When Sakura finally awoke the evening sun was seeping through the blinds. For some time she just stared up at the wood-paneled ceiling. Her whole body felt numb, yet she was able to move. She raised one hand, slowly, watched her fingers bend with the weirdest sensation that this was not her hand at all, but someone else's that just happened to move exactly as she wanted it to. She vaguely remembered reading about this as one common symptom during the recovery from chakra-depletion; the second she had diagnosed this, her memories returned and she sat upright in bed – only to have her head spin and her vision blur.
"Yo", something kept her from falling back, but it wasn't until Sakura reopened her eyes and looked that she realised two arms wrapped around her and a shot of gray hair at the edge of her field of vision.
"Hey", she replied. She allowed her weight to rest against Kakashi's embrace – even though she couldn't really feel him, just knowing that he was there, seeing his fingers stroke her arm, had a calming effect. This was his bedroom, she noticed, and was startled by the strange familiarity the room already had for her.
"How's Rin?", to Sakura's amazement the words didn't come out slurred, just a little hoarse.
"Still unconscious, but fine. Katsuyu tells me."
Good, Sakura thought. She closed her eyes once more, tried to concentrate, thought – for a second – that she could feel Kakashi touch her. When she opened her eyes again she found herself leaning against the wall at the bed's head, while Kakashi stood by his desk, his back turned towards her.
"You should be with her", Sakura said, then wondered if she had merely thought it or if Kakashi deliberately ignored her.
"Kakashi?", she did her best to speak loud and clear "You should be looking after Rin, not me."
Still she got no reply. She shook her head, noticed that this was an extraordinarily weird experience if you couldn't actually feel your head shaking, and then continued to watch her fingers move, seemingly on their own and independent of herself.
"You'll get used to it."
Sakura turned her head to see Kakashi sitting next to her on the bed, in his hands he held a bowl containing a brownish liquid. Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust – or at least she thought about wrinkling her nose, she couldn't tell if she really did.
"You know, I've got strawberry-flavoured nutriments at my place."
"You wont taste much anyway", Kakashi shrugged.
He was right, Sakura found out as she drank; then again, she thought, when it came to chakra-depletion Kakashi probably was far more of an expert than any medic.
"How long does this last?", she asked, once she curled up under her blanket again.
"Hmm, if you don't run around much – two more days?"
"Two more...", Sakura repeated. "How long was I -?"
"Three days"
Sakura's eyes widened, again she tried to get up, but Kakashi held her down. Everything was fine, he assured her. Officially she was currently on some secret mission for him, and no one expected her to be back within the week.
"I should be looking after Rin", Sakura protested.
"I told you, she's fine."
"But..."
"You should worry about yourself, right?", she could see his hand reach out to brush one streak of hair out of her face and for a second wondered why he never did things like this when she was able to actually feel it.
"Right", Sakura sighed, "but I'm fine now. I just need to rest and I think I can do that on my own. So you can be there for her, when she wakes up."
She reached up for Kakashi's hand, which was – as far as she could tell – still nestling in her hair. Immediately he pulled away.
"I guess I can't even begin to understand how weird this must be, for both of you", Sakura said. She watched Kakashi look away, watched him press his fingers against his masked lips.
"I haven't even lived as long as she has been dead", she said.
"But I think she deserves to have someone looking after her. Someone she knows...", Sakura paused, waited for Kakashi to say something in reply, but he didn't.
"You know, I was going to say that I never knew you had such a caring side to you. But right now I think you're just looking after me because you're too scared to face her."
Had Sakura been able to feel any of her muscles, she would probably have felt them all tense at once as Kakashi turned to look at her, but the only thing readable from his expression was his usual sort of contemplative disinterest.
He got up, then shrugged.
"I suppose you're right", he sighed, scratched his head, made a few indecisive steps towards the door then stopped.
"If I come home before... you'll tell me, right?"
For a second Sakura looked at him confused, but once she understood she nodded, watched him shuffle out of the room. She had wondered why his ninken weren't around, had wanted to ask him why he wasn't at the Academy she thought, but now it sort of made sense. Somewhere between the question if Kakashi really would not have been here with her, had he not tried to avoid looking after Rin, and a slight feeling of guilt for sending him away, somewhere between these thoughts Sakura decided – as soon as she was back on her feet again, she'd get Kakashi to teach her how to use Kage Bunshin.