Soon, summer would end, or at least it had cooled down after the rain had stopped. Kakashi didn't mind so much, on the contrary, he was grateful for the cold wind that blew over the verandah infront of his study, where he sat, legs crossed, Icha Icha laying open infront of him. The dim light that leaked through the windows was just about enough to read by, but for some time now the book had remained untouched, except for the wind which now and again turned a few pages.
Kakashi had his eye closed, trying his best to focus on nothing, but thoughts and images kept showing up persistantly, lingered till a gust of cold air would grap them and sweep them away again.
He did not expect Sakura to show up any more, he had known her long enough to know that it wasn't like her to keep others waiting, not for four full hours anyway. This worried him a little (not showing up at all was far less like her than being late), for the most part though he felt relief. All the walls and barriers he had so carefully surrounded himself with over the years, the fine web of restrain and selfcontrol, had already taken enough damage as it was; The prospect of seeing Sakura, possibly spending the whole day locked up in a room with her tomorrow, was as terrifying as it was desirable.
There was a noise, nine o'clock, north west, but before Kakashi had so much as considered to see what had caused it, Shiba and Bisuke had already run off to check. Kakashi watched the two dogs disappear into darkness and shortly afterwards return, accompanied by a flash of pink hair.
"You're late", Kakashi remarked when Sakura came to a halt, a few steps infront of him. She wasn't wearing any shoes, he noted, and her hair hung open and partially knotted around her face.
"Sorry", she gave him a crooked smile "I'mafraid I got lost on the path of life", and then, while she scrambled up the verandah added:
"Who would have thought - Tsume and my mum made best friends in-instantly!", she rolled her eyes.
"Single-mothers.. Really, there was no way I could have gotten away. And then Ki-", she stopped, tilted her head and squinted at Kakashi.
"Sorry, I know. This is ir-irrelephant. There are after all", she paused, gestured with her hands to underline the gravity of what she was going to say next "After all more important matters at hand."
"And you're drunk", Kakashi concluded his observation.
"I'd very much prefer tipsy" Sakura grimaced. She leant back against the wall and ran her hands over her face, smudging the already smudged eyeliner.

"What?", she stared at Kakashi's outstretched hand, then looked at his face, masked as always, but wearing a stern expression underneath.
"I'm taking you home."
"Wha-why?", Sakura crossed her arms. "We need", she stretched the word uneccessarily "to figure out what to do about Naruto. And Madara."
Kakashi said nothing.
"I'm sorry that I, unlike you, have personal relationships that I care about."
"Sakura", Kakashi knelt down infront of her. She smelt of alcohol and of her boyfriend, but underneath there was her own scent, sweet and salty and like something you'd want to drown in.
"I appreciate that you want to sort this out as soon as possible, but in you're current condition I am not willing to discuss anything with you."
"Oh, come on, Kaka-sensei", Sakura grumbled „I just broke in in the Hokage's Residence! I can't be that -"
"I don't care", Kakashi cut her off.
"I'm taking you home."
But Sakura just shook her head vigorously.
"You don't know what I've been through to get here! You", she exclaimed, much louder than she had planned "are such a hypocrite! You're always late, don't give a damn about wasting everyone'ses precious time, and I let you wait once – once! – and you act as if it was, as if it was a cardinal crime!"
Kakashi was about to point out to Sakura that she was missing his point entirely, but quickly decided otherwise. There most definitly was no use in arguing with her right now.
"You", Sakura held her breath, wrecking her mind for more proof of Kakashi's hypocracy, couldn't think of anything, when here eyes fell on the Icha Icha book that was lying unread and (unlike its contents) innocent beside her. She picked it up and waved it around like it was some kind of pamphlet.
"You read porn in public and don't even blush, yet you flinch if a woman so much as touches you!"
"I do not", Kakashi cursed himself the moment he opened his mouth.
Sakura reached one hand out, but the second she would have touched his thigh, Kakashi had already vanished into thin air. She halted, momentarily confused, then quickly turned her head as the book she was still holding in her other hand was snatched away from her.
She watched Kakashi scuffle inside where he, she assumed, placed his treasured Icha Icha somewhere safe and far away from her hands. She waited for him to return, but he took his time and Sakura eventually rose to her own bare feet, steadying herself against the wall.
"You realise", she heard Kakashi's voice right beside her (when did he get there?) "that you're not thinking reasonable right now, don't you?" She looked up at his face, wanted to say something in return, but all the reasons that made her reasoning quite reasonable indeed had suddenly evaporated.
"I just", she said "I just... Promise me, we'll find a way to save Naruto."
"I promise", Kakashi hoped he didn't sound as if he was just saying it to please her. Because he wasn't.
"We'll find a way to save Naruto, and defeat Madara once and for all."
Sakura seemed content with this. She took one unsteady step forward, stumbled into Kakashi who caught her expertly, but seemed in turn caught off guard when she gingerly wrapped her arms around him, pulling him a way closer than the average embrace would allow. "Kakashi?", she whispered. Her lips brushed against his neck.
"You know, it's a good thing I found Kiba", she whispered.
"Otherwise I'd lost my heart again to someone who wouldn't know what to do with it."