Chapter Nineteen: Apology
Kakashi sighed in relief as he stepped into the hokage’s office. He had finally returned from his mission with Ino and was looking forward to some time to himself. In an almost unheard of act he dropped his completed mission scroll in the little box labeled ‘In’ on Tsunade's desk before she could start questioning him about the mission, never mind demand a report. Usually she had to have someone chase him down to get his mission report several weeks after it was due.
Surprised, she raised an eyebrow at his unusual action and he shrugged.
“Had a little bit of free time on the way home and figured I’d get the report done early for once, not like it was a complicated one to write.” He smiled at her stunned expression. “Don’t worry. I can assure you that it won’t happen again.”
Shaking her head Tsunade managed a chuckle at the unexpected behavior of the usually fairly predictable man. “I take it you were successful then? Despite the fact that it took you two weeks longer than it should have?”
“Yes. The girl was, as suspected, hiding in a nearby village with her boyfriend and working as a dancer. It was uneventful if nothing else.”
She nodded. “Good.”
He turned to leave, expecting to be dismissed but was halted as she spoke to him again.
“You are uninjured I trust?”
Surprised he turned back to her. “Of course, it was a simple tracking mission.” He studied her expression looking for a hint of why she may have made the inquiry into his health. Even if he was injured, Sakura would take care of it.
“Good, good.” She eyed him for a moment, knowing that he was wondering why she should make a point to ask. With a sigh she gave in, knowing he would find out regardless. “Your medic hasn’t returned yet. So if you had been injured she wouldn’t be making a house call later on today.”
“Oh?” he asked with some hope that she may elaborate. By the way she had phrased it, it sounded as though Tsunade had expected Sakura to have returned already. He waited for a couple moments in hopes that she would elaborate, but when she didn’t he continued. “I see. Well it’s a good thing I’m not in need of her services then.”
~*~*~*~
Without thinking much about it he found himself once again loitering outside the Hokage Tower. This time Kakashi had comfortably situated himself holding up a wall with his ever present orange novel in hand. He was near enough to the entryway to have a complete view of all comings and goings in and out of the tower and, though it didn't seem to be the case, very little escaped his notice. A flash of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention as Genma exited the building.
He hesitated for a moment, undecided as to how he wanted to deal with the senbon wielding man: kill him for telling Sakura about the forfeit or let it go and find out how his recent mission had gone. The decision was taken from his hands when the shaggy brown haired man spotted him and changed direction.
“Kakashi! Didn’t think I’d find you this easily.” Genma grinned at the younger silver haired man. “I just finished reporting to the Hokage and thought I’d stop at the pub for a couple drinks before heading home. You coming?” When Kakashi made no movement to join him Genma realized a little bit of persuasion might be in order. “I may have just finished reporting to Tsunade, but Sakura… and maybe Raido will be in there for a while… As soon as the discussion got technical I kind of glazed over and the hokage kicked me out.” He laughed. “Not much different from the mission I guess.”
With a sigh and a practiced movement Kakashi closed and returned his book to his pouch. Nonchalantly he made his way over to his friend, trying not to make it too obvious that he had been waiting for Sakura and was only joining Genma because he had mentioned that the pink haired medic wasn’t likely to be emerging from the tower any time soon.
The Copy Ninja hated to admit it, but he knew deep down that he had been hanging around Hokage Tower waiting for Sakura to return to the village and it annoyed him to no end. Now that he knew she was back he was more than a little antsy to see her and consequently not particularly willing to give up his post outside the building. The more rational part of him, however, pointed out that he should find out how she took the news of the nature of the forfeit before seeking her out – hence his final decision to join Genma for a couple drinks rather than wait for his former student to finish reporting to the hokage.
Genma chuckled to himself, realizing that his friend must be slipping to have given in without more of a show of nonchalant disinterest. He had to wonder a moment about the slight change in his friend and what it may mean, if anything, before dismissing it as a momentary lapse of judgment on his part. Kakashi was probably hanging around waiting for the first person he knew to wander along and join them at the pub. Sake always tasted better when the bill was passed off or shared. It didn't happen often, but it wasn't unheard of either.
As they sat down in their usual corner booth Kakashi kept his outward show of disinterest intact, though he was intent to know how Genma’s recent mission with his former student had gone. He was also curious to know just how angry she had been when the nature of the forfeit had finally been revealed to her. Shooting his friend a calculating look he wondered if a steady stream of alcohol and a couple subtle questions might loosen the lecherous man’s tongue enough to answer his questions. After all, greater men had fallen to such common and clichéd tactics.
Several bottles of sake, mostly imbibed by Genma, later found the brown haired man pleasantly sloshed and willing to talk.
“Y’know when I tole her 'bout you bet wi'Guy, she didn’t, didn't act like ex'peted…”
Kakashi raised an eyebrow inquiringly, trying hard not to let his genuine interest show. “Oh?”
“Yeah. Was ticked, o’ course, look like was gonna s'plode… But…” he trailed off trying to find the right words and promptly forgot what he was saying.
After a couple moments pause Kakashi decided to prompt the obviously tipsy man. “But then?”
“Oh… She... I dunno went quiet. N' then asked me t’leave 'er 'lone. Threatened ta punch me inta nex week when 'tried t’ignore 'er 'n finish walk'n 'er home.” He shook his head as though dismissing the memory from his mind before visibly cheering up. “She was ’er sexy 'lil self on t’mission though…” Genma frowned. “Hmm, she wouldn’t wear t’outfit I got her... 'n all nurses was wearing 'em too… would 'ave like ta see ’er in it…”
Trying not to react, his curiosity battling with another feeling he didn’t want to name, Kakashi prompted his friend. “Oh?”
He sighed. “Too bad too. She’d ’ave look one nice piece of…” abruptly he stopped, shook his head and looked at Kakashi as if he were only just then realizing what he was saying and more importantly who he was saying it to. Pulling himself together faster than he would have thought possible Genma continued. “Nev'r mind… I know she’s upset wit' you… bett'r watch 'self ’til she get over it…” Quickly he took one last swig of his sake and rose rather unsteadily from his seat. “I gotta go, tanks f''r drinks.” He nodded at Kakashi and set off slowly and carefully in the manner of the intoxicated, trying not to appear to have had too much.
The silver haired jonin remained seated, pondering Genma’s comments about how Sakura had reacted upon learning what he had offered up to Guy in the case that they lost the challenge. She hadn’t reacted at all as he would have expected, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. A small part of him realized that he may have crossed a line without noticing and accidentally taken her presence for granted. If that was the case then he knew he had some making up to do before getting back into her good graces and he wasn’t quite sure how to go about doing it.
~*~*~*~
After waiting a couple days to see what Sakura would do he found himself at a loss: she had done nothing. In fact she hadn’t even attempted to seek him out or contact him in any way shape or form and the suspense was just killing him. Finally he decided to throw himself on the explosive tag so to speak and ‘accidentally’ run into her somewhere fairly public and see what happened. After all, having her explode in his face and then having things go back to normal was far preferable to not seeing her on a fairly regular basis for training, meals and the ever present healing sessions – a fact that almost killed him to admit. He had gone on several short missions, less than a day long and not particularly dangerous for a shinobi of his skill, and to his mounting disappointment she had not appeared upon his return to heal any injuries he may have collected. Granted, because of the nature of the missions he had not garnered anything more serious than a few shallow cuts and a couple bruises, but still she had always come to heal him before, no matter how unlikely injuries would be, and he found her absence disconcerting.
Stealthily he tracked her from her apartment to hokage tower, determined to catch her on her way out. Several hours later he realized to his annoyance that he must have missed her as it was now well past the time she should have reported for her shift at the hospital. Irritated with himself he made his way to her place of work, slipping along side the complex until he came across the portion of the building with her office. Cautiously he sneaked a peek and found that she was indeed there and already working her usual shift.
Once again he settled down to wait with his little orange book keeping him company. After several hours passed, he figured her shift should be ending soon and carefully put his book away. The silver haired man sauntered to the exit he knew Sakura used and readied himself to nonchalantly step into the pink haired kunoichi’s path. After ten minutes he once again pulled out his little orange companion to pass the time. An hour later Kakashi realized he must have somehow missed her and he silently cursed himself as he took off for his apartment, starting to get a little annoyed with the whole situation.
After several more failed attempts to catch Sakura he began to realize that she was actually avoiding him, and not only that but she was using the techniques he had taught her to do it! He cursed his soft spot for the pink haired woman as he knew he had taught her just about every technique he knew to avoid someone looking for her. He had done it out of concern for her safety, not only on the battle field but in every day life with suitors like Lee pursuing her… and having her use those techniques against him felt almost like a betrayal.
Unsure how to proceed he withdrew to his apartment to ponder the situation and rethink his plans. He had thought she would just pound on him for a while to work her anger out of her system and then heal him, allowing things to go back to normal. Unfortunately his plan to get back into her good graces no longer seemed likely to work as he had originally hoped.
~*~*~*~
“So what’s this I hear about you being married to Kakashi?” the blonde woman asked her friend with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
Sakura choked on her tea and spent a couple moments sputtering and trying to regain her breath, much to Ino's amusement “What? What on earth are you talking about?”
“Well, after you set off on your last mission I went out on one with your former sensei and we had to make a bit of an emergency stop on the way back, right on the border at this quaint little inn.” She nonchalantly took a sip on her tea, wanting to make Sakura squirm as she waited for the information. “Seems the manageress was very upset with Kakashi when we turned up together. Went after him with a broom calling him a cheater and an adulterer…”
Sakura laughed, remembering the little inn she and Kakashi had used as a base of operations while they tried to prevent an epidemic from crossing into the Land of Fire.
Ino shot her a curious glance. She had expected her friend to blush and try to deny it.
“Oh! I remember that place.” She laughed, though blushing a faintly - much to Ino's satisfaction. “The little old lady who ran it was particularly fond of romance novels. Kakashi once mentioned that she thought we were married… I thought he was joking. We were sleeping in a room with two separate beds after all, so I couldn’t imagine what would make her think that we were married…” she trailed off with a shrug.
The blonde kunoichi shot her a dubious glance. “Well one of you must have done something to make her think you were married regardless of the fact that you were sleeping in separate beds…” She sighed. “Though, I honestly cannot imagine anything he might have done to make her think that. It must have been something you did Sakura.”
“I really couldn’t say,” she shook her head. “We didn’t act any differently than we normally do… Well maybe Kakashi was a bit more attentive than usual I suppose…”
Ino stopped toying with her teacake to stare at the pink haired woman. “More attentive than usual?” She quirked an eyebrow, having a hard time thinking of Kakashi acting in such a manner. Granted he had picked her up and carried her once he realized that she was genuinely injured, but that was about the only thing he had done that could be considered to be attentive.
Absently Sakura nodded, too lost in her own thoughts of the silver haired man to really pay much attention to what she was saying. “Carrying me in each evening, making sure I ate and slept… you know the usual sort of things.”
“Um, Sakura… I don’t know about the other kunoichi, but I’ve never had a team leader do any of that for me…”
“Really, Ino, he’s my former sensei. It’s not as though he did anything he hadn’t done for me before. Besides, it was part of his job during the mission to take care of me because my task during the mission left me in such a state that I was unable to care for myself.”
“I don’t know Sakura, I think he may have gone a little above and beyond. That old woman thought you two were married. Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd?”
The pink haired woman shrugged. “I don’t know. Sure it was the first time anyone has ever made that mistake, but if it made her happy to think that, and according to Kakashi it did, I don’t see why he would go out of his way to correct her… After all it was the only hotel anywhere near where we needed to be. If she took it into her head to throw us out we would be in some serious trouble.”
“It’s not that… it’s just…” she sighed, trying to put something into words that she didn’t quite think was possible. For some reason she couldn’t quite rectify the man Sakura had just described with the one she had just been on a mission with. “Never mind.”
Sakura glanced at her inquisitively, wondering what Ino may have been trying to tell her, but dismissed it as her mind strayed back to Kakashi and the fact that she was currently working very hard to avoid him.
They sat in silence for a few moments before the pink haired woman perked up.
“Oh! If you stayed at that inn you must have seen the old woman’s needlework?”
Ino’s eyes widened at the memory. “Oh yes! Absolutely stunning! What I wouldn’t give for one of her yukata or even one of those beautiful dressing gowns…” she trailed off remembering the lush fabrics intricately embroidered by the elderly hotel manageress and the size of the price tags attached to the beautiful articles of clothing. One could easily guess how the woman’s eyesight had begun to fail her, working for hours on end with needle and thread creating such beautiful and complicated patterns and designs.
Sakura sighed at the memory of the gorgeous fabrics and elaborate embroidery. “She was working on a lovely pale pink piece with silver embroidered birds in flight extending from the hem of the dressing robe, around the back and up over the shoulder when we were there… Did she finally finish it?”
The blonde woman sighed. “Oh yes, that was one of the first pieces she showed me, absolutely stunning. What I wouldn’t give…” she interrupted herself to giggle. “The old woman was very persistent with Kakashi over that one. Kept trying to get him to purchase it for his lovely young wife…”
Sakura flushed and chose not to say anything.
After a couple moments of expectant silence Ino realized that Sakura wasn’t going to bite and decided to change the direction of their conversation, though not the subject. “Speaking of your former sensei, have you seen him since you returned?” She asked idly toying with her cake once again.
“N-no!” Sakura exclaimed a little louder than necessary. “Er, that is no I haven’t run across him yet…”
“Really?” The blue eyed woman asked with some surprise. She had figured that Kakashi would have sought Sakura out straight away once the pink haired woman returned, especially with the way he had been acting during the course of their mission. “Something happen?”
“I don’t know. I guess you could say I’m a little upset with him right now.”
“What?” Ino’s eyes widened in even more surprise. She would never have guessed that there would be something amiss between the former teammates. “What on earth happened?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“C’mon Sakura, you know you’ll probably feel better after talking about it…”
“I’m not really sure…”
“Whatever it is I’m sure it’s not all that bad. You’re probably over reacting to something and are too close to see how unimportant whatever it was really is in the grand scheme of things…”
Sakura sighed irritably. “He put me up as the forfeit for one of his stupid challenges with Guy.”
“Oh… um, come again?” Ino asked, trying to picture Kakashi actually betting Sakura on something.
The pink haired woman shook her head. “He put me up as the forfeit for one of those ridiculous contests Guy is always challenging him to… If he had lost I would have had to take an upcoming three month long undercover mission posing as Lee’s wife and attend the formal medic’s banquet with him after we’d returned…”
“Well seeing as how you’re here and Lee left a couple weeks ago, I’m guessing that Kakashi won?”
Sakura waved her hand dismissively. “Of course he won.”
The blue eyed woman laughed. “If it was such a foregone conclusion, then what’s the problem?”
“The problem? He bet me like some cheap bauble of his! It doesn’t matter that he had no indentions of losing, he still offered me up as some sort of prize!” She sighed, feeling more hurt that she had realized and definitely more so than she wanted to admit to herself, never mind anyone else. “I thought he was better than that, or at the very least thought more of me than that…”
“So you’re... What?" Ino waited expectantly for Sakura to fill in the blank, unable to figure what was going on inside the pink haired medic's head.
“I'm well I suppose, that is I guess... I'm disappointed in him…" Sakura paused for a minute as though really thinking about it for the first time. With a frown she continued, her mind now working on other issues she would really rather not be thinking about. "Of all the people I would expect to try and take advantage of my friendship, I would never have thought to include Kakashi in that particular category. I thought better of him than that…”
“Well you did mention that he had no intention of losing…” Ino tried sounding only a little unsure of her comments. “Seems like all he’s guilty of might be an over abundance of confidence in his own abilities… which may or may not be justified depending on the nature of the challenge.” She eyed Sakura who, though listening, seemed too preoccupied to really take in what she was saying. “What did Guy put up as his forfeit?”
“Lee has to stay away from me for three months, not including the three months he will be away on that undercover mission.”
“Well that seems more than fair…”
“That’s not the point! I thought I, er, our friendship, meant more to him than that! More than something he could just gamble away on one of Guy’s stupid challenges!”
“Oh, I see…” Ino finally started to see the real problem; Sakura was much more hurt and upset than angry, but was obviously fighting herself over admitting it.
The pink haired woman sighed. “He’s no better than the rest of them.” Even as she said it she knew it wasn’t true. She just didn’t know what to do about the fact that his actions had hurt her much more than they should have, leading her to wonder about a few things she had been trying very hard to ignore.
~*~*~*~
After some serious thought and a couple additional failed attempts to corner the pink haired medic Kakashi decided that more roundabout tactics were necessary, though he couldn’t quite figure what. Absently he roamed his apartment looking for inspiration, pausing when his eyes landed on Sakura’s dream guardian. Gingerly he picked up the little plushie as he pondered the possibilities. Finally an idea hit and he was fairly certain that it would be the perfect way to gauge what Sakura was feeling without actually getting into the direct line of fire.
Carefully he staked out her apartment; fairly certain she wouldn’t be home but would be arriving shortly. Upon verifying that she wasn’t home he hastily slipped into her bedroom and left her dream guardian, a note and a box of candies he knew she was fond of on her bed. Quickly and quietly he took himself out of her room and onto the roof of a nearby building – a vantage point from which he could watch her reaction without being seen.
He waited impatiently for her to return; according to her usual schedule she should be home any minute and the suspense was killing him. For some reason her strange behavior was bothering him much more than he thought it should. He shouldn’t mind all that much that she had stopped socializing with him. The fact that she was avoiding him he could understand, but the fact that he actually seemed to miss her troubled him.
Several moments later his wait was finally brought to an end as a light flicked on and Sakura entered her bedroom, pulling extraneous articles of clothing from herself as she did so. Part of the way across her room she froze with her hands reaching for the ties of her wraparound skirt as her eyes lit upon her wayward dream guardian.
Immediately she glanced around the room, looking for an intruder before taking a quick look outside for the possible perpetrator. Upon finding no one she cautiously approached her bed and the stray plushie. Almost hesitantly she reached out for it, not quite expecting it to be real. Finding that it was she happily snatched the little plush doll from her bed to give it a quick hug before plopping down on her bed to read the brief note, the dream guardian still held tightly in her arms.
Sakura,
Missed you and thought I should come home. Sorry for causing you trouble.
Yours,
Kakashi
PS – heard you liked cinnamon spice chocolate truffles and brought some back for you… hope they’re enough to win your forgiveness…
Absently Sakura read the note a second time as she opened the box of truffles and popped one in her mouth. After rereading the note she was no closer to discerning just who had been holding her dream guardian hostage or more importantly why, but instead of dwelling on it she turned her attention to the plush itself.
Deep in thought she studied the little doll, running her fingers over some of the finer details as though checking to make sure it really was hers. He watched, feeling like some sort of strange voyeur as she examined the small representation of him, but by watching her he was able to better gauge her feelings. Going by how gently and carefully she was handling the doll he figured she wasn’t really all that angry with him.
Now if she had shredded the small likeness of him or pounded it into the ground he would have had more to be concerned about. Feeling as though he had seen enough he silently took his leave. Taking one last look he noted that she had pushed one of 'his' sleeves up and was absently tracing the little ANBU tattoo he hadn’t realized she had reproduced on the doll. He sighed. It would be a fairly difficult task ahead making his amends, but after seeing her react to the return of her dream guardian he was sure it could have been a lot worse. She could have been furious, but instead she was something else. With some thought he realized that his unthinking actions must have upset and hurt rather than angered her and she was now avoiding him because of it.
~*~*~*~
With some relief Sakura entered the hospital knowing that for once Kakashi hadn’t been following and trying to intercept her. As she passed the front desk she noticed the same over-cheerfulness of the staff that only meant one thing. Doing her best not to hurry her footsteps she continued on to her office, knowing that he had already been there.
When she finally came to a halt at her door she took a deep breath before entering, half expecting to find him there waiting for her. Finding that her office was empty she cautiously made her way to her desk to find a plain yet still lovely vase standing – empty – in the middle of her desk. Curiously she picked it up to discover that someone had put water into it, but had apparently neglected to add flowers. Setting it back down she looked for the usual accompanying note, feeling puzzled upon not finding one. For a troubling moment she wondered if someone had actually beaten her to both the flowers and usual scrap of paper before pushing the worrisome idea from her mind.
Even without the actual flowers or the likely accompanying message she knew that it was the thought that counted… and he had at least made an attempt to apologize to her, which she had to admit, grudgingly, was more than what she had done to try and rectify the situation.
With a slight frown she sat down to start her morning’s paperwork. It was a strange gesture to give her the vase without flowers as an apology – usually it worked the other way around. After spending what she felt was much too long wondering about it she took a firm grasp of herself and pushed it completely from her mind. She pulled several folders from her desk and decided that it was about time she started her rounds.
Her first patient was a tough case: he had been in the hospital since she had returned from her last mission and was likely to stay several more weeks. The old man was very slowly recuperating after major reconstructive surgery – the poor civilian had been caught by a stray explosive tag while taking a shortcut across one of the chunin training grounds. The room was dark when she entered and Mr. Fuwa was obviously resting. Since his folder noted that he had not been sleeping well lately she chose not to wake him.
Quietly she checked everything she needed to and took a couple steps toward the door before realizing that there were three wild flowers on his bedside table. Feeling puzzled, she could have sworn that they hadn’t been there when she had entered, Sakura picked them up to discover a small scrap of paper folded into the petals of a large variety of daisy. With an inward groan she freed the paper from the petals to find a sad face with a slash through its left eye.
Hurriedly she returned to her office to put the flowers in some water. Upon placing the flowers in the vase he had left her she happened to glance at the seat of her chair and found another flower, and this time she was positive it hadn’t been there earlier. Unsure how she felt about this new development she placed the fourth flower, left without a scrap of paper, in the vase with the other three and once again exited her office to check on her next case.
Her second patient also happened to be asleep and like her first she found a couple flowers in the room on her way out – flowers that hadn’t been there when she had entered. If not for the fact that she knew Kakashi was the one doing it she might have been seriously creeped out. Once again she returned to her office to add the flowers to the vase. Finding another one on her desk next to the vase she began to suspect how her day might go. It was only a matter of time before the staff realized what was happening and from there it was highly likely someone would discover Kakashi and as upset as she was with him she wasn’t sure she wanted everyone to find out that he was doing it.
The third patient she visited, unlike the first two, was awake and she had to wonder if Kakashi would make his drop off again with a possible witness in the room. As she was excusing herself, having come to the conclusion that he had decided not to try it, she noticed a flower in the bin attached to the door usually used for patient files. With a sigh she took it and returned to her office figuring that it was going to be one long shift, though a small part of her was inwardly pleased and more than a little flattered at the time and effort he was putting into his reconciliation.
By the end of the day she was more than ready to leave the hospital and the entourage of curious hospital staff she seemed to have gathered during the course of the day. The flowers had appeared wherever she went and when Sakura had finished her shift she had quite a large bouquet of wildflowers on her desk and the entire hospital talking about it. Amazingly enough Kakashi had managed to pull the entire stunt off without anyone the wiser as to Sakura’s secret admirer’s true identity. Once again she had to admit that she was impressed despite herself at her former sensei’s skill, though considering how high of a regard she had always held him and his shinobi skills, she really shouldn’t have been.
Silently she still felt the need to berate Kakashi for his over the top apology. Before people had been extremely curious about her secret admirer but had for the most part absolutely no idea who he could be. Now the silver haired man’s most recent stunt proved that her secret admirer was not only a shinobi, but a highly skilled one, narrowing the pool of candidates quite considerably. Regardless she had to admit that it was quite a remarkable feat, and she couldn’t quite help being awed and a little pleased that he had actually pulled it off for her entire shift.
When she finally reached her apartment, ignoring the stares and whispers she collected from the villagers who had heard of her floral filled day, she was partially afraid to enter for fear of what she would find. As she lingered outside her door Sakura heard the distinctive tread of her landlord and hastily entered the apartment, closing her door as silently as possible so as to completely avoid the off-putting man.
Feeling a little paranoid she quickly scanned her living room and kitchen. Finding nothing she moved on down the hall to her bathroom and finally her bedroom. Almost immediately upon entering her room she noticed the tissue paper wrapped packet with three more flowers she couldn’t name – if not for Ino she certainly would have failed the flower arranging class all kunoichi were forced to take – tucked into the paper lying on the edge of her bed. Hesitantly she approached, knowing he had to be around somewhere watching for her reaction, but not sure just where. When she couldn’t take the suspense any longer she picked up the packet, expecting to find a note. Upon finding none she carefully removed the flowers from the parcel before pulling the paper away.
Sakura gasped as the tissue slid from her hands. She was holding the pale pink and silver embroidered dressing gown the hotel manageress had been working on and she had so openly admired. As she was examining the gorgeous article of clothing a small scrap of paper slipped from the folds of the robe. Curiously she stooped to pick it up, noting another sad face with a slash through it’s left eye on one side and one simple word on the other: Sorry.
It was just plain too much. Tearing her eyes from the bit of paper and the beautiful robe she made her way to her balcony to try and locate the silver haired perpetrator. Carefully she examined her surroundings, looking for even just a glimpse of Kakashi, a bit of silver or maybe orange to give his presence away. Upon finding nothing she opened her mouth to call for him, unsure how else to get his attention.
Before she could put voice to her thoughts he materialized behind her and quickly pulled her back into her apartment, away from the prying eyes in the neighborhood and on the street below.
As soon as he stopped moving and released her Sakura backed away from him, abruptly feeling angry. “You.” From out of nowhere she hit him hard, hard enough to very painfully, but cleanly, shatter his jaw as only a medic nin could. Feeling surprised at her reaction, having acted without thought, she pulled her hand away from the air directly in front of him quickly, already regretting her action but not wanting to let on to him quite yet.
“Hwat wus tha’ frr?” he mumbled as best he could with some surprise, having figured that his apology had been more than enough to place him back in her good graces.
Unable to help herself, she narrowed her eyes and he fought the urge to duck even though he knew she would lash out at him again.
“That’s for trying to buy your way out of trouble!” Despite her regret for shattering his jaw, Sakura smacked him again, though with significantly less force than before and carefully aiming for his shoulder.
He raised an eyebrow in askance, truly bewildered as to her reaction and hoping that she would hurry up and heal the painful damage she had done to him; he was starting to feel a bit queasy from the multiple bone breaks.
“And that’s for the fact that it worked, damn it!” She huffed and crossed her arms across her chest, waiting for a reaction from her former sensei.
Startled, he laughed weakly despite the pain and nausea, suddenly feeling much better about the situation regardless of the fact that she had yet to make any movement to heal the throbbing injuries she had done to him.
She forced herself to glare at him, not particularly amused that his ploy to buy her forgiveness had actually worked, but knowing that she needed to make an impression on him to the effect that buying his way out of trouble was not an option. “Don’t do it again.”
Unable to speak due to the now gross swelling around his jaw Kakashi settled for nodding his agreement.
Sakura’s gaze softened at his acquiescence and she sighed. “Okay, okay c’mere and sit.” She gestured to the edge of her bed.
With only a fraction of a moment’s hesitation he complied. As soon as he seated himself comfortably she stepped closer to fix the damage she had done. Sakura reached out to his shattered jaw but paused uncertainly. It was one nasty bit of damage, as it should be. Even in her rage she had calculated the impact for maximum and yet still clean, easily repaired injury. Now as she was about to start the healing process the presence of his mask brought her up short for a moment. It had never presented itself as a problem to anything other than her own curiosity before, but now…
He correctly read the reasons for her indecision and without much thought reached up to snag the edge of his mask. Before he could pull the ever present article of clothing down her hand covered his preventing the action. Surprised he shifted his gaze to meet her eyes for an answer, knowing that she had been dying to catch a glimpse of his face for years. He couldn’t imagine what would cause her to prevent him from removing his mask willingly for a legitimate reason.
Sakura flushed a little at his surprised and inquisitive glance. “No… Leave it. It’s fine.” She smiled as she gently disentangled his fingers from his mask, removed his hand from his face, and lowered it back to his lap. As much as she wanted to see his face she didn’t want to see it under such circumstances – it seemed like cheating…and there was also the fact that she wasn’t sure she could handle cradling his cheek directly rather than through the thin fabric of his mask just then.
Silently she had to curse Ino for opening the door she had always kept tightly closed as a smaller part of herself couldn’t help but remember just how attractive the man sitting in front of her was even with the greater portion of his face covered. The color on her cheeks intensified as she fought with herself to keep the inappropriate thoughts of her former sensei at bay and focus on the task at hand, which of course wasn’t helping matters.
Understanding of a sort dawned on him; she didn’t want to see his face for the first time swollen and distended by the injuries she had caused him. He smiled a little despite the pain and squeezed her hand before releasing it so she could heal him.
Gently she raised her hand to his cheek to heal the damage she had done, trying hard not to notice the close proximity the action brought her to the silver haired man. Instead she did her best to concentrate completely on what she was doing, which wasn’t particularly difficult since she had done almost too good of a job in shattering his jaw and even though she had done it cleanly, the task still required her full attention.
Quickly he felt himself lulled into a comfortable and relaxed state as she worked on healing him and he was almost disappointed when she stopped.
“Thank you,” she murmured as she finished repairing the damage to his jaw and withdrew both her hand and herself from him.
Kakashi reached up to experimentally shift his jaw around, finding it in full working order he smiled. “It was a big mistake so I figured I needed a big apology.”
The medic blushed, feeling a bit awkward. “The flowers alone…”
He chuckled, amused at how flustered she had become over his latest gift and display. “Were not enough to get my point across… And I will admit it was a good test of some of my lesser used skills.” He shrugged, hoping she would let it drop. As much as it pleased him that she clearly appreciated his apology it also embarrassed him a little that he had gone so far in trying to win his way back into her good graces.
She noticed an odd note to the tone of his voice and caught his eye. “Really Kakashi, it’s too much. I don’t…”
“Yes you do.” He interrupted before she could finish. Quickly he rose from her bed and tousled her hair affectionately before moving back toward her balcony. “And you’re welcome.” Nimbly he hopped onto the railing of the balcony and then off to a nearby roof and was gone before she could protest or try to return the beautiful robe.
