---

a/n: hey everyone, i decided to continue this fic. i felt too bad leaving it at just one chapter, and i still like the idea and everything...i just dont know how to go through with it. so please, if any of you have ideas or tips, please tell me! i'd absolutely love for some input.

please review and let me know what you thought! otherwise this story's as good as dead again. xD

but yeah, if there's anyone who would like to help me plan this out, that'd be absolutely fantastic. :D PM me if you're interested, I'm just worried that since I'm not accustomed to writing action or elaborate plots that this story will fail hard. xDDD

ENJOY! it's short, sorry.

---

That night, Sakura lay on her back sprawled across her bed, trying to sift through all of her thoughts on the subject of their now ex-sensei. It just didn't seem right. The greatest Jounin that Konoha had, suddenly betraying his own village? She shook her head to herself. Was she the only one who saw the inconsistencies?

She rolled over onto her stomach, and heaved a sigh. Her chest was tight with the pain of all the memories they had shared together as a team. Their first day meeting one another, those risky missions...the way they had united to do their best and retrieve Sasuke. They had tried together, and failed together. How could she not feel a strong, albeit invisible bond with her teacher? Was it wrong of her to doubt his betrayal?

She recalled the day she heard the news, standing with Iruka while overlooking the village lake. He told her, swiftly and emotionlessly. His eyes were hardened to the point that she couldn't make out any underlying feelings behind them, and his voice didn't shake as she thought it would. Perhaps he had already reconciled himself with it, and put aside his doubts. But how? He had been one of Kakashi's closest comrades...

A failed mission. All shinobi but one killed. The blood on the survivor's vest, accompanied by his cold confession had sealed him as the perpetrator. Hatake Kakashi.

Sakura gnawed her lip. He was subsequently revoked his citizenship, and the infamous slash was cut across the leaf emblem on his forehead protector. He was no longer anything. Just a shamed ronin.

She wondered to herself what he was doing right now...Was he cold and lonely? Was he sitting by a fire, perhaps with some people he had met on his journey?

She found her unlikely answer with a tap on her window.

She jumped, and her blood ran cold. She placed her pillow over her head so as to seem inconspicuous and hide, but her legs were shaking so much that she figured it would give her stance away.

Another tap, this one harder. She peeked out from beneath her pillow shyly, until a muffled voice through the window glass began to speak.

"Sakura?"

She lifted the pillow from her head and slunk off her bed, squinting to try and make out any shapes in the darkness beyond her window. A few moments later, a face pressed itself to the glass, and she let out a blood-curdling scream, falling back.

Sakura just about wet her pants. No...it was impossible...that face had to be mistaken, perhaps she was really dreaming? She warily poked her head over her nightstand to see outside the window again. The face didn't move, but blinked sadly.

She reached out slowly, and fumbled with the latch on the window to open it, mouth agape.

"Sakura?" the voice hissed. "Do you recognize me?"

How could she not? The tousled silver hair, the trademark scar...the blood red shine of the sharingan... It was him. But how?

"You...I have to be dreaming," she let out, growing faint.

He chuckled. "You look as though you've seen a ghost..." His face shifted and he poked his head into her window.

"H-How are you even here?!" she blurted out. "Y-You're...you're not ALLOWED here!"

"I snuck through the village gates," Kakashi replied evenly, his voice low. "The guards were all asleep - as usual. You know, it's a wonder we don't have any late night terroristic threats - those boys could sleep through just about anything."

Now she had two things to feel faint about. Sakura stepped closer, and reached out to let her thumb brush over his masked jaw. "Is it really you?" she wondered softly.

"Yes." His eyes looked a bit weathered, as if the weight of sadness had forced them down. He looked a few years too old for his age of only 31, and his hair was accentuated with clumps of loose dirt.

"May I come in?" he reiterated cautiously.

She nodded numbly. "Just...just make your way out to the front, I'll let you in."

He nodded, and crept away from her window.

She made her way to the front door and flipped on a lamp beside it. He was waiting behind the door, peering around himself as if a villager would spot him at any moment. She opened the door, and frowned. He looked like a thin, wounded survivor of a man. His clothes literally hung off of him, and he looked as though he hadn't had a decent bath in decades. He hurried past her, and she shut the door swiftly.

"I know you're going to ask first why I'm here, but can we save it for after I have something to eat?" he asked, rushed. He was still looking around with the paranoia of a madman.

"Sure," Sakura whispered, and led him to the kitchen. She began heating up some water for instant ramen, and from the corner of her eye she saw him sit down in a chair uneasily.

"I'm thankful that you let me in..." he murmured, glancing down at his hands. He wore a ragged black traveler's cloak, and a simple vest and pants beneath. "I know most people would rather kill me than even look at me around here...But I had an inkling that you'd be one of the maybe two people who would hear me out and let me in."

She glanced at him from over her shoulder. "Why's that?"

"Because you're not like the others," he responded simply, leaving it at that.

"So, then why ARE you here?"

"I needed to see you."

She stirred the water absently, pouring in the crunchy instant noodles once the water began to boil. "Why not Naruto?"

"Because you and I both know that while his head may be clouded with doubt, he'd be one of those to probably beat me to death before hearing me out."

She winced, but nodded. It was true. Naruto felt this betrayal on a personal scale above all other people - if Kakashi crossed his line of vision, he'd be deathly endangered.

"The truth is, I'm going to begin a pathetic attempt of convincing you that I'm not the criminal they've made me out to be."

"And why should I believe you?" Sakura shot quickly.

"Exactly. Technically you shouldn't. I have no proof - I have only my word. And this is a situation which, as your teacher I'd advise you to avoid out of riskiness....But, also as your teacher, I encourage you to at least let me tell my part, because this is me." He looked at her pleadingly.

Sakura poured his noodles into a bowl, and strode over to hand it to him alongside a pair of chopsticks. Kakashi pulled down his mask and looked down at the bowl's contents as if they were a full 3 course meal, and began devouring them at a speed that even Naruto would have to admire. Once the noodles were completely gone, he handed the bowl back to her, smiling sheepishly.

"As you can probably guess, I haven't eaten anything good since I left..."

It was hard for Sakura to accept these crappy, flavorless instant noodles as 'anything good', and she felt a pang of sympathy for her ex-sensei. She set the bowl in the sink, and pulled up a chair to sit across from him.

"So will you tell your story?" she asked, eyebrows raised in interest.

Kakashi looked extremely relieved, and his maskless face displayed a handsome smile. She'd only ever seen him maskless a few times before - both involving medicnin training, but it still had the same effect on her each time she saw it. His flesh was still a pale, creamy color - if not a bit more ashen from his lifestyle change, and his facial features balanced with one another to create a mix that sent any girl's heart aflutter. Sakura inwardly sighed. Why weren't there other men in the village as handsome as her sensei? And why did this handsome man have to be her sensei?

"All right," he said slowly, and looked down at his hands with a tense expression. "But I'm warning you - it may change how you see this so-called calm we're living through."

END CHAPTER 2