Sakura awoke with a pounding headache, a warm body pressed up against her back, and the sense that something was very amiss. She opened her eyes groggily, wincing at the brightness of the sunlight which was streaming through her window. After a moment of staring, bleary eyed, at the pile of clothes by her bed, she pulled herself up to rest on her hands and knees, and glanced down at the man sleeping beside her.
For a moment she was completely silent. Then:
"Fuck." she cursed lowly, sweeping her hair back off her face. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." The sound of her swearing woke Kakashi from his slumber, and he began to stir beside her. Sakura froze. Fuck, she cursed internally this time. I slept with Kakashi. Kakashi! Fucking Kami, I am such an idiot.
In a flash, she was out of the bed and backing towards the couch, absently pulling on the first item of clothing which she could grab off the floor. Too late, she realised it was the jounin shirt which Kakashi had been wearing the previous day. It was too big for her, and fell to the tops of her thighs.
"Sakura." Kakashi rolled over lazily to face her, his sharingan eye still closed. Sakura froze. He had slept without his mask on, and now, in the light of the morning, she felt her chest flutter lightly to take in the strong, handsome set of his face. A small part of her wanted to climb back into bed with him and fuck all over again, but her more logical side cast that thought away.
"Um." she began awkwardly, taking a deep breath. "Look. What we did last night- I mean, you're my sensei. So we can't... It's not like we can- you know."
Kakashi looked slightly confused, arching one eyebrow.
"We had sex." he clarified slowly, moving to sit up. Sakura tried to ignore the way the sheets had fallen to settle on his hips, leaving his muscled chest and stomach exposed. The sunlight coming through the window behind him lit up his hair, making it seem even paler than usual. Sakura swallowed and blinked.
"Yes. That's what I- I mean, that was a mistake."
Kakashi schooled his face into an impassive mask.
"Right." he agreed easily, giving her a practiced grin. "We were drunk. It's not like it matters or anything." Kakashi hid the pang of disappointment he felt when Sakura nodded.
"Of course." she agreed, channeling her inner politician as well to smile in return. "Just a drunken mistake."
There it is again, Kakashi thought with a tinge of bitterness. That word - 'mistake'. Funny, I'm usually the one talking my way out of these situations the morning after. Most women don't try to convince me we did something wrong.
Outwardly, Kakashi was the picture of calm. He rose from the bed and pulled on his mask and pants from the day before, pretending he didn't notice that Sakura stared for a moment before glancing away. He felt better once his mask was on - more comfortable. He'd always found it easiest to hide his thoughts when his face was hidden too.
They dressed for the day's work with a forced professionalism, Sakura in full mission gear, and Kakashi in the clothes he'd worn the previous day. Their only exchanges were polite and forced. It was almost a relief when they finally left the apartment, Sakura leading the way to the Hokage's office.
Tsunade looked up from the encoded scroll which had just been handed to her by Hatake when the door to her office swung open, and in came the younger Kakashi, and her own little apprentice. She immediately knew something was wrong. Sakura's facial expression when she was angry often emulated her own - the forced calm which came from years of political negotiations with tetchy shinobi. And Kami, did Sakura look angry. To anyone else, her expression would have been unreadable, Tsunade noted proudly, but to her, it was as if Sakura was holding up a glowing sign which said: 'I am upset and angry. And it's his fault'. The tense set of the kunoichi's shoulders was another giveaway, as was the way her fingers twitched slightly towards her kunai pouch when she took in the older Hatake standing before Tsunade's desk as well. Uh oh, Tsunade thought uneasily. I really don't need another knife fight from those two. Last time I had to buy a new desk.
"Morning, Sakura-chan, Hatake." she attempted a bright tone, suppressing a grimace at the quizzical expression on the older Kakashi's face as he took in Sakura's forced impassivity, and his younger self's curt nod. Sakura gave her a quick, evasive smile and a greeting, but otherwise ignored both Kakashis.
"As you've probably guessed, Hatake got back from his mission this morning," Tsunade began. "So he will also be going along to investigate the cave today. I would send someone else along as well, but we're a little understaffed at the moment, and I'm sure the three of you can handle it." she glanced around the room at the three before her, and just barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Only Sakura was paying any attention - both Hatakes were glaring at each other with the irritating fierceness which Kakashi sometimes adopted when he was absolutely set on getting his own way. Tsunade sighed quietly.
"You three can leave immediately. Before you go, Sakura, I need to talk to you. You two, get out." She directed the last comment at the Hatakes, who seemed to snap back to attention when she addressed them, and left the office quickly. Once the door had closed behind them, Tsunade turned back to her apprentice, who looked significantly less composed now that the men were gone.
"What's wrong?" she asked seriously, fixing her gaze on Sakura's. The girl bit her lip, an old habit which Tsunade hadn't seen since the months after Sasuke had left the village. Tsunade felt her gaze soften a little as she took in her apprentice's obvious discomfort. With a jerk of her head, Tsunade instructed the girl to take a seat by her desk. Sakura looked slightly surprised, but acquiesced, sliding into the chair which was usually occupied by Shizune.
"Tell me what's making you angry." she ordered, her voice lacking any real authority. Sakura deliberated for a moment before sighing, brushing her hair back from her face and tucking a stray strand behind her ear.
"Well, I had sex with Kakashi - the younger one - last night," she began seriously, before Tsunade cut her off.
"What was that?" she asked, a scary edge entering her voice. Sakura grimaced and avoided her gaze.
"We were really drunk and it just sort of happened." she shrugged with forced nonchalance. "Except that now he's acting as if nothing happened and it didn't matter at all. I mean, so am I, and it didn't matter at all, obviously, it was just a mistake, but..."
"I'm going to kill him." Tsunade decided bluntly, not noticing the surprised look which Sakura directed at her. A strangely maternal instinct had hit her out of the blue, and she felt exactly as she had the time a man had tried to drug Shizune on their travels several years previously - Shizune hadn't needed her help in killing the man, of course, she'd done that because she wanted to. And that was exactly what she was going to do to the white haired, grumbly, inconsiderate fuck who had-
"Um, Tsunade-sama? You're crushing the desk again." Sakura's concerned tone broke her from her plotting, and she looked down to realise that she had, in fact, crushed the edge of her desk, leaving a hand shaped hole in the wood.
"Oops." she remarked absently, turning back to her pink haired apprentice. "Sakura." The girl's eyes widened at her grave tone.
"Yes, shishou?" she replied. Tsunade paused.
"Do you want me to put him on genin supervision for the rest of his career?" she asked seriously. Sakura let out a surprised and slightly alarmed laugh.
"No, no, that's not necessary." she placated her shishou, pasting a smile back onto her face. "I'll just... I'll just screw with his head for the next few days, and then as soon as he's gone back to his time it won't matter anyway. The report said he didn't remember anything from his time here, and Kakashi-sensei clearly doesn't remember now, so in a couple of days I'll never have to think about it again. Of course he wouldn't tell his older self." she reasoned.
Tsunade nodded approvingly.
"Atta girl." she said, her tone coloured with pride. And I'll assign him extra paperwork from now on.
"What did you do." Kakashi's voice was a low growl as he pinned his younger counterpart to the wall outside the Hokage's office. The younger man attempted to shove him off, but to no avail. The older Hatake pushed him, hard, against the stone wall.
"I didn't do anything. She's a consenting adult, and it's none of your business. Well- none of- this is confusing, but it's not your business!" The younger Kakashi retorted angrily. He stopped talking when he felt the sudden surge in killing intent coming from his older self.
"You. Had sex. With my student?" Kakashi's asked disbelievingly, frozen for a moment. The younger Kakashi shrugged.
Sakura stepped out of the Hokage's office moments later to find her sensei crouched over his younger self, who was sporting a rapidly swelling black eye and a nosebleed which had soaked through his mask. He also appeared to be knocked out cold. Sakura gaped.
She heard the quiet click of Tsunade's heels behind her, and stepped out of the way to let her shishou through. The quiet groan of exasperation which came from Tsunade as she took in the sight was enough to make Kakashi-sensei glance up guiltily. Tsunade arched an eyebrow.
"It was... necessary?" Kakashi offered hopefully as way of explanation. It took all of Sakura's self control not to groan alongside her shishou again.
"Three minutes." Tsunade voiced incredulously, waving Kakashi away from the body lying prone on the floor so that she could crouch down beside him. "I left you two alone for three minutes and you couldn't avoid having a fist fight for that long?" Kakashi made to answer, and Tsunade shot him a scathing glare.
"Don't reply." she ordered bluntly, checking the pulse of the younger Hatake. "I am less likely to punch you if you don't talk." Kakashi promptly backed away from the Hokage, looking slightly uneasy. Tsunade sighed.
"He's fine." she announced, not sounding entirely happy about that fact. "But perhaps it would be better if I sent the two of you alone today. I'll keep an eye on this brat while you investigate the site. Sakura-chan, the location of the cave was marked in the report, wasn't it?" At Sakura's affirmative nod, Tsunade stood, slinging the younger man over her shoulder none-too-gently.
"Wonderful." she said drily, turning to close her office door and lead them down the hallway. "I'll drop this one off to Shizune, and you two can report to me later. I'm sure she can keep him out of trouble for a few hours."
Kakashi and Sakura mumbled their assent as Tsunade took off in the opposite direction to them.
There followed an awkward silence as the pair made their way into Konoha's surrounding forests, following the hastily scrawled directions on the mission file. It felt strange not being able to talk to Kakashi, Sakura mused. Sure, he annoyed the hell out of her sometimes. They'd always had their fair share of arguments, especially when Kakashi tried to pass off his paperwork onto her, or she insisted in being involved in the combative side of a political mission. And then there was that small incident last year with the knives... but it had never been awkward between them before. Even when they wanted to kill each other, she knew she could always count on her sensei - her friend, if she was honest - to have her back.
"Uh, Sakura." Kakashi's voice interrupted her musings as they walked. She turned to him with raised eyebrows, taking in his uncharacteristically quiet tone and the way he ran his hand through his hair nervously. Rather than put him out of his misery, as a small part of her longed to do, Sakura stayed silent, waiting for him to continue. He looked slightly uncomfortable and shifted his gaze away when her eyes met his.
"I don't know exactly what happened between you and... well, I guess me. Not that I would ever- you know what I mean." He scrambled awkwardly to find the right words, cutting off short at Sakura's slightly hurt expression.
"What I mean," he tried again, "is that I'm sorry. If I hurt you or... made you feel uncomfortable. I- I wasn't a very good person when I was in ANBU."
Sakura felt an unwilling pang of empathy for him. She knew all too well what it was like to despise the person you'd used to be - Kami knew she had spent a long time moving on from the fragile little girl she'd been before she became Tsunade's apprentice.
Outwardly, Sakura merely shrugged.
"It didn't mean anything." she replied calmly. "I'm an adult, and clearly back then you were more in to women, and anyway, sometimes these things just happen." She settled back into a faster pace and pushed ahead slightly, making a point of rereading the directions on the map.
Unnoticed by Sakura, Kakashi frowned in confusion as his pace unwittingly slowed. What does she mean by 'back then I was more into women'? He asked himself. Does she think I'm not into women anymore? More troubling still was the question which rose unbidden in his mind: was I really unimpressive enough that she can just shrug it off like that?
"Okay, I think we're here." Sakura called from up ahead.
"Hmm? Oh, right." He surveyed the area carefully. This part of the forest seemed as benign to him as all the other caves they had passed on the way there - a rocky hill formed the overhang under which the cave mouth awned, and a thick circle of trees surrounded the small clearing. After a moment, he sighed. "I don't remember this place." he admitted with a shrug. Sakura frowned thoughtfully, drawing a kunai from the holster on her thigh by instinct. They made their way cautiously towards the cave mouth; Kakashi activated his sharingan as they entered the relative gloom of the cavern.
"I can't see." Sakura complained after a minute or so of walking. The cave had been sloping slowly downwards, and no longer could they make out their surroundings by the outside light. Kakashi grinned in the darkness.
"I can." he announced casually, knowing full well that the kunoichi was glaring at him.
"Yes, thank you for that clarification." Sakura returned testily.
With a roll of his eyes, Kakashi channeled his chakra into a chidori, raising his hand to light up the cave around them. It appeared to be one long tunnel, made naturally from the rocks which had melded together over many years. It continued to slope gently downwards; it was with some trepidation that Kakashi and Sakura followed the direction of the tunnel into the earth.
After what felt like a long time, but was probably only several minutes, the tunnel reached a fork. The left option led deeper into the earth, becoming immediately narrower; the right option, however, gave way to a rounded cave which constituted a dead end. It was on the floor of that cave that they found the seal. Sakura gasped. Purple and glowing lightly in the darkness, the seal itself was huge, easily the size of the seals she sometimes used on the occasion that she had to heal a Hyuuga. The sealing script, too, was familiar. Though its properties and content of the signs were different to those of her medical sealing techniques, the way in which the seal was set up was looked to be an attempt to transport large amounts of chakra. Stranger still, was that she found she could read the markings. Sakura made a tiny noise of appreciation in the back of her throat as she began to draw closer to it.
"Incredible." she murmured, glancing back at Kakashi, who'd let his chidori fizzle out at the new source of light. He was staring in consternation at the glowing seal, eyes thoughtful.
Sakura almost felt as if in a dream as she bent down beside the glowing markings and stretched out her hand. Her fingers grew closer to the outer edge and-
Kakashi yanked her back by her shirt.
"Don't touch it!" he snapped, pulling her flush against his chest. "We have no idea what it is."
Sakura turned to him with a small frown.
"Of course we know what it is. Can't you read it?" she asked.
"Of course not." he replied, perplexed. It was then that Sakura realised she was still pressed up against him, her chest against his. With an awkward and completely feigned cough, Kakashi pulled away from her, though he held her firmly by the upper arm as he took a step towards the main tunnel.
"We're leaving." he stated, leaving no room for argument. Sakura let him lead her out of the smaller cave, along the tunnel, and finally, out of the cave mouth and into the fresh air of the forest without protest.
"What the hell was that?" he demanded as soon as they'd made it back into the shelter of the trees, letting go of her arm. Sakura frowned.
"What the hell was what?" she asked. Kakashi stared.
"How did you read that?"
"I just did." she shrugged. "Shizune will be proud. Maybe all her sealing classes are finally paying off." Her weak attempt at humour was lost on her sensei, who gave her one last searching look before heading off in the direction of the village. Strange, Sakura noted. He looks a little worried.
Sakura found that the further away they got from the cave, the less her idea to touch the seal seemed like a good one. At the time, with the purple markings glowing back at her, all she'd wanted to do was activate it; but now, with Kakashi shooting her strange looks every few minutes, and the memory of what exactly the seal had 'said' fading with every step, that seemed like a truly awful idea.
It seemed Tsunade shared that view.
"Sorry, say that again, you wanted to touch the huge, unregistered seal glowing by itself in the middle of a cave?" she asked, just a hint of incredulity entering her voice. She could practically feel the exasperation rolling off both her sensei and her shishou in waves. Sakura opened her mouth to defend herself.
"In retrospect, I do see how that could be construed as something vaguely resembling a bad idea," she admitted. "But I could read it. The markings, I mean, I could read what the seal was meant for by its markings."
Tsunade arched an eyebrow.
"You could read it?" She sounded simultaneously confused and slightly impressed. Sakura nodded thoughtfully.
"It was set up to transport large amounts of chakra." she explained, inadvertently tucking her hair behind her ears. "I could tell that much. And it was arranged in the same way that we set up our seals when we're healing the Hyuuga - to try to contain the chakra within the seal for a set period of time." Tsunade frowned.
"Do you think you could redraw it?" she asked. Sakura hesitated before nodding.
"I could. I might need Kakashi to help me." She sounded vaguely pissed off by the idea of having to spend more time with the man than necessary, but, Tsunade noticed with a small swell of pride, she instinctively straightened her back and raised her brow when Kakashi agreed to help.
"Wondrous." she commented drily, adopting her usual cynical facade. "Go and work on that now. When it's done, bring it back to me, and I'll have a seals specialist take a look at it." The two turned to leave. "Oh, by the way," she added, "the other Hatake is going to be spending the night with you." She sent a pointed look towards Kakashi, who nodded wearily. Serves me right, he ruminated bitterly. Though I'm not sure which of us is going to enjoy the other's company the least...
"Is that right?" Kakashi asked with a frown. Sakura stared at the diagram for a moment.
"There's just one thing... hang on... yes, that's right." She surveyed her work with a critical eye. Though the drawing had none of the charisma which the actual seal had possessed, it was an accurate enough likeness to the markings. Kakashi hummed his approval as she filled in the final symbols.
The chatter of the civilians around them had long since faded into background noise; after an awkward discussion of whose apartment would be best to work in, the pair had settled on a popular dango house to work on the diagram instead. Unfortunately for the restaurant staff, neither of them actually liked dango, though no one was stupid enough to make demands of the infamous copy nin and the Hokage's apprentice. They'd sat in the restaurant for over an hour, undisturbed, without being asked to order anything.
"Well, I suppose we should get that to Tsunade-sama straight away." Kakashi offered vaguely. Sakura nodded.
"Let's go, then." she murmured, already up and on her feet. Kakashi glanced up in surprise - since when had she been able to move without him noticing? That was new.
They went their own ways after dropping the diagram off at Tsunade; Kakashi was sent off to the hospital to rescue his younger self from Shizune's office, and Sakura decided to go home. The sky was in the transition between sunset and darkness as she made her way slowly through the streets, savouring the feeling of having no work left for the day. When she opened the door to her apartment, however, the space seemed less inviting than usual; there was evidence of Kakashi everywhere, from the blankets on the couch to the extra mug on the kitchen bench. Without him there, it felt a little empty. Sakura frowned and began to put her apartment back in order. Only when she had arranged her apartment back into its usual clean state did she feel a little better. She settled down on her couch with a medical textbook she'd been meaning to read for weeks, and tried to pretend she couldn't feel the cold, niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach where yesterday there'd been only the warm hum of contentment.
"Good evening, Shizune-san." Kakashi called politely as he entered her office at the hospital. She looked up from her textbook in surprise; she'd never had anything to complain about with Hatake, but he wasn't exactly known for his impeccable manners. Bemused, she shrugged it off, offering a friendly, albeit tired, greeting in return. Once the exchange was over, Kakashi's gaze flickered immediately to his younger self, who was slouched in a chair, reading... oh god, was that Icha Icha? Shizune suppressed a groan. Where on earth did he find that? she wondered.
"Anyway, thanks for looking after him." Kakashi nodded in her direction. "I'll get him- um, us - out of your hair now."
The two men left quickly, both avoiding talking to the other. As they closed the door behind them, Shizune rolled her eyes. As if one sulking Hatake isn't enough, she sighed.
The walk home was silent and tense. Kakashi tried to restrain himself from glaring at his younger self, but the younger Kakashi didn't even attempt to hide his scowl. Any other day, Kakashi would have laughed at the expression on the face of the little girl his younger counterpart had adopted as a henge. Today, however, he was trying to be mature. He was also more than a little furious.
At the door to his apartment, Kakashi turned to his younger self.
"You and I need to have a talk." he stated shortly, cutting off the younger man's attempt to interrupt. He opened the door, instinctively turning on the lights for his guest before realising that of course, his younger self possessed a sharingan too. Even so, he left the lights on. Once, Sakura had escorted him home after a particularly tough mission, claiming she was 'making sure he didn't collapse on the street'. She'd been completely freaked out when he invited her in and left the lights off, leading her into a dark apartment without a word. Since then, he'd made an effort to accommodate for his teammates' lack of ability to see in the dark.
"Sit." he ordered the younger man, who had now dropped his 'little girl' henge, gesturing to the low table in the centre of the room. His younger counterpart eyed him balefully, but accepted the seat anyway. For a moment, Kakashi considered remaining standing (far more intimidating), but after a brief hesitation, he joined his younger self on the floor.
"If you're going to lecture me just get it over-"
"Shut up." Kakashi interrupted. The younger man glowered. "You're irresponsible. You'll never learn, not for years, so it's pointless telling you. But you should know that you're reckless. I was reckless. When I was you. And you're making so many mistakes, staying in ANBU. Kami, I never wanted to see myself like this again. I can't help but hate you."
The younger man had dropped his defensive glare, a hint of genuine hurt entering his eyes as Kakashi ranted.
"But," Kakashi continued, looking down at the tabletop, "it gets better. In a few years you'll become a jounin sensei, and that changes everything." He paused. "Tsunade-sama told me that you won't remember this when you get back, but I want to say it anyway. You'll be okay. Eventually. And you'll live on to one day see your younger self upsetting your friend - and that will make you furious. But you will have friends again."
He glanced across at his younger self, expecting the self-righteous coldness which he'd so often adopted in his younger years. He saw none of that. Instead, his younger self sat with closed eyes, his head bowed slightly forward. Kakashi fell silent.
"Go to sleep." he muttered eventually, climbing up from the floor. The younger man nodded, accepting the blanket which Kakashi tossed towards him.
Both men pretended to fall straight to sleep, and both men lay awake for hours, each lost in thoughts of their past, their future, and the pink haired kunoichi who was now talking to neither of them.
"Shizune! Shizune-chan, come talk to your favourite Hokage!" Tsunade called brightly, her words slurring slightly. She heard the click of Shizune's heels along the hallway outside her office, and then her apprentice was standing before her, glaring disapprovingly at the half empty bottle of sake in Tsunade's hand. Tsunade merely grinned, shrugging as if to say 'what can you do? I just randomly found this on my desk'. Shizune gave a long suffering sigh.
"Tsunade-sama." she admonished sternly, making a grab over the desk for the bottle. Tsunade easily held it out of her way, letting out a giggle at the exasperated expression on Shizune's face.
"Hey, I didn't call you in here to steal my alcohol!" Tsunade exclaimed, taking another swig from the bottle. "I have news." she grinned, her voice adopting a sing-song tone. Shizune rolled her eyes.
"News?" she indulged her shishou. Tsunade nodded, a wicked glint entering her eyes.
"You were right. Our little kunoichi definitely has a thing for older men." Now Shizune looked interested.
"Not Genma again?" she asked conspiratorially. Tsunade smirked and shook her head.
"The Hatake brat." she giggled.
"Kakashi?! Really?" Shizune replied, interested despite herself. Tsunade nodded.
"The younger one. Bit of a weird situation, really." she confided, her expression changing from amused to thoughtful. "The older one didn't seem too pleased about it, though." She leaned forward. "I think he was jealous." she added.
Shizune frowned incredulously.
"I don't think Sakura would go for her ex-sensei, would she?" she mused aloud. Tsunade shrugged.
"Doesn't matter if she does." she replied, knocking back another shot's worth of sake. "It's not like he's her teacher anymore. In fact, I'm going to bet on it!" she announced triumphantly. Shizune groaned.
"Tsunade-sama, you really shouldn't be making bets when you're drunk-"
"Shizune, I am the Hokage, and I will bet on my students' sex life no matter how inebriated I am!" she interrupted. Shizune cringed. That sounds so strange, she thought.
"And," Tsunade continued, unperturbed by the look of consternation on her apprentice's face, "I bet you a round of drinks that Sakura and Hatake have secret feelings for each other. No, I bet you two rounds of drinks!"
Shizune changed tactic.
"Fine." she agreed breezily, finally managing to swipe the offending bottle out of Tsunade's hand. "But you know, Tsunade-sama, you never win your bets."
Tsunade shrugged.
"Sometimes I get lucky." she replied. She abruptly broke into giggles. "Here's to hoping Sakura gets lucky, too."
This time, Shizune had to suppress a smile. Her shishou was ridiculous sometimes, but her sense of humour increased tenfold every time she had a bottle of sake in her hand. Well, either that, or she ended up throwing some poor chuunin through a window... and on that note, Shizune made an executive decision.
"Time to go home, Tsunade-sama!" she announced brightly.
