Mrs. Lord Sixth || KakaSaku

The Morning After 5 - Old Habits

Notes:

This is what happens when you take two people who've always slept alone, never sharing a room with anyone for their whole lives, and move one of them into the other's tiny apartment... hehe

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As the afternoon bled into evening, Sakura and the ninken were making excellent progress, which basically meant at least everything was sorted, and the random unnecessary junk had been sealed in her one spare storage scroll.

But now the time had come to find homes for her beloved books and medical scrolls, and in the small space it was clear that keeping their belongings separate would be pretty much impossible. Looking around for a solution and finding none, she noticed that the one major difference between Kakashi's original apartment and this place was the books – the sheer amount of them!

Instead of just the pair of built-ins on the wall beside his bed, the opposite wall where the desk sat was now flanked with floor to ceiling bookshelves. She hadn't had a moment to really check the place out with all the sorting going on, so she walked over to take a closer look. He seemed to have acquired an absurd number of books in the short time between having moved from his old place to here, and it was surprising how well-worn they already looked. Leafing through a few at random revealed that they most likely all were littered with notes and markings. Phrases, and sometimes whole paragraphs were highlighted. Scrappy bits of parchment and even some random paper cranes were interspersed between the pages.

Where could he have been keeping these all this time? she wondered. These shelves felt like a treasure trove to her, and she secretly hoped she might have more days alone in the Hokage residence so she could unravel the otherwise unknowable puzzle of Kakashi's collected thoughts.

Pakkun wandered over from the scroll-sorting area and looked at her sideways. "Surprised?" he asked.

"Kind of," Sakura replied. "I know he loves to read but where'd all this come from? This looks like years worth of reading."

"It is," Pakkun said nonchalantly. "He kept it in his Kamui dimension."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "You're telling me he was constantly expending chakra keeping books in there?! How do you know that?"

"Because! He would often summon me when he wanted to read, and I've seen them appear out of thin air."

"Wow," Sakura said, mystified. "But why in there? Doesn't that just take energy?"

"Well, like I told you about summoning us, I think it was probably just another way to tire himself out..."

"He must have hated being alone, summoning you like that and all."

"I'm sure he did. You know, he often read aloud actually. Especially the adventure stories." Pakkun glanced at Kakashi's windowsill where the picture of his old genin team sat, right beside hers. "I think maybe he felt closer to Obito by keeping them there... like sharing something."

"I see," Sakura said sadly, "I'd say I can't imagine it... but I can."

"Well, he's got them brought out here in the apartment now, so I'd say that's a sign that he's doing better."

"I hope so," Sakura agreed, looking over the shelves again. "You don't think he'd mind if I put my books and scrolls in there too, do you?"

"I'm sure he'd have no complaints at all~"

She scoffed at his teasing tone, but it made her smile nonetheless.

And with that, Pakkun and Bull worked together to pass the many books from their stacks on the floor up to Sakura, careful not to leave any bite marks in the covers.