#the romance would have to come waaaaaaay later almost in the end and it has to be a minor theme compared to the Kakashi-Sakura bond

[team7-headquarter]

I need a fanfic where Obito marries Rin and Sasuke and Naruto get together, so Kakashi and Sakura start platonically living together.

It's mostly a character study??? Maybe?? On how Kakashi already devoted himself to protecting her if Sasuke and Naruto weren't around, on how they are so similar, how it feels to be left behind even if your team doesn't realize it.

If you think about it?

Well, imagine Sakura and Kakashi both fell for an Uchiha and had a jinchuriki be in love with them, only for the Uchiha to be interested only in your jinchuriki friend. Soon they get together and you start to feel like you're in the middle of something you are not part of. You still know they love you a lot, but it's not like you can erase the romance you were waiting for from your dreams.

And then you can add the fact that Gai and Rock Lee are kinda obsessed (in the good sense!) with Sakura and Kakashi. Neither Sakura nor Kakashi find them annoying, since Rock Lee and Gai were a source of strength when their team couldn't be there for them. Gai and Lee are their inspiration in so many senses. It's just another relationship they share, weirdly, funnily.

Of course they have their unique bonds, like the one Sakura shares with Ino, or the one Kakashi has with Tenzo. It doesn't mean that the themes are not shared: You see, Tenzo's wood release and Ino's whole deal with flowers are all about bloom and growth. Tenzo is that solid surface Kakashi can rely on when he feels he can't keep standing, the scarecrow that needs something to keep him upright. Ino is that force urging Sakura to open up to the world, to stop hiding who Sakura is for the sake of others; Ino is the gardener and Sakura is the flower.

There's the issue with their parents, who were not bad people, but who weren't there for Kakashi and Sakura while they grew up. Even when they love their parents, there's a void there, a tension, some distance that resonates and makes the absence loud and clear. Who Kakashi and Sakura are is not a product of some parenting: it's personal effort and being obstinate to no end.

Kakashi and Sakura greatly value each other. The proof is in the way they refuse to let each other carry alone their burdens. It's never as clear as it is when Sasuke is involved: in the Land of Iron, they tried to kill Sasuke to take the burden of killing a friend from Naruto's shoulders, but also because Kakashi didn't want that for Sakura either and she didn't want Kakashi to deal with it alone. Later, in the fight with Kaguya, Sasuke compares Kakashi to Sakura in how useless they were because they were mere humans in a fight with (basically) some goddess.

Kakashi and Sakura both suffer for not being able to free their teammates from the hurt. There's no doubt they would if they could. Not being strong enough, not being fast or skilled enough, being "useless" is their greatest nightmare. There isn't a day that Kakashi and Sakura don't hate their own weaknesses, there's not a night that they don't hate themselves for not being able to do more.

I don't know... It'd be interesting to study Kakashi in a more romantic light while Sakura is able to have more of a platonic centric growth. It would be entertaining, at least. What if Kakashi finally confesses out loud that he was in love, but he can only do it because he knows Sakura might be the only other person alive who understands what it is like to love an Uchiha? What if it is Kakashi who helps Sakura realize how many friends are there for her? How she can find fulfilment outside of the promises and dreams that are no more?

I also like a lot to see serious platonic relationships with age gaps, where the adult doesn't take any advantage given the difference in their experience and shows they can learn from the younger one.

A relationship that can't be described with nuclear family roles (father & daughter), the type where hierarchical roles are part of the drama because they see each other as equals, but even then they can't shake their responsibilities for the sake of their bond (Kakashi forced to send Sakura on a dangerous mission because he's the Hokage and she's a kunoichi, or Kakashi very openly refusing to use his status as her former sensei to force her to do something she doesn't want to do).

They are friends, just not the typical one... They're two different types of mirrors, reflecting broken images. And if they find in each other a bit of all the things they've lost and missed and they have hoped for, not enough to replace the originals but enough to lessen the hurt? Then, it's only natural they find easy companionship in each other.