Chapter Twenty-Two: Early Frost
Moving slowly and carefully Kakashi managed to stumble into his apartment. He was grateful that he wasn’t likely to be called out for a mission in the morning since he was positive that he would have a horrific hangover. He had also made plans regarding a certain manuscript, and there was a good chance that, once he started reading, he would have little desire to leave his apartment. He had spent much of his birthday debating with himself over opening the unexpected gift from his former student. Finally, however, just before he was forced to attend the party at the pub, he had surrendered to his morbid curiosity and had promised himself he would read it the next day. After all, he justified, it would be ungrateful of him not to at least open it and take a quick look though.
Unfortunately, regardless of the conclusion Sakura had come to about her suspected appearance in the original work, he was fairly certain that the Icha Icha author had faithfully represented her in any, or rather, all, illustrations – she didn't need Tsunade-like proportions to make it into a real Icha Icha novel, her natural form more than enough to earn her a place in the pages of the dirty books. Kakashi had no illusions as to how Jiraiya’s mind worked – he was almost positive that the story gracing the smut-filled pages not only featured Sakura as the main and only female conquest (instead of the usual half dozen or so girls), but probably also had a different protagonist than the usual hero named Junko – namely, himself. The fact that the perverted author had sealed the manuscript to prevent the possibly curious kunoichi from checking it spoke volumes of both his intent and sense of self-preservation. Yet, even though he was likely to seriously regret it, Kakashi hadn't been able to decide not to read the dirty and almost certainly inappropriate present.
As he was fumbling for his bed a fragment of memory from earlier in the evening surfaced, causing him to frown. While opening presents he had come across a scroll from his lecherous friend which had advised him that his gift had already been given... and it was only a matter of time before he actually got to enjoy it. For the life of him, he couldn’t quite figure out what it meant. But, since Genma had taken the time to write in pink and green inks – and had nodded in Sakura’s direction upon receiving an inquisitive glance – Kakashi was relatively sure that it had something to do with his former student. With that troubling thought, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
~*~*~*~
An angry Kakashi made his way to his favorite author’s apartment. He was fairly certain that the pervert was in the village; it was just a matter of time before he would be able to track him down.
As he had suspected, the manuscript had indeed been written about himself and Sakura – the old letch hadn’t even bothered to make an effort to disguise them. Nevertheless, he had finished the novel... with less trepidation and disgust than he had anticipated. In fact, he had flipped back to the beginning to start again, possibly more interested in the story than he had been the first time through.
His arrival at Jiraiya’s apartment broke his reverie. As calmly as he could, he knocked on the door, already knowing that the man he wanted to see was indeed at home.
A couple minutes later the door opened and he was greeted with a huge grin by the white haired shinobi. “Ah! Kakashi! Thought I might be seeing you today,” said Jiraiya, as his grin managed to widen a little more. “Come to thank me for the manuscript, I’m sure.” He winked as he eagerly ushered the younger man into his apartment. “You don’t have to thank me, son – thank that pretty, little medic of yours.” He sighed. “Ah, to be young again… I think I’ve done some of my best work because of her…” Jiraiya trailed off, lost in thought.
Only a moment later the older man came to a sudden conclusion. “Oh! Maybe you’re here to request a sequel?” The sannin nudged his number one fan a little. “Or, perhaps something written from the woman’s perspective as a return gift? I can do women pretty well, you know – probably better than you would think.” Jiraiya laughed, then took a moment to actually look at the man standing in his living room, thundercloud expression and all.
“I’ve come for the pictures," said Kakashi
“Eh, what?”
“The illustrations from your manuscript. I’ve come to collect them.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha… I don’t know what you could possibly mean.”
Narrowing his eye, the Copy Ninja started to lose his temper. “The originals. I’ve come to collect the originals of the illustrations you drew for that manuscript; the ones bound in with the text are copies.”
“Oh! Really? Imagine that…”
“Jiraiya…” Kakashi growled warningly. “I want those pictures.”
“Kakashi… there must be some sort of deal we can strike on this. C’mon... name your price. A sequel? Some more illustrations, perhaps? Anything you like.”
“Just the originals.”
The older man sighed and started rummaging around his desk area, having known in advance it was an argument he would likely lose.
“Fine," he grumbled. "Have it your way.” His hands located the file he wanted and he began to flip gingerly through for one last look, pausing when he came to his particularly artistic take on the scene they had witnessed at the hot spring. It was one of the earlier drawings for the story and, in his mind, one of the most provocative since he had stayed relatively close to the actual event. In other words, nothing Sakura wouldn’t willingly show in a bathing suit or similarly skimpy clothing was showing in that picture, even though she was clearly not wearing clothing. Then he came to another, similar sketch – one which hadn't made it into the manuscript. Shaking his head sadly at the thought of having to part with it, he passed it to the silver haired man.
Kakashi carefully concealed his surprise as he looked at the drawing. It was a picture of Sakura applying lotion to her legs, just as she had been when he had stumbled upon her that summer night – though, her sleeping attire was different... not quite as skimpy as he recalled. As in all of his artwork, Jiraiya had done a good job of capturing the moment: Sakura sat at ease, with one of her legs raised almost straight up in the air to allow even coverage of the lotion. And she looked just as appealing as Kakashi remembered. Obviously, thought the Copy Ninja, the old letch had been spending more time peeping on Sakura than he had ever suspected.
"She does 'innocently seductive' quite well, don't you think?" the older man asked with a smirk. He waited a moment for a reaction from Kakashi. Upon receiving none, he sighed, took the drawing back from Kakashi, and continued flipping through the rest of the papers in the file, silently memorizing them to be reproduced at a later time if necessary.
Of course, the perverted author had not limited himself to drawing her in naturally alluring poses. Oh no – there were also illustrations of her fully nude and visible as well as others of both Sakura and Kakashi obviously enjoying each other’s company.
Jiraiya sighed again, loudly, and reluctantly handed the rest of the file to the Copy Ninja. He had known that, one way or another, Kakashi would arrive on his doorstep once he had finished reading the original Icha Icha novel. And, though he had suspected that it was futile to do so, he had hoped that the fact that the drawings were copies might have passed unnoticed by his number one fan – after all, he was rather proud of his work and wanted to hold on to it. Regardless, the author hadn't anticipated having to surrender them quite so quickly. He had been almost positive that some of those love scenes would have kept the Copy Ninja locked in his apartment longer than they apparently had. A small part of him had to wonder if he might be losing his touch.
“There you are. That's all of the artwork I drew for that manuscript, including the sketches and rough drawings I chose not to finish.” The author watched as Kakashi took the file without opening it and turned to leave. Jiraiya had to admit to himself that he was impressed at the elite jonin’s self restraint – a lesser man would have eagerly flipped through the file before taking his leave. As he thought about it, a small part of him wanted to test that resolve... just a little. “You know,” he drawled casually, “I almost have to wonder what it is about those pictures that made you come all the way here to obtain the originals? Is it because I showed your real face? Or, perhaps, because I chose to accurately sketch your, er, former student in the nude…”
Annoyed more than he wanted to let on, the elite jonin ignored the comment and exited the apartment.
The perverted man chuckled as he watched Kakashi disappear through the door. Then he made a mental note to stop by Hokage Tower the next time he was in that part of the village. Tsunade, he knew, would be very interested in how this had played out... plus she also now owed him some money.
~*~*~*~
Sakura tugged at the large, down-filled duvet she had wrapped tightly around her as she made her way into her kitchen. Quietly, she cursed the sudden cold-snap that had descended upon Konoha. Usually she wouldn’t mind the cold too much, regardless of how early in the season it was; she would just crank up the heat and keep indoors as much as possible. Unfortunately for her that wasn't an option. Leaving off cursing the weather, she started in on the superintendent and owner of her apartment building. The penny-pinching, creepy man had decided that his tenants could only have heat or air conditioning – never both at the same time – and, currently, the building’s central air heating and cooling system was set for the latter. And, of course, the landlord was unavailable to turn on the heat, as he had left to visit his sister in the Land of Grass – for a month.
Generally, his decision would have been a sound one, as the cold weather usually didn't hit Konoha until right around Christmas and it wasn’t even the end of October yet. But, for whatever reason, Mother Nature had decided to play a cruel trick on the residents of the building; not two days after the superintendent had left, the temperature had plummeted to around the freezing point and had stayed there. Now, Sakura and the other tenants (those few who were actually not away on missions at the time) were stuck with the task of trying to stay warm by any means necessary. Most had found significant others, family or friends with whom they could spend the long cold nights – leaving her pretty much on her own, freezing in the newest apartment building in the village. Her boys, all three of them, were off somewhere on a mission together. Vaguely, she wondered if they were somewhere warm.
Doing her best to control her shivers, she pulled out her kettle to make herself a nice pot of tea. She had gotten a chill in her bones on the way home from the hospital and now she was having a truly difficult time feeling warm again, regardless of the fact that she was wearing enough layers to make using the bathroom a major endeavor. As she waited for the water to boil she rummaged around in her cabinet looking for the container of loose tea which Kakashi had given to her as her secret admirer. It was then that Sakura realized that he hadn't given anything to her since the day of flowers. A small part of her was disappointed – he had probably lost interest after putting so much effort into his last gift, she thought, sighing a little.
After a few moments of distracted searching she happily found the tea and pulled it out – now one step closer to being warm. At least, she hoped she was.
~*~*~*~
As Kakashi absently adjusted the thick, wooly scarf around his neck, he wished he had thought to stop by his flat to grab a jacket before making his way to Sakura's apartment. It hadn’t been very cold when he had left for the mission but the weather had turned nasty and bitter while he was gone and now his thick, standard jonin-issue sweater wasn’t quite enough to keep him warm. Kakashi was cold and he hated being cold; it made him irritable, and when he was irritable his patience had a tendency to wear thin more quickly than usual which, in turn, could lead to actual displays of emotion from the usually outwardly stoic shinobi.
Sighing with annoyance, he finally turned around to face the presence that had been following him since he had re-entered the village. He knew that one of the shinobi manning the gates usually tailed him until he reached his own apartment before heading off to locate and alert his former student. Only on a couple of rare occasions had he been able to avoid what he considered to be a minor inconvenience.
“I know you’re there," Kakashi said. "I’m not going to insult you by asking that you show yourself, but I would like to tell you I’m on my way to her apartment now. In other words, you’re wasting your time.”
He waited for a moment and sighed inwardly. The presence had not left him, which spoke volumes for either the man's loyalty to the pink haired medic or fear of her temper. “I’m sure you’re aware that I met with the Hokage immediately upon my return," he continued. "She suggested I pay my former student a visit before going back out with the reinforcements needed for my mission. I’m not four blocks from her building and my apartment is roughly ten in the other direction. I am going to visit her…” The elite jonin waited again and was irritated to find the presence still there.
It wasn’t exactly a lie; Tsunade had pointedly told him that, with his medical history, he should check in with a medic before returning to the field. Kakashi just happened to have other reasons for visiting Sakura, such as asking her to come to his place to make him a homemade dinner sometime later that evening. He was truly enjoying the deal she had made with him regarding homemade meals and fully intended on making the absolute most of it while he could. After all, in his experience, offers like hers did not come along very often. Allowing his annoyance to show in his voice he turned to look right at the shinobi watching him. “You can go back to the gate. Now.”
After a moment’s pause the unknown shinobi made his exit and a somewhat gratified Kakashi continued on his way. He had always known how Sakura had kept tabs on his comings and goings from the village, and it hadn’t really bothered him too much. But the fact that he was now regularly visiting her at her apartment, without any sort of coercion, was something he didn’t want to get around the village – especially today's visit, as he was going to make a quick stop at the supermarket on his way to pick up the ingredients for his favorite meal. However, the detour was necessary – he knew he had nothing in his cupboards and, he reasoned with a grin, if Sakura was to come to his place to cook dinner it was only fair of him to pick up what she would need... There was also the slight hope that if she found it easy to cook for him she might be more inclined to do so in the future, after their deal had expired.
Casually, he picked the lock on the front door and made his way into the kunoichi's building, noting as he did so that the hallway did not seem much warmer than the frigid temperatures outside. Assuming that the stingy landlord had opted not to heat the common portions of the building during the winter, the elite jonin shook his head, wondering why Sakura would choose to live in such a place. Granted, it was the newest apartment building in the village and had the most modern conveniences but, still, the miserable owner could (and often did) make things difficult for his tenants.
His thoughts came to an abrupt end when he realized he was standing outside her door. Shaking his head to clear her choice of living location from his mind, he knocked. Kakashi was fairly certain Sakura was home since Tsunade had mentioned that the pink haired kunoichi had already left the hospital for the day. Then, after a moment, the door opened to reveal quite a strange sight. His former student stood before him dressed in more clothing than he had ever seen anyone wear all at once.
~*~*~*~
Sakura heard the knock and sighed for she was just getting ready to pour herself some tea. Leaving everything in the kitchen, including her warm duvet, she made her way to her door. She wondered who could be dropping by since her boys were on an extended mission and pretty much everyone else was either away on missions or enjoying well-deserved vacations.
She cautiously opened the door, ready just in case her unexpected visitor was hostile. Her eyes widened as she opened the door all the way to admit her former sensei; she saw that he was carrying a shopping bag from a local market and easily guessed why he was there.
“Kakashi!” she exclaimed, surprise clearly evident in her voice. “What are you doing back in the village? I thought you weren’t due back for another couple weeks?”
He smiled at her surprise. “Does your old teacher need a reason to stop by?”
She eyed him suspiciously. “You’re not old Kakashi.”
Hiding his surprise at her statement (she certainly called him an old man often enough), he casually made his way into her frigid apartment. “Maybe not," he replied, "but on days like this I sure feel old.”
“Days like this?” she queried, wondering at his seemingly strange mood.
“Cold – it can raise the ghosts of old, improperly healed injuries and has a tendency to settle in the joints and make them ache something awful.” He pulled a face as if he were in terrible pain.
She laughed. “Kakashi, you do not have arthritis!”
“No, no, didn’t say I did… Just old, poorly healed injuries and an aversion to the cold.”
She looked at him skeptically then sighed as she remembered the network of scars he had gracing a good portion of his body. “Hmm, you’re probably right, especially considering the fact that you never voluntarily seek medical treatment. I’ll take a look the next time I’m working on you. If you let me, I might just be able to ease some of those aches and pains of yours.”
Kakashi was grateful for both the presence of his mask and the fact that Sakura's gaze was focused inward as she thought about soothing some of his old injuries. If she had been focused on his features, she might have caught the semi-glazed expression he tended to sport when rereading a particularly good scene in one of his Icha Icha books. Quickly, before she might notice it, he shook his head dismissed the Icha Icha inspired mini-fantasy that had she had unwittingly started upon mentioning “working on” him.
Looking to divert her attention from what he thought could be a rather pleasant (if not thoroughly embarrassing) endeavor for him, he asked the obvious. “Did your heater break?
She frowned. “I wish – that would mean that it had been turned on. No, that tightfisted superintendent hasn’t turned the heat on yet.” Her face clearly expressed her disgust. “And, to top it al off, the sleaze ball left the village to visit his sister for a month – leaving those of us stuck here to quietly freeze while waiting for him to return.” She sighed in frustration and glanced down as if slightly embarrassed that he had found her in such circumstances.
Upon hearing about her plight the silver haired man made a decision. But, before he could put it forth to Sakura, her eyes lit up as something occurred to her.
She looked up at him again. “Oh! If you’re back then that means Naruto and Sasuke should be, too!” A genuine smile appeared on her face. She now had a solution to her freezing problem: she could crash with either one of them and worry about her lack of heat later.
Feeling bad for having to break the news to her, especially when she was so clearly happy at the prospect that Naruto and Sasuke had returned to the village, he replied absently, not thinking too much about his word selection. “Er, that’s actually one of the reasons I’m here. I’m sorry Sakura – I came back alone.”
Her head snapped up, alarm clearly taking over. “What?” she whispered, unable to continue as her mind leapt to an awful conclusion and anxiety closed her throat. She had always dreaded the day someone would come to let her know that something had happened to one of her boys, though she had never expected it to be so soon. Sakura looked at him, her eyes wide and full of dread and pleading for reassurance that her assumption was wrong. Almost hesitantly she took a step closer to him – then, before he could react, she had closed the distance between them and reached out to him. His arms automatically closed around the kunoichi in response to her silent plea and he noted that she was trembling ever so slightly. Without a thought, he pulled her closer.
After a moment, he realized what he was doing and, hastily, he raised his hands as it occurred to him what she must have thought. “Oh no! No, they’re fine – still in the field. I came back to report and pick up a few more shinobi…” He sheepishly smiled down at her pained expression. “Tsunade suggested I stop by before heading back out to let you know we were going to be gone for a while longer….Er, she didn’t want you to start to worry and lose focus at the hospital…” He waited for the blow he was sure would be coming.
After a startled moment, during which her eyes searched his for the truth, she let out a sigh of relief. She lowered her head and breathed into his chest, “Thank god.” Nevertheless, a light flush began to creep across her face as she thought of her hasty conclusion and, pulling herself away just a little, she smacked the silver haired jonin upside the back of his head.
Kakashi made no effort to dodge. He had learned from experience that to do so would dull the satisfaction the kunoichi was able to derive from the minor punitive measure and, generally, she would just hit him again – harder.
Then, much to his confusion, she made no move to disengage herself from him after administering her minor punishment. Wrinkling his brow slightly in uncertainty he looked down at the pink haired woman snuggled up against him. Though he hated to admit it, he had no objections to holding her for as long as she liked, but he wanted nothing to do with taking advantage of her. Resting his hands on her shoulders, and resisting the urge to allow them to slide down to the small of her back and once again pull her closer, he asked, "Um Sakura... Are you going to let go now?"
She pulled herself closer to him and buried her face in his sweater, enjoying the scent – she found she had missed it, after not seeing him for a while. “No," she answered.
Clearly surprised, he wasn’t sure what to say and settled on a syllable of confusion. “Eh?”
“Mmm, you’re warm.”
He realized then that the slight shiver he had felt from her wasn’t entirely due to the close call with her boys – she was freezing. “That’s it," he ordered. "Come on, pack your things.”
“Huh?” She shook her head and stepped back from him in surprise. “What?”
“Pack whatever you’ll need for a month or so. You can’t stay here.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ll not let you freeze.” He smiled at her surprised expression. “Naruto and Sasuke would kill me if I did.”
She laughed, giving in. “Okay, okay.” She shuffled off to the kitchen to quickly dump the now cold water and to put her tea things away before heading to her room. As she grabbed clothes and toiletries she called out to the jonin waiting in her living room. “Where are we going?”
He waited for her to return with bag in hand before evasively answering, “Someplace warm.”
She looked at him questioningly.
He sighed. “Just give me your bag and come on, Sakura.” He used his no-nonsense voice, reserved only for his genin team, and felt faintly gratified to see her obey without a second thought.
Silently, they made their way across the village together to the slightly shabby-chic section of town where he resided.
She paused upon realizing where they were going.
He turned to look at her questioningly. “Sakura?”
“Kakashi… I couldn’t…”
“Sakura, what kind of a… friend would I be if I let you freeze while my nicely heated apartment goes unused?"
She hesitated, still unsure.
"Come on" he coaxed. "I’ll be leaving again tomorrow morning with the reinforcements for my mission. You’re welcome to stay as long as you need. Besides, how many times have you let people crash at your place, myself included?”
She still hesitated, though she was unsure why she felt the need to think about it – if the offer had come from Naruto or Sasuke she would have immediately accepted. Yet the fact remained that, although she had long since lumped Kakashi in with her two other boys, she still treated him differently. There was something subtly dissimilar about her feelings for him and, somehow, accepting the use of his apartment while he was away didn’t seem appropriate.
“C’mon Sakura, it’s freezing. And, I’m not going to accept ‘no’ for an answer.”
Startled, she looked up to study his face and found only genuine concern... and a trace of something she couldn’t quite identify.
Meanwhile, Kakashi was becoming impatient – it was cold. He took a step toward the pink haired woman, obviously intending to make a grab for her.
Her eyes widened as she realized his intent and she hastily nodded. “Okay, okay," she said. "I’m coming.”
Suddenly feeling playful (although he was uncertain why), he grinned in response. “Too late” he said and made a grab for her
Too cold to make any effort to avoid her former sensei, Sakura allowed him to scoop her up and toss her over his shoulder. She sighed in mock irritation. “You just had to, didn’t you?”
He laughed as he took to the roofs to expedite the trip to his apartment. “If you’re complaining I can always drop you…” He loosened his grip slightly as he spoke and chuckled upon feeling her hastily cling to him. “Well?” he prompted.
“Nuh-uh," she answered. "Warm." Sakura grinned mischievously as an impish idea struck her. Stealthily, she managed to slip her freezing hands past his scarf and under the collar of his thick sweater.
The silver haired man yelped with surprise and almost dropped her upon feeling her ice cold hands against his neck. “Sakura!”
She giggled. “You’re the one who decided to carry me. Now you have to deal with the consequences.”
“Fine, fine, if this is how you’re going to treat your old teacher, when he’s just trying to help you…”
“It’s not my fault,” she huffed petulantly. “I’m cold and, for some completely unfair reason, you’re toasty.”
~*~*~*~
Carefully, he set her and the two bags down in his living room after turning the heat on and up. “You know where everything is," he said. "Let me just dig up a spare set of keys for you…” Then he paused. “You’re not going to take advantage of the situation are you?” he asked as he continued to rummage around in one of his junk drawers. The thought of his precious Icha Icha collection going up in smoke – as retribution for something he might do in the future to annoy her – had just flickered across his mind’s eye. Sakura had, in the past, when thoroughly annoyed with him for some reason or other, hinted that his beloved books would suffer the consequences if he didn't shape up. The threat had usually been issued after he had skipped out on some sort of medical treatment. Nevertheless, Kakashi was suddenly very happy that, before he had set out on his last mission, he had taken the time to conceal Jiariya's manuscript and original sketches – he had been unable to force himself to burn it as common sense dictated – in a sealed box under a loose floorboard in his hall closet. The last thing he wanted was for Sakura, or anyone else for that matter, to accidentally come across them.
She laughed. “That would be a poor way to repay your kindness.”
“Good,” he answered, as he triumphantly pulled an old, spare set of keys from the drawer and turned to face her. He frowned when he saw that she was shivering a little, despite the slowly heating apartment. But then, when their hands touched for a moment as she smiled and accepted the keys, the older shinobi looked startled.
“Sakura, your hands are still freezing!” Without thinking, he took both her hands to cup them in his own, his frown deepening as he realized how cold she actually was.
She blushed as she made a half-hearted attempt to pull her hands from his. “Sorry," she murmured. "I did tell you I was cold, didn’t I?”
“Guess so," he answered. Briskly, he rubbed her hands between his own a couple times and let them go. "Why don’t you get your things and take a bath? There's a really nice public one, just a little ways down the street. It uses water from one of the only hot springs in the area and it's supposed to be especially good for chasing away the chills. You’ve keys, and I guess I should probably head off to brief the extra shinobi I’m to take back with me tomorrow… Think I was supposed to be there an hour or two ago…” Kakashi's musings trailed off as he caught her expression of sheer horror. “Something wrong, Sakura?”
“Er, um… I’m fine… I’ll use your bath if you don’t mind.”
“Eh? Sure, sure. No problem.” He looked at her questioningly.
She chuckled even as she blushed a bit. “I've been to that bath a couple times and, uh, its cotton-top hour there… The last thing I really want to hear about, well... ever, is Naruto’s pervy sage.”
“Come again?”
“Jiraiya. For some undetermined reason, the little old ladies seem to be quite attracted to the old pervert.” Sakura shuddered. “I hate to even think it, but it’s probably those horrible, little books he writes.”
He laughed. “If you wait an hour or so, I'm sure the old ladies will clear out making room for a younger crowd. I believe Kurenai and Anko usually like to go later on in the afternoon.”
To his surprise her blush, which had almost completely faded, returned full force. “Uh, no thanks. I’ll just stick to your bath if you don’t mind.” Even through her embarrassment a small part of her wondered how he knew when Anko and Kurenai went to the public baths... though, not enough to actually ask him.
He chuckled at her obvious discomfort. “Let me guess," he teased. "The topic switches to subjects that are a little too close to home, then?” Kakashi figured that the subjects in question were Naruto and/or Sasuke although, after his more than enlightening eavesdropping session at the hot spring, he supposed he shouldn’t exclude himself from the list of awkward conversation topics Sakura might encounter in the public bath.
She turned from him on the pretext of looking for some bathing things from her bag and mumbled, “You have no idea how right you are,” in a voice she thought was too quiet for him to hear.
The pink haired woman was, of course, wrong – he grinned to himself at her comment. However, he decided not to press her. “Suit yourself. I’ll be back later…” He paused as he remembered his shopping bag. With a smile he picked it up and, when she turned at the sound of it's rustling, raised it for her to see. “Oh and I’d like dinner please. I’ve picked up what you’ll need…”
Sakura nodded and smiled in return. She had expected him to make the request. “I’m almost afraid to ask when you’ll be back," she said. "Keep in mind that if you’re really late your food will be cold. I’ll not try to guess when you’ll actually arrive.”
He laughed. “Plan on eating at seven and, if I’m late, it’s my own fault that my food is cold.”
~*~*~*~
The next morning Sakura stared in disbelief at a bank of almost empty kitchen cupboards. Kakashi had been so thorough in picking up the ingredients for their dinner that she hadn’t needed to go looking through his cupboards until now. She knew that he had just returned from an extended mission, but still, there was literally no real food to be found in any of the obvious locations. Grumbling to herself, she realized it was a good thing that there was a little twenty-four hour convenience store only a block or two away from where he lived.
Gathering her things she quietly made her way through the living room toward the door. As she passed the couch where Kakashi still lay sleeping, she saw that his blanket had slipped down to reveal his bare, well-defined chest, and she paused to pull it back up around his shoulders. Of course (to her annoyance), even though he wasn’t wearing a shirt he was still wearing his mask. A small part of her wondered if he had done it intentionally, just to tease her. The pink haired woman was also fairly certain that her light touch must have roused him – yet, he was choosing to lie there as if he was still sleeping. Sakura decided not to acknowledge it, figuring that he would fall back asleep as soon as she took her leave... or, at least, pretend to do so.
She quickly made her way to the little convenience store. Ignoring a clearly inquiring look from the shopkeeper, she picked up what she considered to be the essentials, as well as a couple extras, for she planned to make her gracious host a surprise if he was still in residence when she returned. Looking at her watch she decided that, more than likely, he would be since it was barely past seven. In Kakashi Time that was still the middle of the night – unless, of course, the jonin was actually on a mission.
Re-entering his apartment as quietly as possible she saw that he was indeed where she had left him... and that the blanket had slipped again. She wondered briefly if he had done it on purpose. Regardless, she moved softly back to his side and adjusted the blanket to cover what she really hoped was an at least partially-clad Copy Ninja, smiling for no particular reason as she did so.
~*~*~*~
Kakashi quietly chuckled when he felt her rearrange the blanket he had intentionally shifted off himself for the second time; she seemed determined to be a considerate house guest. He figured this was probably due to the fact that she had found herself in his bedroom that morning, instead of on the couch where she had fallen asleep and been determined to spend the night. In the end, however, he had won the argument – he had waited for her to drift off and then, putting his stealth skills to dubious use, had moved her to his bed; then he had taken her place on the couch. He only regretted that he hadn't been able to see the expression on her face when she had discovered where she had been sleeping.
A couple minutes later, while he was debating between falling back asleep or actually getting up, the smell of what he assumed to be breakfast wafted his way. His decision was made – Kakashi rose, stretched and, not bothering to pull on a shirt, made his way blearily to his kitchen. Sure enough, Sakura was there at his stove, minding a pot of something that smelled pretty good.
“G’morning Sakura.” He yawned and took a seat at his table. “So, what’s for breakfast?” he asked hopefully.
She turned to greet him. “’Morning Kakashi. I’m making rice porridge… though, I do have to admit I cheated since I didn’t have enough time to make it from scratch.”
“Mmm, doesn’t matter to me. It still smells good.”
She laughed. “I imagine anything would smell good to you, 'O he of the empty cupboards'.”
“Eh heh-heh, sorry about that. I’ve been away…” He lifted his hand to the back of his neck sheepishly.
“No worries.” She filled a freshly cleaned bowl and turned to hand it to him, along with a couple slices of buttered toast and a cup of steaming, hot tea. “Here, I promise not to turn and look.”
Thinking about it before he touched his porridge, he made a decision. “Sakura, I…”
She waved a hand at him negligently without turning from what she was doing. “Just eat Kakashi. I’ll not try to peek.” Her hands were still busy with something he couldn’t see.
Shrugging, he lowered his mask and proceeded to eat and drink while his food was still warm. As he ate he wondered what on earth she was doing, since breakfast was obviously ready. He watched her move about his kitchen as if it were her own, every now and then taking a sip of tea or a bite of porridge.
After a few moments, his curiosity got the better of him. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Eh? Oh, um, just making lunch. I’ve a long shift at the hospital scheduled today and I probably won’t have time to stop to eat a proper meal.” She shrugged and continued to work.
He laughed. “You’re making a bento? I seem to remember a certain young lady dead set against ever making something as domestic as a bento for her team.”
Without looking she launched the wooden spoon she had been using to stir the rice porridge at his head. “As you should know, my boxed lunches are quite tasty.”
Deftly, he caught the spoon. “Ah, yes… I’d forgotten. Times change, I see.”
“Kakashi.” She growled warningly.
He laughed at the annoyed kunoichi. “Suzume has a lot of explaining to do one of these days, I swear.”
“It’s not entirely her fault.” The pink haired woman grumbled. “If you men wouldn’t take advantage of poor young kunoichi and their recently learned domestic skills we wouldn’t have to under-exaggerate our abilities…”
“Under-exaggerate? Sakura, I was convinced that you’d completely failed.”
“Well…. Sasuke made me nervous, so the extra dash of salt tended to become a couple extra pinches, or extra minutes on the fire…” She paused. “Um, I never intended to make my cooking inedible... just not tasty enough for you to decide that I had to do the cooking every time we set up camp.”
He laughed at her embarrassed tone. “You’re forgiven. And, thank you for breakfast. It was delicious.” As he spoke he replaced his mask and rose from the table.
“You’re welcome.” She blushed a little as she turned and handed him a couple of boxes.
“Eh? What’s this?” he asked, accepting the two bento.
“Your lunch. I figured you wouldn’t take the time to make one before you left.” She laughed a little nervously. “Besides, I probably owe you for all the times I made you eat something completely inedible.”
~*~*~*~
“You’re late,” Genma stated flatly, as he and the rest of the group watched the elite, silver haired jonin saunter toward them. They had been waiting over an hour for him to appear.
Kakashi laughed a little nervously. “Well you see…" he replied, "I was on my way when, from out of nowhere, a lovely lady ambushed me and insisted she make me breakfast and a boxed lunch. I couldn’t possibly say ‘no’ without offending her, now could I?”
