Chapter 2
Three years ago…
Tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, Sakura crossed her arm in front of her chest for the fourth time while her eyes flipped to the Konoha's big gate every three minutes:
"Do you see any of them?" – she asked the little purple haired boy sitting cross-legged on one of the column base again with growing irritation. She knew her question was futile since he could only see the same thing that she could from where he sat. If she had seen nothing, he would have seen nothing as well.
"Sakura-nee-chan, it's the fourth time you asked this question. Why are you so worried? They are the best jounins in our village, they'll be alright."
Said the boy with a tiny hint of annoyance in his voice, which was understandable because Sakura would feel the same way if she was at the receiving end of those repetitive questions.
She just could not help it though. He was right and she knew she should not be worried but it had been two months and he had never gone away this long. Given that a little argument broke out between them before he went, she had all the mental reasons to be a tad more anxious about her father's whereabouts than usual.
She knew life would not be like movies when bad things always happened to make people regret intensely about not being nice enough to the person you loved the most. But she could not shake off the bad omens creeping into her head at times.
Ever since he went away, she had checked up on Uncle Naruto every few days for an update on his mission to the point that her beloved uncle had to teleport out of his office to hide from her anytime he heard just so much of her footsteps on the hallway leading to his office.
Naruto never got mad at her and spoiled her so often that even his own kids were jealous of her. But they loved her like a big sister as well so their envy did not last long, considering Sakura was always an eager partner-in-crime with them in every prank they pulled out against their own father or other jounins.
Their mum was too soft on them too so no wonder why they were all little monsters. Sakura loved Hinata-san too much to upset her so she just learnt to hide her cheekiness well in front of this loveliest lady in creation.
She always thought her mum would be a lot like Hinata – so feminine, soft-spoken and maternal. And such a good cook too. It was not that Kakashi's food was not good, it was just pale in comparison to Hinata's noble and homey cuisine all rolled into one.
She was freeloading with Uzumaki's family most of the time Kakashi went away on mission when she was smaller and they never minded that. Sakura was a good baby-sitter by the way. Well maybe a little gang leader was a better description of her. But she seemed know how to stop before their pranks went too far and this little gang of three Uzumaki's kids did respect their gang leader a lot.
Out of the three kids, Katsuya – the boy sitting a few arm lengths away from her now was the closest to her. Mainly because he was closest to her age, only one year younger and because he was very perceptive and subtle, a big contrast with his two younger siblings – Fuuko and Ryuuki – who were just like replicas of their father – loud and somewhat obnoxious.
Katsuya took after his mother more than anyone in the house but he still held a certain level of hidden mischief and decisiveness inherited from his father.
Aside from Sachiko, Sakura liked to spend time with him the most when they did not have classes or missions because he seemed to be able to detect her mood ranges very quickly and their intellect were sort of on par with each other.
Katsuya's teacher was Yamato Tenzou – her father's kouhai from his time in ANBU who also dissipated for two months from this mission with Kakashi. That was the reason they were here waiting for their teachers to come back as soon as they received the news of their homeward journey.
"Why don't you just sit down here with me so you can put your limbs at rest for a while?" – Katsuya patted the cemented tile next to his seat while eyeing her expectantly. She was very ready to protest but decided otherwise and grudgingly slipped down next to him with a light thud.
"Alright, they are just so slow though" – she whined
"Well, knowing your dad, he must be the reason they are late" – Katsuya replied coolly before turning around to look at the gate again. She knew he was worried for them too but just did not want to show it.
"You're right, he's never the one sticking to schedule. But I hope this lateness doesn't mean they encounter an ambush or anything"
"Don't worry, they know how to cover their track well, if they said they'll be back today, it meant their mission was a success right?"
"Uhm" – Sakura responded with an ambiguous sound from her throat. She was not so sure anymore. Before her dad went away, she had begged him to make her his team's medic since she was very eager to have the very first S-class mission of her own. With 108 C-class, 51 B-class and 14 A-class missions, Sakura was ranked as the one of the best chuunins in Konoha's history.
Naruto always having a soft spot for her agreed on letting her take a competency test and psyche test for the role. She passed the first test with ease and failed in the second one by no other than her own father. Kakashi used a very complicated genjutsu with his own magenkyo sharingan on her and stated that she was not good enough for the mission.
The maddening part was he created a brutally slain image of himself, which was so real and shocking to Sakura that she recoiled her attack for ten seconds before regaining her compose to strategize her attack again. She was astounded by the fact that he actually created such a cruel illusion on his own daughter to stop her from going on a mission she wanted so badly. That was very low in her opinion.
Besides, because she could not believe he would do such thing, for a fleeting moment, she was doubting her own sound judgment that maybe this image was real, hence the hesitance in her attack. Her dad was very displeased about this and said in real battle with an S-class criminal, she was long dead as it only took them one second to slide her head off.
Not like normal time when she huffed and puffed and stomped away, he would follow her and appease her, this time he just ignored her and demanded her to act more mature before disappearing for this two-month long mission.
She remembered that day when she was lying on her bed, pretending to be sleeping while she heard him prepare to leave. The sky was still pitch-black outside. If he intended to leave this early, it usually meant a mission he could not afford to take even a small misstep. She heard him approaching her bedroom door and waited there for a few pregnant pauses before muttered with his already deep voice:
"Goodbye, sweetheart"
He may have known that she was faking her sleep but she would not concede so easily. Not after what he had done to her. They did not talk to each for two days mainly because of her anger at him. She only rose when she was sure that he had gone. She just did not know he would be gone for this long.
"You know, he was kinda rational" – Katsuya finally said testily after a few moments of silence passed between them.
"What?" – Sakura snapped – knowing all too well what Katsuya was talking about but hanging onto her stubbornness for some more.
"You know what I mean, Kakashi-sama just made the decision based on your test result though" – even when Katsuya was normally polite and sensitive, he could be very blunt anytime Sakura acted unreasonably – a trait only the best kind of friend would do. She knew him care about her deeply but she was not in the best mood for a lecture now.
"Would you be mad if your dad used such genjutsu on you?" – Sakura retorted tightly, looking resolutely at the gate again.
That caused Katsuya to momentarily pause as if pondering the strange image of his loudmouthed dad as a cool and skilled genjutsu user: "My dad can never use genjutsu on anyone" – his voice climbed to a little higher octave. The image did not seem to fit in well with Sakura either as if Naruto and genjutsu were too far two spectrums:
"I know, but hypothetically…"
Thinking harder this time Katsuya concluded: "I guess I would. But the point is you never know what your enemy was capable of. What if they could create the same illusion? Will you flinch in your attack? It would be too dangerous in a real battle."
Heaving her chest in a long dejected sigh, Sakura nested her chin between her hands:
"I know all of this, Okay? It's just…he didn't have to go to that length, by the way, why are you always on his side, aren't you supposed to stick with whatever Sakura-neechan says?"
Glancing at the purple haired boy from the corner of her eyes with her infamous scornful look, Sakura tried to regain some well-established power over her little underling. But Katsuya was not someone who would back down when he felt like standing his ground:
"What? I just go with common sense. You are not that much older than me by the way, I should stop calling you Sakura-neesan"
"Hey, it was full 11 months, I'm 11 months older than you" – Sakura argued
"Not even a full year, we are basically the same age"
Swiftly moving her hand over Katsuya's head to ruffle his hair (a habit she picked up from her father to annoy the Uzumaki's kids just in the same way her dad annoyed her) to re-define her authority, Sakura smiled sweetly:
"Don't worry Katchan, you will forever be my otouto-san"
"Hey, don't touch me there" – Katsuya lightly smacked her hand away while shooting her a restrained intolerant look, causing Sakura to laugh lightly.
It was always relaxed to be with Katsuya, his maturity beyond age made her feel safe and comfortable to share her feelings with. Throwing quick look at the deserted gate again, Sakura let out another long sigh while crossing her hand behind her head:
"Why does it take so long?"
"You don't need to be that hurried to say sorry to him, do you?" – Katsuya teased
"Who said I would say sorry to him?" Sakura glared briefly at the amused blue-eyed boy – "it's just … I don't know..."
"Huh" – Katsuya's interest raised, waiting for Sakura to search for words: "You know when you argued with Fuuko and she ran away, even when you knew you were right, you were just so worried about her a little bit more than normal, weren't you?"
"But you were wrong though" – Katsuya pointed out matter-of-factly, which earned him a light smack on his arm from the pink-haired girl:
"Don't be a goody-two shoes! You little brat"
He just smirked at her then waved his hand defensively:
"Alright, I know what you mean, it was even worse because you are wrong then, but don't worry, they are…"
Before Katsuya had a chance to finish his sentence, his and Sakura's attention were snapped away by the sudden appearance of four people in Konoha's travel capes. Their aspect could only be described as distraught since they were extremely hurried to rush through that gate as if any second late would be detrimental. One of them was carrying someone in his hand. That person was no other than Sakura's father – the Copy Ninja while the bloody brown-haired woman on his hand was no other than Kurenai-sensei – the Asuma twin's mother. Having already bolted upright and sprinted towards the four older jounins, Sakura and Katsuya shouted out at the same time:
"Tenzou-Sensei"
"Otousan, Miyuki-senpai"
Instantly realizing who was there in front of them, the three conscious adults did not skip a beat in their rushing in their way to (very likely) the main hospital, forcing the two younger shinobiis to join their dash without asking for permission. As Sakura looked at her father tightly concentrated face, she did not see any joy in his eye when he saw her again after two months. Even though feeling a tad bit abandoned, the girl dropped her selfish thought quickly and asked her father:
"What'd happened to Kurenai-obasan?"
"I'll explain to you later Sakura. Is Tsunade-sama there today?"
"When I left two hours ago, baa-chan was still there"
"That's good" –still holding the bloodless brunette tightly, Kakashi glinted at her visage briefly before adding: "Hang in there Kurenai, we're very near" – Even when it was just a fugitive moment, his gaze was very gentle and concerned, a look Sakura never witnessed him giving to anyone except her. Something inside her just cracked open.
They reached the hospital only a few minutes after that and soon the emergency unit surrounded them and asked them question about Kurenai's injuries, to which Tenzou just answered shortly: "Ambush".
Some yelling of "Call Tsunade-sama instantly"could be heard in the noise mixture. When one of the first-aid medic asked Kakashi to lay Kurenai down onto the wheeled bed so they could move her to the emergency room, he did it with so much care and tenderness while trying to murmur encouragement to the grimacing-in-pain brunette in a hushed voice:
"Kurenai, we're here, you'll be fine".
That was when Sakura realized the older woman had held on tightly to her father's shirt sleeve and refused to let it go when she was put on the bed. Sakura always did this anytime she was so sick and got injured badly in a mission. If her dad was there, she would never let him go even when she was in coma and could not really see him. Gently but decisively prying Kurenai's fingers off his sleeve, Kakashi said quickly:
"I'll be right here, just let them treat you first, Kurenai"
Blatantly reluctant, the long tapering fingers finally let go of the grip on the Copy Nin's shirt. As the medics started to roll the bed into the emergency room, loud decisive footsteps of a person who deemed to hold the utmost authority in this place echoed about ten metres away. All heads turned to regard her as green haori pillowing around her voluptuous build with each step:
"Tsunade-sama"
"Tsunade-sama"
"Tsunade-baa-chan"
"Sakura, stop calling me that" – snarled the seventy-one year old woman who looked like thirty five. "You've spent too much time around that Naruto brat again". To which Sakura just stuck her tongue out and quipped:
"You do allow me to call you like that when no one is around, Baa-chan" – even though mischievously stretching on the honorific a tad bit too long for Tsunade's liking, Sakura did cower when the thumping veins appeared on the fifth hokage's temple and her raising fist which was moving toward her head fast. She already knew the impact though. It was always a rough but gentle and loving ruffle on top of her head as anger dissipated around Tsunade quickly:
"Brat, who taught you to become so insolent?"
Her honey-brown eyes accusingly flicked toward the only person she was so sure of such deed, and immediately took on a strict hard stare:
"How long ago was that?"
"Around five hours" – Kakashi did not skip, instantly understood Tsunade's lighting-fast change of topic manner – "Miyuki-chan had healed the outer surfaces of the wound to stop blood loss, her chakra was emptied so that the best we could do"
"It's alright, you made it here fast enough. The rest is up to me and her luck"
Tsunade turned pat on her sandals without regarding anyone around any further while the medic team took it as a sign to keep rolling the bed inside. Soon the operation door gaped open and closed shut hastily, swallowing the five medics, Tsunade and the bed with Kurenai on it.
"Where are Ryoko and Ryota?" – Tenzou turned to Sakura and Katsuya's direction.
"They are on a mission about seven days ago, they should be heading back now" – Katsuya who was working as an apprentice in planning department and responsible for handing mission scrolls out responded straight away.
"I'll go and send emergency signal telling them to get back as soon as they can" – Tenzou glanced at Kakashi to receive a curt nod: "I leave the rest to you Kakashi-senpai", then the big-eyed man teleported away. Kakashi immediately took out a scroll from under his travel cape and fetched it to Katsuya:
"Take this to your dad"
The teenager boy received the scroll and looked at the Copy Nin for some more instructions. After a deliberate pause, he finally said:
"Tell him the mission was a success"
To which Katsuya nodded affirmatively. Quickly waving a goodbye to Sakura, the purple-haired boy made a beeline towards the exit which was closest to the Hokage's tower.
"Miyuki-chan" – Kakashi called out softly but his voice still held some patent level of authority: "You should go to have some rest, don't take chakra exhaustion lightly"
Miyuki's paleness was just slightly more colored than Kurenai, the medic's fatigued gait unsubtly indicated that she needed a lot more than just a short rest. She however remarked back at the silver-haired man:
"But Kakashi-san, how about you?"
"I'm alright, by the way, I have Sakura-chan here" – the ghost of a small smile crinkled his lone eye and that were all Miyuki needed to argue no further:
"Ok, take care Kakashi-san, good bye Sakura-chan"
"Bye, Miyuki-senpai" – Sakura waved at Miyuki. As soon as the black haired medic disappeared in the lift at the end of the hallway, the Copy-nin buckled down. A small but steady pair of hands came out of nowhere catching his arm through his travel cape to stop him from falling further:
"How many times you've used your kamui for the last two days?" – her voice was stern with a hint of rage.
"I lost count" – Kakashi obediently let the much shorter girl lead him into a vacant examining room nearby.
"And Rairiki?" – Sakura closed the door behind her with one hand while the other still grabbed her father's wrist tightly.
"7 or 8, I can't remember"
Dropping down on the bed's mattress, Kakashi let out a relieved sigh then turned sideways to glance at his daughter whose face was darkened with a barely-restrained anger. He gave her an amused smile and lifted his hand up to ruffle her hair:
"I'm here, right, don't be so upset"
Gently but insolently whacking the hand away from the top of her head, Sakura demanded:
"Take your cape off, I want to check the wound on your back"
Kakashi's smile widened under his mask as he unbuttoned the collar part of the cape:
"I can't hide anything from you, can I? Since when did you notice?"
"The way you carry her was awkward, and judging by so much difficulty when you lift your hand up" – She answered sharply while helping him to take the heavy cape off his shoulder.
"What else can you guess?"
"Kurenai-obasan's wound on the left chest seems to coincide with the position of your wound, it would be either you or she jumped in each other way to shield the other from a direct attack. But if she comes out this badly, I guess, it would have been her trying to protect you from an assail from behind. You did not suffer the whole attack but part of its force went through Kurenai's chest and injured you internally. Your enemy was the type who could utilize natural energy as well, wasn't he. To have such a powerful attack, he must be able to combine wind and lighting elements?"
Kakashi was impressed and very pleased at the same time to the point that he was so tempted to pat the top of her head again, but decided against it since Sakura would think of that action as more of belittling than complimenting:
"You're really good at…"
"Reading underneath the underneath, I know, dad" – finished his sentence off impatiently, the pink-haired girl tried to get her father out of his jounin flak jacket and his long sleeve top with the least exertion on his injury.
When he was just down on his fitted shirt, she sauntered behind his back and rolled the back of the shirt up to his shoulder to reveal an angry bluish mark as big as her own palm. Gathering chakra to her hand, Sakura shuddered to feel this deceptively benign looking wound was actually running so much deeper into her father's body than her initial guess. She braced herself not to think any further if he had actually received the full attack. Deep down, she felt extremely grateful for Kurenai even though it was very selfish of her to think as such. But she could not hide the fact that her father's life was the most important to her. She would not stop to think for a second if she had to sacrifice for him.
Sakura closed her eyes tightly to visualize the complicated passages of damaged veins, muscles and nerve endings and connected them back together. Being her father's little medic ever since she was eleven gave Sakura an advantage in understanding his chakra and muscle system thoroughly. Besides, training with Tsunade-baachan since she was six gave Sakura a huge boost in chakra control and medical expertise. Together with her natural gift at that, only very few her age in Konoha or even faraway countries and territories could rival Sakura's chakra manipulation level.
After nearly an hour of detecting and healing, Sakura finally soothed away the pain and smoothed out the abused flesh. Her father was always a good patient who hardly ever winced and whined or interrupted while she was concentrating. Obviously not like Fuuko and Ryuuki. Katsuya was quite good as well but Sakura loved to exert more force on his wound just to rub his bravado off. Pulling his shirt down, Sakura tapped on the same spot where his wound was lightly: "All done".
Flexing his arm and shoulder blades experimentally, Kakashi let a lazy grin spread across his face:
"I'm really lucky to have my private doctor around, aren't I?"
"Well, you should take your private doctor with you every where if you really trust her ability that much" – Sakura remarked dryly
To which Kakashi went fleetingly still, then fixed Sakura an unreadable look:
"You are still mad at me?" – asked the Copy Nin evenly
Sakura was very tempted to say yes but reflecting on her conversation with Katsuya earlier, it sounded incredibly childish if she kept acting sulky. Sighing dejectedly, Sakura said:
"Miyuki-senpai was a good choice, she's a lot more experienced than me"
"You are a better fighter, sweetheart!" – Kakashi intoned gently, which earned him another confused stare from the kunoichi who seemed to ask "then why didn't you choose me" with her expressive eyes.
"Miyuki is a very capable medic and she wouldn't get affected by me as much as you would"
"What do you mean? You think I would be biased? Dad, I still have my professionalism, you know. And seriously, don't you think your illusion was a bit too much?" – Sakura retorted hotly.
"One of the criminals this time was a genjutsu master, he did not need to know what was your deepest fear, his jutsu could go deep into your psyche and dig out your biggest fear and make it so vivid. I know you were mad at me when I failed you, sweetheart, but I did not create that illusion, it was your own reaction when the jutsu was cast upon you. What you saw was what you feared the most"
"That's why you think I'm not ready" – diverting her eyes to the floor in a defeated posture, she whispered weakly – "You must have thought that I was weak"
Touching the upset daughter's shoulder tenderly to have her pay attention back to him again, Kakashi told her reassuringly:
"Sakura, facing your deepest fear is a very difficult thing to do, don't think any less of yourself, you're an excellent shinobii, darling"
"Dad" – before Kakashi could brace himself, Sakura moved forward to embrace him tightly:
"I really miss you" – she whispered
Stroking her hair affectionately, Kakashi smiled contentedly:
"I miss you too, sweetheart"
They stayed like that for a few moments until Sakura broke off to bore into her silver-haired father's lone eye with a knowing look:
"You took Kurenai back on time and Tsunade-baachan is here, so don't worry too much, she will be alright"
His large hand found her cheek and then suddenly turned into a light pinch:
"You've grown up too fast Sakura, one moment you were still crying in the cradle and spitting milk all over my face, the next you already know how to reassure your old father"
Swiping the hand on her cheek away while shooting Kakashi an annoyed look, Sakura grumbled:
"Very grateful of you to your private doctor"
Kakashi looked amused: "You really want to talk about being grateful? There was this pitiful man who was so poor and so old, but he devoted thirteen years of his life rising up this amazingly gratifying daughter who just jumped at any chance to bully him no matter how nice he was to her"
"Well maybe, he's not that nice to her then"
whacking Kakashi's arm to produce a loud satisfying smack rather than actually hurting him, Sakura scowled: "And you are not poor either, after so many years of shamelessly teaching me how to dump the bills on others and that two-thousands-five-hundreds-and-seventy-nine mission record definitely made you one of the richest shinobiis in the Fire countries."
Kakashi pulled his face to perform a convincing cheap look: "It's all for your education though, besides most of these missions were for free"
"The ninja academy is free and you dumped all of the bank statements on me and asked me to manage them ever since I was ten." – countered Sakura flatly.
"You see my point?" – Kakashi's suddenly looked so confident, making Sakura narrow her eyes suspiciously:
"What's point?"
"There was this pitiful man who worked so hard to provide his daughter a full happy life, but she would never turn down a chance to humor him or being mean…. "
Before Kakashi really had a chance to finish his sentence another loud smack with a lot less restrain erupted from his still tender shoulder. Kakashi slightly lost his balance, lunged forward and dramatically fell flat on his face on the floor. Panic struck Sakura as soon as Kakashi was in the middle of the falling, the little kunoichi kneeled down next to her dad to help him up while chewing her lips nervously:
"I'm so sorry, dad, Are you alright?"
Kakashi just cowered himself from her and feigned another oscar-winning terrifying look:
"And so violent too"
Sakura could never totally understand this man even when he was her own father. He could easily close his eyes to fight in total darkness and still managed to dodge the rain of shurikens and kunais throwing at him but when she was so much pulling the most basic trick of all time on him, he would fall for that.
For a very long time Sakura thought that he just pretended to make her happy since she always burst out laughing at his comical clumsiness while she just cried a few minutes before over a dropped ice-cream cone or a lost kite. But from Naruto's stories, it seemed that he was always a klutz ever since he first became team seven's teacher or even before that.
Sakura heard this rumour going among her friends at the academy that her dad was the coolest dad of all but she very often had to excuse herself to find a quiet corner to burst out laughing hard about such undeserved compliments.
Even Katsuya somewhat sipped her dad and took it very hard that his real idol was not that cool after all. Sakura had a lot of pleasure in embarrassing Katsuya about his misplaced idolization, resulting in the boy always try to block out any negative comments about Kakashi-sama and turn a blind eye to his uncool behaviours. Unable to be irate anymore, the pink-haired girl just grinned brightly:
"Well, at least I do feel grateful for your teaching me all of these great ninjutsus so I can attack so effectively"
Still looking quite frightened, Kakashi shook his head lightly:
"I always know it's a double-edged sword, the worst idea was letting you train with Tsunade-sama"
"Too bad, you've been late for seven years, Dad" – Sakura grinned again. Pinching her other cheek, Kakashi could not help a smile either:
"Cheeky little brat"
It was always like this when her dad was around. Not only he was Sakura's most beloved person in the whole world but her favorite person as well.
Sakura was one of very lucky few who were surrounded by love ever since she was born. Missions to far-away, war-torn countries with her dad made Sakura treasure her happy life back in Konoha more than anything.
Even when growing up being more of a tomboy than most of her female friends, Sakura was still very fast to cry and strangely for an honorable and indifferent shinobii like Kakashi, he never once found her crying as a sign of weakness or criticized it. He indeed encouraged her to always be who she was and taught her from early on that being able to love was a very powerful weapon in its own right.
Sakura hardly understood any of this when she was smaller but after her first really dangerous mission, she understood how much power she could have if she wanted to protect someone she loved so badly. As a result of these, Sakura could form genuine relationships with many kids at the academy or even allies from other countries. But no one in this whole world could make Sakura cry and laugh in a heartbeat and have a witty conversation with this much ease.
Sakura had seen the interactions between her other female friends and their father, she silently realized that not all of them could have their dad as their best friend the way she did. Some of them were also candies in their dads' eyes like Sakura but they would always find their dad annoying and uncool or some others were just plainly afraid of their dads.
With her friends, Sakura could feel that there was always a certain distance defining a daughter and a father boundary, but with her, thing was slightly different. Even though she did feel weary of her dad when he was dead serious, she did respect him and felt proud of him and found him annoying and uncool at times but there was something else she could never truly explain about the way she felt when she was around him.
Something that was greater than her as if it had always existed there from before she could remember things properly. Was it because she was the only girl in this village who lived with a single dad? Most men just remarried after a few years of being a widow.
She could only guess that his love for her mother must be so great that an attractive man like him (judging by other women's reaction around him) could stay single for that long. Sakura saw him turn down advances from beautiful women so that he could focus on cheering her up in her single or team sport competitions or some other times, he just wanted to enjoy a nice uninterrupted dinner with his daughter in a restaurant.
He basically spat water all over the table when she asked him if he was gay.
"Who gave you such an idea?" – wiping his mouth with the back of his hand after a few minutes of coughing with a face which still was not fully recovered from shock.
"No one" – Sakura shrugged (well she lied, Fuuko and Ryuuki actually inflicted that idea on her not so long ago and Katsuya as usual tentatively turned a deaf ear to any weird comments related to his idol) – "You never seemed to like any woman anyway, If you do swing that way, I just want to let you know that I don't mind having another dad" – Sakura resumed her eating, not failing to notice another shock on her dad's face.
Correcting his throat a few times, Kakashi finally said:
"That's very considerate of you Sakura, but no, I'm not. I just always have other priority"
"I heard it's not good for men to stay single for too long"
Unable to defer another bout of choking and coughing, Kakashi looked at his daughter wide-eyed:
"Who told you all of this?"
"Sachiko- she said men who hide Jiraiya's Icha Icha series under his bed must be pretty desperate"
Kakashi basically turned into stone after this revelation. He thought he had been so careful. Making a mental note to whack the little blonde brat who was a perfect combination of the most flirtatious girl in her generation and the most socially inappropriate ex-Root member who never flinched to openly make ill-advised comments about other people even when he had passed his thirties, Kakashi tried to sound serious:
"Sakura, it's not very proper to rummage through others' private stuffs"
"It was not my fault when Pakkun wanted to hide under there to avoid a shower after two months" – Sakura looked innocent at best when a cold sweat was slowly rolling down Kakashi's temple. Another name was ticked for retribution in his mental note. Kakashi tried again hesitantly:
"Uhm, you haven't read them, have you?"
"No, I didn't, Tsunade-baachan had told me once that if I saw any of these books, just burn them away instantly."
"What have you done?" completely overtaken by anger and shock, Kakashi bolted upright from the dinner table and rushed to his room upstairs, with Sakura hot on his heels:
"Dad, chotto-matte"
Stomping inside his room and quickly performing a hand seal to lift the heavy bed up with ease, Kakashi pulled out the big box underneath, put the bed down and hastily opened the lid. To his tremendous relief, all of his books were all there. Sakura bolted inside the room just in time to receive an angry and confused look from her father:
"I'm never the obedient type, aren't I?" – she stuck her tongue out to tease him – "Well, the truth is I was very tempted to burn them but, I realized they are all signed copies, and Jiraiya-sama had passed away fifthteen years ago, I guess you must really treasure them" – she couldn't help a mischief glint playing on her lips and her eyes. This was gold. Sakura could hardly ever crack her lukewarm exterior this hard no matter how many pranks she pulled on him.
"Hatake-Sakura" – not good, he only called her that way when he was really mad at her. Sakura cringed as murderous aura exuded from the Copy Nin's posture.
"I'm sorry, dad" – she said quickly and tried to back away from the room.
"Too late" – Kakashi grunted before hoisting her up and pressing her to the floor. Saying that Sakura was terrified was an understatement. Folding her hands in front of her chest to cover herself, Sakura pleaded with a panic-stricken tone:
"No, please, dad, I said I'm sorry, no"
But she could no longer talk.
Her pleading was instantly turned into a fit of hysterical laughter as Kakashi tickled her mercilessly. Sakura squirmed and wiggled out of his touch to no avail since she was totally useless when she was tickled. This was her Achilles'heel Kakashi discovered ever since she was four and he kept it as a secret weapon anytime this little girl was too handful or tricky to deal with. Kakashi did not stop no matter how hard Sakura begged among her unstoppable chortles and giggles:
"Dad…oh my gosh…hahaha, please…I'm dyin…hahaha, no"
Sakura tried to kick and punch but they were all effectively blocked away by a much saner jounin who did not stop his hilarious but cruel torture. He finally stopped when tears started to form in her eyes' corners and fear that she may have died of enraptured nerves started to sneak up on the back of his mind. Lying face down on the wooden floor and gaping for life, Sakura murmured:
"You've just killed me dad"
"You reap what you sow, sweetheart" – Kakashi remarked with a sing-song voice, he smiled at her form.
Lying down there for a few more moment until her breathing was normal again, Sakura used her index finger to dab away some drop of tears threatening to roll down from her father's earlier "assault":
"So this is how you sort out your priority? You like fictional women than real women don't you?" – she turned her face up again to face him stubbornly pursue the awkward topic.
"It's not like that Sakura" – Kakashi sighed lightly, wondering how much of a pig-head she to Sakura, she did not really that scare of his tickling weapon – "by the way how old are you again? Are you of age to talk about this?"
Propping herself with one hand to sit up on the floor, Sakura protested: "I'll be fourteen in nine months, I'm not… "
"A child anymore, so I heard" – Kakashi finished her off with another amused look while the little girl just looked sullen because she got with nothing more to say. She had been very sensitive over this matter for the last two years. He knew that Sakura was way mature beyond her age because it surprised him very often how she could easily hold a lengthy interesting conversation (more like argument and debate most of the time) with him – an old man thirty one year her senior. But sometimes, she still acted like her age with her persistent pestering:
"Don't you feel lonely dad, please don't let me stop you from pursuing your happiness"
Kakashi paused for a second, then ruffled Sakura's head with the kindest glint in his mismatched eyes and a contented smile graced his lips: "My silly girl, I stay single because I still love your mum, besides, how can I be lonely when you are with me?"