Chapter Twenty: Exchanges
“Ms. Haruno?” A hesitant voice disturbed Sakura’s concentration as she was studying a particularly complicated scroll. Unfortunately, since she was sitting on one of the benches outside the hospital, she was considered to be fair game for interruptions regardless of what she may be doing.
“Hmm?” The pink haired kunoichi didn’t glance up to look at the young medic in training for fear of losing her place in the dense text.
“I was wondering…” Mine continued, still uncertain that she wanted to ask about that particular something she had been thinking about for a while. A small part of her knew that she really shouldn't, as it wasn't any of her business, but her curiousity was killing her and she finally found herself just having to ask.
“Yes?” Sakura asked again, impatiently, feeling a little irritated at the intrusion.
“Well… I was wondering… About the night I saw you at the restaurant?”
“What about it?” Sakura’s wariness increased as the blonde broached the subject she had hoped would be left alone.
“Um… about the man you were with?” Mine paused, still a little unsure of herself.
Trying to keep the caginess from her voice, Sakura turned to her. “Hmm, what about him?”
“My dad said some things about him, I was wondering if they were true…”
She smiled though she wasn’t particularly feeling it. “Well I suppose that all depends on what your father said about him.”
“Daddy said that Mr. Hatake is a jonin and became one when he was my age... That just can’t be right! Never mind the fact that he says Mr. Hatake is younger than he is. Daddy's hair is still brown and Mr. Hatake’s hair is all gray. He just has to be older than my dad! I mean he was your sensei, that has to make him old doesn't it?”
Sakura chuckled to herself, breathing a sigh of relief as she had feared that the rather inquisitive girl would be asking much more personal questions, and trying not to be offended at Mine's indirect comment on her own age. “Kakashi, er Mr. Hatake is younger than your father… by several years if I’m remembering correctly.”
Realizing that the older woman was in a position to know the truth she grasped at straws. “But he has gray hair!”
Sakura smiled. “I think it has always been gray, though if you asked him he may try to blame it on our team from when I was younger.”
Mine frowned and contemplated someone having been born with gray hair. It seemed to be just plain unnatural - though, as she thought about it rumor had it that Sakura's hair was naturally pink. “Oh… but he still couldn’t have become a jonin at my age! That’s just plain impossible, no one can do that.”
The pink haired medic laughed at the girl’s disbelief, she had felt the same way upon meeting Kakashi for the first time. Her doubts of his abilities had lasted right up until that first real fight against Zabuza, and any lingering questions had been undeniably cleared when had rescued her the first time she had been kidnapped.
The younger medic shot her an inquiring look and Sakura smiled. “I would never have believed that if you had told me the same thing right after I met him too. But it is true. He’s very good at what he does.” She sighed. “And, as much as I hate to admit it, I was lucky to have him as my genin sensei.”
“I don’t know…” Mine hesitated, clearly unconvinced.
Sakura laughed. “Believe what you like, but it won’t change the fact that he’s one of the best shinobi in this village.”
The younger girl’s eyes widened considerably. “Really?”
The pink haired woman smiled. “Yes.”
“Oh…” Mine paused in obvious thought. “So that's probably why Daddy said that Mr. Hatake didn’t have to worry about things that other shinobi have to worry about...”
Sakura felt herself flush faintly. “Uh, in a manner of speaking I guess… I suppose it has more to do with the context of the conversation…” She shot the blonde girl a calculating glance and Mine squirmed under Sakura’s gaze, wondering if the older medic might try and duck out of their conversation before it got really interesting. “I suspect the context was why Kakashi wouldn’t, or rather couldn’t be my secret admirer?”
Mine had the grace to blush. “Y-yes…”
“That’s a little bit different."
“How is that?”
“If Kakashi wanted to give something to me he wouldn’t have to do it anonymously, as a secret admirer. He could just give it to me without fear of any repercussions from...” she paused unsure of how she wanted to describe Naruto and Sasuke. While she was contemplating her two former teammates, the two occasionally annoying men appeared, as if summoned, a little further down the street. “Ah,” she gestured at the two men meandering toward them. “Those two.”
The younger girl followed Sakura’s gesture and frowned. “Who are they?” She asked, and without thought or waiting for an answer she continued, “And why aren’t you dating one of them? They're hot!”
Sakura sighed; she could see the hearts forming in the girl’s eyes. She had hoped Mine may have at least heard of Naruto or Sasuke. “Those are my former teammates from when Kakashi, er Mr. Hatake was our genin sensei. They’re… like brothers to me, and pretty close to being the strongest shinobi in this village. They can be a little, um, over protective sometimes.”
“Oh…”
Naruto and Sasuke stopped to greet them.
“Sakura! We’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Hi guys,” she nodded at the two men. “This is Mine, one of the medics in training at the hospital. Mine this,” she gestured to the blonde, “is Naruto Uzumaki and this is Sasuke Uchiha," she finished, gesturing to the dark-haired man. “They were my teammates before I decided to spend more time working in the hospital.”
Shyly Mine looked up and smiled at the two older shinobi. “Nice to meet you.” Cautiously and without realizing it she shuffled a little closer to Sakura.
Naruto smiled, trying to put the girl more at ease. “Nice to meet you too Mine. So what were you two just talking about? It looked serious!”
Sakura opened her mouth to tell Naruto that they hadn’t really been talking about anything important but unfortunately Mine beat her to the punch.
“We were just talking about Mr. Hatake!” The young girl giggled at the interest she received from the two attractive men at the mention of their former sensei.
“Oh?” Sasuke raised an eyebrow questioningly, unsure how Kakashi could have possibly come up in conversation.
“Yeah, I didn’t think that he was good enough…”
Sakura quickly interrupted the girl. “Mine couldn’t believe that he became a jonin when he was her age, that’s all…”
Naruto laughed. “You’d better believe it! Kakashi is awesome!”
“Really? You’re not just saying that? You know, because he was your teacher and all?” the blonde girl asked, feeling more comfortable with the two men.
“He’s a highly skilled shinobi, probably one of the best in the village.” Sasuke agreed a little more eloquently than Naruto.
“Oh, well I guess that’s all right then,” Mine mumbled mostly to herself to Sakura’s inner horror.
“What’s all right then?” Naruto asked with some curiosity.
Hastily Sakura tried to interrupt. “Really, it’s nothing. Nothing important.” She rose to try and urge her boys away from the far too talkative medic in training. “Weren’t you two looking for me?”
The blonde girl giggled and beckoned the two men closer to her. Naruto gamely complied, and Sasuke with some hesitation. “If Mr. Hatake really is that good of a ninja then I guess it’s alright that he’s Ms. Haruno’s secret admirer…” she whispered conspiratorially, though none too quietly.
Sakura cringed before laughing. After a startled moment Naruto joined her.
“That’s ridiculous! Kakashi?” Naruto started laughing again.
Sasuke took the little girl’s theory a little more seriously. “He could do it you know… but why would he bother?”
Mine shrugged. “I don’t know, Ms. Haruno said he didn’t have to worry about things other men do, like you two!” She pointed at the two men and giggled a little as Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances. “But I still think he’s her secret admirer…”
Sakura, whose face had flushed a deep red, laughed a little nervously as she scolded the younger girl. “Mine! I’ve already told you…”
“I know, I know! You don’t know who it is, but you don’t think that it’s him… and even though you don't think it's him Kotoko and I still think that it is!” She glanced down a little shook her head in annoyance, her eye catching sight of her watch as she did so. "Oh no! I'm late! They're gonna kill me! Gotta go!" Hastily she turned, took a couple steps away and shouted over her shoulder, "Nice meeting you Mr. Uzumaki and Mr. Uchiha!" Before she rushed back into the hospital.
To her immense relief both Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances at the girl’s departure and chuckled. Obviously neither of them took Mine’s allegations seriously.
~*~*~*~
Stealthily Kakashi crept ahead of the bag laden woman he was tracking. It was nearly dinner time and by pure chance he had happened to spot Sakura at a grocery store, obviously making her purchases for dinner. Even if she hadn’t seemed to have gathered all the ingredients for one of his favorite dishes he probably would have ended up following her just the same.
He watched as she paused to stop and speak to one of her neighbors and took the opportunity to casually slip back to ground level and saunter down the street as though he were on his way somewhere other than Sakura’s apartment. As usual the silver haired man’s timing was impeccable – he almost always arrived when he intended to arrive, be it late or… later – and she was just finishing up her conversation.
Quickly he plucked the bags from her surprised hands before she could react and started walking toward the entrance to her apartment, making sure not to suppress the slight limp that had bothering him. Afterall, he did need an excuse other than wanting to mooch dinner to see her after all and he had over extended himself a little more than he should have during his daily training session.
“Kakashi? What?” She turned and intercepted him, stopping the silver haired man before he had taken more than a couple steps.
He smiled. “Thought you looked as though you could use some help.”
“Of course you know I’m a kunoichi and completely capable of carrying my own grocery bags.”
He nodded. “Yes, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”
She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Your turning up here right now wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the fact that it’s nearly dinnertime and you’ve recently discovered that I can cook, would it?”
“No, no, just happened to be passing by.” Cautiously he sidestepped her and once again started toward her apartment building.
She turned again with a little annoyance and paused as she watched him walk. “What have you done to your leg?”
“Oh? Er, nothing. It’s fine.”
“Judging from that limp it is not fine…” She sighed, realizing that he had caught her and she would play right into what he had likely set up to ensure she made dinner for him. “Come on then, I’ll make you dinner and attend to whatever it is that is throwing off your stride.”
He grinned at her and continued on into her building, pleased to have won himself a free homemade meal.
Once they entered her apartment she quickly made her way to her kitchen and started dinner.
“If you want to make yourself useful you could set the table Kakashi,” she called over her shoulder as she begun assembling ingredients.
With a lot of opening of cupboards, getting in Sakura’s way and rummaging around he managed to set her table. Once his task was accomplished he found that he still had enough time to seat himself at her table and pull out his scarlet jacketed book. With a strong feeling of déjà vu he allowed his attention to wander from the smutty pages of the novel to watch Sakura maneuver about her kitchen, making an uncomplicated meal, yet still one of his favorites.
All too quickly for his liking – for some strange reason he was enjoying watching her do something as simple as cook – she finished. Carefully Sakura transported several serving dishes as well as a pitcher of water to the table and gestured for him to serve himself.
“So Kakashi, what were you really doing outside my apartment this evening? That limp didn’t look all that serious…”
“Nothing really, just passing through the neighborhood…” Hastily he took a bite of his fish. “Mmm, this is really good… What did you use to keep it so moist?”
She blinked as she flushed a little, thrown off by his compliment. “I only used the usual ingredients, nothing special really…”
He smiled then paused for a moment, wondering if he would be safe to tweak her nose a little before deciding that he might as well – at the very least it would divert her from asking what he was doing hanging around earlier. “I swear if I had only known you could cook like this before…”
She chuckled and finished his statement. “You would have found nearly endless ways of mooching, I’m sure.”
He chose not to comment, taking another bite of the fish and offering up an “Mmm…” instead.
She watched, chagrined that he had chosen not to remove his mask. Since he had been willing to do so when she had healed his jaw she had been hoping that he might make another offer if she were to get him in the correct situation. The pink haired medic had hoped that if she let him swindle a meal out of her he would have at least had the decency to remove his mask and let her see his face.
As she ate and pondered the quandary of getting him to voluntarily remove the fabric, she was really regretting not allowing him to remove it when he had offered. The curiousity that had more or less died down since she was younger had returned full force at the prospect of him actually removing the dratted article of clothing on his own. Sakura continued to eat, watching bits and pieces of food disapearing from his dish, when an idea popped into her head and she smiled a little to herself – it was roundabout but might just work. She knew he would probably be putting some effort into mooching regularly now that he knew she could cook so she figured she might as well give him a reason to and get something out of it at the same time. If she were lucky she might just get to see his face too!
“You do know that you’re not getting away with a free meal here don’t you?” she asked as she innocently toyed with her fish, doing her best to conceal her smile.
Startled, he almost failed to raise his mask after taking a lightning quick bite of the broiled saury. Coughing a little he raised his eye to hers and lifted his eyebrow questioningly. “Oh?” He noticed the trace of a smile hovering around her lips and hastily returned his gaze to her eyes – to his surprise, she was going to have some fun with him.
She laughed. “Nothing’s free Kakashi, but I think I can offer you a good deal.” Her almost smile turned into an actual smirk.
“So what is it that you propose I pay for this delicious dinner?” he asked warily, though a small portion of him was a little excited at the prospect of what she may demand from him in recompense for the dinner.
“Well… I’ll offer you eleven more homemade meals of your choosing – both content, time and place, unless it interferes with my work – in exchange for your company at the upcoming formal medic’s dinner. I’ve no desire to attend alone this year, your bet with Guy reminded me of this, and… to be honest anyone else would probably get the crap kicked out of him by Naruto and Sasuke.” She blushed a little and dropped her eyes back to the meal on the table, not quite believing she had mentioned that last bit aloud to him.
After a startled moment the silver haired man laughed, knowing she was probably right about Naruto and Sasuke, but still a little surprised that she would ask him. He pretended to ponder her proposition for a couple moments, watching as she toyed nervously with her food as she was unable to continue eating without his answer.
Finally he sighed theatrically. “Well… Will I see you in another one of those fantastic little black dresses?” He ducked the anticipated swat and felt a sense of justification in his action at the whistle of air above him.
“Kakashi!” she exclaimed as her face managed to turn even more red than before. It was a comment she would have expected to hear coming from Genma, not her former sensei and it surprised her more than just a little.
Before she could make another, more serious attempt to deck him, he laughed and raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, forget I mentioned it.”
She glared at him suspiciously for a moment before returning to her meal. “Does this mean you’ve agreed?”
“Hmm. You said any meal, anytime, anywhere?”
“So long as I’m not working or about to work.” She paused for a moment looking for the loophole she figured he was hinting at. “Um, and the meals have to be something I know how to make or can easily be done from any general cookbook… no bizarre, unusual, or unreasonable requests please.”
“Hmm, sounds fair. I’ll do it, homemade meals are hard to come by these days...” Kakashi’s mind already started working on the interesting possibilities of the newly made arrangement.
She smiled happily. “Good, I wasn’t looking forward to the gropes I’m sure I'd receive from some of the older doctors...” she trailed off in thought. “It’s never the medics, you know. I can’t quite figure that one out…”
He raised an eyebrow but chose to concentrate on the rest of his meal before it got cold instead of commenting. He knew it was because the medics were in a better position than the civillian doctors to know not to try and touch the fiery tempered kunoichi. After a moment’s contemplation Sakura chose to follow his lead. Once they finished their meal the pink haired medic was pleasantly surprised to find him actively helping her clear and clean the dishes without any sort of prompting.
After they finished cleaning up, she pointed to the couch in her living room. “Sit and roll your pant leg up as far as it will go soI can take a look at your leg.”
Without a second thought he complied, almost wondering why she hadn’t just asked him to take the pants off completely as it would probably have made things easier for her, it wouldn't have been the first time she had asked him to completely disrobe so she could treat him. One look at her face and the faintest traces of color around her cheeks answered his unasked question. Thinking a little about it he had to wonder a little at just what might have caused her blush.
Once his pant leg was pushed up and out of her way she set to work looking for the source of his limp. After a moment she cursed under her breath, though not quietly enough for Kakashi to miss.
“Something wrong?” he asked with a little concern. No one liked to hear their medic cursing upon discovering the root of a problem.
She did her best to prevent the blush she could feel starting to stain her cheeks. “Oh, er no. Nothing wrong… Um… I’ve found the problem.” The pink haired kunoichi didn't want to think about why she was having such a hard time with her former sensei; she must have healed him hundreds of times, and at least several of those were hip injuries or one sort or another but it felt different this time around.
“That’s good then, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s your left hip. Something's not quite right with the muscles around the joint, probably a strain... I can fix it of course, but, er," the traitorous blush returned to her face, "I need you to remove your pants.”
He wanted to laugh but found himself unable to. Instead he smiled and ruffled her hair, deciding to tease her a little. “Don’t worry. In an uncharacteristic fit of practicality I decided to wear underwear today.”
Sakura paled before getting a hold of herself. “Kakashi!”
He laughed at her reaction and rose to his feet, gesturing for her to turn her back. Even though he was making light of the situation he just couldn't bring himself to drop his pants while she was watching.
Sighing she complied, just plain not wanting to know how serious he had been about the underwear remark. Of course she had seen him in his skivvies on various occasions – granted, for those he was nearly always either unconscious or completely out of it and severely injured – but this time it somehow didn't quite feel the same. "Your vest and over shirt, too, please," she added, thinking that ridding Kakashi of the bulky clothes would make it as easier for her to access his hip and heal him quickly.
After a moment he cleared his throat and removed his forehead protector to run an absent hand through his hair. “Okay, Sakura.”
The pink haired medic hesitated for only a moment and slowly turned. Against her wishes her eyes immediately dropped below his waist and she was both relieved and amused that he was indeed wearing underwear. She giggled a little, the fact that he was standing in front of her in only his mask, undershirt and boxers not quite registering as her amusement temporarily overrode any other thoughts in her mind.
“Really, Kakashi? Icha Icha?” she asked about the orange boxers printed with the trademarked Icha Icha slashed red circles.
He sighed. “They were a gift. It would be ungrateful not to at least wear them occasionally.”
She laughed, thinking of the inappropriate pajamas he had given to her and silently resolved to make more of an effort to wear them. “Okay, okay, I’ll say no more about them. Now, lie down on the couch..." She looked at him again. "Um, I think, on your stomach please,” she asked realizing that there was no way she would be able to concentrate on the task at hand while feeling his gaze on her, watching as she healed him.
He hesitated for the briefest fraction of a second before doing as he had been asked.
Hastily she knelt next to him and before her nerve left her, she carefully shifted the waistband of his boxers down a little to allow her better access to his hip. She realized and chose to ignore the fact that healing him would be much easier if she had not asked him to lie on his stomach, but she was positive that she would be unable to concentrate with his eyes on her as she worked on such an intimate area of his body. Shaking her head to clear the unwanted thoughts, she gently started the healing process. As Sakura worked she found rather quickly that it was a bit more serious than she had originally thought, definitely a strain made much worse by the fact that he ignored it presumably in the hopes that it would go away. As much as she didn't want for him to be injured, especially not seriously, she was almost thankful that his injury was trickier to correct than she had initially thought, since she was having a hard time dealing with her all too natural reaction at not only being so close to an attractive man, but handling him in what could be considered an almost intimate manner. The extra time it took to heal gave her a much needed moment to get her nerves into some semblance of order.
Finally getting her mutinous mind under control she was able to seriously concentrate on his injury. She frowned as she found something unexpected. “Kakashi?”
“Hmm?” he asked not wanting to trust his voice with her hands so lightly manipulating and healing his hip. His hands tightly clenched the couch cushions beneath him as he was having a very hard time fighting nature so to speak in preventing his body from reacting to her careful touch.
“Just how long ago did you injure your hip?”
Pulling himself as together as he could he managed to murmur, “Dunno… thought it was today… Hmm... if not, might have been... a couple weeks ago?”
Her hands left his hip and he let out a sigh of both disappointment and relief before she smacked him upside the back of his head. “Idiot! It might not bother you all that much now, but if you had let that strain go, it could have gotten much, much worse!” She waited for his response, but after a moment or two of silence she figured his lack of response was all the admission of guilt she was likely to get.
With a sigh she returned to healing his hip, finding it to be a bit more difficult than she had originally estimated.
When she finally finished Sakura sighed and removed her hands from him and sat back on her heels, feeling more drained than she should. “You’re all set, Kakashi.”
Feeling a little stiff he took a couple deep breaths to try and settle himself; he had only just barely been able to keep himself under control. After a couple moments of composing himself he carefully shifted himself up and into a sitting position on the couch, wanting at the very least to retrieve and don his pants, but needing Sakura to move first. When she didn’t move he looked more closely at her and frowned.
“You okay there Sakura? You look a little pale.”
“Oh! Um, yeah… I’m fine, just a little tired. That took more out of me than I had thought it would.”
He nodded understandingly. “Need a hand then?”
Upon moving her legs a little she frowned and then grimaced. “Ugh, give me a minute, both my legs fell asleep.”
He chuckled, knowing from experience that she hated it when she lost the feeling in any of her extremities.
A couple moments, and quite a lot of pounding on her legs later, she sighed. “They’re about as good as they’re going to get without me changing position.”
She reached out to Kakashi for her hand up. As his hand closed around hers and started to pull a noise from her bedroom startled them. At just the wrong moment Sakura flinched away from Kakashi, distracted by the sounds coming from the other room forcing Kakashi to throw himself off balance a little in order to grasp her hand. As his hand closed around Sakura’s, her legs gave way, having been more asleep than she had realized. Instinctively she pulled on his hand to try and steady herself, pulling him completely off balance instead. Quickly he tried to lean forward to catch her. Unfortunately, not only was he off balance but he lacked the proper leverage and ended up getting pulled down onto the floor on top of Sakura.
“Sakura? You home?” a familiar voice called from her bedroom, followed by footsteps in the hall.
Surprised she looked up into his startled eye, seeing that his usual veneer of calm seemed to have cracked just enough to show a bit of panic. Before either of them could move Naruto and Sasuke emerged from the hallway, both men obviously looking for her.
Faster than she would have thought possible Sakura felt Kakashi slip off her and pull her to her feet with him. Though her head was spinning a little she was still acutely aware of how close she was standing next to the elite jonin, one of his arms still resting lightly around her waist where he had left it after helping her to her feet.
Doing her best to pull herself together she smiled to greet her guests. “Naruto, Sasuke! Good to see you two, what brought you here this evening?”
Naruto’s reaction was slow in coming but eventually the shock wore off. “What the hell?!” Angry and confused the blond man took a step toward Sakura and Kakashi only to find himself being held back by the Uchiha. He turned to address the dark haired man, “Sasuke!? What are you–?”
Kakashi took Naruto’s momentary distraction to don his pants, while Sakura found it easier to compose herself without the distracting presence of his hand on her hip – for the life of her she couldn’t figure why he had chosen to leave it or how Naruto seemed not to have noticed it. She readied herself to deliver a quick and succinct summary of what had happened to the confused man. Much to her relief Sasuke obviously wasn’t particularly concerned about how he and Naruto had found her and their former sensei or the fact that his hand had lingered somewhere it shouldn't have belonged for far longer than it should have.
“I lost my balance while Kakashi was helping me up after I healed his hip, Naruto.” The medic sighed with exasperation, knowing that the blue eyed man should be the first person to laugh the apparent situation. Feeling as though she needed a little more of an explanation she added, “My legs fell asleep while I was healing him and I needed a hand up.”
The blond man looked from Kakashi to Sakura to Kakashi and back to Sakura again with a frown on his face, clearly not sure what to do about the situation.
Sasuke shook his head. “Idiot, it’s obvious nothing indecent was going on here; her balcony was unlocked and open, they’re both more or less fully dressed... and Sakura knows by now not to bring anyone home with her when we're around.” He rolled his eyes and muttered, “Besides this is Kakashi, not some guy off the street.”
Slowly Naruto’s frown melted away and he laughed, pointing at Kakashi. “I never thought you'd actually wear them!"
~*~*~*~
“Seriously.” The faintly tipsy senbon wielder managed to only slightly slur the word as he wasn’t quite as drunk as he appeared to be. “I don’t understand how a beautiful flower like you could manage t’stay single for such a long time.”
Sakura groaned to herself. She had thought only to stop in at the pub for a quick drink on the way home from the hospital; the hospital had lost a half dozen patients that day, one of which was under her care, and she wanted something that would help her sleep. After this encounter she would seriously consider keeping a stash of liquid refreshment in her apartment – though she didn’t fancy the idea of drinking alone. Somehow while she had been sitting at the bar Genma had approached and managed to secure a seat right next to her and now she found herself unable to politely get rid of him. Silently she hoped that one of the regulars would appear and interrupt so she could use the distraction to discretely take her leave.
Audibly she sighed, letting some of her frustration show in her words. “It’s not as hard as you may think. It doesn’t matter how desirable a flower may be; if she has over protective thorns large and sharp enough, even the bravest or most foolish shinobi will think twice about approaching her.”
He laughed at the nice way she had managed to describe her two former teammates and perhaps her former sensei, though she probably hadn’t realized that her description of thorns included him. “Ah, you’re right about that, but I hear that you do still manage to have a little fun from time to time...”
“Hmm? Yes whenever they’re off on a lengthy mission. But when they return...” She shrugged distractedly, her mind obviously elsewhere, "...the relationship ends." Sakura toyed with the swizzle stick in her drink to vent some of the frustration she was feeling with the situation. “Really, it’s hardly worth it anymore.”
Sensing her distracted state Genma decided it was time to make his move. He pulled out his most charming smile, leaned in closer to her, and plucked an errant strand of her pink hair to rub between his fingers. “As I recall, they’re both off on a mission in the Land of the Waves, aren’t they?” .
Visibly pulling her attention back to the present she jerked her head back from his fingers to reclaim her hair from his grasp. “You are correct. However, I just finished a shift at the hospital during which we lost six patients. I am not in the mood to deal with this – you – tonight Genma. I just want to go home, alone.” She stood and turned to look at him before she made her way from the pub. “Goodnight, Genma.”
As the shaggy brown haired man was pondering yet another brush off by the kunoichi medic his ever observant eyes locked onto a new arrival into the pub as he turned to watch her go. His hand shot out lightning fast to secure one of her wrists and prevent her from walking away or from seeing the new arrival.
Feeling surprised she turned to face the womanizing jonin with an inquisitive yet still impatient expression gracing her face. She had just told him she wasn’t in the mood and only wanted to go home, by herself. The letch hitting on her wasn’t unusual, but he was generally bright enough to back off when she asked. Absently she chalked up his unusual stubbornness to his probable state of inebriation.
Genma’s eyes tracked the newcomer, without appearing to do so, as he made his way to the bar for his drink – no doubt on his way to the usual booth in the dark corner of the pub. “Before you hurry away, my sweet blossom, answer me one question.” His thumb lazily rubbed a circle on the inside of her wrist as he held it captive, hoping to throw her off balance.
She was about to pull her arm from him to continue on her way but her curiousity got the better of her. She wasn’t sure why and was fairly certain she would live to regret it, but she paused, tilting her head to show she was listening.
He waited a moment for the new arrival to enter hearing range before posing a question he had been wondering about for quite some time now but had never had the guts or opportunity to ask. Once the newcomer was close enough to over hear him, the senbon wielding jonin posed his question. He was not as oblivious to the more subtle nuances of human behavior as most people thought and the recent interactions he had witnessed between former teacher and student had peaked his curiosity as to just what might be going on between the two shinobi. Of course he could flat out ask Kakashi, but not only was that plan of action likely to get him a false answer, but it was also likely to earn him a severe but circumspect beating later on in the form of a spar or training exercise. Instead he figured that his best bet might be asking the pink haired medic something completely inappropriate involving the silver haired man and observe both parties reactions rather than the woman's actual reply. “If you had to choose to spend a night with either me or Kakashi, who would you choose?” he asked, positive she wouldn’t actually answer.
The new arrival stiffened and shot the lecherous shinobi a look that promised a slow and painful death as soon as the opportunity presented itself and carefully made sure to suppress his presence as though his life depended upon it. The absolute last thing he wanted would be for Sakura to turn and find him there apparently listening in on her answer to Genma's beyond inapproperiate question. Besides... as much as he really didn't want to admit it he was very interested in hearing her response.
She blinked, her annoyance with the jonin momentarily forgottem as she was completely floored by the question seemingly out of left field. Quickly getting over her shock and realizing he was serious she answered with hardly a hesitation. “Easy enough, Kakashi of course.” Feeling faintly amused she watched as his signature senbon dropped from his slackened jaw. She made as if to turn to leave and squeaked when the pressure on her wrist tightened instead of loosening to let her go.
“Genma! You’re hurting me. Let go!” She pulled her arm, trying to free her wrist from his painful grasp.
His grip loosened, but he did not relinquish her wrist. “What? You don’t even need to think about it?” he asked with a note of what she could have sworn, if she didn’t know of his reputation with the ladies, was pleading in his voice.
Feeling startled again her green eyes found his light brown ones. “Er, no, I don’t think so. It’d definitely be Kakashi, hands down.”
His eyes lit with slow realization and he pulled her closer to himself to speak softly in her ear, unable to stop himself from baiting the kunoichi a little with an even less approperiate statement. “If that’s all you want, you’d be amazed at how accommodating I can be… and at some of the things I can do with my hands down… Kakashi isn’t the only copy ninja, you know…” He let the sentence trail off suggestively to let her think for a moment before continuing. “Still don’t need to think about it?”
Her eyes widened at his deliberate misinterpretation of her words and using her free hand she slapped him. “That is not what I meant and I’m sure you know it. You only asked who I’d rather spend a night with, not whose bed I’d like to end up in.” She pulled her arm again this time successfully freeing her wrist from him. She rubbed it ruefully to remove the feeling of his hand and turned to take her leave from the pub.
He opened his mouth, feeling as though he should try to sooth the angry kunoichi before she took her exit. Once the pink haired woman left the pub he knew his angry friend would descend upon him and that there would be hell to pay for his little bout of curiosity. Regrettably he was unable to find the words. The fact that - judging from the waves of pure malice he could sense eminating from Kakashi - he was fairly certain that his friend would more than likely try to kill him once Sakura slipped though the door may have played a key role in the fact that he couldn't seem to formulate any sort of apology.
Sakura’s frustration over the long day and annoyance at men in general made her pause, turn around and lean in close to the lecherous ninja. She enjoyed the fact that he flinched and leaned back ever so slightly from her, on the defensive for once. The medic was tired of having to deal with him and decided to put a permanent stop to it. Or rather, as much of a permanent stop to it as she could. After all, Sakura had learned that he was, if nothing else, incorrigible.
“And before you even think to ask whose bed I’d rather end up in,” she hissed, dropping her voice down further to barely above a whisper, “I wouldn’t have to think about that one either. The answer would still be Kakashi.”
His eyes widened in shock at her surprising comment. He would never have expected her volunteer the to answer such a question, especially since he didn’t quite have it in him to ask her himself.
She smiled sweetly at his shocked expression and shook her head in mock disgust before finally turning to make her exit.
Once the annoyed pink haired kunoichi had taken her leave the new arrival slowly made his way back from the shadows, feeling unsure of what to do with the bit of information his lecherous friend had just managed to wrest from his former student.
