Ten minutes had passed, since Kakashi had made his decision, since he had sent Pakkun to Sakura; she could take Rin with her, if she wanted to, but it would have to be her, the real Sakura, who was to perform the autopsy. The Alliance was still too young, too frail, the risk of Rin being discovered too high, to take personal reasons in account. Kakashi was glad that he had come back to his senses. Keeping some distance between him and Sakura was exactly what he needed – with all that was going on at the moment, he couldn't afford to get lost in sensitivities.
After ten more minutes, during which he somehow managed not to think of Sakura too much, a sudden, and – he tried to assure himself – quite irrational, anxiety took hold of him. What if something happened to her – or to him – during her absence? Her last memory of him would be how he ignored her, only because he had not been able to look at her, after allowing her to see him, see him the way she had.

Kakashi couldn't remember if he had ever felt as nervous as he did climbing up the stairs to Sakura's apartment. His hands were sweating, he noticed with a pinch of annoyance, when he knocked at her door. There was no answer. So maybe she and Rin had already left to meet up with Shino by the gate, he thought and was already about to head back to the Academy, when the door opened.
"Kakashi-sensei", Sakura looked at him a little surprised.
"Yo", Kakashi said, hit by both – the smell of her apartment, which consisted mostly of her own sweet scent, and the realisation that he had no idea what to say or do next. He was sure he had thought this through on his way, but what ever plan he had had then, was gone now.
Sakura hesitantly invited him in and Kakashi signaled his ninken to wait outside.
He scoped the room for any sign of Rin, but as far as he could tell, Sakura was on her own. Two backpacks occupied the sofa – a worn out one, that he recognised as Sakura's, the other one newly bought – and a assortment of weapons and medical tools, deemed unnecessary for their journey, lay on the made bed.
"Where's Rin?"
Sakura blinked once, then gestured towards the bathroom door.
"Shower", she said.
Right, Kakashi thought, he could hear the water running.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets, shifted his weight from one foot to another, took on a little more slouched pose. He felt as if he was sixteen again, or rather – like he suspected he should have felt at the age of sixteen.
"We're about to head off, so would you please tell me, why you are here?"
"I-", Kakashi looked out her window, which offered a clear view of the street below. The same street he had walked down minutes ago, the same street he desperately wished to be able to return to instantly. Which he was, technically could, yet he remained where he was.
"I.. uhm... I just-", he laughed weakly, shook his head at the awkwardness of this whole situation.
"I just wanted to -"
"Well?"
"I think I love you."
Kakashi froze. This wasn't what he had planned to say. What he had planned to say was: "I'm sorry", or something alike. No, he tried to convince himself, he must have thought it, there was no way he would have said it out loud. His voice still echoed if not in the room at least in his head.
He waited for some, for any reaction, did not dare to tear his eye from the street outside. The shower was still running, but other than that time appeared to have frozen too.
Then he heard a rustling noise shortly followed by the apartment door opening and being slammed shut.
Slowly Kakashi turned. He wasn't quite sure what he expected to see, but found that he was not at all surprised when there was only one backpack left on the sofa. Tattered and worn and with a tiny cherry-blossom embroidered on it's side.