At first they walked in silence, both trying to think of something to say. God, this is worse than a first date, Sakura thought to herself. She was paranoid any questions she asked would arouse suspicion, or that Kakashi would ask her a question she wouldn't know how to answer.
Eventually he spoke up. "So where are we headed?"
"It's a restaurant called The Blossom," she replied, "I haven't been there in a while, but it's fairly popular."
"The Blossom…" Kakashi scratched his mask-covered chin. "I think I've heard of it somewhere."
Sakura made a noncommittal noise. She knew she'd never mentioned it to him before, but he might have heard about the civilian bar owned by a retired ninja couple. It was something of a talking point in Konoha- which prided itself on its powerful shinobi- for two people to give up the lifestyle so completely.
"Actually, I think I must have been mistaken," Kakashi said as they finally reached the glowing bistro. "I would have remembered."
The entire outside wall was painted with cherry blossom trees so lifelike that without the bright red sign and the sound of music from within, it might have been a doorway standing in the middle of a forest. Wooden steps led up to a small apartment block and down to The Blossom itself, where the sounds of people blended with the smell of good food. Kakashi gestured downwards.
"After you."
The interior of the bar was mostly done in crisp greens and earthy browns. The jounin's eye went immediately to the far wall, where someone had painted a mural. It was another sakura tree; this time with a young kimono-clad woman standing under its boughs. She had a beautiful, serene expression and a hair colour that perfectly matched the blossoms falling around her. Despite the woman's beauty, the painting didn't have the same realism as the exterior façade. Kakashi concluded that the rose-haired maiden was probably some Spring goddess dreamed up in the artist's imagination rather than painted with a real-life model.
Sakura glanced at the mural too, but only to remind herself how much she hated it. It had been painted a year after her birth, the final touch to her mother's masterpiece restaurant. It was the woman Haruno Takara's pink-haired daughter was meant to grow into, but the artist had made a fatal mistake. The picture was too beautiful, too perfect. When Sakura grew up into a pretty -but ultimately normal- young girl, she felt like a failure. Of course her mother had meant well, but The Blossom's painted maiden was just too great an image to live up to. Unfortunately she was the only one who seemed to hate it, and so she had gone through life smiling and pretending it wasn't the source of all her childhood insecurities.
"Who are you two?"
The pair were cut off at the bottom of the stairs by a short woman with chestnut-brown hair and a bright red yukata. She examined them through a tiny pair of pince-nez glasses, eyes narrowed.
Sakura was surprised by her mother's behaviour. The former kunoichi was usually the most sociable and cheery person in town; the consummate hostess. She wondered what had happened to make her look so hostile and suspicious.
Kakashi stepped forward, adopting the polite, diplomatic persona he used when talking to wealthy clients. "My name's Hatake Kakashi and this is Umeko," he gestured to Sakura, who shifted uncomfortably. It was an odd feeling, being introduced to your own mother.
Mrs Haruno looked them up and down once more before finally relaxing. "Hatake Kakashi. Of course you are, so sorry. I'm Takara; welcome to The Blossom. Of course I should have recognised you immediately, but you can't be too careful, you know." She fussed with her glasses, taking less-than subtle glances at Kakashi's covered eye and dark mask.
"Sorry, but why can't you be too careful?" Kakashi asked, voicing Sakura's own unspoken question.
Takara sighed apologetically. "It's nothing personal. I've just been getting a lot of new patrons lately, and not all of them are as well-known as The Great Copy-nin. And to be honest, the money's not worth the stress. Most of them break more than they spend, fighting and carrying on." Her voice dropped to a whisper, so that Kakashi and Sakura had to lean forward to hear her. "Don't spread this around," she began, and Sakura almost smiled; her mother was a notorious gossip, and always began the juiciest news in the same way, "but I think it has something to do with my new lodger."
"You have a lodger?" Sakura blurted out before she could stop herself. The other two looked at her, and she blushed.
"Yes, Kenta's been staying in my daughter's old room for about a week now. For the most part he's been perfect; always pays his rent in advance, never does any direct damage. But the people he seems to attract haven't been so great." After a dramatic pause, she straightened back up and gave a cheerful grin. "But that's not your problem. You two kids are obviously here to enjoy yourself, not share in an old woman's misery." She grabbed Kakashi's wrist and practically dragged him further into the building. He glanced back at Sakura with an amused shrug, as she tried to keep up with them. If she hadn't been disguised, she would have been mortified at the way her mother was treating her old sensei. But as Umeko, it just seemed funny.
They passed tables of people, all of whom seemed to be mild-mannered regulars rather than menaces to society. Sakura glanced at each of their faces, until she noticed one she recognised. Ino's auburn-haired henge stared at her, open-mouthed. For a moment she thought her friend must have recognised her despite the effort she had put into her disguise. She was about to raise a hand in greeting until she realised why Ino was staring. From her perspective, a pretty stranger had just walked into a restaurant with Hatake Kakashi: elite jounin and rumoured womaniser. The Yamanaka girl was almost as big a gossip as Haruno Takara, and news of Kakashi's new lady-friend would generate a lot of interest in shinobi circles.
Sakura swallowed nervously. Just how much trouble had she gotten herself into? If her disguise were to fail her right now, in front of her old captain, her mother, her best friend and about fifty random onlookers, she would have to move to Suna to escape the humiliation. Kakashi would think she'd tricked him, Ino would think she had sought Kakashi out on purpose, and Kami-knew what her mother would think. The thought alone made her want to run from the building, but she knew she had a little longer before her chakra levels became too strained. Plus, she truly did want to talk with Kakashi; if only to confirm that he was as enigmatic with strangers as he was with his students.
Finally she and Kakashi were plunked down in a corner booth at the back that offered a good view of the rest of the bar.
"There you go, nice and intimate," Takara winked saucily, and Sakura might have died of embarrassment then and there, disguise or no. Kakashi must have noticed her discomfort, because he rolled his eyes behind the woman's back as if to say "of course she would jump to that conclusion." Sakura gave a small smile. At least Kakashi didn't have the wrong impression.
"Now, can I get you two kids anything to eat or drink?" her mother asked, pulling a notepad and pencil from the folds of her yukata.
Kakashi looked at Sakura expectantly. "I'll have a glass of water and a serving of pork buns, please," she said, and The Copy Nin smiled politely.
"I'll have the same."
That surprised Sakura, who hadn't expected him to order anything at all. She and her teammates had been trying for years to catch a glimpse of him eating, when he would presumably remove his mask. Was tonight the night it finally happened? The thought gave Sakura a weird thrill of anticipation, like reading the climax of a novel.
Their order was written down and the notepad returned. "If there's anything else you need, just ask for 'Takara,'" the woman told them, sliding the pencil behind her ear. Finally, they were alone.
"So this is The Blossom," Kakashi took in his surroundings with an appreciative look. "It's nice. I should come to this area more often."
"You mean you don't live around here?" Sakura asked, knowing full well that his apartment was on the other side of town. The fact that he had clearly snuck out of the hospital still irked her, and she hoped for a confession.
She was to be disappointed. "I live on the Northern edge of town, but I felt like doing something different tonight." He shrugged blithely, scratching the back of his head. "How about you? You mentioned you hadn't eaten here in a while. Too far to commute?"
"I used to live close to here, but then I moved a bit further away and started a new job," she told him, which wasn't technically a lie. "I kept meaning to come back, but I got kind of… distracted." She hadn't realised just how badly she had missed her old home until that night.
Kakashi nodded sympathetically. "I can relate. I used to know Konoha like the back of my hand, but with all the battles and reconstructions of recent years, not much is familiar to me anymore."
"I suppose that's why you came to this area tonight? To reorient yourself?"
Kakashi shrugged. "To be honest, I just wanted to get away for a while. I didn't really care where; I just let my feet carry me where they wished. I don't really spend much time in the village these days, so I decided to enjoy my free time."
Umeko tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear, her expression unreadable. "When I was a girl," she finally said, "I used to think being a ninja and travelling to all the different nations would be the greatest thing ever."
Kakashi smiled at the girl. "Don't get me wrong; the other nations are beautiful. Each is completely different from the other, in terms of geography. You couldn't compare Sunagakure to Kirigakure, for example. Unfortunately, the sights you see as a ninja aren't the ones they put on their postcards."
Sakura watched her former sensei's one visible eye cloud over for a moment, and had the sudden desire to reach out to him. It was absurd- he was the most aloof man she'd ever known- but Sakura had spent several years working as a medic, giving support to the sick and the grieving. Compassion, she had found, was a hard thing to turn off. But she decided against it; from Kakashi's point of view she was a complete stranger, and even if he had known it was Sakura, their relationship had never allowed for something as intimate as the giving and receiving of comfort.
Haruno Takara chose that moment to appear, steaming trays in hand. "Hope I'm not interrupting," she chirped, placing their meals before them.
"Not at all," Kakashi replied politely. "We were only talking. You're welcome to pull up a seat and join us if you wish." He wanted to make it clear to Umeko that he wasn't trying to use her vulnerable state to his advantage; she shouldn't feel like he was expecting anything just for saving her.
Takara flapped her hand dismissively. "Oh, don't be silly! You young things don't want me interrupting your date! Besides, I have a business that needs running."
"It's not a d-" Sakura began, but fell silent as her mother turned to glare at the stranger that had just entered the restaurant.
"Kenta…" the woman breathed, and Sakura and Kakashi shared a glance.
"That's your lodger?" Kakashi asked, peering between the fern fronds. The man stood at around 5'7", with curly grey-brown hair that made him look older than he seemed. He walked to the bar and struck up a conversation with the bartender, who poured him a glass of cold tea.
"He doesn't drink, you see," Takara told them, "just drinks tea, so that if anyone does get rowdy and start problems, he can always play innocent."
"Why not just kick him out, if he's concerning you so much?" Sakura asked, trying to sound like an objective stranger and not like the woman's daughter.
Takara's eyebrows knit together briefly. "Oh, I couldn't do that," she said, "he really hasn't done anything wrong. I'm just being paranoid, I suppose. It's probably like this with everyone's first lodger."
"I guess…" Sakura didn't trust the man either, but that might just have been because he was staying in her old room. She didn't begrudge her parents trying to make a little extra money, but it still felt a little odd to think of this man sleeping in her bed.
"In any case, it's not for you two to worry yourselves over," Takara told them, gliding away back to the bar. The lodger glanced up at her approach, and his eyes travelled to the corner of the room she had come from. They rested briefly on the pair, who stared back unabashedly. After a moment, Kenta turned back to his drink and Kakashi turned to his dinner partner.
"I guess only time will tell if he's a homicidal maniac," he commented, and Umeko nodded, smiling.
"Quite right. In any case, I'm more interested in ninjas who save young ladies from bands of thugs. Did I mention how grateful I was about that?"
The jounin scratched the back of his head modestly. "Really, it was nothing. Any shinobi would have done the same. Especially for a pretty girl." The last part had slipped out accidentally, and he immediately felt guilty. Umeko was a pretty girl, but it was wrong to flirt with someone who felt like they owed you something. "Sorry. Not that I had any intentions or expectations about anything, I just-"
But she cut him off with a soft chuckle. "It's fine, I know you're a good guy. Call it 'intuition.' Besides," she added, "I invited you to dinner, and you don't suspect me of any ulterior motives, do you?"
Sakura was surprising herself with how easy it was to talk like this. Umeko wasn't shy or naïve. She said and did things the real Sakura never would, especially not to her former teacher. But it was a dangerous game to play when people's feelings were potentially at stake. It felt like innocent banter, and she was confident Kakashi was 'experienced' enough to see it that way. But if Umeko somehow did cause her former captain pain, she silently swore she would transfer to Suna and never return.
Kakashi laughed, and Sakura was surprised at how genuine it sounded. He had never really done more than smile in her presence before, so his sudden mirth made him seem like a stranger. She realised it was because he looked younger this way. Like the young man he never had the opportunity to be.
"No, I don't suspect you," he told her, still smiling. "But if you really want to assure me your motives in inviting me to dinner were pure, we should probably start eating. Besides, I really don't want you going into shock from an empty stomach."
Sakura remembered the pork buns she had been looking forward to all evening, and picked up her chopsticks with enthusiasm. Kakashi watched with bemusement as the girl poked a small hole in the top of her bun, carefully widening the tear until it formed a perfect cross. With near-surgical precision she peeled the flaps of dough back, revealing the untouched filling.
"What in the Hokage's name are you doing? He finally asked, as Umeko began removing the filling and placing it to one side. So far she hadn't taken a single bite.
"Trust me, it tastes even better when you do it like this," Sakura replied, continuing with her strange ritual. She had done it this way for years, and it really did make the dumplings special.
"I can't imagine how," Kakashi still watched bemusedly, his own dumplings untouched.
"I guess when I do it like this, I feel like I've earned it," she shrugged, "so getting to eat it is kind of like my reward." Filling sitting to one side of her plate, she picked up the empty dough and held it gently between her chopsticks. "This is the important bit," she told him.
With a nimble flick of her wrist, Umeko was able to turn the entire dumpling shell inside out without as much as a tear. It sat perfectly, exactly like it had before but with the sticky part on the outside and the clean side within. As he watched, she refilled it with the meat and, obviously satisfied with her efforts, took a large bite.
"Nothing better in this world," she sighed contentedly, finishing the dumpling in two more bites and beginning her operation on the next one.
Kakashi had to admit, Umeko was an interesting girl. He couldn't decide if she was warmly familiar or pleasantly surprising. She was an enigma, and it fascinated him. "Like this?" he asked her, picking up his own chopsticks and attempting to mimic her movements. He lacked her precision, and his cuts were nowhere as neat as hers, but it was a decent first attempt.
She told him so. "Not bad at all. I guess being a ninja would give you some pretty good hand-eye coordination. Even when one of your eyes is covered like that."
Kakashi's hand unconsciously went to his sharingan, hidden beneath a layer of gauze with his forehead-protector over the top. "You should see me with both eyes uncovered," he said, and Sakura couldn't quite read his tone. Playful? Wistful?
She decided to press him, but gently. She wanted to know how he felt about his recent trauma, but he didn't seem able to talk to Haruno Sakura. If he felt more comfortable around Umeko, then that would be the next best thing.
"I'd like that. Only being able to see a quarter of your face does make it hard to know if my conversation is boring you. Why cover your face like that?"
Kakashi leaned back in his chair, trying to think of a casual way to change the subject. Conversations usually turned to his mask and sharingan, and usually he could brush it off with a stupid lie. But he didn't feel like playing the absent-minded professor or the cold-blooded killer or any of his many roles tonight. He was enjoying being Kakashi too much.
Just as the pause was getting uncomfortably long, something over Kakashi's shoulder seemed to distract Umeko. "Look, others have joined the lodger."
It was true. Two more men had entered the bar and made a beeline for Kenta. He greeted them in a casual way, and then began talking in a voice too quiet to be heard over the rabble. After a moment, the taller of the two men swung around in his seat to scan the area of the room where Kakashi and Sakura were sitting. Kenta smacked the man's arm and the other one laughed. After that they focused on nothing but their drinks.
"That was strange," Sakura commented, frowning, "do you think they were talking about us?"
"No way to know, but if ninjas are as uncommon a sight as Takara said, they might just have been curious." Kakashi sounded apathetic but in reality he had no doubt they had been the subject of their conversation. He just didn't know why.
Sakura was similarly suspicious, but kept it to herself. Civilian women weren't supposed to concern themselves with shady characters. "You're probably right. Best to just forget about it." She smiled and he seemed to return it beneath his mask.
"Good idea. Besides, I'm far too interested in trying the best dumplings in Konoha." He picked up his reassembled pork bun and extended his free hand to tug down the top of his mask. People had caught glimpses of his face before, especially while he ate. Usually he liked to deny the people particularly invested in the mystery, like his former students. But he wanted to see Umeko's reaction. Would she blush? Would she laugh? Would she be disappointed?
Sakura realised what was about to happen as Kakashi's fingers slid beneath the top of the fabric. Was he seriously going to show her, just like that? Would she be the first of her teammates to solve the riddle of their old captain's face? Even when hospitalised he had been able to elude her, as though he wove some illusion similar to Tsunade's youthful appearance, that prevented any opportunity to glimpse the real Kakashi. The girl's heart leapt into her throat with excitement, surprise and guilt, for it felt a bit like a trick. As her pulse fluttered her chakra did the same, and she became aware of just how low her levels had gotten in the space of the evening. She winced as she fought to maintain control over her genjutsu.
Kakashi paused, watching Umeko with concern as her eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Are you alright?"
"Fine," she gasped, before seeming to remember herself. "I'm fine," she repeated more convincingly, "I just realised I have to go. Sorry." She stood up and was halfway to the exit before Kakashi could leave enough cash on the table to cover their food and follow her. The trio at the bar watched them leave.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay?"
Sakura realised Kakashi was calling to her from the doorway, and glanced over her shoulder to make sure there was still enough distance for her to escape. She couldn't change here, in front of him.
"I'm fine, I just have to go. I'm sorry, really. I did have fun."
"Would you like to do this again sometime?" The question caught Sakura off guard, and as she turned back to Kakashi she could tell he was just as surprised at himself for asking it. "I mean, I'd like to actually finish a meal with you at some point. Besides, you left without paying, so you kind of owe me. Same time tomorrow night, at the bridge?"
Sakura was glad it was dark, because she could feel her genjutsu rippling slightly from the conflicting emotions swirling within her. Had Kakashi just asked her on a proper date?
She span on her heel and retreated further into the darkness of the street, quickly becoming lost in the crowd. But before she disappeared completely, Kakashi could hear her softly call back to him.
"Maybe."