That's MY Book!

Disclaimer: Heh, Naruto's creator... ME.... hah, what a laugh.

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Sakura woke up a few moments later, blinking to clear her sleepy eyes. Hmmm. Questions ran through her mind slowly. Questions like: When had she fallen asleep? Or, why was the bed so hard? And even, WTF was Sasuke doing in HER bedroom?!?!

The dark haired chuunin was sitting on the corner of her bed. The one that was pressed up into the corner of the room. He was slouched, his arms crossed as well as his legs.

'Grrr... Bastard,' Sakura clenched her teeth as she picked herself off from the floor, 'Wasn't even considerate enough to put me on the bed. Didn't even tell me he never had the book in the first place. Is he sleeping?'

She grabbed the nearest thing -a discarded book- and threw it as hard as she could at his head, smiling as she imagined the look on his face when the thing connected with his forehead. Of course, it could never happen. Not with Sasuke's reflexes... and training.... even if he... was asleep....?

So then... why was said chuunin suddenly blaringly awake, another NEWER bruise furnishing his pale face?

"What was that for?" An irritated Uchiha frowned, rubbing his palm over the offending wound.

Sakura gaped. Shocked. Had the book HIT Sasuke? Well, he had been asleep. But even so...

"I would appreciate it if you didn't take out your frustrations over losing the book on me." Sasuke growled pointedly, glaring at Sakura's green orbs.

That's when the chuunin seemed to lose it.

'What... the... fuck...???' Sasuke's frown turned into a look of almost worry.

The pink haired chuunin was clutching her sides, howling out laughter as if it was against the laws of sound itself for someone else to hear their own thoughts. Sasuke found himself eyeing the window as well as the door. Not to check if someone was there. Rather, he needed to keep an eye open on his possible escape routes. He WOULD knock a hole through the wall, floor, or ceiling if necessary. But he doubted that itself would have saved his hearing from another one of the pink haired chuunin's strange, deafening outbursts. He needed to stop it at its source.

"Sakura..."

Nope. That didn't work. Laughter was still streaming from her throat as if led to mistakenly believe it was supposed to resemble the niagra falls. He just might have to raise his voice.

Clearing his throat, Sasuke tried again, "Sakura."

Still no reaction. 'Dammit,' Sasuke growled to himself. He raised his voice for no man. Or woman. Or whatever it was the pink bundle of hysteric nerves was rolling on the floor before him. He never raised his voice unless it was life-threatening. Or something similar in nature.

'Why?' Sasuke demanded to some unknown listener, 'Why, damn it all, why? Hmm... I could always cut my ears off. No, that wouldn't help.'

He definately had to get her to stop. He was wincing now as her vocal chords managed to reach yet another inhuman pitch of volume. If you could put a name to it, the closest word to describe it would be 'ear-splitting'.

He grabbed the shoulders of the still laughing girl, pulling her up and shaking her, "Sakura."

Tears rolled from her eyes. That's how hard she was laughing. As she was pulled unwillingly to her feet, a small part of her functioning mind noticed how unstable she was. The floor seemed to sway under her.

'Haha... stop moving...' Her thoughts chastised with an asinine logic that the floor would obey.

She clutched at the shoulders of the chuunin before her, attempting to steady herself. It barely registered that Sasuke had a small frown on his face. Slowly, ever so slowly, Sakura's hysteric laughing toned down.

"Sakura, are you okay?" A feminine voice sounded from the window.

Doesn't ANY one use the door anymore?

"Ino-" Sakura giggled, still calming from the experience of losing her mind. She took a step to turn and face the blonde haired beauty only to realize she took a wrong step somewhere. Because she was falling forward. Forward into the cushion of Sasuke's lips.

Ino blanched. Sakura was kissing Sasuke. 'NOOOOOO!' her inner voice wailed, 'Sasuke is MINE.'

Sakura, in the meantime, was frozen. She was kissing Sasuke. Finally she was kissing Sasuke. Too bad she didn't like him that way anymore. But, what did she feel...? Huh, nothing. Interesting. She just hoped the gaping shinobi at the window wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"Hey, Ino, what's the hold up?" A nonchalantly curious Shikamaru popped up beside the blond girl. His brow raised at her open gaping before peering into the room. He blinked at what he saw, "Wow, I didn't think you guys would work out."

'What the-' Sakura blinked.

"What's everyone staring at?!" A boisterous voice questioned loudly, accompanied by a certain blond haired kitsune.

'Ack! Even Naruto?!' Sakura's thoughts blared, 'Doesn't anyone have anything else to do?'

Apparently not, because the crowd just kept growing. And despite the size of her window, they all seemed to be able to catch at least a glimpse of the dark haired shinobi kissing the pink haired one.

'WTF.' Sakura felt her face grow hot. Why wasn't Sasuke pulling back. Why wasn't SHE pulling back.

Neji just nodded at the sight, as if he had believed it was ineivitable. Hinata blushed and turned away. A chubby Choji popped up, complaining that it was boring and that they should all just go get some food. Kiba stared.

An irritated Iruka called up, "Naruto? Are we going or not?"

At this point, Sakura snapped out of it enough to shove Sasuke away. No more than a split second later Iruka was there, giving the two of them a confused glance, "What just happened..."

"N-nothing." Sakura stammered.

"We kissed." Sasuke shrugged.

"Eh! Sasuke!!" Sakura exclaimed, turning back to everyone, "I-it's not what it looks like."

But Iruka was already shooing everyone out of there. Sakura caught a few words. Like 'intimate', 'honor', and 'privacy'.

Sakura practically hung off the ledge of the window, "It's NOT like that! Guys!? GUYS?!?! HEY! Come back here!"

But the group of shinobi were hightailing it out of there, knowing better than to mess with the pink haired chuunin when she was mad. Seeing her chances of cleaning up the previous mess disappear, she wailed fruitlessly, "Let me explain!! Hello?!"

'Aw, darn it all.' Sakura whirled to face a smug looking Sasuke, "What are you up to?"

;-;

Kakashi had been in the Hokage's room, having accompanied Gaara there. But he had narrowly escaped when Tsunade pointed out the angry insect bites on him, knowing full well how much he despised the hospital.

"They're FINE." The silver haired jounin had called back as the door swung closed behind him. Gaara followed at a more reasonable pace.

'She doesn't want to come?' Kakashi pondered, 'I thought she would have been psyched.' Maybe he shouldn't have taken his mask off. But then again, she HAD kissed him this time.

'Yeah, like I was doing anything to stop it,' Kakashi almost grimaced before his thoughts turned to the few blissful moments, 'But it had felt so good.' Kakashi frowned again, 'Stop thinking like that. This can't work. I can't even get her to accept the mission. Then again, the power of persuasion could be used...'

The jounin shook his head. Hard. His mask slipped some, exposing his nose. A few of the women in the market place caught a glimpse of the sight and fainted. A few little girls turned red. Most just gaped.

"Whoops." Kakashi grinned sheepishly, fixing the mask. He had to be careful. Apparently just thinking about Sakura was dangerous. He had to focus on other things.

He didn't even notice the wave of disappointment that spread through the crowd as his face was concealed behind the ever familiar mask.

After the sand ninja had caught up, Kakashi turned to him, "I don't see why you chose Konoha, of all places, to visit. It's not very exciting."

"Visit?" Gaara's brow raised a tad bit, "This is not merely for my own benefit, Kakashi."

"Are you sure it just isn't the title of Kazekage getting a little too overbearing?"

"No, I am sure." Gaara replied, sidestepping to get out of the way as mob suddenly ran past.

The mob consisted of Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, Hinata, Kiba, Choji, and a few others. Naruto stopped at the sight of the two shinobi.

"Gaara! Kakashi-sensei!" He grinned widely, hands behind his head, "Didja hear the news?!"

"N-Naruto." Gaara nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"What news?" Kakashi inquired, not really interested. But he knew Naruto wouldn't leave them be until he asked.

"They kissed!!" The kyubii vessel exclaimed, not really making any sense to the clueless Gaara and Kakashi.

The jounin and Kazekage exchanged confused looks.

"Okaaay..." Kakashi replied slowly.

"Sakura and Sa-" Naruto started to say.

At this point Iruka had calmly walked up, grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt, and dragged him away. He gave a polite nod of greeting to Gaara and Kakashi first, of course. But Kakashi wouldn't have noticed.

'Sakura and...?!?!?! KISSING?' Kakashi made himself breath, 'It's OKAY. I'm not upset. No way. There was a simple explanation. Naruto was WRONG. Haha, of course. How could I doubt that infallible fact of life?'

Then he heard a stray voice from the crowd comment, "...yeah, and they were still in her room when we-"

There were so many things wrong with that sentence. They. In HER room. Still.

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed.

Gaara was left standing as the silver haired jounin disappeared before him. Frowning a bit, he scratched his maroon head. And Kakashi had said the town wasn't interesting.

;-;

"Sasuke, if you don't explain right now..." Sakura let her words trail off dangerously.

A smug air about him, Sasuke sat on the bed, arms crossed, "I don't feel I have to explain myself."

"I DO." Sakura's teeth ground angrily in her mouth, "Lately, you've been acting wierd. Tell me what's up right now."

His brow raised, "I am acting strange? I don't think I am the only one."

Sakura frowned, stepping forward to close the distance between them. But she found her way blocked. By a solid green jounin's vest. Confused, the pink haired chuunin blinked and looked up. She had ran into Kakashi's tensely muscular back.

'When did he...????'

"I would like to know what you think you're doing." The tone was stern. So stern, Sakura wouldn't have believed it was Kakashi if he hadn't been standing before her. Or rather, directly in front of her, facing away.

"I would ask you the same." Sasuke replied, his voice as serious as the jounin before him.

'What in the world?' Sakura frowned, stepping around Kakashi so she could face both of them, "What is going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Both Kakashi and Sasuke replied simultaneously. Which was followed by the two pointedly glaring at eachother.

But out of all three of them, the pink haired shinobi was the most frustrated, "I want YOU out and I want YOU out. Both of you. OUT. NOW."

"Gladly." Sasuke growled, finding no reason to stay now. He darted out the window before another word was said.

Sakura turned to the jounin, arms crossed, "You too."

Kakashi turned his black gaze on her. His stare was unnerving, "I need to know something first."

Suddenly finding herself starting to fidget, the chuunin forced herself to be calm as she replied, "What?"

'Don't ask about the book. Don't ask about the book,' she pleaded internally. 'She did NOT want to see a mad Kakashi. He was enough to deal with as he was now.'

Kakashi's eye seemed to drill into hers, "Did you kiss him back?"

Sakura blinked. That SO was not the question she had been expecting. Her expression turned bemused, "I don't think that's any of your business." Kakashi looked... ruffled. Upset. Over a kiss? Nah, that couldn't be it. Sakura must've been imagining it.

Well, she thought she had been. Until she found herself pinned against the wall, Kakashi's giving her a hardened stare, "Answer me. Did you kiss him back?"

Sakura's face reddened, embarrassed, "Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

"Sakura..." His voice was gruff. Had she only been playing with him the whole time? Had she just wanted to practice kissing on him so she could kiss Sasuke for real? Had he been a total and complete fool to fall for her? Of course, Kakashi wouldn't utter those words in a million years. Then he stepped back and speculated what he had just thought. Had HE, Kakashi, fallen for Sakura? More softly, he continued, "Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

"I'm... not." Sakura caught the turmoil of his thoughts through his eye. Then all of a sudden, it all clicked. Was Kakashi... THE great Copy Nin... jealous??

Inner Sakura snickered at the thought, grinning devilishly.

"It was a deep, passionate kiss." Sakura suddenly said before she could shut her mouth.

She wanted to see his reaction. She WANTED to figure out... well, something. She wasn't quite sure what it was just yet. But she knew she'd know once she found out. Yeah. That makes sense.

She thought it would be amusing. She thought she'd get a good laugh out of it. But she didn't expect to see Kakashi's dark eye droop a bit, stepping back as he said in a barely audible voice, "I see."

'So... everything before... had been nothing?' Kakashi sort of grimaced, a sudden pain stabbing him through the center of the chest. It felt worse than any shuriken or weapon lodged there could ever feel. It was unexplainable. Different. It HURT, 'I was a fool after all...'

Before Sakura realized it, she was alone in the room.

She hadn't expected this. This wasn't supposed to happen at all.

"What did I do?" She asked aloud, feeling a sudden loss. She had been so close. SO close to attaining... something. Something that should be unreachable. Unattainable.

She frowned. She had just wanted to joke around. Get a good laugh.

Then why did she feel like crying?