"Good morning," Kakashi greeted the woman at the hospital reception. "I'm here to see Dr. Sakura Haruno."
The receptionist flushed a deep red at the sight of him. "Hokage-sama! I, uh, didn't realize you had an appointment today?"
Kakashi rocked back on his heels, hands in his pockets. "I don't, actually. Just thought I'd drop by?"
"Ah…," Her gaze swept over him as if to confirm he wasn't bleeding out or in any other immediate need of medical attention. "Well, Dr. Haruno is in surgery this morning—it started around nine, so she might be free in… maybe half an hour, assuming everything goes smoothly."
"No problem." Kakashi smiled. "Mind if I wait for her?"
"Oh! You… you want to wait?" She looked unsure, glancing over at her colleagues, who were watching him with wide eyes.
"I'll just head up to her office," Kakashi suggested. "I know where it is."
"Yes, of course!" She nodded, seeming both relieved and eager. "That's a great idea, Hokage-sama."
Kakashi gave her a little wave and turned toward the stairs when a voice stopped him. "Hokage-sama!" The young woman called out, her eyes full of barely contained hope. "Please, is there any advice you'd give… you know, for anyone looking to be considered for your assistant role?"
Kakashi turned back to see not only the receptionist but a dozen hopeful eyes all turned his way, everyone leaning in for his answer. Wow. He had not known being his assistant was this desirable. If he had, he would probably have started the search much earlier.
"Well," he began, clearing his voice, "if you're looking to be my assistant, you'll need a few key skills." He scratched the back of his head, buying a second to think. "First," he continued, "you should have a solid understanding of time management—very important when I happen to lose track of the day… or week." He gave a sheepish shrug that drew a few giggles. "Second, patience. Lots of it. Especially for handling paperwork with me."
"Patience?" someone echoed.
"Absolutely," Kakashi nodded. "You see, I'm usually running late, and, well, a good assistant would probably need to be a bit… forgiving." He emphasized the word with a wry smile.
The receptionist laughed, relaxing a bit, while a few others exchanged glances. One brave soul near the back cleared their throat and asked, "And anything else, Hokage-sama?"
Kakashi rubbed his chin, pretending to consider this very seriously. "Hmm. Maybe be comfortable with a fair amount of chaos. Oh, and if you can manage to keep up with paperwork faster than I can avoid it, that's a big plus."
More laughter echoed through the lobby, and a couple of people grinned. Kakashi raised a hand in farewell, taking a few steps toward the stairs. "Well, good luck to you all," he said lightly, pausing just once more. "And remember—whoever I hire will need to make excellent coffee."
Not much later, Kakashi glanced down at nine cups of coffee, each offered by a different hopeful future assistant. He sighed, picking one at random to take another sip, reminding himself to be more careful with his words next time. He didn't dare drink too much more—he wanted to survive this day with his heart rate intact.
Sakura's office was orderly and functional, but clearly bore a personal touch. The shelves held row upon row of thick medical textbooks, each spine imprinted with words and symbols that, to Kakashi, might as well have been written in code. He skimmed over the shelves, his eye catching on the small, framed photos tucked between the books and files, each one hinting at pieces of her life outside the hospital. One photo, in particular, caught his attention—it looked like it had been taken on the Southeastern Continent. Sakura stood against a backdrop of distinctly foreign-looking houses, gazing thoughtfully into the distance with a hand resting on a bright red hat that clashed, almost endearingly, with her pink hair.
The largest, naturally, was their old Team 7 photo. Kakashi knew that foto in and out, in fact, he could have redrawn it, hair by hair from his memory. Yet it always stirred a strange, bittersweet feeling, reminding him how much their world had changed. Sometimes, when he looked at Konoha's lights in the dark of night, it struck him as surreal that he of all people was still alive. But the lights glittered like stars, and somehow, they felt like an answer to the doubts that had haunted him when he'd accepted the role of Hokage. It had felt wrong at first, but he had long since forgiven himself for staying on. For allowing himself to take up the mantle, however imperfectly, for all of them.
Of course, looking at the girl-version of Sakura brought him back to the present, to what he and Sakura had become and… to the "thing" between them. It was becoming harder and harder to resist. And now, standing here, he was beginning to wonder if he was out of his mind for showing up at her office with no more reason than this pull to understand her—to understand what exactly had changed from the morning she'd woken him in ways that had left him practically floating… to last night, when she'd stormed out of his office and never returned.
He didn't do complicated. Ever. It was one of his few credos in life. And this already was very complicated.
The office door creaked open behind him, and Kakashi turned in eager anticipation—only to come face to face with a young man whose startled expression must have mirrored his own. The newcomer was strikingly handsome, his dark hair and intense gaze vaguely reminiscent of Sasuke, though there was a gentleness to his face that Sasuke's never quite held.
"Oh," the young man stammered, hands instinctively moving behind his back as if he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. "It's… you."
Kakashi's eyebrow lifted, his expression teetering between disbelief and amusement. The official title of 'Hokage-sama' grated on his nerves, but to be addressed as just "you" by a person so much younger than himself was something he wasn't exactly used to either.
"'You,' hmm?" Kakashi replied, folding his arms and giving the young man a mild, assessing look. "I guess that makes you…?"
"Oh, uh, right!" The young man's cheeks turned pale. "Doctor Haruno's assistant," he said hastily. "She asked me to come by and grab some notes she'd left. I didn't realize, um, you'd be here… Hokage-sama."
Kakashi leaned back, still studying him, an odd sense of familiarity prickling his thoughts. "Have we met?"
The assistant avoided his gaze, rifling through the documents on Sakura's desk. "I don't think so."
"Hmm." Kakashi tilted his head, trying to place him. Could he be someone's son from Konoha? "You're originally from here?"
The young man straightened and shot him a sharp look. "No, I'm not."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, surprised by the abruptness. Strange—or strangely guarded. He waited, but it became clear that the assistant wasn't offering anything further.
"Well," the assistant said after a beat, shifting impatiently, "if you're done with questions, may I go?"
Kakashi gave a slow nod, a slight smile on his face. "Oh, by all means, don't let Sakura wait."
The young man gave a curt nod and turned on his heel, a hint of irritation flashing in his eyes. Kakashi watched him go, rather intrigued. The assistant's abruptness was strange, even given the sometimes prickly personalities one met in the course of one's life. He might need to keep an eye on that one.
The next time the door swung open, Kakashi jolted awake from a dreamless slumber, sitting up so quickly from the treatment couch that his spine let out a pitiful crack. He blinked, staring into Sakura's startled emerald eyes. Her white coat was open, showing light blue scrubs underneath. The dark marks on her face were fading, a sign that she had recently released the Byakugou Seal.
Beautiful.
"Hi," he said, feeling foolish. "I must have dozed off."
"Nobody told me you were here," she accused, her voice a mix of surprise and annoyance as she grabbed a carafe of water from her desk and filled a large glass.
"That's strange," he replied, scratching his head. "I clearly announced my presence and received nine cups of coffee from the staff."
She glanced at the cups, her brow furrowing in confusion before returning her gaze to him. "Are you feeling unwell?"
"Not really," he shrugged. "I just… wanted to see you."
"It's Monday," she pointed out, as if wanting to see her on a Monday was some sort of outrageous request.
"I thought we had a few important things to discuss. You… ran off yesterday evening, which, in retrospect, is rather childish. You can't just drop a bombshell like 'a technologically superior nation might come here to invade us' and then disappear."
"Well, obviously I can," she shot back. She looked and sounded utterly exhausted. Yeah, coming here with no real reason was foolish. "I guess I am childish," she added defiantly. "Barely an adult. I already know it so you don't need to tell me again."
"Yes," he agreed anyway. "You do tend to act childish when you're feeling insecure. I'm hoping you'll move past that phase soon. It has little to do with your age."
She glared at him, her expression sullen. He waited for a response, but the silence stretched between them.
"Don't you have anything to say?" he asked carefully.
"No," she replied flatly, draining her glass in one go and slamming it on the table with enough force to make him wince.
"You know you stood me up last night, don't you?"
She froze, staring at him in disbelief. "Excuse me?"
"You stood me up. We had agreed on dinner at seven. But you ran away and never returned. Care to tell me why? It bothered me a lot."
"You can't be serious. You clearly had company! Rather eager company at that. I'm not that desperate."
Huh. So what he had dismissed as 'surely not that' in his deliberations was in fact the reason for her outlandish behavior? Tsunade's unexpected visit? Women were wonderful but sometimes also strange.
"Oh, but we were done at seven," he teased her. "We're usually really quick."
Kakashi watched her, the hint of a smirk tugging at his lips as he leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms. Sakura kept her gaze firmly fixed on the documents in front of her, but he could see the pink tinge creeping across her cheeks. She was clearly flustered, which gave him a perverse kind of satisfaction.
"Well, you could've joined us," he added innocently, letting the pause hang. "But then again, you've always been… shy."
"Kakashi!" she burst out, her eyes wide and scandalized as she finally looked up at him, irritation and embarrassment written plainly across her face.
He chuckled softly, watching her struggle to find a retort. "I'm just kidding, Sakura," he said. "You seem to have the wrong idea about Tsunade and I. We are nothing but friends."
"Friends?" She blustered. "But you yourself said…"
"That was years ago," he shrugged. "She has long since moved on to other pastures. And me too," he added as an afterthought because that was likely what Sakura wanted to hear.
Sakura opened her mouth to retort, then shut it, her brow furrowing as she tried to piece together his meaning. "You... could have told me that sooner," she muttered, crossing her arms as if she needed to regain some semblance of control over the conversation.
"How was I supposed to know what's brewing in that head of yours?" he exclaimed. "Honestly, some media should be banned. I'm half-tempted to petition the council to outlaw the Masked Sensei series. Those books are dangerous."
"Please don't do that," she sighed, though a small smile finally softened her features. "I get it. Really, I do—I've been acting like an idiot."
Kakashi shrugged. "A bit difficult, maybe. But what exactly made you jump to those conclusions? Anything screaming 'hot affair' to you about two people talking in an office?"
"Just look at you," she said softly, and for a moment, she was gazing at him in a way that caught him completely off-guard.
"Me?" he managed, feeling his heart skip.
"You and her. Two powerful, impossibly good-looking Hokages." She hesitated, giving him a half-smile that made his ears heat up. "A dream team, really."
"Yes, she's stunning," he agreed, recalling Tsunade's fierce presence that could fill a room, along with a temper that could clear it just as quickly. "But, let's face it, she's also extremely difficult to get along with."
"Yes," Sakura said, her lips curving into a knowing smile, "that she is."
"Anyway," Kakashi continued. "You should know she agreed to head to the Southeastern Continent to investigate further and you should brief her as soon as you have time."
"To the…," Sakura trailed off, her mouth open in disbelief.
"She was intrigued by your report," he explained, "and wants to understand more about their medical abilities firsthand. Plus, she'll be doing some intelligence gathering of her own."
Sakura leaned back against her desk, taking it in. "Is that wise?" She murmured.
Kakashi nodded. "You did make quite an impression with your theatrics yesterday. Now, she's off to assess if this 'technologically advanced threat' is something we'll actually have to face down. Frankly, I very much doubt that you spilling some things about Konoha will immediately result in an invasion. Invasions take time to plan after all."
"You're right, of course," Sakura muttered, "but I still feel stupid. I shouldn't have trusted anyone that quickly. I should have been more alert."
"As long as they didn't torture it out of you…" he offered lightly.
"No, they didn't," she replied, her eyes dropping.
"Then you were… taken advantage of," he said carefully.
She sighed, frustration flashing across her face. "Still. I should've known better. It's not that I had no military training."
Kakashi paused, studying her. "Did they use a man?"
Sakura's head jerked up, surprised. "How did you…?"
"Because I know how these operations work," he replied gravely.
He did know. His years in Anbu had exposed him to the dark reality of intelligence work, where gathering information was often a game of exploiting vulnerabilities with utter ruthlessness. He could imagine exactly how someone had gained her trust—seen her loneliness and used it like a lever to pry secrets free, lying, manipulating, and then leaving her to deal with the fallout alone.
He felt an unmistakable surge of anger for the person who had done this to her.
"Try to put it behind you," Kakashi advised. "Don't let them keep a hold on you. It's the best approach."
"Thanks," she replied, giving him a lopsided smile. "I'll take your advice… and move on. That's my motto right now, anyway: Moving on."
His heart sank a little. Moving on. So she had already decided to move on from him, before anything between them had really started? Harsh, but who was he to ask her to stay? She had so much ahead of her—a future she deserved, free of any entanglements with an old war-worn Hokage.
"That's good," he said quietly, trying to keep his voice steady, his expression unreadable. "It's… smart. And very mature."
She laughed.
Being who he was, Kakashi knew about her and Sasuke meeting the previous night. His network of guards reported everything back to him, whether he wanted to know or not. He'd expected it for years, even back when Sakura's infatuation with Sasuke had been a source of both amusement and frustration. Kakashi had known they'd likely end up together—some things, after all, were simply meant to be.
Clearly, it was Sasuke who had the most to gain from the stability Sakura offered, a grounding influence he desperately needed. And though Kakashi had always felt that Sakura deserved someone who wouldn't make her struggle so much, he'd also never doubted that Sasuke was her choice. And yet, no matter how much sense it made, he couldn't ignore the damage Sasuke had done to her over the years. He'd pushed her to the limits of loyalty, leaving her with scars both emotional and, nearly, physical. Yet Sakura had stood by him through it all, her unwavering dedication as relentless as ever. In a way, he could relate. He understood the power of that kind of loyalty—it was the same kind that had pulled him through his own dark places. And though he didn't have to agree with it, he would accept it.
Because, in the end, what he wanted for her mattered far less than what she wanted for herself.
Ah. He was going to have to nurture a severely bruised heart tonight. What a noble idiot he was.
"Okay," he said, pushing himself off the treatment couch. "I should probably head back."
"Did you take time off to see me?" She still regarded him with that odd, searching expression, her brow slightly furrowed.
"Um," he squirmed a bit. "Yes. I cleared my schedule. It's called practicing for the Hokage-free office. That's the big goal this year."
"Be serious," she smiled, and the warmth in her expression made his heart skip a beat. "I really appreciate it. I know what it costs you."
"Far less than you may think," he smiled, lifting his hand in a farewell gesture.
"Stop, you can't leave just yet," Sakura insisted, pointing at the treatment couch. "Lie down."
"W… why?" he stammered, caught off guard. Apparently, he liked it when she was bossy.
"I've been puzzling over that… chakra thing from yesterday," she said, her gaze drifting away, but he caught the new flush on her cheeks. Oh boy, yes. That chakra thing. Almost as good as sex. Even thinking about it made his nether regions stir.
"I've thought about it a lot but can't quite understand what happened. Perhaps you know that I'm researching the different uses of chakra for healing?"
Of course he knew. It was one of the things he admired most about her—her insatiable curiosity and dogged determination. She had been at it for years.
"Yeah, I'm aware," he replied, trying to keep his tone casual. "What specifically do you want to know?"
Sakura stepped closer. "I want to understand how we connected like that. It felt… different."
He took a deep breath, because he was becoming light-headed with her this close. "I'm not sure, I was asleep—but when I did become aware, it was a unique and er… very intense flow of chakra."
"Exactly," she breathed. "Very intense."
Kakashi met her gaze and the air between them seemed to thicken. "We've always had a strong connection, Sakura. That's what made it possible."
Sakura nodded, looking unconvinced. "It's more than that. I want to explore it further, to understand how I can harness that power for other uses."
"Then you'll need to practice," he said. "But... I'm not sure I'm the best subject for your experiments."
"Oh, but I am sure that you are," she said with determination. "Because… who else could I trust more than you? You understand me in a way no one else does. Now lie down."
Kakashi felt his heart race at her words. He stared at her with mounting alarm as she walked to the door and locked it.
"My assistant has the tendency to barge in when he's definitely not wanted," she explained. "It's better to be cautious."
"Right. And we don't want anyone to see… what exactly are we going to do?"
Sakura crossed her arms and lifted her eyebrows. "Well, for starters, I need you to relax. Then I'm going to touch you, like I did yesterday morning."
"Ah," Kakashi cleared his throat. "Are you… are you sure Sasuke won't mind? As I already told you, it feels… it feels…"
"Arousing is the word you used yesterday," Sakura shrugged. "But I fail to see how that's a problem among consenting adults and friends."
Now she was teasing him, wasn't she?
"People who arouse me normally don't remain just friends," he said quietly. "But I won't take this any further as long as Sasuke…"
Sakura's expression softened as she looked at him. "You seem to have the wrong idea about Sasuke and I. We are nothing but friends."
"Friends?" He frowned. "I heard something different from the guards at the gate."
"The guards at the gate?" Sakura echoed. "Ah, of course, they report to you. So what did they tell you?"
"Well," this was a little embarrassing. "That you saw him off and that it was a long and very emotional farewell."
Sakura snorted. "Yeah, right. That information is entirely correct. But your assumptions are not. He'll always be a part of my life, yes, but…" She trailed off, her gaze dropping, and a faint smile touched her lips, almost apologetic. "He's my past, Kakashi. I'm ready to move on into my future."
Kakashi's heart gave an involuntary leap, and despite himself, a goofy grin spread across his face. "Then I guess I'd better stick around to see what comes next."
Sakura grinned back, eyes sparkling with mischief. "Oh, next? Next, you're going to lie down and let me touch you—for strictly scientific purposes, of course. I swear!"
