Title: Curiosity
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal
Rating: K
Word Count: 500 - exactly!
Summary: She wants to know why he mourns, but her quest comes at a price. (Kakashi & Sakura)
Authors Notes: Week 6 Theme: Curiosity.

She was curious.

Who wouldn't be?

He stood in front of that memorial stone for hours. But she never had the courage to ask who he stood for.

So, just like in her youth, she stalked him. She would watch him through the driving rain, and blistering heat – just waiting for him to reach down and touch a name, mumble a thought out loud… anything that would give her a hint.

But he was as unyielding as the stone it's self, and she resigned herself find other means.

She didn't understand where the burning need to know came from.

She blamed his mysterious personality.

She blamed his sad eyes and covered face.

She blamed anything but her own curiosity.

So she asked Kurenai. She sighed and told her it was too depressing a story to tell her on a warm summer day.

So she asked Asuma. He laughed nervously and took a drag from his cigarette before he told her it wasn't his past to reveal.

So she asked Gai. He didn't smile, or give her a nice guy pose and the look of absolute desolation that covered her face was too much.

So she waved her hands and told him to forget about it.

She was running out of sources.

Then she found a woman, alone, and just as mysterious perched in front of the stone with a mournful expression partially hidden by her ANBU mask and purple hair.

She'd seen her and Kakashi stand side by side at the stone in the past and exchange sideways glances of mutual regret.

So she asked her.

"He mourns for his teammates. A young Uchiha boy who gave him his eye, a young medical kunoichi who was in love with him, and his sensei; who scarified his life for the sake of this village."

Sakura touched the names the woman showed her and wept for him.

The woman with purple hair and equally haunted eyes put her hand on her shoulder and placed an offering under the latest entry on the stone.

It was the young examiner with the cough and a sword. Then, she was gone and Sakura was left alone to mourn the lives she never knew and curse her own curiosity.

But she still watched him early in the mornings when he should have been at meetings or filling out paperwork. She understood now why he was always late, and she found it aggravatingly endearing.

He was such a heartbreaking man; even if he was hidden under layers of inappropriate books and casual charm.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that she fell in love. But it did.

She woke one morning and waited for him to come. When the sun peaked and she was still alone, she knew she was in love.

It snuck up on her, sideways, like he did. He didn't come from the shadows like Sasuke did, but out of the corners of the sky.

He probably knew before she did.