Note: Set about 10 years in the future from the current timeline. I do not own Naruto.
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"So what was he like?" she said. "I mean Obito."
Kakashi was on his back, half-dozing as her hand traced lazy circles on the scar-decorated skin of his abdomen. He opened his normal eye, and saw Sakura was laying on her stomach in the darkness, looking up out the open window at the clear night sky. The breeze brought with it the scent of treated wood, and the dango shop down the block, mingling with that of their sweat.
He had been waiting for this question, among others, since the first time that her eyes had slid across the picture next to their own on the window ledge, years ago. At that point she'd been a mere girl with a good handle on her basic skills and he'd been more concerned with the two troublesome boys.
His concerns were very different now.
The other two had asked long ago, almost immediately after seeing the image of his younger days. No, he hadn't always had the Sharingan. Yes, Obito was really the one who gave him the eye. Yes, he was dead. No, the girl wasn't his girlfriend, she was gone too, along with the Yondaime in the Kyuubi attack. And then he'd find a way to change the subject.
"Mmm. I don't know how I feel about you asking about another man while you've got me like this."
Sakura laughed. "Well it is true that dead men can't talk back." Seeing her expression in the faint light, he was very tempted to pounce on her, to try and make her forget she had asked. Instead, he turned on his side to regard her more seriously.
"If I tell you, you're going to regret you ever mentioned it," he said.
"Why?" She turned over to face him, the cover slipping down her back.
Something about the way the moonlight was thrown across her form, made him regret he'd led her into another question. He started sliding his palm softly over her belly, up between her small breasts, to cup one of them, thumbing her nipple. "Because I get to ask you an exceptionally personal question in return," he said leaning closer, teasing her with a kiss near her ear, and grinning with wicked intent. She couldn't very well kick him out of his own bed.
"Okay, fair's fair. I don't have anything to hide," she said petulant, shivering as he withdrew his hand.
He chuckled, "Well then, let me think," he said, trying to think of the most abbreviated way to explain the complicated relationship he'd had with his dead teammate. "My first impression of him was that he was an idiot, a crybaby, weak and completely spoiled. For a long time, I hated him. He still had his family, while I only had a grandmother and a couple of dogs. I thought he was careless of the laws of the shinobi, while I felt I had to be perfect. We didn't understand each other at all. Obito probably said it best, the two of us were like oil and water, almost up to the end."
"So what changed?" she said, listening intently, idly rubbing the top of one of his feet with her toes.
"On the last mission we were on together, things came to a head between us. He said some things that made me question all that I had done up to that point. I was put in a situation where as team leader I had to make a difficult choice. Obito disagreed with my choice, and in that case he was right. My blunder cost me an eye, and him his existence." Kakashi paused. He hadn't really answered her question had he? "Truly, he was brave and kind and strong. By the time we understood each other, had I lost him."
Her face was sympathetic, but not pitying. They both had lost many people important to them over the years. She just had the luck to be born after the last great war. "So sad... Thank you for telling me," she said.
Oddly, it didn't hurt as much as it used to. More than twenty years had passed. "Alright, it's my turn then," Kakashi said. He hoped she wouldn't get angry with him, but she had said 'fair's fair'.
She wriggled against him pleasantly, "I can't imagine what you don't already know about me."
Chewing on his lip for a second, he considered how to put it to her. "Why me?" he said.
"What do you mean?" she said, frowning.
"You heard me. Why me over all those other talented, younger, slightly less screwed-up guys?"
Sakura settled in a bit, throwing her hair back over her shoulder, and sunk back next to him, propped on an elbow. "I'm not sure how I can-"
Kakashi shrugged, "I can wait until you figure it out. I've got all night." He ran his hand down her side,
She made a pained face. "I just-" Sakura paused and a little mewling noise escaped from her throat. "Well, I guess it's because of Sasuke really," she admitted. "After he rejected me for that last time, he mentioned you had a thing for me. I didn't believe him at first, but I thought about it and then-"
Satisfied, he nodded to himself. "Hmh. I thought you were sizing me up, that day at the spring festival. I heard you put 100 ryu on me to win that stupid race Gai made me enter with him."
"How did you-" Sakura's mouth opened and closed in shock. He hid his glee at managing to get her flustered again. So cute.
"I have both eyes and ears, my love." And a large number of gossipy acquaintances among the village shinobi.
Her eyes were narrowed. "And Ino-pig has a big mouth," she growled.
Sighing, Sakura shook her head. Her frown curved up into a smirk, and her shoulders relaxed. He liked the gleam in her eye when she looked back at him. She pushed up tight against his body, sliding her leg up over his hip. Kakashi rolled with her weight onto his back, and she settled her slim form over him.
"I'm with you, because I would regret it more if I weren't," she said. "No more questions."
