Hello again. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! Oh, how it brightens my day to see those little comments. Anyways, back to business. Here is the fourth chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it.

"You better stick that thermometer back in your mouth or I'm going to do it for you," Sakura threatened as she bustled about Kakashi's kitchen. The living room, dining area, and kitchen were all combined into one open area, so it was easy for Sakura to keep an eye on the Copy Ninja. She could see him fiddling with the thermometer in his mouth from her station at the little stove.

Kakashi lay sprawled across the couch in his black t-shirt and sweatpants, a soft yellow blanket covering the lower half of his body. A thin slit in his typical black silk mask revealed his lips, which were set into a slight frown.

Kakashi eyed the little kunoichi as she set the teakettle on a backburner. "You know," he said, his speech muddled by the stick in his mouth, "you've made me ruin a perfectly good mask."

Sakura sighed and shook her head at him. She folded her arms across her chest and stared at him in frustration. She looked at little tired and on the verge of agitation.

"Excuse me," she said, "but we wouldn't have had this problem if you'd just take off that darn sock you like to wear over your face all the time."

Kakashi's eyes crinkled slightly as he secretly smiled at her comment. He couldn't really be upset with her; after all, here she was, coming to check up on him and make him breakfast.

"This 'sock'," he said, "is the one reason why women find me so appealing. It makes me kind of mysterious, don't you think?" He winked at her and she scowled.

"Whatever you say, Sensei," she muttered, her eyebrows raised in doubt.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern underlying his voice. "Usually you'd laugh at something like that, or at least scold me."

Sakura tried to grin apologetically at her former instructor. She knew he was just trying to lighten up the mood, but the memories of the previous night weighed down on her so that it felt like she carried the world on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry," she said, gazing at the steam escaping through the kettle's spout. "I just didn't sleep very well last night."

She walked out from behind the counter and peered at her watch. She figured it must have been at least the required two minutes for the thermometer to measure his temperature. She sat down on the coffee table and pulled the stick out of Kakashi's mouth.

After a moment she looked up. A smile played on her lips. "Well," she said, "it looks like your fever has broken. But let me check your throat just to see if the swelling is subsiding."

Kakashi glanced around the room, looking for signs of another test kit. Sakura laughed as she realized why Kakashi hesitated to open his mouth.

"It's okay," she giggled, "I'm not going to do another swab; that was only to see if you had the Strep Throat. I just want to check your progress."

Kakashi eyed the kunoichi suspiciously and shrugged. "You have to promise," he said. Sakura rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Alright, alright. I promise I won't do it to you again," she sincerely responded. Finally Kakashi opened his mouth and let her look inside.

"Hmm…" Sakura murmured. She shined the flashlight into the back of his throat and nodded in approval. She pulled away from him and flicked the flashlight off.

"Everything looks good," she said, grinning at the success of her treatment. She got back up and headed to the kitchen, where the kettle had just started to whistle.

Kakashi watched as Sakura poured two cups of the steaming liquid and searched the cabinet for sugar. He couldn't deny that she had become quite a stunning young woman. Today, she had her bubblegum pink hair pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her head, and her feathered bangs fell lightly across her forehead. She wore a sleeveless indigo vest that zipped up the front and softly accented the curve of her body. Her legs sported a pair of lax beige capris.

The only sign that she was different from any other normal young woman in the village was the elegant swirl of a tattoo that traipsed along her upper left arm.

The official emblem of the ANBU.

Kakashi stared at the mark, which seemed more to him like a blemish on the smooth porcelain skin.

"I wasn't aware that you were still in ANBU," he said. Sakura looked up from the cups she was carrying back to the couch in surprise. Her eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion as she passed a cup to the lounging ninja. Kakashi pointed to the tattoo on her arm.

"Oh," she said in realization, taking a seat on the edge of the couch. She ran a delicate hand along the skin where the mark persisted.

"No, I quit a while ago; maybe a year and a half or so." She continued to rub at the tattoo as the memories came back to her.

"You know, I joined the squad so that I could work with Sasuke," she said, a half-hearted smile playing on her lips, her eyes glazing over in recollection.

"He was a hunter-nin and an official escort at the time," she said. "They put me in intelligence, though, so I usually stayed behind here in Konoha. Every few months they'd send me out as a medic-nin when they thought it was necessary to do so. But after what happened, I felt like there was no reason for me to be there anymore, I guess. It didn't feel right."

Sakura turned her head to look out the sliding doors that led to the apartment patio. She sighed. "So I quit."

Kakashi watched the young kunoichi stare out the window. He remembered how hard it had been for her when Sasuke had died two years ago.

Sakura had always kept up the hope that he might return one day, no longer a slave to the demons of his past and his need to avenge his family; no longer bound to serve Orochimaru. And when he did return, she had cared not only for the wounds of his worn out body, but those of his fragile soul.

As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, Sakura was able to tear away the walls of Sasuke's cold and aloof exterior. Soon Sasuke found himself immersed in feelings he had never known before. For the first time, he found himself in love with the roseate kunoichi. When his strength returned, and he had settled back into the life of a Jounin, he proposed to Sakura.

Being the sole heir to the Uchiha fortune, Sasuke bought them a nice house on the quiet side of town for the family they planned to raise. Sakura would never have to work again. She had been so happy on their wedding day; the natural essence of a serene bride. As he sat in the rows of guests, watching the two exchange their vows, Kakashi couldn't think of two people better suited for one another.

But that was before everything changed. It had been a little over a year after the couple had gotten married. The five-year peace treaties were coming to an end, and Konoha was making the final preparations for renewing its alliance with the Cloud Nation.

Sasuke's ANBU squad had been sent out around that time to escort an eminent figure of the Cloud Nation back to the borders of the countries. On their way home from this mission, however, Sasuke's squad had been attacked. In the early morning hours an elite troop of Cloud Ninja ambushed the squad. The conniving ruler of the ambitious country had decided to test the will of the Fire Nation and the nerve of Konoha.

While the whole enemy force was wiped out, along with the Cloud Nation's plans for conquest, only one ANBU member had died in the encounter.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Kakashi recalled how Sakura had stood at the foot of Sasuke's grave after the funeral. The rain poured down from the sky that day, crying the tears that she could not.

Her lengthy bubblegum locks matted to her back and stuck along her pale face. Her long black dress draped with the weight of the water against her thin frame. She just stared at the name engraved on the stone and the wreath of sunflowers that adorned it.

In the end, it had been Kakashi and Ino who had taken her home. Sakura refused to move from the spot, so Kakashi had been forced to carry the deadweight figure of the mourning woman away from the site. Ino had assured him that she would stay with Sakura that night.

He was almost tempted to stay as well, but thought better of it. There was nothing anyone could really do; Sakura had to get past this part on her own. As he closed the bedroom door behind him, he took one last glimpse at the woman lying in the bed; the Sakura he had always known. There in the darkness of the night, she would die, too. When morning came the body remained the same, but the spirit was broken.

To most people it seemed Sakura had moved on with her life; she was too busy with her job, among other things, to lament over Sasuke. The gathering circles of old women would spot her walking down the street, and they'd whisper praise among themselves at her ability to put the past behind her. But they were wrong.

Even now, two years later, Kakashi could still see the cracks in her soul where the wounds refused to mend. Sakura did her best to brush it off and act like everything was fine, but he knew better.

"What do you think, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi lifted his head up and acknowledged the words that came his way. Sakura still sat on the couch, but now she gazed at him intently. She repeated the words that had passed him by in his ponderings.

"I've been thinking about getting the tattoo removed," she said. "I have no reason to wear it now." Her emerald eyes lowered to her hand covering her left arm.

Kakashi thought about it for a moment. He pulled her hand away and traced the swirling lines with his own fingers. Sakura watched his movements and wondered what was running through his mind. His other hand still rested gently on her wrist as he continued to stare at the tattoo.

"I asked myself the same question when I retired from ANBU," he said. "After a time, I realized that the tattoo was like any other scar on my body. It was a sign of all the battles I had fought; everything I had won and everything I had lost. It was the history of a time in my life inscribed on my very skin. It belongs there to serve as a reminder that I have lived."

He glanced up at Sakura with his one exposed eye. She was smiling warmly, gratitude etched in her eyes. She took Kakashi's hands in her own and gave them a gentle squeeze.

"If it weren't for people like you in this world, Kakashi-sensei, I don't know what I would do." Sakura paused to think out her next words. "You…" she said, "You always know how to make my heart happy."

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask. "That's what I'm here for," he said. He opened his arms wide and Sakura leaned forward to embrace him. She squeezed him tightly and sighed.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Kakashi. "This is a surprise," he said, "I thought you were afraid I'd get you sick." Sakura grinned up at the Copy Ninja.

"Yeah, I know," she said, "After you left the hospital my throat started getting sore, so I started myself on some antibiotics, too. Of course," she added, "I won't be sick in bed like you since I caught it so early." As Kakashi frowned, Sakura crinkled her nose at him and then laughed.

Kakashi playfully pushed her away and chuckled. "You're something else," he said. "If you want to stay, you're going to have to make me some breakfast." Sakura got up and headed back toward the kitchen.

"Fine," she said. "You like scrambled eggs?" She looked back over her shoulder, waiting for his response.

"Of course," Kakashi said. "Scrambled eggs are just fine."

Again, thanks for reading and reviewing. Questions, comments, and helpful hints are always welcomed.

Temari08