AN: Thanks to everybody who has reviewed so far, I really appreciate it! It's great to see other KakaSaku supporters. So thanks again and here's the next chapter.
Courage Needs You – Chapter #2
"Morning Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned from ear to ear. "Hmm, you don't look so good."
Sakura simply glowered and walked past him, still too drowsy to act out her anger, in fact, she couldn't even remember the last time she had yelled at him. The glowing embers of her spirit which were so easily lit aflame before were now a simple boring dry ash.
When she had awoken this morning, she felt as if she had just taken the chuunin exam fifty times in a row;every muscle ached, and every move her body protested. She wasn't sure how she was going to last the day. She had taken a hot bath to let her muscles relax, and it had worked beautifully but now the chilly morning air, despite it being May, made her body start throbbing once again.
"Mornin' Sasuke," Sakura greeted monotone, as she sat across from him on the bridge railing. He nodded in response. She had dropped the 'kun' part quite a while ago. Although she still admired him and thought he was the greatest thing since conditioner and lazy Sunday mornings, she had reluctantly forced herself to accept that he would never feel that 'way' about her. It didn't help that he just seemed to grow more and more attractive as the years went on either.
"I wonder if we still need to do conditioning training," she thought aloud, watching in a mixture of boredom and fascination as a grasshopper leapt below her. Naruto's ears twitched from the words 'conditioning' and 'training'.
"Mou, Kaka-sensei better give us a mission and if he doesn't, I'm going to go see the Old Hag myself and demand one from her."
Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes in perfect synchronized form at Naruto's declaration. In the last week, since training had begun, Naruto had already 'demanded' a mission from Tsunade three times, and each time he came back empty handed and with a black eye. You would think he would learn.
Two long hours passed. Sakura switched from sitting to laying down flat against the railing with her arms propped behind her head, half paying attention to the usual inane bickering coming from Naruto and Sasuke. This time it was about Kakashi's age.
"I'm saying fifty. I mean, how else do you explain that crop of white hair? He has to be old!"
"Baka! He's not that old! Have you ever seen any wrinkles on his face?"
Naruto snorted. "Unless you have x-ray vision, I don't see how you can see anything behind his mask and hitai-ate either. We only ever see his eye and if we're lucky, maybe his eyebrow."
"Yes, you can only see his one eye, and have you noticed any wrinkles around it?"
Naruto scrunched his face up, as if thinking deeply about the question. "I suppose not…"
"And there you go. Wrinkles are most prominent around the eyes first, so if you can't see any, then there is no way he is fifty years old." Sasuke declared, crossing his arms and sighing, deciding the subject to be closed in his favour.
"Well maybe he uses a Jutsu like the Hokage does and makes himself look younger than he actually is!" Naruto jumped from the rail, a huge knowing grin smeared on his face. "That has to be it!"
"If he could change his appearance like Hokage, then why wouldn't he change the colour of his hair also?" Sasuke countered.
Was he really fifty? Sakura wondered.
A sudden 'poof' appeared behind Naruto and he pivoted around to come eye to eye with an annoyed looking jounin.
"Fifty, huh?" Kakashi wasn't sure whether to be insulted or amused.
Naruto grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head in awkwardness.
Insulted it was. He quickly smacked Naruto upside the head. "I'm twenty-nine!"
"Wow, really? That's still old," he said unabashed, not missing a beat in their conversation.
Sakura yielded to a lopsided grin, the first real one in a while, before biting the inside of her cheek softly to stop the giggling bubbling forward at her sensei's almost shocked reaction to Naruto's statement.
"Naruto," she started, trying to keep her mien in check, even though it felt good to let it out. "Twenty-nine is not that old you dummy."
She watched as he seemed to ignore her words and stand on the tip of his toes, leaning forward and squinting his eyes at Kakashi; Kakashi quirked a brow in wonderment.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for wrinkles. Sasuke said they're most prominent around the eyes first."
Sakura wasn't sure, but she was almost positive she saw Kakashi narrow his eyes a tad; maybe as a warning gesture?
"Ha! You're so wrong Sasuke," Naruto said, pulling back to give a triumphant smirk towards him.
Sasuke sighed, and surprised himself when he replied. "About…?"
"If you look really, really closely, you can see wrinkles forming at the corner of his eye. And you said he didn't have any. Hn, shows how much the great Uchiha knows." He shook his bowed head, lifting it up with a look akin to pity. "And also considering you have the Sharingan…how embarrassing."
It was quite surprising how large his ego could grow over such a trivial thing, but Sakura was sure it deflated a little as Kakashi and Sasuke simultaneously smacked him, causing him to face-plant onto the bridge.
"Come on, we have training to do," Kakashi said, walking away beckoning Sakura and Sasuke to follow.
Sakura lay under a large oak, watching the sun try to peek through the pillows of clouds. The rainy season was going to start any day now, she realized, hating the knowledge.
"Finished already?" Kakashi's voice drawled, staring down at her sprawled yet relaxed position.
Damn, she was caught. She lazily shifted her eyes to him, before staring back up towards the sky. "I'm taking a break" she said a matter-of-fact.
"Is that so?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets, his voice the same neutral.
She smirked, feeling unusually careless today. "Ya, that's so." If others had eavesdropped on their conversation, they might have been astonished that a disciple was talking back to their sensei in that manner, but such was the way of their relationship.
Kakashi remained unfazed and almost felt the need to grin. "That's funny, 'cause I don't remember assigning a break."
For a fleeting moment, she wondered how she could pull off such remarks without corollary, knowing if Naruto and Sasuke did the same, they would be spending a week doing 'D' rank missions. Speaking of which, where was Naruto? She lifted her head and saw them in the distance. What on earth were they doing?
She propped up on her elbows, and jerked her head in the direction of her teammates. "What are those two idiots doing now?"
Kakashi allowed his student to switch topics and answered her question. "They're seeing who can do a one-handed handstand the longest." He glanced in their direction. "By the looks of things, it seems Naruto might win."
"Ya, thanks to the Kyuubi," she muttered, yet Kakashi heard her all the same.
"Well, since you seem to be especially lazy this afternoon, you can help me train a little then," he said over his shoulder as he walked away a few feet. Sakura sighed knowing what he wanted of her, and clambered onto her shaky legs. A week of his boot-camp drills was too much too quick for her muscles to become accustomed. Thank god she had tomorrow off! At least her participation in his training required no effort whatsoever.
She watched him lay down face first, three fingers poised and ready at his sides with his elbows pointed outward. Dutifully she walked over and lay on top of him, once again resuming her sky gazing.
"One," she heard him utter, causing a slight vibration from his back into her own.
"Two."
Now only 998 pushups to go, she thought, shifting down slightly till her head rested securely between his shoulder blades. He either didn't notice or care about her movement, as he continued onto three. She turned her head, and found herself frowning at Naruto and Sasuke who were still in that ridiculous position.
"Four."
Closing her eyes, she basked in the semi-warm afternoon and the heat emanating from Kakashi's back. It felt like the thermal blanket her mom used to give her in winter time when she was a kid. That was the time when she was actually around, and she found herself reminiscing about a past long forgotten. After a while she mentally shook her head, hating herself for thinking and wishing for things that she knew she could never have again.
"Forty-five."
I guess I was reminiscing longer than I thought…
She sighed and forced herself to concentrate on Kakashi's warmth; the smooth up and down rhythm of his body; and the feeling of his muscles as they bunched and expanded and flexed beneath her back.
So beautiful, she mused forlornly. The strength of this man…just so god damn beautiful. She stirred a bit, feeling the edge of something digging into her side. She groped under the small of her back, and felt the burden inside his kunai pocket. Feeling her way, she snapped it open and yanked out his treasure. She felt him pause mid-pushup, and was almost tempted by her curiousity to open the book, then quickly thought better of it and laid it down beside him.
"It was engraving the side of my back," she clarified. He resumed his training, and she took that as his response.
Six-hundred pushups later Sakura found herself extremely bored. She had imagined every image possible the passing clouds provided; she went through her check list of things to do when she got home; she tried to remember certain lyrics to a bothersome song; and she didn't even have Sasuke and Naruto to glance at anymore. Sasuke had lost some odd one-hundred pushups ago, and it seemed they moved onto bigger and better things to compete against.
"Six-hundred and forty-five."
Itching the nape of her neck for the umpteenth time, she lifted her head and scooped her hair up letting it cascade around Kakashi's neck and shoulders. He paused, making her wonder if she should real her hair back in, incase he was annoyed by pink tresses invading his view. As soon as the thought appeared, it vanished as stubbornness and a wicked smirk took over. It felt good to feel stubborn again, after so many weeks of being so utterly blasé.
Besides, she was doing him a favour and if he couldn't deal with her hair, then she wouldn't deal with being treated as extra weight – even if it did feel nice. A few moments passed, and their surreptitious standoff continued. She suddenly felt him move again, and she inwardly grinned in triumph. She abruptly thought of Naruto and his little victory in finding microscopic wrinkles on Kakashi's face. Well now she knew that even the insignificant battle's felt damn good to win too.
Three hundred and fifty-five pushups later…
Sakura rolled off her sensei, feeling cool earth chill her tepid body. Damn, she already missed Kakashi's warmth. She saw Naruto and Sasuke jog towards them both out of breath, obviously from their latest rivalry. Kakashi stood up, dusted his hands off, and eyed his two students.
"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories", he said, picking up his book and placing it back into his kunai holster.
"Huh?" was Naruto's intelligent reply.
Kakashi sighed. "Just keep it in mind."
"Keep what in mind?"
Sakura gave an irritated growl and threw her hands up in the air, doing what Kakashi was too composed to do.
"I'll see you guys in a couple of days," he said striding away, lifting his hand up in a departing wave. "Oh and Sakura" he said still walking, his voice fading a bit. "No excuses and no breaks next time."
She uttered something noncommittal, before catching Naruto sniffing the air, while walking towards her. He leaned forward and took a big whiff before quickly pulling back, a look of repugnance on his face.
"…what's wrong?" As if she needed to ask. She watched him pinch his nose and lean forward again, whispering into her ear.
"You sort of smell, Sakura."
A look of total astonishment and embarrassment etched her features, and she took a whiff of her own. If she could have, she would have jumped back like Naruto, but unfortunately, she was attached to herself.
Oh god, sensei must have smelt this too!
She smacked her forehead, letting out an undignified 'ugh'. Sasuke watched on in amusement. Tomorrow, definitely, she was doing her laundry! No more wearing dirty, sweaty, two-day old clothes. She stalked away, too humiliated to be angry. Jeez, could it get any worse? Suddenly, she felt it start to rain.
Kakashi tore off his mask and hitai-ate, nearly pressing his nose against the mirror. After a minute of scrutinizing, he scoffed and ambled out of the bathroom.
"Wrinkles my ass."
So ya, just a chapter showing some interaction between Kakashi and Sakura, but it's still a long while till they get together. There will be lots of scenes with them, just not them being 'together' together. I'm going to try and show how Sakura has changed, who she is today, and how they develop feelings for one another over a period of time. So what I guess I'm trying to say is that this might be slow moving – I hope that's alright for everyone.
And that little bit with Tsunade in the beginning of the first chapter isn't relevant right now, but just something to keep in mind for the future
And the reason Kakashi is twenty-nine in this chapter is because it's May, and his b-day is in September :D
So thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!