Sorry it took me so long!

Enjoy!

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Sakura was used to following Kakashi's orders, so even now that she had a younger version of her sensei in front of her, she didn't oppose him. She followed him in silence as she walked down the path, shuffling a few yards behind him. She looked around, comparing landscapes so familiar to her and yet so strange. It's amazing how a dozen or so years of difference could affect the natural environment.

She tried not to look at Kakashi too often, so as not to accidentally meet his curious gaze, which had happened to them at least twice during this short walk. And then they looked away, too embarrassed by the earlier incident.

Thus, they reached the stream where they had stopped.

Kakashi jumped into the water, but she decided to perch on the shore from where she could observe her companion's actions. She watched as he laid the fly line and hooked a hook at the end of it to form a makeshift fishing rod so as to cast it later on. With the line still in his hand, he glanced at the pink-hair girl over his shoulder, and as soon as their eyes met, they both blushed and looked away in a flash.

Sakura even wanted to start a conversation somehow, she just didn't know how. She felt too intimidated by the earlier events. Plus, she felt strangely tired. Most likely, the technique Kakashi used had something to do with it, as well as the act of time travel itself.

Out of boredom, she began to play with her fingers, forming independent seals.

It was then that Kakashi breathed heavily, and Sakura already knew what was coming up and she inhaled with a hiss, preparing for the worst.

"Sakura..." he began, and then there was a long pause, so he started to play with the fly line in his fingers. "About what happened before..."

"I'm so sorry, Kakashi-sensei!" she blurted out, covering her eyes with her hands.

The young shinobi blinked quickly in surprise, then looked back at her. He was completely surprised by her reaction.

"Can we forget about?" He suggested after a moment.

Sakura stopped shaking and slowly, really slowly, she slipped her hands off her face, then responded to the gaze he was giving her. She was as shocked at his words as he was.

"Of course," she confirmed a little too vigorously, but when Kakashi nodded in response and then looked away, she felt much better.

She had the impression that her first meeting was a burden on her conscience. But now it was somehow easier for her. And she even beamed at him, thereby causing a flush on his masked cheeks, which made Kakashi concentrate on catching fish for tonight's dinner. These, however, didn't catch, but the silence between them really began to bother Sakura. Therefore, out of boredom, or perhaps sheer curiosity, she began to stare at him. She saw him check to see if he had caught something every now and then to pick out an empty hook and then cast it back. She watched how he did it and had to admit that Kakashi was pretty resourceful at a really young age. If she were in his place now, she would probably be sitting with her future apprentice and crying, but not her former sensei. He always seemed to be cool-headed.

"How do you do that, that you are so composed, Kakashi-sensei?" She blurted out so suddenly that she was surprised herself, and when she looked at her companion, she noticed him returning to her with his gaze.

"You mean?" He was surprised, but it wasn't completely visible, except for his raised eyebrow.

"You always..." Sakura began, but paused to consider further words, because she didn't know exactly what she wanted to say and when she took a deep breath, she added; "You are always ready for anything... I mean... gee, I don't know how to explain it to you, sensei."

Kakashi sighed weary.

"Everyone has a different personality," he said, but Sakura shook her head.

"That's not what I mean. Rather... you are always able to predict everything, like during a fight."

"Really?" She must have really interested him, for he suddenly glanced at her, his eyebrow raised questioningly again.

Sakura nodded.

"Each of your encounters with the enemy is well-judged," she said on reflection. "I've always admired you for that because I can't think logically in the heat of a fight. I mean... I just had a duel with Sasori, but it still... well, I'm really far from your level, though that's probably because I'm not a genius like you."

Kakashi listened to her and was really silent for a long time, until he finally shrugged. "It's just hours spent on reading books."

Sakura recalled her sensei's habit of taking his porn novels with him wherever and whenever he'd go, and when a blush spread across her cheeks, she realized that the younger version of Kakashi was probably talking about study books.

Calm down, Sakura! One unfortunate landing, and you keep thinking about it again and again! she warned herself in mind.

"No, that's not it," she said, breaking out of her thoughts. "I really was top student. I knew every book backward and forward... and yet I wouldn't be able to match you."

Suddenly, Kakashi yanked the line, catching a really large fish out of the water. Sakura let out a small sigh of surprise and watched as Kakashi turned towards her; when she belatedly realized that this raving creature had to be kept locked up. And although she did not immediately get what he meant, after a while she reached into one of her empty panniers and opened it; while Kakashi walked over to her, and then put inside the tossing creature, which he had previously wrapped in a kerchief so as not to wet the material of the pouch too much. Then he went to the previous place to start the fishing all over again.

"I really studied a lot, Sakura," he said after a while. "And I trained very hard till fainting, almost."

The sound of her name in his mouth sounded much different than in nowadays. Kakashi, whom she knew well, pronounced them with a great deal of familiarity that they had developed over the years together. From his younger version, it sounded hesitant, as if he wanted her to correct him.

"I trained a lot, too," she said, but realized that it was probably not enough compared to him. "Though apparently not enough compared to you, sensei."

Kakashi sighed resignedly. "I'm sure you're dealing as good as I am," he replied after a moment, not looking at her, for as he was saying his cheeks blushed.

As usual, even as a teenager, Kakashi was able to bring a smile on her face.

"Ah... and, Sakura, could you, please, stop addressing me per sensei? I'm not your teacher yet, and besides, I feel foolish when you talk to me like that."

The smile didn't leave her mouth as she nodded.

Then silence ensued. Sakura has already got used to it, because usually when spending time in his company, she had to take into consideration the fact that he would flick his favourite book out at any moment. Unless he had to be propping himself up on crutches. Nevertheless, compared to Sasuke and Naruto, she was the one who spent most of the time with Kakashi, which in a way developed a kind of bond between them. Well, sometimes they even understood each other without words.

Kakashi caught another fish and follow suit with it just like with the previous one, after that they both stood up, getting ready to leave the stream. Kakashi stamped his bare feet on a sun-heated stone to brush them off the water, then wrapped them in a bandage and put his shoes back on.

Later they continued their journey.

Silently.

~*~

They arrived shortly after, or at least it appeared to be, judging by the familiarity with which her companion was moving around the house.

"Tadaima," Kakashi greeted into the empty space as he slid the door shut behind them.

Sakura expected that from around the corner Mrs. Hatake would stick her head out and greet the stranger kunoichi, while Mr. Hatake. Suddenly something touched Sakura as she reminded herself the scene when the Elder Chiyo nearly attacked Kakashi. His father was the shinobi, wasn't he? He was the White Fang if she remembered correctly. In that case, he might not be home at the time.

However, the silence that fell between her, and Kakashi was really deafening. Although Sakura didn't even know how to start any topic as her thoughts still circled around the uncomfortable one. She felt responsible for landing on him, and for that she didn't realize it immediately, which made her straddling him for a really long time. She was angry with herself for creating such an awkward situation between them that she couldn't stop thinking about it from then on, her eyes still wandering somewhere around his hips as she was too shy to meet his eyes and naively counted that the younger version of her sensei won't see where her eyes rested most of the time.

It was really exhausting, and even in her wildest dreams, she wouldn't have expected herself to be capable of it.

After removing their shoes, they walked from a small hallway to the kitchen, which had a row of cabinets and counters, and a round table with four chairs nearby. Kakashi turned towards her, making Sakura panic at first, then blushing when he reached into her pouch with great ease. The young kunoichi, still engrossed in their earlier incident and with her eyes wandering around his hips, she thought that he had finally decided to punish her for her dirty thoughts and get his revenge for what she had done to him in the training field. She was so frightened that she stopped breathing as his hands moved towards her to open one of her panniers, from which he pulled out the fish he had caught a while ago; and then Sakura felt stupid that she could think of Kakashi doing anything to spite her. When he pulled away from her, she almost breathed a sigh of relief as she was near to the state of pushing him away. His confidence as he reached into her pouch for the fish was downright blatant. But the thoughts that tormented her, were exhausting. Luckily, she didn't say them out loud.

Sakura was still standing near her chaotically arranged shoes, which, compared to the pedantic disposition of her companion's footwear, shocked with their disorder. It was then that Kakashi returned his gaze to her, and as he noticed her staring at their shoes, consternation crossed his face. He never understood girls very well, so he had no idea why the shoes were occupying her thoughts so much. But he shrugged and focused on dressing the fish.

But as he still heard no reaction from his companion for a long time, he said casually; "You can sit at the table." And when that didn't work either, he decided to encourage her more; "I don't bite."

He heard her suck in a breath with a hiss. Well, at least it was some kind of reaction. Immediately afterwards, there was the shuffling of a chair in the room and a soft thud as his companion took her seat at the table. For some reason, his lips twisted into a smile on their own. It was possible that he enjoyed how she obediently carried out his every command, but it shouldn't have surprised him since he was her commander at the right times. However, something hurt him every time he thought about his future, especially when Sakura insisted that he would become her teacher. The position of the commander sounded logical for him, but sensei?! Somehow, he didn't see himself in this role...

He could feel her eyes on him as he chopped the onion according to another recipe, he tried to master to perfection to the accompaniment of pieces of fish frying in a pan. He was just wondering why she hadn't offered to help him with his cooking, since she watched him such boldly. So immersed in his thoughts, he almost led to a tragedy, although the knife barely managed to touch his finger with the blade, and he himself pushed it away from the striking distance at the last moment; but it was reason enough to concentrate on the performed activities, and not to think about anything else.

He also heard Sakura changes position, but decided not to explore the subject, especially after the recent incident that could have ended bloody enough if it weren't for his reflex.

Sakura, on the other hand, watched him prepare the dish with considerable interest, knowing perfectly well not to offer help, because... she and the kitchen didn't cooperate with each other. They were just like two separate tips of an iceberg, but so distant that there was no way they would ever meet. In other words, Sakura in the kitchen meant armageddon.

She was looking around his gloomy, but tidy apartment to somehow distract her thoughts. The silence rang in her ears, because since Kakashi invited her to the table and used a rather interesting phrase to do so, he hadn't said a word. And she was sick of the sound of a knife chopping ingredients, hitting a wooden board. So, overcoming her previous embarrassment, she decided to speak up at last.

"It... It's so quiet in here," she said finally, grunting, because her voice was hoarse when she first tried to speak.

For a moment it seemed to her as if the knife in the boy's hand froze in the air for a short moment, then resumed his activities.

A smile danced on Kakashi's lips because — for some reason — his companion's embarrassment amused him incredibly.

"When you live alone, you get use to the silence over time," he replied after a really long moment of silence, when Sakura lost all hope that he would ever give her an answer, so when he did, her eyes brightened immediately.

She looked at him surprised.

"You live here all alone?"

He nodded.

"And your parents?" Perhaps she shouldn't have asked that as most of the shinobi were orphans.

"Dead."

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard this comment and she immediately receded into the moment when, as a completely unaware child, she repeated the words she had heard from her parents about Naruto. The pain spread inside her because now, as his friend, she wouldn't dare to mock such a painful topic. Until today, she was troubled by her conscience for what she said back then. And maybe Sasuke was right to hate her...

"Both?" She asked, just to chase away any uninvited thoughts, as she could have already guessed the answer.

Kakashi glanced at her significantly over his shoulder as he shoved the vegetables off the board onto the pan.

Sakura pursed her lips into a thin line and looked down at her hands folded on the table. She felt stupid, not because she asked, but because she had no idea. Kakashi had never opened up to them enough to tell his story, never shared his pain with them. All they knew about him was superficial. And even if it was her who spent most of the time in his company, he never revealed his story to her... And what was it? Kakashi was always secretive, so nothing could be pulled out of him, and yet... it hurt her that she called herself his friend, even though she didn't really know anything about him.

"You didn't tell us about it," she said with regret.

Kakashi stirred the vegetables in the pan with a wooden spoon and twisted the pieces of fish with the help of a spatula.

"And what would that change?" he asked, as if casually.

Sakura considered his words. Maybe he was right, but deep down she felt that Kakashi should share his story with them.

The pink-haired kunoichi pressed her lips into a narrow line, once again staring at the tabletop. Meanwhile, Kakashi arranged the dish on plates and served it to the table, then reached into the drawer for chopsticks and handed her one pair, then took a seat across from her.

"Itadakimasu," Sakura muttered, to which Kakashi merely nodded before breaking the chopsticks, and she did the same.

And then it hit her. When his fingers managed to catch the edge of the mask.

"Wait!" she almost screamed, causing Kakashi to freeze with his hand next to his face, and frowned at her.

"What?"

"H-How are you going to eat this?" she stammered out.

Kakashi frowned even more, completely not understanding what she meant. "With my mouth?"

Sakura's eyes widened in wonder. "I meant your mask!"

"What's wrong with it?"

"You never take it off."

"Ah, yes. I do when I eat."

"That's not what I mean," she protested. "Only that..."

Kakashi was watching her closely.

"I've never seen you without it," Sakura blurted out breathlessly.

"How's that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's just... just... fate has never been on our side to help my team discover your greatest secret."

Silence set in. The chopsticks they were holding froze, and so were their crossing stares. Time seemed to slow down suddenly.

And that's when it happened.

Kakashi laughed.

Hatake Kakashi, always grumpy, avoiding her gaze, with a bored expression on his face and not bothering with whether she will go with him or not, he... just... laughed.

Sakura was so taken aback by his reaction that she couldn't help but stare at him.

"Did... did you just laugh, Kakashi-se... Kakashi?" she gasped, barely reminding herself to omit the suffix 'sensei'.

Then Kakashi frowned again, and the magical moment blew out like a soap bubble. Sakura had to come to terms with the fact that she would never hear this resonant laugh again. With a sulky expression, she broke her chopsticks and bent over the food, but something else caught her attention when she was about to taste the dish he had prepared.

It was then that Kakashi took off his mask and slowly began to eat.

Her jaw dropped. Literally! She never thought she would ever uncloak Kakashi, and here he was, just exposing himself to her. And she felt as if somehow her brain had a short circuit, because she couldn't take her eyes off him.

Kakashi noticed this, and he looked at her with dismay.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, probably referring to her jaw, which had just landed in the plate.

"No, nothing," she replied when she had already pulled herself together. "It's just... I didn't expect..."

Kakashi blinked surprisedly. "What?"

"Well... well..." That you're so beautiful, she thought, but didn't say it out loud; instead, she said, "I didn't expect... that... it would happen so soon! No fanfare, confetti, or orchestras, nothing. And this was going to be such a memorable moment."

Kakashi seemed amused by her comment, but said nothing, just nodded, then went back to eating. However, Sakura was far too distracted to just start eating. She watched the younger version of her teacher open his mouth and chew his meal, then gulp it down. She stared at his exposed neck as his apple twitched every time, he swallowed another bite. And then she watched his face again, too speechless to start eating. She even swallowed loudly as she realized how close she was to start drooling on her plate.

And then Kakashi nailed her.

Panicked girl looked at her dish immediately.

"Is there something wrong with my face?" he asked uncertainly.

Shocked, Sakura jerked her head up, staring at him with wide eyes.

"No, not at all!" she quickly protested, and as blushes adorned her cheeks, Kakashi smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth, giving his face a slightly mischievous expression.

"Your reaction only confirms that you've never seen me without my mask," he commented before adding, "Nice, I have to be a big deal in the future."

Sakura followed her gaze to her chopsticks, lifting them a little, then gave him a meaningful look. "You know, you have such a nasty scar on your left eye, and I think I know how it happened," she said conspiratorially, glancing significantly at her right hand.

Kakashi laughed once more. "Are you threatening me?" he could barely say anything through his resonant laugh to the accompaniment of his beautiful face.

Sakura had to admit that Kakashi's appearance reached far beyond the level of male handsomeness. He was unbearably beautiful! In every sense of the word. Even Sasuke wasn't that pretty at his age... In fact, how old was Kakashi now?

"Maybe," she replied, completely absorbed in her thoughts.

"Then... should I treat you like a hostile kunoichi?" he asked, raising an eyebrow defiantly.

"I'm here only for peaceful purposes," she joked and raised her hands in surrender.

Kakashi looked amused as the smile danced on his lips once more, and without the mask covering half of his face, it made an electrifying impression on her.

"All right, I'll keep that in mind. Now eat something and stop looking at me like that."

Sakura's eyes widened in astonishment. Of course, he had noticed the way she was staring at him! After all, it's Kakashi Hatake!

With a strong blush on her cheeks that was impossible to cover, she leaned over the plate and finally began to eat. As soon as the first bite of the food reached her mouth, a soft moan escaped her throat.

"Kakashi!" she nearly squealed. "This is delicious!"

This time it was him who blushed and looked down at his plate. However, Sakura was not paying attention to him anymore, too absorbed in eating the delicious dish he had prepared for them.

They were both so ashamed of the words that fell from their mouth, as well as of the earlier situation, that they didn't speak until their plates were empty. It was then that Sakura decided to break this bothersome silence, especially since she had nothing to occupy her mind with and staring at the empty plate seemed like a stupid idea.

"How old are you now, Kakashi?" she asked, breaking the silence, and setting the chopsticks back on her plate.

"Thirteen."

Sakura raised her eyebrows in surprise, as she assumed that he was at least fifteen, considering the fact that he was already half a head taller than her.

"It must be weird to see me so young, huh?" he said after a moment when he noticed her reaction.

"A little," she admitted. "And if that was not enough, there are also these side effects of time travel. I feel kind of tired. And I have to put up with this kunoichi..."

"You're talking about Rin?"

Sakura nodded.

"She's just overprotective of me and Obito."

"I think it's more than that," the pink-haired girl snorted.

Kakashi frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind."

Sakura didn't feel like talking about Rin's obvious infatuation, and besides, sitting at the table with the silent Kakashi didn't suit her either. That's why she decided to come out with the initiative.

"Can I wash the dishes?" she suggested. "I can't handle cooking at all, but at least in this way I could repay for this wonderful meal."

"Sure," he muttered before he got up from the table and disappeared into the other room.