Getting Lost on the Roads of Life - a KakaSaku Story [CONCLUDED]

A Husband Returns

"Kakashi," Sasuke said slowly, his eyes narrowed to slits. "What are you doing here?"

"I gather you haven't been to see the Hokage yet, Sasuke," Kakashi replied smoothly. "That's fine. Wait here until someone comes to fetch you. Don't bother with unpacking."

It was lightly spoken, in that usual laid-back tone of his, but to Sakura, it seemed like the temperature had suddenly dropped below zero. Two tigers circling each other with bared fangs would have made her less nervous.

Sasuke scowl deepened as he looked in her direction.

Of course, she blushed. They hadn't even done anything, just hugged like friends, but it was clear to Sakura that Sasuke knew instinctively that silly women like her were unable to keep their hands off Konoha's famous copy-ninja if they were given the chance. Sakura furtively glanced at Kakashi's black-clad back and the spiky silver hair and felt like finding a deep hole to hide. I'm sorry, Sakura, Kakashi had said. Sorry about what? About having to reject her? About having to push her away? About how all his good teaching had gone to waste?

Yes, she was sorry too. About being stupid, about not hearing, not wanting to hear the footsteps on the stairs like he had, about thinking even for a moment that hugging Hatake Kakashi was something she was entitled to do.

"Hi, Sakura," Sasuke said and briefly shook the hair away from the left side of his face to look at her with both eyes. "I'm back."

He was, wasn't he. Just like that, out of the blue, after nine months and some weeks and some days, she had stopped counting. She had imagined their reunion for so long. And now that it was here... everything was different.

"Hi, Sasuke," she replied, her mouth suddenly dry. He was wearing a black travel cloak with purple lining, and a grey, long-sleeved, collared shirt. With a pang, she noticed the Konoha forehead protector that hung from his left hip. When had he gotten that back? It was good that he felt it was okay to show his affiliation again like this. Very good. Maybe he would stay this time.

Sasuke looked paler than she remembered, thinner and... older, somehow. Well, she hadn't seen him in over nine months, so he was older - but he looked at least four years beyond his age. Still scowling, he removed the dark grey fingerless glove on his remaining right hand with his teeth and shrugged out of the cloak.

"What happened here?" Sasuke asked Kakashi, turning his eyes towards the bedroom. Trust his keen Uchiha senses to pick up the blood that had been spilled.

"Konoha was attacked last night," Kakashi said, "two enemies came here looking for you."

"What?"

Sasuke walked to the bedroom swiftly and opened the door. Sakura braced herself, but she did not panic or anything like it. She even managed to walk up behind him and look in. The first thing she noticed was her once pink slippers on the floor, now rusty red. Maybe she wasn't quite ready yet after all, she thought as she closed her eyes quickly.

"You used Shiden inside my apartment?" Sasuke exclaimed, taking everything in, including the broken wall. "Are you crazy?"

Sasuke had never had any respect to spare for anyone, Sakura knew this. She also knew that Kakashi had never cared about it, even when he still was their teacher. And yet, Sasuke's rudeness stirred anger in her.

"It wasn't like there was a lot of time for more subtle methods," she said sharply.

Shiden. That was the purple techniques name. It was something new, she had not seen it before. Another lightning technique, just like Chidori, but even more deadly and precise. He is Konoha's most proficient killer, she remembered Sasuke telling her once, which had resulted in a heated argument between them. She had protested the use of the word killer for somebody as righteous as Kakashi, whereas Sasuke had called her a stupid cow and had insisted that people who killed other people in cold blood, however just the cause, where killers, nothing better, nothing worse.