When they made eye contact for the first time, Kakashi had watched her left eye slowly change from gray to green so that it matched the fresh spring color of her right eye. As many had said, it must have had no sensation, seeing as she hadn 't reacted at all. Kakashi said nothing about it, only passed the girl and kept walking down the street without speaking to her as he had intended to.

He had wanted to meet his new students before they knew who he was. He hadn 't wanted to know that one of them was his soulmate. She was twelve years old to his twenty-six and he felt a little like a dirty old man. It was true that not all soulmate relationships were romantic ones but he still felt 'there wasn 't a proper word for it. He felt like he might taint her.

When he met her officially the next day as the sensei of Team 7, the halls had still been buzzing with the news that Haruno Sakura had found her soulmate ' but didn 't know who it was. Her situation was almost unheard of. How could she not know when she should have seen her soulmates eye change color as well? Sakura could not even remember when exactly the change had happened, much to her woe.

Kakashi said nothing when they met. They had passed each other on the street as strangers. She had barely given him a glance, had not even seemed to take note of him as more than a fellow shinobi of Konoha, and when she said nothing as well he concluded that the incident hadn 't stuck in her mind. He was glad. He was determined to keep it that way. She was twelve and full of innocence and he planned on keeping her as far away from his jaded darkness as possible.

Years passed and Kakashi lost his three students. One betrayed them, one left them, and Kakashi hid himself away from the budding flower that haunted his sweetest dreams. Many would say that he was neglectful of the only girl on his team. He would admit that they were right. What he would not admit was how she terrified him. How he woke in the night trembling from nightmares and wanting nothing more than to feel her warm chakra nearby. Or hear her voice cheerfully going on about all the silly little things that young people consider important. He would never admit how much he had started to rely on a girl that he tried so hard to ignore. He didn 't want Sakura to know him. He didn 't want his shadows to reach out and wrap around her pale, soft fingers or darken her bright green eyes.

He didn 't see her for two years, but when he did she had changed in ways he could not have imagined. Gone was the softness and the innocence. In their place was strength and fire. At sixteen years old, Sakura was well on her way to becoming a beautiful woman who would rock the foundation of the shinobi world. Kakashi found himself pulled back in, staying by her side if only to bask in the light she shined upon the world. Even if she didn 't mean to be, even if she didn 't realize it then, she became the rock that Kakashi clung to.

War waged and waned, and Konoha prospered in the peace that came after. Years passed and Kakashi watched her fulfill all the promises of her childhood by growing in to the type of women all little girls aspire to be. She was beauty and grace, strength and spirit, intelligence and warmth. Yet through it all, the smallest shadow of sadness remained in her. For Sakura had two green eyes and no soulmate in sight. Naruto had gained his second blue eye the day that Hinata had finally looked at him dead on. Watching their eyes correct themselves had the girl fainting from pure shock ' or pure happiness. No one could tell. Many of their childhood friends had found their soulmates during the war or childhood. Kakashi watched Sakura as she longed to know where her other half was and did nothing.

After so long, what was he supposed to say? Even if, as the years went by, his feelings of friendship blossomed in to something deeper, he still couldn 't find it in himself to admit the truth. In the end, the decision was taken out of his hands.

Being named Hokage came with a lot of perks and a lot of downsides. Some would consider being allowed to live in the Hokage Manor a perk. Kakashi had always thought of it as a downside. His apartment was lonely enough, what would he do with all that extra empty space in an entire manor? It had taken them four years but finally the counsel and his own former students had bullied him in to making the move. Sakura and Naruto even showed up to help him move ' just to make sure he actually did it of course. They didn 't seem to trust that he would do it on his own.

It wasn 't the first time the two had been inside his dingy apartment but it was the first time they had been inside longer than it took to drag him off his couch and out for some horrid bout of socialization. They were understandably curious, poking their noses in to every crevice and corner, trying to dredge up a little bit of gossip about the ever mysterious Hatake Kakashi. Naruto eyeballed every book that he pulled off the bookcase, packing them each in a box at his feet and scowling at how boring they all were. Kakashi felt no need to tell the boy that half of those book covers were fake and actually contained sappy romance novels instead of jutsu manuals.

Sakura, on the other hand, had gone straight for his bedroom claiming she would help him fold clothes. He figured if she wanted to fold his boring, completely un-embarrassing underwear than she was welcome to; less work for him. He entirely forgot what other damning items his bedroom contained.

When the pink haired young woman came out of the bedroom with what looked like a picture frame in hand, he still didn 't make the connection. He only raised an eyebrow while his hands continued to pull barely used dishes from his cupboards. She held the frame up, showing the only picture he had of Team Minato, his own genin team.

'Your left eye. It was green. ' Her voice was shaken and quiet.

Kakashi hands carefully set the plate he held in the box, then went still. He fought the urge to touch the scar that ran down one side of his face. She was right of course. His left eye

had

been green, right up until the day when an enemy had put a blade straight through the socket and the mangled organ had been replaced with a lost friend 's Sharingan. And when Naruto had rebuilt his eye during the war it had grown back matching his other. No one had questioned it until today, something he was rather surprised about. He 'd never mentioned to a single soul that he knew who his soulmate was, not in all the years between then and now.

'I remembered you, ' Sakura declared. Behind her, Naruto looked back and forth between them with confusion. 'I remembered seeing you the day before we met our new sensei. I looked you right in the eye. And when I got home I had two green eyes instead of green and gray. You have two gray eyes Kakashi. But you used to have a

green left eye

! ' With no small amount of force, the picture frame was thrown at his chest. Kakashi turned and caught it reflexively. This was the only picture he had of these three precious people, after all, and even in his current deer-in-headlights panicked state his hands moved to save such an invaluable item.

'What are you talking about Sakura-chan? ' Naruto came closer, abandoning the bookshelf. Sakura narrowed her eyes at her silver haired Hokage as she answered.

'Don 't you remember Naruto? ' she asked. 'My left eye was gray back when we were in the academy. Then one day it wasn 't. The day before we became Team 7, I got my second green eye. '

Comprehension dawned on Naruto 's face and he nodded, 'Mm! Mm! I remember now! '

'I never knew when it happened. But I know I saw you that day, Kakashi. And no one remembers what color your left eye was before you lost it. I never made the connection. I never thought to ask. Did you ' ' Sakura trailed off, unsure how to word what she wanted to say. Kakashi understood anyway. She was asking if he had made the connection, if he could offer her the missing piece of herself that she had been searching for all these years.

Kakashi 's fingers tightened on the frame in his hands, then set it down on the counter behind himself. He drew a slow breath in, fighting against the tightness in his chest, and let it back out slowly.

'Naruto, could you give us a moment alone? ' he requested. The blond pointed an accusing finger at him.

'Are you really her soulmate Kaka-sensei!? ' he demanded. Kakashi scowled.

'Whether I am or not is none of your business. ' His own finger pointed at the door. 'I 'd appreciate some privacy for this conversation. Go. '

Naruto narrowed his eyes and grumbled under his breath. It took insisting a few more times, but eventually he did leave. His glare never faded. He seemed to be daring the older man to even think of hurting their teammate and promising pain in the case that he did. When they were finally alone, Kakashi let his gaze drift back to the woman a few feet away from him.

Sakura 's hands were clenched in to fists and her jaw was set. He could almost hear the mental pep talk she was surely giving herself, getting ready to take any kind of news. Another deep breath did absolutely nothing to calm his nerves but he went ahead and started talking anyway.

'You did see me that day. I remember it too. I remember looking in to the eyes of a little girl and watching one of them fade from gray to green. I remember thinking 'that 's impossible '. And you just walked on by without saying a thing. And I let you. ' He couldn 't make himself meet her gaze. He focused on her bare feet, watching her toes curl against the linoleum.

'Then it 's true, ' he heard her whisper. 'You 're really my soulmate? '

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. No words seemed adequate. He settled for nodding and rubbing the back of his neck, bracing himself for the storm that was about to crash in to him.

He was incredibly shocked when the crash came in a form he had never considered. Instinctually, he groaned at the press of warm lips against his own, wonderful even through the mask. His arms automatically came up to wrap around Sakura 's waist, pulling her closer and holding her tightly to his chest. She pressed her lips more firmly against his for a brief moment before slowly pulling away to leave them both panting a bit. Kakashi swallowed thickly and made a garbled noise of protest, wanting her to come back. He had a few seconds to bask in the moment before, just as suddenly as the kiss, a fist planted itself in his gut.

'You IDIOT! ' There it was. 'You ABSOLUTE MORON! ' That 's what he thought her first reaction would have been. 'How could you keep this from me!? ' Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes though she didn 't let them fall. Kakashi whimpered, half out of pain and half out of a very sensible fear of her strength and what she might do with it next.

'You were twelve, ' he mumbled. 'I was twenty-six. It felt 'wrong. ' Sakura eyed him, fist still clenched.

'Alright, ' she ground out between her teeth. 'I 'll give you that. But what about after? It 's been

years

Kakashi! I 've already been an adult for

years

! And still you said nothing! Why!? '

In the face of her demands his mind went blank and he blurted out the only thing he could think of, the truth. 'I just ' I honestly thought you 'd be better off without me, you know? ' Sakura gaped at him and his eyes drifted slightly to the side in shame. 'I wanted you to find happiness. ' He waited in silence for the yelling to start again. When a fist thumped down on the top of his head he was surprised by how comparatively gentle it was.

'Better off without my soulmate? Better off without my perfect other half? ' Sakura sounded more resigned than angry now. 'Kakashi you are the stupidest, most idiotic, empty-headed, thoughtless, dim-witted bonehead that I have ever met. '

'Probably, ' he sighed miserably. A finger lifted his chin, forcing his eyes to meet hers again.

'And I fell in love with you when I was nineteen, ' she finished softly. It was Kakashi 's turn to gape.

'You didn 't even know we were soulmates! '

She smiled and said, 'No, I didn 't. But I loved you anyway. '

With that, she kissed him once more. Unable to come up with any sort of protest, Kakashi kissed her back, holding her even tighter than before. He had spent years trying to protect her without realizing the one fact that should have been most obvious.

Haruno Sakura needed no one 's protection.