"Well done, Hound."
ANBU operative Hound remains frozen in his kneeling position, one knee firmly on the floor with the other tucked close to his chest, ready to kick off as soon as he's dismissed. The knuckles of his left arm rests on the floor, supporting his body, and his head remains bowed without acknowledging the praise from his Hokage. It is a position he has taken many times before, if not so often in front of this Hokage.
Lady Senju Tsunade has only been the Hokage for two months, but Hound has a healthy respect for her nonetheless. He would have to be a fool not to. She's not only famous for her skills as a medical ninja, after all, but also for her ability to move mountains with one blow of her fists. Literally. Even so, it's not primarily out of respect that he remains kneeling. No, the sad truth is that his head is spinning with exhaustion and he's currently contemplating the possibility of falling asleep as he is, comfort be damned.
"I will want your written report on my desk within the next few days," the Hokage continues, seemingly unaware of Hound's thoughts. "I'll try to give you a few days off at least. A week, if possible."
"Of course, Hokage-sama. Thank you."
It is with pure willpower that he manages to keep his eye open behind the mask, and it's becoming increasingly difficult with every passing minute.
"And report to the hospital before you head home tonight."
"Understood."
"Then you are dismissed."
The air is cold and refreshing when he exits the Hokage Tower into the dark November evening, briefly nodding to the guards before making his way down the familiar streets. Almost no signs remain of the invasion almost four months earlier, when Sound and Sand joined forces against Konoha and Orochimaru killed the Third Hokage.
Hound does not head for the hospital. His dislike of hospitals and medics is well known enough that he's pretty sure Hokage-sama would have marched him there herself if she thought he really needed it. The fact that she didn't is pretty much proof that all he needs is a hot shower and a good night's sleep. Or maybe a few nights.
Shower first, he thinks, already longing to be rid of the dirty clothes and the grime of the mission. He's pretty sure he has at least three different people's blood on him, excluding his own.
The lights are on, he notices as he approaches the apartment. Momentarily he frowns, confused, but then he remembers. Sakura.
Right.
They'd had just enough time to file the paperwork, removing her from the general Genin Corps and officially making her his apprentice, and move her into his apartment before he'd had to leave on another mission. Which was, uh, about a month ago? Yeah, something like that.
Probably not a good start for an apprenticeship, he thinks. But hey, at least the apartment is still standing, so at least there's that.
Hound shakes his head ruefully. He has an apprentice now. Or rather, Kakashi has an apprentice. Hound is too smart to let people get that close to him again. Weasel's betrayal is still a fresh wound, even though it's been years already.
He pushes both that thought and the Hound-persona away until he finds himself in that mental grey-zone that is somewhere in between Hound and Kakashi. Still in Hound's uniform and with Hound's post-mission exhaustion he puts the key into the lock and twists it around.
The door does not unlock.
He repeats the gesture, more firmly this time, and pushes to open the door.
It remains firmly locked and closed.
What the ..? He double checks that it's the right apartment - it is, he's not that tired - and tries again. To no avail.
Taking a step back he pulls the key out, inspecting it closer. It looks just the same as it always has. A similar inspection of the lock, however, reveals that it is not the same. It's … shinier than usual.
Before he can inspect it further the door unlocks and opens slightly, allowing a pudgy, middle-aged woman he has never seen before to peer out at him.
"ANBU-san?" the woman says, her voice both worried and confused. "Is there a problem, or ..?"
Hound-Kakashi blinks at her in confusion. "This is my apartment." He speaks the words slowly, unsure whether it is she or him that has lost their mind.
She looks just as puzzled as he feels, and then she smiles in sudden understanding.
"Oh, you must be the jounin-fella who lived here before! Your daughter left a note for you, in case you'd come by, just you wait here a moment and I'll …" She disappears into the apartment, leaving Hound-Kakashi to stare quietly at the door that used to be his.
… daughter?
From the scents wafting through the open door he can tell that they've had curry for dinner, she and the other two people currently in the apartment. Apart from the woman, there's two males, or rather boys from the scent; one somewhere between toddler and puberty, and one still young enough to require diapers. His own scent has faded away, overtaken by the current occupants and lemon-scented cleaners.
It's true then, he concludes. Sometime during the last month-long mission his apartment has been leased to someone else. But why?
"Ah, here it is! Sorry for the wait!"
The woman returns and hands him a letter with his name on it, written in neat, familiar writing that at least tells him who his "daughter" is. He sees no reason to go through the trouble of correcting the woman on the matter.
"And your daughter said not to worry about your belongings, she's got it all packed and stored for you. Such a lovely girl! You must be very proud of her?"
Hound-Kakashi accepts the letter with a wordless nod of gratitude and turns to leave without acknowledging the last part. He can feel her eyes on his back as he makes his way back down the stairs, no doubt disappointed with his lack of answer. Still, she refrains from saying anything else and finally closes the door behind him. The ANBU-uniform is good that way, in that it encourages people to leave him alone.
When he steps out into the streets he opens the letter and scans its content, quietly raising his eyebrows the further he reads.
Seems like his plans for a shower and bed will have to wait a bit longer.
First, he has an apprentice to find.
With a grim expression beneath his masks, he pockets the letter and stalks away to do just that.
Sakura curses quietly to herself as she hurries through the corridor towards her room in the Genin Corps dormitories. Normally, the walk between the shared baths and her room isn't too far, but being butt naked and only having a small towel to cover herself with certainly makes it seem much farther than usual. Add to that the threat of whoever had seen fit to steal her clothes and her bathrobe possibly laying in wait for her, just waiting to further humiliate her, and the distance seems positively endless!
As she finally - finally! - reaches the door to her room, she fumbles a little, trying to retain her grip on both the towel and the basket with her shampoo and other shower essentials, and also opening the door. She nearly drops the basket but finally gets the door open and hurries inside, pushing the door closed behind her.
Back in her room at last, she breathes a sigh of relief and allows herself to collapse on the bed.
Things have certainly changed, she thinks as she stares at the ceiling. She'd just about gotten used to life in the Genin Dormitories and even sharing a room with Tomomi and AImi, before she'd lost her mind and accepted an apprenticeship with Kakashi. Her stupid jounin-sensei who'd never shown an ounce of interest in her before, at least not until both of her other, stupid teammates - Naruto and Sasuke - had left the village in pursuit of other teachers. But she'd wanted to believe him when he'd said that he'd be there for her from then on, and so she'd accepted the apprenticeship despite the fact that she should have known better. They'd even signed the apprenticeship papers, and he'd moved her into his apartment and everything!
And now, here she is. Back in the Genin Corps dormitories again, sans sensei and sans teammates. Homeless and broke again, if it weren't for the kindness of the Genin Commander, who'd allowed her to return to sharing a room with Tomomi and Aimi even though she's no longer formally part of the Genin Corps.
She should have known better than to trust Kakashi-sensei.
Except … that's not entirely fair, she has to acknowledge, if only to herself. It's not his fault that the village is understaffed and he'd been sent on a mission that was apparently over a month long. And it's not as if she could have joined him on the mission. He's a jounin, after all, and she's still just a genin. She'd just be in the way. Logically she can accept all of that.
With a frustrated sigh she stands again to search her wardrobe for some underwear and pyjamas. It's getting late and she should get some sleep. Even if she technically has no mission or training to get up to in the morning.
"Stupid, fucking paperwork," she mutters as she puts her knickers on. "Stupid, fucking sensei who can't even file some paperwork properly ..!"
Because while she was officially no longer part of the Genin Corps, the apprenticeship papers had apparently not been properly filed either, leaving Sakura in a grey-zone with no formal immediate superior. Not formally Kakashi's apprentice, but also no longer part of the Genin Corps.
She reaches for a t-shirt and pulls it over her head, growling angrily as she accidentally tears it apart. With a couple of deep breaths she forces herself to calm down before stepping out of the ragged remains, kicking them aside to be dealt with later. It's a clean tear, so she will probably be able to fix it later. For now, she searches her wardrobe for something else to wear.
Truth to be told, it's the loneliness that troubles Sakura, more than anything else. Team 7 is gone. Naruto, gone to train with Jiraiya and Sasuke, a traitor - leaving Sakura to deal with the suspicious glares and distrust of her fellow shinobi, as well as the occasional petty prank, such as having her clothes stolen tonight. No doubt they'll appear somewhere humiliating within a day or two. Tomomi, Hajime and the others had been able to shield her from the worst of it, but they've been away from the village on a mission for the last week, forcing Sakura to fend for herself against fellow genin who either suspect her of being another traitor or at least a stuck up jerk in need of a reality check.
She has just found another t-shirt when there's a creaking noise behind her. Not the door opening but the window - which she'd left ajar to let some fresh air in while she took her shower. Sakura freezes for a moment, still bent over. Then, she shrieks.
An ear-piercing scream greets Hound-Kakashi, and a moment later he's forced to dodge as a shampoo-bottle is chucked at his head. The room's resident - whom he'd missed, as she'd apparently been mostly swallowed by the wardrobe - hastily covers herself with a towel before another bottle follows the shampoo. He dodges that too, hastily backing away into the nearest corning, raising his hands to show that he's unarmed.
"Who are you and what the fuck are you doing here?!"
Sakura's voice is harsh, loud and trembling almost as badly as the hand holding a third bottle up as if it's a weapon. She looks like she wants to attack again but the ANBU-attire clearly has her hesitating, and Hound-Kakashi realises that he never told her what kind of mission he was going on.
Slowly, afraid that any hasty movement will push her into further action, he reaches up to pull off his mask. The ANBU-mask. The other one remains where it always is.
"Sensei?" A furious blush spreads across her cheeks and down her neck and she hastily drops the bottle in favour of draping herself more modestly in the towel. "I'm sorry sensei! I wasn't expecting … I-I mean … Y-you shouldn't climb through a girl's window like that!"
Hound-Kakashi resists the urge to snort at that, because clearly!
"Sorry," he says instead. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Then why'd you climb in through the window in the middle of the night, while I was getting dressed?!"
There's a knock on the door, saving Hound-Kakashi from having to answer. Sakura looks from him to the door and back again, before straightening her shoulders and giving him a firm look.
"Turn around," she orders.
He raises a questioning eyebrow at her.
"Turn. Around. I'm not getting caught naked, alone with a man in my room in the middle of the night!"
Hound-Kakashi chokes and hastily does as told, turning to face the corner and mentally trying to push down the blush he can feel rising on his cheeks. From some dark corner of his mind a voice starts to rise, slowly chanting: Underage, unmarried, girl-student. He shudders, and pushes the voice back down.
Behind him there's a rustling noise as Sakura hastily gets dressed before opening the door.
"Is everything alright here?" a stranger's voice asks. "We heard a scream?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. Just a nightmare. Sorry for waking you."
Though he can't see her face, Kakashi still notes that her voice is the perfect mixture of embarrassed and apologising. She's a good liar - which is, of course, a useful skill for a shinobi.
A minute later, after exchanging some more words with the people outside, Sakura finally closes the door and turns to face him. Hound-Kakashi - who's maybe more Kakashi than Hound by now, considering the recent dose of horrible embarrassment - turns away from the corner to look at her too.
She's dressed in a very familiar, long t-shirt. On him it's a perfect fit, but on her it's more like a dress. Or maybe a sack, considering how much thinner her frame is than his. She sees him look and blushes, but raises her head and defensively crosses her arms across her chest. Silently challenging him to say anything.
"What are you doing here?" she asks at last.
Kakashi pulls out the letter she'd left for him. "I just got back."
Understanding dawns in her eyes and she shifts on her feet, not meeting his eyes anymore.
"I was looking forward to a shower and a full night of sleep, but then I find that my apartment is no longer mine and that all of my things are gone. Care to tell me how that happened?"
She's resolutely not meeting his eyes. Instead she's studying her toes, as if they're suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.
"Sakura?"
Kakashi - because he's quickly shifting fully into the mindset of Kakashi now, despite still wearing the uniform of Hound - has a bad feeling in his stomach. He's not sure what he'd been expecting really, but the sheer guilt written across Sakura's whole body does not bode well.
"What happened?" His voice is softer now, more coaxing, and finally she glances up at him.
"I'm sorry. It was an accident."
"What happened?"
"You don't know?"
"Like I said, I just got back." Like, half an hour ago. The mysterious turn of events this evening has helped him get a little more alert, but he's still tired to the bone and in desperate need of a shower. "Now tell me. I don't like to ask twice."
She flinches a little, as the last part has more of Hound in it than of Kakashi.
"I, uh, kinda set your kitchen on fire?"
She glances up at him again, quickly, before looking down again. Fiddling with the long sleeves of the t-shirt.
"It was an accident. The rice cooker had some sort of electrical malfunction and caught fire while I was in the shower."
Kakashi closes his eyes against the mental image. He recalls the time she'd set a kitchen on fire during a baby-sitting mission. It had been the grandchildren of Councilman Mitokado, which had made the whole thing that much worse. And now it's apparently his kitchen.
Who's stupid idea was it, exactly, to take on an apprentice? For him to take on an apprentice?
"First rule of this apprenticeship; you're not stepping foot in my kitchen again."
"But-"
"Not one foot!" He gives her a firm look, halting any other objections. "Not until I'm confident you're capable of not setting anything on fire."
She nods in acknowledgement, shoulders sagging under his look.
"So what happened next?"
Sakura shrugs. "Your landlord wasn't too happy. I was able to pay for most of the repairs with what I'd been able to save up, but he still said you were evicted, so I packed up your things and came here."
"Were you hurt?"
"No. Just some smoke inhalation."
"And where are my things now?"
She reaches for the bedside table and pulls out a familiar storage scroll from the drawer there, handing it to him. Surprisingly, she does meet his eyes as he reaches out to take it.
"It's funny; this scroll only used to be able to hold my backpack, but everything in your apartment fits just fine."
Point taken, Kakashi admits to himself.
"We'll talk in the morning," is all he says, pocketing the scroll. "Meet me on the usual bridge at, say, nine."
"So you'll be there at around noon then?"
"Careful. Having too much of a smart mouth is dangerous." He ruffles her hair gently. "You're my apprentice now."
With those words he turns to leave, back out the way he came.
There are rooms at the ANBU-headquarters he can use to shower and sleep. Technically they're only for those on duty, but Hound's a captain and unlikely to get too many questions about his presence there.
"Goodnight sensei!" his apprentice calls behind him.
Despite everything, Kakashi smiles beneath the mask.
The next morning, Sakura wakes up early after a night of restless sleep. She lies awake in bed for a while, listening to the sound of the dormitories slowly waking up and staring at the ceiling.
Did last night even happen? It seems almost like a dream, but the scroll is gone and the embarrassment is far too real to be a dream. Kakashi-sensei is back. And not only is he back, but he came for her just about immediately upon his return. Despite the dark ANBU-uniform - and she hadn't even known that Kakashi-sensei was ANBU to begin with, so that's a realisation she files away for later exploration - she'd seen the blood on his uniform and been able to smell the sweat on him. He hadn't even had the time to shower before finding her - probably because he'd been stumped upon arriving at his apartment and not because Sakura was his number one priority, but still. Sakura would like to imagine that he still would've made it a priority to find her, even if his apartment had been just as he'd left it.
Anyway, now it's morning and she's due to meet Kakashi-sensei in - she glances at the clock - about three hours. Or maybe six, considering that he has probably never been on time for anything in his life. She's too restless to fall back asleep, and so she gets up to get dressed. There's a number of t-shirts in her wardrobe which she has borrowed from Kakashi-sensei's things, and so she folds them all neatly and places them in a pile, for her to return later. There's some dirty laundry too, so she bags that up to deal with after breakfast.
With a plan for the next few hours, she heads out of her room. She'd better get a proper breakfast today, if she's going to be dealing with Kakashi-sensei all day.
And she will be dealing with him. He'd promised her an apprenticeship, a home and money and - and that he'd always be there for her - and then he'd left and she didn't even have the necessary papers to take missions anymore. That will have to change. Quickly.
Despite a strong suspicion that Kakashi-sensei will leave her waiting, Sakura arrives at their designated meeting spot five minutes early, a bag with the borrowed t-shirts in hand.
Surprisingly, he's only about twenty minutes late, which is positively punctual for him. He looks like a wreck though, his hair standing on end even worse than usual and his jounin-uniform wrinkled as if he's slept in it. Maybe he has.
"Good morning, sensei," she greets him, suddenly shy again. Hesitantly she hands over the bag, and he gives it a curious glance before accepting it.
"Have you had breakfast?" he asks.
"Yes sensei, back at the dormitories."
"Well, I haven't. Care to join me?"
He doesn't even wait for an answer before stomping off towards the nearest restaurant, leaving her to scamper to catch up.
When they arrive Kakashi orders a full breakfast, while she orders a cup of matcha-tea.
They wait in silence, Sakura still hesitant to speak but feeling the silence slowly pressing down upon her.
"Sorry for attacking you last night," she finally says, when the silence becomes too overbearing. Even though he'd totally deserved it, seeing as how he'd climbed through her window in the middle of the night like a total creep.
He waves the apology away, obviously unbothered by her actions, and then their tea and food arrives.
Sakura spends a couple of minutes silently sipping her tea and studying the street outside. It's tempting to try to catch a peak at her sensei's face beneath the mask while he eats, but she opts not to. He must be starving, after all. It's not fair of her to force him to reveal his face to her then. Even if she's unlikely to succeed, even just having to think about it must be annoying. And Sakura does not want her sensei to think she is annoying. At least not right now.
"Will you have to leave again soon?"
She speaks the question without really meaning to. A glance at Kakashi-sensei tells her that he's already finished half of his breakfast and is currently leaning back to play a little with his miso soup.
"Lady Tsunade promised me a few days off. Maybe a full week, if possible. So we'll have a few days, at least, to figure things out."
"That's good."
"Yes. What about you?"
Sakura shrugs, taking another sip from her tea.
"I don't have any missions."
"None? You're not slacking while sensei is away, are you, Sakura-chan?"
His voice takes on a teasing note that makes Sakura want to punch him. Instead, she pulls her shoulders up and sips the tea again. Most of it is gone already.
"I don't have the proper documentation."
"You don't?"
Sakura shakes her head.
"I thought we filled that out?"
"Apparently only the part that removed me from the Genin Corps went through."
"What about the apprentice contract?"
She shrugs again, moving to take another sip of her tea but the cup is empty now. With a disappointed frown she puts the mug down.
"I'll look into it," he promises. "I'm already going to meet with my landlord and going apartment-hunting, so I'll add that to the list of things to do. Do you have any training planned for today?"
"Not really. I usually train with Tomomi and Hajime and them, but they're all away on a mission. Same with team 10."
"So in other words, you have no plans for today?"
Sakura shakes her head.
"Ok. You can come with me then, and we'll talk about what you want out of this apprenticeship."
Wordlessly, Sakura nods in agreement, staring down into the empty tea cup. She clenches her hands around it, not nearly hard enough to break it, but enough to gather her courage to speak.
"Apprentices get an apprentice fund too, right? We should see to that as well."
Just asking the question is embarrassing enough that she wants to crawl under her chair and never again come out, but she's determined to not let Kakashi-sensei disappear on another mission without having solved this issue first.
"Ma, I'm surprised, Sakura-chan. I haven't been back in Konoha for twelve hours yet, and you're already asking for money? Quite the little gold digger, aren't you?"
His voice is teasing again, so she knows that he doesn't mean anything by it, but gods it hurts. She can't even hide the flinch at the words. Gold digger. It falls way too close to aunt Kasumi's many lessons on how to become a lady and catch the attention of a noble husband.
As a result, her own voice is short when she answers:
"Maybe I am, but I've already run through most of my savings paying for the repairs of your apartment. And since I can't do missions without your signature - and therefore cannot earn any money - I thought it prudent to bring it up. Forgive me if it was presumptuous of me."
She stands, taking her empty cup of tea with her.
Kakashi-sensei catches her wrist in his hand before she can go.
"I didn't mean it that way," he says quietly. Seriously. "I was just teasing."
And suddenly Sakura wants to cry with how pathetically oversensitive she's being, but she forces herself to swallow the tears and cling on to the earlier anger instead.
"It's fine. It's just that I'd rather not be homeless during the winter if I can help it, and if that means staying with the Genin Corps rather than being your apprentice, then-"
"Are you threatening to leave me for the Genin Corps?"
There's humour in his voice, but also a note of genuine surprise and maybe even something like regret. Sakura swallows around the lump in her throat, staring straight ahead of her in an attempt to hide how her eyes are still burning with tears.
She's done letting people walk all over her, she reminds herself. She's going to make her own future, and that necessitates putting up personal boundaries and making reasonable demands out of people. If people won't fulfil those demands - if putting up personal boundaries makes them turn away from her - then she'll just … have to live with that.
"If the choice comes down to being homeless and your apprentice, or being in the Genin Corps for the rest of my life, then yes."
He's silent for long enough that she finally takes a glance at him. When she does, her eyes meet his and she finds herself unable to look away. His voice is calm and surprisingly comforting when he says:
"Luckily it won't come to that. I'll make arrangements for a proper apprentice fund, and I'll make better arrangements with the landlord. You won't have to spend your own money on me again."
Just like that, and it's like the anger is leaving her all at once. Like a deflating balloon, leaving behind a compressed ball of anxiety in her chest. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.
"Thank you, sensei."
She tugs at her wrist and he lets her go. She flees, putting the empty cup away before heading outside into the now bustling street.
Kakashi-sensei joins her a couple of minutes later, quietly coming to stand next to her.
"You'll get your money back," he promises. "Things will get better from now on. Like I said before, we have a few days to figure out the logistics of this."
They head down the street, Kakashi-sensei walking at a leisurely pace with his hands in his pockets and the bag with his t-shirts dangling from his wrist. Sakura is grateful that she does not have to hurry to keep up with him.
"So," Kakashi-sensei says after a couple of minutes, drawing the word out. "What do you want out of this apprenticeship? You know, other than your sensei not being a complete jackass?"
The last part makes her stumble in surprise, but when she looks up at him his one visible eye crinkles in what she's come to interpret as a smile. He's teasing her again, she realises. Except this time, he's doing it at his own expense.
Ok then.
Sakura averts her gaze, watching the now busy street. What does she want? To become stronger, is the immediate answer. Become someone people can rely on - maybe even her teammates. But that's hardly a concise goal. Still … Kakashi-sensei is looking at her, expecting an answer.
"I want to become stronger. I know I'm not strong like Sasuke or even Naruto, but-"
She bites down on the words, kicking at a pebble on the ground and watching as it rolls away. That doesn't sound right. Kakashi-sensei knows that she's not Naruto or Sasuke. They've had this conversation already, before she even accepted the apprenticeship. But then he'd left and been gone for a whole month, and she knows that she's not exactly his first or even second choice for an apprentice and-
"Like I said before, I'll support you even if it's your goal to become a career genin," Kakashi-sensei says, almost as if he's been reading her mind.
"But I'll be the most well-equipped and knowledgeable genin in Konoha?" she says, repeating the words he'd said back then.
"Exactly. You're my apprentice, after all."
It's a stupidly heartwarming thought and she scowls at a group of people passing by, trying to hide the grin that wants to come out.
"What I meant was if there are any specific skills or areas of expertise you wish to explore."
Sakura ponders that for a moment. What does she want to learn? It's an impossibly wide question. Sakura has always loved to learn new things, devoured any information that has been given to her and eagerly waited for more. Her problem has never been in her willingness to learn, but rather what people are willing to teach her. Like aunt Kasumi with her lady-lessons, or Iruka-sensei with the Academy curriculum. Speaking of which;
"The Academy teachers said I was a genjutsu type. And I know you said that's mostly because I don't have the aptitude for ninjutsu or taijutsu, but I'd still like to explore that a bit, if that's ok?"
Recalling those past conversations with Kakashi-sensei makes her nervous again, and she looks at him to see his reaction. Of course, between the mask and the stupid headband it's just about impossible to tell what he's thinking, but his voice is calm and serious when he answers.
"Honestly, I'm not much of a genjutsu specialist myself but I can certainly teach you the basics, and we can take it from there. I have a friend who's a genjutsu mistress, if you decide you want to delve deeper into the subject."
Sakura tilts her head in surprise, unable not to look at the headband covering his sharingan-eye. Kakashi-sensei notices, of course, and smiles at her.
"The sharingan is kind of like cheating, when it comes to genjutsu. It comes with certain abilities, yes, but I'm afraid I'm unable to teach you those. I am, however, willing to teach you everything I know about genjutsu."
"Ok," Sakura agrees, looking ahead of her again. Mentally she pushes down the envy wanting to rise within her, that she wasn't born with any type of special ability like that. "That sounds good, I guess."
She spends a moment - just a moment - fantasising about what she'd do if she had something like that. The look on Sasuke's face if, back when he knocked her out with his sharingan before leaving the village, she had simply been able to summon her own sharingan and throw it back in his face. Or Naruto's envy if he'd been the only one without a sharingan. Or - and this thought makes her chuckle to herself - Tanigawa's stupid face if she'd been able to change her eyes in front of him, never mind the genjutsu-part!
Kakashi-sensei makes a small sound, looking at her curiously.
"Ah, nothing, just had a funny thought, is all." Sakura waves the attention away. Then: "Can you teach me to use a sword?"
It'd be so great to beat Tanigawa with his own-
"No."
Surprised, Sakura looks at her sensei again.
"What happened to always supporting me, regardless of what I want?"
"I'm not teaching you to use a sword."
"Why not?"
"Because you're not a sword-type."
He must see the confusion on her face, because a moment later he takes pity on her and elaborates.
"Swords are great if you can wield them properly, but they also come with a certain fighting style. The best swordsmen are large and broad shouldered. Some even carry swords that weigh more than you do."
He pointedly looks her up and down, as if considering how much she weighs. Sakura is vaguely insulted, even though he's obviously insinuating that she does not weigh much at all.
"But a sword would give me a longer reach, right?"
"It would. However, the benefits of your enhanced reach would be outweighed by the disadvantages of you having to move with it."
"I could just use a really thin sword, couldn't I?"
"Even a thin sword is a hindrance to your ability to move around freely, and you've already started to develop a fighting style relying heavily on being smaller, faster and more agile than your opponent. Kunai and shuriken are a far better fit for you."
Sakura isn't sure that she understands at all, but decides to let the issue go anyway. It's not like she needs a sword to beat Tanigawa. It'd just be so satisfying.
"Anything else you want to learn?"
"Not that I can think of right now." She'll have to look more into what there is for her to learn. There should be, like, a catalogue or something, with different skills and abilities for her to choose from. Or at least some sort of display, like in aunt Kasumi's shop where the customers can look at various fabrics and types of kimono and choose which ones they want.
She would like to learn medical ninjutsu, but since that apparently comes with having to follow Lady Tsunade's rules for medical ninja - rules which includes staying away from the frontlines and out of the fighting - that's a no go. She's already declined an apprenticeship with Lady Tsunade for that very reason.
"Alright then. As for my part, I intend to establish a training regime for you focused on building strength, speed and agility, building upon the skills you already have. In order to evaluate those skills and figure out where to start, we'll have a test tomorrow to see how far you've come since graduation."
"A test?" Memories of the bell-test that Kakashi-sensei had set for team 7, back when they'd first graduated, is enough to have Sakura's stomach twisting with worry.
"Just to figure out where we stand, no worries. It won't be too bad, I'm sure."
His smile isn't reassuring at all, Sakura thinks.
"Alright then. Anything in particular I should prepare?"
"No need to prepare."
Kakashi comes to a halt outside what Sakura suddenly realises is the apartment of his former landlord. The one who'd demanded Sakura pay for the damages of the fire.
"And Sakura?" He pauses, hand raised to knock on the door.
The sudden seriousness in his tone catches her by surprise, and she looks up to meet his gaze.
"Konoha is in a difficult situation, at the moment. I won't be able to provide the kind of hands-on guidance an apprentice might normally be able to expect."
Sakura does not comment that he hasn't been very hands-on at all, when it comes to her training.
"Whenever possible I'll try to set you up with someone else to look after you while I'm gone, but that might fall through too. So I need you to keep to my word regardless of whether I'm here to enforce it or not. Is that clear?"
"I understand."
"That means following the training regime that I set for you, every day, without fail. Regardless of how tired you are, or how tempted you are to take a day off. Understood?"
His gaze is almost terrifyingly intense as he meets hers. Sakura forces herself to take a deep breath, and then nod. She understands. She does. Konoha can't afford to have Kakashi-sensei sidelined because of her, so he'll do what he can but she'll have to keep herself to the same standard he would, even when he's not there.
She can do that.
Right?
Kakashi-sensei knocks on the door.