I bring you another drabble folks. I know it's not a Striped Bare update but it will have to do for now.

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He Had Always Managed…

She wiped away the tears when they mixed with the rain, blurring her vision and stubbornly staring at the name etched in the monument dedicated to Konoha's lost heroes.

"Sakura, we should go, you'll catch cold," Naruto said gently, understanding her pain, sharing her pain, but still concerned for her as well. She had been sitting here for hours, unmoving even when the rain soaked her to the skin, eyes staring vacantly as she ran her fingers over the wet granite.

Sakura hated the tears that refused to stop flowing, hated the world for taking him away. She was powerless in the face of his death and all her physical strength and medical jutsus would do nothing to being him back.

Then again, he had always managed to make her feel weak.

The very first time they had met he established that he was far superior, dangling those cursed little bells just out of reach and no matter how she tried, she couldn't even get close to him, none of them could then.

Even after years of training, she felt that she still couldn't hold a candle to him. Between his bloodline limit and vast experience, she was still no match for him unless she had the element of surprise. She had trained so hard for so long and yet she still felt inadequate when she compared herself to him. Her former sensei was simply too strong.

But as the years passed, the two of them had traveled down a path none of them could have ever predicted. After being assigned to several missions together as partners instead of a teacher and student, they gradually learned more about each other, becoming something more than acquaintances and eventually close friends. She confessed her deep thoughts and dreams to him and while he always remained secretive about his own life, he gave advice she found invaluable, even if it did come from a man whose favorite pastime was reading erotic novels.

The step after that had seemed natural. They were together all the time anyways, both lonely and hungry for another's touch. When she confessed over cups of instant ramen in her apartment that she hadn't had much experience when it came to men, he jokingly teased that he would be happy to teach her. She supposed he hadn't really expected her to take him up on the offer but when she took his hand and pulled him towards her bedroom, he hadn't resisted.

That night, he had made her feel weak all over again, but in a new and glorious way she hadn't even dreamed was possible. His fingers on her naked skin trailed fire, leaving her breathless and shaky beneath him. She had been so vulnerable, so fragile and yet, it was all right, for he had known just what to do, cradling her normally strong body in his arms as she shuddered like a leaf in the wind. She could afford to be weak when she was with him, letting him see the side of her that she hid from everyone else, for after her childhood crush had broken her heart once, she was hesitant to wear her heart on her sleeve like she once had.

He finally let her see him too, see his face that he had always kept covered and let her see him for who he really was, for the man he was, not the shinobi or the walking weapon. She had quickly come to see that the person he had kept hidden was even more wonderfully enigmatic and mysterious and as they passed the months together, she was constantly peeling away the emotional shroud around him, removing a layer at a time but never fully uncovering what was beneath.

She never would have believed it if someone had told her she would fall madly in love with her sensei, and he in love with her, but somehow the feelings she had for him were both empowering and disabling, a strange juxtaposition of strength and weakness. He made her feel like she was capable of anything, but at the same time, she knew she wouldn't be able to go on if he were suddenly taken away.

It was on her most recent mission that her worst fears were realized. It was supposed to be a simple mission for Sakura, Naruto and their first teacher. Their task was to rescue the daughter of a wealthy lord who was being held for ransom.

So well disguised were the enemy shinobi that they hadn't realized there were any high level ninja at all mixed in with the ranks of thugs patrolling the place. They had gotten in to the enemy base easy enough, but when it came to getting out, it seemed every exit was blocked by not just a few ninja, but dozens.

Sakura could remember all to well the horse command for Sakura to take the girl and get the hell out of there. The kunoichi hadn't wanted to leave, insisting that if they were to need her medical abilities, she wouldn't be there for him. He had shouted at her then, yelling in a passionate display that she had never seen from him. There was something in his voice that had tugged at her heart, a sincere plea for her to get herself and the target out while she still could. Naruto had made an escape route for her and she had taken it with the young girl in her arms.

She couldn't explain how, but somehow she had known that she would never see Kakashi again.

When Naruto had passed through the village gates alone several days later, Sakura already knew her lover was dead. All her strength left her, leaving her unable to even stand as she collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably into Naruto's chest at Konoha's entrance.

She remembered her friend trying to tell her how he had died through his own tears, how brave and valiant he had been when the elite shinobi enemies had teamed up on him twenty to one, how the final words he choked out through bloodied lips were to tell her he loved her, but Sakura couldn't bring herself to listen. He was gone now, her strength and support torn away in an instant, and no words spoken by anyone could ever make it better.

The funeral had been impressive for it seemed the Copy nin was respected and revered nearly as much as the Sandaime had been. Naruto was alongside her the whole service never releasing her hand as he comforted her the best he knew how, but nothing could fill the void in her now, nothing could return the strength he had given her just by being at her side every day.

She continued to train daily, to throw herself into her workouts with almost frightening intensity, increasing her physical strength until she was practically inhuman, and yet she still felt as meek as a child, weak and powerless to change anything in the world that was worth changing.

She visited the monument every day, much like he used to do, and she found it sadly ironic it was now his name she traced with her fingers on the very stone he spent so much time with.

"Sakura," Naruto said again, a little firmer this time. As much as he wanted her to spent time with Kakashi in whatever way she could, the rain was freezing and they were both soaked. They needed to find somewhere drier.

Reluctantly, Sakura's hand dropped away and she stood turning to walk back the way they had come.

Her limbs felt heavy and sluggish, weighed down by her grief and despair, her heart throbbing with pain at every step she took. Where was her strength, her integrity? Her fighting spirit that had pulled her through so many hard times? They had seemed to be in short supply since he died and she hoped to god a part of herself hadn't died along with him.

As Naruto silently fell into step beside her, she wondered how a man could make her feel so helpless even after death.

Then again, he had always managed to make her feel weak.