Disclaimer: I don't own Mr. Hyde. Who was it that wrote Dr. Jekyll's story, anyway? Can't remember… Anywho, forgive me, but I'm short on knowledge of horror novels; the closest I ever came was this one book where Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys teamed up, and I read that in 4th grade. Made me jump once, too, but like I said, that's as horrific as it gets. Deal.

Chapter 6- Like Falling

The paperwork on Sakura's desk continued to pile up, but currently, the perfunctory motions that filled out the forms had taken over, while her mind was completely distracted. Her memory kept echoing the look that her old teacher had given her. In the end, she was once again left wondering why her parents had chosen him and Izumo as her suitors. But her mind could not wander there long before it came back to the intensity of his eyes.

She pounded her ample forehead against the desktop. This was definitely not healthy.


When a knock came at his door in the middle of the afternoon, the Uchiha prodigy was surprised. Of course, the horror novel he'd been reading hadn't done anything for his nerves, but the knock at the door, for him, was like lighting a fire to a barrel of gunpowder. He, quite literally, sprang from his seat. But after a split second of registering that, no, Mr. Hyde had not just entered the Uchiha compound, he made his way towards the door, albeit a bit shakily. But opening it to find Sakura there… that was a surprise, too.

"Sakura… is something wrong? Why are-?"

"I had two choices: talking to you or sake. I decided that you were definitely the better choice." He moved aside to allow her in. She collapsed on the couch, head-in-hands, and moaned. He sat next to her, and waited.

"I'm gonna die. If I live through this, I will be shocked." He laughed wryly, a pitying smile on his face. Since when had Sakura become a drama queen?

"You'll be fine."

He was met with silence, but didn't mind. She would talk it out on her own time. In the meanwhile, he ticked off the people in his head, wondering why she had come to him:

Tsunade: Probably didn't tell her, or got a bad reaction when she did.

Naruto: Yeah, right.

Kakashi: One of the problem's roots.

Hinata: Probably watching Naruto.

Tenten: Probably training with Neji.

Ino: Probably too busy playing (really playing) with Shikamaru.

It irked him to no end how it seemed that he was the only one she had to depend on at the most critical point in her life. Even if she had wanted to talk to her parents about it, they were, for one, on a mission and, for two, the start of this whole mess. There was no point in talking to them anyway.

"Sasuke-kun… is Kakashi who everyone keeps talking about?" It shocked him to hear that whispered voice, so timid, weak, disconcerting.

"What do you mean?" he asked her vaguely, equally as soft. She laughed softly, head still in her hands.

"You… and Naruto both… you told me that I wasn't seeing what was right there waiting for me. Izumo-san said that I underestimated 'him,' but wouldn't tell me who. You meant Kakashi, didn't you?" He could find no words. He simply nodded. She had lifted her head when she heard no response, and saw him make the confirmation. Her eyes traveled out the window. "What is it about him that you're trying to tell me, Sasuke-kun?"

But when he did not answer, she turned her eyes upon him, imploring. Obsidian met beryl, and a sad smile lighted his lips.

"It's not for me to say, Sakura. I can't say. You'll have to find out on your own." For a moment again, fear, the fear she had only shown him, glinted in her eyes.

"But… what if I don't want to know?"


Slowly, once, twice, three times.

The swing didn't go very far. It was old and wooden, but in good repair, and did not make a sound as the ropes that held it ground against the wood of the giant old tree. The kids from the Academy laughed and screamed with delight in the park across the street, but she could not smile for them. Beyond their silhouetted figures, she could see the sun setting, only the barest fraction of it's rim still visible above the curve of the earth's horizon.

"You're upset."

She did not bother to turn and look at the one who'd spoken; his soft, purr-like voice was enough identification. But she did not bother to respond, either. She could feel him come to stand behind her.

"Did I do something wrong, Sakura?"

She still did not respond. He walked around to stand in front of her, and knelt before the swing, catching it and bringing the slow movement to a halt. Her eyes, which had not cast themselves upon him, now moved to glance at his upturned face. Still she said nothing, even when the pleading in his only visible eye was apparent.

"I apologize if I've done something to make you angry-"

"You leave me to wonder Kakashi." He started at her sudden, harsh answer. A bitter answer. "How is it that my parents subjected me to this disgrace I wonder, and yet I keep coming back to you. There is something about you that everyone seems to know but me, and I'm beginning to wonder what it is that I've missed. I'm no less observant than I ever was, and yet the people around me continue to say that I've not seen something that's been there for a particularly long time, and quite obviously, it concerns you. Any ideas?"

His eye softened, and his hands moved from the ropes they'd been gripping to fold over the pair of small ones on her lap, and his eyes followed. He no longer looked at her.

"You do know something."

She stated it bitterly, and he could feel her eyes were angry. Yes, he knew, but what he knew, she did not wish to know.

From her parents' point of view, she was everything they said she was. They never saw her great improvement. Even when I or Tsunade related her accomplishments to them, and showed them her works, they refused to believe us. Said we lied, because we cared for her. They thought she really might do something wrong for Sasuke, if he were ever to ask it of her. They began to discuss betrothal, and were talking to Tsunade about it. Tsunade told me. It was going to be a feudal lord's son, one that I knew; a player, and a drunkard. I went to them, and begged that, instead, they at least choose someone she knew. They saw through me.

Saw that I loved her.

They said that they knew Izumo-san would make a good husband and was attracted to her as well, and thus this whole mess she finds herself in. Because of me… because of what I did…

Was this folly no better than betrayal…?

And he wondered at it silently, as he had every day since he had carried her back up to her room, when the thoughts had weighed on her so heavily that she had fallen. When he had listened beyond her closed door at the hospital. When he saw her talking with Tsunade, and followed her to Sasuke's apartment, where he had seen fear, true and unadulterated, in her eyes. But she would wait for an answer; she was patient when she wished to be.

"I…" he began, but words were not his strong suit. And he could not explain; it was something her parents had demanded of him. He shook his head, and leaned forward until the cold metal of his hitai-ate met his hands, which still remained around hers and rested in her lap. No words… and someone waiting to hear them…

"Kakashi…" He waited. Her voice was gentler now; perhaps she understood, if only a small bit? "Was I… really a failure in their eyes? Irresponsible, weak? Am I really those things, and have only been fooling myself? I realized for the first time, when we were genin, that I was weaker than either Sasuke or Naruto, the moment you handed me the entrance paperwork for the Chuunin exams. I almost didn't go through with it. But… am I still weak and irresponsible like that? I… for a while, I knew the sensation of failure, but then, with actually passing my exam, I forgot, didn't I? And now… I'm wondering if failure… wasn't really that far away at all…"

She couldn't see the smile beneath his mask. She didn't know about the hot, prickling sensation at his eyes. But she could hear the laugh that started as a breath, and grew, and his body shook with the strength of it as he finally looked up at her.

"The only failure there ever was, Sakura, only belongs to me- I failed to train you as hard as I trained Sasuke and Naruto, and instead, your talents found an outlet that has served you much better than I could have provided for. As a teacher, I failed my student."

But… as a man… have I failed you… as the one I love?

A sad smile made its way to her lips, and to his surprise, she embraced him, her arms wrapping softly around his neck. However hesitant, he returned it. And she murmured something to him before they parted that evening, and he wondered at it, quietly, and lay sleepless that night to remember it.

"Kakashi… you gave me something greater than training, didn't you?"


AN: Yay! This is probably my favorite chapter from this story. It's so dramatic. XD Well, either way, my opinion doesn't matter; yours does. SO PLEASE REVIEW!!