What the New Year Brings

Happy (early) Birthday, kanata! Hope this makes up for Japan not celebrating May Day, your birthday! ^_^

WARNING: This chapter contains explicit sexual content!

Chapter 52-The First Time KakaSaku Celebrate Golden Week

Like everyone else fortunate enough to celebrate it, I'm excited that it's Golden Week. Sure, it's time meant to be spent reflecting on the various holidays taking place between the end of April and early May:

April 29 - Showa Day, the Emperor's Birthday
May 3 - Constitution Memorial Day
May 4 - Greenery Day, or Nature Day
May 5 - Children's Day

And sure it got the name "Golden Week" because that's the time when movies bring in the most money, but for most people like myself, we consider it a golden week because it means one week's PAID VACATION! Shannaro!

One week away from Shishou's piles of paperwork, one week away from all my patients at the hospital, one week away from assigned missions, one week to do anything that I want! Gotta love Golden Week! ^_^

Golden Week is also an extremely popular time to travel (Hence, the reason why many Japanese tourists are seen in other countries this time of year), so Kakashi and I decide to cross the Great Naruto Bridge and spend our first Golden Week together in Wave Country. While our first time coming to Wave was to fulfill our first real mission, we're going back there now to simply lay back, relax, and enjoy some sun, water, and maybe even visit some old friends: Tazuna, the bridge builder, and Inari, his grandson.

The sun is bright and the sky is clear when Kakashi and I make our journey on this fine April day. By mid-afternoon we have Fire Country at our backs, Wave straight ahead, and to our left and to our right and just beyond the bridge's railings, nothing but ocean waves sparkling under the sun like a million cut diamonds. Already I can make out houses built up on stilts and seeing them again is a bit disarming.

"This feels weird." I comment, looking around at surroundings both familiar and strange at the same time. They're like pieces of a half forgotten dream shocking me with their sharp reality. In turn, sharp reality stirs up memories of a half forgotten dream.

"I know what you mean." Kakashi says, also looking around him. "That's nostalgia for you."

"Actually, I meant that it's weird walking on a bridge named after Naruto! (1) I mean, it's just Naruto! It's like having a bridge named after your annoying little brother!"

Kakashi's eye widens in comprehension, then softens with patience and understanding.

"Well, to us he may be 'Just Naruto,' but he's someone who has accomplished a lot of great things and other people just naturally want to put him up on a pedestal." Kakashi reasons.

"I know, and he deserves it more than anyone, but it doesn't stop it from being weird. It's like when people talk about you being 'The Great Copy Nin.' To me you're just Kaka-sensei. The one who's late all the time and has a thing for written porn."

Kakashi laughs and wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me against his side.

"And how do you think I feel when people talk about the Godaime's great apprentice who saved the life of the Kazekage's brother?" he asks. "Your reputation precedes you, too, and it's just as intimidating, but to me you're just sweet, thoughtful Sakura who can just as easily heal your ribs back together as much as have been the one to break them in the first place!"

"Aww...That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me!" I say, playfully bumping my hip against his.

"Point is," Kakashi laughs, "We're all accomplished in our own way, and yeah, it is kind of weird when people put us up on a pedestal like that, but at least we have each other to put us in our place."

"I don't think anyone can put Mr. I'm Going To Be Hokage Someday! in his place. He's too far gone!" I say, shaking my head.

"Now I don't know about that. All you have to do is look at Naruto the wrong way and he'll--"

"I can't believe it! You're back!" a young man working on the dock interrupts us. He has dark, short hair, equally dark colored eyes and he's tall, lean, and handsome. Despite being a fully grown teenager now, this boy - no - young man is without a doubt Inari.

"...Crap his pants." Kakashi finishes off distractedly.

~*~*~*~

It's happened to most of us. We go to a party or some other type of social function and these strangers come up to us and say, "Oh my gosh! I remember you when you were just a baby!" and we think to ourselves, Okay...Who the heck are you and I don't see what the big deal is, while politely faking a smile. Then, we grow up and end up doing the same thing to some poor clueless kid.

It's just that sometimes we remember people a certain way and imagine them to always look that way in spite of the passage of time. It's been 11 years since I last visited Wave, but when I think of Inari, I still think of the little boy who gathered up all the villagers and stood up against shipping mogul Gatô. So the "big deal" is that we're surprised by our own state of denial.

Now standing in Inari's old home (at least some things stay the same), I'm trying not to look too shocked when Inari gently wraps his arm around the waist of a beautiful young woman with straight, long, raven-colored hair and introduces her as--

"...my girlfriend, Youkou." Inari says with a proud smile.

It's taking all of my willpower not to gush "You have a girlfriend?! Our little Inari has a girlfriend?!" but I politely smile at Youkou, shake her hand and say "It's nice to meet you" instead. I may be shocked at how grown up Inari is, but that's no reason to embarrass him either.

Kakashi is taking his turn to shake Youkou's hand when a crotchety old voice at the top of the stairs asks "Who's there?"

Inari's eyes brighten up.

"Grandpa, you won't believe it! It's--"

"Well I'll be damned." Tazuna interrupts Inari, looking between Kakashi and me with a warm, friendly smile.

Kakashi and I smile back. It really is starting to feel more and more like a homecoming.

~*~*~*~

At 70 years old, Tazuna's hair is now pure white and his back is a little more stooped, but his handshake proves that he's still as strong as ever.

"Are you here for a mission?" he asks.

"No, we're actually here on vacation for Golden Week." Kakashi says with a happy eye crease.

"Ah, well good for you! Does that mean Naruto and the other dark haired kid are off sightseeing then?" Tazuna asks, apparently thinking that all of old Team 7 is here on vacation.

"No, it's just the two of us this time." Kakashi says, still with a happy eye crease.

Tazuna looks between Kakashi and me with growing suspicion in his eyes.

"Really. You must be very close to your students to spend time with them even on your time off." Tazuna says with a slight edge to his voice.

"No, not really. Just this one." Kakashi says, happily tipping his head in my direction.

Idiot! Doesn't he see that Tazuna is about to have a brain aneurysm?!

"What he means to say," I say, sweeping in and shooting Kakashi a "You're such an idiot!" look, "Is that he's no longer my teacher, hasn't been in years, and that we're actually engaged now." I say, raising my hand up so that Tazuna, Inari, and Youkou can see my ring.

Tazuna lets out a breath he seems to have been holding and a wave of relief washes over his face and therefore, everyone else's face as well.

"Congratulations!" he says, his warm smile returning.

"Yes, congratulations." Inari and Youkou smile back at us.

"Sounds like we have a lot of catching up to do." Inari muses. "If you don't have any plans, Mom should be back from the market soon and you can have dinner with us. I'm sure she won't mind. If anything, she'll be excited to see you, too!" he says cheerfully.

"We'd really like that." I say.

"Would you like some iced tea while you wait?" he asks.

"Yes, please. It's been a really long journey and iced tea sounds perfect!"

And Kakashi and I follow Inari, his girlfriend, and his grandfather as they lead the way into the kitchen. With everyone walking ahead of us and no one else to see, I quickly slap Kakashi upside the head.

"I swear, you can be as dense as Naruto sometimes!" I softly hiss at him.

"Yes, I can be." Kakashi says, slumping his shoulders in defeat and following me into the kitchen like a dog with its tail between its legs.

~*~*~*~

"He didn't!"

"With a mini crossbow and everything!" I laugh.

"Are you serious? What did he expect to do with that?!" Youkou asks, covering the smile on her face with her hand.

"Maybe he was hoping to hit them in the ass. You know, like cupid with his darts?" Tazuna interjects.

All of us laugh...except for one.

"I'm sitting right here, you know?"

We all turn to look at Inari sitting across the table from us. He has his arms folded tightly against his chest and a sullen look on his face, but instead of feeling bad for laughing at him and his antics back when he was little, his reaction just makes us laugh even more. And for me, it brings up fond memories of how he wore that same expression when I first met him over a decade ago.

"Oh, Inari, don't be that way. It was very brave of you to stand up to those thugs and I'm proud to be with someone that courageous that young!" Youkou says, smiling at him with warmth in her eyes.

The pout on Inari's lips slowly melts into a smile and his narrowed eyes lighten up with confidence and pride. Even his chest puffs out a little so that although he still has his arms folded in front of his chest, it's no longer a pose of someone sulking, but someone strutting like a peacock.

We all take notice of the change in Inari and smile at how good Youkou is for him. Her name is befitting of her: She truly is Inari's sunshine, and with Inari's past, he can use as much joy and happiness as he can get.

"Well, business seems to be booming." Kakashi says, pulling his mask down and taking a chopstick full of rice and butterfish into his mouth so quickly that the action is just a blur, making Inari, Youkou, and Tazuna tilt their heads to the side to look at Kakashi oddly.

"Yes, yes it is." Tazuna says, raising one eyebrow up as if he doesn't know what to make of his guest. "And it's all thanks to the Great Naruto Bridge. Now that we're connected to the mainland, not only are we a major shipping port, but we get a lot of tourists as well, like yourself."

Kakashi does another quick pullmaskdown, takeabite, pullmaskbackup.

The look on Tazuna's face pretty much says that he's unsure whether getting more tourists, like Kakashi, is a good thing or a bad thing.

"Speaking of which, where are you two staying?" Tsunami, Inari's mom, asks while putting generous amounts of more food on our plates. "You're free to stay here like last time if you'd like."

"Thank you, but we already have hotel reservations at Minami Island. We haven't seen Wave Country's other islands yet, so we thought it'd be nice to stay at one for awhile." Kakashi says.

"Oh, you guys will love Minami!" Inari says enthusiastically. "Their beaches are so much nicer than ours since they're facing the open ocean and the waves actually break up the rocks, not like here where the water is just a calm inlet between Fire and Wave."

"When did you go to Minami?" I ask, surprised. Just as I had imagined Inari as eternally 8 years old, I also imagined him to always be planted in his home island as well.

"I go there a lot, actually. I was there only last week to take care of a business dispute between Minami's fishermen and one of our shipping companies."

"You're a businessman?" I ask, once again surprised at this aspect of Inari I didn't know about.

"Well, I handle most kind of disputes, not just business. I'm what you'd call a general liaison. My job is to make sure everyone in Wave's 24 islands gets along with each other."

"I had no idea you had taken on such a prominent position!" I say, impressed.

"It all started a little after Naruto and you guys left. Our Daimyo heard about how I got the villagers to go up against Gatô, which even he couldn't do, and he asked me to come visit him at the castle. So Grandpa, Mom, and I traveled up to Omo Island where there was a big gala party to honor Grandpa and me for our accomplishments. After talking to me for awhile, the Daimyo asked if I wouldn't mind working for him someday. I said 'Sure' and then the next day we went back home and everything pretty much went back to normal. Then 2 years ago, I graduated from school and the Daimyo asked for me again, and again Grandpa, Mom, and I made the trip up to the castle. The Daimyo said that he never forgot about me and what I had done for my country and asked me again if I wouldn't mind working for him. I asked him what kind of job he had in mind and he said the kind of job I'm good at already, which is national relations, and so here I am." Inari says with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't look so shocked." Inari says with a playful grin, and I promptly close my mouth which I didn't even know I had open.

"I'm sorry! It's just that when Kakashi and I ran into you earlier you were working on the dock, so I thought that you were a fisherman. I never imagined that you'd be working directly under the Daimyo!"

Inari turns a bright shade of red and rubs the back of his neck in a very Kakashi-like manner.

"When you saw me, I was fishing for fun. I like doing it on my spare time because it reminds me of Kaiza, my stepdad." he says sheepishly.

I take my turn burning bright red. I'd forgotten about Kaiza and how important he'd been in Inari's life. He was the main reason Inari had looked so sad the first time we ever met him.

"I'm sorry. I completely forgot--"

"Don't be!" Inari says. "It was a long time ago. Besides, Naruto turned things around for me." Inari says with a wistful smile. "So where is Naruto anyway?"

"Naruto is in Suna right now with his girlfriend, Hinata. They're visiting some mutual friends of ours."

"That old loudmouth has a girlfriend? Well good for him!" Inari laughs. "Then what about your other teammate, the dark haired one?"

I feel a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"He left the team awhile back. He had some things to take care of with his family." Kakashi says in my place.

"Oh, well that's too bad that he left, but I hope everything worked out with his family." Inari says.

"Yes, it did." Kakashi says with a half-hearted happy eye crease. "So, Inari, how did you and Youkou meet?" Kakashi asks, quickly changing the subject much to my relief.

I only half listen to Inari's ardent account of how he ran into Youkou during one of his visits to Kita Island. The other half of me is too busy struggling with feelings of depression about Sasuke and feelings of warm appreciation for Kakashi. As always, Kakashi tries to protect me even from just talking about something personally painful.

I find Kakashi's hand under the table, give it a gentle squeeze, and give him a small smile in thanks. Kakashi squeezes my hand back and smiles back with a genuine happy eye crease this time. From that moment on, I decide to always let the Kakashi part of my heart win. Kakashi is to me what Naruto is for Inari: A source of hope and inspiration and therefore, a better way of living life. To look to a past that only brings sadness and pain is no way to live life in the present, but to look optimistically towards the future because of someone who makes you happy and want to be a better person in the present, now that's the way to live life.

So Kakashi and I spend the rest of our first evening in Wave with our hands joined underneath the table, enjoying dinner with old friends and new, and smile knowing that this is only the first of many pleasant evenings we'll be spending together like this.

~*~*~*~

It's already late morning by the time Kakashi and I wake up, so we're pretty much starving for breakfast - no - lunch - no - brunch by the time we actually get out of bed and leave our hotel room.

As we walk along the wooden boardwalk underneath the bright heat of the sun, we sense a different vibe in Minami, one that's energetic and laid back at the same time. It's the beach vibe where the desire to play, run, and swim coexists with the desire to sleep all day and be an absolute beach bum.

It's a great sight to see sailboats with pure white sails gliding slowly on top of the deep indigo blue ocean and to see hundreds upon hundreds of tourists each doing their own thing on the beach or in the water, but my growling stomach acts as a reminder of why we're really here.

"That place looks like it might be good." I say, pointing to a small, but neat building with white clapboard sides.

"Let's give it a try then." Kakashi says, putting his hand on my lower back and leading me in that direction.

The restaurant, called Hamaguri's, is so used to tourists coming in straight from the beach that they don't even give Kakashi and me a second glance even though we walk in dressed only in shorts, tank tops, and flip flops.

"Table for two?" the maître d' asks with a friendly smile.

"Yes, please."

"Follow me," she says, leading Kakashi and me towards the back of the restaurant and ushers us to a small table by a large glass window. The window is so large that it's more like a glass wall than a window, giving us a wide, panoramic view of the ocean. Like most of the other buildings here in Wave, the restaurant is raised up on stilts, but because it's low tide, it's not dark seawater we see underneath us, but a wide strip of sand that stretches out for several yards before converging with the crashing waves.

"Wow, this is beautiful." I say.

"It's the best seat in the house. You came at a good time, just before the rush," the maître d' informs us, handing Kakashi and me each a menu after we've taken our seats. "Your waiter will be Tebiki and he'll be with you shortly," she smiles amicably at us before taking her leave.

Kakashi and I smile back and say our thanks, then open up our menus and skim through it. I see the usual fare at an oceanside eatery: shrimps, lobsters, crabs...but then something completely different catches my eye.

"Oh look, they have fugu!" I say excitedly. "I've never had it before, but I've always wanted to try it!"

"You can't wait to eat a poisonous pufferfish?" Kakashi asks quizzically.

"Well, if it's prepared correctly it won't kill you. Besides, I am a poisons expert. I can't help but be a little curious about it."

"Fugu it is then." Kakashi says, closing his menu with finality.

"You're going to have it, too?" I ask, surprised.

"Like you said, you are a poisons expert. If I'm ever going to have fugu in my life, it might as well be with you around!"

There are various ways of eating the poisonous fish from fried and served in hot sake called Fugu Hire-zake, to served in a vegetable stew called Fugu-chiri, but Kakashi and I decide to eat it in its most popular form: Fugu Sashimi. Here, the raw fish is sliced so thin that you can actually see the pattern of the plate underneath it. Meanwhile, the slices themselves are laid out in a spiral, floral pattern so that it's fun to pull each piece off the plate. (2)

I pick up one of the sliver-thin, slimy cool pieces of fish and take a cautious nibble. I feel a slight prickling on my tongue and on my lips before they go momentarily numb, but the sensation, a cross between eating really, REALLY hot chili peppers and novocaine from the dentist's office, only lasts barely a minute before everything goes back to normal.

"Well?" Kakashi asks, looking at me interestedly.

"I think it's absolutely fascinating! Can you imagine the weapons potential of this? If Shishou and I can figure out a way to maintain the poison's toxicity regardless of extraction time from the fish and expand the tetrodotoxin's use beyond normal ingestion, then we could put it on senbons, shurikens, and kunais and create S-class weapons unlike anything anyone has ever seen before! It'll paralyze our enemies while keeping them fully conscious until they eventually die from asphyxiation. Ibiki wouldn't even have to torture information out of them: The initial hit from the poisoned weapon alone would be enough! Of course, we'd have to figure out an antidote first because we can't have our own ninjas accidentally poking and killing themselves with the stuff. Right now the standard medical procedure is to simply try to support the respiratory and circulatory system until the poison wears off, which is better than nothing I suppose, but still..."

Kakashi has that bewildered "Why did I ask?" look in his eye.

I feel my face immediately heat up.

"Sorry." I mumble. "I didn't mean to get carried away."

"No, it's ok! I'm glad that you've found something to be passionate about! It's a huge improvement to what you used to be interested in back when you were twelve. I just need to remember to never mess with you is all!" Kakashi laughs.

I smile warmly at him. Not everyone has much patience when you start to talk about work, but he's encouraging about it instead. Plus, we have a history together so he actually recognizes and appreciates how much I've grown.

"And what about you? What did you think about the fugu?" I ask curiously.

"Tingly," he says simply.

"Tingly?" I ask, dumbfounded.

"Yes, tingly." Kakashi repeats with a happy eye crease.

I look back at him with my mouth half open. Leave it to Hatake Kakashi, the man of few words, to sum up the rare experience of eating fugu with "tingly."

~*~*~*~

Our waiter takes a liking to us and kindly recommends a secluded beach that only the locals know about. When Kakashi and I arrive, there are only a dozen or so people as opposed to the hundreds of people we saw at the more well known tourist beaches.

Kakashi steps out onto the beach wearing his usual tight black tank top with attached mask, but instead of his usual jounin pants, he's wearing dark blue swim trunks with a lighter blue tropical floral pattern on it. It's a small, but successful step in progressively getting him out his jounin uniform.

I'm set to just lay my beach towel down anywhere on the sand, but Kakashi keeps walking instead.

"Kakashi, where are you going?!" I shout over the noise of the crashing waves.

"Trust me!" he shouts over his shoulder as he continues to walk parallel to the water and away from what other few beachgoers there are.

After following him over a large pile of boulder-sized rocks, a peaceful, empty cove reveals itself to us on the other side.

"How did you know that this was here?" I ask, bewildered.

"I didn't. It was just a hunch." Kakashi says off handedly.

"Pretty good hunch!"

"My mom and dad used to take me to the beach all the time when I was little. I've seen beaches like this before and figured it had to have a cove like the other ones." Kakashi says, shrugging his shoulders. "What?" Kakashi asks after noticing the change in my facial expression.

"It's just that you don't really talk much about your childhood and I'm glad that you're starting to." I say, smiling at him.

Kakashi makes a "Huh" sound, as in "Huh, how 'bout that?" as I walk past him to find a nice, flat area to lay down.

"Did I mention that Pakkun was a gift from my dad on my 5th birthday?"

"He was?"

"Yup. He was just a pup back then and Pakkun's sire was my own dad's summon. In fact, summons for the ninkin go way, way back in the Hatake clan."

"Wow, I didn't know that. That's really interesting." I say, then stop abruptly in my tracks, thinking I've found the perfect spot to settle down only to discover that the lapping waves like that spot, too, so I keep looking while Kakashi follows close behind me.

"Oh, and when I was 13 I snuck a peek at one of my sensei's books and I've been addicted to Icha, Icha ever since." Kakashi says with a happy eye crease.

I stop in my tracks again, but not because I think I've found another place to lay down, but to look back at Kakashi in disbelief.

"Are you saying that at 13 you snuck a peek at your sensei's porn and that you've been proudly addicted to it ever since?"

A drop of sweat rolls down Kakashi's temple and he scratches the back of his neck nervously.

"I should've stopped with the cute Pakkun story, huh?"

"It might've been a good idea." I admit.

"Thought so." Kakashi says.

"Ah-ha!" I say in triumph when I finally spot the perfect place to lay down. I drop my backpack down onto the sand, neatly spread my beach towel out, and start to undress, pulling my white tank top over my head and my jean shorts down my legs until I'm only wearing my pale pink bikini. I sense Kakashi watching me from the corner of his eye even as he lays down his own beach towel, but I ignore him, sit down, and rummage around my backpack until I find the bottle of sunblock. I squeeze the cool, thick white lotion onto my hand and start to smooth it all over my body, starting with the areas that tend to get burnt the worst: my shoulders, arms, face, and chest. Soon, almost every inch of me is slathered in sunblock except for the one part of my body that I can't reach.

"Do you mind?" I ask Kakashi, handing him the bottle and gathering my hair up in my hands so that he can put sunblock on my back.

Kakashi takes the bottle from me and I feel him slather copious amounts of sunblock all over my back. It's a pleasant sensation: the feel of refreshingly cool lotion in contrast to the warm, even pressure of Kakashi's hands. It feels like a massage that I could easily fall asleep to, but then I feel a different sensation on the curve of my neck, one that's soft and light and slightly tickling.

"Kakashi, what are you doing?" I ask, but keep my eyes closed and tilt my head to the side to give him easier access.

"What do you think?" he asks, continuing to lightly graze his bare lips down the nape of my neck and along the curve of my shoulder.

"Aren't you afraid someone will see you with your mask down?"

"I think I'm pretty safe here," he murmurs close to my ear. Then, I feel the warmth of his breath as his nose hovers mere centimeters above my skin. "You smell like the beach," he says with a hint of a smile in his voice.

"That'd be the sunblock." I grin and turn halfway around in my seat to face him.

He smiles back at me with a lopsided smile, cups my face in his hand, gently rubs his thumb against my cheek, and slowly lowers his lips down onto mine.

Kakashi's kiss tends to hold the same pattern: Light and sweet at first, then progressively deeper and more exploring, but even though I'm well versed with his kisses by now, they still always manage to take my breath away.

I feel him starting to lower me down on my back when I hear happy barking in the background and then feel something with white and brown fur suddenly licking my face and Kakashi's.

"I'm so, so sorry about that!" the dog's owner says breathlessly, running up from the other side of the beach without the rock barrier and pulls his beloved pet away from us. "She got away from me and I've been chasing her for almost half a mile! I hope Bella didn't interrupt anything!"

I turn to look at Kakashi and see that he's already pulled his mask back up on his face, but there's no denying the disappointment in his eye.

I bite my kiss-swollen bottom lip, feeling disappointed myself. I feel my temper rising up inside of me, getting ready to explode, but it's obvious from the concerned look on the man's face and the way Bella keeps bouncing around and play biting her owner that neither of them meant any harm. So I rub Bella behind the ears, smile up at the man and say "She's a beautiful dog!" instead.

"Thanks!" the man says, obviously relieved that my reaction wasn't anything worse.

"What kind of dog is she?" I ask.

"She's a Shiba Inu," the man says happily. (3)

A couple of minutes later, Kakashi and I wave a friendly goodbye to Bella and her owner, but the mood has been killed and we're paranoid about other people walking in on us, so Kakashi and I just lay down on our respective beach towels and sunbathe instead, but during my conversation with Bella's owner I had noticed that Kakashi had decisively laid down on his stomach, and even now he still refuses to flip over and lay down on his back. Poor guy. I'll just have to make it up to him later...

~*~*~*~

Kakashi and I return to the beach cove the next day and I use my chakra strength to move some of the boulders on our right side to our left side as well, creating a four-sided barrier completed by the steep cliff wall behind us and the ocean waves in front.

"There! That should do it!" I say with a smile, dusting off my hands. "Now where were we?"

"I do believe we were here--" Kakashi says, cupping my cheek in his hand and slowly lowering me down onto my back as he kisses me. No longer afraid of someone walking in on us, Kakashi moves his kisses from my lips to my cheek, from my cheek to the spot just below my earlobe, and from there down to the side of my neck...always moving downward.

His hand wanders down to one of my breasts and he cups and squeezes it. Then, he pushes one cup of my bikini aside and gently flicks the tip of his tongue against my hardened nipple over and over again before wrapping his lips around my areola and sucking on my breast. He pushes the other bikini cup aside and does the same things to the other nipple. I can feel my heart pounding hard in my chest and it feels like twice the adrenaline is coursing through my veins. What Kakashi's doing normally gets that kind of reaction from me anyway, but there's something even more thrilling about the risk of getting caught. We may be in a sheltered and secluded area, but there's still the chance that someone might climb over our rock barriers, or swim in from the ocean, or look down on us from high up on the cliff.

Kakashi only pushes the fabric of my bikini aside, but he doesn't completely remove it because there are two very important rules in having sex in a public place. The first and foremost is: Don't get caught. The second is: Don't take all your clothes off just in case you have to runaway at a moment's notice. It's also for this reason that Kakashi won't take his black tank top with attached mask off, because heaven forbid anyone else see him without his mask on!

After thoroughly lavishing his tongue on my breasts until they're literally spit shined, Kakashi starts to sprinkle kisses down my sternum and down the flat of my stomach which, as always, tickles me and makes me laugh, but thankfully he moves beyond the ticklish parts of my tummy and starts to work his way even further down...When frigid ice cold water laps up underneath us, shocking us and making us immediately pull apart. Not a second later, another wave laps up higher than the first, forcing us to jump up on our feet altogether. Then another wave and another come higher and higher up onto the shore. It's apparently high tide, so Kakashi and I reluctantly grab our things and move out.

That evening, we make sure to ask around town and figure out exactly what the tide schedule is. No two tourists in Minami Island's history were more adamant about finding out that information than Kakashi and I were.

~*~*~*~

The next day, Kakashi and I come back to our cove when we know it's low tide and know it won't be high tide again for several hours.

I lay my beach towel back down on the sand and myself down on top of it and Kakashi and I start to kiss and grope again until we're exactly back to where we left off...With him hovering right above the pale pink fabric of my bikini bottom getting ready to--

"Oh, yeah..." I moan as Kakashi tugs my panties aside and slowly licks my slit from bottom to top. His touch is so light and so gentle as to barely be there, but at the moment I'm so hypersensitive that even the lightest of touches is enough to make me moan. He repeats the action once, twice, three more times before wrapping his lips around my clit and alternates between quickly flicking his tongue against it and lapping against the tight bundle of nerves the way a cat laps up a bowl of milk. It feels so good that my legs involuntarily tremble and shake. Then, Kakashi slides two fingers in, sliding them slowly in and out of my hole. When he sees me panting for more, he slides a third finger in and continues to pump his fingers in and out while still eating me up. I feel a warm, tingling sensation course down my legs all the way down to my toes and I have to squeeze my eyes tightly shut because of the intensity of it all. Normally, I'd grab the sheets underneath me, but there are no sheets to grab, so I grab fistfuls of sand instead. Even my toes are curling into the sand.

And then, Kakashi suddenly stops.

"Why'd you stop?!" I ask, raising myself up on elbows and looking at him irritably.

"I'm sorry! It's just that I thought I felt...Nothing. Never mind." he says, shaking his head and letting his tongue get back to doing its glorious work.

I slowly lay back down on the beach towel, close my eyes, and get lost again in the intense, pleasurable sensations he's giving me.

And then...I feel it, too.

A heavy plop hits me right in the middle of the forehead, making me shoot my eyes wide open in surprise. I look around me and watch, still in a state of shock, as another large water droplet falls to the ground and turns a splotch of sand next to me a darker shade of brown. Soon more and more dark splotches join the first one, each of them appearing at a progressively growing speed. Then, there's a bright flash of lightning far across the horizon where ocean meets sky, a loud rumbling in the heavens, and cold rain starts to pour down on us so quick and so hard that Kakashi and I grab our beach towels, raise them up over our heads, and run for it.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I yell at the heavens.

In response, a bolt of lightning streaks across the dark charcoal sky and rains buckets of rain over Kakashi and me.

~*~*~*~

On the last day of our Golden Week in Wave, Kakashi and I go back to our beach cove one last time. Kakashi is ready to declare defeat, but I tell him "No! No rain, no sleet, no snow will keep us away from doing it on the beach because I'm too determined now!"

"Isn't that the post office adage?" Kakashi asks.

I glare at him.

"Alright! I guess we're doing it on the beach!" Kakashi says, holding his hands up in front of him in a "Don't kill me!" fashion.

Kakashi and I easily jump up and over the rock barrier I had created a few days ago, time our arrival so that it's low tide, and bring an umbrella with us just in case. I diplomatically lay my beach towel down on the sand, lay myself down on top of it, and look up at Kakashi expectantly.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" I ask.

Kakashi hops to it, quickly positions himself between my legs and starts to kiss me, but at this point I've lost all patience.

"No more foreplay! Just do me!" I say impatiently, tugging at his waistband and pulling down his swim trunks just low enough to let his erection spring free. Then, I push aside the crotch of my bikini bottom and guide him to my entrance. In less than a minute, he's finally, FINALLY inside of me and it feels so good.

We both let out a sigh of relief, him enjoying my heat and my tightness and me enjoying the sensation of being completely filled, but I don't let him stay static for too long. With our luck a dog, or a wave, or a freakin' bolt of lightning will interrupt us before we've even had the chance to come and I'm not having any of it!

"For the love of God, Kakashi, MOVE!" I say irritably.

I don't have to tell him twice. He moves in long, slow, gentle strokes at first, giving us both time to adjust and simply enjoy each other's body, but it isn't long before we're both aching for more: more movement, more speed, more friction, simply more. His thrusts become quicker and more erratic and soon he's pumping into me so vigorously that with each hard thrust, he's progressively moving me up and off the beach towel and literally plowing me into the ground, the sand beneath us giving way to create a deepening and elongating trench. I clutch hard onto his back and wrap my legs tighter and higher up on his torso, making him slide deeper in, and all the while he continues to ruthlessly pound into me. I feel the coil deep inside of me tightening up, getting ready to spring, and I regulate my breathing to accommodate what I know is coming next.

I scream loudly as my body releases in one moment all the sexual tension that had been building up over the course of a week. My inner muscles ripple around Kakashi in cataclysmic waves, but he drives into me still, not stopping until he, too, has spilled all his pent up sexual tension inside my womb. He pushes hard into me one last time, then collapses exhausted on top of me. I normally don't like being under the weight of another person, but after sex it actually feels good - fitting even - to be as close as you can possibly be to the person you just made love to and to feel his heart racing against your own.

Kakashi waits until our heart rates and breathing have slowed to an almost normal pace before slowly pulling out. He pulls his swim trunks back up and I readjust my bikini bottom and then we access the damage. For one, Kakashi had successfully pushed me off the beach towel up to my shoulder blades so that sand is hopelessly entangled in my pink hair. Second, he managed to push the towel's bottom edge up into a crumpled mess beneath me. And third, we now have a sizable butt trench, but most significant of all (Sand in weird and awkward places aside) we FINALLY got to do it on the beach and we are totally, completely, and utterly satiated.

~*~*~*~

When I get back to work the next day, Shishou politely asks how my Golden Week was. I smile brightly at her and say, in all honesty, "It was good. It was relaxing."

"That's good. You deserve it." Shishou smiles back at me, then promptly gets back to work on the piles of paperwork which had piled up during the week.

Once my back is turned away from her and I know she's too preoccupied to ask even if she hears me, I smirk and add under my breath "It was tingly."

To be continued...

~*~*~*~

- Golden Week in Japan:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan)

(1) See an image of the real Naruto Bridge in Naruto, Tokushima, Japan:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_Naruto_ Bridge05n3872.jpg

- It all fits into place now...

tailedfox.com/news-what-does-word-naruto-mean%3F

(2) See what fugu sashimi looks like:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fugu_sashimi.jpg

- Fugu (pufferfish):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu

- Other types of Japanese seafood (Beware the squeamish!):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_ seafood

(3) See an image of Bella, a Shiba Inu, a type of Japanese dog:

patboydworld.com/Fun/CrissyDogAlbum1/images/aShibaInu-M-Taka.jpg

- Other types of Japanese dogs:

japanesedogs.bulldoginformation.com/

UPDATE: THIS is the image I had in my head for the necking scene! It's by Chii-Kawaii-Chan and it's called "If You See Sakura." ^_^

chii-kawaii-chan.deviantart.com/art/If-You-See-Sakura-118464233