🌸 The Flower He Saw 🌸 A Kakashi and Sakura Story

A Soldier in a Child's Body

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Kakashi opted for Sakura to pay Tsunade a visit tomorrow, only after she'd been taken care of. 

The two of them made their way to the T&I building quietly, thinking over what'd just happened. Sakura fell and finally broke down, figuratively and literally. She was hurt, but now it was building up in a bottle to the point where the cap fell off and now the contents were slowly spilling out as more was being added in. 

Once they made their way to Inoichi's door, he stopped and so did she─ glancing up to his face to see that he was already peering down to her level. 

"You can be strong even if you show your feelings." he murmured, curling his fingers around the knob of the door. "A person doesn't become weak when they embrace their feelings."

Before she could reciprocate an explanation, he knocked on the door and the two of them heard a muffled 'come in'. 

"Welcome," Inoichi greeted. "I finished the tests 2 hours ago and used this last hour to run through them to configure some results to give you. I'm sure none of you wanted to wait so I did it today."

Kakashi nodded, altering his masked expression to that of a serious one. Inoichi flickered his eyes Sakura's way for a second before looking back to the rest.

"I'm sure that with these results, Hokage-sama would be more than pleased to allow all of you to take refugee status in the village. Kakashi, you've been appointed as the care takers of all 4 refugees." he held a clipboard out to the masked man. "Sign these papers and you'll be legally appointed to that job."

"Hatake-san, if you don't want to, you don't have to." Sasori cut in, almost regretfully. 

Kakashi glanced over to the puppeteer and then to the rest of the former Akatsuki members. If he didn't know who they were, he would've assumed that they were normal people. Perhaps, a group of friends that were lost, but lost together. 

Normal people with normal lives that had no interests with the dirty work of the Shinobi world. 

Without regrets, Kakashi slid his hand into the side pocket of Anko's jacket and took the pen, silently signing the papers. Sakura's expression lightened as a weak smile plastered her face. She stared at her savior with sparkling eyes and when she cocked her head towards Itachi, she noticed that his eyes sparkled as well. 

The two of them smiled together. 

"Sandaime-sama should be informed soon, right?" he questioned. 

Inoichi nodded in affirmation when he proffered the now, signed papers to him before opening a drawer and placing the documents inside safely. "Well, we may or may not have just done something illegal but Sarutobi-sama is no longer the Hokage, so. "He chuckled. "Welcome to Konohagakure." 

"D-dammit, un!" Deidara huffed, wiping his eyes with his sleeve as he tried his best to not show any evidence of the tears that welled in his eyes.

Hidan couldn't care less about what anyone had to say so he let everyone in the room see his weak smile. Sasori's hollow gaze almost seemed like it had been filled with something─ anything, but there was something there. 

Then, there was Itachi. 

The first thing he did was place a hand upon Sakura's head and ruffle her hair, sighing. "I'm home."

"Do any of you have questions in regards to the village's policies?" Inoichi rejoined, this time smiling to his new neighbors. 

As if it were their first instincts, Deidara and Hidan spoke in unison. "Where's your best desert store located?!!"