Sorry, Kakashi and Sakura are going to be the center most of the time. I just love them together!

"Here sweetie, take this, it'll make you feel better."

Sakura looked up and took the steaming cup from her mother. "Thanks mom."

Softly blowing to cool the hot liquid down she took a small sip and looked up again. "I just want him to believe in me."

Her mother sat down beside her and pulled her into a hug. "Oh honey, I know." She pulled away again and gave her daughter a warm smile. "Sometimes it's better to let things go, even if it hurts to do so. Your father just hasn't figured that out yet, but trust me when I say that he will come around eventually. Give him some time, he'll realize that he was wrong and let you go."

Sakura smiled faintly as her mother gave her a kiss on her brow and stood up.

"I love you sweetheart."

"I love you too."

As soon as the door of her room closed again, her smile disappeared. "I'm sorry, mom, dad, but I can't give you any more time then I already have." With a heavy weight in her stomach she grabbed a bag from under her bed and moved towards the window. "I'm sor-"

With a jolt Sakura opened her eyes and shook her head to get rid of the memory. The sun was already up and warming her skin. It had been a month since that night. Sakura had asked her parents to sign an anbu qualification, since she was a minor and needed the permission of her parents to enter the exams. Her mother had signed immediately, but her father had just flat out refused, saying that she was only 16 and therefore too young to enter such a dangerous position. As if she hadn't been a ninja for a great part of her life.

She'd been both mad and disappointed in her father, but none had mattered. She'd had the sign of her mother, so instead of waiting for her father to comply she'd gone to the anbu headquarters and had taken the test. Two weeks filled with several hard tests and completely isolated from the rest of the world, it hadn't been easy, but she'd made it.

The day after that Sakura immediately traveled back to the village, only to find out that everything had changed. A couple of missing nin's had attacked without warning and had destroyed a good part of the outer ring of the village, before the anbu had taken them down, Sakura's home included. Neither of her parents had survived the attack and since then she'd been taking every mission she could get her hands on, no matter how hard.

She'd just finished her last mission and was on her way back home. It hadn't been an easy one and she'd suffered a great deal of pain before being able to heal her injuries. Figuring that she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, she broke up her camp and got on her way again.

By the time that Sakura entered the village, the sun was already starting to go down. Taking her mask of she got to the nearest bar and got inside. Normally she'd go to Tsunade first, to give her report and get a new mission, but right now that could wait. She needed a drink and a damn strong one at that.

Ignoring all the eyes turning her way she made her way to the counter and asked for a bottle of sake. Sakura knew she probably looked like hell, but couldn't care less. It was not like she had anything to look good for anyway. Thanking the man as he placed the bottle in front of her, she didn't even bother to pour something in a smaller cup, but immediately started drinking.

"Sakura... Is that you..?"

The woman let out grunt and turned around. "What do you want, Naruto?"

The blonde pointed to someone behind him and gave her a worried look. "I ehh, I'm here with Sasuke and we hadn't seen you in a while so-" "Just say it Naruto, I'm in no mood to play guess right now." Not that she ever was nowadays.

Naruto shook his head and took a step closer. "We're worried about you, Sakura. I mean, we knew that you'd been taking a lot of missions lately, but this is getting crazy. You're never in the village for more than a couple of hours and you've been taking the hardest missions of all. Are you even sleeping at all?"

She took another swig of the sake bottle and gave him a faint smile. "I'm fine."

"But-"

Her eyes hardened. "I said I'm fine. Now leave me alone." she gazed at something behind him. "And tell Sasuke that he can't stop me from going on missions. He's not my father,' she turned back to him, "and neither are you, so get off my back." Naruto flinched at the words and started backing away. "Alright... just... take care okay?"

Sakura nodded absentmindedly and turned back to the counter, while taking another swig of sake. A movement on her right made her groan. "Alright Kakashi, spit it out." she turned her head and looked straight into a familiar eye crease.

"Spit what out?"

She shot him annoyed glare, obviously telling him that she wasn't into his games right now. If anything, she definitely wasn't into being interrogated by her ex-sensei, so she got up and threw some money on the counter. When she was about to walk away a firm hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. Sakura let out a surprised gasp as Kakashi started walking and pulled her with him.

"Kakashi, what the hell?! Let go of me!" But no matter how hard she tried to pry his fingers of, he didn't budge. After a while she gave up and let him lead her to wherever he was planning to go. She was both surprised and angry when he stopped in front of the ninja memorial stone. "Why did yo-" "You're not the only one who has lost someone, Sakura." Her eyes widened.

Kakashi finally let go of her wrist and turned to her. "I know what you're going through, but throwing yourself into dangerous missions isn't going to work. It won't resolve anything, trust me, I've tried."

Sakura just stared at him, her eyes wide from surprise. From everybody she knew, Kakashi was with no doubt the last she'd expect this from. She knew that he'd lost a lot of people, but he'd never been the one to open up to her about anything, let's stand about something personal.

A loud rumble sounded and Sakura looked up. Dark grey thunder clouds floated toward her, it was going to rain. She exchanged looks between Kakashi and the memorial stone. She wanted to run and never look back, the whole situation made her more than uncomfortable, but she knew that Kakashi wouldn't let her go until he'd get what he wanted. "Alright fine. You want me to stop taking those missions? I'll stop."

He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. "It's not about the missions, Sakura. You're acting like all of this is a game to you. Are you really just going to throw your life away like this? Do you really think that your parents would've wanted that?"

Sakura's eyes widened again. Kakashi's words had hit something in her that she didn't even know she had. Tears threatened to spill out and without thinking she closed her eyes, swung her arm back and stroke forward with everything she had. But she didn't even come close to hitting him, he avoided it with ease, grabbed her extended arm and pulled her forward. Sakura let out a yelp as she landed with her back onto the ground, immediately followed by a heavy weight settling on her stomach.

Kakashi was straddling her with his legs so she couldn't get back up and held both of her arms with his own, she was fully pinned to the ground. His face got closer and for a second she was afraid that he was going to do something with his sharingan, but he just stared at her with a disapproving look.
"You might be in ANBU, but you're in no condition to take me on."

Sakura struggled to push him off, but to no avail. "Get off of me!"

"Not until you stop acting like nothing happened."

Her eyes hardened. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

His fingers squeezed harder around her wrists and she let out a grunt. "You're hurting me, Kakashi."

"Have you any idea how hard it is for Naruto to see you like this? For all of us?"

She desperately tried to push him off now. She couldn't break down, not in front of him. She'd rather die than let that happen. "I don't care! Just let..!" The rest of her words were lost in the hard sound of thunder above her, she could already feel a couple of raindrops on her legs.

"That's not what you really mean and you know it! Stop trying to fool me, Sakura. I'm not going to let you make the same mistakes that I did."

The rain started to fall down faster every second and it took only a couple of minutes to soak both ninja through the bone. Sakura stared at the face above her and suddenly couldn't hold it anymore. With a choking sob she gave up on trying to keep her tears at bay and let it all out. For weeks she'd tried to be strong and had pushed her real feelings back, but nothing seemed to matter anymore now. It was then that Sakura Haruno finally broke down.

Kakashi's eyes widened from surprise and he loosened his hold on her wrists. "Sakura..."

Her whole body trembled from the sobs she let out and even though the rain was fully coming down now, the silver haired ninja could see the tears running down her face.

With a heavy heart he pulled her to him and closed his arms around her. Only now he realized how broken she really was.