Chapter Twenty-One: Gift
Sakura sat down at her desk, feeling relieved to finally have a moment to herself. It had been non-stop since she had started her shift and all she really wanted was a moment or two of peace and perhaps a nice, hot cup of tea. As she was thinking about the probability of someone cornering her into doing something if she were to leave the sanctuary of her office in order to get said cup of tea, a knock interrupted her thoughts. She sighed before answering. “Come in.”
A timid woman she recognized as one of the nurses from the Shinobi Serious Care Ward opened the door and hesitantly entered.
“Yes?” the pink haired woman prompted, after waiting a couple moments for the woman to speak.
“Er, Ms. Haruno… Um, I seem to be having some difficulties with one of my patients... I was wondering if maybe…” she trailed off, embarrassed at what she was asking. “Well, you’ve a bit of a reputation with how you can handle some of the more difficult patients…”
“Alright, I’ll come take a look.” Sakura sighed, wondering which one of her boys was causing problems this time. She rose from her chair and followed the nurse from her office.
The timid woman blushed a little as she led Sakura to her difficult patient’s room. “Thank you.”
Upon arriving, Sakura’s curiosity was piqued when she noticed that the file waiting for her was orange and there was also a warning label on the door itself. Surprised, for she had thought that the problem was a patient refusing treatment, she snagged the folder and wondered which letch was giving the nurses problems. A quick glance at the papers, and seeing the surname: "Shiranui", explained everything: the old letch was back. Not bothering to check the first name, she turned the worried nurse standing next to her. “Don’t worry about this one, I’ve dealt with him before and I’ll take him off your hands if you like. I know he can be a bit… difficult sometimes.”
“Oh! Thank you Ms. Haruno! I, um, none of the nurses have been able to handle him without, er, getting handled themselves. We weren’t sure what to do… until someone remembered that you occasionally took the more difficult shinobi cases…”
The pink haired woman smiled, doing her best to hide the sigh that was trying to escape her. “Don’t worry about it. This isn’t the first time and I’m sure it probably won’t be the last. Some patients are just plain incorrigible.” Without waiting for a response, Sakura waved the nurse on with her duties and breezed into the room ready to scold the elder Mr. Shiranui for his treatment of the nurses.
“Really, Mr. Shiranui! The nurses are not here for your own private amus-” The pink haired medic stopped short as soon as she entered the room. “Genma?! What the hell are you doing here?” she asked with clear confusion in her voice. She had expected to find his father.
The severely beaten man did his best to grin – he looked distinctively unlike himself without his signature senbon bobbing around on his lips. “Got in a little over my head in a spar, that’s all. It’s nothing to worry your pretty little self about," he said. He tried to wink at her, but found he lacked the coordination.
The shock slowly faded and she moved over to his bedside, narrowing her eyes as she did so. “Did one of my boys do this?”
“Eh?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course, one of them must have been responsible, they usually are... C’mon, which one was it? Naruto or Sasuke?”
“Neither.” He coughed a little under her intense gaze. “It was, as I said, a spar that got a little more serious than I had anticipated… My own fault really, should have known what I was getting into.” He attempted to shrug with moderate success. “Live and learn I guess.”
She eyed him suspiciously, not believing one word of it.
“Really Sakura, neither Naruto nor Sasuke did this.” He managed to smile at her again. He wasn’t lying exactly since it hadn’t been Naruto or Sasuke. But, technically, it had been one of her boys, and he freely admitted that he knew he had it coming after his little performance at the pub – but he wasn’t about to let her know that.
“My boys had nothing to do with you ending up here, pulverized almost beyond recognition?”
He shook his head in a negative, trying his hardest to lie convincingly. She frowned a bit as she watched him; he looked so unlike himself. Absently she plucked a coffee stir from a discarded drinking cup, sterilized it with chakra and stuck it in his surprised mouth. Tilting her head a little to the side, she nodded to herself. It wasn’t perfect… but, at least he looked marginally more like himself.
Though she still didn't quite believe him, she let the matter drop and returned her attention to his file. With the state he was in, he would be in the hospital for a while unless she did her best to expedite his healing progress. Since she had enough patients of her own, Sakura figured the sooner she got him out of the hospital the better – and, a small part of her couldn’t quite help but feel a little guilty since she was fairly certain that his hospitalization had something to do with her boys. All in all, it was just going to be another long day.
~*~*~*~
Slowly Kakashi flipped another page, though his eyes were not really taking in any of it. He wasn’t sure what disturbed him more – the fact that he couldn’t focus on his precious Icha Icha or the bit of information that was causing the lapse in his attention. Doing his best to shake it off, he turned another page... and sighed to himself as he sensed a pair of familiar presences approach. Really, they tended to have the worst timing. He hesitated for a moment in indecision, trying to gauge if it would be better to transport himself elsewhere before they found him or stay and see what they wanted. While he was pondering, a familiar voice called out to him and he cursed, realizing that he had hesitated a little too long.
“Kakashi? That you up there?” his blonde former student called before appearing from out of the underbrush. “What the-?!” He exclaimed upon entering the defunct training ground. Sasuke quietly entered behind his blonde friend, taking in the havoc that had obviously been wreaked on the area.
Sasuke and Naruto found Kakashi reclining on one of the lower branches of the only remaining tree in the clearing. All other forms of vegetation had been broken down to splinters.
“What happened to all the trees?” Naruto exclaimed, once he was over the initial shock of finding such complete and localized destruction.
The silver haired jonin lowered his book and took a brief look around the clearing, as if just then noticing the devastation. “Hmm… couldn’t really say. Looks as though they’ve been destroyed doesn’t it?” As casually as he could, he returned his attention to his book, hoping the two younger men would get the point and state their purpose. He turned another page.
While Naruto continued to gape at the destruction, Sasuke rolled his eyes at his teammate – the Uchiha knew that Kakashi wouldn’t let on one way or another if he had been the one to destroy the area, or, for that matter, why. Instead of trying to get an answer from the generally stoic man, he figured he might as well get on with the business that had sent the two men searching for their former sensei in the first place.
“Tsunade wants to see you Kakashi.”
The jonin lowered his book again, concentrating more than he should to cover the stirrings of vague apprehension, and glanced down at the Uchiha. “Is that so? Did she happen to mention any particular reason?”
“How the hell should I know? The only reason we got roped into looking for you in the first place was because that stupid letch got himself tossed into the hospital again and I don’t think she believed Naruto and I when we told her that we didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Right… well, you’ve told me. I’ll be on my way in a bit.” He raised his book again and flipped a page, ignoring the two younger men once again.
“Kakashi! We’ve been looking for you for a couple hours now! She’s gonna be pissed!” Naruto glared at the Copy Ninja. “And you know she’s going to blame us for that!”
He sighed, knowing he would have to face the busty blonde woman eventually. “Alright, alright. I’m on my way.” Without looking up from his book, he dropped down from the tree and started back toward the village. Exchanging glances, Naruto and Sasuke followed quietly.
Composing himself carefully, Kakashi slowly entered the hokage’s office. His two former students remained outside – having escorted him right up to the door of Tsunade’s office, they wanted to make sure he actually did go in to see her.
The blonde woman looked up from her desk upon his entrance and frowned. “Where the hell the have you been?” she asked him without any sort of preamble.
He remained silent, fairly certain that she wasn’t really interested in his whereabouts.
She eyed him for a moment before sighing irritably. “Did you know that Genma’s once again landed himself in the hospital for non-mission related injuries?”
A small portion of him wanted to panic at her seemingly innocent question, wondering if she might be trying to imply something. Covering himself just in case, he decided to go with a noncommittal, “Oh?”
Tsunade watched him carefully, looking for some sort of a guilty reaction. Upon finding none, she decided to poke around a little – just to be sure. She had been hearing some interesting things about the relationship between Kakashi and his former student and was consequently having trouble turning an incurious eye. “I’ve already spoken to Naruto and Sasuke about it… but I’m not completely convinced that they had anything to do with Genma's most recent incapacitation.”
Warily, he concealed his reaction and continued to gaze inquisitively at the older woman, deliberately choosing not to respond.
After a moment’s pause, she decided that he was not going to bite. So, not completely satisfied with his reaction, or rather, lack thereof, she prodded him a little more. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?”
He pretended to think for a moment and decided to take a bit of a risk, in the hope of closing the rather delicate subject. “Knowing Genma, he probably just hit on the wrong woman.”
She looked at him sharply for a moment, having overheard Sakura complaining to her blonde friend about the local letch’s most recent unwanted advances. Kakashi continued to look at her blankly, waiting for her to get on with whatever it was that had caused her to summon him.
“I see…” She eyed him again suspiciously and was not able to find anything she shouldn’t in his expression. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to rummaging around her desk before tossing him a mission scroll. “Regardless of what happened, Genma was supposed to lead a mission tomorrow. It's now yours. An escort to just inside the border of Grass – little more than a glorified babysitting job and a bit below you, I’m afraid. But, we’re a little stretched at the moment so I’ve no choice if I don’t want to delay the mission any more than it already has been. You leave just after dawn tomorrow.”
He broke the seal and opened the scroll with a sigh of resignation, silently cursing Genma for his poor timing.
~*~*~*~
Almost whistling to himself, he leisurely made his way through the dimly lit village, slowly zeroing in on his target. As he reached the apartment building, his eyes automatically slid to a particular set of patio doors which, he noted, were still dark. Kakashi smiled to himself as he nimbly landed on the balcony, careful not to let his bag rustle or allow his chakra to give himself away, and tsking to himself over the fact that she had left the doors open overnight.
Unsure what sort of a reception he could anticipate, he cautiously pushed aside the sheer curtains. He found her, as he had expected, to all appearances fast asleep in her bed. She looked just as peaceful as she had the other times he had observed her while she was sleeping and he almost felt bad for what he was about to do. Almost. Carefully, he stepped into the room and slipped over to her bed – he knew that she had been awake and aware of his presence since he had landed on her balcony, even though she hadn’t reacted.
Upon reaching her bedside he paused, only just then noticing that she was wearing the cherry pajamas that he had given to her. A little surprised, he hesitated... and she took that moment to react.
Smoothly, she pulled a kunai from a sheath concealed in her pillow and sat up ready to face an intruder. Her eyes locked on his and the pink haired woman stopped.
“Kakashi?” she asked with some confusion.
He chuckled at her early morning bewilderment and ruffled her hair before seating himself comfortably next to her on the bed... all the while trying very hard to ignore the fact that she was wearing the inappropriate pajamas he had given her. From what he could see, they looked fantastically naughty on her.
She shook her head a little in disbelief. “Ugh, Kakashi! What time is it?”
“Four-thirty,” he responded, not bothering to look at her alarm clock. He had been very careful in his timing – early enough to catch her asleep, but not so early as to thoroughly piss her off.
“Unless you’re on death’s doorstep, and you certainly don’t seem like you are, come back in a couple hours.” She flopped back down, shifting herself into a comfortable position and trying to relax herself to fall back sleep.
He chuckled, knowing he would receive such a response from the kunoichi. “Hmm, I seem to remember making a deal with a certain pink haired woman in regard to making me homemade meals on demand?”
“Mmph?” she mumbled, trying very hard to ignore the fact that he was still seated on the edge of her bed and leaning over her with, she was sure, one of his silly grins.
“Come now Sakura, I’ve a mission in a couple hours and I want pancakes before I go.”
Chagrined, she slowly rose to a sitting position, feeling a little disconcerted at how close he was sitting next to her. “Huh? You want pan- what now?”
“Cakes. I want pancakes.” Too cheerfully for four-thirty in the morning, he dug a small cookbook from the bag he brought, flipped it open to a page he had marked and handed it over to the groggy kunoichi.
She took the book from him. Automatically scanning the recipe, she found that it wasn’t particularly difficult – aside from the fact that she didn’t keep a couple of the ingredients he was likely to want as he’d put little happy faces next to the strawberries and cream in the "optional ingredients" list. “Alright, alright,” she grumbled before yawning. “I don’t know if I have every-”
He lifted the bag he had brought, and Sakura chuckled as she realized that it contained the ingredients he had figured she might not have on hand. She should have known that she would lose to him and that he would come prepared.
Kakashi rose from the edge of her bed so she could get up, feeling pleased that she hadn’t put up more of a fight over making him breakfast. Then, as Sakura slowly shifted herself out from under the covers, he found that he couldn’t keep himself from staring as she bent over to locate her slippers. The cherries strategically placed on her rump bounced a little with the sway of her hips as she dug under her bed for the stray slippers. Hastily, the elite jonin found that he had to turn from the all too enticing sight before his body reacted. The pajamas had been a joke – he had never expected to see her actually wearing them and he certainly would never have thought that the sight of her in them could have such a clear and inappropriate effect on him.
In turning from Sakura, he noticed the dressing gown he had given her carefully laid out on a nearby chair. Quickly, he snagged it and turned back to her just as she was straightening with her slippers finally in place – if he didn’t know better, he would have thought that she had deliberately taken longer than necessary with the footwear just to tease him.
She stifled a giggle. “I seem to remember you saying that you thought these pajamas were cute?” the medic asked with a pout. Then, she did a not-so-modest twirl for his benefit, thinking to get back at him a bit for his waking her up before dawn. She missed the slightly strangled noise he made in his throat at the sight of her bouncing around a little. Nevertheless, she still found herself blushing somewhat, for she had seen how quickly he had turned from her while she was searching for her slippers. Seeing Kakashi react in this manner had caught her off guard, even though, after trying on the ridiculous night attire, she herself had been surprised at how the outwardly innocent clothing could so completely become anything but once it was actually on a woman’s body.
Wordlessly, he held out the dressing gown for her and she laughed, gesturing for him to hold it open. With a sigh of relief, he shifted the dressing gown in his hands and carefully pulled it up over her shoulders once she had backed into the silky fabric, twitching the ends a little to close the front of the robe once she had stopped moving. Without thinking, his hands slid down to her waist and tied the belt to secure the gown, his mask-covered nose brushing the side of her neck as he did so.
Startled, she glanced at him questioningly. The sensations his actions had elicited caused her shiver a little and wonder at just what he was doing to her and how he could possibly be having such an effect on her.
Doing his best not to appear as panicked as he felt, he smiled and ruffled her hair a little before giving her a light push toward the door and away from him.
“How about those pancakes?”
~*~*~*~
Carefully, Sakura made her way into the pub, hoping she would be right. It had been a long day at the hospital and now all she really wanted was a couple of drinks before heading home. But, this particular night, the pink haired medic had other plans. She scanned the pub as she made her way to the bar, noting the section usually reserved for those the pub staff had dubbed ‘the regulars’ was occupied. She was in luck – the shinobi she had been looking for was indeed one of the group ensconced in the dark booth, his new favorite scarlet Icha Icha volume held loosely in one hand and a sake cup in the other. Sakura caught the near imperceptible glance he had shot in her direction and smiled to herself, figuring it would be only a matter of time before she was either unceremoniously escorted by the man she was looking for or invited by a particular senbon wielding shinobi to the large booth all the way at the rear of the pub.
In the meantime, she ordered a drink, although nothing particularly strong, as she had no intentions of getting drunk. While she was waiting for the bartender to return with her order, she absently fended off the advances of a regular citizen (new to town and unaware of whom she was) and, surprisingly, one of the jonin who regularly pulled gate-duty and occasionally delivered the notes advising her of when her boys returned to the village. Upon receiving her drink, she turned away from the bar to lean up against it; twirling the neon green swizzle-stick that came with the fruity concoction and scanning the crowded pub, she waited for the not so subtle invite she knew would be coming from the back booth.
As if on cue, a familiar fully recovered senbon wielding jonin sidled up to her almost without her realizing it. A vague sense of disappointment filled her – her invitation had arrived, but she had hoped for a different delivery person. Then again, she probably should have chatted with the jonin from the gate (who, unlike the civilian, could at least hope to defend himself a little if things were to get physical.) Regardless, a little flirting might have ensured the invitation had been delivered by the elite jonin for whom she had been looking. Instead she would have to settle for her second choice – her distant second choice. She had to sigh to herself, for she had really hoped that Genma would give up pursuing her after she had told him point blank that she preferred Kakashi’s company to his. Then again, she knew that he was nothing if not incorrigible and it would probably take a lot more than just a stated preference to convince him to leave her alone.
“So... what’s one of the most sought after kunoichi of the village doing unescorted at the local pub this fine evening?” He breathed into her ear as he spoke, deftly keeping the sharp needle away from her face as he slipped his arm around her waist.
“Good evening Genma, nice to see you too.” She eyed him suspiciously before reaching down to remove his hand and answer his question. “Since when does a kunoichi have to be escorted to a pub for a couple drinks on the way home?” She paused for a moment before continuing, “No scratch that, since when does a kunoichi have to escorted anywhere?”
Hastily, he back-pedaled. “Easy there, my precious cherry blossom. I was simply commenting on the fact that I cannot believe you’re still unattached.” He winked and she had to make a concerted attempt not to roll her eyes at his actions. Stealthily, he slipped an arm around her waist again. “Perhaps it's time I rectified that situation.” Gently, he steered her to the booth in the back, urging her onto the bench first so he could ensure she couldn’t leave unless he allowed her to do so.
~*~*~*~
After a couple hours of listening to stories being swapped of missions gone both right and wrong, Sakura found herself starting to get a little sleepy, due more to the alcohol and warm atmosphere rather than the company. As she absently tried to remove Genma’s hand from her waist for what felt like the millionth time that evening, she missed the brief frown that appeared on Kakashi’s face at her, or rather, at Genma’s, actions. Every time she removed his hand, he would somehow stealthily replace it before long. Though, she had to admit that her waist was a much better location than her upper thigh, which is where he had tried to put it as soon as they had sat down. In removing his hand from her thigh, she had made sure to squeeze it with a little chakra-enhanced strength to get the point across. He had then moved back to her waist, finding it was a less painful area from which to have his hand removed.
She sighed with agitation as she felt it slide back into place once again – she was paying more attention to his antics than to his current story about a mission gone strange. It was definitely time for her to take her leave. She had enjoyed listening to all the stories, but it was late and she was done dealing with the letch who had so kindly invited her to the booth. Making a big show of checking her watch, she excused herself.
“Damn, its past midnight and I pulled first shift tomorrow. Looks as though I should be going.” She smiled at the group, hoping that the offer would be forthcoming. She turned a little to shoo the shinobi next to her over so she could exit the booth.
An offer was forthcoming – but, unfortunately, it had not come from the preferred jonin.
“I’ll take you home.” The senbon wielding shinobi pulled her close as he hastily rose from the booth, taking her with him. Before he could take a step toward the exit, however, he was blocked by the taller, silver haired man who had also spent the evening at their booth.
“It’s time for me to be leaving as well. I’ll walk Sakura home so you won’t have to go out of your way.”
She quirked a quick, thankful smile at the Copy Ninja and then glanced apologetically at Genma. “I’ll go with Kakashi if you don’t mind. I’m on his way home and I wouldn’t want to impose too much on your kindness.” Inwardly, she smirked and couldn’t help adding in a low tone, only for him, “Besides we’ve had this conversation before – you do remember the outcome don’t you?” She removed his hand from her waist, taking care to squeeze his fingers with a little chakra-enhanced strength. It would seem that negative physical reinforcement might be the only way he would learn.
The shaggy, brown-haired man was only just barely able to keep his jaw from dropping and the senbon precariously hanging from his lips in place. Not even the pain in the fingers she had just crushed was able to distract him from what she had just said. Had she just hinted right in front of Kakashi that she seriously preferred the company of her former teacher?
Once the two former teammates had exited, glances were exchanged – several calculating and several clueless.
Genma sat scratching his head absently, “If I didn’t know him any better, I’d say he just…” he trailed off, not quite ready to contemplate what he considered to be complete and utter foolishness. “Nah, couldn’t be…” He signaled the girl who had been bringing them drinks for the better part of the night to order a few more. His hand was suddenly causing him quite a bit of pain and he couldn’t quite figure out why.
~*~*~*~
Quietly, the two shinobi made their way down the street in a comfortable silence. The buildings gradually turned from commercial to residential as they entered the neighborhood in which Sakura’s flat was located.
Upon reaching her building, the silver haired jonin stopped under one of the streetlights with a clear view of her balcony. Unbeknownst to her, whenever he walked her home he usually waited outside until the lights turned on in her apartment, signaling that she had made it into her flat unscathed. And, occasionally, he would find himself lingering longer for no apparent reason. Before he could lose himself in the dirty pages of his new favorite book, however, he was started from his reverie.
“Kakashi?”
“Hmm?” he looked up from his book in time to catch the faint flush on the pink haired kunoichi’s face.
She glanced down, unwilling to face her former teacher with such a silly flush gracing her features. “Would you come up? I have something I’d like to give you.” She twiddled with her fingers instead of looking back up to try to gauge his reaction.
His mind promptly fell into the gutter, and he was grateful for his ever present mask – although, this time, it hid his surprise rather than an embarrassing nosebleed. Quickly, he set about looking for a polite excuse to avoid a potential disastrous encounter with his decidedly attractive – he had finally given in and admitted that he indeed found her to be highly attractive – former student. Unfortunately, his mouth seemed to have a mind of its own as, with a big smile, he found himself agreeing.
As he silently followed her into her building and up to her apartment, he was frantically looking for an excuse to leave – he couldn’t believe his mouth would betray him at such a vital time. It was getting harder and harder for him not to keep his reactions to himself. Seeing her at the pub with Genma, even though she obviously hadn’t been enjoying his company, or perhaps because she hadn’t been enjoying the senbon wielding man’s company, had been particularly difficult. Never mind the fact that his last encounter with Genma brought on by the letch’s unwanted advances on his former student, had landed the shaggy brown haired man in the hospital with some fairly severe injuries.
Before he knew it she had let him into her apartment, disturbing his troubling thoughts.
Sakura led him into her small living room. “Please wait here for a moment, I’ll be right back.” She smiled happily at the silver haired shinobi. A faint tint of pink still graced her face as she slipped into her bedroom.
His mind tried desperately to claw itself out of the gutter as he waited for her return. His Icha Icha addicted mind could think of many reasons for her to excuse herself and head for her bedroom, but none of them were even remotely appropriate or likely. He couldn’t, or rather he could, imagine what she was going into her bedroom for, but he couldn’t quite imagine why she would be doing so for his benefit. He knew she preferred his company to Genma’s, but that was hardly a set up for the sort of encounter his mind kept fabricating for his panicked and disgusted amusement.
Trying to distract himself from the filthy thoughts, he wandered around her living room, taking the time to enjoy the photographs on her wall. Unsurprisingly, most of them were of friends, though there were also a couple of scattered family shots and, of course, various photographs of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and himself. Kakashi found himself smiling fondly upon finding her copy of a photo he himself had kept, along with a similar one from his own genin days. Taking a moment to actually look at the familiar photograph for the first time in years, he was surprised at how small the three genin had been in comparison to himself. Things had definitely changed, he reflected. At least, they had for two of the three – he was still all around larger than the kunoichi. She had grown taller and filled out a bit, but, when all was said and done, Sakura could (and occasionally did, when Lee was looking for her) hide herself by just stepping and standing directly behind him.
Several moments later, as he was still pondering the photographs (grateful for the non-dirty thoughts they provoked), Sakura reappeared with a rectangular package wrapped in brightly colored paper in her hands. She smiled at his bewildered expression. “Happy Birthday Kakashi!” she exclaimed as she almost shyly extended the package to him.
Of all the possibilities he could have foreseen, this had not been one of them. He had been so busy between missions and trying to sort out what he was going to do about whatever it was that had been going on between himself and his former student that he had completely forgotten his own birthday.
“Sakura, you didn’t have to…” Kakashi trailed off as a thought struck him. “Didn’t you already give me my birthday present not too long ago?” He dug around in his pouch and pulled out the slightly oversized Icha Icha volume.
She smiled. It was a genuine smile – not one of the ones she had spared Genma that evening when he had hit on her. “I seem to remember trading that book for keeping you in one place long enough so I could heal you.”
The elite jonin opened his mouth to protest. He certainly hadn’t expected her to get him something after receiving the near mythical Icha Icha volume.
Hurriedly, she continued before he could object again. “And, I do seem to remember promising that I would find something else to give you for your birthday.” She waved the package at him again, gesturing with it for him to take it. “So here it is.” She smiled at him again, enticing him to take the colorful present.
Almost hesitantly, he reached out to take the gift from the pink haired kunoichi. Glancing back at her her, he was just in time to catch a faint blush hovering around her cheeks. Again, he hesitated, wondering if he should really accept it.
She shook her head incredulously at his reluctance. “Go ahead and open it. I think you’ll be surprised.”
Carefully, as though it might turn into a snake at any moment, he removed the paper from the package to reveal a thick stack of typed pages crudely bound with three large brass brads. The words ‘Icha Icha Inviolable’ and ‘Jiraiya’ were printed in block letters across the first page. Disbelievingly, he looked at her questioningly to find that her blush had deepened a bit.
“You have there the original and only copy of a manuscript Jiraiya wrote, I believe, especially for you.” She said, “Erm, I’ve actually not read it or even taken a look through at the illustrations. The dirty pervert said that he did something, probably sealed it, so that you would be the only one who can open it… regardless, I rather think I don’t want to know anything about it anyway. So, er, if it’s absolutely awful, or uh, completely inappropriate, I apologize… I’m not completely sure I like the way the letch smiled at me when he handed it over. Then again, knowing him, that could have been due to any number of things…”
His eye widened. “Sakura… you didn’t…”
She turned from him, her cheeks burning now with anger instead of embarrassment. “Nobody actually poses for Jiraiya, Kakashi. The dedicated pervert is one of the sannin, and he just so happens to utilize his skills to peep – I don’t think there’s one woman in the village he hasn’t peeped on at least once…” She turned back to him and grimaced. “Luckily for me, Naruto usually catches anything the old pervert may do…” She shook her head, not really wanting to complete that thought. “Never mind. The disgusting old man owed me a favor and after some,” she swallowed, her face paling a little, “um, inappropriate suggestions, he offered to write you a book for your birthday.”
He continued to stare at her, unsure what he could possibly say.
She averted her gaze, not quite able to face him. “Um, and if my suspicions happen to be correct, just ignore the fact that a character might be based on me…” She paused in thought, tilting her head a little. “Though, now that I think of it, judging from what Naruto has babbled about the world of Icha Icha… Any character based on me probably shares only coloring and perhaps my name and nothing more…” She laughed softly as she added, “After all, I hardly share the same proportions as Tsunade.”
“Sakura, I…”
She looked up on hearing the somewhat concerned tone in his voice and smiled. “Just take it and read it, you silly old man.” She stood on her tip-toes to give him a peck on his mask covered cheek. “I’m sure it’s fine. Jiraiya knows he’s in for a beating if it turns out poorly and I know that’s the last thing he wants after the last time…”
He frowned a little dispiritedly.
She looked at him with concern. “What?”
He sighed theatrically. “What ever happened to wanting to kiss the man, not the mask?” he asked, with a hint of teasing in his voice. Then, he pulled a small portion of the right side of his mask down to reveal a pale patch of his cheek, which he turned in her direction.
She laughed, wishing that he had pulled the whole thing down. “Kakashi!”
Again he sighed dramatically. “Not even on my birthday…”
Before he could finish his sentence, she had closed the distance between the two of them again and stretched up to kiss the revealed patch of cheek he was presenting to her. “There, are you happy now?”
He smiled. “Very.”
“Good, because it’s late and I wasn’t lying about pulling the first shift – I’ve got to get some sleep. Nobody likes a crabby medic conducting their exam. Anyway, I’m sure there will be something tomorrow at the pub for you. So, I’ll see you then.”
He chuckled. “I guess it wasn’t just a ruse to disentangle yourself from Genma?”
“Ugh, see what I do for you? If I had known he would be so…” she paused, looking for a word or phrase that wouldn’t get the crap kicked out of the offending shinobi the next day. Feeling exasperated, she finally settled on a vague hand gesture to get her point across.
“If you didn’t like it, you could have made him stop.”
“Yes,” she sighed. “And, made a bloody big scene in the pub too. That was the last thing I wanted to do. The idiot really only seems to understand negative physical reinforcement. Anyway, I went into the pub just to ensure I’d have a chance to give you your birthday present without people around… Er, I didn’t really want it to get out that I’d given you original porn for your birthday…” She blushed again.
“You’re ashamed of your old teacher, then?” He couldn’t keep the teasing lilt out of his voice or his smile from reaching his eye.
“N-no, that’s not it…”
Kakashi laughed and bent down to kiss the top edge of her left cheek, quickly lowering and then raising his mask to do so. “Good night Sakura. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Shocked for a moment, she finally managed to get her mouth to work. “Did you just…?” she trailed off not quite able to finish her question as the enormity of the event hit her.
He chuckled. “Can’t kiss a lady through a mask now, can I?”
“That’s not fair! You’re too quick! I didn’t get to see!”
“Life isn’t fair Sakura. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.”
