It's late when she leaves practice.
It's always late when Sakura leaves practice. She can't remember what it's like to take a quick lunch , or a break, or anything that resembles a type of break during practice hours. And practice hours are every day.
Sometimes she forgets what it's like to have the sun on her face when in the indoor train ground for longer periods of time. That may sound dramatic. Becuase no one is forcing her to do this, to embrace this graceful, yet horrible craft. To work until she beats the best and then better than that.
But maybe that's the worse type of slave contract.
The one you sign to yourself.
Anyways, Sakura is in the kitchen eating a green apple looking out the dark widow. When she felt a chakra behind her.
"Your up late aren't you?" She heard Kakazu's voice by the entrance of the kitchen.
"I just finished training." She said back to him.
"Training? Sakura... it's damn near three AM. You need to go to bed, and sleep in." He mumbled the last part because he knew she will never sleep in. She was usually the first one up, always in the training room.
"I will go to sleep soon, maybe. But, if I may ask, why are you awake?" She turned to lean her lower back against the counter.
"I could feel a chakra in the kitchen and I came too see who the hell was up at this hour." He answered.
Sakura threw away her apple core and rinsed off her hands. "Night Kakazu." She said walking past him. He stared after her noticing her shoulders were tense. She doesn't drop her guard anywhere he's seen.
::
Sakura lay in her bed, she couldn't sleep. She had been laying there for nearly two hours.
She sat up and looked at the little desk clock
4:43
The bright red letters starred right back at her. "Fuck." She mumbled.
Sakura pulled the covers off of her bed and went to her window. The sun was coming up. She opened the window and noticed. The widow was barely above ground level. 'Hmmm.'
Sakura exited her window and walked on the bright green grass. The grass was slightly wet from freezing over night, she stood there. Some of the grass was still frozen. But she felt nothing. She was only wearing shorts and a sports bra but she didn't feel temperature, didn't hear the morning birds, didn't see the ninja in her peripheral vision, she could only taste her slight morning breath.
"Sakura. Didn't I tell you to go to bed? You have half the base awake ready to come and kill you thinking you're an enemy." She heard Kakazu's voice, but she continued stand there starring at the sky.
'She's spacing out, I can sense her sadness from here. Fuck.' Kakazu slowly walked to Sakura and picked her up. An arm under her shoulders, and under her knees. She rested her forehead on his firm chest. 'Why is she so damn thin?'
"Are you alright?" He didn't know why he was asking, it's not like she would answer, becuase now she is just starring at his bicep. He looked at her right before he the entered building. He didn't know if she usually wore makeup, becuase right now there were dark circles around her eyes signaling she didn't sleep, at all, or well. 'Probably the former.'
He walked up to the 8th floor and sat her on the kitchen table. She sat there starring at the cabinets. He got a glass of hot water, then put a green tea bag in it. He walked in front of her and raised her hand with his. She instinctively wrapped her hands around the mug.
"Sakura. It's hot, wait to drink it." Kakazu turned around and threw away the packaging for the tea bag and he put away the medication he put in the tea.
He turned around and saw the mug was empty. He watched as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and the mug shattered. Sakura fell back against the table, asleep.
And that's how Kakazu and Sakura became good friends.
