Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Familiar Acquaintance ❯ 1 of 3 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Felix02

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Note: This is not an AU story completely, the only difference is that Sakura is not a ninja in this story and all the others are (Give it a try!). And also, this story won't interfere with my other story, The Pleasant Hour, because of its...shortness.

He was her father's friend, but could he be something more? Kaka/Saku. Not AU.

A Familiar Acquaintance
1 of 3

He asked her out for coffee, and she asked why.

He was handsome despite the black mask covering most of his face, but she could see his high, aristocratic cheek bones, the chiseled jaw line, and a strong Roman nose. Why he wore a mask, Sakura neither knew nor asked because she contented herself just to be in his presence. He, the silver haired Jounin, called himself an old friend of her father's and since her father had been a Jounin she was inclined to believe the masked man.

Kakashi...the name rolled off her tongue. Copy-nin people called him, others legendary, his strength and power renowned to all shinobi nations. Yet, Sakura only knew him as comfort, an asylum even. He made her laugh when she wanted to cry.

Before her beloved father's death, Sakura had rarely seen the silver haired, masked man. She knew him by her father's words, by his praise for the younger man, but she had never met him and she had ever asked to meet him. He came to her.

Always came to her to ask her out for coffee.

When she was with him, Sakura did not have to live in the memories of her father's memorial, the way the Hokage placed a warm hand on her shoulder, a tight smile on her face, and her soft, feminine words of, "He died for Konoha...for you, Sakura."

Sometimes she did not care what he died for; it no longer mattered; her heart was too cold, too empty. Her father, her beautiful father, had been hers and she his; best friends, father and daughter, confidants. So much more than simple blood that would disappear with time, sucked in by the dirty earth never to be seen again. Yet despite her pain, Sakura mustered the courage to smile at his funeral, and since that day she never cried.

That day Kakashi first spoke to her with downcast eyes, a hand behind his mess of silver hair, and an ever lazy voice.

He asked her out for coffee, she said why.

He shrugged saying, "I feel responsible for taking care of you, I guess."

Sakura answered plainly, "I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, but I want to." He said with dark brown eyes no longer downcast but intense.

"I don't know you and you don't know me." She reasoned.

Kakashi shook his head, "I know you, though, your father talked about you all the time." He smiled, "Said you were the smartest girl in Konoha."

Sakura nodded apathetically looking away from the tall Jounin before her, her gaze on the memorial stone. A young, blond haired man in an orange outfit rubbed his eyes and shouted at a darker haired man next to him. The later remained quite, and Sakura realized who the two young men were - her father talked about them as well: Naruto and Sasuke, Kakashi's students.

"So," Sakura stated, "does that mean that everyone who knows you're Copy-nin Kakashi knows you personally."

He never paused to answer, only rubbed the back of his neck more, his visible eye creasing in the corner; a tell-tale sign of a smile. "There isn't much to know about me."

She gave him a wayward glance, "I think you're lying."

"Then take up my offer - join me for coffee."

A smile slowly stole over Sakura's lips as she shook her head. "No, I'm afraid that I'll have to pass that offer up, Hatake-san."

"Kakashi." She must have looked confused. "Call me Kakashi."

Again, Sakura shook her head. His brown eyes took on a lazy look again. "Hataka-san," Sakura touched his arm, "you owe my father nothing. Do not feel obligated to watch over me."

"Who ever said I owed him anything?" He replied, a slight frown on his face.

Sakura sighed, her mind trying to understand what the legendary Jounin wanted. "You're a bad liar, Hataka-san."

He positioned himself into a thoughtful pose, one arm across his green vest as the other propped up on it, his fingers below his chin. "Really," his intense, lazy voice drawled out, "you're the first to think that. I thought I was a rather good liar."

Sakura laughed a little seeing his eye crinkle in the corners - he smiled. Then the blond haired man stood behind Kakashi, a sad smile on his face; on his other side stood the silent, dark haired man, emotionless on the outside.

"Kakashi, Sasuke and I will meet you at the ramen stand later." His voice was strangely detached. Usually when Sakura had seen him his voice carried for miles. Today he was subdued. He noticed her and green eyes met blue, and she was lost in them, reaching in them, feeling a bond form, and suddenly she felt as if she knew the blond haired man before her, knew him her whole life.

"Hey! You're Sakura."

"Good job pointing out the obvious, dobe." The other, Sasuke, noted in monotone.

"Shut-up, Sasuke!" He turned his attention back to her. "Don't let Sasuke bother you, Sakura-chan."

She wanted to laugh again; the honorific would usually conjure her anger, but when Naruto said it she only felt peace. "I think I should be saying that to you, Naruto."

"Hey, you know me." His eyes widened in astonishment at her mention of his name. She nodded in confirmation. "Cool."

"And you're Sasuke," Sakura said to the handsome, silent man who nodded once in greeting. "And you're both his students, right?" She said motioning to Kakashi; he was smiling slightly.

"Yeah, we're the pervert's former students." Sakura gazed over to Kakashi. He did not deny the accusation, and she could only wander what Naruto meant. "Well, Sakura-chan, I've got to jet. I'm super hungry." He looked at Kakashi slapping him on the shoulder, "Later, Kakashi."

And then both Naruto and Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"How about that coffee?" Kakashi persisted after a moment's silence.

Sakura shook her head unwilling to look at the masked Jounin. Her green orbs stared at a new name on the onyx memorial stone, Haruno Takashi, her beloved father and friend. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and in the next moment shrugged off the comfort Kakashi offered. She never liked pity.

She smiled scenery up to him, "I'll be fine, Hatake-san, really. Death is apart of life, is it not?"

He nodded, intense brown eyes on her. "I've always known my father would die, but I never expected to feel this empty," she touched her heart, "I don't even feel pain only numbness. But maybe pain will come in time, maybe right now I haven't come to terms with what I have truly lost, and maybe I'll never feel pain for his death. Who can tell, Hatake-san, who can tell...?"

He was going to say something, but she shook her head. Pink tresses came lose from her braid, tickled her face, and flowed into her mouth only to be pulled behind her ear by his warm fingers, his strong fingers. She smiled up in his eyes and said, "Goodbye, Hatake-san, I'll see you later."

She walked a few steps away when his hand took her wrist in his palm. "Is that an invitation?" He asked tonelessly.

Sakura shrugged. "Take it as you like, Hatake-san."

"Kakashi," he repeated.

"Hatake-san," she repeated and with a smile voice. "You're my senior by fourteen years - you're thirty-four, correct?" He nodded. “You see, it's only proper.”

And without waiting for his answer, she walked away, back home, alone.

&&&&&

On the next day, he knocked on her door and asked her out for coffee; she asked why.

"I feel responsible for you, I guess." The same answer as yesterday. Sakura smiled tiredly.

"You know what time it is?"

"Seven in the morning, the perfect time for coffee," he replied with a smile in his voice.

Sakura answered just as quickly. "The perfect time for sleep as well, Hatake-san."

She viewed a mischievous glint in his eye that signaled a joke. "Only if I can join you."

She laughed then, louder than she had in a long time, until her sides hurt in mirth. He placed on a hurt look, but she ignored it and closed the door in his face. He knocked again and she opened it, laughing.

"That's not nice," he said, his intense eyes on her. "Don't shut me out, Sakura."

She stopped laughing and apologized unsure about his statement. Don't shut him out...in what context? His hands were in his pant pockets, his form sloughing handsomely, and his eye regarded the den of her house. His clothes dripped water, as did his silver hair, and Sakura was confused by the sight he created until she heard the war drums in the sky. It was raining. How strange of her not to notice sooner.

"I didn't notice it was raining." She ventured to say, picking at the loose strands of her long sleeved shirt, a treasure stolen from her father's room six years back. She loved the smell of her father, but never could describe it; he was clean, fresh, dewy almost. The scent, she loved her father's scent.

Kakashi stared at her, his eyes unreadable. "Neither did I."

For some unknown reason, Sakura felt her cheeks heat up and found herself rather warm. A couple of moments passed with the two of them staring at one another until Sakura coughed, "You don't have to check up on me, Hatake-san, I told you I would be fine."

"Who said I was checking up on you?"

Sakura glared, "Then why else would you be here?"

He sighed pulling his hands from his pockets and straightening up. "To ask you out for coffee of course, why else?"

"Try another line," Sakura said in a yawn popping her fingers in one motion.

"How about if I order you to come with me?" She offered him a cat-like smile; Kakashi laughed. "How about if I dragged you, pajamas and all?"

"I guess you want to die, then?"

Kakashi threw his head back in a masculine laugh once more. "Can you? Kill me, that is."

Sakura shrugged walking off to the kitchen, Kakashi right behind her. "My father always said I can do anything if I put my mind to it."

"Wise man your father," Kakashi said in a reverent tone. Sakura furtively glance at him seeing his brown, intense eyes dull for a moment, and she could not stop the warmth that spread over her heart.

"You loved my father, didn't you?"

"Like my own," Kakashi replied truthfully.

Sakura hummed to herself, a snicker in her throat. "I knew you were a liar, Hatake-san...I just knew it."

Kakashi sat himself on a bar stood, his head held up lazily by one hand and an elbow on the counter. "How so?"

"You said there wasn't much to know about you," Sakura looked over to him, "that's a lie. Everyone has a story, even plain me."

Kakashi shrugged. "There isn't a lot to know about me, Sakura; I don't like tempura, I read Icha Icha Paradise, I'm a shinobi of Fire Country, and I would really love to hear your story."

Sakura blanched. "Icha Icha Paradise, huh? No wonder Naruto called you a pervert. I'm not surprised my father left that tid-bit out." She shook her head as if ridding herself of a thought. "And my story is nothing of consequence."

"All the same, I would like to hear it."

Sakura rolled her eyes. If she did not know better she would say Hatake Kakashi, one of the strongest nin in all of the shinobi nations, was flirting with plain, regular, ordinary her. "Fine. Here it goes: I like, no, love tempura, I don't read Icha Icha Paradise, I'm not a shinobi but a citizen of Fire Country, and that's my story."

Kakashi was silent. Sakura grabbed a fist full of hair and pulled it back with a purple hair tie flashing a grin at the Jounin in her kitchen. "You mock me, Sakura."

"Maybe," she stuck her tongue out, "just a little." He sighed drumming his fingers on the countertop. She looked at the clock, hearing its ticking hands nearing the time that her alarm was set for; she had work unlike some Jounin in the vicinity.

"I think you should go - I have work in forty minutes."

"Where?" He asked coming closer to her. Sakura's breath hitched for a time, but she settled it.

"You don't have to walk me there; I'll be fine."

"Where?" He asked again, closer, almost touching her back.

She shifted away from his warmth and shook her head, "You have your mask, Hatake-san, let me have my work."

"Fair enough," he said lifting his arms in defeat. "You win."

"I always do."

Then, without warning, he came closer to her lowering his face near her ear to whisper, "We'll have to work on that then."

After that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Sakura smirked. She did not like losing.

A/N: I know I'm doing my other story, The Pleasant Hour, but don't worry this story is almost done. I originally planned it to be a one-shot, but after writing it I decided to make it a bit longer. There is much to write after this, maybe another two chapters. And sorry for the grammar, I was trying a new way of writing...sort of.

Anyway, thank you for reading.
-Felix02