I actually don't really know how it got to this. I know I saw something and it inspired this, but I don't remember what I saw.

Anyway, this was supposed to be something for a continuation of Playing God, but it didn't work out like I hoped and it had a central plot so it couldn't go into Dead Letter Office, so it became this. Fading Light everybody!

Disclaimer: Do Not Own Naruto.

Wind blew gently through the trees. It was a Tuesday and the chill of fall was just starting to settle over Konoha. Children were running through the streets on their way home from a day with friends and Sakura couldn't help but smile at them as she walked home.

The wind began to die down, giving one last exhale that sent her hair fluttering on the breeze before it disappeared. Sakura tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled as she stood on the crest of the hill. Standing in the middle of the road, she gazed out over the village as the sun began to set on the horizon, bathing everything in an orange glow. Staring out at the scenery, she could feel her heart lighten in her chest. It almost made her forget what happened at the hospital that morning. She sighed.

'I should be used to it by now,' she thought to herself as she began on her way again, kicking a pebble with a sigh. Another patient had died today, an older man named Hiro. He had lung cancer, though he had never smoked a day in his life and lived as healthy a lifestyle as she had ever seen. He had worked everyday on his small farm farming various vegetables for the market where he made his wages. Now that he was gone, she couldn't help but wonder who would take care of the farm now.

A shadow appeared before her face and she jumped back, startled, only to see it was a leaf floating down and shook her head to herself. Her hair curtained her face and she brushed the strands of pink away when she saw someone standing just a bit down the road. Focusing her eyes, she watched as the man's jounin uniform began to flutter with the wind. Leaves spun at his feet and his hair swayed with the breeze as his hitai-ate gleamed in the fading sunlight, but he seemed oblivious to it all, focusing solely on her.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

The man merely gave her a nod before walking towards her. His strides were long and his steps were assured and Sakura found herself feeling like a genin once more as he stood before her. He was so sure of himself. Why couldn't she be like that, she wondered.

"Sakura-chan," he began in his deep voice and she fell back into memories of her genin days. That voice had assuaged her worries when she was a child and it still did, even at the age of twenty-one; he began to speak again. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

That got her attention. Why did he suddenly need to talk to her? Had something happened? Was Naruto hurt? Was Sasuke found dead like she had always feared would happen?

Seeing her worry, he shook his head. "No, it's nothing like that," he said softly and she looked up in surprise. Had he read her mind or was she just that obvious? She shook her head.

"Um…sure, we can talk."

He nodded and began walking away from her. When he stopped and turned to look back at her, she realized that she was supposed to follow and began running after him, her medic bag thumping against her side and hair flowing behind her as she ran. Briefly, she wondered why she had even bothered to grow her hair back again before wondering what he had to talk to her about. He never had to do this before and when he did, it was usually about a mission or a few words about relatively nothing.

They suddenly stopped and she looked around her to see they were in the forest. They stood in a clearing surrounded by trees, but it wasn't so densely populated that they could not see the sun. He glanced at her. "It's nice, isn't it?"

"Huh? Ah, yes…" she replied awkwardly after being caught off-guard. Briefly, she chided herself. She was going to get killed one day if she kept letting her mind wander.

If Kakashi noticed Sakura's wandering mind or the smile she gave to herself as she chided her behavior, he didn't say. Dropping down, he sat in the grass with a sigh of relief as if a large burden had been removed from his shoulders. It surprised her when it shouldn't have. Despite all the legends and titles, Hatake Kakashi was merely a man. Even he would have to bow to his body, but it didn't match in Sakura's mind. This was Hatake Kakashi, once and always her teacher and the measure of standard that she pushed herself to be. She knew she could never reach his level of skill, but it didn't mean she couldn't try, but she never thought once in her mind that he was as human as her. It just didn't fit. He was Hatake Kakashi. He seemed invulnerable, invincible, but maybe that was all there was to it. He just seemed untouchable and it was only now in her mind that the illusion was lifted.

"So what did you want to talk about, sensei?" Her voice was unusually cheery and she winced at her own voice. Maybe it was because she felt so tired, but the sound of her voice at that moment grated on her ears.

On a whim, she dropped down to sit beside him in the grass. They were now facing the small path that had led them here and on her back, she could feel the shadows of trees and bushes shift along as the sun continued to set, basking her in its warmth and glow.

They sat in silence, watching their shadows dance across the clearing as the grass tickled their ankles. Staring at her feet, she pointed them at each other and inspected them. Though she had been told her long legs were one of her most attractive physical qualities, they looked gangly to her. Glancing over at Kakashi's legs, she immediately spotted the difference between them in both width and length and idly, she wondered how her legs had not yet snapped under her own weight.

Bobbing to the small tune playing in her head, it suddenly occurred to her that she was being watched and turned to her right only to see her companion staring at her. A shiver ran down her spine at the intensity of that single charcoal orb. It was like he was staring into her soul, leaving her exposed and the idea of being so vulnerable scared her. She smiled awkwardly.

"Something the matter, sensei?" she asked. Her smile was forced, but that couldn't be helped. She was scared out of her mind. Why had he called her here? Why had he been staring at her? Did something happen? Did she do something wrong?

Hearing no response, she felt her worries multiply. Her heart began to sink as anxiety coiled itself inside her. Glancing to the side, she could see he was still staring at her. What was going inside his head, she wondered and she realized that in all the years she had known the man before her, she had yet to know what he was thinking. He was so mysterious and even after knowing him for so long, she could not read him. She had learned to read Sasuke, a man that many struggled to understand for years, but Kakashi…she didn't know. It was hard to pin the man down, even with him sitting right beside her.

"Kakashi…?" she ventured. Her hand began moving of its own accord, slowly reaching towards him when he spoke.

"Why…?" he asked, speaking for the first time since they had sat down. The simple question startled her and her hand pulled back as if scalded. She blinked. "Wha—"

"Why…why you?" he asked. His brow furrowed as he asked the question, eye still staring at her and she realized he had been searching for an answer within her the entire time.

"I don't understand," she said after finding her voice. Her tone was confused and the way her brows knit as she tried to decipher his cryptic words confirmed that. Staring up into his eye, he seemed to be frustrated at something and she wondered and feared if it was at her.

After a while, she hesitantly looked up. He was still staring at her, but she no longer shied away. She had gotten used to it by now and shifting her legs so they wouldn't fall asleep, she turned to him. "Kakashi-sensei?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair agitatedly. "Kami, this is annoying," he said to himself and she could see his jaw tense under the fabric of his mask. Suddenly, he sighed, crumpling and hunching over himself in exhaustion from life before he trained his eye on her again.

"You…I don't get it…"

"Don't get what, sensei?" she asked and she realized that she was being incredibly patient. Normally, if a person had the audacity to ask her such aimless questions, she'd beat them into the ground, but these questions were different. They seemed important to Kakashi. Suddenly, his gaze turned sharper and he turned to face her.

"You…how could I have fallen for someone like you?"

At his words, she felt her jaw drop a bit in her mouth as her eyes grew wide. Not knowing quite how to respond to that, she blinked. He merely sighed and raked his hand through his hair.

"Sorry, not the most touching confession, is it?" His tone was sardonic, but his eyes held an old sadness that made her heart ache. Had he always walked with such pain in his eyes?

"Kakashi…"

"Kami, I don't even know why I'm here. I didn't even think about doing this when I woke up this morning, but when I looked at the clock and saw it was time for you to get to your shift, I just had to do it," he said with an empty laugh. His sadness permeated the air and she could see he was aching inside. She suddenly felt like holding him.

"Sensei…"

"Am I losing my mind, Sakura?" he asked suddenly. Seeing her stunned reaction, he smiled to himself. "I must be losing my mind," he stated as his smile grew. His hand cradled his chin and with his head turned to the sky, he scoffed. "Kami, I'm such a fool…"

"No, you're not," Sakura replied and he turned to her, surprise written across his face before it slowly melted and became a dark glimmer in his eye.

"You seem so sure about that," he said with a slow smile. He began crawling towards her and while every nerve in her body screamed at her to move away, she found that she couldn't, only backing up to keep her personal bubble as he became mere centimeters before her face.

Moving closer, she found that she couldn't keep her balance anymore and fell back into the grass. Opening her eyes, she saw him hovering over her. His eye glimmered in the fading sunlight and his breath lay hot on the shell of her ear.

"Sensei…?"

"I don't see how I could've fallen for you. You're young, idealistic, and have the tendency to crumble under pressure when it actually counts. You belittle people around you and yourself, you fail to understand that there is more to what's underneath the underneath, you wear your heart on your sleeve, and you trust people too much. You are everything that I've always thought would equate to failure as a shinobi and by all rights, I should hate you, but I don't. I love you. I love your energy, your fire…I love your eyes and your ridiculous pink hair. I love how you care for everyone, even for a jaded pervert like me. I love knowing that you trust me with your life, knowing that even if you freeze up in important situations, you'll still bring yourself from your fear to save me. I love the fact that you can still love and laugh openly. I love everything about you, but I don't understand why," he admitted softly, bowing his head to her shoulder. His legs were on either side of her hips and his hands were fisted on either side of her head, pinning her under him. Looking up, all she could see were bits of sky through his shock of silver hair and with every breath she took, she realized he smelled of sandalwood.

Suddenly, he sat up, hand over his face as he sat a few feet away from her. Slowly, she sat up. Grass clung uneasily to her medic uniform, rocking back and forth on its temporary holds, but she did not feel it, too busy staring at the broken man curled up protectively inside himself. She reached out to him.

"Don't! Don't touch me," he said from his balled-up form. She stared at him, stunned, and he peered up from the crook of his arm, staring brokenly at her and she felt tears prick her eyes. It hurt to see him like this.

"If you do, I don't know what I'll do…" he admitted softly before hearing the grass rustle as she sat beside him. He shut his eyes. "Get away from me, Sakura."

"No." And she cursed at the small quaver in her voice as she spoke. Looking up, she saw him look at her. Even while sitting, he was taller than her, but here he seemed so much smaller, so much more vulnerable. Moving to touch him, he shied away and bent his head, fisting his hands in the grass. His knuckles were white.

"You make things so hard, Sakura. You make things so hard for me and it sickens me. Why do I have to like you? Of all the people I could've had, why did it have to be you?

"I love you. I love you so much, I'm afraid I'll drown in it and there won't be anything left. It feels like I'm going to disappear into it when I'm with you and it scares me. It scares me that you can evoke such emotions in me. I'm a shinobi. I'm not supposed to feel things like this, so how can you…how can you make me feel like this?"

He was looking at her now. Their faces were hovering together and his eyes were pleading with her. He was trying to search for answers inside her on a level that shook her to her core. Thinking back to his question, she realized for all her genius, she didn't know how.

Perhaps he saw her confusion because at that moment, he sighed, moving down to rest his head on her shoulder. As the wind blew through their hair, he laced his fingers with hers.

"Tell me we'll be like this forever, Sakura. Please tell me that this will never change—that we'll always be together."

And tearfully, she nodded and said yes. He was killed on a mission the next day.