Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Pleasant Hour ❯ Chapter 2

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: Felix02

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Oh, and if no one knows who Ayame is, I'm pretty sure she is the nurse who saw Kakashi's face and went totally ga-ga over him. If you want I can give you a site to where all the characters in Naruto (even minor ones) can be found. Oh yeah, just to say, I'm not an expert on Naruto so if I make any mistakes in the timeline just tell me so I can at least try to fix them.

Her deception had not failed her yet, not even Kakashi, her ex-sensei, could see through her perfect picture of happiness. KakaSaku.

I would like to thank Royal blueKitsune VERY MUCH because she edited the first part, a long first part, to this chapter. So everyone please take a moment for her and applaud. She will forever remain my hero, err, heroine...((laughs))

The Pleasant Hour
Chapter One
Felix02

Ayame was a pleasant woman when she wasn't doting on about her ex-sensei, Sakura realized as she listened to Ayame's latest epiphany on Kakashi trying to keep boredom from showing. It unnerved the younger medic when she had to listen about Kakashi spoken of with such...admiration of the romantic, pitiable type. Had the woman even talked with Kakashi? Ever? The infamous copy-nin had been gone for almost two years, and still the woman could not move on. There were plenty of fish in the sea, Sakura mused while trying to cover her yawn.

"Have you heard any news about him, Sakura?" Ayame ventured to ask. Sakura shook her head.

"You know as well as I do that ANBU don't write letters on their missions. Sometimes they send messages to the Hokage, but that's only in dire circumstances." And it's not like Kakashi would personally write to me, Sakura thought sourly.

"I know, but a gal can hope, right?" Sakura humored the woman with a slight smile before taking up the files before her to make her shiftily rounds. There weren't a lot of patients to care for lately; Konoha had been relatively calm giving a good amount of peace to medic-nins like her. Therefore, Sakura was stuck with enduring daily boredom and endless routine. The biggest injury they had sustained all week was a broken arm, which resulted in a novice medic named Neva passing out from a reckless use of her chakra. All turned out well. As always. The genin was healed and Neva learned an important lesson in chakra control after Sakura's gentle chastise.

The young woman had almost been tempted to say that the same thing happened to her, but Sakura, in the end, decided against it. If it was one thing she ever could or would pride herself on it would be her chakra control, that and she had never fainted due to using too much of chakra on just a simple broken arm.

After checking on the status of her fourth and last patient, Sakura thought about going down to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat when Doctor Kanpou called for her down the hall. Repressing a shudder and hoping with all her might that he didn't want her to do some mindless task for the eighth time in two days, she answered, "Yes, Doctor, is there something you need?"

He smiled folding his arms across his chest. "No not really. Things are just going on so slowly around here that I thought maybe you would like to take the rest of the day off."

Sakura nearly dropped the files in hand. He was giving her the rest of the day off? Was she in some alternate universe? Every medic-nin dreaded Kanpou's calling; he was a vicious dictator in every sense of the world ruling the hospital with an iron fist of mindless tasks and here he was giving her the day off. It was almost too good to be true…but as she stared at his retreating white coat, a sense of reality raced into her mind.

Giddiness swelled within her, but Sakura immediately quelled the feeling remembering her essay that Tsunade-sensei had so generously given her.

Suddenly, Sakura felt overwhelmed. She did not have the slightest moment of peace for the past few months, not with all her extra responsibilities. Tsunade told her that when one was a medic-nin, he or she never stopped learning, and that she constantly had to keep to the books because new techniques were in constant creation.

Sakura did not mind the fact that she was constantly learning- it had always been her strong point- but now it felt different...much too different. Not only did she have to take care of patients, but had to train incoming medic students on hospital protocol to the most difficult of jutsus, AND on top of that, Tsunade thought she should help Iruka with the new academy students…

And there was her essay, and tonight with Ino.

Sakura felt a migraine coming, and it was in that moment of weakness her act failed. A sweep of darkness clouded over her vision. Her smile faltered, her lips straightened and thinned, her eyes dulled and her face paled. Her mouth became dry and a pain throbbed inside her, its origin unknown. The pain was more emotional than physical, more suffocating and numbing than anything she had ever known.

She was drowning under the burden of all her responsibilities, and doubted if she could carry out any of them. Then again that's what her deception guarded her against.

Sakura sometimes wanted to scream at night sky, at her sensei, tell her that she could not do the essay because she did not know the material and, for that matter, no longer cared enough. But she could imagine the burden of their disapproving eyes upon her, as well as her own above all.

If she allowed herself to fail once more, at anything, what would happen?

How fragile had she become?

Since her middle teenage years, Sakura forced herself to be better, to be stronger, to best the fatiguing shadow. But it never left. It grew stronger instead. More and more Sakura looked forward to those pleasant hours where she could trick herself wholly into believing that she was perfectly happy, joyous even. She dreamed about them, longed for them like any addict would a drug. It was almost sick to her, but she could not quell the desire.

"Sakura-sensei!" Three voices called from behind her.

With a small shake of her head, Sakura replaced her mask thinking for an instance of Kakashi's own face covering. How similar they were in that silly aspect - they both hid underneath a veil, but he remained a mystery to everyone while everyone thought they knew her.

She was an open book after all.

A small form hoped on her back, one around her legs, and the last one appeared in front of her, a wide smile on his face. Sakura struggled under the weight of two students while trying to smile. The blond, little boy in the front of her spoke the first sensible words; before she only could make out chatter from three voices.

"Sakura-sensei!" The boy screamed again having Sakura wish for balance so that she could cover her ears without falling down and embarrassing herself in front of three of her students.

"Yes, yes, I heard you the first time, Roho, what do you three want now?" Sakura knew anger was evident in her voice though it never solved anything. She didn't have a clue as to why she even tried to act angry, it never bothered her students…ever.

"Sensei, we want you to train with us!" A brown haired boy with big green eyes said from below, a cherub like grin on his face.

"Yes train with us, Sensei!" This time the soft voice came from her back where a black, curly haired girl tugged on her shoulders, her mouth drawn in a cute pout.

"We haven't seen you since Monday and its Wednesday now, Sensei. Iruka-sensei said that you would come today but you didn't."

Sakura laughed nervously knowing that her students could kill her if they really wanted to. The first time Iruka had introduced her to the class, they had acted like little devil-monsters. Everyday there was some trick or another that Sakura, on many a time, barely escaped from. They never listened to her, always made fun of her forehead, and always tried to get rid of her. Conveniently enough, Iruka was never around to witness their atrocities. It wasn't until Sakura's anger had reached its boiling point that she had let it all out giving them a written exam and saying that if they failed she would personally kick them all out onto the streets and publicly announce to the whole village that they were miserable failures in the eyes of shinobi.

Of course, she would have never done such a thing, but they did not know that. And thus a nice, mutual, and eventual affectionate relationship began.

Yet Sakura continued to remain distant, always fearful of the shadow that loomed over her. The shadow threw all she cherished and loved back at her, every relationship was only a means for the shadow to become stronger and for her to feel weaker, even her friendship with Ino made her feel lowly in comparison with her beautiful friend.

The vicious cycle would not end, only continue. One day her students would grow up and surpass her, leave her behind like everyone else and not want her anymore. Like Sasuke, they would tell her to stay behind and be content; and to please them, to keep a sick type of bond between them, she would do as they asked and force herself to be content. No one would know of her own fear, anger and resentment; no one would know because Sakura prided herself with her mastery of hiding the truth from others.

And as selfish as her thoughts of not wanting to be left behind were, she wanted someone to challenge her to move foreword, to have faith that she could be better. But then again, she was still young. What did she know what was best for her?

"Umm, I was busy helping injured ninjas like you at the hospital, but, you see, the hospital is just so big that when I tried to get out I got lost in a labyrinth like maze." Sakura said smoothly taking a cue from her old sensei's style of deception.

She enjoyed replaying her old memories, even if they were different, because they reminded her of when all her teammates were together and she actually felt almost accepted.

"Liar!" All three shouted back, the two on her jumping off and glaring at her. Sakura gave a small laugh imagining Naruto and her saying the same exact word.

She sat down on the cement walkway, her back against a building. "My team mate and I use to say the same thing to our sensei…" Sakura informed the three of them. They looked at one another as if to comment on how old people talked about the past. Lucky for them they did not say such a thing. "Sit down." She commanded and they did so, except the girl who remained standing.

"Hanako, sit down."

"No, I prefer to stand."

Sakura rolled her eyes. Hanako hated being told what to do, and it did not matter how much she liked Sakura, the girl was positively stubborn. Sakura shrugged facing the two boys who were looking with wide eyes at her.

"Sakura-sensei, who was your sensei?"

"Hataka Kakashi and now the Hokage," she replied flippantly. If it were possible, their eyes would have expanded even more. In the next moment, all three of her students started talking in loud voices to one another. She caught phrases like 'copy-nin', 'infamous', 'one of the best, 'Hokage' and numerous others, but she could not understand how they could all talk to one another at the same time and make a decent conversation.

"Why do you still have a sensei, Sakura-sensei?" The blonde haired boy asked turning his attention back to Sakura, who shrugged in turn.

"Being a medic-nin involves years of study and perfection, and new techniques are always being invented so I have to keep on studying. Compared to the Hokage, I'm still a novice." Sakura said in a softer voice shaking off her more gloomy feelings. Now was not the time, she chanted to herself. Talking with others, especially her younger students always relieved her from the weight of thinking too much.

The kids conversed amongst one another before returning their glare and instructing her to teach them the next day before going off in their own separate ways. In so many ways those kids reminded Sakura of her own days in the academy, but in many ways the school had changed since the last time she had been there. For one, she herself had brought about the changes in the students curriculum with the Hokage's permission. Sakura lobbied for more in book study than there use to be saying that intelligence was just as good, if not better, than learning how to fight. After some careful persuasion and a smile from her mentor, Tsunade had consented (much to the students' dismay) to Sakura's whims.

Iruka usually taught the academy kids how to fight with some help from Sakura on chakra control, and the rest of the time it was just her teaching the basics of tactics, mathematics and maturing the carrying capacity of the brain to think quickly in different situations. She loved to see her students solve her puzzles, loved to challenge them to see how fast they could problem solve, but most of all she loved teaching them how to fight using their minds instead of their fist.

But what she did not teach them was the art of deception - she would let them learn that alone.

Brushing off the dirt from her clothes, Sakura ambled back to her apartment where her essay on the healing success of chakra cutting was dying to be written. Ino would be coming around to her apartment at eight. Sakura hoped that -maybe- she could get out of the predicament of bar hopping because of her essay.

But then again…

Ino was a tyrant. A tyrant that would not take no for an answer. At least that's what Shikamaru had exclaimed on numerous occasions.

&&&&&&&

"Ino," Sakura stated exhausted, eyeing the dress in her hands. "I'm not wearing that; I bought this dress a year ago for a special occasion that never happened."

Ino raised her eyebrow grabbing the black dress from Sakura's hands. "Why did it never happen?"

"Because Gai stopped me from killing myself," she sighed dramatically, "the dress was to be my burial gown."

A moment of silence passed before…

"You're really morbid, Sakura." Ino stated sourly, letting a frown mar her attractive features.

The other shrugged saying that she would not wear the black dress her friend held. Sakura ideally wondered what in the world her mother was thinking at the time. Why did she buy her daughter such a revealing dress? And black dress no less?

Sakura didn't want Ino to know that her mother still bought her clothes in an effort to make her daughter look more feminine, so she lied saying she bought the dress.

The pink haired woman sighed.

Every time her mother approached her it was the same beginning conversation all over again.

"Daughter, you look so plain, why don't we go to the saloon? It can be a girl's day out, just you and me."

Which would always be answered with the same answer. "No, mom. I haven't got the time maybe another day."

Ergo, she was a liar and a suck up. So what? She had let her hair grown out since Sasuke's disappearance so many years ago and it now reached her lower back in waves. Sakura preferred to braid it everyday to keep it out of her face, it being a better substitute then chancing a trip to the hair saloon with her mother in tow. Medic-nins could not allow an insignificant thing such as beauty to interfere with their jobs.

"Hey! Sakura guess what I dragged out of that lazy Shikamaru today?"

Sakura fell back onto her bed bouncing up once before resting fully on her sheets. She wanted to say she that didn't care what the latest gossip was since Shikamaru was a in-the-closet-gossip-monger who just so happened to be around every time something scandalous occurred, yet despite her better judgment, Sakura found herself asking, "What did he find out this time?"

Ino slapped her across the back of the head, glaring. "Be more excited! This information…is confidential; it's about Sasuke and the others."

Blood immediately rushed to her head as she sat up, her gaze set on Ino. "Really? What did he tell you about them?"

Ino smiled sitting down across from her pink-haired friend. "Oh nothing really, just that they may be coming home sometime soon, very soon, but that it was none of our business."

Sakura felt a small smile tug at the corners of her lips, and sent a silent prayer of thanks up to heaven. Her boys were finally coming home. Soon Naruto's loud voice would be hollering at her door, begging her to take him out for some ramen; Sasuke would drop by around the hospital from time to time checking up on her with his silent personality and the usual `making sure you don't do too much'. And last of all, Kakashi would be back reading his outdated Icha Icha Paradise.

Lucky for him, Sakura had forgone her morals by purchasing him three new editions that had come out since his departure.

Team Seven had remained his only team, but Sakura ardently wished for her students to pass his test. Shinobi are supposed to see through deception, she instructed them. Question everything, take chances at every opportunity even if there is a chance at failure, she preached knowing herself to be a hypocrite yet saying it anyway. And never forget team work...team work, she would repeat raising her voice,if you can trust the men and women around you there will be a better chance of survival. There is no I in teamwork so unless you're an ANBU on a one-man mission, then you better work with every single person on your team because each one has a different ability that can be put to use. Remember that. Hear me and never forget that teamwork is what determines if you live or die, pass or fail.

She smiled at the last comment she made. Maybe she had gone a little too far with that hint, but the genin exams for them were still a year away and by that time they probably would forget that last comment. And if they didn't -Sakura's smiled widened- then Kakashi would have some new students in the upcoming year if he became a teacher again.

Sakura had a faint idea that he would.

Ino turned to regard her friend cocking her head slightly and wondering why she was smiling. "Hey, Forehead-girl, why are you smiling?"

Shaking her head, pink locks falling loose from her unwinding braid, Sakura replied, "Nothing, absolutely nothing."

&&&&&&&

Kakashi's uncovered eye lazily regarded the village scope of Konoha rising slowly above the treetops. The sun peaked behind the mountains casting its light upon Konoha, and, for a moment, made his dark eye lighten into a mute gray. Two years, he sighed exhausted; for two years he had not stepped foot in his own homeland and had missed it more than he ever thought possible.

They were finally coming home, their city nearer in every moment that passed. Naruto, the ever hyper ninja, could hardly contain his excitement while Sasuke, surprisingly, showed the faint traces of a smile.

With an amused countenance, Kakashi pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise from his green vest, the action earning a glare from Naruto. "Kakashi, why do you have to be such a pervert? Why couldn't I have a normal sensei for once; first you and then that other pervert, Jiyira-sensei.”

He placed two hands behind his mane of blond hair before continuing, "But I guess I should count my blessings and thank God that I didn't have Gai."

Naruto finished tucking his arms on another, his blue eyes closed, nodding to himself with his observations. The older man regarded the rather risqué novel in his hands curiously before answering, "It's just a book."

Kakashi never saw anything wrong with Jiyira's writings - they were quite...distracting, and for a man like himself, he welcomed distraction. Idle hands meant time to think, and Kakashi would rather not indulge in any memories of the past. He knew that it was a cowardly decision, but he had come to terms with his life deciding that the past could never change.

He would always regret, but even he knew thoughts weren't penance enough. He knew that, had always known.

"Yeah," Naruto sorted, "a perverted old man's book."

The two others, excluding Sasuke, snickered but said nothing too used to Naruto's rather unthoughtful comments. Kakashi's eye narrowed for a time before, "I'm not old yet, Naruto. Old will be the day when you can defeat me."

Which, Kakashi said to himself, would not be for a long time. Naruto was still a boy in every sense of the world, had a vibrancy and life in every action and word that he did and an optimistic outlook on life that never wavered under the most dire circumstances. Kakashi admired his student for his ability to find the good in all people and things; it was a strength he'd only seen in few, a virtue he did not possess.

Naruto jumped in front of him in the next instant, but Kakashi calmly ignored the young man knowing all to well what was to come. Naruto could never be called predictable, per se, but his actions never changed. Kakashi smiled to himself as he counted down from three...two...one...

"Okay, Kakashi, I challenge you right here and right now, and I will win, believe it!"

Kakashi's lips curled into a smile, but thankfully his mask hid such a feature because it would have only spurred on Naruto's dangerous passions. Instead of replying to the young man's challenge, Kakashi sighed and lazily gazed at his orange book placing a hand behind his neck.

"I have to buy a new addition," Kakashi said to no one in particular. He really did not want to fight with Naruto at the moment, too tired from the journey. The young man exhausted everyone in his presence, and whether if that was good or not Kakashi could not tell.

"Icha Icha Paradise loses it touch after a few read throughs."

"Hey! Kakashi, are you listening to me? I want to fight!" Naruto pestered with excess energy. Kakashi closed his eyes; really the boy was exhausting.

"Hey, dobe, shut up. Let's just get home." Sasuke interrupted, his cold eyes barely casting a glance towards his rival since Team Seven's formation.

Looking up from his book, Kakashi regarded his other former student. Cold and brooding as ever, Sasuke had opened up towards those he knew and trusted best. He was still the cold bastard, as Naruto put, but his eyes were softer and calmer, less crazed than when he had been a boy under his tutelage.

Naruto's glare turned into a smile when Sasuke mentioned 'home', and for once no fight erupted between the two friends "You're actually right for once, Sasuke; I can always beat Kakashi later." Naruto laughed loudly standing still.

"Besides, I can't wait to see Sakura-chan, I bet she's missed us. I wonder if we should all take her out for ramen." Naruto pondered out loud.

A man by the name of Jin spoke up, his gaze fixed on Kakashi. "Sakura is your thrid student, is she not, Hatake?"

Placing his book back in his pocket since knew reading would be simply impossible, Kakashi answered, "Yes, Sakura is a medic-nin now, but she may be doing something different now; it has been two years."

"Oh right," Hindi, the other man of their squad, voiced. "The Hokage trained her, am I correct?"

"Yes," Kakashi replied curtly.

He often wondered how Sakura was doing. His only female student never possessed the stamina and strength as her fellow team mates, but she had a brain that could outwit his own at times and an aptitude to control her chakra with the any ease any Jounin would envy. Why had she never made the jump to a Jounin? This question plagued Kakashi in his quieter moments, bothering him like a ruthless gnat. True, she was not the strongest of the bunch, but nothing training could not solve. But if she was happy, then he was.

Kakashi often felt as though he should have paid more attention to the kunoichi in her younger years instead of letting her silly crush on Sasuke, which had eventually dissipated out of the blue one day, have the better of her time. She was smart enough, he use to think, she would grow out of it; and she had, but it still bothered him at the strangest of moments.

Sakura's image and curious smile would come out the blue and confuse him, and Kakashi was not a man who liked to be confused. In his dreams, her smiles hid something, a secret, but those were just dreams, and so he blew them off as he would any other dream.

No, he thought, Sakura was fine. Maybe he was getting old like Naruto said, and it was his age that brought on such strange thoughts. Sakura had never been a problem before, a smile was constantly on her face and always eager to help. Kakashi snorted to himself; he was thinking too hard on the subject of his student. Sakura was happy, and that's all he could ask for.

Hindi continued on brining Kakashi from his thoughts. "She was a pretty looking thing, plain but still had a look about her."

At the comment, Kakashi's eye narrowed and he was going to respond when Sasuke commented, "Hindi, she's seventeen years younger than you," Sasuke remained monotone, but his eyes were darker.

"Yeah, besides, you're not Sakura-chan's type, ass!" Naruto answered in mimic to Sasuke's own.

The two boys, Kakashi had come to know, were very protective of Sakura, Sasuke especially. She had become a sister to him, to both him and Naruto. Kakashi could not blame either of his former students when he felt the same way since the very first days of Team Seven's birth. Unlike Sasuke and Naruto, he did not think of Sakura as a little sister, but he still did not like to hear anyone talk about her in such a way.

For Sasuke, she and Naruto were the only ones that never gave up on him; always the ones to believe the good in him. Sakura, through a feeling that was not a frivolous admiration but the love of a friend, always held a hope for her dark-haired, brooding friend. Loyalty rested in her soul; her smiled bonded anyone that looked her way. Kakashi noticed it on many an occasion; her loyalty once earned never faded and like Naruto, she was admired.

Her smile so many years ago had been his undoing, along with Naruto's will and love for all things, and Sasuke's determination. Unknowing of their own actions as teenagers, his three students soften his barriers that he built around himself. His purpose, a stronger purpose, returned to him, and Kakashi sworn to himself that he would always try his best to protect them all. He failed Sasuke, but no one blamed him except himself, yet it was enough. If he had been a stronger teacher than maybe Sasuke would not have to bear his metaphorical black mark around him as a constant reminder of his betrayal.

Yes, if he had only been stronger...maybe his life would have turned out differently.

A/N: Kakashi's POV, I think, rather sucks because I could not get into his character, so I apologize for this. Don't worry I'm trying very hard to work on Kakashi so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Review if you have the time, please. Thanks for reading, and sorry if this chapter sucked. Sighs

Until the next time,
Felix02