Author's Notes: And the last chapter. Once again, the same rules apply, just leave whichever story you prefer in the reviews section. I will try to PM everyone who reviews when I tally the votes to inform them of the chosen chapter.

Letters from Mae

"Naruto… I don't think this is such a good idea…"

Even though Sakura knew there was no-one around, she kept her voice to a bare minimum as her blonde cohort casually picked open the lock on one of the windows. It had been a bare five months since he came home from training with Jiraiya, and since then she began to realise just how much he learned while away. Picking locks was one of them.

"C'mon Sakura," his tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth when the latch finally clicked open to their sensei's apartment, "Kakashi never tells us anything about himself, and I am not using the same trick on him twice trying to catch a fucking bell again. We need some leverage!"

While it was true, the only reason she agreed to helping him break into their ex-sensei's apartment was merely to satiate her own curiosity. Even between her training with Tsunade and her studies, she still saw Kakashi on a regular basis for some missions here and there, or even for coffee, and yet still she knew pretty much nothing other than his name. His medical file was far less personal than she wanted it to be; at some point in his late teens he was ordered to go on anti-depressants and one injury he sustained resulted in a flail-chest which nearly ended his existence there and then, but there was no hows and whys and whats.

Some traps here and there managed to slow them down, Naruto's right leg was tarred and feathered in a hilarious incident when trying to get through the window, but once inside, she couldn't help but think, despite the traps-

... Kakashi's apartment was rather homely, from the squishy, beaten old couch to the well used counters in the kitchen, everything looked purposeful and undeniably welcoming. Several bookcases full to bursting stood proudly behind a modest T.V., and in front of that a coffee table littered with a bottle weapon-grease, an old cloth, and variously sized kunai.

Naruto didn't waste a second darting around the small space, searching through the refrigerator (which Sakura had to pull him from, knowing from his drooling alone what was about to happen), all the cupboards and then eventually the bookcases.

"Hey…" the blonde straightened up, pulling up a picture frame with him and showing it to the kunoichi, "who do you think this is?"

The picture was of a rather handsome man, if in at least his forties, smiling knowingly as if he just caught the camera-man trying to sneakily take his picture. By his silver hair and the cut of his jaw, she presumed he was some sort of relation, if not probably Kakashi's father.

"A relation, maybe?" She turned the picture over, "There's no name on it."

Finally abandoning the restraint she was showing, Sakura began to rifle through the extensive list of books their sensei kept; from battered looking justu manuals, training diagrams, and then strangely enough; fantasy novels. And not the kind he was so frequently seen with either.

"So, sensei," she picked out a book labelled Eve of Kahnard, "you're a fan of sword and sorcery, eh?"

"Jeeze, Kakashi-sensei reads a lot, doesn't he?" The male to her right piped up, running his fingers across some dusty looking scrolls to reveal the text.

She couldn't help but snort when she found some comics hidden in between a collection of encyclopaedia; at least he was still young at heart, or presumably a fan of the modern arts if the rest of the collection was anything to go by.

"Holy crap! Jackpot!"

The kunoichi balked when she realised that the "jackpot" was actually Kakashi's mail; her face paled when the ninja plonked himself down onto the couch and opened the letter deftly in both hands.

"Naruto, those are Kakashi-sensei's letters! You can't read those!"

"And why not?" He looked innocently over the top of the parchment.

"Because, that's a total violation of his privacy!"

The blonde blew a raspberry, "Sakura-chan, we just broke into his apartment," when his eyes reappeared over the top of the paper, he wiggled his brows suggestively, "and besides, this letter is from a gir-irl!"

"What?" Any care at that point for her sensei's privacy vanished without a trace as she snatched the letter out of the boy's hands and snarled, "Gimme that!"

Sakura never had any siblings, but sometimes she almost felt as though Kakashi was her rather strange older brother, and a fierce sense of protectiveness suddenly overcame her as inner-Sakura yelled; "A girl? She'd better be amazing!"

Kakashi,

My sister is having a baby! She told me over coffee the other day, and I haven't been able to get over it since. Poor thing, she's had terrible trouble trying to get pregnant for the past few years, but it looks like it's finally happening! I just hope everything goes well this time, it's been three months already and that's longer than any pregnancy she's had so far, so keep her in your thoughts for me.

I can't say much but I should be around the area soon, I'll explain when I get there. I'm really glad to hear your prodigal student has returned! I know you were worried, but if he's as strong as you say he is, then you must have known he would be safe all along, wouldn't you?

Take care,

Mae

"… Mae?" She looked up from the letter to see Naruto grinning like a maniac, "who's Mae? Did Kakashi ever mention her before?"

"It's totally his girlfriend," he stuck his tongue out at her, and Sakura twitched at the words. As much as she cared about Kakashi, she couldn't – could absolutely not – see him in any sexual way at all and picturing him with a woman (mystery woman or no) didn't make sense in her mind.

M-a-e could be initials for something, she thought as she turned the page over, ignoring how annoyingly neat and pretty the handwriting was when she tried to imagine that it could very well be a letter from a male friend. The printed date on the envelope dated back two weeks; she wondered if he wrote anything back yet.

"Hey," the taller male pulled open a drawer underneath the coffee table, "I think I found more."

And sure enough, haphazardly thrown into the small drawer were more of the same letters, all signed with the strange signature of Mae.

Kakashi,

I read the book you recommended, but I thought it was really convoluted in comparison to her last work, don't you think? I was happy just knowing she only wrote one to be honest. Oh well.

Anyway, I know you asked me for that book but I haven't been able to find it anywhere! Tsuoa in the store told me that they might have a few copies left in Rock country, if you know anyone there, it could be worth a try-

Kakashi,

I know you probably don't feel it but it certainly sounds like you're having fun! I'm so jealous; I would love to have students of my own to teach, just like Yura-sensei taught us how to dance. You should send me a picture of them-

Kakashi,

Don't worry about your handwriting, luckily for me I can speak fluent scribbles!

You know, if that's how you really feel, why don't you just tell him that the constant challenging is getting on your nerves? Or even give him some ground rules, like not waking you up at four in the morning to see who can run the fastest lap around the falls-

Sakura stifled a laugh, knowing that Kakashi was probably complaining about Gai in his previous letter. Naruto tapped her on the shoulder and passed her a letter that was all crinkled and worn; some of the ink was smudged with what looked like water damage.

"I think you should read this, Sakura-chan," he said, his eyes solemn.

Kakashi-san,

I know exactly how you feel.

It's the easiest thing in the world to blame ourselves, especially in times of a tragedy, because when we blame ourselves we can never be wrong, not like blaming others. It's so easy to take the burden, easy to carry it around because letting it go feels like you're denying it ever happened, like you're not even acknowledging its existence.

It's like carrying a big rock around, it just gets heavier and heavier the more you have it on your back. But can you imagine how good it would feel if you just put it down, can you imagine the relief if you just let it go?

I know you don't let it eat you up inside, I know you don't let it affect you all the time, and I'm so proud that you're so together even when things fall apart on you. But sometimes, we remember that we're still carrying this big weight around and it hits us just how heavy it is. It's called trauma; and hey we all have it, we all go through it, us kids of war. I used to have panic attacks before I eventually learned to let go and stop blaming myself.

It's not your fault Kakashi, I know how easy it is to shoulder the blame, but it just get's harder! You were so young, they put you in that situation knowing how young you were. You weren't ready, so please know it wasn't your fault.

As good as you were at that age, Kakashi, you couldn't have predicted the future.

Please take care, and stay safe,

- Mae

The letter looked far more used than the rest, with the rings of coffee stains on the top right corner, the crinkles, the yellowing of the page, and the small rips here and there. She understood why; he probably re-read it over and over, and suddenly she felt very ill.

"… This was totally wrong of us, Naruto,"

"Yeah," he replied dejectedly, shoving his hands into his pockets while Sakura neatly folded the letter and put it back in its rightful place, "let's get out of here."

"You're going to need to put everything back properly then," a gruff voice from behind stopped them dead in their tracks, and Sakura nearly fainted on the spot when they both whipped around to see Pakkun sitting lazily in the doorframe to Kakashi's bedroom.

"You know," he yawned widely, "I didn't say anything cuz I thought Kakashi-sama sent you two here to get something… I don't think he'll be too happy with you two snooping around his stuff."

Naruto dropped to his knees and bowed furiously, "Please, please don't tell him oh noble war-hound! He'll kill us, please don't rat us out, we're totally sorry!"

"Noble war-hound?" The dog sniggered, "Hey, if you say so. I'm not gonna tell him, but you're not the first to try you know. Though if he see's you've been tarred and feathered, he will come to the obvious conclusion…"

"You really won't tell him?" Sakura asked as Naruto desperately tried to remove the sticky black substance from his right pant's leg.

"Nah," the pug shrugged, "I'll put everything back the way it was. Just don't do anything like that again, okay? Kakashi-sama has his reasons for being secretive."

Naruto scooped up the dog into a bone-crushing hug, much to the animal's protest who was yelling gerroffame, "You're so awesome Pakkun! I'm buyin' you a steak the next time I see you!"

The dog perked up somewhat after that, and Sakura knew deep down he would never let Naruto get away with the promise of fresh red meat. After rushing Naruto back to his bed-sit for a change of clothes, they both agreed on buying their ex-sensei some lunch, both of them guiltily shifting around, not really knowing what to say.

She supposed, after some serious thinking, she never really saw Kakashi... sad. Or upset. Or joyful. Or even angry.

She'd seen him irritated, she'd even seen him mildly annoyed but she'd never seen him have a breakdown or lose the plot before. He was a little scary when he yelled, but it never lasted long, she'd never seen him cry and very rarely heard him laugh out loud. He always seemed so together and calm... so what was that letter about?

"For me?" Kakashi raised his visible brow when Naruto pushed the bowl of ramen towards him at Ichiraku's, "... Why do I get the feeling there's an ulterior motive here?"

"No motive," Naruto said sincerely through his food, "we just wanted to do something nice."

Sakura could tell by Naruto's eyes alone that something about his view of Kakashi was altered, and she would be lying if she said she didn't feel the same. As the older male sat down beside Naruto with suspicion in his frame, Sakura guiltily eyed him over Naruto's chopsticks.

Maybe she never really viewed him as a person before, as dependable and strong as he was he didn't show much emotion and it was very easy to forget he was just as human as everyone else. But now... sitting across the bar from her... Sakura started to feel a little sorry for him. She never took the time to ask him how he felt or how his day was going, and he never really bothered to tell anyone. He was fiddling with his chopsticks, stirring the soup around absentmindedly and staring off into space.

... What is he thinking?

But this person – this Mae – obviously knew something about Kakashi and tried to comfort him, through letters. Perhaps it was better that way, maybe he didn't want to have to look people in the eye when pouring out his secrets and worries. But...

There was so much she didn't know, she never bothered to ask or try to find out and it frightened her to know-

To know that she wasn't really there if Kakashi needed someone to lean on.

Summary: This story comes from many people's views. Usually when I write I like to follow one specific person or switch between two but here it is broken up to give many perspectives. Mae, my OC, is very like Kakashi in a way, but alot more expressive. She is another Ninja from Cloud, who also wears a nylon mask and teamed up with Kakashi on a related mission some years ago. They developed a raport and kept in touch through letters, which Kakashi keeps out of sentimentality.

I originally came up with this idea when thinking about Sakura and Naruto trying to think of a reason WHY Kakashi wears a mask and this character, who also wears a similar mask, popped out of no-where to explain it to them. So I ran with it, as you do :3

This story will also earn its M rating as it touches on alot of adult themes, such as prostiution, rape and molestation, desire and obviously sexual situations. One of my side-themes is actually about Sakura starting to hit puberty, and looking at men in a different light, different than she would have viewed Sasuke for example. Mae is here to help her learn about desire and sex, but is also a source of jealousy as Sakura develops a crush on her ex-sensei. I wanted to bring up the issue of the very poor sex-education that I have experienced through my school-years and how it doesn't really teach teens anything about a healthy sexuality so they start to experiment, thus my plot-bunny with Sakura. PLEASE bear in mind, none of this will be Sakura-bashing. I happen to like her character and using her as a plot tool really helped bring this story to life.

Mae is a Ninja, not nessecarily a very powerful one but she can certainly hold her own. Her main plot is that while Kakashi thinks he knows her, her brief stay in Konoha helps him find out things he may have not wanted to hear and most of the time he becomes more and more attached to her. Mae isn't very sexual; it may be her station as a Ninja but she tries to keep her work and her socialising seperate, and her views on sex and longing are very warped and eventually become very frightening. Kakashi is there to help her fill in the gaps and enjoy sex when she would have looked on it with dread.

Most of this plot-wise is to do with emotions and thought-processes between Kakashi, Mae, Sakura, Naruto and some random cameos here and there to give an outsider's perspective.