Hi turns out I can't count and don't know HOW TO READ A FUCKING CALENDAR.

Turns out I have 10 days between my paper being due on Friday and my exams. Whodathunk? Not me, because I can't read apparently.

Also, I know I said Ghost Stories would get Chapter 9, but my mum got into an accident and I got bronchitis (In spring?) and it wasn't even on the radar. I sorry.

Anywho - Listened to some sad music, blubbered like a dumbass and then wrote this.

Tadaa.

Chapter 2: Kakashi

Kakashi wasn't sure what it was about Sakura and Sasuke.

They danced around each other from the day he had met them. Where one was, the other was not far behind.

At first, it had been undoubtedly one sided. Sakura had pined after Sasuke like a little puppy, following him around and preening at every opportunity. Sasuke hadn't cared much, had acted like it was the worst thing in the world.

Still, Kakashi knew it bolstered the boy's already inflated ego, having Sakura coo and clap her hands at everything he did.

Back then, when they were the most useless of genin, green and gangly, Kakashi had been sure that the team wouldn't last. Sasuke would inevitably end up going into ANBU, become a cold, elite ninja in the vein of his cousin and brother before him.

Naruto would end up a mediocre ninja despite his pedigree, despite the blood that ran in his veins. And Sakura? She would retire at sixteen, a genin and marry some civilian, have a child and reminisce about her days as a 'ninja'.

Most genin teams didn't last. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was a team that went back generations, so they were safe. But clan ninja like Sasuke, orphans like Naruto and average girls like Sakura… Didn't make for a team.

He'd done his best not to get attached. They were idiots after all and he didn't expect them to go far. As cruel as it sounded, they were coddled, soft children.

And then the Chunin Exams happened.

After the Forest of Death -He should have been there- something changed.

Sakura became a ninja in that forest. There was a drive to her now, a real ambition that Kakashi hadn't seen in her before. She wasn't a little girl, and now when Sakura looked at Sasuke, it wasn't because she wanted his attention. She looked worried, wringing her hands and biting her lip as if she wanted to say something. She still clung to him, still fussed over him, but her reasons had changed.

It wasn't because he was a beautiful, damaged boy that she wanted to fix. It was because she genuinely cared for Sasuke, worried for him, was scared for him.

Sasuke changed too, after the forest of death -why hadn't he been there?- he was colder, angrier, more focused.

But there was a protectiveness to Sasuke now, a fire in him that hadn't been there before. Now when Sakura spoke to him, he listened. He watched her hands, her eyes, angled himself towards her, but only just.

The way they danced around each other now was more reminiscent of the moon pulling at the tide. Up and up and up the moon encouraged, come to me, stay with me. But the tide pulled away each and every time, back and back and back, unsure.

He wasn't so sure about his team now – where were you?-

There was a drive to them. Each of them, that didn't quite seem to click for their classmates. For some reason, they all had something that they just refused, point blank, to let go.

It drove Sasuke away.

It drove Naruto away.

It drove Sakura away.

And Kakashi realised just how terrible a teacher he truly was. What had he taught them? What life skills had he taught them? What lessons in teamwork and family?

Nothing.

He had taught them to survive. But he hadn't taught them to live.

When they came back, when he'd seen just how much they had grown, he felt a sense of misplaced pride. It wasn't him who taught them those skills, it was far better ninja.

Sakura had grown the most. He hadn't paid her any attention when she was younger, seeing her as nothing more than a child playing dress up. but then she healed Kankuro with a practiced ease it was like seeing a different person.

And then just days later, she took on an Akatsuki member with no hesitation- didn't just take him on but killed him. She neutralised his poison, destroyed his puppets, and then killed him.

A feat matched only by Shikamaru and Sasuke.

He didn't get to see Sasuke -always late, why are you always so late?!- at Orochimaru's base.

But Yamato told him about the encounter. Naruto and Sakura froze, unable to hurt Sasuke because it was Sasuke and of course they couldn't hurt him.

And then Kakashi knew it had to be him.

It wasn't fair. He had failed his team, had pushed them away and now he would have to fix it. Sasuke didn't deserve to die because of the hand dealt to him, but he had to. He was a threat and had the potential to become a menace.

Of course, he screwed that up as well -because that's what you do-

Naruto shouldn't have had to face Sasuke. Sakura shouldn't have had to choose. Sasuke shouldn't have been on that bridge.

Somewhere along the way… Kakashi had truly believed that Sakura might be the only one to reach Sasuke and pull him back. He had listened to Sakura when they were children, when he didn't listen to Naruto and Kakashi.

But then Sasuke had lashed out at her, nearly killed her when she'd nearly killed him.

And it shouldn't have been like that. It was wrong, and it hurt to see his students fight, fight to kill and maim and hurt each other.

From then on. Naruto was cold and quiet. Sakura was withdrawn, a liar. They didn't smile properly.

And then they went to war.

Naruto became a leader, a true leader.

Sakura too. When Kakashi saw her in the medical camps, on the field, it wasn't his little gangly genin, but a secure, powerful young woman who was listened to and respected.

Sasuke redeemed himself in the most Sasuke way possible, by bullying his way through everyone and retaking his place in team 7 as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

And it was.

Because Team 7 just… fell back into their old ways. Sakura and Sasuke taunted Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke argued, Sakura and Naruto cheered each other on. It was like nothing had changed. They fought together, used his formations. Their teamwork was impeccable.

That was his team. Look at them go.

They took down a god.

And then they fell apart again.

As soon as it was over, and the heat of battle had left their blood, they started sniping at each other. Naruto and Sasuke snarled and butted heads and Sakura tried to play mediator, tried her hardest to reach Sasuke, to convince him to just… stop.

He wasn't sure about Sakura and Sasuke anymore.

A years long dance around each other. Around and around they went, Sakura holding out her hand, unwavering in her love for him and Sasuke resolutely ignoring it. In Sasuke's mind, there was no room for love, in Sakura's mind, there was always room.

He'd witnessed Team 7's reunion at the Valley of the End.

For the first time in her life, Sakura told Sasuke to shut up. And Kakashi thought… it might be about time for that.

He wasn't privy to what they spoke about and it wasn't his place.

But… there was his team again.

There was that slight tilt to Sasuke's head as he listened to Sakura scold them both.

Sasuke was listening to her again.

It was a long process back to a semblance of normalcy. Nothing would be the same, not like it would have been had Sasuke never left, but… Kakashi rather thought that maybe, in some convoluted, roundabout way, it might have been for the best.

Now when Sakura spoke to Sasuke, he listened, he looked at her, he replied, he asked about her. It was still small, like the way he would angle his body to face her, the way he watched her hands, and eyes. His protectiveness was still there, but it wasn't a fire anymore, but rather just a slow burn.

Sakura didn't need Sasuke's protection anymore.

Where it would have irritated and emasculated younger Sasuke, it only made the adult Sasuke smile as she spoke.

Around and around they went. Up and up and up the moon encouraged, come to me, stay with me. But it was quiet and sure, not scared and desperate. And the tide was sure this time, and more open, more malleable.

Sitting on the hill, watching his team eat lunch in their old training grounds, Kakashi wasn't sure what it was about Sakura and Sasuke.

They just seemed… Right. Even when they were young, where one went, the other was not far behind. They revolved around each other in a way that Kakashi didn't quite understand. It wasn't a tumultuous relationship, full of fire and zeal.

It wasn't star crossed or dramatic.

It was more like… An inevitability.

"Whatcha thinking about, old man? You daydreaming about those porn books again?"

And then there was Naruto.

BYE.