Promises Remembered

Chapter 21

A/N I really like this chapter. I have been struggling to read a fic that's a ShikaSaku and while I like the pairing, it made me realize that I am maybe making Kakashi's emotional state too easy and the shit he deals with in ANBU lighter than what it should be. But I realized I don't give a crap. It is so hard to slog through so much angst and drama and I just am not that writer. Not really that reader either. If you think that I made it too easy for him to be a functioning human, sorry. This is not a deep dark introspective piece about the nature of the soul when exposed to horror on a daily basis. lol Anyway, felt the need to say that after what I have been reading. I am so glad a few of you are still here loving this baby with me!

Chapter 21

Sakura

Six-hundred and sixty-five days into the past

There was a crisp chill in the late winter air. Sakura walked through the market, enjoying Kakashi's warmth beside her, fingers laced through his where his hand draped over her shoulder. Her free hand rubbed absently at her belly, his other carrying their dinner.

Sakura wasn't thinking about the future. She wasn't thinking about her increased chakra drain and what it might mean. She wasn't thinking about how she had only three months left with her husband.

Sakura had banished those thoughts from her mind for the day. It was a nice evening and they were together and all was right in her world.

"Oh look, Kakashi!" A small shop that specialized in baby things caught her eye. In particular, a sleeper covered in little shuriken hanging in the display on the street.

He laughed under his breath and followed her to the shop. It was even more adorable up close. "Okay, that's cute." Picking it up, Kakashi looked down at her, his eye crinkled with a smile. "He definitely needs this one."

Sakura grinned, looking through the others. "It matches the baby blanket Aiko and Genma gave us." Their friends had excitedly presented them with the ninja tool covered blanket a few days before, along with a set of wooden kunai. "Definitely this one too." She held up another, this time sporting several different kinds of puppies.

He snorted, taking it from her. "What else do we need?" Tossing the sleepers over his shoulder, he picked up a package depicting a slender plastic cylinder with a long plastic tube attaching what looked like a mouth piece. "What is this thing for?"

"Hmm" She read the description and made a face. "It's for uh, snot."

"Snot?" He turned it over to read the package himself. "Gross."

Someone laughed behind them. "Trust me, it definitely is." They turned around to see Mebuki, and a small, shyly smiling Sakura standing behind them. "But you'll definitely need one of those for when they get a cold. They can't blow their own noses."

Staring down at her younger self, Sakura forced a smile on her face as her mother introduced them. "Sakura-chan, this is your father's cousin, Hatake Hana, and her husband Hatake Kakashi. This is our daughter, Sakura. She has the day off from school today. Say hello, sweetheart."

The pink haired little girl beamed up at her older counterpart. "Hi!"

Sakura swallowed her nerves—this was fine, it happened before, she remembered this—and greeted her. "Hello, Sakura-chan. Nice to meet you."

"Your hair is so long and pretty! And pink like mine!"

Older Sakura chuckled as her younger self unabashedly reached for it, admiring up close. "Family trait, I guess. Yours is lovely too, Sakura."