It starts off small at first. Light, meaningless touches. Sakura's shoulder brushes against his as they walk together, her hand lingers a bare second too long after she shoves him for some comment. She laughs at something Ino says, checks him with her hip. It's only when he looks down at those green eyes shining with something that looks like mirth, that he realises he's being teased.

Apparently his focus isn't what it was.

Kakashi wonders if she's testing the boundaries of their relationship. it's true they've grown closer over the past few months, years even. She's dropped the sensei when she says his name, and he's pretty sure that he lost the right to call her his student years ago, anyway. They're comrades now (friends, he thinks, when the word doesn't make him want to cover up the rest of his face). Icha Icha informs him that that it's not unusual for at least one person in that sort of relationship to start wanting more.

But there's nothing testing about the touches. She doesn't pause after each one, or sneak glances at him to see how he reacts. She doesn't even seem to notice that she's doing it, half the time. Kakashi spends an hour analysing whether or not her picking a leaf from his hair had any deeper meaning before he realises that the person wanting more here might be him.

He should probably feel guilty about that, but he doesn't. Shinobi know that life is short, that you have to grasp at happiness while you still have the arms to reach for it. He thinks about names on the cenotaph, the sheer sense of dread that overcomes him at having yet another one to visit there. But Sakura is already one of his precious people, one of the faces that spur him on or bring him up short, depending on the crisis of the moment. It's not exactly a switch that gets flicked on and off with how often you're thinking about kissing someone.

So maybe there's nothing testing about her touches. The same can't be said of his. And a curious, even pleased glint in those green eyes of hers says that maybe she knows.