Chapter Text
Peppermint
On her mentor’s 60th birthday, Haruno Sakura found a curious note. She had been dusting the bookshelves in her mentor’s living room in preparation for the party later that evening. Long neglected, her mentor’s home was in a state of disarray. In the living room, scrolls stacked haphazardly on top of each other, books of every size and edition crammed into wooden units. The sofa looked like it hadn’t been sat on for a decade. The kitchen, Sakura discovered, was not in much better condition, even though there were clear signs of daily usage; stained coffee mugs lined the edge of the sink. Takeout containers filled the brim of the trash can. A family of spiders had moved in at some point, leaving cobwebs in high corners.
Sakura took a step back as she reassessed the home.
“No fucking way,” she whispered to no one in particular. She bit her thumb and made a few seals. With a poof, a tiny slug appeared in front of her. It looked around the room, its eye stalks swaying airily in circular motions.
“Lady Sakura?”
“Hello, Lady Katsuyu,” Sakura greeted the slug.
“Why are we in Lady Tsunade’s home?”
Sakura smiled at the slug, teeth flashing.
“We’re helping her with some housechores,” Sakura explained. “But I need you to help me with a quick emergency. Can you please pass a message on from me to Iruka-sensei at the mission desk?”
She took out a small notebook and pen, scribbling a few lines across the paper.
Need a genin team to assist cleaning ASAP.
Party at the house is a no-go.
Find Naruto. He’ll know what to do.
With a nod, she ripped out the page, folded it, and tucked it into Katsuyu’s mouth. The little slug disappeared as quickly as it came.
Before long, Sakura heard loud, thunking footsteps and muffled voices at the front porch. She opened the door with her hand on her hip.
“How did you three pass your stealth exam?” she scolded the trio of pre-teen genins. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon. She’d recognize them from anywhere. Konohamaru rolled his eyes and shrugged.
“Obviously, we’re not really on ninja duty or doing ninja stuff,” he folded his arms back at her. “Iruka-sensei gave us this D-Rank mission because he fell into one of our practice traps, but it’s his fault for being out of practice and not noticing.”
“Did Ebisu-sensei teach you that?” Sakura shot back with her brows raised. In truth, she was mildly impressed. But she wasn’t about to let her teacher down.
“Tch, we learnt it from Naruto-”
“Where is Ebisu-sensei anyway?” she looked around for their jounin sensei.
“He’s sick,” Udon explained. “We were supposed to wait for our substitute supervisor, but he didn’t show up, so we just came.”
“That’s pretty rude of him,” Sakura frowned.
“Or maybe,” said a smooth voice from beyond, “he was just observing you from afar. We call that recon.”
All four heads snapped towards the new addition. Perched on the railing like he was lounging on a beach chair, a masked man peered at them from behind his infamous orange book. Konohamaru whistled low.
“Hatake Kakashi,” he mumbled in awe.
“That’s Kakashi-sensei to you,” Kakashi corrected, flipping a page idly. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“Well then, come on in,” she urged the genin team. “The dishes aren’t going to wash themselves.”
The genin team were well inside by the time Kakashi swung down from his seat. Sakura crossed her arms.
“Didn’t think I’d ever see you babysitting ever again,” she remarked. She kept her tone cool, steady.
Kakashi shrugged.
“I’m on enforced medical leave for three months,” he told her. “I was content to stay at home and read, but your sensei said I should apply myself.”
“What? Lady Tsunade said that?”
“No, Kushina-sensei.”
“Oh.”
“Besides,” he glanced at her as he walked past. Sakura felt something small placed in her palm. “I wasn’t that bad, was I?”
She looked away. He walked deeper into the home.
Outside, the wind blew and swayed the branches of the blossom tree planted in the front garden. Sakura listened to the crescendo of leaves rustling before they lapsed into silence.
Even without looking, she already knew what he had placed in her hand.
She crinkled the plastic between her fingers, ripping the weak plastic apart. She placed the hard candy between her teeth, barely noticing its bright red stripes. It only stayed between her lips for a second before she blanched and spat it out vehemently. She watched it ricochet against the tree trunk before it landed in the grass with a dull thud.
Kakashi’s peppermint candy tasted like pocket linen and laundry detergent. It was stale.
With Moegi and Udon scrubbing the bathrooms and Konohamaru cleaning out the kitchen, Sakura found herself dusting the living room bookshelves while Kakashi… assisted. In truth, he had laid down on the hard sofa, touting his injury as an excuse to literally not lift a finger. Sakura felt his eyes on her back, tracing her movement from one end of the room to the other.
“Are you going to watch me all day?” she complained. He shrugged.
“Your peppermint candy tastes like shit.”
“That hurts me. I saved it just for you.”
“Then you should’ve come to see me sooner.”
“I was just…respecting your wishes.”
“And whose fault is that?”
Silence. Sakura humphed.
A beat later, she was adjusting a book that didn’t fit quite right when an old piece of paper fell to her feet. The instinct was instantaneous. Before she could stop herself, she unfolded the yellowing parchment and read its contents.
“Tsunade,
The White Fang lives again because of you. I can’t thank you enough for reviving me, in more days than one. As these bleak days pass, my mind often wanders to you. I think about how beautiful your hair looks in the sunlight, how it shines like gold. I think about the softness of your breasts, how full and heavy they feel in my hands–”
Sakura gasped and squeezed her eyes shut. She shoved the letter back into the shelf. Face flushing, she shook her head and resumed re-ordering books and scrolls. Kakashi lay motionless on the sofa. Konohamaru might have been right when he said they weren’t “doing ninja stuff,” and to the untrained eye, Kakashi didn’t look like he cared the slightest bit about her little outburst. But Sakura could sense the slightest coil in his body. She felt the tracking of his lone eye. He was surveilling her.
“Just ask,” she hissed.
He sighed audibly.
“What happened?”
“I saw a private letter,” she explained.
“Okay,” his muscles relaxed. His one eye returned to the page of his smut book.
“...from the White Fang,” Sakura concluded.
Kakashi shrugged.
“Yeah, they were close once,” he mumbled. “She healed a chronic injury.”
“Do you know how close they were?” Sakura asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
He turned his head to get a better look at her.
“Even parents have sex lives, Sakura-chan,” he deadpanned. He flipped a page. Sakura stomped her foot on the carpeted floor.
“What happened? Why don’t they talk anymore?” she pressed. He glanced at her again.
“People grow apart, Sakura-chan.”
His voice grew quiet and detached, like he was a million miles away. Sakura’s stomach flipped. She knew what he was referring to.
She sniffed loudly, refusing to look at him.
A slow, painful minute ticked by. And then, mercifully, a clang! from upstairs.
“I’ll go check on those two,” she muttered, leaving the feather duster behind. She felt his eye follow her on her way out.
In the cool stairway, Sakura released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
This was going to be a long, painful day.