Chapter Twenty-Three: Something to Come Home to
Exhausted, the silver haired shinobi and his senbon wielding compatriot made their way back to the younger man’s apartment. It had been a long and difficult mission and now all they wanted was to sleep in a secured location. Genma intended to crash on Kakashi’s couch as his own apartment was on the other side of the village and, after spending the entire previous day and most of the night traveling back to the village, he didn't really want to attempt the trek at three in the morning.
The two ninja stumbled and swayed slightly as they made their way into the apartment; still, in spite of their fatigue they made no sound. It was then that instincts ingrained by a lifetime of training paid off – they both sensed the presence of another person in the apartment. Carefully, the two tired men made their way to the bedroom, ready to put their ehxaustion aside and deal with a possible enemy.
Instead of an intruder, however, they found something else entirely.
“Shit, Kakashi!” The brown haired shinobi exclaimed softly. “Is there something you haven’t told me... or anyone else in the village for that matter?”
Sleeping peacefully in the Copy Ninja’s bed as if she belonged there was one of the most sought after kunoichi in the village. Belatedly, Kakashi remembered giving Sakura the use of his apartment, although he couldn’t quite figure why she was wearing one of his old jonin shirts. Not that he minded – he rather liked the way she looked in it even if he would never actually admit it; nevertheless, the implications alone were enough to set off his moral alarm. As if on cue, she shifted a little under their scrutiny, murmured something neither could quite catch and tossed the covers aside to reveal one of her long bare legs... and the fact that she wasn’t wearing any sort of pajama bottoms.
Pulling the wide-eyed Genma along with him, Kakashi exited his bedroom to return to the living room before the question of ‘is she wearing panties?’ could be asked or, worse, inadvertently answered. As they walked out, the silver haired man noticed that Sakura didn't seem to have any of her belongings, and a part of him had to wonder. Sure enough, once there, the brown haired man raised an eyebrow questioningly. Kakashi lifted his hand to rub the back of his head as if in embarrassment and chuckled a little nervously.
“Uh, must have slipped my mind that I gave her permission to stay here until the heat was turned on at her place…" he said. "She lives in that new building, the one owned by that skinflint, Hideki. He skipped town to visit his sister and forgot to switch the building from air conditioning to heat before he left. I couldn’t let her stay there and freeze… so I let her stay here…”
“What I wouldn’t give…” Genma trailed off with a little bit of awe evident in his voice, then shook his head as if in disbelief of his friend’s luck. As usual with the lecherous man, however, he recovered quickly. “Quite a nice sight to come home to after a long mission, isn’t it?” The brown eyed shinobi commented, as he smirked knowingly at his friend.
“Pull your mind from the gutter, Genma. She’s a former student who needed help from her old teacher – nothing more.”
“So, there’s nothing between you two then? She’s just here because you haven’t been and she needed a place to stay?” His tired voice revealed more interest than the Copy Ninja wanted to hear.
“Eh?” Kakashi turned to face his friend sharply, not liking this line of questioning. “Why on earth would you think that there would be something more between us?” His mind panicked a little as he spoke, despite his outward appearance of puzzlement. He had thought that he had been doing fairly well in keeping his feelings for his former student outwardly platonic, even if he had, unfortunately, failed miserably in the dark depths of his Icha Icha addicted mind (receiving that original manuscript had truly been the last straw). Still, admitting his feelings to himself and actually acting upon them were two completely different things to the famously stoic man.
“Just checking, wouldn’t want to intrude…” Genma smiled, then moved as if to go back to the bedroom. The taller shinobi stopped him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The tone of Kakashi's voice had taken on a barely noticeable edge – he was tired and did not want to deal with the womanizer’s interest in his former student.
“Well, if you hadn’t noticed, you only have one couch and one fairly large bed… Since there’s nothing between the two of you I thought I may as well go try my luck with the beautiful kunoichi currently sleeping in your bed – one that’s conveniently meant for two.” He widened his eyes in mock concern, “Oh, that is, of course, if you don’t want to have a try first? It is your apartment and bed after all.”
The Copy Ninja’s usually composed expression flickered for a moment. “Out!” he growled as he pointed to the door.
“Aw, come now, Kakashi, be reasonable. I’m exhausted!” Genma back-pedaled hastily. He had not expected the elite ninja would take him seriously or that he would react quite so defensively. He realized then that he had miscalculated his friend’s compulsion to shelter his only female student.
“Get out now, tired or not. You won't be staying here tonight. She deserves better than to be woken up by someone like you in the middle of the night.”
“Aw, Kakashi – I didn’t mean it. I know you don’t like letting other men try and take advantage of her. But, I mean, she is a grown woman, a kunoichi for god's sake, and she really can take care of herself. Easily.” He sighed, finding no change to the silver haired man’s expression or resolve. “Of course I’ll sleep out here on the floor,” he said, his voice turned wheedling as he hoped his friend would let him stay. “I won't go near your room and I'll leave as soon as–”
“No. Genma, I trust you with my life, but not my former student. Go home. I’ll see you tomorrow at the debriefing.” There was a note of finality in his voice that alerted the shaggy haired man that the conversation was over and that Kakashi would not change his mind.
Defeated, Genma made his way to the door and paused before leaving. “You know," he said, "you’ve been awfully protective of her lately. If you’re not careful, someone might suspect your feelings for the her may run deeper than they should as a former teacher and current friend.” He turned to catch the silver haired man’s eye. “If they do, and you don’t do anything about it, one way or another you’re going to have to let her go. Some man, be he ninja or civilian, will come along and take her, whether you consent or not. She’s far too attractive to stay single forever, Naruto and Sasuke approving or not.”
Genma then hurriedly exited the apartment, not waiting for his friend’s reaction as he was certain it wouldn’t bode well for the messenger.
~*~*~*~
Once the lecherous man made his exit, Kakashi cautiously padded back to the bedroom. Momentarily banishing Genma’s troubling comments in favor of something more pressing, he reentered the bedroom. Though he silently berated himself for what he was doing, the part of him that wanted to keep Sakura safe insisted that he double-check. He had noticed something was not quite right just before he had hurried his friend from the room.
He cautiously slipped next to the bed to get a better look at her. She was still sleeping peacefully with one of her legs almost entirely exposed. Kicking himself for violating her privacy, he inched a little closer and unhappily confirmed his earlier suspicion. There were indeed several deep, purplish marks discoloring her leg, some of which extended from under the hem of the shirt she had borrowed; now that he was closer, he could also discern the faintest traces of additional marks across her shoulder and neck.
Frowning, and feeling concerned, he shook his head, not quite sure of what he had found. As his friend had just pointed out, Sakura was an extremely capable kunoichi – such bruising had no place on her body. Plus, aside from being a competent shinobi, she was a medic; even if she should happen to receive such marks, removing them should have been child’s play for someone of her skill level. Something was definitely wrong, but for the life of him he couldn't come up with a plausable scenario that would result in Sakura injured and unable to heal herself. Then, as he leaned a bit closer, trying to make sense of what he was seeing, he inadvertently alerted the deeply sleeping woman to his presence.
Sakura's eyes opened with a start and focused on him, her hand making an aborted motion toward a concealed kunai before relaxing. She was still mostly asleep, however, and Kakashi realized that she would probably not remember anything when she awoke in the morning. “’Kashi…" she murmured "...shoulda known… be back… late ’s always…but still here n’theless…” She smiled sleepily at him. “Always there when… really need you…” Then, she shifted a bit in her sleep, pulling her leg back under the covers. “Hmm… knight ’n shi’ng… ’BU armor…” The rest of whatever she might have said was lost in a sigh as her breathing slowly deepened and she drifted back to sleep, apparently satisfied that the presence which had woken her was not a threat.
A completely dumbfounded Kakashi made his way back to his living room. Had Sakura implied that she had needed him and he hadn’t been there or, rather, that he had, as usual, arrived late? Did she mean too late? The bruising he had noticed on her returned to the forefront of his mind. What, he wondered, had happened? Since there was no sign of her personal belongings, she had obviously already moved back to her own apartment. So, why was she now back in his, wearing one of his shirts? Had she come to his apartment looking for him, only to remember after arriving that he had not returned? If she had, that might explain why she was wearing one of his shirts, but not much else. Shaking his head in tired confusion he settled himself on the couch. She clearly cared for him more than he had realized, and thought more highly of him than he would ever have guessed. Feeling conflicted, he allowed himself to sink into sleep, completely drained in more ways than one.
~*~*~*~
Kakashi felt himself being pulled slowly from the glorious world of sleep, despite his determination to stay peacefully unaware of the world around him. Opening his natural eye a crack, he noted the golden sunlight pouring in from one of the windows to leave a splash of warmth on the couch before him. Cautiously, he started to stretch, only to pause and wince as his exertions from the mission, combined with a night on the couch, caught up with him. Then, as he inhaled to yawn, the scent of breakfast invaded his nostrils.
Curious, he rose and made his way to his kitchen, knowing he would find his former student making breakfast. Pausing in the doorway of the kitchen, he was inordinately pleased (though he would never outwardly admit it) to see that Sakura was still wearing his shirt. It was much too large for her – the collar clung to one side of her neck leaving the excess to drape across her shoulder and the hem easily reached almost to her knees. She had also had to roll the sleeves quite a few times in order to allow her arms enough freedom of movement to cook. He was also happy to see that the bruising he had noticed before was gone. After a moment, he realized that he was staring and he made his way quietly to the table, fairly certain she knew he was there.
Sure enough, she turned to him as soon as he was seated. “Good morning, Kakashi," she said. "I wasn’t expecting to see you for another couple days. Must be nice to be home early.” Though she smiled as she spoke, he could tell that something was not quite right.
Setting aside the faint feeling that it wasn’t a good morning for Sakura, he raised a hand in greeting. “’Morning Sakura. With the extra men, we were able to finish the assignment earlier than anticipated.” He sniffed the air appreciatively. “What’s for breakfast?” he asked, hoping to draw her attention away from his mission. “Smells good.”
She giggled, figuring that a man who had made a career of being late didn’t want to discuss something as embarrassing as being early although, silently, she was hoping he wouldn’t ask why she had borrowed one of his shirts, or about her lack of personal effects. She didn’t really want to talk about it with him – it was just too embarrassing – although she knew that, eventually, she would have to in order to get his help.
“Well… as I mentioned, I wasn’t expecting you back so soon…" said Sakura. "But, you’re in luck. Pancake batter can easily be watered down with a little milk, an extra egg and a bit of vanilla – although, why the hell a non-cooking bachelor has vanilla in his cupboard I’ll never know – and, voila, we have crepes. The fruit salad I was going to make will make a nice filling with a little bit of sugar and spice to make some sauce....” She paused, tilting her head to the side as if in thought. “You know, I think I even remember seeing an ancient jar of chocolate sauce in your fridge…” Saying this, she moved away from the shallow frying pan she had been tending to rummage in his refrigerator. “Ah! Here it is…”
She turned to look at him for the first time since he had entered and raised an eyebrow. “I really don’t want to know what you were doing with chocolate sauce in your fridge," she said, with a wink. "The vanilla was bad enough, but chocolate sauce? I think the world may come to an abrupt end.”
Kakashi chuckled at the pink haired kunoichi, at which she sighed, rolled her eyes and moved back to the pan to flip the crepe. “Sounds good," he answered. "Better than anything I’ve ever made for myself.”
She laughed. “Since you’ve been so nice to let me stay here I figure I can spoil you a little.” She turned then, to bring him a plate laden with fruit filled crepes drizzled with the afore mentioned questionable chocolate sauce and a steaming cup of tea. “Enjoy. I promise I will be out of your hair as soon as I can find a new apartment.” She looked at him anxiously. “I hope that’s still okay with you, um, now that you’re back? Your couch is actually pretty comfortable considering it was intended for sitting and not sleeping. Well, at least it was for however long it was that you let me sleep there…”
“Sakura, I said you could stay as long as you needed. Me being here or not doesn’t change anything.” He paused as his brain caught up with what she had actually said. “A new apartment? What’s happened with your old one?”
Suddenly she turned her gaze from his as if she found her bare feet to be the most fascinating things she had ever seen.
“Sakura?” he asked carefully. He frowned to himself at her reaction – this wasn’t like her at all. Unbidden, the memory of watching her sleep the night before invaded his mind, the worrisome bruises of particular concern.
She sighed audibly. Lifting her gaze from her feet, but still not meeting his eyes, she answered him. “I don’t really want to talk about it right now, but I will be starting to look for a new apartment today. I, um… I just can’t stay there anymore…” As her eyes finally found his, a note of pleading entering her voice. “Er, it is okay for me to stay here for at least a couple more days... right?”
Feeling concerned and a little confused, the silver haired shinobi resolved to get to the bottom of what was bothering his former student. “Of course, Sakura. I’ve already told you that you can stay as long as you like.” He smiled to show his sincerity. Visions of omelets, rice porridge, well stocked bento and now crepes danced in his head at the thought of having her around for another couple days. Then, his lecherous friend's comment about coming home to her crept to the front of his mind, only to be viscously squashed as unwarranted and inappropriate.
She visibly relaxed and returned his smile before moving back to his stove to make another batch of crepes. Without turning, she called over her shoulder, “Are you going to want more?”
His mouth was full so he did his best to make an affirmative noise. “Mmmph-mmm.”
She laughed, and continued with the crepes. “I’ll take that as a 'yes'.”
He easily cleaned his plate and decided to tease her just a little. “You know, Sakura... if you’re going to stay here while I’m home, I’ll need something from you as payment – rent, if you like.”
She visibly stiffened, stopping in middle of filling a crepe. “Oh?”
Keeping his mirth to himself as best he could he continued. “Yes. For each night you spend here I’d like you to…” he paused dramatically to draw out the tension he could sense she was feeling. “…make me breakfast.” He grinned and ducked as she tossed a spatula at him without turning around. “Oh," he added, "and they won’t count toward the homemade meals you’ve already promised me.”
“Kakashi!”
“Aw, Sakura – you'd begrudge your poor old teacher a couple of home cooked meals? Especially after he so generously offered you a place to stay?”
She was sorely tempted to turn around, but managed to stay facing his stove. “You’re not old Kakashi," she said with a slight smile. "Just lazy.”
~*~*~*~
“You’re late!”
“Oh, am I?”
“Of course you are!”
“Ah-ha-ha, I see that I am. Sorry about that. This beautiful woman decided to make breakfast for me and I just couldn’t seem to convince her not to waste her time.” He smiled apologetically at the irate blonde woman sitting in front of him, while ignoring the open-jawed look he was currently receiving from a certain senbon wielding shinobi.
Tsunade eyed him suspiciously as she vaguely remembered that her pink haired medic had been squatting in his apartment while he was away. After a moment she dismissed the wild idea that had entered her mind as improbable although... a small part of her just had to wonder.
~*~*~*~
Kakashi returned from his debriefing to find that the industrious kunoichi had been on a cleaning spree and, as a consequence, his apartment was completely spotless – cleaner than he ever remembered it being. As he wandered in and marveled at the cleanliness he found her finishing his laundry.
She looked up at his approach and smiled. “That was quick.”
He shrugged. “There wasn’t a whole lot to say. I’d already said most of it when I came back for reinforcements and since it went smoothly from there…” he trailed off realizing that she wasn’t only folding his towels and bedding, but his uniforms from his mission as well. “Sakura, you really did not have to do my laundry!” he exclaimed, a bit embarrassed at the thought of her handling his dirty clothing.
She giggled at his semi-horrified expression. “No problem, Kakashi. I needed more to round out the load and figured, while I was at it, I might as well do everything.”
Unsure of what else to say, he settled on, “Thanks, Sakura,” and ruffled her hair as he knew she hated.
“Kakashi!” She swatted his hand away from her head.
He chuckled and took the laundry basket from her. “I’ll finish this. I’m sure you have other things to do today.” He expected her to laugh and come back at him with some sort of rejoinder. When nothing was forthcoming, however, he took a moment to actually look at her and saw to his puzzlement that she was staring at her feet and twiddling with her fingers. He sighed. “Sakura, whatever it is, out with it.”
She didn’t look up, although she did stop fidgeting. However, she was clearly agonizing over something and Kakashi didn’t like it, whatever it was that she had run from was much worse than he had originally guessed and he couldn't help but feel even more concerned than he had been before. He persisted. “I haven’t asked you why you've decided to look for a new place, or why you can’t stay at your apartment until you find a new one... or, why you don’t seem to have any of your belongings here…”
“I-I really don’t want to talk about it Kakashi.” She interrupted him before he could verbalize any conclusions he may have drawn on his own. “I was going to go out for some lunch and then back to my place to pick up a few things before checking out the apartments I found in the paper this morning…” She trailed off, not wanting to continue with her train of thought. “Um… I was kind of hoping you would be able to join me…” she looked up at him with something akin to pleading in her eyes and a light flush creeping into her cheeks. As incredibly embarrassing as it was, a part of her was still a bit shaken, and she didn't want to go back by herself.
Frowning to himself, his concern only deepening, he nodded. “On one condition,” he said.
Startled that he had agreed without asking for more details, she tilted her head, looking at him in askance as she silently requested that he elaborate.
“At some point, it doesn't have to be now, I would like for you to tell me what it was that sent you flying from your own apartment back to mine – whatever it was, couldn't have been good, and I think it might be something I will want to know about.”
She cringed a little and nodded. “I rather suspect you’ll see when we get there…” The pink haired woman shook her head as if clearing unpleasant thoughts and smiled faintly at her former sensei.
Kakashi wanted to ask her what she meant, but wisely decided against it. Clearly, whatever had happened was pretty bad, and she was having a hard time talking about it.
~*~*~*~
As they walked from the little bistro where they had stopped for lunch, he watched her from out of the corner of his eye and noted how she seemed to grow more and more anxious as they drew closer to her apartment building. If he had not already been suspicious of the source of her behavior, the several large floral arrangements on her doorstep with cards, seemingly all bearing apologies of some sort, might have tipped him off.
She stepped over the flowers without a first, never mind a second, glance. Seeing this, he raised an eyebrow, but decided not to say anything. As they entered her living room area she turned to him. Kakashi thought she seemed to be slightly jittery.
“Would you please head to the kitchen and clear out the perishable food along with anything non-perishable you may like?” she asked, in an almost hesitant voice.
Frowning to himself, Kakashi complied. It took him only a couple moments to clear the groceries from her refrigerator and cupboards; he guessed she probably hadn’t been back in her apartment long before fleeing back to his for reasons unknown. Though she had suggested he would probably figure it out on his own upon entering her apartment, as far as he could see, everything appeared to be normal – except for the miniature garden currently blooming unheeded on her doorstep.
Once he had finished with the food, he decided to go looking for Sakura to see if she needed any help or she would explain herself. His frown, which had faded as he cleaned out her cupboards, returned as he started down her hall – it was a complete shambles. It didn't need a seasoned tracker such as himself to read the signs of an obviously violent struggle. Two towels lay on the floor – one partially in the bathroom, the other across the hall from the bathroom door. Most of the photographs normally lining her walls lay broken on the floor. When he looked in the bathroom as he passed, he was not surprised to see further damage. The shower curtain had been ripped from the rod, which had been partially pulled from the wall and toiletries lay scattered about, several of which were opened or leaking, causing strange pools of colored liquids on the bathroom floor. One of the taps on the sink had been broken and there was water everywhere; apparently, the sink had leaked all over the place until someone had turned it off at the source.
What Sakura had run from appeared to be far worse than he had originally suspected, and he was furious with whoever had dared to lay an unwanted finger on his former student. Someone had dared attack his former student in her own home. Kakashi made his way to the pink haired woman’s room – he wanted answers, most notably regarding who, and he wouldn’t let her put him off this time.
She looked up as he entered; he caught a fleeting moment of fear in her eyes before she visibly relaxed and glanced back down at what she was doing.
“Sakura…” he started, trying to keep the sheer rage he was feeling toward her attacker from his voice, and managing to feel awkward at the same time. Although the signs had been easy enough to read he couldn’t quite understand how it had happened.
She looked up at him and sighed, easily able to understand the conflicting emotions the older man must have been fighting, but still not really wanting to talk about what had happened. Nevertheless, knowing she would have to talk to someone about it, she steeled herself to explain the embarrassing incident to her former sensei. “I worked a double and a half, maybe more…" she began. "I’m not sure, it all kind of blurs together now. There was an industrial accident that caused a fire. All available medics were called in to help for as long as they were able – casualties were high and so was the number of injured. I stayed as long as I was able and did as much as I possibly could. When they finally had me escorted home… I had nothing left, physically or mentally. I was completely exhausted. All I wanted was to go home, take a shower and sleep for a day and a half…” she trailed off in thought before shaking her head, obviously very disappointed in herself.
As he listened, Kakashi's hands clenched at his sides, though he was doing his best to hide his fury.
If she noticed his inner struggle, she chose to ignore it and continued. “I know I closed and locked my door as I came in… the escort double checked from the outside. But then again to any half decent shinobi… or to a man with keys to all of the apartments, that wouldn’t really matter would it?” She laughed mirthlessly. “Hideki must have entered while I was in the shower and waited until I opened the bathroom door… He reeked of alcohol. He hadn't had any training, that was clear, but he is larger than I am and… well, as I already said, I had absolutely nothing left, no energy, no chakra…” she trailed off again obviously lost in her own thoughts.
The silver haired jonin was torn. His rage had reached new levels and he was in the mood to destroy something but, on the other hand, he wanted to try and comfort the obviously upset kunoichi. Though, she was outwardly calm, he knew her well enough to know how upset she was with both herself and her attacker. It was probably killing the fiercely independent woman to admit to her former sensei that she had nearly failed to defend herself in her own apartment.
“Regardless," Sakura was saying, "he only had the upper hand for a few minutes before I managed to take him down. Thinking back on it... I-I don't think he was actually trying to hurt me or... well, he didn't even look when I lost the second towel. He was fairly careful when trying to grab me for someone under the influence... I, I think he was trying to get me out of the apartment, kept pulling me to the door rather than..." She swallowed and shook her head, realizing not for the first time that the attack could have been much, much worse if the motive had been different.
"He didn't..." Kakashi started tentatively, wanting to be absolutely certain that her landlord hadn't actually hurt her at all, but not exactly wanting to put voice to his worst fear.
Hastily she shook her head. "No! Uh, no... nothing like that. I think it was more of a failed kidnapping attempt or something. We both know that I've certainly had plenty of those... um, anyway, I grabbed some clothes and ran. Guess I ended up in your apartment…” She finished packing, sighed again, and glanced back up at him. Expecting to see clear disappointment on his face and to receive a lecture on safety, instead she found herself involuntarily shrinking back from his expression of absolute rage. “K-Kakashi?” Sakura asked hesitantly – she had not seen him quite that angry in a long time.
Kakashi shook his head as he tried to organize his thoughts. Finally, he was able to snap himself out of his fury; seeing her uncertain expression he realized that he had been frightening the poor kunoichi and forced a smile. Then, without a word, he gathered the bags she had packed and carried them to her door.
When she didn't follow him he turned, caught the expression on her face, and decided he would need to say something to Sakura to ease her obvious concern. "I hope you packed something nice, there's a new little restaurant I've been wanting to try... thought we'd check it out tonight." He smiled as her expression changed from uncertainy to a hesitant excitement.
"Really?" She asked with some surprise, wondering if the frugal man was going to foot the bill.
"Yes. Now let's go home."
Feeling reassured, she rose and followed him.
~*~*~*~
“Ugh, Kakashi!” Sakura groaned as they re-entered his apartment. “I can’t believe you! And, that was by far the best apartment I’ve seen!”
The Copy Ninja shrugged unapologetically as he sank into his couch, feeling somewhat gratified at preventing her from making a bad decision. “That one wasn’t right for you," he answered. "Not close enough to the hospital.” He also hadn’t liked the way the landlord had looked at her, but certainly wasn’t about to mention that to her. The elite jonin wasn't quite satisfied that Hideki's motives hadn't included more than a simple straightforward kidnapping, and he had to admit to himself that he was still feeling a bit over protective of his former student. He absently ran his hand through his hair to dispel some of the awkwardness, removing his forehead protector as he did so.
She glared at him for a minute, knowing he was right, but still irritated with him nonetheless. “I swear, at this rate, I’ll never find a new apartment!” As she chided him, she made her way into his kitchen, pulled two bottles of juice from his refrigerator and returned to his living room. With a sigh, she handed one of the bottles to him and took up what had become her usual spot in his armchair.
He chuckled at her frustration, earning himself a dark glare. A small part of him realized he could easily get used to having her around, cooking, cleaning, providing company... and it terrified the rest of him.
Sakura rolled her eyes at his amusement and pulled out the somewhat battered real estate section of the paper for another examination. After a couple moments she glanced back up at him, her frustration returning full force as she realized they had looked at every single available apartment in the entire village.
“Damn it, Kakashi! Those were the last of them! I can’t believe I haven’t found anything yet!” She shook her head in annoyance. “At this rate, I’m never going to get out of your hair and into my own place.” She suddenly narrowed her eyes suspiciously as something sneaky and rather unbelievable occurred to her. “Kakashi… you haven’t gotten used to having me around, have you?”
He shrugged and opened his as-of-yet untouched bottle of juice, not wanting to let on to her that he had. In fact, he had discovered that he was rather reluctant to let her go – not only because he had grown fond of her cooking, but because he didn’t really want to let her stay on her own again with what had happened at her last place. Irrationally he couldn't help but feel a little over protective of Sakura, her all too understandable near miss had disturbed him more than he really wanted to admit and now he was having a hard time with the idea of letting her find a new apartment where he couldn't as easily protect her – of course, if ever necessary.
“Why, you smug bas-” she trailed off completely speechless as he deftly pulled his mask down to take a swig of the juice, not bothering to replace it.
With more pleasure than he had thought possible, he watched her freeze for a moment before her jaw dropped as she unabashedly stared at his now completely bare face.
“Something wrong, Sakura?” he asked, unable to hide his amusement.
“Y-you…” she swallowed and tried again. “Your mask…”
“Yes? What about it?” he prompted, doing his best not to laugh at her completely dumbfounded expression.
“You’re not wearing it…”
He nodded with a slight smile, noting that she flushed a little at the expression.
“Um, why?” she asked.
He shrugged. “You’ve been living here for a couple weeks now, and keeping the thing up all the time while I’m at home can be pretty troublesome. This is just easier…” He studied her flushing face. “Do you have an objection?”
“Oh! Um, no! Not at all!”
He smiled at her, watching her eyes widen to take in the (to her) alien expression. “Good."
~*~*~*~
“Oh, and before you even think of it, declining this mission is not an option.” Tsunade growled with annoyance at the elite jonin before her. She knew the generally stoic man well enough to see the excuse coming a mile away – especially since he had been providing her with them for the past couple weeks. “You’ve had your time off and then some, and declined the past four missions I’ve tried to assign to you. This one is mandatory.”
Kakashi sighed to himself, realizing that he should have known that he would eventually be sent back out in the field. “Fine, fine. I’ll leave tomorrow morning.”
“No, you’ll leave in two hours. It’s urgent enough that you need to start travelling today. Your mark needs to be taken out before giving a speech planned for three days from tomorrow.” She eyed him with open suspicion. “And, by the time you come back, I expect your former student to have found a new apartment. A girl her age should really have her own place.” Tsunade couldn’t help smirking to herself, as she added, “Besides, Sakura staying with you is keeping a portion of the male population frustrated… not that they’d be able do much if she wasn’t, but at least then they could hope.”
“Eh? Why are you telling me that? If you want Sakura out of my apartment, shouldn’t you be telling her?” Silently, Kakashi cursed himself – somehow, he thought, he must have let something slip in front of the hokage, though he wasn’t sure what it could have been. She was definitely on to his feelings for the pink haired medic in question and he was sure she would use that informaiton to her advantage if given the chance.
“I will," answered Tsunade, "but I wanted to make it clear to you too.” She narrowed her eyes and studied him. Jiraiya had been by to see her not too long ago and had seen fit to let her in on a couple of his observations – Kakashi's reaction had just about confirmed what she had heard. Tsunade didn’t really care if he and Sakura ended up together, but she’d be damned if she would let the sneaky Copy Ninja take subtle advantage of the situation. If he wanted Sakura and she was amenable then, fine, he could have her – but only if he did things properly and with some sort of actual relationship beyond former teacher and current friend. As far as Tsunade was concerned, Kakashi would have to put words to his feelings, and not just mooch off Sakura’s obvious soft spot for him. “Why was it again that she ended up in your apartment?" the Hokage then asked. "I can’t quite seem to remember what happened with her old one.”
“Water damage,” he replied vaguely, knowing that the blonde woman didn’t know the real reason. Or rather, that Sakura had made him promise not to do anything to her wayward former landlord or tell anyone, especially Tsunade, Naruto and Sasuke about it. She wanted to deal with it in her own time and in her own way. Unfortunately for Hideki, the Copy Ninja had little intention of complying with the kunoichi's reuqest but had been thus far foiled in his attempts to track down the rather elusive man. It would seem that the landlord had effectively skipped town, having sold the apartment building the day after the incident. Only his concern for his former student’s well-being had kept Kakashi from heading right out after the sleazy bastard. Regardless, he was an elite, one who specialized in tracking as well as assassination – finding the unfortunate man wouldn’t be too hard for him once he had the time to discretely take care of the situation.
“Ah, right, right…” Tsunade trailed off. She had known that he wouldn’t give her the real story, but had still hoped that he might let an additional detail slip. “Anyway, you leave in two hours, no excuses, that’s an order.”
Kakashi nodded. Then, as he exited the Hokage's office via the window, he wondered if he should leave Sakura a note to let her know he was going to be away for a couple of days, or if he should just let Tsunade tell her…
