Author's notes: Gomen for not uploading soon enough, I had so much stuff to do including school work and I wasn't able to update the next chapter when I thought. But anyway, I'm here now and I have the next chapter grins widely . I have to be honest with you though; most of the time I was working on my chapters so I'd get a head start, but don't hurt me covers face . But yeah, I have Chapter Sixteen up now and we are certainly getting deeper into the plot . Hope you enjoy and review after XD.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: MEMORIES

Sakura thought about the many things Naruto had told her before her thoughts led to Kakashi in person. This strange friendship they had as former student and teacher was getting creepy, but that didn't mean Sakura wasn't enjoying the care she got from the older Jounin. In truth, Sakura enjoyed being with Kakashi more than anyone else she had ever met in her life. Sasuke was just a childhood crush, who always crushed Sakura's heart in her affectionate ways of caring for him. Kakashi on the other hand seemed to care for Sakura, as well as keep himself under control without scaring the medic in his aloof manner.

Sakura had never really expected someone like Kakashi to step into her life, and only now was she truly realising the fact that she was growing feelings for the Jounin, even thought she didn't want to admit that to him. It scared her in a way because she was his former student and fourteen years her senior.

Pushing those thoughts aside for now, Sakura was completely unaware of where Kitsune was taking her, but wherever it would be, Sakura trusted Kitsune in leading her in the right direction.

Sakura was starting to get tired, and so was Kitsune, but neither of them signalled to stop nor did they even express their weary state; instead, they steadily jumped to another branch and kept going.

Kitsune meowed loudly to Sakura, letting her know that they were close to something. Sakura could sense a faint level of chakra up ahead and she knew it had to be Kakashi and Kuro.

Kitsune slowed down on her paces, causing Sakura to do the same. There, ahead of Sakura and Kitsune was a decent landing area; most likely manmade, meaning there must be something special about this place Sakura was now in.

The boards looked like they were taken from the forest itself to make this. It was a long walkway and Kitsune was well ahead of her in leading Sakura to where she was to be taken, "wait for me Kitsune," she shouted, running after the little brown fox. The long trail Sakura was following was almost endless; she could sense chakra flow up ahead but she wasn't completely sure who it was exactly.

Another meow to the pink haired medic, Kitsune hopped up in enthusiasm; that counted for something. Sakura didn't want to yip around like Kitsune until she was sure she had found Kakashi and Kuro.

The path bent within the trees, making Sakura feel her stomach fill up with butterflies. Kitsune and Sakura decided to pick up the pace and sped up using the remainder of their chakra until they saw a shadowed figure heading their way.

It was true; Kitsune was well ahead of Sakura and had already met up with a black shade almost the same size as she was. Sakura gazed at the brown fox greeting the other before her eyes met up with the man who owned that particular animal. The man's silver hair gleamed in the moonlight, causing Sakura to heave a sigh of relief.

"Kakashi," Sakura muttered, completely relieved that they finally found each other.

Sakura sighed again and walked closer to the older Jounin, smiling tiredly but happily. She eased closer to the tall silver haired man and gave him a gentle hug, "I thought I'd never find you," she stated, tightening her grip on the back of Kakashi's baggy navy blue shirt.

"Same here," he replied almost absentmindedly, slowly letting his arms relax around the medic.

At the Jounins' feet, Kitsune and Kuro were purring again, greeting each other in their natural ways. Kitsune eyed the black fox before her, before giving him a lick on the face and meowing sweetly. Kuro was a bit stunned by the brown fox's sudden actions towards him, but happily accepted the lick on the face as a complimented greeting.

Sakura couldn't help but smile in the man's arms; she knew she was safe now and she felt that she would never leave his side. At the time, Sakura had let it slip her mind that she still had a cut on her shoulder, caused by Kakashi's careless attacks. She let Kakashi go to observe her injury a little more, but Kakashi beat her to it, "how did you get this cut on your arm?" he asked, running his thumb softly around the cut.

Sakura looked off to the side, "you did that during our battle, remember?" she reminded the man of what he had done, making Kakashi's eyes widen in disbelief.

"I did that to you?" Kakashi couldn't remember ever hurting Sakura, until now.

"Yeah, but it wasn't your fault; I just wasn't quick enough to dodge those knives," Sakura assured the silver haired man that it wasn't something Sakura would be so worked up about.

"But still, I feel bad for hurting one of my former students…" Kakashi trailed off.

Sakura sighed again for the nth time, "Kakashi, don't worry about it, it's just a small cut," she said, patting the older Jounin on the arm.

That didn't make Kakashi feel better at all, but he decided to let the matter drop, before saying, "Sakura-chan, why didn't you heal it before you made your way here?" he tilted his head to the side to examine the cut.

Sakura grunted softly and rolled her eyes, "I don't have enough chakra to do that," apprehensively, Sakura brought her hands up her arms, feeling slightly cold after such a hot day outside and then running through the forest with cuts all over her limbs and face.

Noticing Sakura was almost shivering now, Kakashi wrapped his arm around the medic and grinned. He looked to his left to find a massive statue of a familiar person, "have you seen this yet?" Kakashi pointed at the tall statue, standing on top of a stone with a plaque on it.

Sakura gaped at the tall figure and remembered who the person was, "it's the First Hokage?" she said in awe, mouth agape and stared at the statue.

"Exactly, this place was where he was born and grew up in until he met Uchiha Madara and travelled all over until he became the founder of Konoha," Kakashi explained, his arm still around Sakura.

Kakashi brought his arms back to himself and stuffed his hands in his pockets, slowly making his way to the statue to read the text on the sign below, "In honour of a great Shinobi, our hero and friend; now Shodaime of the Leaf, who gave the Hidden Tree Village a new meaning in nobility and pride…" he said, obviously reading what the sign had written on it.

Sakura walked towards Kakashi and the tall monument, kneeling down in front of the sign to read it with her own eyes, "Shodaime Hokage, the Mokuton user and a wise Shinobi. He himself was the one who could tame the Nine Tailed Beast with his powers to suppress the tailed beast's chakra," Sakura read the last part of the statement and grinned.

"Kyuubi no Youko…" Kakashi mumbled, thinking back nineteen years ago when the Kyuubi attacked the village.

"I heard a few stories about his teammate…" Kakashi stopped mid-sentenced to see what Sakura would say about a story.

Sakura turned to face Kakashi, who was looking up at the statue of the First Hokage, "stories?" Sakura mentioned, raising an eyebrow with an eager smirk on her tired face.

Kakashi chuckled to himself, "I thought you'd be interested to listen," he stated, looking down at the ground momentarily and looking up again, "it's kind of a long story, but I'll make it a bit shorter for you," he advised, crossing his arms over his chest. Sakura remained completely silent as Kakashi cleared his throat to speak.

"It all happened about fifty years ago when Shodai-sama and Uchiha Madara were travelling together as a two man team. Madara was a very unrelenting and pretentious; he always competed to get better and become stronger than Shodaime, but the First was indeed stronger."

"During their journey, Shodai-sama and Madara discovered a very small town where the people who inhabited it lived in poverty and bad guys roamed the place. Shodai-sama was the first to step in the problem of the village by knocking out a man who was harassing a young lady. After that, he became a hero in saving the town in many situations like robberies and assassinations," Kakashi paused for a moment to catch his breath.

Sakura listened intently, "eventually the village became safer to live in and it thrived, with Shodai-sama becoming the Hokage and thus Konoha came to be. After you and Naruto became Jounin, I did some research in my spare time to learn more about the village past and I found out a very tragic truth behind most of the trouble that had been caused in the past twenty years," Kakashi paused again.

"Well, what happened?" Sakura looked so naïve with her look of curiosity.

Kakashi raised his hands to keep Sakura quiet and continued, "when my sensei, Yondaime was Hokage, there was an attack on the village. It was at the time when Yondaime's wife was pregnant and the village needed him dearly to fight off the Nine Tailed Fox when it appeared out of nowhere. It turned out that Madara had despised the village because of Shodai-sama so much that he called upon the Kyuubi and sent it to destroy the village," Kakashi nodded to himself, though trying not to prove that he had actually studied all of this.

Sakura's eyes widened, saying, "so, if Shodaime and Madara never met, then the Kyuubi would never have attacked the village and Naruto wouldn't have the Kyuubi sealed in him and Yondaime would never have died," Kakashi nodded again, "precisely," Sakura frowned deeply, causing Kakashi to sigh.

"That means, if Naruto never had the Kyuubi inside of him, he would be totally different to what he was really like because he'd be the same as everybody else," Sakura looked off to the side while rubbing her arms nervously, "not to mention he probably never would've met Jiraiya and he most likely would've been one of the smartest students at the academy,"

Kakashi sighed again, "but it did happen, and to be perfectly honest with you, I don't think Naruto would've lived when we fought Zabuza in our first real mission if he didn't have the Nine Tailed chakra in him," he chuckled to himself and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Sakura was still frowning, not getting the humour out of it at all. Thinking about it, Sakura had Naruto on her mind since Kakashi was telling her the story about the birth of Konoha, and it was starting to bother her quite a bit now.

Kakashi noticed the sadness growing on the medic and chuckled again, placing his hand on top of the medic's head, "you look like such a mess," Kakashi changed the subject, pointing out the obvious at Sakura's scruffy state. Sakura didn't want Kakashi to bring up this part of the conversation and certainly didn't want him to detail it either.

"Thanks for pointing that out," Sakura pouted in irritation.

Kakashi laughed quietly and ruffled the medic's pink hair childishly. Sakura groaned in frustration and whacked his hand from her head, "I hate it when you do that," she muttered, folding her arms across her chest in almost pure annoyance.

"I know, that's why I do it," Kakashi chuckled again, an obvious grin under that mask covering the greater portion of his face.

Sakura grunted tediously, a clear sign of disinterest, "you're so gullible," Kakashi chuckled, doing the same actions again just to rub it in teasingly.

"I'm being serious, Kakashi," Sakura protested, swatting his hand away again, a clear sign that she wasn't in the mood anymore to be toyed with.

Kakashi sighed, gazing down at his former student, noting she was now rather upset about something, "you know I was only teasing you, right?" Kakashi tried, hoping that would cheer up the saddened medic, but alas his attempts failed him. Sakura shot him a serious and miserable glare, "that's not it. It's just something that's been bothering me for a while now," almost sniffing in misery, Sakura stared at the ground where her feet stood.

Kakashi stared in sympathy and moved his hands from the Kunoichi's head, "then what is it that's caused you to suddenly frown?" he asked, frowning himself at what he thought could be upsetting the medic so.

Sakura didn't answer, instead she thought back to her dreams and the moment when it happened between her and Naruto. Kakashi tilted his head askew, trying to figure out how he managed to teach someone such as Sakura.

For the life of him, Kakashi couldn't understand how everything affected Sakura in such a way through this whole mission. Kakashi opened his mouth to say something to the sad medic but she beat him to it.

"I can't stop thinking about Naruto," she began, "everyday, I wake up, feeling as though someone had stabbed me in the chest and right after that, Naruto's death swims around in my head," she sobbed silently, trying to hide her fear and depression.

Kakashi sighed, 'another breakdown,' he thought, wishing there was some way to cheer her up without rubbing in her face.

"Sakura…" Kakashi shifted his weight to his other foot and watched Sakura cry again.

No response.

Kakashi notices Sakura shaking. Was it her grief that was causing this, or was it fear of her loss? "Sakura-chan, please, stop crying," Kakashi's voice almost sounded desperate as he stared at the sobbing Kunoichi.

Sakura ceased her snivelling and looked up at the older Jounin. She was still shaking, and Sakura was trying to figure out herself why she was doing so. Kakashi placed his hands on the medic's shoulders and raised an eyebrow, "crying isn't going to take back the loss of a friend, you should know that. And besides, you're stronger than that," Kakashi hoped that would work.

Sakura was still quivering, so as a last resort sort of thing, Kakashi pulled Sakura closer to him and hugged her. Without even thinking about it, Sakura was totally relaxed - though the trembling continued, she wrapped her arms around the Copy Ninja.

Sakura sighed, feeling so comfortable in the Jounin's arms. It finally clicked, Kakashi chuckled lightly, "were you cold?" he asked teasingly. Sakura huffed, "just a little bit, it must be because it was so hot today that I didn't think about how cold it would get the second the sun was gone," she mumbled, rubbing the side of her face into Kakashi's shirt.

Sensing this was probably longer than necessary, Kakashi reluctantly tried to pull Sakura from him but Sakura squeezed, pulling herself closer to him and not letting go at all, "uhh, are you going to let me go any time soon?" Kakashi wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"No…you're warm," Sakura's face flushed a light shade of red as she snuggled into the man's shirt.

Kakashi's arms relaxed and slid them down almost absentmindedly to the medic's waist, watching Sakura's reaction. Sakura felt Kakashi's hands tenderly on her waist and felt everything on the back of her neck stand. Now Sakura didn't feel the cold anymore, instead she felt the warmth of Kakashi's body keeping her nice and cosy.

Sakura hummed breathlessly, wanting to hold onto him forever, but knew this situation wouldn't last long and end soon, such as now. Sakura frowned again, thinking about Sasuke and whether or not he would ever find her.

Kakashi felt the worry within the medic and sighed. Sakura finally loosened her grip around her former sensei and looked up at him and grinned. She noticed Kakashi's serious glare in his mismatched eyes, gulping nervously as Kakashi's face came closer to hers.

"Kakashi…" Sakura felt his hot breath on her reddening face, sending chills down her spine.

Kakashi moved one hand from the medic's waist and brought it up to Sakura's face, running his fingers along her cheek and moving the pink hair from her now flushed face. Sakura stared in utter surprise, not moving an inch but trying to establish what Kakashi was exactly doing to her.

Kakashi moved closer to Sakura until their faces were only a mere inch apart. Before Kakashi could do anything further to make Sakura feel more awkward and disturbed inside, he shut his eyes tight, sighing softly and letting Sakura go, "I can't. I just can't," he muttered, rubbing his temples guiltily.

Sakura's face turned a new shade of darker red as she stared at Kakashi, who, not to Sakura's surprise, was not making any eye contact whatsoever. Kakashi cursed, saying something Sakura couldn't hear but was sure he was blaming himself for whatever it was.

Sakura quickly shook her head, ridding her mind from inappropriate images that were starting to linger around in her imagination. Kakashi stood aimlessly in front of the monument and sighed again, "sorry…" he uttered calmly, rubbing his arm.

Kuro and Kitsune exchanged glances as they watched their masters react strangely to their own actions. Sakura stretched out her arms and yawned tiredly, "we'd better head back to the village before it gets really cold," Kakashi glanced over his shoulder to find Sakura ready to grab Kitsune and walk off, "wait," he stated firmly, facing his entire body towards Sakura now.

"Huh?" Sakura muttered, finally able to make eye contact with the older Jounin.

"It's already late and by the time we find the village, we'd be too tired to travel tomorrow. Besides, we're both pretty tired already so maybe we should just stay here for the night,"

Sakura looked uncertain for a moment before sleep started to get the better of her, "okay then," she put Kitsune on the ground and walked over to Kakashi, a faint blush still tainted on her cheeks.

The two made their way behind the memorial statue and found a nice part of a tree to sleep under til morning. Sakura plopped herself down with a huff and yawned again, leaning back on the large tree and sighed. Kakashi joined her and sat next to the Kunoichi and rubbed his eyes jadedly, "oh yeah, I almost forgot," Sakura started, not so tired anymore. Hastily, Sakura untied the black forehead protector from around her neck and handed it to the Copy Ninja sitting next to her.

"Here; I had this with me since the battle and since I found you, I never got the chance to actually return it to you," Sakura said, holding the headband up for Kakashi to take.

Kakashi blinked, staring strangely at his own headgear and sighed, "thanks," he grabbed his forehead protector and tied it roughly around his neck and let it hang there for the night.

Kakashi stared up at the dark sky where the moon was the only thing to light up the already dark forest. With the moonlight shining through the trees, Kakashi realised he hadn't been able to sleep for the past hour already. Kakashi would read his trusted orange book, but the one problem was he didn't take it with him for the sparring session he and Sakura had, and had left it in his bag so it wouldn't get damaged.

Sighing audibly and quietly to himself, he heard Sakura moaning softly. Looking to his left, he noticed Sakura tossing and turning, trying to get in a better sleeping position. Barely able to realise what he was doing, Kakashi reached over to the pink haired medic and placed his arms around her and slowly pulled her towards him.

Without hesitation Sakura moaned again, leaning almost her entire body against Kakashi's and sighing softly as she relaxed herself. Kakashi held his breath for only a second before allowing himself to breathe normally again. Slowly and gently, Kakashi slid down to almost a resting position and let Sakura sleep on him. Kakashi looked up at the starlit sky one last time before letting sleep consume his movements and taking him to dreamland.

Sakura felt the warmth on her face and lower body; she didn't want to wake up just yet but opened her eyes to tiny slits to check what was keeping her warm. Blinking a few times, Sakura's eyes were wide open now and she realised it was the sunlight heating up he legs, but she couldn't under stand how everything else felt so cosy, especially on her waist.

Shifting her gaze, Sakura saw a certain hand on her waist rested peacefully there without any movements. Sakura felt her face flush a little at the sight before moving her position a little. She glanced up from her resting position and watched Kakashi's peaceful look on his masked face.

Sakura wondered why she was lying like this, but right now it didn't really matter; she personally enjoyed where she was at the moment and lay back down. Sakura listened to Kakashi's steady heartbeat as he slept, feeling his chest rise and fall during every breath.

Kakashi took a deep breath and sighed, finally opening his eyes after sensing Sakura was already awake. Taking the time to observe his surroundings, Kakashi felt Sakura's hand move across his stomach. This almost felt like something that happened that day before.

A thought came to mind, Kakashi decided to pretend that he was still asleep. Sighing again, he lazily moved the hand that was on Sakura's waist around to her back, making Sakura flinch at the touch.

Slowly, Kakashi moved his hand back to her waist and left it there. Curious, Sakura lifted her head to find Kakashi still sleeping, or at least that's what she thought. Thank Kami for masks; Kakashi couldn't help but grin, but not wide enough for Sakura to notice he was faking the whole time.

Sakura shifted a suspicious glare at the Copy Nin and lay back down. As soon as she was relaxed again, Kakashi continued; moving his hand along Sakura's waist again. Instantly Sakura reacted; she lifted her head and glared at the sleeping Jounin, though not so convinced that he was really asleep. Giving him one last chance, Sakura lay back down, sighing again before feeling Kakashi's hand move up this time and leaving her waist. Before Sakura would sit up and glare at Kakashi some more, Kakashi began to chuckle lightly.

"You are so easy to trick," Kakashi muttered, stretching out his arms and taking a deep breath to wake up properly.

Author's notes: Yeah I just had to make a fluff scene with these two; I just couldn't resist the urge to do so. The last part I think was a pretty random way to wake up. Hehehe, I do apologise about the random bits that come in from time to time. BUT, while I was writing up with chapter, I was thinking how much I was leaving out Kitsune and Kuro in the story, so I decided to make them the number one attention in the next chapter (sorry about the spoiler in that case). Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for reviewing constantly and please do it again .