Sakura tried not to cry into the rice she was currently frying. The aroma was so familiar, one of the staples in the Haruno household. She had been half convinced she would screw it up, but it turned out cooking was one of those things you never really forgot how to do. Pakkun had stuck around just long enough to make sure she didn't burn the apartment down, and then it was just her and her thoughts.
When Kakashi finally got home after yet another long day of training with Sasuke, he stared at her with an unreadable expression.
"I cooked." She gestured lamely to the rice.
"I can see that." He didn't seem upset, but she still felt like a child caught playing with matches.
"Naruto loaned me some money."
"Alright."
She floundered. "Are you hungry? Should I serve you some?"
He reeked of sweat and ozone, and appeared to be ever so slightly favouring his left side. In short, he looked absolutely wrecked. But just when Sakura expected to get brushed off in favour of a shower and an early night, he tugged his mask down and took a deep breath.
"Smells good."
They talked while they ate, mostly about how the boys were coming along.
"I hoped I might be able to teach Sasuke a lightning jutsu I developed specially for sharingan users," Kakashi said around a mouthful of rice, "but it might be a bit tough to nail in three days."
"Naruto is learning how to summon toads." It was like they were two parents bragging about their kids' grades. "Apparently that fight in the chunin exam did something to his chakra output?" She hadn't been paying too much attention to the details, but it sounded like Jiraiya had it covered.
"Sasuke also has some…lingering issues from your encounter with that person."
She frowned. "Anything I can help with?"
Kakashi shook his head. "I've fixed the issue for now, and his problems shouldn't have anything to do with…yours."
Translation: it wasn't Watcher-related. "I wish I could ask Karin about that Grass girl. She might know her."
"I doubt it," Kakashi sighed, but he didn't elaborate and Sakura got the sense that pushing would only make things tense between them again.
Once the last grain of rice had been cleared from their plates and the leftovers moved to the fridge, Sakura cornered Kakashi before he could escape to the shower.
"If you still have enough energy after today, would you mind if we did something?" It was a bit awkward asking for a favour so soon after her peace offering, but her friends didn't have the luxury of time.
"What sort of something?" He eyed her with suspicion, back pressed to the kitchen counter.
"Well," she took a deep breath, "I was hoping we could try summoning one of The Others. You read the notebook, right?"
"Oh, that." He visibly relaxed, which was odd; Sakura had been expecting more resistance. "I think I have enough chakra to try it once. But," he warned, "don't get your hopes up too high. I've been using the sharingan all day, and I still don't know exactly how to do this."
She nodded eagerly. "I know, I won't." Despite what she said, she backed away to make a human-sized space between them.
He pushed himself up from the kitchen counter, taking a solid stance. "Who should I…?"
"Try?" Sakura bit her lip. It was like asking which family member you wanted removed from a burning building first. She couldn't bear to leave anyone behind. "Sensei." He was the oldest and smartest. If they got him out, he could figure out a way to help the rest.
"Real name is Kabuto, right?" Kakashi tugged his forehead protector higher, revealing his closed left eye.
Sakura's hands went to her goggles automatically, but she forced herself to relax. She needed to be the calm one when her friends arrived. "That's right. You still have his hair?"
He dug around in one of his many pockets, finally producing the grey hair and the bloody rag. "Got it."
The sharingan opened, the black misshapen pupil spinning against the red like a camera lens trying to focus. Kakashi frowned in concentration, staring at the empty space between them.
Sakura wasn't actually sure what the process looked like from Outside, but after a few moments of absolutely nothing happening, he closed his eye and shook his head.
"Sorry. Last time there was a black…" he gestured vaguely in the air, "swirly thing, and then you just sort of fell out of it. It doesn't feel the same, either."
"You're probably too tired." She tried not to think about the ways she might push him harder, force it to 'feel the same' as last time, when he had been staring down certain death and a lifetime of regrets. Sensei would have pushed him to the limit, if their places were switched; but she wasn't Sensei, and she wasn't quite ready to burn the only lifeline she had left in the outside world. "Thanks for trying."
ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ
On the morning of the last day before the exams, Sakura informed Kakashi that she would be staying home.
"I already told Naruto I wasn't planning on coming," she explained to Kakashi. "And I warned Jiraiya not to exploit him or make him do weird stuff while I'm not around."
Kakashi cocked his head to the side. "What kind of weird stuff?"
She wrinkled her nose. "Something Naruto calls 'Sexy-no-Jutsu.' He did it once when Jiraiya was ignoring him."
"I don't think someone as strong as Jiraiya would fall for something as obvious as a henge."
"Wrong. He thought it was the best jutsu since substitution. He wanted him to do it full time, but there's no way I'd let Naruto get perved on by an old man all day, even if it is a fake appearance." She thought back to that interaction. "Jiraiya said that in that moment, he reminded me of a scary girl he used to know."
"Oh?" Kakashi was probably late to meet Sasuke by now, but he still listened attentively. It was hard to give up on the idea of fucking him when he looked at her like that, but she forced it from her mind.
"Yeah. I thought he might have meant, you know, Rin; but he said a name I'd never heard before."
"Let me guess," he interjected with a smile. "Tsunade?"
She shook her head. "No, someone named Kushina."
Kakashi froze, expression neither shocked nor sad nor happy. After a moment, he nodded to himself. "I think I understand why he said that."
"So you know her?" she pressed. She'd take anyone over Nohara Rin. "Who was she?"
"Someone from the past," he said enigmatically, pulling his mask up. "She's dead now."
"Oh."
"I should go."
"Alright then." She wasn't really sure what she had hoped to get out of repeating this story to Kakashi. Perhaps she had just wanted a little more of his time. "Be safe."
He looked at her in surprise, before smiling through his mask. "You too."
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There was a knock on the door around midday. Sakura was almost going to ignore it; Kakashi would have just let himself in, and anyone else would have been looking for Kakashi. But then she heard Ino's voice calling softly, and she bolted across the room.
"Ino!" she cried, and then realised she wasn't sure what to say next. Was she meant to apologise, or demand that Ino did?
"Sakura." Ino smiled nervously, which was a good sign. "I just wanted to…see if you needed to get your jacket mended."
Sakura blinked. "My jacket?"
She nodded. "I saw it was damaged, and since you don't have any money I wasn't sure if you needed a tailor, or a replacement."
Sakura twisted to show the repair job she had done on it. "All good. I even got most of the bloodstains out."
"Oh." Now it was Ino who didn't seem to know what came next. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then? At the…exam." She turned, haltingly, to leave.
"How's training going?" Sakura asked, desperate to keep the conversation going.
"Oh, good. Asuma and the boys have thrown just about everything they've got at me by now." She smiled sheepishly. "I should probably still be practising, but I think the nerves are getting to me a little. And I wanted…"
"To make sure I fixed my jacket." Sakura supplied wryly.
"...right."
"Well, seeing as you're here, did you want to do a little training with me? Your first opponent is a puppet user, right? I could show you a few tricks for handling him."
The last tension in Ino's shoulders seemed to disappear. "Yeah? I mean, yes please. I'd like that."
Sakura grinned. "Great. I'll have you kicking puppet butt in no time."
Sometimes, Sakura thought, it didn't matter who was meant to apologise to who, as long as you ended up back on speaking terms.
ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ
Lee's searching had finally paid off. Sakura was sitting in a clearing near Training Ground One with a tangle of wires in her lap and the blonde girl from the chunin exam leaning over her, watching her work.
"Um!" He called out from a safe distance, just in case this was some kind of training exercise he wasn't familiar with. "Excuse me, Sakura-san!"
Sakura and the other girl both looked up at him: Sakura with a smile, and the blonde with a frown. "Oh, hi Lee. What's up?"
This was it: the point where they would become eternally bonded by the spirit of friendly rivalry and mutual respect. "I was hoping to ask you for a training session before tomorrow."
Sakura's glanced at the blonde. "Seems I'm popular today."
"She's already training me." The blonde's expression shifted from vaguely unimpressed to downright hostile. "Go find someone else."
"There's no reason we can't all train together." Sakura, the angel, dumped the wires onto the ground and got to her feet. "Besides, I don't think we're going to get much more puppet training unless we go buy a real one. Manami taught me a few tricks for construction, but it was mostly theoretical. And my skills are nothing compared to what Chu-chan can do." She kicked the tangle of wires, and across the clearing a crude assemblage of logs twitched haphazardly.
"Puppets?" Lee blinked. "Wow! I didn't realise you were so multi-talented!" As expected of his eternal rival.
"Oh, no," Sakura demurred, "it's definitely not my strongest fighting style."
The blonde, Ino, tugged Sakura's arm. "Do we really have to train with this guy?" She leaned in to whisper something that Lee unfortunately heard perfectly. "He looks weird."
"I look like the great Maito Gai," he said hotly, the desire to defend his master winning out over the desire to keep his cool in front of Sakura. He tugged at the wrappings on his hands, showing off the callouses and hardened bones beneath. "And I can fight like him, too."
Sakura nudged Ino's shoulder. "That's perfect! I've personally encountered a little of Gai's taijutsu, and if Lee is even a fraction as skilled then you'll get great practice."
Ino still looked dubious, and Lee ground his teeth. He considered himself a cheerful guy, but when it came to his training he had to be more serious than anyone else, to make up for his lack of natural talent. He wanted to fight Sakura, or at least see her in a real fight, not just the mercy-killing of the Sound-nin or that tepid spar at the eliminations. But it sounded like she would once again be holding back.
"How about this? He suggested, hoping to salvage the match he had been looking forward to for three days now. "Ino and me versus Sakura."
"I don't need you on my team, weird-brows!" Ino snapped.
I don't need you either! He wanted to yell, but forced himself to remain smiling. "This way we can both get the fight we actually want, without having to wait and take turns. Unless you're worried I'll show you up?" He couldn't help but throw out that last challenge.
Ino's mouth had already been open (probably to make some new dig at his appearance) but it snapped shut, and for a moment she simply glared at him. He glared back.
When she did speak again, she seemed different. Lee knew that change; it was the attitude shift of a fighter who has finally started to get serious with their opponent.
"You're on.