Title: There Is a Light that Never Goes Out
Fandom/Community: Naruto / kakasakudrabble
Characters: Kakashi, Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Temari, Naruto, Genma
Pairing: KakaSaku
Rating: PG
Word of the Week: Curiosity

Author Notes: Most people would have done something with his mask or his books. I wanted something more sentimental and emotional. And I've found that in almost all of my stories, Kakashi gets the last word, or the last action. I just love when he gets to be cocky or romantic at the end.


Sakura swirled her straw boredly in her drink, trying to ignore the looks.

She had no idea why she let herself get talked into doing these things. She had never been comfortable around the others girls, other than Ino and Hinata. It was just weird.

Hinata was Naruto's girlfriend, and she had accidentally caught them in far too many awkward situations than she cared to remember—they'd done the same to her.

Ino was her best friend. They had known each other for forever. They had suffered through kunoichi lessons, the academy, ninja lessons, even Uchiha Sasuke and still managed to have some strange sort of connection with each other's minds and hearts that bordered on freakish.

While Ino had always been there, once Sasuke had left and Naruto had taken with her, she'd been the fourth to her trio of close friends.

Now, with Tenten and Temari there, everything felt awkward.

Tenten used to be on Lee's team, which brought forth all kinds of uncomfortable thoughts about how the boy had followed her around like a lovesick puppy for three years. Temari reminded her too much of Gaara, and while the Kazekage had eventually become a close friend, it was still awkward.

And then of course there was Sasuke's girlfriend, Megumi, a girl that Hinata knew a lot more than the rest of them, as the girl's family was close friends with the Hyuuga's. While Sakura had met the girl before even Sasuke had, it was still incredibly awkward. Ino was often incredibly rude to the girl—her lingering feelings about how Sasuke had ignored them both unable to unwilling to remove themselves from her body.

It was a normal girl's night.

They went over to Tenten's apartment, because while it wasn't the biggest (that was Sakura's), she was the only one that didn't share her apartment with a member of the opposite sex, and thus, didn't chance getting interrupted.

It was normal to talk about girly things like make-up, who was hot and who wasn't; the recent missions they'd been on. One of them would ask Hinata how long it was going to be before Naruto proposed; it would be countered with her asking Megumi when Sasuke would. They'd kid Ino about how often Genma made her take long weekends off so he could keep her to himself; which led to many jokes about him owning a pair of handcuffs.

Somebody always asked Sakura how many old men in the Konoha Hospital had proposed to her.

Temari would make a joke that she should take them up on the offer, just to get laid; Tenten would tell her she should see if any of them had handsome sons, and Megumi would say that she shouldn't rush into anything to fast.

She ignored their teasing for the most part.

Temari had Shikamaru, Ino had Genma, Megumi had Sasuke and Hinata had Naruto. Tenten just hadn't found anybody that wasn't scared of her vast collection of weapons that lined her walls. And well. . .

Ino and Hinata weren't allowed to say anything of course.

They said it was the smallest and that it wasn't in a good part of town. It was because she didn't spend any time there. She was either on missions or at the hospital; that's what they had the staff office filled with couches for.

Unfortunately, she had slipped up a bit.

Now, she sat, curled in the corner on a bar stool she'd helped Ino swipe from the local bar, one elbow on the marble surface as she leaned against the counter, her other covering the bright red mark that bruised the skin on her neck, just below her jaw. The girls were rabid.

"C'moooon, Sakura!" Tenten squealed, clutching her beer tighter in her grasp as she spoke. "You've obviously had some sort of encounter. You can't just leave us waiting. I told you about that time with me and Neji."

Hinata cast her a sympathetic look from the kitchen where she was mixing more drinks. "Guys, leave Sakura alone," she murmured reproachfully. "She doesn't need to say anything if she doesn't want to."

"Oh, we're just curious, Hinata." Meguma grinned.

Temari was about to open her mouth when the door burst open, hard enough to shake the entire apartment. Naruto was nearly falling as he crashed into the room, gasping for breath. "Genma and Kakashi-sensei are back!"

Megumi tilted her head to the side, as though this were a normal occurrence. "Back from what?"

"Their ANBU mission," Ino breathed, glancing at Sakura. Naruto was glancing between them all, incredibly impatient, as the pink-haired and blonde-haired kunoichis hoisted themselves to their feet and followed him out the door. Almost as an after thought, Hinata not far behind, and the three other girls following at a slower pace, worried about the change in the atmosphere.

Sakura landed near the gates of Konoha at breakneck speed. Her legs had cramped from running so fast, but at least she hadn't plowed into her boyfriend like Ino had—hitting the ground and using the momentum to propel herself into Genma's arms. Sakura sighed; she could hear Megum, Tenten, Temari and Hinata landing somewhere behind her, breathless as she was.

Just because she had the decency not to make the two of them fall to the ground didn't mean she wasn't anymore anxious.

"Kakashi!"

She didn't care who saw, didn't care who noticed. When the Copy-nin turned swiftly to her, opening his arms wide, she seized him around the neck. One of his arms held her painfully tight to his chest, his other sliding into her hair and gripped it, afraid to let go. Sakura pressed her lips against his masked ones, her eyes closed.

"Hello to you too," he whispered, pulling back, hand petting her hair.

Her green eyes were watery. "I love you, Kakashi."

He crooked a finger and tugged his mask down, uncaring of who saw, and pulled her into another kiss. "I love you too."