the head band unless they were in a life and death situation.

He must really care about the well-being of his students…Sakura realized, as Kakashi waited patiently for her to commence.

Blinking, she snapped herself from her thoughts and smiled at the unruly mass of silver hair in front of her.

Reaching forward, she let her fingers comb some strands away from his eyes, her eyes widening at the soft feel of his hair.

"Wow, Master Kakashi, you have texture a girl would kill for!" She exclaimed, getting a small chuckle from her teacher.

The Jounin relaxed as Sakura gently swept the stray hairs away from his visage, the spidery touches soothing his tension. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea.

"So Master Kakashi…" Sakura said slyly. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

He barely heard her. The sensation of having her fingers and hairbrush running through his hair were having a strange effect. He could feel his eyes drifting closed, and his shoulders drooping.

"What do you think?" He murmured with his eyes closed, smiling at her question.

"To tell you honestly…I'd say you didn't. First, you're never on time. You have to be punctual, that's one of the most important things in a relationship. Second, you never show your face. I mean, I know love is all about what's inside a person's heart, but a girl's gotta know what her boyfriend looks like! And third, you're not really communicative. I bet that if you had a girlfriend, all she'd know about you was your name," Sakura said logically, now braiding his hair.

"Now that I think about it, I bet you never had a woman in your life," Sakura said, shaking her head.

The older Shinobi opened his eyes, and slowly turned his head, glancing up at Sakura, a strange light flickering in his gaze. Sakura blinked at his sudden serious expression.

"You're partially right."

Sakura's eyes widened.

"I did know one woman, whom I loved more than anything," he replied, holding her gaze. "But she died a long time ago…"

Sakura remained still and said nothing, hoping that this rare display of his past life wouldn't end as soon as it had started.

"She was very beautiful," he continued, a note of nostalgia audible in his tone. "She was the world to me."

Sakura continued to run the brush through his wild silver hair, listening intently as she did so. The tone of his voice was one she had never heard before, and she could feel goose bumps rising on her arms.

"She used to sing to me...but I never really appreciated it. Now I regret not listening to her songs when I had the chance to." He murmured, finally pushing Sakura to the point that she couldn't stand the suspense anymore.

"Who was she?" Sakura whispered, mystified, her eyes full of wonderment and awe.

Kakashi glanced up at her and smiled.

"My mom."

Somewhere nearby, Naruto and Sasuke stirred in their sleeping bags as Sakura face-faulted.