Chapter Seven: Sick
Kakashi found himself aimlessly wandering. He had been given a few days off to balance out the four back to back missions he had just completed, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. He’d already gone through his usual morning routine, ending with a visit to the memorial, and though it was lunchtime he didn’t particularly find himself hungry, so the Copy Ninja was surprised to find himself outside a familiar noodle shop. Shrugging to himself he found an empty stool figuring that though he wasn’t feeling hungry his subconscious must want him to eat.
Just as he was finishing he felt a familiar, though taking into consideration his location, not completely unexpected presence approaching the small restaurant. Feeling torn, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay or try and avoid Konoha’s number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja, Kakashi sat for a few moments.
Belatedly the elite shinobi realized it was too late to make a quiet exit as Ayame returned from whatever errand it was her father had discretely sent her on upon realizing the Copy Ninja would be frequenting their small establishment. He had always found it easier to send her away rather than allow her to make a scene or give too much ramen away. He could understand why his daughter was so infatuated with the silver haired jonin, having seen the man’s face himself. But, it still didn’t justify her flirting with him at every opportunity regardless of the fact that he never reciprocated. It was also never good for their business as she always let him eat on the house and more often than not he had one of his three former students with him which only added to the expense.
Sighing to himself, the dark eyed man braced himself for the loud intrusion of the generally well meaning ninja. It just didn’t seem as though it was going to be his day, and it had started off so well.
~*~*~*~
With feigned nonchalance Kakashi made his way slowly to one of the more residential areas of the village. Taking care to casually loop around his target destination several times before finally heading to the newest apartment building in town he let his mind wander. He’d been there several times previously, but never without implicit invitation, good reason or under duress. He felt silly, but for some reason he felt compelled to go. After all she had done him the same favor countless times before, so it only seemed right for him to check up on her this time.
Deciding to scorn her door, no need to unnecessarily disturb her if she really wasn’t feeling well, he decided to utilize her balcony instead; he had seen her ‘boys’ use it often enough after all. Sakura had always insisted on having an open door policy for them, including himself though he had never before felt the need to use it. Noiselessly he made his way to her balcony. Kakashi could tell from the ground that the doors were slightly ajar – meaning, he hoped, that she was home otherwise kunoichi or not he would definitely have to sit her down for a lecture on safety and security when she returned.
The observant man noted the old fashioned milk delivery box she kept on her balcony. Upon bending down to inspect it a little further he silently chuckled at finding a small medic kit in one corner with a generic note addressed to Sasuke and Naruto telling them if she isn’t home to make the best use of what was in the kit and to make their way to the hospital where she would be happy to help them. The rest of the box was empty, but he could tell by the smudges on the bottom that other items had been placed in the box for later removal. Clearly she must use it to receive deliveries when she was not at home. Absently he realized this would have been a much safer location to leave any tokens of thanks he may have for the pink haired kunoichi, such as the flowers he had left in her office unintentionally starting one of the most talked about mysteries in recent gossip history. Of course there were also the chocolates and most recently the bubble bath and rubber ducky.
The uproar was only just now dying down from his last gift, the little old biddies had been confused over what to make of the rubber ducky at first, but their uncertainty had been short lived. They had decided that it was a romantic gift with a playful twist, turning the cunning coward into a romantic cunning coward in the eyes of the gossips and starting a whole gift trend. Apparently rubber duckies were practically flying off the shelves along with gallons and gallons of bubble bath.
Kakashi had to grin at the string of messes he had inflicted upon his former student. The silver haired man couldn’t help but admit to himself that he found it amusing to watch – perhaps he would only utilize the box for items of a more private nature… Hastily the Copy Ninja pulled his mind back from the dangerous train of thought. This was territory he had never entered and would never allow himself to enter. Fourteen years and a former student teacher relationship made it a moral minefield he would not allow himself to tread.
Deciding he had procrastinated long enough, the elite shinobi cautiously inched the door open a little further. Keeping behind the thin sheer curtains she had closed across the doors, he surveyed the room. His eyes were immediately drawn to the soft splash of pink against the pale blue bedding. He was in luck, she was home and seemingly completely dead to the world – and he could tell it was just as Naruto had implied, she was sick. Dehydration combined with exhaustion from over extending herself was what the loud blonde had mentioned. Taking care to make as little noise as possible the older man carefully made his way into her room to further assess the situation. At least that was what he used to assure himself that he wasn’t going a little far in his concern for a former student.
Her room was nothing like what he would have imagined for the fiery tempered, pink haired kunoichi to posses. It was strangely sparse and yet tranquil with a color scheme of pale blues, greens and lavenders. Kakashi would have imagined something resembling an explosion of pink and feminine frills judging from what she had been like in her adolescence. His few brief glimpses of her childhood bedroom had confirmed his original guess of her personal tastes.
Once again he acknowledged that she had grown up in more ways than just chronologically. As he drew closer to her his breath caught slightly, he had just glimpsed something that forced him to consider rethinking his previous assessment. Something he had figured she would have outgrown years ago. Sakura shifted restlessly in her sleep confirming what he had suspected and causing him to wonder. After a moment he decided to chalk it up to the fact that she was sick and people often regressed a little to childhood when not feeling well.
Sakura clutched to her chest what appeared to be a small, very oddly but unmistakably attired doll. Upon thinking about it for a moment he smiled, deciding he liked the idea, to his inner horror at the implications. It lifted an old, but still heavy sense of guilt from his shoulders. The doll was something he had found while on a quick but necessary solo mission in the Land of Lightning. It had been sheer dumb luck for him to stumble upon it when he did. Team 7 had just returned from a low level mission during the course of which she had been kidnapped for the first, though certainly not the last, time.
Unfortunately, her kidnapping had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with the fact that her sensei was the infamous Copy Ninja. The idiots had actually thought they could use her as leverage to get him to do some of their dirty work for them. If they had actually been competent enemy shinobi or elite warriors it may just have worked, especially considering his recently admitted but old soft spot for his female student. But no, they were average run of the mill bandits with zero real training, not even worth working up a sweat over. So he had, of course, managed to get her back within just a couple of hours; but not before she had been terrorized by her kidnappers. Below average fighters they may have been, but they were unfortunately crueler than most.
Thankfully they didn’t seem to have a death wish and the abuse had remained psychological without descending into physical or even – he shuddered to remember his worst fear at the time – sexual. Sakura had been at the age where she could be as appealing to both boys her own age as well as men who were older and he had been doing double duty in making sure no one took advantage of her while she was still figuring out she could attract the opposite sex if she were so inclined. Kakashi would have thought nothing of killing them right there and then had they laid one inappropriate finger on his female student, consequences be damned. As it was he faced a fairly stiff reprimand for his brutal treatment of her kidnappers, though he figured the reprimand had been well worth the sense of satisfaction he had felt while beating the shit out of the men who had dared take his female student.
Shortly thereafter the nightmares began. He could tell she was having nightmares by the way she would toss and turn at night only to wake with a start breathing hard and occasionally wiping tears from her eyes. She never told him what they were about, but it had been clear to him that she was either reliving whatever it was that the kidnappers had done to her or what he had done to them upon finding her. Up to that point she hadn’t seen him really angry and she certainly hadn’t seen him almost lose it entirely while physically venting his anger on anything never mind anyone. Sure she had seen him in action against other shinobi on missions protecting the people they were escorting or items they were transporting but she hadn’t seen him going almost all out against run of the mill, garden variety bandits with no real training in order to protect one of his teammates. He had viciously beaten them into the ground and they hadn’t stood a chance.
The silver haired man knew himself that he had been something entirely different to her that day. He could still remember how hard she had shaken in his arms and how tightly she had clung to him as he brought her back to the clearing. He had ordered Naruto and Sasuke to set up camp in the clearing, make dinner and wait for him to return. Looking back on it he had to admit it could have been a frightening experience for her if she hadn’t really thought of him as what he actually was: not a silly, chronically late pervert who daringly read porn in public but a highly trained killing machine, a living weapon, an elite assassin among other lethal and none too savory things. If it had been the first time for her to realize that, it could have made an already traumatic experience much, much worse.
Naruto had done his best to calm the pink haired girl when their team leader had brought her back to their camp that evening. She had been completely unresponsive to all efforts leaving him to put her to bed and hope she would be more responsive in the morning. The next day she had smiled and told both Naruto and Sasuke that she was fine, even though she had still seemed pretty shaken up about the whole thing. She mentioned her special kunoichi classes. Blushingly the kunoichi explained to them that they weren’t all about flower arranging, homemaking skills and seduction. Kidnapping was something that happened fairly often to kunoichi as enemies usually underestimated them. Of course there was also the unsavory aspect that kidnappers generally liked having the added bonus of entertaining themselves with the captive kunoichi while they waited for their demands to be met.
Her explanation and assurances that Kakashi had taken care of the kidnappers had done little to ease their worries. In the meantime the silver haired man had sent Pakkun back to Konoha with a message including a brief account of what had happened and the kidnappers’ whereabouts. In hopes to avoid a complete dressing down upon his return for the way he had treated the kidnappers, he suggested that an interrogation unit could pick them up. He had been nothing if not thorough in making sure none of them would be walking any time soon, so there was little concern that they would get away before someone could arrive to collect them. The elite jonin figured if nothing else they may be useful subjects for trainees to work on as it wasn’t likely that they would have much information if they had been after him for personal reasons and not in an attempt to take revenge on the village of Konoha. All the while Sakura had maintained that Kakashi had dealt with the situation and that everything was fine. Yes she was a little shaken up by the whole ordeal, but she had smiled when she said that and continued to insist that she would be fine with a little rest and a bit of time to get her mind around what had happened.
He had seen through her false smile. Naruto and Sasuke, intent on their rivalry, their own training and completely inexperienced with traumatized kunoichi, had reluctantly let the matter drop. They figured they would only make it worse by bringing it up over and over when she continued to insist that she was okay even though she quite clearly was not. After the completion of the mission all they really noticed was that she wasn’t getting much sleep at night and pinned it down to over extending herself – not her recent abduction and excellent acting skills. Concern had been expressed by both, but upon finding there was nothing they could actually do, it was quietly set aside to be brought up whenever she looked particularly tired or in need of sleep but left otherwise forgotten.
He had noticed, and therefore started worrying and feeling guilty about the whole ordeal right away. He had been at a loss as to what he could do until stumbling into a tiny shop while following a lead on a solo mission in the Land of Lightning. He had been tracking the missing second son of a wealthy land owner who had just been moved into first in line for his father’s estate at the death of his elder brother. While in a tiny village, inquiring about his target in a small shop, a couple thugs had tried to pull off a robbery. Needless to say he had stopped them. In gratitude the elderly couple running the shop offered him a sample of their wares; he had been hesitant to accept payment for something he would have gladly done for free until they had shown him one of their more popular dolls.
It wasn’t much to look at, but then that was the point. It was a blank plush doll, one to be modified to look however the owner wished. At the time it had been quite the rage. The dolls were supposed to be personalized and kept under one’s pillow – a dream guardian – to keep the bad dreams away. He hadn’t even hesitated when they offered him something he could possibly use to help one of his young students.
Absently he realized that if he had been paying attention he may have discovered his soft spot for the pink haired kunoichi earlier, if not in his eagerness to accept something that may help her, then in the particularly brutal treatment of her would-be kidnappers. He rarely lost it like that; his sense of self control was well known, though one would never have guessed by the way he had behaved that day. Even then he couldn’t bear to see her suffer. Though he had always pinned it down to his concern for the overall functionality of the team, he was now beginning to see that he definitely had ulterior motives he had not been consciously aware of at the time.
When he had returned to the village and gone back to their regular training the silver haired man had sent Sasuke and Naruto off together to spar at the end of a particularly strenuous session. Once he and Sakura had been left alone he had asked for her usual help in his own training. She had gratefully obliged, barely able to keep her eyes open. Clearly she knew she was in no condition to spar with the older man. Instead she settled comfortably on his back as he started his usual regime of one fingered pushups. Once he had gotten into the rhythm of it he carefully broached the subject of her lack of sleep. He could tell that she hadn’t slept much while he had been away; even as he was doing his pushups he could feel her body relaxing against his as sleep tried to claim the pink haired kunoichi. She had flushed – he was easily able to guess by her stammering words and hurried response – and denied that there was anything wrong and he had let it slide.
Several minutes later he had felt her relax entirely, her deep breathing a sign that she had fallen asleep. At the time Kakashi had wondered if she had been one of those babies who needed constant motion to fall asleep as he continued his workout, choosing to completely ignore the fact that he should discipline her for her nap during training, preferring to focus on other things instead. He had already decided he would find a discrete way to wake her when he was done and not let on to her that he knew she had fallen asleep. It had never occurred to him to wonder why she had fallen asleep in the middle of the day in the bright sun while lying on his back as he did pushups when she couldn’t sleep at home in her own bed at night. If he had, he may not have been so surprised to see she what she had decided on doing with her dream guardian.
When she had finally made it home that night she had found a plain brown wrapped parcel on her pillow. Curiously she had opened it, noting the faint but still identifiable scent of Kakashi’s apartment clinging to the contents causing her a moment of confusion. She couldn’t quite figure what the occasion may be for him to be giving her a gift. Feeling a little puzzled, she read the little card that had been included outlining what the gift was and a short explanation of what to do with it in case she hadn’t seen or heard of one before. For an instant Sakura had been angry at his presumption before giving in to her own sense of self preservation. She hadn’t been sleeping well and knew it was starting to affect her performance in the team – this was Kakashi’s not so subtle way of trying to help her. Though he hadn’t signed it or included a personal note or any other identifiers she had known it was from him by the distinctive mixed scent of sandalwood and cedar – the natural moth preventatives he utilized in his apartment since he tended to be gone for long periods of time. Sakura had smiled a little, albeit confusedly, at the thought of the infamous Copy Ninja giving her a doll. If it ever got out, he would never live it down. Her grin had widened at the thought; good thing that she had no intentions of letting it get out.
He had watched her, her expression going from complete anger to something like resignation and finally settling on an expression he couldn’t quite identify. She smiled a bit at apparently nothing before dubiously setting about decorating the little blank doll with bits and pieces she pulled from various projects scattered around her room. He had settled in one of the trees outside one of her windows to make sure she received the package and at least gave it a try. The older shinobi had taken his leave before she completed her project, but had been satisfied with the results the next day when she hadn’t seemed nearly as tired.
Kakashi would never have guessed that she had dressed the little doll like him. If she were to dress it as anyone he would have expected it would have been the Uchiha. Shaking his head he decided he would never understand the kunoichi mind. Slowly it dawned on him that the fact that he had been the one to rescue her had apparently had more of an effect on her than he could have anticipated. Though he had not seen it until nearly a decade later, there it was and he wasn’t sure what if anything to do about it. Hastily he pushed the thought aside focusing instead on the fact that she had kept the little doll and still apparently sought some sort of comfort from it.
Sakura shifted again in her sleep, pulling the little doll closer, mumbling some nonsense about cinnamon spice chocolate truffles. Kakashi took that as his cue; he had been there long enough and now had something completely unexpected to think about. Silently he turned from the pink haired kunoichi, making a mental note to stop in again later in the day to see how she was doing.
As he was about to slip between the curtains, a mischievous idea struck him and he was unable to stop himself from acting on it. Quietly he snuck back to her bedside, taking one of the smaller pale green throw pillows from a nearby chair as he passed. He studied her for a moment, waiting for his opening. Finally her arms loosened as she fell into a deeper sleep. Stealthily, putting his shinobi skills to dubious use, he managed to exchange the pillow for the doll without much more than a faintly upset sounding grumble before she slipped back into a deeper sleep.
Grinning triumphantly he edged away from her line of sight should she wake, prize in hand. Once he was out of her line of vision Kakashi took a moment to study the little doll. Sakura had done a surprisingly good job with it, right down to the scar bisecting his left eye and the always activated Sharingan. Curious and feeling strangely voyeuristic he carefully pushed the doll’s mask down to pool around its neck. He had to bite back a startled laugh so as not to wake the sleeping kunoichi.
Evidently she had changed her mind more than once as to how she wanted to depict his face. Interested more than he should have been, he uncovered his left eye to assess the faint traces of markings and try to ascertain what had graced the little doll’s face before the relatively nondescript face she had settled on. Judging from some of the some of the smudged features he could make out at least three previous faces, one with a huge and unsightly mole, one with large equally unsightly fish lips and a third with enormous buckteeth. Chuckling quietly to himself, the elite jonin realized she had probably changed it depending on how angry he had made her during training, though why she had finally settled on the rather plain face instead of one of the grossly exaggerated ones he couldn’t quite figure.
Sliding his forehead protector back into place he decided it was time for him to take his leave. Glancing over at the still sleeping medic as he carefully made his way back to her balcony he grinned, wondering how long it would take for her to notice that her dream guardian was missing. Clearly she cared for the little thing and would likely be upset at seemingly misplacing it, so he figured it wouldn’t be long. Already his mind was working out the details of what he figured would be an entertaining game for him.
~*~*~*~
Feeling fully recovered she decided to stop by the hospital for a few moments to check on a couple things before heading to the café where she had arranged to meet her blonde friend Ino. To avoid making a scene she used one of the back entrances and stuck to the lesser used corridors and carefully made her way to her office.
Upon entering she found her eyes unwillingly gazing at her desk before anything else. Quietly she groaned as she took note of a potted flowering cactus. Against her better judgment she drew closer and extracted the tiny scrap of paper partially sticking out from under the pot and read it:
‘Unlike you these flowers don’t need much water…’
“Oh that miserable old man is going to pay…” she grumbled at his teasing note. Though she had to admit the cactus was quite beautiful and just the sort of plant any active shinobi might stand a chance of keeping alive.
~*~*~*~
Carefully he printed on the back of the Polaroid in bold block letters as to disguise his hand writing:
‘Sakura,
Since you were feeling under the weather and no longer needed me I decided to take the opportunity to do a little traveling. Don’t worry I’ll keep in touch.
Yours,
Kakashi’
Chuckling to himself he carefully dropped the photo of her dream guardian - propped up on the rooftop of the hospital with the Hokage Monument in the background - into a stamped envelope addressed to his former student. He would drop it in the mail just before his next mission.
