Chapter 34

Time passed then more time passed and then one day...

"Sakura-sama, it's Kakashi-sama. He's waiting for you at your office."

Sakura's heart began to race. After all this time...

"Thank you." Sakura said to the nurse at the front desk and then she proceeded to walk cautiously towards her office.

Kakashi wasn't leaning against the door frame reading his book like he used to. Instead, he leaned against it, his hands shoved into his pockets, head bowed, staring down at the floor. It was only when Sakura approached that he finally lifted his head up to look at her.

"Hi, Sakura," he said quietly.

"Hi, Kakashi," she replied quietly back.

"So, I was just wondering..." Kakashi began, grabbing the back of his neck nervously, "If would you like to have lunch with me?"

"Yes, I'd like that a lot," Sakura smiled at him.

Kakashi smiled back at her in return.

"Let me just-" Sakura said, pointing into her office.

"Yes, of course." Kakashi said.

It was like old times again with Sakura tying up a few loose ends before they left. A few minutes later, she finally took her lab coat off and hung it up on the hook behind her door.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go." Sakura said smiling at him, and then she and Kakashi left the office together, walking closely side by side.

A warm gentle breeze blew through the trees, making the leaves dance and making Sakura's hair dance, too. She still wore it short, a testament that she would never wear it long again just to please a boy, but her short cropped hair was now mixed with several strands of white, making her pale pink hair look even lighter. They were like cherry blossom petals covered in snow.

Next to her, Kakashi sat, his own spiky hair waving in the wind. His hair, which had always been silver, was now more white than silver, like gray skies overtaken by white clouds and the coming sun.

"At least I still have all my hair even if it isn't the same color anymore," he said to Sakura and Sakura laughed.

"I love it when you laugh," Kakashi said. "It makes your eyes sparkle," he said amused.

"I love it when you laugh, too," Sakura said. "You get laugh lines right here," she said, gently rubbing the corners of Kakashi's eyes.

Kakashi put his hand over Sakura's, pressing her palm harder against his masked cheek. He'd prefer to feel her palm against his bare cheek instead, but they were outside, and besides, there was always time for that later when they got home.

"This is why I keep coming back to you," Kakashi said, closing his old weary eyes and enjoying the warmth of Sakura's hand against the side of his face. "Because you feel like home. You always have."

A hot tear streamed involuntarily down Sakura's cheek. "You feel like home to me, too," she said. "Because you're still the one that I love."

Kakashi nodded, his own tears now dampening his mask and the palm of Sakura's hand pressed against it. He kissed Sakura on the lips then pressed his forehead against hers. "And you're still the one that I love," he told her softly.

When you're young, there are so many unknowns: What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? What am I going to do with my life? But when you're near the end of your life, things take on a more retrospective point of view. You look back at what you did, where you went, and what you did with your life, and all you can ever hope is that you did right by it. That you lived it as fully as you possibly could, took as many risks as you never imagined you would, and loved your loved ones so deeply that when you're gone, your love for them is undeniable.

For the longest time, that's how it had been for Kakashi and Sakura, the two of them constantly asking themselves the question "So what happens now?" but maybe the answer to that question was something that they had known all along.

"You're crying. Why are you guys crying? Are you sad?" a little girl with pink pigtails and onyx black eyes asked.

"No, sweetie. We're not sad, we're happy," Sakura smiled at the little girl, even as tears continued to slide down her cheeks. "Now go on and play, Rose. Your cousins are waiting for you."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Rose asked, still looking at them worriedly.

"Well, now that you asked, how about giving your old grandpa a kiss to make me feel better?" Kakashi said.

The little girl happily lifted her face up and kissed Kakashi on his masked cheek. After all, when someone is crying it means that they're hurt, and when they're hurt, you kiss them to make them feel better.

When she saw the smile in her grandfather's eyes after she had kissed him, she knew that she had done just that and made him feel better.

"You, too, grandma," she told Sakura, and Sakura bent down to get kissed on the cheek also, making Sakura smile.

"There, all better!" Rose laughed happily and then she ran off to play with her cousins.

Sakura held on to Kakashi's arm and rested her head on his shoulder, and Kakashi kissed her on the top of her head before resting his cheek against it, then they contentedly watched as their grandchildren played with the sun setting behind them, turning the sky into vibrant shades of purple, pink, and gold.

The End

Thank you for taking the time to read this story, and a special thank you to those who have faved and left kind and encouraging reviews.

There had been a time when I thought I would just leave this story incomplete because I was so discouraged by how the canon story ended, but because of you guys, you got me to continue on anyway and take this story further than I ever imagined.

I originally planned to end it with Sakura just unmasking Kakashi, but it's gone far beyond that, exploring things I hadn't planned to explore, and playing with ideas I hadn't planned to play with. So thank you for sticking with this story. You helped spark my imagination and creativity and keep this pairing that I love so much alive long after the canon story itself came to an end. KakaSaku lives on because we KakaSaku shippers say they do, and that's all there is to it. Thanks again, everyone, and long live KakaSaku!