Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of characters. I am making no profit off of this and am only writing it for my entertainment.

A/N: Set in my Same Age AU sometime shortly after Kakashi leaves Anbu. Somewhat established relationship. If anyone has watched Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, this was inspired by Sunny and Reaper's reincarnations.

Also sorry this is suuuuuuper late. Life has been exhausting, but this is my last entry for Kakasaku month. It could actually fit for the prompts The Mission or Summer Rain all the way from week one.

Unbeta-ed.

"Stay with me." The voice was far away like hearing someone through a tunnel or in the waking moments after a deep slumber. It rang in his head, so persistent that he couldn't tell if his name was being called repeatedly or if it was just from the ringing in his head brought on by the loud slow thump of his own heartbeat. One thing was certain though. It was panicked. "Kakashi, look at me. Don't take your eyes off me."

Blackness faded away to meet grey skies. For a moment the world was a blur before it came into sharp focus, and he was aware of everything all at once. The agonizing pain in his chest only slightly dulled by the gentle, warm flow of Sakura's chakra. The green eyes that bore into his, commanding them to stay open. The soft patter of rain that beat against his much too pale skin. Some part of him knew that if he turned his head slightly, he'd find the dead bodies of the Kiri Anbu that lay just beyond them.

"What are you doing?" His voice was ragged. Talking was a luxury his failing body could barely afford. It spasmed in protest, and he was sure he could taste the metallic tang of blood when he coughed. "Finish the mission."

"If you think I'm leaving you, you're dead wrong." Sakura's voice was hard. It left no room for argument, but as Obito would be happy to point out and in fact, had many times, Kakashi had always been a fool.

"Sakura-"

"Shinobi who abandon their comrades are worse than scum, right? That's your rule, and it applies to abandoning you too. Now hold still and stop talking, so we can be on our way sooner.

…

"The rain isn't so bad, we could keep going." If he were still in Anbu, they wouldn't have stopped, but he'd been demoted from espionage and assassinations to courier missions. Granted, the information they'd been transporting was highly sensitive information, but if he were honest with himself, it wasn't the mission that had him itching to keep moving. Even if it was, they'd technically finished it and were on their way back to the village. It didn't matter if they stopped for the night to stay in a roadside inn instead of camping out on the road. No, what was bothering him was the cold shoulder Sakura had been giving him ever since they'd run into those Kiri shinobi.

"If you want to keep going in this storm, be my guest, but when you get struck by lightning, don't expect me to heal you." Sakura brushed the wet hair back from where it clung to her cheeks as best she could before stepping into the roadside inn. "And I'll be sure to inform Rin not to help you either."

"I wouldn't get struck by lightning." And he doubted Rin would refuse to treat him. If anything she'd just give him a stern talking to about not making idiotic decisions.

"Wanna take that bet?"

A bolt of lightning lit up the sky followed seconds later by a clap of thunder as though the sky were working with Sakura to prove him wrong. Rather than arguing the point any further and pressing his luck, he wordlessly stepped into the building. His clothes were darkened and weighed down by the heavy rain they'd run through for the past hour. Rivulets of water dripped off the both of them and left a trail of puddles after them on the hard wood floor of the inn.

Sakura coughed lightly to get the attention of the old woman who looked to be half asleep behind the counter.

"Ah, got caught in the rain, did you?" She peered at the two of them through her thick rimmed glasses. "We don't usually get many ninja all the way out here." Her eyes drifted between the two of them again until it began to feel like she was trying to read their deepest darkest secrets as payment for the rooms.

"We were just passing by." Sakura shifted uncomfortably. Kakashi couldn't quite tell if it was from the way her wet clothes clung to her and let the cold seep into her skin, or if it was from the older woman's penetrating gaze. Even he was beginning to get unnerved by it.

"The weather's brought a lot of customers today, but you're just in luck." The women fished around her desk for a moment before pulling out a key connected to a wooden tag with a room number on it.

"Oh. Actually, we need two rooms, if you don't mind." Sakura smiled at the woman, but Kakashi could tell it was entirely forced. He had a sinking suspicion that the tense set of her mouth had more to do with him than it did the intrusive old woman.

"Sorry, we've only got the one room left."

"We'll take it. Thank you," Kakashi swooped in and picked up the key, offering the woman a much friendlier smile as he steered Sakura towards the stairs. Without looking, he could already tell Sakura's eyes had lowered into a glare that very well might kill a man on sight, but he was thankful she didn't seem to be full on fighting him for manhandling her just yet.

As they reached the first step, the door opened again and a young couple around their age ran in all giggles and smiles.

"Do you have a room?"

The old woman's faint reply stopped the two shinobi in their tracks. "You're just in luck, we've got one room left."

Charcoal eyes met emerald. Pressing his luck, Kakashi let his hand slide along her arm until their fingers were interlocked. "Just let it go."

Sakura's jaw was set in a way that he knew she was physically restraining herself from going back and accusing the old woman of lying to them.

"Pretend you didn't hear anything," he advised and gave her hand a little tug before starting back up the stairs.

"I didn't hear anything." She pulled her hand away from his. Her voice was strained, but she moved ahead without any argument, and Kakashi breathed a silent sigh of relief. He didn't really want to deal with a spectacle. Sakura could be prone to making them when she got angry, and she'd already been in a bad mood for days.

…

A hot shower later, and Sakura seemed to be in a slightly better mood. At the very least, it seemed to undo the damage the storm had brought about, and he was beginning to get used to the cold shoulder at this point.

Changing into dry clothes seemed to have picked up Kakashi's spirits as well, and as the pink-haired kunoichi stepped out of the bathroom, Kakashi set his book aside. "Do you want to talk about it?" He let his eye follow a stray droplet of water that rolled down a wet strand of hair and along the skin of her neck before looking back at her eyes. "You've seemed kind of tense for a while, and I think it's about time we clear the air.

"Oh, have I? I hadn't noticed." It took everything in Kakashi not to wince at the barbed sarcasm that dripped from her tongue.

She moved around to the uninhabited side of the queen bed and climbed in, deliberately turning her back to him as she did. "I'm tired. Turn the lights out when you're done."

For a brief moment, Kakashi sat in silence, then steeled himself, knowing exactly what he was about to instigate. "I'd like to talk about it."

Just like that, Sakura rounded on him, turning to face him with fury in her eyes. "Would you? Or would you rather just pretend that everything is fine, like you always do? We could just keep living in a world where nothing, not even your death matters! That's the world you live in, right? I don't think you understand how close you were, Kakashi. Seconds. You were seconds away from dying, and you told me to just leave you there!"

Ah. So that's what the cold shoulder for days on end had been about. "I'm not afraid of death, Sakura. I've been close to it before. It's just-"

"Don't you dare say it's just part of the shinobi lifestyle." She pointed a menacing finger at him, and this time he did have the sense of self-preservation to shut up. "I've known you for your entire life, Hatake," she poked him hard, and Kakashi knew there'd be a little bruise there in the morning, "And I know that this is just some stupid way for you to punish yourself for everything that happened in the past that you somehow think is all your fault. You did it with ANBU and now that you can't take it out there anymore, you're trying it here. Well it's not going to work." Another poke for emphasis.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he lied, though he at least had the decency to look ashamed.

"Goddamn it, Kakashi, this isn't a joke."

"I never said it was."

"Then take this seriously!" Sakura fumed. "There was absolutely no need for you to let things get as far as they did. Not only that, but it's insulting that you thought you needed to take the hits aimed at me. You know I can handle myself. You were looking for an excuse to be reckless, when you had no reason to be. Sometimes you act like you don't have anything to live for, and it pisses me off!"

This time before Sakura could poke him in the chest again, he caught her hand. "I'm sorry." His clothed lips leaned down to graze the skin of her hand as he spoke. "Forgive me?" His eyes were lowered. He couldn't bring himself to look at her fully when he knew that she was right. Even after all these years, even after Obito had returned, he still felt guilty for the pain he'd inflicted on his teammates. For being unable to save Minato. Most times knowing the truth or thinking through the logic of the situations didn't help. Sometimes he needed the rush of battle or the single mindedness of a cause to distract him. The field was where his worth laid. Sometimes, he felt like he couldn't be absolved of all his crimes until he had fully martyred himself.

"I don't want an apology." A softness had finally begun to replace the hard edge of Sakura's voice. "I want you to forgive yourself." Her free hand moved to brush through his unruly hair. "It's been years. No one holds you responsible."

He let her hand slip away from his grasp and shook his head tiredly. "It's not so simple as that."

"Hey," she wrapped her arms around him and held him close. Immediately, he let himself melt into her hold, his face burrowing into the crook of her neck. His strong arms came up to wrap around her tightly. "You don't have to hate yourself," she murmured against his hair. Her fingers stroked slowly through the silver locks. "I know I don't."

He couldn't help but let a sad smile tug at the edge of his lips at her words. "You don't make it easy for a guy to run away, do you?" All his life he'd been trying to run, away from his mistakes, from the people he knew would only be hurt for knowing him, and towards whatever self-imposed justice he thought made up for them. Somehow in the midst of it all, there was Sakura, always finding a way to keep him sane. She was always there to keep him from going too far.

"Maybe you should stop trying to run. Have you ever thought of that?"

Her words brought his head up to look at her, and her green gaze bore into his soul with the same seriousness as when her chakra had been stitching him back together only days ago. With most others, the gaze would feel intrusive, but not with her. Never with her.

It happened slowly at first. Kakashi wasn't sure who initiated what, only that there was no hesitation. It wasn't the first time they'd fallen into this, and selfishly, he prayed it wouldn't be the last, though he could never find it in himself to voice his true affections for the girl who had been the only constant in his life besides death.

There was a part of him that wanted to resent the way her calloused fingers left chills in their wake as they traveled along his bare skin. He wanted to reject the way he longed to taste more of her even as he left openmouthed kisses along the strong lines of her stomach, but the thing about Sakura was that when he was with her, all of that melted away. He didn't want to think anymore. He just wanted to be.

And, as he lay in bed the next morning, his legs tangled with hers, and his fingers lightly tracing the curve of her bare back while she slept on, he finally allowed his mind to wonder. Maybe someday, he would have the honor to wake to the sight of her pink hair splayed across the pillows every morning. Maybe someday, he'd be brave enough to tell her how he'd grown to feel about her. He could only hope that day would come soon.