One thing that people might not know about Sakura is that she hated the rain.
She hated it when it suddenly pours down whenever she and her best friend, Ino, had plans to play outside when they were younger. She couldn't see the fields and the flowers where she thought she belonged. When she asked her mother if she could play under the rain, her mother always said no, telling her the rain would only make her sick. As she started to talk, her mother would look at her sternly. She knew she wouldn't be able to get what she wanted with that look. Then, she closes her mouth and goes up to her bedroom and plants herself right by her window, looking out to where the blonde spiky-haired kid was splashing his feet on the puddles that formed in front of the Haruno household.
When it rained, she hated the way her feet would get muddied up whenever they went home from a mission in Iwa or from Suna or from Ame. The way her hitai-ate would slide down from her hair and would never stay, so she would just hold it until they reached Konoha. She hated the way a few drops of rain felt when it spatters onto her skin—even just a few. The way she needed to shake herself dry whenever she gets caught up in that weather on her way home after a 12-hour long shift from the hospital. The way it ruins her newly-treated pink-colored hair as she comes out of the hair shop near the Hokage tower.
She also hated it because it made her remember him—a certain mismatched-eyed masked shinobi.
The way she always remembered how his silver hair was still a bit upright, even though it was already drenched. It made her remember the time he picked up her muddied hitai-ate when it slid down from her hair when they were on their way back to Konoha. She could still feel the blood pool on her cheeks when their fingers brushed slightly as he gave it to her. She could also remember the way she gasped and pulled back her hitai-ate, as if shocked by the small contact—it somehow felt electric and she didn't know if she liked it. The time it poured down while the two of them were training and they rested for a while under the tree, waiting for the rain to pass. The way they talked about nonsense stuff and the way he wouldn't stop teasing her. And the way she caught him staring at her like there was something on her face. Then, he smiled at her—or she thought he was smiling—when his cheekbones were raised a little and his lone eye crinkled. She remembered how she felt the hotness from her cheeks down to her body, and turned her head where he wouldn't see what was happening with her.
Well, maybe she didn't really hate the rain some days, but she hated the way he made her feel. It's making her crazy.
"Just stop, Sakura. He wouldn't... He would never," she muttered to herself at the middle of Training Ground Three.
Then, water droplets started to graze her skin, the cold seeping into her. Damn, she forgot to bring her umbrella.
When she lifted her hands above her head to shield it from the rain, she felt someone standing beside her. She looked up, it was an umbrella held by none other than the person who had been on her mind for months.
"Kakashi...sensei." She started.
"I told you not to call me that anymore." He rolled his eyes in annoyance, still holding up his umbrella above her.
Sakura blinked and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was just passing by and I saw you training, then it started to rain..." His words trailed, leaving some space for unspoken words that Sakura could never figure out. Then he continued, "Luckily, I brought an umbrella with me, and you didn't have one, so..."
Sakura immediately scooted under the umbrella, pushing her body to his. Her face was heating up, for sure, and she hoped Kakashi would not notice.
"Nope! I'm just not feeling too well, see?" She squeaked to cut him off as she pressed the back of her hand to her cheeks, forehead and neck. "Let's go..." She paused, then she tried. "...Kakashi."
Biting her bottom lip, she heard Kakashi's amused snort as they tread along the muddied path to the exit. This will probably be added to the list of things the she sometimes liked about the rain. Probably.
