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Ayame's Note:I don't know where this came from, but I promise not to be too cruel. AU-ish. Disclaimer: If Naruto belonged to me, Sakura would be bald and Sasuke would be slaughtered mercilessly.
((Thoughts))
-the night after Sasuke left-
She'd been an idiot. That was all there was to it. ((Sasuke-k...Sasuke never drank. I never thought I would, either.))
Sakura had long since given up trying to get the missing-nin off her mind. There was nothing for it. Even tears didn't help. It amazed her that tears could still be brought to her eyes. She thought she'd run dry. But her eyes still burned, her vision still blurred.
"Mind if I join you?" a familiar voice asked gently.
The pink-haired kunoichi shrugged mutely as Kakashi poured himself a little of her sake and sat down next to Sakura on her front porch. The same front porch that was still partially charred from the Oto's attack. The same attack that had murdered most of what Sakura thought she had to live for; Oto had taken both her mother and Sasuke from her.
"Sakura." the copy-nin prodded gently.
"He left me." she began hollowly. Kakashi privately pointed out that it wasn't just her that Uchiha had left, but thought better of it. Women were best left unprovoked, especially when they were experiencing rejection. "No, I guess that isn't true. He was never with me, so he couldn't leave me." she rasped, her mind filled with the sensibility the sake had brought.
"Sakura--"
"Don't try to tell me everything will be alright, Kakashi. I'm too old for that. Everything never turns out alright." she cut him off, pressing the heels of her palms into her eye sockets, trying to erase what she'd seen.
After a few moments of silence, the jounin spoke again. "I used to be just like you were, you know. Optimistic and loving."
"So what happened?" she asked cynically, her hoarse voice rather muffled by her arms.
"...My love almost killed me." The silver-haired man sighed. "It's not as though I shouldn't have seen it coming. We had both changed so much..."
"...So what did you do?" In spite of herself, Sakura was becoming curious. She'd known the man for a long time, but she still didn't know very much about him.
"I killed him." Sakura turned to look at the masked shinobi, an eyebrow raised questioningly. "Perhaps it wasn't planned, or direct, but it was definitely deliberate." Kakashi downed his sake, perhaps trying to dull the painful memory. Sakura silently poured him some more, motioning for him to continue.
"We were on a mission. Spying on Oto. On the second night, while I was on guard, we were ambushed. I watched him die. Because I hesitated."
"I'm sorry." Sakura awkwardly patted the man's shoulder. In her years as a ninja, she had learnt not to touch him without permission. However, she felt he needed such comfort as she could give, and did it anyway, ready for the consequences.
To her surprise, he didn't startle, didn't hold a kunai to her throat, as he'd done on previous occasions. He merely shrugged it off.
"Being alone is something all shinobi have to come to terms with." he replied monotonously. "There's nothing to be done for it."
"...yes." Sakura agreed, suddenly feeling very sleepy.
"Good night, Sakura." The older man finished his sake and rose to leave.
"Good night, Kakashi."