Drown
No matter where you are
I can still hear you when you drown

Sakura woke up with a pair of paws on her face.

More specifically, the infamous soft-padded and pink paws of Pakkun, on her face

"Sakura. Oi, Sakura." the little dog said, huge brown eyes blinking down on her.

She rubbed her eyes, and took a second to gain her bearings. She was in her bedroom, and based on the room temperature and the lack of sunlight, it was very early morning indeed. "Pakkun...?" she muttered sleepily. "What's wrong?"

"Bull's bleeding." the miniature pug said shortly before jumping off her bed. The announcement awakened Sakura and made her sit up immediately. She followed the pug's footsteps across her apartment, carefully padding among the other sleeping ninken who took up residence on her floor.

She finally reached Bull and true to Pakkun's word, the great dog's left hind leg was bleeding profusely from a gash that she had patched up earlier. Sakura felt a twinge of conscience when she saw her earlier attempt at patching up Bull had not gone well. It didn't help that the bulldog was looking at her with big, watery eyes.

"Oh Bull." she sighed as she knelt next to the black dog. The bandage was now quite soaked with blood. "I'm sorry. Are you sure you don't want to go to Hana's?" she searched his face hopefully.

The bulldog shook his head in a definite no.

"Bull doesn't get along with Hana's ninken." Pakkun explained as he settled near Sakura's knees. She had heard this excuse last night, but Sakura had underestimated the bulldog's...well, the bulldog's bull-headedness. At fourteen, she was well on her way to a proper medical training alongside her physical training, but for the most part she was still unsure of her skills. She was pretty sure she wasn't ready for treating neither animals nor ninken, but somehow Pakkun and the others didn't seem to think it was an impediment in their treatment.

Sakura took a cursory glance around to check on the other sleeping dogs. Thankfully, they had all arrived at the apartment with no major injuries save for Bull, who had taken the brunt of the fight. The others hadn't all been too forthcoming with what kind of fight they'd been through exactly, but then again, they weren't Kakashi's summons for nothing. Their attitudes towards medical treatment (and giving explanations on how they got their injuries) were very poor and mirrored Kakashi's exactly.

She procured fresh bandages from a nearby drawer and touched the nearest ninken, who unfortunately was Urushi, the unfriendliest of the lot. He awoke with a cranky growl, but this did not deter Sakura. "Urushi, can you please put some pressure on Bull's wound?" she spread a bandage over the bleeding. Urushi complied without much comment as he laid two paws over Bull's injury.

She pushed herself off the floor. "Alright. Please don't move too much, Bull." she instructed as she made her way to the kitchen. She put the kettle on to heat some water, and went through her drawers for fresh bandages. She was in a hurry to get everything that she almost stepped on Pakkun, who had followed her in.

"Ahh-Sorry about that!" she cried as stepped backwards hastily. Pakkun seemed totally unperturbed and even scratched his head using one of his hind legs.

"Sakura-chan, are you visiting Kakashi today?" he asked in the deep voice of his.

She set about to sterilizing the tools that she'd need for Bull's laceration. Sakura had attempted to close the wound entirely by chakra alone last night, but it was clear that it wasn't enough due to her relative inexperience. "Yes, of course."

"How is he?"

"He's going to be out of it for a little while, but he's gonna make it." Sakura sat down on the kitchen table. Watched sterilization never boiled, after all. "You gotta tell him to take it easy, Pakkun. He's not as young as he used to be."

"What do you mean? He's only twenty-eight." the little dog nimbly jumped up the table to face her.

"You know what I mean." Sakura absently scratched Pakkun behind his ear. It was probably a sign of Pakkun's trust in her that he let her. In fact, he actually seemed a bit pleased, if only by the slight ease of his ever-present frown on his tiny face.

Kakashi's pack of ninken surprised her last night with their arrival. Pakkun, the designated spokesman of the pack, explained that they had just arrived from a mission with Kakashi and if they may please crash in her apartment for a while. The mission was classified but Kakashi had to be taken to the hospital. His last instruction was to for the dogs to go straight to Sakura's house to get checked on and rest, and that's what his ninken did. Apparently, Kakashi forgot to further instruct them to do whatever Sakura asked them to do, hence this rather difficult situation with Bull and his unwillingness to get proper medical attention from fully-trained veterinary medic-nin.

"Maybe we can just call Hana-san and bring her here?" Sakura suggested hopefully.

Pakkun shook his head again. "Bull doesn't want to trouble anyone."

Except me, Sakura thought, slightly exasperated. She withdrew her hand from Pakkun's head and went to check on her suturing kit. Satisfied that they were sterilized and ready for use, she proceeded to wash her hands thoroughly, dried them, and snapped the standard medical gloves on.

She marched back to her living room with her warm water and tools. Urushi, more compliant now, quickly scooted off to one side as Sakura settled next to Bull. She conjured a bit of chakra and concentrated on numbing the area that needed to be sutured. It still felt a little strange, using chakra as a sort of an inner eye, seeing the network of nerves and veins as she worked energy around it, but she liked it.

Satisfied that she had anesthetized the concerned area, Sakura set about to suturing Bull's wound. She found that she took to learning medicine fairly quickly, as it required a specific kind of concentration and book-smarts that she hadn't exercised since leaving the Academy.

Pakkun padded next to her as she began suturing. All the other dogs had fallen asleep, and even Bull himself looked as if he was about to doze off himself. Apropos of nothing, the miniature pug spoke up again. "Can you please bring him a change of clothes and his...uh, reading material at the hospital? He likes wearing his own stuff when he's confined, and we dogs aren't allowed inside."

"Yes, Mommy." Sakura joked gently. It amused her to see the tiny dog to be such a mother hen towards a person like Kakashi.

Pakkun nodded, satisfied and finally settled down the ground. He watched her suture Bull for a little while before he spoke up again. "How are you these days, Sakura?"

"I've been fine, Pakkun, thanks for asking." She was already four stitches in. She was glad that at least her anesthesia had held on pretty well. Bull was practically asleep.

"It's just that we haven't seen you for a while."

"That's because you guys only go here when you need something." she chided gently.

"Do you still use the same shampoo as me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course not! Switched to another brand the next day you mentioned it."

"Hey, I don't do the grocery shopping. Kakashi must've liked the smell to have picked it up." There was a hint of amusement in Pakkun's deep voice now.

"Typical men. Can't even be bothered to check out other fragrances." Sakura heaved an all-suffering sigh. She giggled at the mental image of Kakashi at the grocery, unscrewing shampoo bottles and sniffing each and every one fussily. It was nice that Pakkun was asking her about her life, though. It rather felt like old times. She was closing up now, and set about to adhere the tissue using tools and chakra together.

She would've been happy to let sleeping dogs lie-so to speak-if she hadn't noticed Pakkun's tail wagging...worryingly. She hazarded a guess:

"Do you wanna come along with me to see Kakashi tomorrow, Pakkun?" she asked quietly as she surveyed her work along Bull's leg. She noticed that the rest of the ninken suddenly raised their ears in interest. "Sorry, just Pakkun!" she apologized. They immediately went back to pretending to sleep.

"Well, I suppose if you can smuggle me in..." the pug sniffed.

Sakura gently nudged Bull. "How does it feel, Bull?" she asked.

Bull lowered his head to sniff experimentally at his fresh bandages, and then nodded. "It's fine," Pakkun translated for him. "He'll just need to rest."

"Good." Sakura began to gather up her kit. She glanced at Pakkun, who was still quite awake unlike the others. "How bad was the mission, anyway? You seem quite worried."

"Well..." of course the little dog was reticent to say more than he already had. "It was...tricky. Kakashi usually doesn't like summoning us when he doesn't need to. Let's just say that on this occasion, he really needed to."

"Well...thanks for the non-answer, Pakkun." she tried not to show her annoyance, but what Pakkun said was something she already knew. But since he had taken time off from being a jounin-sensei, she sensed that Kakashi was being sent to more high-profile missions as of late. And high-profile meant danger, and danger meant him ending up in the hospital. At first, she had actually hoped that these A-rank missions were actually retrieval missions for Sasuke, but as time went on she was slowly disabused of those notions. Life did not start nor end with her former teammate, after all. As time went on, now, Sakura began to worry about her former teacher when he disappeared for long periods of time. When had he started to seem so vulnerable to her?

She pondered on this realization as she washed her hands and got ready to go back to bed. As she clambered back in between the sheets, she was struck with a memory from her genin days.

It was after that ridiculous cat retrieval mission, and they were on their way home. They had taken turns in carrying the cat in her cage, and it was her turn at that time of the day. Naruto and Sasuke had run off ahead, bickering as usual, and she was left alone with Kakashi-sensei, which was the norm those days. She stared longingly at the backs of her two teammates, always wanting in on the action, but never quite sure how to be.

Kakashi-sensei was rubbing a small scratch the cat had bestowed on his one exposed cheek. He did this absentmindedly, like he did most things, one gray eye staring blankly into the distance. He'd been doing that on and off since that damned animal scratched him, and it distracted her long enough to ask if he was alright.

The jounin simply chuckled and said, "If you ask that after every injury I get, you'll wear out that phrase pretty quickly."

That remark had seemed innocuous at the time. Truthfully, for Sakura, it had all seemed like a fun game in those days. She knew better, she did, but when you spent most days chasing down escaped pets, being a ninja didn't seem so bad. Or too difficult.

How wrong she was.

She stared at the ceiling, worrying. Always worrying, until sleep finally overcame her.

Sakura's day started early and thankfully, she woke up without Pakkun trailing paw prints all over her face. She had a quick breakfast surrounded by Kakashi-sensei's ninken. She stared at the dogs as they bent over their dog dishes, vaguely certain that she should feel slighted by this arrangement as Kakashi-sensei's glorified dog-sitter, but she couldn't seem to muster up enough feelings about it. Technically, he never even asked her, but then again, that was just Kakashi-sensei's way.

After breakfast, she made certain that all the dogs had water and food on standby, and that Bull's wound was healing nicely. The ninken accepted her fussiness without much comment, although Bisuke wanted to be babied a little bit, which was solved with an unearned-for treat. Satisfied that she would leave them all happy (though unattended) for most of the day, Sakura grabbed her bag and went, Pakkun at her heels.

It was a warm summer morning as she stepped out into the streets of Konoha. Tsunade-sama had left a few days ago on official Hokage business, but she made sure that she left Sakura with tasks that would fill up her time while she was gone. She walked briskly, past market stalls and familiar buildings, smiling at passers-by who couldn't help but coo at the sight of tiny Pakkun with his tiny hitai-ate and his tiny vest, and whoa! He talked too!

Finally, the pair reached Sakura's first stop of the day: the training grounds. In the distance, she could make out the matching bright green jumpsuits of Lee and Gai-sensei. Team Gai was already starting on their warmups when Sakura jogged over.

"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" Lee said happily as she approached. Tenten waved, smiling, and even Neji managed to give her a friendly nod. "And Pakkun!" Lee acknowledged the ninken. "Hello!"

"Good morning, everyone!" Sakura was glad that she was scheduled to train with Team Gai today, whom she felt the most comfortable with. She usually was handed from team to team on the occasion that Tsunade-sama was away. It made her feel bad at first, Team 7's orphan member butting in with everyone else, but eventually she found the unique experience fun in its way. Each team had their own dynamic, she learned a lot more, and she got to know the others the way she wouldn't have had if she still had her own team.

"Ah, Sakura-san, the morning is made more glorious by your presence!" Gai-sensei greeted enthusiastically. And then he made her do a hundred pushups.

Once the (rather tortuous) warm ups were done, Gai-sensei teamed her up with Neji to spar. The Hyuga bowed rather stiffly, his loosely-tied dark hair falling over his shoulder. She heard Tenten laugh in the distance at him, "Stupid, it's just Sakura," the girl teased, which earned a grumbled mutter from the boy. The kunoichi merely laughed again, and the exchange made Sakura's heart ache a bit. Neji and Tenten were dancing closely together in this strange, unnamed thing of affections, and although it was amusing and heartwarming to see, Sakura couldn't help but wonder: Could've this been her and Sasuke, if he stayed?

But that was neither here nor there. Neji gave her his full attention again. "I heard from Gai-sensei about Tsunade-sama teaching you her own techniques." he began. He raised his arms in the typical stance of the Gentle Fist, and the two began to circle each other slowly. "I have great respect for the Hokage, but frankly, I think for a medic-nin, her style is a little too confrontational."

This earned a grin from Sakura. "And what would you suggest, Neji-kun?"

"I think learning a bit of the Gentle Fist would be beneficial, Sakura-san. Or at least, the essence of our fighting style. You are one of Konoha's most promising medics, after all, and you'll need all the help you can get," he said seriously. She wondered if it was a typical Hyuga dig about how their fighting style was always superior or whatever. She supposed that he had a point. The Hyuga's fighting style was all about the flow, and using their opponent's energy against them. However, Sakura was loathe to admit it, as she felt it would be disloyal to her mentor.

"Let's begin," Sakura said. She opened first with a direct chakra-fuelled punch at Neji, with the full intent of finding how he would redirect her offensive. He moved quickly, parrying her blow by moving sideways and gripping the back of her forearm, before he swivelled and elbowed her hard in her back, causing her to crash several meters away from him.

"Neji-san, take it easy!" she heard Lee shout out in concern. In a few seconds Lee himself was assisting her to get up. She tried not to show how much that hit hurt physically and ego-wise, but she couldn't help but wince when she got back on her feet.

"Neji, if you keep that up, Sakura-chan won't want to spar with us anymore!" Tenten complained loudly. "And I like her around, she ups the cuteness of this team by like, a hundred percent."

"Neji-san, you should really consider about renaming that fighting style of yours. It's a misnomer." Sakura acknowledged with a grimace.

Neji simply shrugged. "Maybe I'll bring it up with Hinata-sama when she is clan leader someday." Was that a joke? With Neji, Sakura couldn't be sure. She took up her stance again, Neji doing the same. She opened again with the same attack, and Neji countered the same, but this time, she mirrored his movements. They spun around each other in a graceful swivel, Sakura mindful to keep an eye to mimic Neji's next move. They continued this for a while, parrying and countering each other in a dance, until Neji decided to end it with a quick sweeping kick, which made her fall hard on her behind.

"NEJI!" she heard Tenten scold.

The Hyuga shrugged. "What? It's time for lunch, anyway."

Lee, ever the gentleman, was already next to her in a flash. Sakura had long given up trying to turn down Lee's helpful gestures. He was, after all, not undermining her, but he wasn't one to ignore a lady flat on her butt.

"Sorry about that," Lee apologized.

"Oh, no, no, no." Sakura protested as she glanced at Neji's retreating back. "It's alright."

She settled herself under a tree with the rest of Team Gai as they dug into their lunch. They talked about nothing in particular, gossip and news about the other villages, rumored S-class missions. It took a while, a whole year actually, before the other teams began to feel comfortable talking about these normal, everyday things with her. Sasuke's absence had plagued her, more than in of itself, but with how she related with other people, like the mere mention of his name would drive her into hysterical tears. He hung over her like a dark cloud, for everyone to see. Fortunately, eventually they all had stopped stepping on eggshells around her and talked normally, although Sasuke's name was hardly, if ever, mentioned at all.

"So, Sakura-chan," Gai-sensei began conversationally. "How is my eternal rival?"

"Well, I'm supposed to check up on him at the hospital after training." she said, trying to talk over Neji and Tenten's bickering ("You're such a show-off!" "No I'm not." "Yes, you so are.") "It doesn't seem to be too serious, his confinement, but he'll be needing a lot of rest."

The jounin nodded solemnly. Sakura was quite surprised how...calm Gai-sensei was on a normal basis (i.e. when Kakashi-sensei wasn't around to rile him up with his mere presence). "Well, I look forward to our next challenge. Please let him know that."

"Yes, Gai-sensei," Sakura said obediently, not that Kakashi-sensei needed any reminding on that front.

Beside her, Pakkun dozed, little nose twitching. It was really a nice day, Sakura thought. She was glad that Team 7's unofficial dissolution didn't mean that she got left out on things. Admittedly, she had been afraid of that, and loathe as she was to deny Naruto to strike out on her own, she did feel a sense of abandonment after everything was said and done. Maybe that's why she clung onto Kakashi-sensei in her own way. He was the only remnant of what had been her life before.

The thought of her former teacher spurred her onto her feet, waking Pakkun up. "Thanks for letting me train, Gai, Lee-kun, everyone," she said, bowing slightly. "But I've really got to go back to the hospital."

"Aw, already?" Lee made no effort in hiding his disappointment, bless him. "But you only just got here! We hardly see you around anymore, Sakura-chan."

"Lee, you're so clingy..." Tenten muttered.

Sakura smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Lee-kun. I'll make it up to you one of these days." Pakkun was already on his feet, ready to go. With another bow, she ran off, but was stopped by Neji's voice.

"Sakura-san."

The Hyuga approached her and bowed formally. "Your technique could use some more work. You're welcome to spar with me or Hinata-sama at the Hyuga compound."

Sakura blinked, slightly taken aback. She chanced a look at Tenten, wondering if the kunoichi put Neji up to this. She wouldn't know, since the girl had now turned her attention to Lee, laughing away quietly. Sakura looked back at Neji. "That's very kind of you, Neji-san. Thank you."

"Alright." he hesitated, pale eyes resting on her face tentatively, as if choosing his words carefully. "Well, have a good day, then." With that, he turned to go.

Huh. How strange.

"Well, that's nice of him." Pakkun remarked. Sakura jumped a little. She had forgotten he was around.

"Neji-san's improved a lot over the years, he was worse than Sasuke-kun when I first met him," Sakura admitted as they began their walk towards Konoha Hospital, the pug trotting beside her.

"People can change," Pakkun said, astute as always.

She wondered if he was talking about Neji or Sasuke. She shrugged. "They can. But I'm finding out that they'd only change if they really want to. Sometimes I think..." she sighed. And here she was so happy to have one day without Sasuke being brought up.

"What?" Pakkun prodded.

"Kakashi-sensei told me that Orochimaru's curse seal wouldn't have had that much power over Sasuke-kun if Sasuke had really fought against it." She looked up at the sky, the fluffy white clouds. It was a really nice day. Pity. "I sometimes wonder who I really was talking to that night he left-Sasuke or his rage. But now I'm starting to think that they were one and the same all along."

"Hmmm." Pakkun looked thoughtful, his little paws pit-pattering against the pavement as they navigated through Konoha's city proper. "I didn't know Sasuke all that well, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I want to. But he's not the only one who's had a difficult life around here. Naruto had a hard life. Neji had a difficult life, as well. But they are not as half as enraged and vengeful as Sasuke. Kakashi-"

Sakura sharply turned her head towards Pakkun. "Sensei? What about him?"

"Nothing." Pakkun said quickly. "My point is, Sasuke's life is quite tragic. What happened to him is horrifying and unprecedented. But..."

"But what?"

"Nothing." The ninken seemed anxious to drop the matter entirely and hurried along. Sakura had half the mind to yell at him about it...but she'd have to catch up with him first. Pakkun had already disappeared in the crowd.

Kakashi-sensei's room was quiet save for the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor. Sakura slid the door closed behind her softly and let Pakkun out of her bag. The pug tolerated the ignominy of being stuffed inside her messenger bag. In fact, Sakura was pretty sure that the nurse at the reception knew that she was keeping a dog in there, but let it slide because of all the work she did for the hospital. She was officially the worst ninja ever.

Pakkun hopped onto the hospital bed and mirroring what he did earlier to her, placed soft paws on the copy ninja's face. Unfortunately, this didn't wake Kakashi-sensei up. The older man slept on, oblivious to the world.

She checked his vital signs and checked his stats. Pretty much the same as yesterday Sighing, she made sure that his sheets were tucked in well. It was the least she could do.

She studied his sleeping face for a few moments. She remembered being twelve years old, being in the same position of caretaker of him after that fight with Zabuza. She didn't feel too concerned then-he had seemed so strong and he just needed to sleep it off. But nowadays, she started to feel a little bit...scared? For him. Surely, being knocked unconscious for days on end was not good for you? The sharingan, despite the nearly flawless transplant, still whirled with its own foreign chakra and power. Kakashi-sensei just only barely managed to keep it under control, and it was only now that Sakura was beginning to think that this may have more serious repercussions later on in his life.

She reached out to scratch Pakkun's ear. "Happy now?" she asked.

The little dog sighed heavily. "A bit, I guess. You're going to stay?"

"Of course. Got some reading to catch up on." She held up her heavy medical textbook, as if to prove that she was really a medic-nin student. Pakkun gave her one of his trademark toothy grins before snuggling right on top of Kakashi's chest. It was endearing, really. It never occurred to her how attached Pakkun was to his summoner, considering how prickly the both of them were. Sakura settled on one of the couches with a small smile. She was used to this, watching over Kakashi, reading from her textbooks aloud (talking to comatose patients were good). It used to be a lonely existence, but she thought about Team Gai and Neji's generous offer and it didn't really feel like that anymore.

She wasn't sure what time she fell asleep, but it was still dark out when she was shaken awake.

Tsunade-sama's amber eyes glimmered in the half-light as she peered into Sakura's face. Her shinobi instincts took over and she quickly assessed the situation: Kakashi was already awake and sitting up in his bed, arms crossed, expression serious. Pakkun was nowhere to be found. Two ANBU operatives stood near the foot of the hospital bed, their masks glowing faintly in the moonlight.

The Hokage didn't spare her any greetings nor pleasantries. "Sakura, it's time to go home now."

"Tsunade-sama?" she rubbed her eyes, glancing between her two mentors. "What's going on? Kakashi-sensei, you're awake, that's so good..." she began weakly. She made a move towards him, but was stopped in her tracks.

Kakashi refused to look at her. "I think you should go, Sakura," he said, his voice flat.

"Oh, alright." She tried to keep the hurt out of her voice as she hurriedly scrambled to collect her things. Where was Pakkun? What was going on? Why was Kakashi angry? But she really had no time to think these over as she darted out of the room, things still falling out of her bag.

The door slammed shut in her face. Sakura stared at it for a whole two minutes, the situation not really settling in just yet.

"Hey." Pakkun's voice called out to her from down the hall. The dog raised himself up from a sleeping position, cocking his head. "They threw you out?"

Sakura nodded mutely. The pug wandered over and sighed.

"Well, not the first time it happened. You don't have to look like they, well, like they killed your pet." he laid a consoling paw on her right foot.

"Pakkun...how'd he wake up?"

The ninken sighed heavily again. "The Hokage induced him to wake up. She has that ability."

She filed that information away for future reference. "Isn't that bad for him, though?"

"I should think so." Pakkun scratched his head with his hind leg. "We shouldn't really talk about it here. Let me take you home." The idea that such a small dog would be escorting her home would've been laughable a few years ago, but Sakura had seen enough of Pakkun's skills to know that he was formidable.

No more words were shared the whole walk home until they finally reached Sakura's apartment. Before she slid the key in, she looked at Pakkun. "Hey..."

"Hmm?"

"Pakkun...if anything happens to Kakashi-sensei, you'll let me know, right?"

He looked surprised. "Of course, Sakura-chan. You didn't have to ask."

It was her turn to be surprised. "I didn't?"

"If it helps any, you're the emergency contact he listed in his records. He didn't have one for the longest time." How and why Pakkun was privy to this information would remain a mystery for a very long time.

"I am?" Why did this information make her so sad and so relieved at the same time? How could anyone go to A-class and S-class missions without an emergency contact? How long had Kakashi been alone?

Pakkun shook his head and padded on ahead. "Whatever happened back there in the hospital, Sakura-chan, you shouldn't take against him." Sakura nodded dumbly and followed him in.

The dogs were sprawled around her apartment exactly as she had left them (well, not exactly...someone had slobbered dog food on her carpet). Bull raised his head and gave a woof hello. She went over to check if he was healing well, which seemed the case.

Still slightly dazed over the day's events, Sakura actually went on to clean up her apartment, much to the ninken's disgruntlement. At the end of it, she was so tired that she finally collapsed on her bed and fell asleep.

A week had passed until she heard from Kakashi again.

Tsunade-sama was away again and she took up Neji's offer to learn more from him. She was turning to become like Lee: All work and hardly any play. On the upside, her little knowledge of Gentle Fist was improving. At least, Neji seemed to think so. The Hyuga clapped her back in a surprisingly friendly way. "Well done, Sakura-san. A little more practice and I might get penalized for teaching you too much."

"Ah, well!" she giggled, unsure. "I'm sorry in advance?"

"You're amazing, Sakura-chan!" Lee enthused.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei is here." Tenten said, pointing to the other side of the training grounds. Sure enough, the silver-haired stood there, smiling behind his mask as he was wont to do. He waved over at her.

Sakura nodded at Team Gai before she approached her jounin-sensei. She wondered if she should show she was annoyed at him due to the past week's events, but truthfully, it was water off her back the moment Pakkun told her about being Kakashi's emergency contact. "Hi, sensei! What's up?"

He scratched the area just above his lopsided hitai-ate. "Looks like I missed your spar with Neji."

She raised an eyebrow. "Not that you were ever interested in this thing called my training!"

He made a pouting sound. "You wound me." He handed a rather large box to her. "This is for you."

She blinked in surprise. Kakashi wasn't exactly a person known for giving gifts. She opened it in one movement. A pair of uniform shoes lay nestled in the box. She looked up again. "What's this for?"

"Pakkun told me about your sad shoe situation. Why don't you buy new ones? You shouldn't wear the same pair two days in a row, Sakura-chan. You'd wear them out quicker doing that."

"Well, thanks for the information, but you didn't really need to."

"Just try them one of these days, you'll see." Kakashi replied, evading her response. He gave her a two-finger salute. "Well, I better get going."

She hesitated for a split second, then caught on the sleeve of his sweater. "Sensei, wait."

"Hn?"

"I'd just like to ask a favor too, since you ask me favors all the time."

"I'd like to argue that, but I'm afraid I don't have time. What is it?"

"Pakkun told me that I'm your emergency contact; is this true?" She forced herself to look him straight in the eye.

He didn't even blink. "Yes, it's true."

"Well, then...is it alright if you be my emergency contact, too?"

Now he looked surprised. "But you have your parents," he said softly.

"I know. But I feel better if you were my emergency contact, too. You know better what to do with me than them, anyway." she said truthfully. They both fell silent. What remained unsaid, that they were all that was left of Team 7, hung in the air, heavy like oncoming rain.

He closed his one visible eye. "Alright, Sakura. If that's what you want."

She nodded. "That's what I want."

"I don't promise to come on time to your funeral on time, though."

"I would never demand that of you."

"Good girl." She finally let him go, and watched him disappear in one quick movement. She glanced down at her new shoes. How odd. Leave it to Kakashi to give her such a...practical gift. She wondered if it was to make up for the way he dismissed her last week. With Kakashi, she really wouldn't know. But still, it felt nice. He did look after her in his own way.

With a smile, she replaced the cover back on the box and walked back to where Team Gai was waiting.

A/N: I'm sooooooo sorry for the late update!

I've always been intrigued by Team 7's "lost years" aka the two years where Sakura and Naruto were off training and Kakashi was...doing whatever it was he was doing. I could write so much stuff around these years, but I would like to think that Kakashi and Sakura were pretty much each other's support group at this time. I wanted to capture what Sakura's normal day would've been like at this time, so I'm sorry if this is not as plotty as you would've liked. AND YES NEJI HNNNNNG I WANTED TO INCLUDE HIM AND TEAM GAI SO BAD, KISHI WAS AWFUL TO THEM.

As always, I'd really love it if you left a review! Thank you for reading.