31_days | [July 3rd] [Naruto] Vigil

Title: Vigil
Day/Theme: July 3, ‘to hear you breathe’
Series: Naruto
Character/Pairing: Kakashi, Sakura
Rating: G

Notes: Setting is right after manga chapter 450, erego, spoilers.

As night fell on the day that Konoha had been nearly obliterated, Kakashi slept deeper and more soundly than he had in his entire life spent as a shinobi.

It seemed that dying at the hands of Pein, and being revived by those same hands, had entrenched in him such a deep exhaustion that even the lumpy pallets on the hard floor of the makeshift medical tent could not keep him awake. In fact, the very instant his head hit the thin pillow, his eyes closed, his pulse slowed, breaths evened out, and no noise inside the dimly-lit tent or outside it could rouse him now.

And so, when around midnight a solitary shadow slipped between the curtains that surrounded him, a single candle in hand, Kakashi did not hear. Sakura set down the candle on the cardboard box kept next to the sleeping pallet, which served as a nightstand, and kneeled. As she watched her sensei sleep, a strange mix of emotions churned within her chest, just below her throat, willing her to give them voice, or tears.

It struck Sakura, as she watched the near imperceptible rise and fall of Kakashi’s chest, just how much she had nearly lost that day. Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto, Konoha… She closed her eyes fiercely against the tears that welled up so easily that day, for the silliest of reasons; however, this was a grave one – she was thinking of Tsunade, whose labored breathing had become easier just a few minutes ago, under the careful efforts of her and Shizune combined. However, Shizune had said in a voice lower than a whisper, this could just as easily be a step towards decline as towards betterment.

Here in Kakashi’s quiet tent, Sakura fell forwards, lightly resting her forehead against her sensei’s covered chest, taking deep breaths to calm herself. The other patients in the tent had been given sedatives; Kakashi had not needed one, sheer fatigue serving the same purpose. Sakura closed her eyes and listened to the subtle, hushed beating of his insomniac heart as it, and slowly realized that her own was keeping pace.

His breath tickled her right ear and she smiled against his dark jounin shirt, inhaling deeply to take in the many smells the cloth offered. Blood and sweat, grime, Floral Green shampoo mixed with dog, the rustic smell of metal, and a deep woody scent that she figured was the kind of cologne, or soap, he used. No, it had to be soap, her mind insisted; Kakashi was not a cologne-man.

He made her feel safe, she realized, raising her head to look at him, and that was why she’d been drawn to him tonight. In his heartbeat and in the rhythmic movement of his chest, symbols of the life he had been given again that day, she found peace. The curtains allowed her a vague, almost complete privacy, and in the stillness she heard no sound but his deep, regular breaths. For a long time, she sat there on her knees, listening to him as her stub of a candle burned down, and when the warm, orange glow she saw behind closed eyelids had flickered away, she leaned down to brush her lips against his forehead, stood up and left as silently as she had come in.

As the grey light of dawn filtered through the tent the next day, Kakashi awoke, feeling rested, energized and complete. He took in a deep gulp of the cold, heavy morning air into his lungs, and smelled upon in a faint scent of honeysuckle and lavender. He looked about in confusion, for he knew that those plants did not grow anywhere near Konoha, but found no clue, and was distracted by the young medic who cheerily parted his curtains and bent down to begin the day’s first check up. As the day progressed, with more and more work to do, he forgot about the source of the floral smell he’d never found.

The long, pink strand of hair Sakura had left on his shirt had fallen away when he had stood up from the pallet that morning; however, he chased the quickly fading fragrance of her hair with deep whiffs all day, and it stayed with him until someone handed him a cleaner shirt to wear.