Chapter Sixteen: Interlude
Leisurely Sakura made her way into the hospital, early for her shift and in no particular hurry. She smiled and nodded her greeting to the nurses at the front desk and continued on her way. Slowly it dawned on her as she made her way to her office that everyone she met seemed to be smiling at her in the strange way that she had come to associate with a visit from her ‘secret admirer.’ Subconsciously she hurried her step, anxious to see what the infuriating man had done this time.
Cautiously the pink haired medic opened her office door, knowing there would be something out of place on her desk. Upon entering, her suspicions were confirmed. Sitting on her desk, under an enormous bow, was a rather large spiral bound book. Curiously she lifted the decoration examine the gift. A small scrap of paper fluttered down to rest on top of the book as she moved the bow. Knowing she would regret it, she lifted the note and read:
‘To make up for lost time?’
He was getting bolder –or less cautious –with his gifts as he had signed the little scrap of paper with a smiley face with a slash through its left eye. For a moment she wondered if he wanted to get caught, before shoving the thought aside as ridiculous.
She found her eyes automatically drawn to the book to try and guess what he could possibly mean but then realized that no deep deduction skills were needed: it was a cookbook. Momentarily her hands clenched, crumpling the tiny note, though almost immediately her hands relaxed. As angry as she wanted to be with his impertinent gift, she had to admit that she sort of deserved it. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself a little and picked up the book to flip through and as she did so she noticed many of the pages had smiley faces similar to the one he had used to sign his note – for her convenience, he had marked all his favorites.
Sakura groaned and wondered what kind of a door she had opened when she had let it slip to him that she could cook.
~*~*~*~
The medic casually covered her mouth to stifle a yawn as she opened her mailbox in search of the previous day’s mail. She had worked a double the day before and hadn’t bothered getting the previous day’s delivery before heading to her apartment and into her bed, though not before depositing her new cookbook in her kitchen. On her way up the stairs, Sakura shuffled through the envelopes, absentmindedly sorting the junk mail from the bills and other important items. As she was unlocking her door, she came across something that stopped her in her tracks – another envelope addressed to her in the strange block letters she had come to dread.
Recovering quickly, Sakura hurried into her apartment, remembering to close and lock the door behind her. Upon reaching the kitchen, she dumped the rest of her carefully sorted mail onto the table. Dread filling her stomach, she cautiously slit the envelope and pulled the contents out – yet another Polaroid of her dream guardian. This time, he was propped up against a tropical tree on a beach somewhere without his vest, over and undershirt, forehead protector and mask. However, the photographer had somehow ‘accidentally’ gotten the camera strap in the frame, covering the lower portion of Kakashi’s face.
She groaned. For the life of her she couldn’t quite figure out who was doing this to her. After careful consideration she had decided that it had to be someone who knew her fairly well and had visited her while she was sick – since that was when the dream guardian had gone missing. This left a rather narrow field of suspects and the most obvious, Naruto and Sasuke were pretty much out of the question, leaving a handful of medics, Tsunade, Shizune, Ino and another person she was fairly confident she could eliminate, Kakashi himself. No matter which way she approached the question of whom, she just couldn’t quite pin it on any one of the most likely suspects, leaving her frustrated to no end. The pink haired women almost wished her subtle blackmailer would cut to the chase already and make some sort of a demand; anything had to be better than finding yet another Polaroid in her mailbox with some sort of cheesy yet potentially cryptic message on the back.
Steeling herself, she flipped the photo to read the strange block lettering:
‘Sakura
Found a nice beach and decided to work a little on my tan. Thought of you when the sun set and turned the sky a lovely shade of pink. Hope you’re doing well.
Yours,
Kakashi’
Before she had a moment to react someone knocked on her door. Starting guiltily, Sakura hastily shoved the offending photograph into her junk drawer before hurrying to answer the door.
~*~*~*~
Annoyed, Kakashi made one more sweep of the building looking for the ever elusive landlord. He couldn’t believe how difficult it could be to track down a simple civilian – he was an elite, an elite who specialized in tracking. Yet for some reason, whenever he set out to find Hideki, the uncooperative man was nowhere to be found. Sure, he could break down and summon Pakkun or one of his other ninken, but for some reason he just couldn’t bring himself to go to such lengths to set his former student up with another man. Besides, he rationalized, he would never hear the end of it from Pakkun – summoning him for such a frivolous reason, and for a civilian no less!
A small part of him brought up the question of whether he might be subconsciously sabotaging himself each time he set out to find Sakura’s landlord. Hastily he shoved the inner observation aside even as a smaller portion of him knew it was right. The last thing he wanted to deal with – ever – was the fact that he was slowly realizing just how much the pink haired kunoichi meant to him and that it was getting harder and harder not to act on his suppressed feelings.
Troubling thoughts aside, Kakashi finished a final tour of the locations Hideki could usually be found. Upon finding nothing, he decided to drop by Sakura’s apartment on his way out to see if he might mooch a breakfast from her; he didn’t really expect her to be in, but figured that it was worth a shot. Leisurely, he made his way to her door, paused and knocked.
A couple moments later the door opened to reveal a very flustered Sakura. With some amusement he watched the color drain from her face as she recognized him. He couldn’t guess what had happened for him to receive this sort of a reaction; regardless he still enjoyed it.
“Kakashi! What a pleasant surprise… Um, would you like to come in?” She appeared to recover quickly as he entered her apartment and her eyes narrowed as she remembered his latest gift. “You’re too late for breakfast if that’s why you’re here…”
“Aw Sakura, I’m disappointed that you think so little of me,” he managed to sound hurt by her supposedly incorrect assumption.
Sakura flushed faintly and he grinned to himself, knowing her chagrin wouldn’t last long as the fabricated reason for his visit would be sure to irritate her to no end.
“I’m sorry, Kakashi, why have you decided to stop by then?” Unthinkingly she led him through her main living area to her kitchen.
His eye was immediately drawn to a partially open drawer, from the corner of which he could just make out a matte white border edging the corner of shiny photographic paper. Kakashi also noticed the pile of unread mail on her table. He smirked safe in his knowledge that the mask concealed his expression, connecting her strange behavior with the receipt of his latest Polaroid sent on behalf of her dream guardian.
“Do I really need a reason to drop by my favorite former student’s apartment?” The silver haired man asked. He tried his best to sound completely innocent while suppressing his mirth at the panic she must have felt when finding him at her door so soon after receiving a reminder that her silly little plushie – dressed and styled as him no less – was still at large.
The pink haired woman crossed her arms, seeing through his act. “Okay, now I know you’re after something…” She frowned as the possibilities crossed her mind. “What is it then?”
He chuckled, knowing he would have to come up with some thing to placate her. “Well you see I was on my way to the training ground and thought you may like to join me…”
~*~*~*~
Sakura halfheartedly, she tossed a couple of Kakashi’s kunai at him in annoyance from her perch near the middle of one of the larger trees in the area. “This is all your fault you know.” Before he could answer, she dropped down to the ground to gather a handful of shuriken she didn’t remember either of them using.
“Now Sakura, I know I’m good, but this?” He gestured at the sky which had grown overcast and dark before suddenly opening up to let a deluge of rain down upon them. He tried to avoid looking directly at her; the rain had completely soaked both of them and now her clothing was clinging to her in ways that left very little to the imagination and no doubt in his mind as to her body temperature – which was very, very cold.
“I don’t know how you did it, but I just know that you did!” she growled at him as she collected the last of their scattered weapons from her section of undergrowth. “The first time ever that I had the upper hand and might have actually won, for once, all of a sudden rain clouds appear from out of nowhere and thoroughly drench us – giving you the opening you needed to turn the tables and pin me. Of course you had to have done something…”
She hastily turned her attention to the kunai she was returning to her holster, a flush creeping across her face as she remembered how he had deftly flipped her over, pinned her arms above her head and smiled as he announced himself as the winner of their spar. She cursed Ino for planting such lecherous thoughts in her mind about her former sensei, for at that instant she could easily imagine the two of them in the same position with very different intentions. She had found herself completely agreeing with Ino that there was just something about a wet Copy Ninja that somehow increased his attractiveness, and, to her inner dismay, the thought wasn’t at all as disturbing as she felt it should be.
Shaking her head she willed such improper thoughts from her mind and refocused her annoyance back on the silver haired man currently making one last sweep of the underbrush on his side of the clearing looking for any remaining stray weapons from their chakra free spar.
Feeling her irritated eyes on his back he straightened and turned to face her. As casually as he could, knowing full well that she was indeed correct about him having something to do with the sudden change in weather, but not foolish enough to let her know that, he scratched the back of his head feigning innocence. “I can see why you might think that, but…”
“But nothing!!!”
“Sakura, when have you ever seen me directly affect the weather?” he asked patiently. She didn’t have to know that all he had done was attract some nearby storm clouds and give them a good hard poke so they would eventually rain. He had actually set things into motion just before they had started sparring with thoughts of the rain making for an interesting match – and maybe a small part of him had wanted to see her thoroughly soaked with her clothing clinging to her. As much as he would love to take full credit the timing had been something of a fluke, but a most welcome fluke. Sakura had had him pinned, kneeling with a shin resting on each of his upper thighs, bent at her waist with her hands pinning his wrists to the ground on either side of his head breathing heavily with her chest very much within his direct sight range. In the seconds immediately following the series of actions that led to his position on the ground, he had found himself in one of the toughest struggles for control of his body that he had ever been in. Though now, after the fact, he at least partially regretted his fiddling with the weather since he was having a hard time keeping his eye where it belonged while talking to her and the absolute last thing he wanted to do was to get caught with his gaze wandering.
“Just because I haven’t seen you do it certainly does not mean that you can’t! You’re the Copy Ninja, geeze! Master of a thousand jutsu or something like that…”
“You really have enough faith in my abilities to think that I’ve managed to change the weather?” Kakashi asked, his curiosity taking over from his feigned sense of injured dignity.
She shot him a strange look. “Of course.”
He felt very much taken aback, having figured that she had long ago lost all true awe and unwavering faith in his abilities, though if he had been thinking of how much regard she still had for her dream guardian he might not have been quite so surprised. Kakashi fumbled for words for a moment before finally responding. “I see… Well, then you’ll just have to believe me when I say I had nothing to do with the rain falling when it did.”
Which was true, just not the whole truth.
Sakura eyed him suspiciously before finally allowing it to drop, knowing that even if he did have something to do with the rain he would never admit it.
The kunoichi groaned and stretched her back and shoulder muscles already able to feel the new bruises forming, and decided to switch the subject. “I swear, one of these days I’m going to learn my lesson and refuse to spar with you under the no chakra rules…” She sighed, rubbing absently at her shoulders and wishing she could heal herself. The medic in her still had enough pride to wait to heal such minor injuries until she was safely back in her own apartment – otherwise she would have to face the ridicule from her former sensei about allowing her skills to get a little rusty.
He laughed. “We’ve tried that already, remember?” Kakashi asked, recalling the disastrous results. Sakura had gotten in a few good hits and he had been injured badly enough to need healing – but since she had used almost all of her chakra sparring with him she hadn’t been able to heal him. Neither one of them had enjoyed the experience very much and had agreed that all future spars would be of the no chakra variety.
“You would have to bring that up…” Interrupting herself she suddenly sneezed, realizing how cold she had gotten since getting drenched.
“C’mon Sakura, we’ll both catch cold if we stay out much longer. I’ve some of those butter cookies that you like and I’ll even make you a nice hot cup of tea to go with them.” He held out a hand with several of her kunai.
She sighed, knowing his offer of tea and cookies was the best she would get by way of apology, and crossed the clearing to accept the kunai from him. As she reached out for them he drew his hand closer to himself, drawing her a little closer to him than she would generally get without prompting. Upon taking the kunai she felt a slightly wet but warm weight settle across her shoulders – his jonin vest. Surprised she looked up at him to catch his trademarked version of a smile.
“Wore the waterproof one today,” he shrugged. “You looked cold.” Without another word he started back toward the village, expecting her to follow, and after a moment of stunned hesitation she hurried to catch up with him.
~*~*~*~
Kakashi unlocked and held the door open for her. “You know where the bathroom is, there should be clean towels in the closet. I’ll find you something to wear while your clothes dry.”
His voice had taken on an authoritative note and she found herself obeying without a second thought. After locating a couple clean towels she happily shed her soaking wet clothes to dry herself, then spent a few moments healing the motley assortment of bruises she had obtained during her training session. Sighing with a little relief she wrapped one of the large surprisingly fluffy towels around herself to wait for Kakashi to return with clothes for her.
After a few moments, her impatience got the better of her and she carefully opened the bathroom door to peek her head out. “Kakashi?”
“In here,” he called from the direction of his kitchen.
Sakura hesitated for a moment before following the sound of his voice. Everything that should be covered was so she had no reason to hesitate, and yet she did. He had probably just gone on to his kitchen after changing himself to start a pot of tea, not thinking to leave clothes for her outside the bathroom door. Slowly she entered the kitchen to find that Kakashi had indeed changed into a dry pair of pants and undershirt with attached mask, leaving everything else, including his forehead protector off for the time being. As she had hoped he had his back turned to her and was setting out mugs for tea and a plate for cookies.
“Ah, here you are. Um… did you find something for me to wear?” she asked, fighting a blush and suddenly feeling as though the towel she was wearing was much too short. Subconsciously the younger woman shifted herself a little nervously, trying to tug the bottom of the towel down just a little more.
He turned from what he was doing to find her standing hesitantly in the kitchen doorway, his eye skittering over her semi-clad state before locking firmly on her eyes. “Yes, I’ve put an old shirt and a pair of shortened pants on the table for you. I grabbed the smallest I could find; they’re probably still much too large for you but will do until your clothes are ready.” He gestured at the dark clothing she had failed to notice upon entering the room.
Her eyes followed his gesture to the clothes and she happily stepped into the kitchen to take them. “Thanks Kakashi – where have you dropped your wet clothes and towels? I’ll add them to mine in the washer if you haven’t already done so.”
“I’ve already put them in the machine, just put yours in too and start it.” He smiled at her and started to turn his head back to what he was doing.
As Kakashi turned his head she turned to exit the kitchen and something out of place caught his eye. His gaze locked onto her back and shoulder, finding something there that he didn’t like. He stepped closer to her, automatically reaching to nudge the towel aside and allow him a better look, a faint frown appearing beneath his mask.
Her cheeks heated as she felt him place his hand on the edge of her towel and gently shift the fabric aside. Sakura turned her head over her shoulder to yell at the man, “KAKASHI!” Her towel slipped a little in her annoyance, allowing the back to gape and sag enough to reveal the majority of her back to his inquisitive eye, leading her to fumble with her hands to keep the ends of the towel closed in the front.
Puzzled, he lifted his eye to hers, took in her scarlet face, and realized what he was doing. His immediate reaction was to remove his hand from her back and beat a hasty retreat, but for some reason he was disinclined to do so and instead he held his ground.
“What’s this?” he asked ignoring her exclamation as best he could as he carefully traced over the thin bit of shiny raised tissue he had never seen before.
She shivered a little as goose bumps formed at his soft touch and feeling completely thrown off balance she answered him automatically. “A scar Kakashi, what else do you think it could be?”
“I can see that. It’s new. Where did you get it?” His voice was soft and held a note she couldn’t quite identify.
“Huh? How did you know it’s new? It’s completely healed…” she trailed off realizing just who she was talking to. “Never mind I can guess…”
For just a fraction of a second he almost panicked thinking that she had found out about his little impromptu peeping session at the hot spring before realizing she was probably referring to his uncovered Sharingan.
Deciding to play it safe he chose to go with a noncommittal, “Hmm…”
Unbidden Kakashi’s hand traced the scar again, starting near her neck and slowly trailing over her shoulder and down to about the middle of her back. Once, he had known all of her scars and the stories behind them, or rather he had known the reason why he was to blame for each and every one of them – all the many little ways he had failed her as she had been under his care. Granted, Sakura had never seen her scars as anything other than reminders of lessons she had learned at the hands of enemies, nothing more, and certainly had never blamed him for any of them, but that didn’t mean he could so easily forgive himself.
Sakura shivered again at the feel of his fingers tracing the still fairly new scar and mentally cursed the fact that she had been unable to heal the injury herself – there wouldn’t have been a scar if she had, and she wouldn’t be thinking some very improper thoughts about her former sensei and the other things he could be doing with his hands.
Hastily she shoved the inappropriate thoughts from her mind and pulled the towel back up and into position, once again covering the majority of her back and the scar. His hand rather reluctantly removed itself from her as the fabric blocked his trailing finger and she turned to face him.
He caught her gaze and raised an eyebrow inquiringly. “Where did this scar come from?” The older man prompted her as she still hadn’t answered his question.
“It’s nothing. Unexpected ambush on what should have been an uneventful escort mission and an inexperienced team leader forgot to make contingency plans – while I was healing the client’s serious wounds the teammate who was supposed to be covering me got distracted.” She shrugged and laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood. “That’s not one you could possibly take the blame for, so don’t even try.” With a smile she turned once again to head back to the bathroom to change.
“Sakura…” he started, unsure what to say, but feeling the need to continue the conversation.
Something in his tone of voice caused her to pause, fumbling with her towel a little, and return her gaze to him. “Before you even think to bring it up, I can point out at least a dozen or two, probably more, of your scars that are directly related to you saving my sorry ass.” Sakura paused and smiled at his incredulous expression. “You know I’m right Kakashi.”
“Those don’t count,” he shook his head stubbornly.
“Oh?” She rearranged her towel so it would stay up on its own, draping his clothes over her shoulder as she stepped a little closer to him. Carefully the pink haired woman took his rough larger right hand in hers, lightly running her fingers across a thin almost invisible strip of raised pale skin stretching across the back of his hand. “I remember all of them. Though there are less of them now that I’ve been the one doing the healing… This,” she let her fingers trail across the almost non-existent scar again, “this was the first of them…”
Kakashi wanted to pull his hand from her, but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. He was entranced by her unexpected actions.
Sakura smiled again at him. “You stopped Zabuza’s shuriken with your hand before he could throw it at Naruto.” Her expression turned thoughtful as she gazed up at him. “You know, I don’t think I ever thanked you for most of your scars – what a selfish little girl I was.”
“Sakura you really don’t…” he trailed off as he watched her bend her head slightly to brush her lips against the old scar.
She glanced back up at his face, noting with amusement his expression of surprise, and smiled. “Thank you.”
Just as he was about to speak a pounding noise interrupted, coming from the entrance of his apartment.
Hastily Sakura drew herself away from him, a flush gracing her cheeks, and continued her interrupted return trip to his bathroom to get dressed – the kunoichi recognized that particular impatient knocking and wanted nothing to do with Naruto and most like Sasuke walking in on her with Kakashi wearing only a towel.
Slowly, feeling slightly dazed, he made his way to the door to see what his former student wanted. Upon opening the door he was almost bowled over by his over enthusiastic visitor
“Kakashi, there you are! Have you seen Sakura? We’ve been looking for her for a couple hours now.”
Sasuke followed his blonde friend into Kakashi’s apartment, more observantly than Naruto. “Idiot, of course he’s seen her, her boots are here.” He pointed to the wet knee high boots sitting in the entryway next to Kakashi’s larger sandals.
“Well if she’s here, where is she then?” The blue eyed man shifted his gaze around the empty living room area before landing back on his former sensei.
Kakashi opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, unsure what sort of fib he should tell. He wasn’t about to try and hide the fact that she was there, but wasn’t too thrilled with the prospect of their reactions upon seeing her in his clothing. Much to his relief, after a moment or two of silence the decision was taken from him.
“I’m right here Naruto.” Sakura entered the room and set a tray bearing four mugs of tea and a plate of cookies on a low table. She had heard the two men enter and changed as quickly as possible before slipping into the kitchen to pour four cups of tea to add to a tray along with the plate of cookies. As she entered Sakura hoped her attire would go uncommented upon, though she knew it was a hope in vain. She had had to roll the waist of the pants several times and draw the drawstring as tight as it would go to keep the still too long pants on, and the oversized dark jonin shirt was so large she could practically swim in it. “You’ve been looking for me?” She tried not to notice Sasuke’s eyes narrow ever so slightly as his gaze lingered on her over sized shirt, the collar of which had slipped across and slightly down her shoulder.
Naruto beat him to the punch. “What the hell are you wearing Sakura? It’s huge!” He laughed as he playfully reached out to tug at the hem of the over sized shirt, pulling the collar further down her shoulder and revealing a corner of her newest scar to Sasuke’s ever observant eyes.
“Naruto!” Sakura cried as she batted his hand away from her, only to find it replaced with Sasuke’s. Quickly she turned to face the dark haired man. “Sasuke? What has gotten into the two of you?”
As she turned to address the Uchiha the mischievous blonde slipped behind her, lifting the hem of the shirt to get a better look at her back. Hastily she clutched at the front of the garment to keep it from riding up along with the back and flashing Kakashi who was clearly enjoying the interaction of his former students but apparently not inclined to interfere. Sakura tried to whirl around on her two former teammates, only to find herself unable as they held her in place to study her back.
“Hey! Leggo!” she struggled a little, consciously keeping her strength under control to avoid causing property damage to Kakashi’s apartment, but without her chakra enhanced strength she was fighting a losing battle. “What the hell are you two doing?!” She exclaimed as they pushed again at the back of the shirt, diminishing the amount of fabric left to cover her chest.
As he watched, Kakashi found it harder and harder not to step in to mediate the little scuffle between his former students. The facts that Sakura’s shirt kept inching up further and further, and that Naruto wasn’t all that careful in where he was placing his hands certainly weren’t helping matters either.
Naruto moved a little to the side so he could see just what the kunoichi was so upset about. After observing her hands tightly clinging to as much of the over large shirt as possible he laughed. “Geeze Sakura what’s with your sudden bout of modesty? It’s not like Sasuke and I haven’t already seen you naked before…”
The dark haired man sighed in irritation and made sure of his grip on the irate woman’s arms before she could lash out at Naruto. Tact was something Naruto had never managed to develop or grasp even as a foreign concept. As he secured his grip on the kunoichi, he resumed his study of the new long thin scar extending partially across Sakura’s back.
Her face turned dark and she let her control slip. “Never intentionally, you moron!! How the hell you’ve survived as long as you have without learning the fine art of knocking or how to use the front door I’ll never know!!” She swung out at him and missed only because Sasuke still held her steady, preventing her from doing any harm to the blonde man. Angrily she tried to turn on the Uchiha. “Sasuke let go!” she struggled unsuccessfully to free herself from his grasp, unintentionally causing the already high hemline of the shirt to rise further.
The pink haired medic was more than relieved when, a moment later, Kakashi finally decided to step in and remove her from Sasuke’s scrutiny, quickly pulling her shirt down as he set her aside.
“Okay, okay that’s enough you two.” He glanced apparently apathetically at the younger men, though he was starting to become annoyed with the way they were pawing at her – never mind the mind boggling fact that they had apparently, on more than one occasion, seen her completely undressed and thought little of it. With a deep breath he was able to push the faint feelings of envy and jealousy from his mind, feeling less disgusted with himself than he felt he should.
“Aw Kakashi! What’d you go and do that for? I didn’t get a good enough look!” Naruto whined in disappointment, though he made no move to once again try and corner the seething kunoichi.
Fuming Sakura glared at him. “What the hell were you doing? Get a good look at what?”
Before Naruto could open his mouth to insert his foot Sasuke hurriedly answered for him. “You’ve a new scar.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That’s it? That’s what you were making such a fuss over? It’s just a scar, a fully healed injury damnit!”
“That’s what we thought…” Sasuke was interrupted before he could tactfully ask his next question.
Naruto’s eyes blazed. “Who did this to you? I’ll kill him!”
“Easy Naruto, you’re wasting your time, he’s already dead. Now leave it be.” Sakura sighed, getting over her anger at the two young men. It was their concern for her that motivated them to act in such over protective ways, and she knew she should be thankful for having such loyal friends even though they could be more than annoying at times. “You mentioned you were looking for me?” she asked trying to change the subject.
“The bastard who did that to you might be dead, but your teammates should have protected you better…” ignoring her attempt at shifting the topic of conversation Sasuke mused aloud. “Who were you working with?”
“Yeah! Who was your team leader? He deserves a refresher course in…”
“Stop it, both of you!” the pink haired kunoichi exclaimed beyond frustrated. “It’s neither the team leader nor team members fault. Blame it on extenuating circumstances if you have to blame something.” She shook her head angrily and tried to change the subject. “Now, what was it that you were looking for me for?”
Hoping they would get the point, she took a seat on Kakashi’s couch and reached for one of the, unexpectedly still steaming, mugs of tea. She was pleasantly surprised when Kakashi, who had remained a mostly silent if amused observer throughout their little squabble, took the seat next to her, also reaching for a mug of tea.
The two younger shinobi exchanged glances and decided to let the matter drop – they could always check the mission logs and do a little disciplining of their own at a later time. Having decided to give their questions about her latest scar up for the time being they reached for the remaining mugs of tea and settled themselves in chairs across from the couch – neither one thinking to take the seat next to Kakashi.
Before Naruto could incorrectly approach the whole issue at hand, the Uchiha cleared his throat and hurriedly spoke up. “We were looking for you because we heard that you received another gift from your secret admirer.”
Feeling puzzled she eyed them warily. “Yes, and?”
He rolled his eyes at her clearly feigned naiveté. “We heard that it was of a rather more personal nature than the previous gifts…”
She thought about it for a moment before responding. “Well, I wouldn’t say that.”
“You wouldn’t consider a cookbook with all his favorite dishes marked a more personal gift than say a box of tea or chocolates?” The dark haired man raised an eyebrow doubtfully.
“Eh? Where on earth did you hear that?” she asked starting to feel a little flustered. Sakura hadn’t mentioned to anyone what her latest gift had been or the fact that Kakashi had marked his favorites for her convenience. “That’s nonsense!”
Naruto leaned forward, clearly upset. “It doesn’t matter where we heard it! But that guy’s got some nerve! Secretly sending you all sorts of gifts without letting on who he is so Sasuke and I can check him out.” He paused and laughed suddenly as something occurred to him. “Though, you do have to admit that a cookbook probably won’t do you much good, you’re a complete disaster in the kitchen!”
Sasuke couldn’t help the smirk that formed on his lips at the thought of someone actually looking forward to and encouraging Sakura’s cooking. He remembered all too clearly the atrocities that came out of the kitchen or off the fire when she had been in charge of meals while on missions.
She frowned but didn’t bother to correct the two smug shinobi. “I’ve told you two before and I’ll tell you again, leave it be. It’s of no concern to either of you.”
“You’re wrong. Whoever this secret admirer of yours is, he’s obviously a complete coward – otherwise he wouldn’t sneak around behind our backs, he would just step up.” Sasuke made a negligent gesture, “If he isn’t man enough to do that…”
“He’s a loser,” Naruto interrupted, “plain and simple a loser and a coward,” he crossed his arms across his chest defiantly.
Sasuke sighed, irritated with himself and Naruto for allowing something so fishy to go on for so long. “We should have fixed this before it got so far. Not only is he a loser, but the more gifts he gives you the more he will expect from you in return.”
Sakura had to fight hard not to laugh at the Uchiha’s comment, if only they knew that they were talking about the man currently sitting next to her. “I really don’t think he expects anything in return.”
Naruto laughed. “He’s a guy Sakura, of course he’ll want something from you.” His eyes narrowed. “And, I bet I know what it is too…” he cracked his knuckles and grinned, his canine teeth momentarily catching the light.
“Just tell us who the coward is and we’ll make it right and forget all about this mess.”
Sakura sighed, hoping to put the whole issue to rest. She really wanted to pound the man sitting next to her or at the very least shoot him a dirty look, but Sakura knew better than to give herself away in front of the two people who most wanted to know the identity of her so-called secret admirer, even if Kakashi was radiating pure amusement at her situation and she just knew that he was wearing a smirk under his mask. Briefly, she wondered just how quickly the expression would be wiped from his lips if she were to tell the two younger shinobi that he was her secret admirer. Sakura was sorely tempted, but honestly wasn’t sure what the reactions would be upon her dropping such a bomb in the midst of such volatile men, and a small part of her knew the gifts would stop if Naruto and Sasuke were to find out. For some strange reason she didn’t particularly care for the thought of no longer finding the gifts in her office.
“Look, the flaw in your plan is that you’re assuming that I actually know who this secret admirer is… I’ve already told you that I don’t – if I knew who he was, he wouldn’t be a secret admirer any longer. Don’t you think that if I or someone else had figured it out, the whole village would probably know by now?”
“Not necessarily,” the Uchiha responded slowly as he thought about it. “Despite the tendency for people to gossip, some secrets have been kept remarkably well in this village.”
She frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by her blonde former teammate.
“What do you think Kakashi? You’ve been awfully quiet on this,” the blue eyed man asked, hoping the older man would agree with his stance on the matter.
“What do I think?” Kakashi scratched his head as though in deep thought, knowing that Sakura knew he was enjoying himself immensely at her expense. “Well, I think Sakura is a big girl now and can make her own decisions in regard to her love life.”
Naruto’s face fell; he had clearly been expecting an ally in his former sensei.
“But, if she should decide to take up with a loser… It is up to her friends to let her know and on occasion save her from herself…”
“Ah-ha!” Naruto crowed triumphantly. “See, Kakashi agrees with us! Dump the chump and get a real man.”
Finally having had enough she glared at her two friends. “You’re neglecting one key fact,” she paused to make sure they were paying attention, “I’m not dating anyone right now. You’re just blowing this whole secret admirer bit way out of proportion.”
As she spoke she heard the silver haired man’s washing machine come to a halt and buzz. “Ah, there’s my laundry. I’m going to go start the dryer, and when I come back, I want this conversation to be over.” Happily she rose to go tend to the laundry.
As soon as she exited the room she heard both Naruto and Sasuke begin to argue at Kakashi, since he would have had to respond for them to actually argue with him, over the silver haired man not backing them up in their bid to get rid of Sakura’s secret admirer. She chuckled to herself, figuring to linger with the laundry for a little while to pay Kakashi back at least in part for the mess he had started.
