Sakura trudged wearily to Ichiraku's after a grueling day of training and work. It was a habit she had picked up in her past life, or perhaps she was missing Naruto. The aroma of steaming ramen wafted through the air, bringing back memories of her previous life. The flavors were identical, as if frozen in time.
She sipped on her noodles with a sense of exhaustion that seemed to seep into her bones. Despite how easily she seemed to adapt to this new life, there was a small part of her that wondered if she truly belonged here. With most of her friends from her past life also present here, she didn't feel like she was "missing" anyone. Except for Naruto, who was off training. And even Sasuke, who betrayed them in this life. And Kakashi, who seemed distant and uninvolved compared to his caring nature in her previous life.
In this world, she had her parents. This version of Sakura had moved out when she began apprenticing under Tsunade and had her own studio apartment. And although their relationship was strained and distant, she'd be foolish to push them away completely. She made an effort to visit them every weekend, cherishing the moments they could spend together over a home-cooked meal.
But deep down, Sakura couldn't help but question if these people were truly hers . They were the same, but different. Her parents were stricter and more disapproving of her dreams — as well as dead. Her Naruto grew up with his parents by his side, although he still ended up losing them both. Her Kakashi still had both eyes and showed concern for her well-being.
Was she even this Sakura, or had she somehow displaced her soul? Stolen her life?
"Sakura-chan?" a familiar voice cut through the bustling sounds of the village, calling out to Sakura. She turned her head and was greeted by the sight of her former teacher, Kakashi, standing before her. His signature mask covered his mouth and nose, but she could see a small smile in his visible eye.
"Ah, Kakashi-sensei," she mumbled out a greeting in between mouthfuls of warm noodles from her bowl. The aroma of savory broth and spices filled her senses, making her realize just how hungry she was.
"Hungry?" he mused, watching with mild amusement as she devoured her food with a vigor that would impress even Naruto and Chōji.
She swallowed and gave him a sheepish look. "Busy," she admitted. "No time to sit and appreciate a bowl of ramen."
He nodded slowly as Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku's, placed his own steaming bowl in front of him. Sakura quickly looked away, knowing that he preferred privacy while eating. Besides, she had already seen his face in her past life.
Yet another difference that she couldn't rectify between her two lives.
"Mou, you've been very busy. I haven't even gotten the chance to catch a glimpse of your pink hair," Kakashi remarked, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them.
She raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You've looked for me?"
Kakashi didn't reply, and they continued eating in tense silence. When she finished her meal, Sakura placed some money on the counter before getting up to leave. Before she could walk away though, she turned to Kakashi and asked, "Ne, Kakashi-sensei. Why did you never teach me anything?"
He looked at her with a mix of emotions swirling in his visible eye, clearly not expecting the question. "I—" he started to say before cutting himself off.
Feeling nervous, Sakura licked her lips and shook her head with a forced giggle. "Nevermind, forget I asked," she said, knowing that even if he did know the answer, he wouldn't tell her. "It was nice seeing you again, sensei."
By the time she disappeared into the busy streets of the village, Kakashi realized that she had also paid for his meal.
Sakura tapped her foot nervously on the cold, linoleum floor of the detention room as she anxiously watched the seconds tick by on the clock. Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the murmurs and gasps of her classmates who couldn't help but sneak curious glances at her. 'Can't they mind their own business?' she thought irritably.
But she knew that she had a reputation as the teacher's pet despite only having been in high school for a few short months — it was no surprise that they were all curious about why she was in detention. She was used to being labeled as the bookworm, but being seen in trouble was a whole new level.
She gritted her teeth as she shot daggers at the man sitting at the front of the classroom, his masked face buried in…'Is that 'Icha Icha Paradise?'' she thought incredulously as she tried to scrutinize the familiar orange book further. Sakura felt a twinge of disgust as she recognized it as her favorite manga. The last thing she wanted was to have something in common with her notoriously late and perverted teacher, Hatake Kakashi. As if sensing her thoughts, Kakashi lowered his book just low enough so that she could see the cheeky crinkle of his eyes.
She looked away with a small scoff.
After five minutes passed, Sakura mustered up the courage to walk up to him yet again. "Can I go now?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
Kakashi didn't even look up from his book before replying with a loud pop, "Nope."
Sakura sighed heavily and glanced at the clock once more.
She lost count of how many times she'd asked him to leave by the time the classroom was empty, and it was just her and him. When the last student finally left, he put down his book. "I heard about what happened to you, Sakura."
'Oh hell no. I am not going through this with him right now.' The last thing she wanted to do was talk about what happened to her stupid silver-haired, mask-wearing, porn-reading perpetually late weirdo of a teacher.
"Don't give me that look," Kakashi scolded. "I'm on your side."
He gestured her to come closer, and she reluctantly pulled up a seat in front of his desk.
"You should talk to someone about it. It'll make you feel better."
"Don't tell me what to do or how to feel. I'm sick of hearing that from other adults," Sakura hissed, her words dripping with venom as she glared at Kakashi. Though inwardly, she felt guilty for lashing out at him again. The first time she had done it was what landed her in detention in the first place.
But Kakashi didn't waver under her anger. Instead, his eyes softened and he spoke with a calm but firm tone, "I was a vet, y'know?"
Sakura's lips parted slightly in surprise. She hadn't known.
"Lost a lot of people I cared about. I was angry, depressed, guilty for a long time," he admitted with a somber voice, his gaze dropping to the ground briefly before meeting hers again.
Sakura let his words marinate for a bit, before responding softly, "How did you cope?"
"I almost didn't," he said with a wry chuckle. "But I had friends — good friends who I took for granted. They forced me to get my shit together and seek help. It took me a long time to finally open up to my therapist about what happened. Healing doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes, it never happens at all. But you have to at least try."
He reached into his pocket and handed her a small business card. "My therapist — for when you're ready."
Sakura's throat tightened as she stared at the card in her hand. "Thank you," she mumbled quietly. "May I go now?" she asked after a moment, feeling overwhelmed by the weight of their conversation.
Kakashi crinkled his eyes in understanding. "Of course. See you in class tomorrow, Sakura."
She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she left the room, muttering under her breath, "Yeah, 40 minutes late."
As Sakura lay in bed, her gaze drifted aimlessly to the ceiling. The usual rush of adrenaline from missions or training was absent in this stillness. For the first time since arriving in this unfamiliar world, she felt a sense of boredom creeping over her. There were no urgent missions for her to take, Team Gai was away on their own mission, and Tsunade had firmly refused to let her work another shift at the hospital. With nothing else to do, she turned to her chakra meditation exercises. It was something she did frequently when she needed to calm herself down from a panic attack or simply had too much free time on her hands.
When she first started her chakra exercises, she realized that she could sense more than she thought she could. As she delved deeper into the exercises, she realized that there was more to it than just calming herself down. She could sense the faint presence of chakra emanating from the civilians passing by outside her window. With each breath and each pulse of chakra, her senses sharpened and expanded. Soon enough, she could even detect the tiny ants crawling on the grass outside.
She found solace in this exercise, knowing that it didn't drain her already limited chakra reserves but instead helped her hone and control it. Instead, it was like a game to her. Every living being had chakra signatures unique to them. She made a point to memorize every person's chakra signature that she came across.
And if she stretched her chakra thinly enough, she could even track down where someone was on the other side of Konoha.
Using her finely tuned chakra, she extended it like a delicate thread, searching and tracking for any familiar signatures in the vast expanse of Konoha. With focused determination, she honed in on one particular signature — Kakashi's. It was weaker than she had ever sensed before, even when he was chakra depleted after his fierce battle against Zabuza.
She quickly ran through dense forest until she found him, battered and bleeding to death.
Pushing herself to her limits, she raced through the dense forest until she finally found him, lying battered and bleeding on the ground. "Kakashi-sensei!" she cried out, rushing to his side and trying to wake him as her chakra assessed his injuries.
He looked at her, Sharingan ablaze. She couldn't help but flinch at the intensity of his gaze as he spoke her name with a broken, but cold edge. "Sa-kura."
With skilled hands glowing green with healing chakra, she quickly worked to mend his wounds on the spot. "Let me patch you up and then we can take you to the hospital," she urged.
But he refused gruffly, leaving no room for argument. "No hospital. Just take me home."
She let out a tired sigh and reluctantly complied with his request. After finishing mending the holes inside him, she administered a blood pill and pain pill before using Shunshin to transport them both inside his apartment. Her trained eye immediately identified the numerous traps surrounding them, and she swiftly disabled them before carefully laying him down on his bed.
Throughout the entire ordeal, Kakashi drifted in and out of consciousness. Sakura knew that he needed proper medical attention, but respected his wishes to stay home and rest. With a heavy heart, she sent a message to Tsunade informing her that she would not be able to make her shift at the hospital tomorrow.
After placing a weak genjutsu on Kakashi to help lull him into a healing sleep, Sakura couldn't help but feel a mix of worry and guilt. The genjutsu was so pathetically weak that it would normally never work on him, but in his current state, he knocked out quickly. She knew that her sensei was in capable hands with her by his side, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this time, he may have pushed himself too far.
As he slowly opened his eyes, Sakura's brow furrowed in concern. She questioned, "Why are you so against going to the hospital?"
He groaned softly and attempted to sit up. With quick reflexes, Sakura rushed to his side and propped him up with a pillow. "I have...traumatic memories there," he admitted, his voice betraying a hint of vulnerability. It was a rare sight for Sakura, who had never seen this side of him before — in either her past or present life
Understanding his reluctance, she nodded slowly and didn't press further. She considered threatening or spouting vulgarities at him, but that's what this world's Sakura would've done, not her. Instead, she handed him a steaming bowl of perfectly heated miso soup. "Drink," she instructed.
He eyed the bowl warily, causing Sakura to recall that the other version of herself in this world had once given her entire team food poisoning with her terrible cooking skills. But she had learned how to cook basic meals thanks to Ino and Chōji from her previous life. She nervously licked her lips before reassuring him, "Don't worry, I wouldn't save you from the brink of death just to kill you with my cooking."
After he finished the soup and she cleaned the bowl, she added, "There's more soup in the fridge. I trust you know how to use the microwave, sensei. And I don't know if you were trying to build a mountain taller than the Hokage Monument, but I also did your laundry." She crinkled her nose as she continued, "I had to throw away the clothes you were wearing though. But judging by the 20 identical pairs in your closet, I don't think you'll miss them that much."
Kakashi looked at her with a puzzled frown. "You changed my mask?"
Sakura nonchalantly shrugged and lied with a small smile, "I closed my eyes, if that's what you're worried about."
"Why did you do so much for me?"
She gazed up at the ceiling as she searched for her answer. The truth was, she didn't owe this Kakashi anything. But these were all things that her Kakashi had done for her, at one point or another. "Because you're my sensei," she simply replied before standing up. "You're still recovering, so no training or physical exertion for the next two weeks. I'll check in on you daily to make sure you're following doctor's orders."
As she slipped on her shoes to leave, Kakashi called out to her again, "Sakura..."
She turned her head to look at him. "Yes, sensei?"
"Thank you."
Notes:
So, uh...I totally forgot about updating this fic. I've been so busy with writing a massive fic (three books, and I'm on like, chapter 70 haha), that Wednesday rolled by and I just forgot.
