Always You

one

6 years old - Sakura
Academy Student

Sakura had watched her classmate with awe. She'd kept her interest hidden, however, knowing that there wasn't much point in expressing it. Kakashi Hatake wasn't what you would call 'social,' or even polite when it came down to it.

Their first year at the academy, she'd been amazed at how skilled he was and how his prowess motivated the other boys in their class. Sakura hadn't really understood what it meant to be a shinobi until she saw the way they worked hard to be better. Not necessarily better than him (except Obito, who was incredibly competitive with Kakashi), but he was a place they all hoped to reach one day and having his example in their minds helped.

Taking Might Guy, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake as examples for how a shinobi should be, Sakura began to work hard on her own as well. She was too embarrassed and shy to train in front of other people, so when she was in class she made certain to study hard and watch the others and see what they did, and listen closely to the instructions of their sensei. She made her notes in a little notebook she never let out of her sight, and then she applied it to her own training in the forest and away from prying eyes.

Sakura wasn't surprised that Kakashi graduated at the end of their first year. No one was really, he was so far advanced. She wasn't really good friends with anyone in the class, she was just a little quieter than the others, so while they celebrated Kakashi's graduation in a group she stayed on the outside and smiled at him when he randomly glanced her way.

When she went home that night, Sakura pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down his name, sticking it in a book to hide it, just in case someone got the wrong idea. He was her new goal; she wanted to be a good enough shinobi to stand beside him as a comrade and be someone he could respect.

*

6 years old - Kakashi
Academy Student/Genin

Kakashi was proud of himself for graduating as the youngest student ever. He deserved it, after all, he was a prodigy - but, he still worked himself harder than anyone else. He trained more than the others, except maybe that quiet girl with the pink hair.

Kakashi had noticed her quiet yet rapid improvements and seen how focused she was. He was also not blind to the fact that she watched him a lot. At first, he thought it was because she was like one of those other girls, the annoying ones who only ever talked about boys. He knew she was book smart, being the one who always scored second after him on their theory tests, but he hadn't realised that she was also studying her classmates.

One afternoon he'd seen her sneaking away into the forests after their lessons were over, he grew curious and discreetly followed her. He watched her, hidden away in the trees, as she glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching, and then entered a little area inside the hollowed-out trunk of a tree. He'd waited a while until she came out, and then he watched her as she trained, sometimes referring to the little notebook she carried around at the academy. He realised that she was attempting to apply techniques that some of their classmates used in taijutsu. He recognised some of his own, and Guy's, and even Obito and Asuma's.

He watched that first time with fascination. When she left for the day, Kakashi came down from his tree and investigated what was inside the tree trunk, and was surprised to find there were books in there, far more advanced than anyone else in the class was reading, that had obviously been read many times over. They were all about chakra control and theory, some medical texts, some were about ninjutsu and taijutsu and genjutsu.

Kakashi quickly realised that no one in the class really understood her. She didn't speak much, and some of the others thought she was rude. Kakashi paid more attention to her after that, but not in a way that anyone else noticed, and figured out that she was just shy. He followed her to watch her training every now and again. Part of him wishing to go down and help her, but something always stopped him. Even at the academy, he never found the courage to approach her.