Chapter Text
The bar was raucous as ever on a Friday night, both civilians and shinobi thronging to drink away the stress of their everyday lives. Despite the noise and the salacious reading material in his hand, Kakashi was following the easy conversation of the jonin at his table, even dropping the book ever so slightly to pepper in sharp-witted retorts whenever he could. Kakashi was a man of routine and this was a Friday night like any other - or at least it was supposed to be.
Even though Kakashi was a master strategist, he did not consider himself to be a very complex man. Rather, he was very much attached to his daily routine. Every morning, he would visit the memorial stone and speak to those who were no longer part of the physical world, then he would train and work on keeping his body honed. His afternoons were often spent dealing with the responsibility of being a former Hokage - making public appearances, sitting in on council meetings, and using his brilliant mind and silver tongue to woo foreign dignitaries into supporting the village and their plans - or, at least, that was what he was supposed to be doing.
Sometimes, Konoha’s felt a little too thin and the mask that he wore as a shield felt more of a hindrance, making it harder to breathe under the relentless pressure of the expectations and duty that weighed heavily on his shoulders; neither of which he had asked for or taken on willingly. It felt like every minute of his life was under heavy scrutiny. Even though he no longer wore the Hokage robes - still, people expected things from him constantly. In these instances, Kakashi found himself trying to lose himself in a village where everyone knew his face (hard not to, with it being carved on the giant mountain).
He spent a lot of his afternoons in the one refuge where no one would dare to think he would be - at the hospital. It was against his very nature, but Sakura made it bearable. She, also holding the weight of the village on her shoulders as Kohana’s Medical Director, would hide him in her office while pretending to be pouring over hospital matters. Both of them were stuck in the village, too important to be sent on missions yet too famous to be left alone by even civilians; it was something they had bonded over. Both nin were itching to do more. They had spent their lives honing their bodies into lethal weapons for Konoha, yet now they were tied to desks and dusty, old buildings - using their words more than their shuriken. They did it because it was the best for the village, not because it was something they had wanted to take on. Few could really understand their position - Naruto elated to be Hokage, Sasuke choosing his self-isolating mission, and the rest of their circles very much involved in taking on active missions or enjoying hospital work.
Often, the pair would slip out and spar together. Not many could withstand Sakura’s strength or Kakashi’s many accumulated jutsu and natural cunning, but they knew each other’s weaknesses well. It was during their intensive spars that they felt most alive, often pushing each other to the very brink of what Sakura was capable of healing afterwards. It wasn’t such a strange friendship. Afterall, Team 7 had been formed well over 9 years ago. It was natural that they would become close and it wasn’t like the other team members were in the village or free from their Hokage duties often enough to accompany them.
In the evenings, Kakashi would train some more, and then either eat dinner with Sakura or in the solitude of his apartment. A few nights a week, they’d meet with their respective friends at this bar. This was his life and, although he yearned for more action, he was content to allow it to pass as it was: steady, dependable, predictable.
What he did not anticipate was this changing with Sakura’s arrival that night. Kakashi immediately sensed her walk in; after all these years of comradery, he was finely attuned to her chakra. She was dressed in her typical bar attire - clothes fancier than what could be afforded at the hospital, but still fairly modest. Tonight she was wearing an outfit he had seen many times before, a forest green wrap dress that seemed to make her emerald eyes shine more and, as usual, her eyes scanned the room to look for her friends, despite them always sitting in the booth next to Kakashi’s group. He watched her gaze slide to his direction and she gave him her usual smile (bright and bubbly) as she made her way through the crowded space. It wasn’t until she got a little closer that Kakashi realized that there was nothing usual about any of this.
Sakura’s eyes, rather than being pinned on him, seemed to almost be fixed on a point past him. Her steps were a little more hesitant and unsure, her fingers constantly pushing back the same short strand of pink hair behind her ear. Frowning under his mask, he looked back at her friends’ table and felt a strange, unwelcome sensation in the pit of his stomach. Rather than looking at him, she seemed to be, instead, smiling at the new face sitting next to Ino. Kakashi’s eyes narrowed. In this moment, he was only sure of two things - he didn’t like her attention being afforded elsewhere and, despite not knowing this man, Kakashi loathed him.
His eyes flew back to the pinkette, who was slowly approaching. Kakashi saw her eyes glancing over him and his table quickly before shooting back at the mystery man. She gave Kakashi and his friends a cursory greeting, but he could easily make out her impatience to leave and join her friends. He hated the restlessness she showed, the way she seemed so quick to move on from them - from him. Without meaning to, his hand shot out instinctively, grabbing a firm hold of her wrist. She looked at him then - really looked at him - puzzled. “Kakashi?” she nervously giggled, trying to gently move out of his grasp but finding his hold too strong. Swallowing the unpleasantness that was brewing within, he gave her his trademark creased-eye smile.
“Sakura-chan! Come join us!” He ignored Genma’s raised eyebrow from across the table as he shuffled closer to Gai (who was next to him) and tugged on the younger woman’s arm. Sakura’s eyebrows furrowed as she took a quick peek behind Kakashi. He tugged more insistently, with more strength behind his grip. He felt her wrist twitch in his hold. “I wanted you to tell the others about your plan for the wing focused on helping shinobi acclimate back to village life after missions.” At this, Sakura’s eyes finally settled on him, her smile pointed directly at him. She slid into the empty space beside him, as cramped as it was, and launched into telling them about the idea she had been loosely throwing around to Kakashi about during their last several meetings.
“It’s not a sure thing,” she began, “but I think we could potentially cut down on a lot of PTSD and other resulting trauma by debriefing our ninja once we return from missions.” She explained her plan of setting up mandatory counseling sessions and psychiatric tests with every return, so that they could pinpoint potential issues and work at eliminating the roots of trauma and psychiatric issues before they spread and bloomed into something much worse.
During her animated presentation, she was looking at all his friends excitedly, but her brilliant smile was still reserved for when her eyes made contact with her former sensei’s. This wasn’t enough. He still felt unsettled, uncharacteristically greedy. He pretended to be putting down his book, giving him the opportunity to press his thigh firmly against hers. Sakura, a trained shinobi, did not react visibly - at least not to those except Kakashi. He saw her eyes dart quickly to him at the contact, eyebrows slightly raised in surprise. When his hand ever-so-innocently fell into her lap as he leaned forward, he was the only one who felt her leg tremble under his touch. He, alone, noticed the pink blush creeping up her neck and the way her breathing sped up the smallest fraction as she sped into the details of how she thought they should handle the counsellors’ findings and what treatment might look like. Even when she was talking to everyone else, her thoughts were wrapped up in him. This soothed him and the angry hound within, at least it did…until he heard an unfamiliar, masculine voice pipe up, “That’s amazing, Haruno-san!” The stranger was on his bench balancing on his knees, giving him enough height to look over the booth seat and watch them. The intrusion broke the spell. Sakura turned at the sound of her name and, in the process, moved further away from the former Hokage and out of his touch. Her eyes, smile, and attention were once more fixated on the stranger and Kakashi felt his stomach roil with rage.
“Really?” Did her eyes flutter? For this fool? Was she so easily swayed by a simple compliment? Said fool started feeding her more contrite drivel about how impressed he was and Sakura’s apparent eagerness to please him unsettled the Copy-nin. He was the one who had first encouraged her to pursue this train of thought. If anything, she should be trying to please him.
Sighing loudly, drawing both the pinkette and young man’s attention, Kakashi also turned. He threw his arm over the bench, creating more of a barrier between the two. “And who is this friend of yours?” he said, his voice dripping with insincere pleasantness.
Sakura looked at Kakashi briefly, before her eyes became downcast. It wasn’t like her to be shy, but none of this was like her to begin with. Not surprisingly, it was Ino who joined in a conversation she was not welcomed into. “This,” she said, joining in kneeling on the bench so that she could be seen by Kakashi and his comrades, “is Musashi Kato, a doctor at the hospital,” Ino waggled her brows to emphasize his profession. "I invited him to join us." She turned her attention to Sakura, "You've talked to him before at the hospital, right? Did you know he was single?" Sakura’s cheeks heated at the implication, recognizing she was in one of Ino’s matchmaking traps.
Musashi laughed an infuriatingly hearty, booming bellow and playfully pushed Ino. “Now, now. We both know the one who’s impressive is Dr. Haruno here.” He looked at Sakura, obviously enamored and, much to Kakashi’s chagrin, Sakura appeared to return the expression. She didn’t even glance at Kakashi as she rose to shift from his table to join the one behind them. Kakashi felt the impulse to grab her again, to give her a reason to stay, but even he knew that it would be too obvious - as would be leaving right away. Instead, he let her go and both tables settled into their typical easygoing talk. For once, Kakashi hated it. It was much too easy to catch the outright flirting between Muashi and Sakura, to hear her throaty laughs at his lame attempts at flattery - to know she was looking at him the way she was supposed to be looking at Kakashi. Still, the former Hokage sat there and stewed in his secret anger for another 20 minutes, enough time for it to not appear obvious that he was leaving because of her. Genma raised his glass as Kakashi arose from his seat, “Leaving so soon?” He gave his silver-haired friend a pointed look.
Kakashi shrugged as casually as he could, “Maybe I’m just getting old.”
Genma sniggered, “Or soft,” as his eyes drifted over where Sakura’s group was still seated.
Kakashi shot him a quick glare, before plastering on his creased-eye smile. “Not as soft as you, friend. Thanks for agreeing to cover my bill!” He shunshinned away, just in time to hear Genma start to protest. At least that made the Copy-nin feel an ounce better.