What time did to us chap 4

IV. Nothing has been changed, just rearranged




'They should be here any minute,' Kakashi thought, while he was pacing around in his apartment picking up a shirt from the floor and throwing it into the laundry basket in his bathroom.

He looked around the rooms one last time, when he stopped his pacing in the living room. Frowning he went towards the sofa and sat down. After about ten seconds his right foot started tipping on the floor in a steady rhythm. Kakashi sighed crossing his feet at the ankles and leaning his head against the back rest. When he noticed that his index finger had started tipping on the arm rest, he groaned exaggeratedly crossing his arms in front of his chest. The Copy Ninja looked at the ceiling and then at the clock behind him on the wall.

He could have sworn that it had already been quarter past three five minutes prior! It seemed as if time was slowing down. If Kakashi didn't know any better, he would say that he had been nervous. Fortunately he knew better!

Damn! Everything seemed to annoy him that day. First of all there was Minato trying to convince him to resign from Anbu for the umpteenth time. Then there was Nadeshiko Haruno who had reminded him of a part of his life which he believed to have sealed away. And last but not least there was him, who had offered to play babysitter for a six-year-old girl for a couple of days.

But actually, he wasn't annoyed. He was nervous. And it was that very six-year-old girl who made him feel like that.

Kakashi closed his eyes and pictured her again. But no matter how many times he did that, the mental image didn't show the little girl, but the sixteen-year-old girl who had died six years prior.

'That's ridiculous!' he hissed quietly.

Before that creepy thought of Sakura having been reincarnated could jell, Kakashi's logic banished it as fast as it had come up. If that little girl, who looked just like his late girlfriend, really was the baby Nadeshiko had given birth to that rainy day, then it was impossible that little Sakura could be the reincarnation of his Sakura, since she had been still alive back then.

Sighing once more, he tried to relax a little bit, but -

Just as he heard the knocking on the front door, Kakashi almost jumped up from the sofa forgetting completely that he had crossed his feet at the ankles before and fell over with a loud 'THUMP'.

'You are so pathetic, Kakashi Hatake,' he scolded himself, before he heard a worried voice.

"Is everything alright, Kakashi?"

"Yeah! Just a chair tumbling down! Nothing serious!" He told Nadeshiko, while getting up from the floor. "Just a second."

Once he was on his feet again, he stepped through the hallway towards the front door and opened it.

"Hey," he greeted Nadeshiko and Sakura with a smile on his face.

Nadeshiko nodded also smiling and kneeled down in front of her daughter, who had a backpack on her back and a teddy bear in her arms squeezing him.

"Be a good girl, while we are gone and behave yourself, honey," Nadeshiko said to Sakura caressing her small cheek.

"Alright, mommy," Sakura's voice was very quiet.

After Nadeshiko had placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead, she got up and turned to Kakashi again.

"Thanks again, Kakashi. I hope she won't be a bother to you," she said humbly.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Haruno. I am sure that we'll have a great time together," the Copy Ninja assured her winking at Sakura and earned a very cute blush from the little girl.

Nadeshiko smiled relieved ruffling Sakura's hair lightly.

"Okay, honey. See you in a couple of days," her mother said and was about to turn around, when Sakura caught her trousers and asked timidly.

"You promise that you'll be back?"

That phrase made Kakashi wonder, if Sakura didn't want to be with him or if she was afraid of him, but one look at her face and he could tell right away that she was simply worried about her parents.

"Of course, honey," Nadeshiko promised with a quick goodbye kiss and then she was off.

Kakashi looked down at Sakura's back, and couldn't help but think that she looked like her parents had just abandoned her - with the backpack on her back and how she was squeezing her teddy bear.

As soon as Sakura turned around, Kakashi stepped aside and bowed.

"After you, please, princess."

The little girl giggled and went inside with Kakashi following her. Once she took off her shoes, she waited with her back against the wall. The Copy Ninja closed the front door and turned around to find Sakura pressed against the wall. Apparently she waited for him to lead her into the apartment.

"Let me show you everything," Kakashi walked past her and smiled, when she followed him immediately.

After he had shown her almost each room, he opened a door to a room, which he had prepared within ten minutes, before his little guest arrived.

"And this will be your room for the next couple of days," he told her stepping inside waiting for Sakura to follow him.

Once she was also in the room, he continued to explain her that she could put her clothes in the empty closet opposite of her bed.

Sakura looked around the room for a few seconds and then she glanced sheepishly at Kakashi, who didn't miss it.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently.

"May I ask you something?" she couldn't manage to look him in the eye for longer than one second.

Kakashi almost had to chuckle because of her shyness, but he held back; since he thought that it would probably only worsen the status of her shyness.

"Of course," he answered with a smile.

He imagined that she wanted to know something of what she was allowed to do and what she wasn't, but he didn't reckon with what she asked.

"Are you the famous Copy Ninja?"

Kakashi's eye widened, which didn't go unnoticed by Sakura.

"I - I'm sorry!" she bowed her head. "It was rude of me asking that all of a sudden."

Kakashi hunkered down in front of Sakura and smiled brightly at her.

"You don't have to apologize, Sakura. It wasn't rude at all. I was just surprised that you have heard of me," he explained.

She glanced at him through her bangs, curiosity showing in her gaze.

"Iruka-sensei told us about you the day before yesterday," she said. "But he didn't tell us your name. Everything he told us was that you have the blood line limit of the Uchiha Clan, the Sharingan. And when I noticed that you didn't open your left eye even once, I just wondered if you were the famous ninja, who got that eye."

Kakashi's smile only widened. "Are you afraid of me now?" he asked playfully.

Sakura shook her head and the teddy, which she was still holding, was shaken by her movements.

"I just feel like I am staying with a celebrity," the sheepish smile returned to her face, as she walked past Kakashi towards her bed and placed her teddy and her backpack on it.

The Copy Ninja was very surprised, when Sakura mentioned Iruka because this meant that she was a student of the Ninja Academy. She was actually going to be a kunoichi.

Getting up Kakashi asked her "What would you normally do, if you were at home, Sakura? I don't want to keep you from anything."

Sakura turned around and beamed at him. It was obvious that she was happy or even relieved that he had asked.

"I love reading!"

Kakashi raised his eyebrows surprised. "You can read? Haven't you just started school this year?"

Without hesitation she answered happily. "Mommy has been teaching me to read and write for two years now."

He was impressed. Now he knew that he had been talking to a little genius. Amazed with the girl in front of him, Kakashi walked out of the room offering to show her his little library, which consisted of two shelves above his bed on the wall of the bedroom with a total of 13 books. He lifted Sakura on his bed, since she was too timid to crawl on it. As she picked the novel 'Tales of a Ninja' written by Jiraya, Kakashi picked a book himself and winked at Sakura.

"Can't let you enjoy yourself all alone, can I?"

Slowly he sat down on the bed and gestured for her to sit down beside him, which she gladly did. Apparently she couldn't wait to start reading. It took her only a few minutes and then she was literally drawn into the story of the book. The Copy Ninja noticed that the world around her stopped existing for her. There could be a typhoon and she wouldn't notice it, probably.

Smiling he began to read his book as well. It was also a book written by Jiraya. Actually it was one of his 'Icha Icha' novels, which Kakashi swore he would never read, but he had noticed too late that once you started it, you wouldn't be able to stop. Suddenly something came to his mind - a memory.

"You're back!" Sakura cheered staring in this familiar black uncovered eye.

"Have you ever doubted that?" Kakashi asked teasingly.

"Not for one second," she smiled wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

Just as he embraced her, too, a familiar voice said behind Kakashi. "Jeez, Kakashi, yet you have a girlfriend, but you don't read my books? It would be good for you, you know, since you could get a few advises from them."

Kakashi exhaled deeply. "For the last time: I don't need any porn."

Minato approached them giggling.

"Are you still trying to persuade Kakashi to read your books?"

"He just doesn't know what he will miss," Jiraya grinned.


Kakashi shook his head lightly to get rid of these flashbacks. Unwelcome flashbacks nonetheless! This had been the second memory that very day. This was like his subconscious was about to get control over his conscious.

"You're reading that porn novel after all, Kakashi," a little criticism, but also amusement could be heard in that voice.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist - " suddenly he broke off in the middle of the sentence and looked up to where the voice came from.

Sakura still sat, where she had sat down before and was still caught up in reading, as if she had never spoken to him.

"Sakura, what have you just said?" Kakashi asked wondering if he had just imagined that.

The little girl looked up, but she seemed to be very distracted by the book. "I haven't said anything." She told him and kept on reading.

Now he was sure that he had just imagined that. Damn, those creepy memories! Already giving him hallucinations!

Kakashi had just wanted to close his eye for a few seconds to clear his mind, but when he opened his eye again, he noticed that he had dozed off. He wanted to apologize to Sakura for falling asleep; however, he stopped, as he saw her sleeping next to him with her tiny arms around his biceps. He watched her sleeping and noticed that her eyes moved behind her eyelids. She was dreaming.

As she was lying there next to him, it seemed as if a smaller version of Sakura was lying next to him. Everything was so strange at that moment. For Kakashi it felt like time was messing with him. It was like nothing has ever been changed. Only the pawns in the game of life have been rearranged.