Chapter Seventeen: Challenge! An Unexpected Engagement
Sakura awoke, fully energized and ready to go after sleeping in for the first time in ages. In one of the rarest of rare events, Tsunade had given her two days in a row completely off with no strings attached and Sakura intended to make full use of them. Finishing her usual morning ablutions, she bustled to the kitchen to make a picnic lunch realizing with some annoyance that in her haste she had somehow managed to over calculate how much food she could realistically eat. Upon thinking about it for a moment she packed up the leftovers as a second lunch, just in case, and headed out to her little balcony, ready to start her day. The weather was shaping up to be beautiful and she was determined to find a nice quite spot, perhaps on top of the Hokage Monument or in a tree near one of the lesser used training grounds, to while away the day with a good book and a nice al fresco lunch.
As she stood, taking in the view she was seldom able to enjoy, the world turned upside-down – literally. Quite suddenly, she found herself slung over an unknown assailant’s shoulder, her bag containing her lunch stealthily taken from her hand. Before she knew it, she was being carried off across the rooftops. After a moment of startled shock – it had been a while since her last attempted kidnapping – she started to struggle a little, testing her unknown captor’s strength while trying to gauge where her assailant may be taking her. At this point she wasn’t particularly concerned, her kidnapper seemed to be little better than an amateur, trying to take her from the busy neighborhood in broad daylight without any sort of precautions. Sakura was more curious as to who would be attempting to kidnap her and of course why than concerned that her attempted assailant might actually succeed.
“Easy there, Sakura,” a familiar voice immediately ceased her struggles.
Her mind promptly deserted her upon hearing his voice. “K-kakashi? What the…???” she asked surprised at the identity of her so called kidnapper.
He chuckled at her confusion, realizing that in spite of his determination not to, he was enjoying himself. “We’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
“Huh? Be where? Where are you taking me?” she asked with confusion clearly present in her voice. She couldn’t imagine where he could possibly be taking her or why he would resort to kidnapping tactics to do so – though it certainly wasn’t the first time he had done so. Occasionally he had, either under duress or for his own personal amusement, taken it into his head to grab her somewhere and take off – more often than not for training purposes.
He grunted and hitched her up a little over his shoulder a bit more securely, choosing to ignore her question.
After a moment of silent, but thoughtful, travel she suddenly realized where he was heading and started struggling in earnest. “Oh no! No, no, No, NO, NO, NO!” She slammed her fists against his back, not caring if he were to drop her – though she honestly couldn’t imagine the elite jonin unintentionally losing his grip on her. All kidding and fake kidnapping attempts aside, Sakura knew that if she truly didn’t want to go wherever he was taking her he would, albeit reluctantly, set her down and let her go.
Feeling puzzled and needing to get a better grasp on the struggling kunoichi, he paused at the ever familiar red bridge. Once he had stopped moving he shifted her down and around so she was cradled in his arms. Kakashi looked down at her face and raised his visible eyebrow inquiringly.
Sakura huffed, crossing her arms across her chest with indignation. “Oh no, not today!” Generally on the rare occasions when he took it into his head to transport her somewhere, she would give him the benefit of the doubt, but this time she was completely off duty and not in the mood to deal with what she figured he had coming.
“Eh?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.
She sighed, calming down a bit. “I’m not stupid Kakashi. I can see where we’re going now.” The kunoichi glared at him, “And I want nothing to do with it!”
“Oh really?” he raised an amused eyebrow finally realizing what she must be thinking. Sakura was wrong, of course, but that wasn’t exactly the point. She may have figured out where he was going, but there was no way she would ever guess why or what they were going to do once they got there. For his plan to work, it was absolutely essential that she not know.
She blinked, clearing her mind of the thought that he had raised his eyebrow suggestively instead of questioningly. Gathering her thoughts she continued. “Today is my first day completely off in…” the medic paused for a moment to actually think “I don’t know how long. I am not, I repeat, I am not training with you. I fully intend on enjoying a nice relaxing day of leisure for once. Kami knows I deserve one. Go find someone else to play with!” She started struggling again in earnest. When he didn’t release her – as expected – she shot him a dirty look.
The older shinobi chuckled at his former student. “So that’s what has you worried. I promise you won’t have to put forth any effort when we get there, regardless of how it may appear.” Taking advantage of the startled kunoichi’s momentary cease in struggling he lightly shifted her back over his shoulder to continue on his way.
After a few moments of stunned silence during which she tried to fathom what he could possibly mean she finally found her voice. “What the hell does that mean, Kakashi?” When he didn’t answer she tried halfheartedly slamming her fists against his back again but found it less than satisfying when he refused to react and chose instead to fume inwardly at the infuriatingly silent man.
Several moments of uneventful travel brought the two shinobi to one of the least used and most secluded training areas in the forest surrounding the village. It was a wide natural glade with a nice relatively flat expanse of wildlife grazed grass.
Kakashi slowed to a stop near the center of the field.
“Ah, so my eternal rival has decided to show up after all! And, here I thought that you may default. I should have thought better of my honorable opponent.”
The silver haired jonin had to choke back a laugh at feeling the shudder go through the kunoichi currently slung over his shoulder. Even after all these years the sight of green spandex tended to send her running for the hills, for where one green spandexed shinobi could be found the other was sure not to be too far away. Unfortunately for Sakura, the younger of the pair still pursued her regardless of regular beatings from Naruto and Sasuke and the fact that she never reciprocated his feelings or offered him any encouragement whatsoever. Little if anything deterred Rock Lee once he set his mind on something – a fact Sakura had been running from since she met him at her first chunin exam.
“Kakashi!” an angry voice accosted the elite jonin. “What are you doing with Sakura?! It is most improper the way you are handling her. I must respectfully ask that you put her down!”
He sighed and let Sakura down, silently chuckling at how she had involuntarily buried her hands and face into the back of his vest in a vain attempt to disappear from the all too persistent shinobi.
“You’ll pay for this, old man,” she hissed venomously into his ear as he set her on her feet. Sakura glared at him before turning to greet the two spandex wearing shinobi.
“Good morning,” she smiled brightly before continuing, “Can either of you tell me what I’m doing here? Grey hair over there refused to tell me where we were going or why.”
Kakashi grunted something that sounded remarkably like, “No respect…” but otherwise kept a calm outward demeanor. He had wanted absolutely nothing to do with Guy’s latest antics and had steadfastly ignored and refused all challenges the green clad man had issued for the past couple weeks. Unfortunately the previous evening, while at the pub, Guy had chosen to start in on one of the Copy Ninja’s least favorite topics of discussion: why the silver haired man’s former student continued to refuse his green clad clone. For some reason Guy seemed to take it as a personal affront that Kakashi’s former student wanted nothing to do with his former student who was so obviously love struck. After working himself up into an alcohol enhanced frenzy, the taijutsu master had issued yet another pointless challenge, one that the elite jonin had had no interest in meeting.
Or rather, Kakashi had not intended on taking the bushy browed man up on his challenge until he passed by Sakura’s flat with the intention of making one of his special, more personal, deliveries. Instead of finding her not at home as he had expected he found her clearly getting ready for a day off. He had grinned mischievously, realizing it was too good of an opportunity to pass up and he had promptly grabbed her and taken off for his meeting. Putting some of his sneakier shinobi skills to good use, he even managed to make his delivery, dropping it in her milk crate, without her noticing.
“Yes Guy-sensei, why are we here? I came with you because you asked, but you have not yet told me what we will be doing…” Lee asked with genuine confusion. He had expected a training session, not a meeting with his mentor’s rival and the woman he had been unsuccessfully pursuing for the past eight years.
Guy flashed a brilliant smile and signature pose with his thumb up. “Ah, this is most well done Kakashi. I would not have thought you capable of completing the first part of our challenge.”
Sakura’s eyes flashed. “Challenge? What challenge?”
“My apologies fair cherry blossom, one of the stipulations of the contest was to convince a former student to accompany us to this clearing for the main competition without telling them why – an exercise in trust! I had not counted on my silver haired rival to have a silver tongue – as surely it must have taken some convincing to get you to join us this beautiful morning.”
Guy eyed Kakashi for a moment but the Copy Ninja paid him no attention, his nose already buried in his recently acquired scarlet jacketed book. He had done his part in getting Sakura there. Granted, if Guy had stopped to think about the fact that he had brought her there slung over his shoulder the green clad man might have at least suspected that Kakashi hadn’t convinced Sakura to accompany him, rather he had just plain up and abducted her. Regardless, he figured that the rest was up to Guy as he had seen that particular angry expression on the kunoichi before and did not feel like being on the receiving end of what usually came with it.
Absently Sakura rubbed her temple as if a headache was forming and decided to go along with her former sensei in whatever stupid challenge it might be – it embarrassed her to admit it, but she had a hard time refusing him.
“So what exactly is the challenge to be?” she asked, inwardly cringing from the near infinite possibilities. Sakura had already seen them ‘compete’ at such ridiculous ‘events’ as hopscotch and jacks tournaments as well as jumping rope, endless rounds of janken and – her personal favorite – the cross-dressing cross-country race, though the memory of Guy in a green spandex evening gown was one she would rather forget.
Sakura had directed her question to Guy, since he was always the instigator of these challenges, but for the moment he seemed to be tongue tied with a foolish grin on his face and his hand absently scratching the back of his neck. Sighing she redirected her gaze to Kakashi. “Well?”
He glanced up at her, rolled his eye, closed his book with a snap and placed it in his pouch before looking her straight in the eye with a silly grin fixed on his face as well. He was looking forward to finding out what her reaction would be, as at this point he was fairly confident he wouldn’t be on the receiving end of her fury. “I believe it was synchronized pushups…” he let the sentence trail off just waiting for her reaction.
After a moment of stunned silence she inhaled sharply causing the three male shinobi to lean backward in anticipation of the sure to be deafening verbal assault. Unexpectedly her eyes drifted back to the shinobi who had brought her into the whole ridiculous mess and she noted his well concealed mirth at the whole thing. Instead of rightly giving the three absurd men an earful she laughed. Nervously the three shinobi sheepishly joined in with her laughter. It had to be the stupidest challenge yet, but as she wiped the tears from her eyes she realized that Kakashi could have actually meant it when he had promised her she wouldn’t have to put forth any actual effort – though Guy and Lee may have an objection to it.
Once her laugher died down she eyed the two green clad shinobi before her, absently wondering if she seriously wanted to agree to help Kakashi with the challenge. Sakura turned back to her former teacher, with her mind made up. “Kakashi, you owe me dinner somewhere nice when you win.”
The younger spandex sporting shinobi opened his mouth to protest, but was hastily cut off by his former sensei.
“Ah, so the beautiful cherry blossom will agree to participate in the challenge?” The older green clad shinobi asked dubiously. He hadn’t thought that she would ever agree to the forfeit. It was something that hadn’t been mentioned thus far, but had been decided by Kakashi and himself the previous evening. Rather, Guy had decided and in sheer desperation to get away from the bushy browed man, Kakashi had agreed, with no intentions of actually participating. It didn’t occur to Guy that because one of his own stipulations was for neither student to know what was going on until their arrival at the training grounds that it was highly unlikely that Sakura could know about the forfeits, never mind actually agree to them.
“I suppose… I don’t see why not. Who have you gotten to be the judge?”
“Judge?” Guy asked as though it had only just then occurred to him that they would need someone to watch and declare the winner.
She sighed audibly, “Right. While you guys work that out I’m going to go find a nice spot to relax. It is my day off after all. Let me know once you’ve found someone and are ready to start this absurd challenge.”
“Sakura! Let me…” the younger bushy browed man took a couple steps toward her before abruptly being pulled back by his mentor.
“Come on Lee, let’s go look find someone to act as judge for this challenge! The sooner we get a judge the sooner we can get started!”
“But…” he started, obviously wanting to join Sakura.
“No buts, Lee, come along. We have a couple things to discuss.” The older man absently ruffled his protégé’s hair, hoping that his gamble on the ridiculous challenge would win Lee the chance he had been trying to earn since meeting the pink haired kunoichi.
Feeling bad for the younger, bushy browed man, Sakura smiled and waved cheerily at him as the men took off to locate a judge. Lee really was a nice guy and honestly she could tell that his intentions were nothing less than honorable – a rarity amongst modern men to say the least. Unfortunately she knew she would never like him as more than just a friend and for whatever reason Lee seemed unable to accept that fact.
Sakura approached the edge of the now empty training area with thoughts of finally getting some relaxing done in the shade of a particular tree. Absently she reached for a tube of lip gloss from her pouch as she walked, feeling as though her lips were a little dry, and applied a fresh coat. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, she found a familiar and unwelcome blur in front of her. One of his hands found its way around her waist while the other found its way into her hair bending her backwards as he pressed his lips to hers. For a moment she was too startled to move.
What started out to be a relatively chaste kiss suddenly turned much less so, bringing her back to her senses to land a chakra enhanced punch to the unwanted shinobi’s jaw, sending him partway across the clearing. Furiously she lifted the back of her hand to her lips as if to scrub the feeling of him from her as she glared at the offending man as she rose to her feet.
“Genma, what the hell!?”
Carefully he picked himself up, rubbing at his jaw. Once on his feet he locked eyes with her and slowly licked his lips. “Hmm, cinnamon… And, I would have thought that you’d taste like cherries.” He ducked more of an act of instinct rather than solid knowledge and was happy to see he hadn’t lost it upon hearing several kunai whiz by only inches above his lowered head. He couldn’t stop himself from adding, “Tingly too…”
Enraged she lunged for him, only to find herself being scooped up and lightly tossed over a shoulder for the second time that day.
“Kakashi!” She slammed her fists into his back, though careful not to actually hurt him by using chakra, she wasn’t angry at him. “Put me down so I can hurt him!!”
“Easy there Sakura,” the silver haired jonin shot the senbon wielder a questioning look. “What did he do this time?” Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on troubled him about the lecherous man making a serious pass at Sakura – though just what exactly was staying infuriatingly and firmly just out of reach. Inwardly he shrugged, figuring it would come to him in time.
Too furious for words, she found that she had momentarily lost the ability to articulate her anger.
Genma sensed this and happily took the second chance she had inadvertently afforded him that morning. “Nothing serious Kakashi, I swear. Just something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now.” He couldn’t help licking his lips again, searching for another faint trace of cinnamon.
Sakura was able to find her voice only to have it silenced as she felt the arm holding her in place constrict, she could only guess protectively or possessively, in his less than obvious annoyance. Feeling puzzled she lost her voice once again. For the life of her she couldn’t imagine what had gotten into her former sensei – not that she was complaining; she found that for some strange reason she really liked this side of him; the fact that he was behaving very much like Naruto and Sasuke didn’t particularly register.
“That’s enough Genma, this ends now,” the smile barely visible under his mask told the offending shinobi they were still friends, but the fact that it hadn’t reached his eye told him they wouldn’t be if he continued to seriously pursue Sakura against her obvious wishes.
“Whoa there Kakashi! It’s not what you think at all!” Genma exclaimed as he backpedaled faster than he ever had before, completely taken aback by how seriously his silver haired friend seemed to be taking his latest advance on the pink haired medic – especially considering that it was by no means his first or most aggressive.
The silver haired man narrowed his eye. “The fact that she punched you across the clearing and obviously wants to exact some sort of physical retribution you tells me that whatever it was, was entirely unwelcome to say the very least.” He paused as something just on the edges of his mind finally cleared. “Aren’t you sleeping with Ino anyway? I should think that if you would be foolish enough to cheat on her, you would at least be wise enough to try to cheat on her with someone other than her best friend…”
“Aw, Kakashi! You know I’m not that stupid!” Genma exclaimed with a look sheer horror on his face. “Ino… again… bed,” he trailed off in an inarticulate murmur.
“What was that? Couldn’t quite catch what you were saying.”
“Ino… me… another…” he tried again only marginally louder, obviously not wanting to actually make himself heard.
“Sorry, I seem to be going a little deaf in one ear, care to repeat that?”
Genma sighed, obviously annoyed with his friend. “Fine. Ino dumped me again, moved on to another man’s bed. You happy?” He made a frustrated gesture with his hands. “Why’d you think I didn’t tell you about her the first time around? Damnit can’t brag about the ones that dump me – no matter how hot or good of a lay…”
Kakashi eyed him and sighed. Sakura had stopped struggling, though he guessed probably not fuming. Inadvertently his arm tightened around her, deciding not to release her quite yet for the senbon wielding man’s safety – at least, that’s what his ever agile mind used to rationalize his desire to hold on to her for just a little bit longer. Though, after noticing that the shaggy haired man’s gaze was now fixed several inches to the right of his face, most likely on the heart-shaped derriere of his former student, he shifted his stance a little in order to foil the view.
“Kakashi?” the disembodied voice of the older green spandexed shinobi preceded the appearance of his former student Lee.
“Sakura, are you all right? We heard you yell at Genma…” he eyed Kakashi’s grip on her disapprovingly though chose not to voice his opinion.
The Copy Ninja felt rather than heard her sigh, obviously calming herself down, before answering.
“Yes, Lee, I’m fine.” She noticed how he was looking at the man currently holding her over his shoulder and caught herself before she rolled her eyes at him. “If you want to glare at someone glare at Genma; Kakashi is only thing keeping me from hurting him...”
The youthful green clad man’s eyes immediately shifted to the lecherous senbon wielding man, narrowing with suspicion. “What have you done to upset her?!”
The brown eyed man found himself lifting his hands in front of himself defensively. He hadn’t realized that not only was Kakashi in the area, but Sakura’s long time suitor was as well. If he had, he may have thought twice about accosting her as he had. Though, he honestly couldn’t say that he regretted his action, consequences or not.
“Nothing, nothing…” he paused in thought and hastily revised his statement upon receiving a dubious look from Kakashi. “Well, nothing any other healthy straight man in the village wouldn’t do upon finding one of the most sought after Leaf kunoichi with her defenses low…”
“Oh that’s it, Genma!” the pink haired woman started struggling again in her former sensei’s grasp. “Just as soon as Kakashi lets me down I’m gonna…” she squeaked and trailed off feeling the arm around her waist constrict again, almost painfully, shifting her attention. “Kakashi! Let me down! He deserves some pain!” Upon receiving no reaction, she amended her previous declaration. “Fine, I won’t hurt him too much just a little… okay a lot….” She pounded on his back again and almost whined, “C’mon Kakashi put me down!!”
He shook his head in a negation, “Not until you calm down. He may be an idiot and he probably deserves whatever you want to do to him, but…” he trailed off looking for a valid reason for her not to beat the letch senseless.
She kept struggling, though her heart had gone out of it as her temper finally started to burn itself out and she realized that she was probably over reacting.
“Remember Sakura, whatever you do to him you’re just going to have to heal afterward… Kind of takes the satisfaction out of injuring him in the first place doesn’t it?”
She paused in her struggles and heaved a large sigh before ceasing her movements entirely, her temper completely subsided. “Damnit Kakashi, why’d you have to go and take the fun out of it?”
He chuckled, sensing that Genma was probably safe for the time being from her avenging fists. “Just pointing out something you may have missed in your blind rage.”
She sighed again loudly and relaxed entirely in defeat. “Fine, you win… though it seems horribly unfair. He needs some sort of punishment for what he did... Certainly don’t want to encourage him to try it again.”
He chuckled. “I think I have just the thing for him – we’ve just found our judge for this challenge.”
“Ah! Good, so does that mean we can get this show on the road then?” she asked hopefully; the sooner they started the sooner it would end and she could get started with enjoying whatever was left of her day off – preferably somewhere far, far away from the foolish men.
Genma looked from the silver haired man to the woman still hanging over Kakashi’s shoulder to the green clad younger man still shooting him suspicious dark looks every once in a while. “Judge? Challenge?” he asked, his interest piqued in spite of himself.
~*~*~*~
“Ugh, Kakashi…” Sakura whined quietly in his ear. “I’m bored.” She was sprawled, as usual, on his back as he was doing his pushups for the competition. Both Lee and Guy had objected strenuously when she had casually slid onto Kakashi’s back just before the challenge started, but had to accept it as fair tactic since Kakashi had ensured the terms he had agreed to would allow for him to do all the work – on the off chance that he actually did decide to show up for the challenge, of course.
He grunted unsympathetically as he continued to push himself up and lower himself down, beginning to think he may have miscalculated his eternal rival’s ability to stay in synch with his miniature clone.
“I’m a little busy now, Sakura. I’m sure you can find something to do to amuse yourself.”
She huffed, missing the faint strangled noise he made at her exhalation of breath in his ear, and shifted herself once again, noting from the corner of her eye that both the judge for the stupid competition and their younger competitor were watching her with similar looks though very different thoughts on their minds. Inwardly she smiled as an idea occurred to her as to how she could hurry the challenge along – one way or another, one of the two men would crack and put an end to it.
She rearranged herself once again, propping herself up on her elbows – allowing the neckline of her shirt to gape open just enough to seemingly inadvertently reveal a glimpse of her chest down to her lacy bra—thankfully, she had decided to wear one of her frivolous sets of undergarments. Once she was sure both men had taken a look, she turned her attention to the silver haired man’s neck and shoulders, lightly running her hands over them as though admiring and enjoying watching them flex and move under her, all the while taking great pains to not actually interfere with his pushups. Truly, she didn’t have a lot of pretending to do, as she actually did enjoy watching his muscles expand and contract under the thin material of his undershirt, but it was something she would never allow herself to admit, let alone act on.
After a minute or so she decided her audience was well and truly interested in her actions and set her plan into action. “Hmm, Kakashi, you’re so stiff,” she murmured, though loud enough for the others to hear. She didn’t wait for his reaction, as she wasn’t sure if he would play along with her or not, though she did feel him slow his pace a little and his body tense at her words. “You should have told me. I’ve been trained to help alleviate this sort of tension you know.” Almost imperceptibly she felt Kakashi slowly increase his pace until he was moving slightly faster than he had originally been moving, his body even more tense than before.
From the corner of her eye she watched Lee’s face turn an interesting shade of white, quickly replaced by an even more interesting shade of red. The other member of her select audience seemed to have a better handle on himself. Though, the senbon wielding man wasn’t able to prevent the look of momentary raw envy that flashed across his face. Kunoichi rarely offered up their services, whatever they may be, outside of mission or life and death situations without some sort of prompting or an offer of compensation. Unless, of course, they were in some sort of relationship, be it friendship or more. Regardless, the shaggy brown haired man was faintly surprised to see that his silver haired friend fell into any such a category with his former student.
Grinning to herself, she continued to bait the two men, doing her best to ignore Kakashi’s slight, but still perceivable reactions. “One of my specialties really, and I’ve been told I’m quite good.” Casually she slid her hands across his shoulders and down onto his arms, as far as she could, brushing her chest against his shoulders. “You of all people should know that sensei,” she breathed right in his ear, though again loudly enough to be overheard, before slowly dragging her hands back up to rest at the juncture of his neck and shoulders.
She fought hard to contain her mirth at the reactions she was garnering from Genma and Lee, though she momentarily felt a little guilty for springing her little impromptu act on Kakashi, since she could sense that he was having a little trouble with her actions. However, she didn’t think he would be too annoyed with her if she could bring a quicker end to the seemingly endless rounds of pushups. Besides, she rationalized to herself, the man read porn in public without so much as a faint blush. To her mind what she was doing to him was fairly minor in comparison and his reactions, such as they were, were really quite insignificant and probably stemmed more from disapproval of her using such dishonorable tactics than anything else.
After a moment’s hesitation in anticipation of a reaction from her audience, she decided she would have to go a little further to goad someone into cracking and ending the ridiculous challenge. “Once you finish up here we’ll have a nice picnic lunch and then I’ll work all the tension and stiffness out.” She cocked her head a little as if only just noticing that she had an audience. Her eyes took in the expression of jealousy mixed with envy and a little disbelief on Genma’s face and she smiled sweetly at him. “You’re welcome to watch if you’d like, Genma.” Inwardly she smirked as his face paled a couple shade, though she pretended not to notice and continued, “and if you’re all stiff and knotted up too, I suppose I might do you next.”
She studied the shaggy brown haired man for a moment or two and he made no move to answer her offer. Inwardly she grinned, she had stunned the infamous letch into silence, which would suit her just fine for the time being.
Her eyes slid on to Lee and she had a very difficult time keeping a straight face. The younger bushy browed man’s face was almost purple and his eyes were burning with what she could only guess was righteous anger. A small part of her hated herself for what she was going to do next. The poor man really didn’t deserve it, but she was desperate to end the challenge and an even smaller part of her really hoped that maybe Lee would take the hint and give up pursuing her. Deep down she knew he was a nice guy and that he meant well; he just wasn’t the right guy for her. She opened her mouth to address Lee only to be preempted by his mentor.
“Enough! I can take no more. I must regretfully concede to my honored rival.” Guy ceased his pushups and pulled himself to his feet. He had been watching Lee’s reactions to Sakura’s teasing, and could allow it to go no further. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, he knew Sakura would never be interested in Lee. An optimistic streak in him couldn’t help but hope – though after her little display, all hopes, however faint they may have been, were gone.
Startled eyes found their way to the green spandex sporting man but he just shrugged and reached down to give his surprised former student a hand to help him up.
Genma was the first to find his voice. “Eh? That’s it? Contest over?”
Sheepishly Guy smiled at the still silent shinobi. “Yes, I concede to Kakashi. But I will vow to work harder and honorably win the next one!” He smiled widely at them and turned to leave. “Come on, Lee, we still have the rest of our daily training to finish before sundown.”
“Well then I guess that settles it – Kakashi wins the challenge.” The still somewhat bewildered shaggy brown haired man announced feeling a belated sense of reprieve that the ridiculous contest was finally over.
With a sigh of relief, Kakashi ceased his pushups, allowing Sakura to slide from her position on his back, before rising slowly stretching his now cramping limbs.
“But… but… Guy-sensei…” Lee glanced from his former sensei to Kakashi and Sakura and back, obviously distraught at losing the challenge. “The forfeit…”
“No buts, Lee, we must finish what we’ve started and we’ve already burned a lot of daylight today, can’t allow Kakashi to get the best of me again now can I?” He paused before exiting the clearing to turn back to the still faintly stunned shinobi. “I’m sure I will see everyone at the pub, and in honor of my esteemed rival’s win, first round of drinks on me! I will win the next challenge!” Guy struck one of his signature poses with his arm extended and thumb up before turning to exit the clearing.
Lee started toward the edge of the clearing, appearing to be absolutely miserable though still determined to move on, and quietly waved before seemingly pulling himself together. “Sakura! I vow to work harder and in three months time I will prove to you that I am the man you should chose over Kakashi…” he paused and shot a dark glance at the senbon wielding man, “or Genma!”
“Wait Lee!” Sakura cried as she took a couple steps toward the portion of the clearing where Lee had disappeared, feeling a little panicked at the thought that her long time suitor had misunderstood her actions. “That’s not…” she trailed off as she realized that he was gone. “Shit,” she muttered as she sat down rather heavily under a nicely shaded tree with a slightly dazed expression on her face. Though it had worked, it had also backfired in a rather unanticipated way. “Well that was unexpected.” She frowned in thought, wondering what sort of a mistake she may have just made allowing Lee to think she was actually interested in either of the two jonin still remaining in the clearing.
Genma shot her a calculating look, noting her preoccupied state, before deciding a little bit of teasing might be safe. “And here I thought I would be the one to crack first…”
“Oh shut up Genma, I’m trying to think…”
He laughed, “Over did it a little, did you?”
The pink haired woman glared at the shaggy brown haired and decided to ignore his comment, still too preoccupied with the unexpected added result of her ploy to bring a premature end to the challenge. She was annoyed with herself for inadvertently setting Lee on some sort of personal mission to waste the effort further frustrating herself by dealing with the local letch. Instead she focused her attention on her former sensei. “Kakashi?”
“Hmm?” the Copy Ninja responded as he slowly tried to work the kinks from his back, keeping his mind as far away as possible from what she had just been doing to him. He had known that she had meant none of what she had been doing to him, but that didn’t stop a small portion of him from wishing that she had.
She flushed a little. “Um, sorry about that, I didn’t quite intend…”
Hastily the silver haired man interrupted her, not wanting to think about it too closely, he was having a hard enough time with it as it was without her going into the details. “Don’t worry about it Sakura, I know you didn’t. Lee is… er, as you know can be a little more excitable than Guy which can make him on occasion a bit unpredictable…” Part of him wanted to laugh at her predicament, he knew she had meant nothing by what she had been doing, he was her former sensei after all. The fact that Lee had acted as he had, just proved that she had probably over done it a little, that’s all. Though, an ever increasing part of him wished that she had might have been at least a little serious about some of the comments she had made and to his utter disgust he made no attempt to hide it from himself.
Sakura sighed with relief, she hadn’t thought that anyone in the clearing would think her actions to be a serious come on to her former sensei. All she had intended to do was to distract either Lee into slipping out of synch with Guy or Genma into prematurely calling the challenge in their favor. Classic kunoichi skills she seldom was able to use finally put to a good use; at least that was what she had thought of the little scene she had acted out. Shaking her head she tried to clear the troubling thoughts of what Lee would do with his certainty that Sakura had set her eyes romantically on Kakashi or Genma. At the moment there was very little that she could do about it… and there was always the faint hope that Guy, having witnessed Lee’s misunderstanding, might set his former student straight while they trained.
After a moment’s thought she began to wonder. “Kakashi, what did Lee mean when he said…” she turned to watch him for a moment and giggled. “Come here. I’ll finish what I started and fix your back.”
The silver haired man eyed her speculatively; he was having some difficulties regaining his usual sense of strict self control after what she had just done and wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to let her finish the job. Before he could make any sort of a response, Genma promptly plopped himself in front of her, removing his vest and shirt as he did so.
“Genma!” the pink haired woman exclaimed.
“Aw, c’mon Sakura! You promised!” he whined, trying his best to sound mortally offended and completely disappointed.
She crossed her arms across her chest. “I don’t recall making any promises. Though I did mention that maybe after I’d finished with Kakashi, I’d give you a once over.” She shoved at his back with one of her feet. “Now move it!”
Grumbling, the senbon wielding man reluctantly vacated the space directly in front of Sakura. When Kakashi didn’t make a move to take Genma’s place the medic frowned.
“Kakashi, I’m not going to offer again – and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let me fix your back.” She glared at him, waiting for the stubborn man to give in.
“I thought I heard a mention of lunch first?” he asked in a tone bordering on plaintive, trying to buy himself some more time to pull himself together.
She chuckled, honestly feeling a little hungry herself. “I packed a couple lunches before you picked me up this morning. What did you do with my bag?”
“Is that what’s in here then?” Genma asked lifting Sakura’s bag. Not waiting for a response he pulled out two boxes. “These look good…” he smiled charmingly at her, blatantly trying to get himself a share of some of the food.
“Ah, yes those are them, can you give them to Kakashi please?” she sweetly returned his smile, not giving in to his obvious hint.
Grumbling, he reluctantly handed the boxes to Kakashi, who raised an eyebrow at her over the fact that she had made two.
She flushed faintly, “I guess I rather suspected that I wouldn’t be eating lunch alone today…” She shook her head, remembering what she had originally asked the silver haired man to do. “Okay, now you have your lunch. Sit.” She pointed at the grass in front of her expectantly.
After a few long moments the man in question sighed loudly, pulled off his undershirt, keeping his mask in place and moved to sit in front of the expectant kunoichi, handing her one of the boxes as he did so. Without hesitation she started working on his back to remove the knots she had genuinely felt while teasing Genma and Lee. As she moved her hands, concentrating a little to combine actual healing with the massage, her mind wandered for a moment before returning to what she had started to ask Kakashi earlier.
Genma watched the two with obvious envy, though also with some hope that there may be leftovers and that Sakura would make good on her offer and work on him next.
“Kakashi?” she asked again, wondering if he had pulled one of his little novels from somewhere to help pass the time as she could tell he wasn’t eating.
“Mmmm?” he vocalized. His lunch lay unopened and forgotten on his lap. He was having a hard time concentrating on anything with her hands once again expertly moving across his shoulders and back – especially after the little act she had just put on for Lee and Genma’s benefit. It had taken everything he had not to react more than he had and now that she had started again he was finding himself once again on the same dangerously slippery slope in an even more precarious position than before since her movements were no longer restricted by his pushups or the thin material of his shirt.
“What was the forfeit Lee was asking Guy about? He seemed really upset, what on earth could you possibly be making Guy do?”
Hastily pulling himself as together as possible he tried to evade the question, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer. “Oh, it’s nothing really… nothing to worry about anyway.” The silver haired man, who had been well on his way to becoming completely relaxed, tensed almost imperceptibly under her hands.
Genma laughed, unable to contain himself. Guy had confided in him and Lee while explaining the rules and the shaggy brown haired man had had a hard time believing that Sakura had actually agreed to the forfeit. Now he knew that she hadn’t known a thing about it. “It’s most certainly not nothing! Poor Lee has to say away from you for the next three months!”
Surprised she turned her attention from Kakashi to the older man, “What? Really?”
“Oh yes… but if you guys had lost…” he trailed off upon taking note of a dark glare and waves of pure malice coming from the Copy Ninja. Hastily he backed up a couple steps and shook his head. “Never mind. The important thing is that you guys won, right? Um, I think I’ll be going… I seem to have forgotten about… something I should be doing on the other side of the village now…”
Feeling faintly startled at the lecherous man’s uncharacteristic flight she sat in silence for a moment, her hands still resting on Kakashi’s shoulders. “Kakashi, what was the forfeit if you lost?” her voice was deceptively sweet as she could already tell that she wouldn’t like whatever it was Kakashi had wagered on their behalf. While she was waiting for his answer she pushed his shoulders forward a bit rougher than necessary, signaling to him that she wanted him to lie down on his stomach so she could continue her ministrations. Automatically he complied and she shifted herself into a kneeling position next to him to continue with the healing massage, albeit a little rougher than necessary.
“It was nothing Sakura, really. Genma was right, all that really matters is that I didn’t lose and, to be quite honest, I had no intention of losing.” He grunted as she started working a bit more vigorously than strictly necessary on a particularly stubborn knot. Thinking fast he tried to divert her attention. “I believe I owe you dinner, somewhere ‘nice’ as you have put it? Did you have a particular place in mind?” he asked with hopes of getting her to forget about the challenge and forfeit.
Her hands paused, momentarily distracted as she hadn’t really expected him to make good on her earlier demand. “Eh… No, I didn’t have anywhere in mind, though I would like to go to a restaurant where reservations are mandatory and standard issue shinobi gear is against the dress code…” she paused again in thought. “Do you even have clothes that aren’t standard issue or clearly that of some sort of warrior for hire?”
He chuckled. “Despite what you may believe about my wardrobe, it’s more than adequate for any social situation.”
Sakura’s hands started moving normally again. “Oh really? I must admit that I’ll believe it when I see it…” She continued on for a couple minutes, soothing out some of the nastier kinks, though finding herself in need of better leverage. Cautiously she moved into a kneeling position straddling his lower back to gain the leverage she wanted.
“You’ll just have to wait and see then. I’ve mission immunity until midnight tomorrow, all those recent back to backs I did, so it’s either tomorrow night or…” he trailed off realizing that her knees were pressing against either side of his back.
She laughed and hit his head lightly. “Or nothing right?”
He grunted as her hands started moving again and hit a particularly painful area, grateful for the distraction, and managed to pull his mind back to their conversation. “Take it or leave it Sakura.”
“I’ll take it!” she exclaimed with a smile. “If reservations are involved you’ll actually have to be on time, and that’s definitely something I can’t miss!”
Unable to help himself he chuckled. “I’ll make the reservation for eight then and meet you at your place at half past seven.”
She continued to work on him in silence for a couple minutes, concentrating entirely on fixing his back. All thoughts of asking Kakashi about the forfeit were gone at the prospect of not only getting the famously frugal Copy Ninja to buy her an expensive dinner, in civilian clothing no less, but also at the fact that he would be forced to be on time. After a few more moments of thoughtful silence her curiosity got the better of her. “So where are we going?”
“You’ll find out when we get there…” he trailed off with a sigh as her hands finally smoothed the last knot from his shoulders.
She slapped the back of his head again playfully, “That’s no fair! How am I supposed to know what to wear?”
“Hmm, that is a tough one isn’t it?” he made a move to push himself back up into a sitting position only to find that she wasn’t moving from her position pinning him to the ground.
“Kakashi! I’m serious I need to know!” she almost whined.
Unintentionally his mind went back to Sakura’s birthday party and the gift the lecherous senbon wielding man had given to her. “I’ve been told you can’t go wrong with a little black dress?” he hazarded, partially hoping that she would wear the one Genma had bought for her, regardless of the fact that the shaggy haired jonin had asked her not to.
As she was contemplating the merits of his suggestion her stomach forcefully reminded her that lunch time was long over due. Without another thought she moved back into a more comfortable position under the tree, picking up and opening her lunch. “Okay then, dinner tomorrow at a place of your choosing.”
With an inward sigh of relief he rose and stretched before turning to smile at her. “Thanks Sakura, I feel better than I did when we started.”
She flushed a little. “No problem Kakashi, really anytime.”
“I’ll have to remember that…” He winked, or rather she thought he winked. “See you tomorrow then.” With a wave he took his leave, stealthily snatching the unopened lunch on his way from the clearing. Kakashi had intended on staying to have lunch with her, but figured it would just be asking for trouble. He had thought fast and been able to distract her from asking again about the forfeit he had agreed to on her behalf, lingering with her would only give Sakura more time to remember and try to corner him into answering her questions.
