Getting Lost on the Roads of Life - a KakaSaku Story [CONCLUDED]

Memories

"Uncle Kakashi! Uncle Kakashi!" a weight plopped down next to him and a hand touched the side of his face in a clumsy caress, jolting him from a place of restless, violent dreams. "You are back!"

"S... Sarada," he groaned. What time was it? He carefully opened his right eye. It was still dark outside. He felt like he hadn't slept at all. And there was a particularly vicious enemy shinobi hammering red-glowing nails into his skull from the inside.

"Auntie is still asleep," Sarada whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

"Good. Don't wake her," Kakashi whispered back, finding his voice hoarse and his throat raw. Damn, he was thirsty, almost as if he had walked through a desert all night.

He turned his head to look at Sakura's sleeping form. The brown color of her hair gave him pause every single time he set eyes on it. Only when he looked at her face and into her green eyes did the strangely discomforting feeling of looking at someone he had once known but lost since go away.

He turned his head in the other direction, finding Kaeru sleeping with his head against the wall, his sword across his knees, his mouth hanging open in a rather unflattering way.

Well, no need for everyone to get up this early.

"Did you just wake up?" Kakashi asked and pushed himself into a sitting position. The pain in his head promptly intensified and he briefly pressed the palms of his hand against his eye sockets, which helped exactly nothing.

"Yes," Sarada said, "I'm not tired anymore."

"Let's go to the kitchen," Kakashi suggested, kicking his legs free of the blanket and standing up, fighting down a surge of dizziness.

There was a kitchen space across the corridor, to be shared by the different parties staying at the guest house. Nobody else was here at the moment though, which meant they had it all to themselves. A small though important blessing on this very early morning.

Last night, after somehow getting back here, Sakura had forced him to eat fruit and drink water. She had scolded him for a whole list of things, but he had been too distracted to listen. Some of her skin was visible through the towels she had wrapped around herself for the way home. Her clothes had gotten a little wet - or maybe not only a little, he noticed they were still draped over a chair in the corner to dry.

Long story short, instead of peeling his orange, peeling Sakura out of the towels had appealed to him much more.

Shaking his head at himself as he remembered her cute and slightly outraged squeals, Kakashi filled a glass with water from the tap and emptied it in one go. And again. And again. Had he misbehaved last night? It was all a little hazy but the more he thought about it the clearer it seemed that he had shamelessly misbehaved.

Oh well. He put down the glass resolutely. It had been very enjoyable. Even if it would shock a lot of people, he should maybe misbehave more often, it sure helped to get his mind off the many troubling things he needed to resolve.

Tomorrow, he would leave with Kirigakure's Hunter-nin. If Karin really was near like Naruto had suggested, they would find her. Eventually. The Land of Water was large though and if she had moved on... Kakashi sighed.

"Do you want an omelette for breakfast?" he asked Sarada, noticing she was watching him attentively in his struggle to hydrate and collect his scattered thoughts.

"Yes, please, uncle," Sarada nodded politely.

The girl had been so frightened again yesterday. At least, she would be able to stay in this village for a few days, with no enemies chasing her. It was as much as he could offer her at the moment. That and breakfast.