Double Edged

AUTHOR’S NOTE: First of all, thank you VERY MUCH to Erabella Trint and Qualapec-the-She-Wolf for reading through this chapter for me. Your reassurances are what kept me from deleting all 50+ pages and starting from scratch.

Second: A HUGE shout out and thanks to Jiraiyas Girl for the WICKED AWESOME fan art on deviantart! It’s a progression piece, so please be sure to check the status of it as it goes along. So far, it has me nose bleeding about as much as when I think of Kakashi in the shower… nekkid.

Third: I want all of the readers/reviewers to give yourselves hugs, buy candy and be very proud of yourselves. You’ve all been incredibly patient and I really appreciate it. In fact, I appreciate it so much… it’s essential two chapters for the price of one! However… Did anyone know the site has a limit as to how large a chapter can be? Yeah, I just found that out with THIS one. Apparently, the limit is around 30. Ye’ve all been warned. Also, because classes have started for me again updates are now going to be every two weeks. My apologies.


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Song Reference: Hell To Sell

Artist: The Audition

Lyrics: Oh, I can show if you want to know exactly how to say her name/To make her scream and shout, but not from pain/Ecstasy is all that she’ll feel when you kiss her lightly/It’s frightening/There is no room for sparks, show her lightning

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Sakura gave a happy murmur of sound as she snuggled further into her blankets, a sleepy smile curving her lips at the feel of morning sunlight warming her cheeks. The light was filtering through the closed blinds to her room, making the normally blinding glow soft and pleasant. Sighing, she stretched her arms over her head and arched her back off the mattress, sending that wonderful tingling sensation throughout her body. There really was nothing better than stretching first thing in the morning. Well, perhaps waking up without the aid of an obnoxious roommate or a messenger from her demanding mentor. But other than that? Definitely nothing better.

Slowly opening her eyes while running her fingers through her short hair, Sakura took a deep breath and released it, savoring the feeling of waking up refreshed and not pissed off for a change. It was a nice feeling. She glanced over to the side of her bed at the alarm clock on the table. It was almost eleven. She hadn’t had a chance to sleep like that since…

Eleven.

Kakashi.

“Shit!” she screeched, flinging the covers off of herself and sprinting across her room. It took her two jerking tries before she managed to slide her door open with enough force that it made the screws in the track pop up. Of all the days to sleep in… She heard the shower running and growled angrily at it as she reached out to slam the bathroom door open. It wouldn’t budge. Damn it… Ino had locked the door!

Banging her hand on the hard wood, Sakura shouted, “Ino! I’ve gotta get in there now!”

She could hear the blonde cussing and shouting back as she continued hitting the door desperately. The lock slid back and Ino shrieked when Sakura all but bowled her over, stripping as she went. “What the hell, Forehead?” Ino yelled as Sakura jumped into the still running shower. She wiped the suds that had begun dripping down her face away before shutting the door to keep the cooler air from invading the steam filled room. Hugging her arms across her naked breasts and teeth chattering, Ino pulled the glass door open just as Sakura was rinsing the shampoo from her hair.

“Goddamn it, what is your problem?” Ino snapped, her blue eyes darkening in outrage. The only reason she would accept for being hauled out of the hot water like that was if Sakura had just discovered she would be dying within the next three hours and this was her final request. Anything short of that and there’d be pieces of Sakura scattered all around Konoha.

“Kakashi’s gonna be here any minute,” Sakura explained quickly, hissing when soap slid directly into her eyes. The series of muttered ‘ows’ gave Ino some small measure of satisfaction. “Stall him, okay?”

Arching a brow, Ino purposely dropped her arms from her breasts to settle her hands on her hips while pursing her lips. “Right. I’ll just go answer the door like this then. That’ll distract him, don’t you think?”

“PIG! Pretend for five seconds you’re my friend, okay?!”

Rolling her eyes as the pink haired girl took a razor to her legs with frightening speed, Ino groaned as she went over and turned the sink on. “Fine, I’ll handle it,” she reluctantly agreed as she stuck her head under the much colder water to finish cleaning her hair. It was going to be a long sleeved shirt for sure today, seeing as it didn’t look like she’d have time to get back in the shower and finish shaving. She hated having stubble pits!

“Thank you,” Sakura groaned appreciatively before cursing under her breath. “Damn it, I hate new razors!”

“Considering you were wielding that thing a like butcher, I’d say you’re lucky you’ve got anything below the knees at all,” Ino shot back, smirking as she plucked a towel from the small cabinet for her hair. As a courtesy to Sakura (as well as to keep the water from dripping on the floor), she set another towel out on the closed toilet lid before tugging her robe into place. “I don’t know why you’re all panicked though. Kakashi-sensei probably won’t be here for another hour.”

“No, he said eleven. He’s gonna be here any minute.”

“… Sakura, since when is Hatake Kakashi on time for anything?”

Sakura paused in scrubbing her skin to consider that statement. Then, shaking her head, she answered, “No. He said I was worth showing up on time for. He’ll be here.”

Sighing, Ino shook her head and opened the door. “If you say so. But if he’s not here in fifteen minutes, I’m leaving. I’m gonna be late as it is and I really don’t feel like listening to Shizune gripe about it.” She purposely left the door open as she walked out, rubbing the towel through her hair as she walked back to her own room.

Sakura finished showering quickly, her hands slipping on the knobs in her haste to shut it off. Wiping a wet hand across her eyes, Sakura slid the door open and hissed as the cold air from the open bathroom door hit her like a slap of snow to the face. “Pig,” she muttered fiercely as she snatched the towel off the toilet lid. Ino could be so childish sometimes! She dried herself off quickly before rubbing the towel through her short hair to get as much moisture as she could out of it. There wouldn’t be time to dry it properly, which was very irritating considering what the humidity always did to it.

Ino slid by her as she left the bathroom, one hand holding her wet pony tail back and her teeth holding the hair tie. Sakura hugged the towel around herself as she jogged into her room and began pulling clothing out. Shit, what was she going to wear?! She had absolutely nothing that was even remotely date-like in her wardrobe except for the dress she’d worn their first night out! “Ino, what’s the time?”

“Eleven-fifteen,” Ino called back. The sound of something being tossed onto her bed made Sakura turn around. The blonde motioned to the bundle of turquoise on the bed with a nod of her head. “Try that. I bought it without trying it on, like an idiot. It’s too tight on my boobs, which means it’ll be perfect for you. And I told you he’d be late!”

“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled back as she grabbed the dress to examine it. Surprisingly, it was actually rather cute. Normally Ino’s clothing was way too revealing for her tastes. This one, while a little short, had a high neck to it. It was sleeveless as well, which was actually preferable for her. If she didn’t know any better, she’d almost swear Ino had purchased the dress for her.

Quickly rifling through her underwear drawer, she pulled out panties and a bra that was close enough in color to the dress that it wouldn’t look tacky if the straps showed. She stumbled over a stray pillow from her bed as she was trying to walk and tug the dress over her head at the same time. Her knee rammed into her bed frame hard as a result of this, causing her to hiss and curse as she fastened the dress around her neck and dropped to her knees to dig some shoes out from under her bed. Damn it, this sucked! Sakura was just wiggling her foot into a pair of sandals as she heard the jingling of Ino’s keys.

“’Bye, Forehead! Try not to grope his ass today!”

“Can it, Pig!” she yelled, growling angrily when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Damn it, she knew her shoulders were too wide! “Shit!” Sakura began tearing through her closet for a jacket of some kind to wear over the dress. There was no way she was leaving with huge shoulders! Now she remembered why she didn’t like going on dates. The whole getting ready thing was such a total nightmare!

After several minutes of fruitless searching for a jacket or something to camouflage her shoulders, Sakura gave up and hurried back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. Any minute now and Kakashi would be at her door, she just knew it. She managed to tame her damp hair into a somewhat cute style, or at least she’d tell herself it was cute. A few unruly pieces didn’t want to lie straight, but it was the best she could do with such little time. One more trip back to her bedroom for her purse and she was set.

Giving a satisfied huff of breath, Sakura grinned at her reflection before heading out into the living room to wait for him. A glance at the clock told her it was now eleven-thirty two. Okay… a half hour late. For Kakashi, that still counted as being on time. Sakura settled onto the couch and picked up one of Ino’s magazines to read. A new diet… the latest chapter in a romance series that Ino claimed was beyond fabulous… the current fashion trends. Basically, it was the sort of mindless tripe that was good for killing time with. Smiling, Sakura opened the magazine and began to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Sakura gave an irritated huff as she finished reading the very last article in the magazine, her lips twisting ruefully as she tossed it back onto the table top. She leaned over and peered at the clock again, scowling when she noticed that it was now reading almost a quarter to one. Over an hour late for a time he designated. Now she was getting pissed. Where the hell was he? He had said that he was meeting her at her place, hadn’t he? She couldn’t recall now. Unfortunately, she’d been more preoccupied with the fact that they’d kissed not once but twice on the lips.

God… She still felt that odd tingle whenever she thought about it. Even with the mask separating their flesh, she’d still felt his mouth. There were definitely no fish lips waiting for her under that mask. She didn’t need Kakashi to reveal his face to know that he had a nice mouth; thin, firm lips that were warm through the cotton shielding them. It had felt very nice, like the sort of mouth that the men in those romance stories had. If he ever pulled that mask down and…

She jumped at the soft knock on her door, her eyes flying open in surprise. She hadn’t even been aware they’d closed to begin with. Clearing her throat as she rubbed at the goose bumps marching down her arms, Sakura walked over to the door and undid the locks while trying to suppress the images that were starting to flitter around her mind. A mouth was a mouth. Everyone had one, and Kakashi’s wasn’t any different than anyone else’s. It had exactly the same features, from teeth to bacteria. There was no need to be all flustered over it.

Sakura gave herself a small shake to resettle her nerves and slid the door open, arching a brow as she assumed a mildly irritated glare for the man on the other side. All she got in response was Kakashi’s infamous winking smile as he leaned on the doorframe. “You’re late,” she accused, settling one hand on her cocked hip. She let her gaze travel down his body, hoping to get a clue about the date by checking out what he was wearing. It probably looked like she was checking out his body to him, but that was okay… she guessed. Today, he was wearing what looked like his typical jounin uniform minus the flak vest, head protector and gloves. Nothing at all that told her what they were doing. She was beginning to think he didn’t have a separate wardrobe for work and play.

Kakashi pulled a plain white bag from behind his back and a small paper cup with a lid. “You said to bring breakfast and strong tea. Apparently, breakfast stops being served at eleven.” He gave a what-can-you-do shrug as he passed the items over to her.

“Well, if you’d gotten yourself out of bed earlier you would’ve been in time for it,” she accused. “So, what’s in the bag? An apology for being late?”

“Actually, it’s the reason why I’m late. You’re incredibly lucky, you know, that I’m so charming and persuasive. The bakery made this especially for you.”

Sakura took the bag and the tea, noting that the contents of both still felt warm. It appeared he wasn’t lying this time around. Go figure. She opened the bag and peered in, her mouth watering a little at the sight of a chocolate stuffed pastry. “Persuasive, I’ll give you. Charming… sometimes. And you’re forgiven since you brought me chocolate.”

“Ah. I’ll keep that in mind for the future; chocolate gets me forgiven,” he joked, causing her to pause in taking a bite of the pastry to stick her tongue out at him. “Nice dress, by the way.”

Sakura smiled as she took the first bite of her breakfast, stepping aside to let him enter. She groaned appreciatively as the flakey pastry all but melted into her mouth, releasing the sweet taste of chocolate onto her tongue. Soooo good… She changed her mind; a fresh made chocolate stuffed pastry was the best thing ever. “Now you’re just trying to score bonus points,” she replied around the food in her mouth.

Kakashi stepped into her apartment slowly, glancing with mild curiosity around the space. She almost giggled when he caught sight of the bookcase that was to one side of their living room and all but bee lined toward it. He was such a book whore! “It’s a shame you won’t need a dress like that today,” he commented idly as he tilted his head to the side to read the titles running up and down the spines. Most of the texts were of the medical nature, but there were a few recreational pieces in there. Like her whodunits and Ino’s romance novels, a couple books Shizune had given her to read (which she hadn’t) and a few cookbooks that saw little if any use.

Sakura frowned and swallowed her breakfast heavily. Suddenly, the chocolate didn’t taste as good as it had a few minutes ago. Wait… he didn’t mean what she thought he meant… right? Clearing her throat and taking a quick swig of tea, which she instantly regretted as it burned not only her tongue but her throat as well, Sakura choked out, “Why not?”

Glancing over his shoulder with an expression of absolute innocence on his face, Kakashi said, “Did I forget to mention it earlier? Sorry.”

“You are not sorry, you idiot! And why won’t I need my dress?” To think she’d gone through the hassle of getting into an outfit she wasn’t even going to use… While it was relieving he wasn’t implying what she’d thought he was, it was still annoying that she’d wasted her time trying to look pretty. He’d have to get a hell of a lot more chocolate to make up for this! She knew damn well he hadn’t given her any hints as to what they would be doing, too. Sneaky bastard…

Pulling out a book from the case (one of Ino’s raunchy romance stories, she noted) to inspect more closely, Kakashi assumed a casual stance but kept his back to her. “I thought it’d be fun to stick with the theme of getting dirty.”

“What are we doing then, seeing as you weren’t nice enough to tell me this before hand?”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“How?” Not only was she annoyed about a dress that wasn’t going to see the light of day but he was giving her a headache. Lovely… Right then, an extra dose of training with a hung over Tsunade sounded more fun than a date with Kakashi.

Sighing heavily as he flipped the book open, Kakashi replied absently, “You might want to get changed into something that’s not quite so pretty. Can I borrow this?”

Sakura snorted as she crammed the rest of her pastry into her mouth and trudged back toward her bedroom. “I don’t care. It’s Ino’s, not mine.”

“Hmm.” She turned back in time to see him stick the book in the pouch at his back. The movement made her eyes widen a little when she caught a glimpse of orange. He had Icha Icha with him. Hell, yeah! Suddenly, she wasn’t quite as mad at him as she had been only moments ago.

“So, what exactly are we doing?” she called as she slid the door to her room shut, leaving enough of a crack open so that she could keep her eye on him without him peering in while she changed. She didn’t want a bored Copy Ninja poking at her personal stuff, after all.

She heard Kakashi chuckle, prompting her to take a peek out to where he was wandering aimlessly around her living room. His back was to the door as he leaned forward to study one of the abstract prints on the walls, prompting her gaze to drop to his ass. Sakura slapped herself in the head, blushing as she quickly looked away. Damn Ino for mentioning his ass last night! “You’ll see,” he called back in a song-song voice. “Just hurry and get changed.”

“This from the man who’s perpetually late,” she complained as she started pulling the dress over her head again. Sakura rolled her eyes when it got stuck near her shoulders, grumbling to herself about how wide they were as she shimmied her way out of it and tossed it on her bed. “I thought you said I was worth showing up on time for.”

“Did I? I could have sworn I said some things were worth showing up on time for.”

She hesitated in pulling on her sports bra, her brows quirking in confusion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, Cherry-chan, that I never said anything about you being the thing worth showing up on time for.”

“Fine, then what were you talking about? And didn’t I tell you not to call me that?” she snapped as she pulled on an old pair of training slacks and a t-shirt she hadn’t worn in years. She grimaced when she noticed the shirt was fitting a little more tightly than she remembered. Great… just the cake topper she was looking for. She was getting fat. Now she regretted downing that chocolate pastry. Oh, yeah… and the ice cream the night before. But not the cookies. The cookies had been low fat.

When Kakashi spoke next, it sounded farther away in her apartment, almost as if he had found his way into the kitchen. Crap, he was roaming around! That prompted her to dig under her bed for her sandals quickly, not wanting to leave him alone and bored in her place for very long. She could just imagine the evil things he was doing. “Aren’t you full of questions today. First, the thing was Kuroppoi. It’s really such a wonderful place and I didn’t want to miss it. And yes, you did say something like that. That doesn’t change the fact that I like calling you Cherry-chan though.”

“Jerk,” she muttered as she exited her room swiftly and entered the kitchen just as he was pulling out a container of some random brown spice from the cupboard. As he twisted the cap off it turned the label toward her, letting her see it was cumin he’d pulled out. Cumin? Since when did they have cumin? Huh… “Stop poking around my apartment.”

There was a faint wrinkling near his eyes as he drew back from having sniffed the spice before he capped it and returned it to the shelf he’d pulled it from. “It wasn’t poking, it was a reconnaissance mission. Oh, and I like your panties.”

“WHAT?!” she shouted, her fingers curling into angry fists. The bastard had obviously been spying on her while she was getting changed! How else would he know what her panties looked like?!

Kakashi pointed over her shoulder back into the living room, prompting her to spin around… and notice the basket of clean laundry sitting next to the television waiting to be folded. Her cheeks burned brightly when she spotted the bright, electric blue panties sitting directly on top of the pile. Oh… sweet… mercy…

She was gritting her teeth as Kakashi moved up to stand next to her, his hands tucked into his pockets and a slouch to his shoulders. “Are they boy shorts? Those are so sexy.”

“Pervert,” she snarled as she stomped across the room and grabbed the scrap of blue, cramming it with unnecessary force to the bottom of the basket. “And they’re not mine, they’re Ino’s!” She was soooo gonna kill Ino for this!

Kakashi’s eyebrows rose as he gave an approving nod. “Ah… so, you prefer thongs? I never would have guessed.”

Sakura marched right up to him and jammed her finger hard into his chest, her temper soaring at the slight shift to his mask that meant he was grinning. “I don’t wear thongs,” she grit out, enunciating each word with a sharp stab of her finger. “Are you done checking out my roommate’s stuff now?”

“I can’t help it if Ino has interesting stuff. But if you don’t wear thongs… does that mean you go commando?” His eyebrows rose and a devilish glint flickered through his eye before his gaze dropped downward. “Interesting.”

She growled in wordless, spluttering ire as she stamped her foot hard enough to crack the tiled floor. He was so insufferable! At this rate, her sanity wouldn’t survive long enough to carry out her mission! “Stop talking about my underwear, or lack of, and get moving!”

Kakashi surprised the hell out of her when he reached out and slid his fingers back through her hair, his palm cupping her cheek briefly in the process. Instantly the anger flooded out of her, replaced by a warm feeling that seemed to come about whenever he touched her like that. The strange fluttery feeling lurched sharply through her lower stomach as he tucked her hair back behind her ear, his fingers stroking down the side of her neck until they reached the junction of her shoulder. A shudder ran down her spine, followed closely by a tingle that was the result of having a very sensitive bit of skin touched so lightly.

“You really are too cute when you’re mad at me,” he spoke, his voice soft and a little more intimate sounding than before. “But I don’t exactly feel like getting punched into next week so… enough teasing. For now, at least. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to resist later.”

“You’re sick,” she mumbled back while willing her knees not to buckle out from under her. The pooling warmth in her stomach was making it harder to breathe as he continued tracing his fingertips along the side of her neck, his gaze dropping to follow the movements. He had to have felt her pulse throbbing erratically with each pass of his hand on her throat, but he made no comment on it. Damn it, she had to get control of this! It wasn’t helping at all that she practically turned to melted goo because of him. It was supposed to happen the other way around!

He stepped back from her, returning his hands to his pockets as his open eye glittered mischievously at her. Sakura pressed a hand across her stomach, frowning at the feeling of loss that coursed through her. She had to remember what she and Ino had discussed the other night; a little attraction was okay because it would help reel him in to her. This was good… for the assignment, of course. “Perhaps. Or perhaps you’re just too easily goaded,” he replied, his eye crinkling closed. She was still too busy trying to sort out the odd sensation in her gut to give him the glare he so richly deserved.

“Keep this up and there’s not gonna be a fourth date,” she muttered, taking a deep breath in to help calm herself down again.

Kakashi held both hands up in mock defeat, assuming a very unrealistic expression of contrition. “Stopping now. Are you ready to go?”

Sakura huffed and rubbed her eyes wearily. Yep… she’d definitely need therapy after this was done and over with. “I’ve been ready,” she groaned. “You’re the one who’s been wasting time!”

“A worthy cause is worth wasting time over.”

“And the worthy cause here is…?” She wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice in assuming he was talking about her.

He poked a finger to her cheek, his eye sparkling with amusement. “Seeing how many different shades of red you can turn in one day. So far, we’re up to at least nine.”

Arching a brow and giving him a disbelieving look, Sakura asked dryly, “That’s your worthy cause?”

“Mm-hm. Probably one of the most worthy causes in existence.”

Shaking her head and shoving him on her way to the door, she muttered, “You really are a sick person, Kakashi.”

“Good thing you’re a medic then,” he joked, winking over his shoulder as he led the way to the door.

Nope… she wouldn’t need therapy. She’d need a shovel and a good hiding spot for his body. Sakura shook her head at his back before grabbing the neglected cup of tea and her keys off the hook by the door as she followed him out into the hallway. She frowned as she locked the door and indicated to the two travel packs sitting just outside her door with her head. “What’s in there?”

Kakashi glanced toward the bags as if just noticing them for the first time. “Oh, those? Those are for our date.”

“Which is…?”

Once again, it struck her as odd to see the familiar eye crease mirrored on both side of his face. Shrugging as he lifted both packs easily with one hand, he said, “We’re going to burn off that chocolate pastry by hiking. I hope you don’t mind, but I invited a few others with us as well.”

A few… others? As in his friends? Oh, great. It took her a moment after his little announcement to realize what else he’d said. Jaw dropping in shock, Sakura swatted his arm and yelped, “Hey! If you think I’m fat then why’d you get me that stupid pastry anyway?”

Blinking slowly as if what she’d just said didn’t make sense, Kakashi’s gaze dropped to her waistline briefly before returning to her face. “It’s not a question of weight, Sakura. We’re going on a three mile hike, most of it through rough terrain. That pastry will be out of your system long before we finish.”

Oh… right. Because that would make sense, too. Still blushing over her mistake, Sakura offered an apologetic smile. “So, is hiking one of your many hobbies that you mentioned but never elaborated on?” she questioned as she took the pack he held out to her.

Kakashi shrugged his own pack onto his shoulders and replied, “Mm… Not really. But it’s necessary to hike to our date.”

“You mean hiking isn’t the date?”

He sent a happy expression over his shoulder as they headed down the hall and said cheerfully, “Nope! It’s what’s at the end of the hike that’s our date.”

“And that would be…?”

“…Something at the end of the hike.”

Sakura groaned to herself and shook her head at his back. Why couldn’t he just give a straight answer? Forget burying him. She was going to scatter pieces of Hatake Kakashi all over Konoha! Ducking under his arm as he pushed the door to the apartment building open, Sakura turned to face him as she asked, “So, are the people you invited hiking with us then? Or are we just gonna meet them wherever we’re going? And who did you invite anyway?”

Kakashi rolled his visible eye to the sky as if beseeching help from a higher power. “Wow… Sakura, you do know this is a date and not an interrogation, right?”

She wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at him before grinning when he shook his head and sighed under his breath. “I can’t help that I’m inquisitive! And you only fuel that by not telling me, you know.”

Sighing once more only much louder, Kakashi’s shoulders curled forward further than usual as his head dropped nearly to his chest. “I should have known better than to give you sugar first thing in the morning,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache.

Laughing, Sakura poked him in the middle of his chest, earning her a lifted brow and mildly amused glance. “Come on, just one little hint? Pleeeease?” she wheedled, pulling out her most affective pout.

Unfortunately, she’d forgotten that pouting at Kakashi-sensei always led to extra laps or push-ups. The man was immune to the power of a good pout. When he simply arched a brow and crossed his arms over his chest while leveling his best yeah-so-what look on her, Sakura huffed and rolled her eyes. “You really are no fun, Kakashi!”

She wasn’t quite quick enough to arch backward to avoid his hand ruffling her hair in retaliation for her statement. He chuckled as she glared at him and fixed her still damp hair in place once again. “If I’m no fun then why did you agree to a second and third date?” he questioned as he brushed by her and headed down the walkway for the street.

Jogging to catch up, Sakura fell into step beside him and answered sarcastically, “I really have no idea, but I’m thinking this will be the last time I make that mistake.”

She jumped a little when she felt Kakashi’s hand close over hers and give it a quick, light squeeze. Immediately, Sakura glanced around and noticed a few unfriendly looks being directed at them, from both men and women. She didn’t need a mirror to know her cheeks were all but on fire as she quickly lowered her gaze to the ground, watching her feet move while a heavy, dismal feeling settled in her gut. She sighed heavily and once again wished she knew how to make the earth just swallow her up. This sucked so bad! Wasn’t there anyone in Konoha who wasn’t either jealous of her or thinking she was using him to further her career?

“Something wrong, Sakura?”

Sakura jumped a little at his voice, blinking in surprise to be startled out of her miserable thoughts. “Huh? Oh! No… why do you ask?” she replied quickly before mentally kicking herself for not taking a second to get composed. Stupid… There was no way Kakashi wouldn’t know something was bothering her now!

Kakashi turned just enough to give her a glance that was so completely unreadable that she knew he’d sensed her change in mood. Sakura forced a smile onto her face and crossed her fingers that it appeared genuine. She caught what almost sounded like a sigh from him before he simply said, “Okay.”

In a way, it was a little relieving he wasn’t going to press her until she told him what was wrong. But at the same time… Could he be any more insensitive? Geeze! Here she was, a girl obviously upset about something, and he couldn’t even pretend interest beyond asking if something was wrong? Still, he knew something was off with her, and that wasn’t a good thing. Who wanted to date someone when they were miserable?

So, she did her best to ignore the people watching them and squeezed his hand just enough to get his attention to flash what she hoped was a happy grin up at him. “You know what would make me really happy right now?”

“Gee, let me guess… information regarding the date?” he deadpanned. She nudged him with her elbow, the impact forcing a light grunt from him. She didn’t need to see his face to know he was frowning as he rubbed his side. “And beating me up won’t get me to dish either, so you might as well save your energy for the hike.”

Sighing in defeat, Sakura scuffed her sandaled foot through the dirt street, kicking up a small puff of dust that billowed back against her pant leg. He was so stubborn! And with how guarded he was about answering a stupid question, how was she even expected to get near his beloved books? If she didn’t know better, she’d almost swear Tsunade had set her up for failure. Glancing at what she could see of his profile from the corner of her eye, Sakura chewed her lower lip hesitantly before asking in a quiet, wistful voice, “Just one tiny hint?”

Kakashi chuckled and shook his head as his thumb began rubbing in small circles against her hand. “Not a chance.”

Sakura scowled at him before turning pointedly away, ignoring how nice his little impromptu hand massage felt. She knew he was only being difficult to get a rise out of her, but she couldn’t help it. He was just so… Well, she wasn’t sure what exactly he was, to be honest. On the one hand, Kakashi made her want to tear her hair out before pummeling him into fleshy mashed potatoes. But then he would do something that was actually rather… sweet. Like bringing her a special made pastry for breakfast… even though he was late in getting there to begin with. It was a new facet to her lazy, somewhat insensitive, confusing, pig-headed-

“You’re late, ya know. We’ve been waitin’ since ten,” a gruff voice said from… near her feet? Sakura glanced down and blinked in surprise to see a small pug dog sitting directly in front of the north gate. Looking beyond him, her eyes widened when she saw a total of four dogs sprawled out in the relative shade of the wall. She recognized them immediately by the vests they all wore; they were Kakashi’s dogs. What were they doing there?

“Ah, sorry about that,” Kakashi explained, his tone suggesting he really wasn’t as sorry as he claimed to be. “But I’d told Sakura that I would meet her at her apartment at eleven-,”

“-And you didn’t show up until almost one,” Sakura interrupted abruptly, smirking when the white dog with the odd tuft of black fur on its head gave a snicker.

“-So, obviously it would have been rude of me to leave a lady waiting,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I’ll make it up to you though.”

The large bull dog taking up the entire space underneath one of the trees growing nearby picked his head up and rumbled, “You still owe us from the last time.”

“And the time ‘fore that,” the white dog chimed in. The sleepy looking dog with floppy ears grunted in agreement.

Sakura arched a brow as Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yes, of course. Does everyone remember Sakura-chan?” It wasn’t the most subtle change in topic ever, but it worked nonetheless. Sakura stiffened in surprise as four sets of eyes shifted from Kakashi to her curiously. She smiled tightly and gave a quick wave, unsure how she was supposed to introduce herself to a pack of ninja dogs. The last time she’d seen them hadn’t been the most ideal situation for introductions.

Pakkun was the first to venture over and sniff her ankles. Sakura glanced at Kakashi, who only gave her his typical blank look to indicate it was her call how to proceed. He wasn’t about to give her any hints here, probably in retaliation for outing him in front of his dogs about being late to pick her up. Letting out a low breath, Sakura squatted down and held her hand out for Pakkun to sniff instead. It was what she would have done were she meeting a normal dog for the first time ever. She could only hope she wasn’t insulting them by treating them like the average dog.

The little pug snuffled his wet nose against her palm as soon as she offered it, making her squirm and fight not to giggle at the ticklish sensation. Finally, as if satisfied, Pakkun sauntered over toward Kakashi with an almost bored look to his face. “Yep, she’s the one who used to get after that loud kid all the time. Told you I remembered her.”

Sakura was about to tell him Naruto had it coming every single time but her reply turned into a squawk of surprise when something cold and wet came into contact with the sliver of her lower back that was exposed by the gap between her shirt and pants. Her arms flailed briefly before she managed to steady herself once again, but once she was in place she looked over her shoulder to see whose nose it had been.

The heavy eyed brown dog with the odd marking on its forehead was behind her, looking as if it were about to fall asleep any minute. It continued sniffing at her shirt as if she hadn’t just about fallen over, but it was obvious from its expression that it wasn’t really too interested. Smiling, Sakura was about to turn and pet it when another of the dogs came over, this time the enormous bulldog who was being surprisingly careful about not bowling her over. No sooner had it come over to investigate before Sakura found herself falling backward when the white dog came bouncing over and practically into her lap. She fell backward with a squawk of surprise and tried to right herself but the dogs didn’t seem to care that she was trying to get up or that cold noses really did not belong near her crotch. And Kakashi…

From the glimpses she caught of him through the shuffle of canine bodies, he was amused. “Mind giving me a hand?” she asked, the question sounding a lot more peevish than she actually was. She didn’t mind the dogs at all, honestly. They were all very cute, though she had a feeling if she told them that they’d be less than thrilled with her opinion. But there were four of them, all about forty pounds and over, and there was just one of her weighing in at… well, that was nobody’s business.

Kakashi made a big deal out of considering her request. While he took his precious time thinking the dogs continued sniffing her, which made her squirm and squeak in surprise whenever a nose brushed somewhere particularly sensitive. She was on her back now with the large bull dog snorting against her stomach, making her squirm and giggle as it found her ticklish spot. “Kakashi-sensei… please!” she begged through a fit of giggles that was quickly progressing to howling laughter the longer the dogs continued exploring her tickle spots.

Sighing and acting as if it were the biggest inconvenience in the history of inconveniences, Kakashi drawled, “Oh, alright.” Sakura winced at the shrill whistle that got the dogs’ attentions and sat up with a huff of breath as the dogs all wandered over toward Kakashi. “I think that’s about all the introducing Sakura-chan’s going to allow, guys. Besides, if we take much longer it’ll be dark by the time we get there.”

“S’not our fault you were late,” the floppy eared dog muttered, causing the white one to snicker once again.

Eye narrowing in mild irritation, Kakashi shook his head before crossing his arms over his chest and glancing down inquiringly to where Sakura was still sitting and trying hard not to hiccup. “Well? If you’re waiting for me to pick you up and carry you, you’re going to be there for a long time.”

Scowling and pushing to her feet quickly at his taunt, Sakura dusted the back of her pants free from any possible dirt and settled a glare at her former teacher. “Usually, it’s considered polite for the guy to help the girl to her feet,” she commented as she tugged her shirt more firmly over her stomach.

“So… it’s polite to undermine your walking abilities. Huh,” he returned instantly with a nonchalant shrug.

Sakura groaned as her hands fisted at her sides. One of these days… “Can we just get going?” she snapped. Then, without waiting for him to reply, she stomped off through the gates leading out into the dense forest area surrounding Konoha. The words frustrating and annoying didn’t even come close to describing him right then. She heard him calling to her but ignored him completely as she continued stomping down the wide main road. Like she was gonna hold up for him… Ha! Let him catch up to her for a change!

When something warm bumped into her leg, Sakura glanced down and was a little surprised to see the white dog trotting alongside her. “Umm… hi?”

The dog looked up at her with the widest grin on its muzzle, its pink tongue lolling out one side of its mouth. “Hiya!” he replied cheerfully while keeping an even pace with her. “Kakashi said to stick with ya since ya don’t know where we’re goin’.”

Oh… craaaaap! Sakura came to an abrupt halt and slapped a hand over her eyes at her own stupidity. It totally sucked the righteous indignation right out of her that she’d been storming off to a place she didn’t know the location of. And Kakashi had just let her, too! She really wanted to be mad at him for allowing her to stalk off like that, but it wasn’t really his fault she hadn’t thought it through all the way. A glance over her shoulder showed he was still a good distance back and taking his precious time in catching up with her, the rest of the dogs mulling around in front of and behind him. Great… She could just imagine the teasing he was going to torment her with once he caught up with her.

Sighing dismally at having wasted a perfectly good outburst, she sat down on the fallen tree by the side of the road and looked at the dog now sitting on the ground beside her, her lips twisting thoughtfully. “So, do you have a name?” she asked him, reaching out to smooth down a crease in his vest on impulse.

The dog seemed incredibly delighted she’d asked judging by the way his tail began wagging hard enough to thump loudly against the fallen tree. “I’m Jubei! And you’re Sakura-chan.”

“You can call me Sakura if you want.”

“But I like Sakura-chan.” Jubei’s tail faltered in its earnest wagging as he tilted his head up to regard her curiously. “Can’t I call ya that?”

She couldn’t help smiling and reaching down to ruffle the patch of black fur on top of his head. “Sure, why not? Just don’t ever call me Cherry-chan, got it?” She continued ruffling the soft fur on his neck, her smile softening as he grunted and leaned into her touch more heavily. Generally speaking, she was more of a cat person than a dog… But Jubei seemed like a really sweet guy. And definitely very cheerful! She wasn’t sure what she was expecting out of a ninja hound, but it certainly wasn’t the easy going affection this one was showing.

Jubei stopped wagging altogether, his eyes narrowing as if he were thinking very hard about her response. Finally, he looked up at her again and asked slowly, “Why would I call ya that? Doesn’t sound anything like Sakura-chan to me.”

Sakura giggled and spared a glance at the rest of the group as they finally caught up with her and Jubei. “Never mind,” she muttered. “Just don’t do it, even if you hear other people doing it, okay?”

“Okay! Oh, hiya, Kakashi! Sakura-chan and I were just talkin’. Would ya believe someone calls her Cherry-chan?” Jubei stood up and trotted over to Kakashi happily, bouncing ever so slightly in order to get his attention.

Meeting Sakura’s embarrassed gaze steadily, Kakashi feigned utter disbelief as he questioned, “Really? How odd.” He reached down and rubbed the excited dog’s ears to placate him and keep him from jumping on him.

“Yeah, I know! I mean, it doesn’t even sound like Sakura-chan,” Jubei continued, following Kakashi as he made his way over to the log and took a seat next to Sakura. Sakura refused to look at him, though she could feel him studying her profile intently. It made her cheeks burn up as she fidgeted and picked at the dried bark with her fingernails.

Kakashi made a sound of agreement while scratching the sleepy dog’s ears when it rested its head on his thigh. Several seconds passed where neither of them said a thing or even looked at each other. The dogs started to settle themselves around on the ground or began exploring amongst the trees, noses ruffling through the old, drying leaves covering the dirt and tree roots. Sakura continued picking at the tree bark, unsure of his mood at the moment. He was quiet, but she couldn’t really tell from his profile whether she’d made him angry or if he was laughing at her. He was just… blank. It was almost eerie how he could suppress his emotions from showing so easily.

Finally, she let out a heavy sigh and mumbled, “Sorry.” She peered at him out of the corner of her eye, sucking her lower lip between her teeth anxiously as she waited for his reaction.

Blinking once, Kakashi turned slowly to look at her. “For what?”

“For…” Walking off? Getting annoyed with him? Seducing him because her crazy mentor made a stupid bet? “I don’t really know, to be honest.”

“Ah. Well, perhaps you should save that apology for when you absolutely need it,” he replied lightly. She could just make out the shifting of his cheeks under his mask in the afternoon sunlight, letting her know he was smiling at her. Not that she needed to see his mouth to know that anyway. His open eye had a spark of gentle amusement in it that brought out an answering, although hesitant, smile from her.

“So… you’re not mad?” she pressed.

“Sakura, you’ll have to try a lot harder than that to get on my shit list. In fact, stomping off to an unknown destination is more amusing than annoying, don’t you think?”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed at the light teasing but she didn’t do anything more than nudge him playfully with her elbow. “You just had to get that one in, didn’t you?” she complained, though her disgruntled tone was ruined by the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Kakashi chuckled and shrugged as he stood up. “Well, I couldn’t resist when you provided such excellent fodder. Ready to get going?”

Her eyes widened a touch as he held his hand out for her to take. She glanced up at his half covered face, fully expecting to see amusement crinkling his eyes. Instead, all she saw in his visible eye was calmness, as if it didn’t matter one way or the other if she refused his offer. Sakura arched a brow and crossed her arms over her chest belligerently. “What, it doesn’t look like I can get up on my own?” she demanded, only half serious about her words.

“According to a very strange person, it’s considered polite to help an able bodied young woman to her feet.”

“Since when have you been concerned about being polite?”

“Since that same very strange person decided to go hiking without me. So?”

It was a futile effort to fight the grin from spreading across her cheeks as she reached out and took his hand, letting him haul her to her feet. “You know,” she said thoughtfully as they began walking again. “You could always-,”

“I already told you; I’m not saying a word,” he cut her off, his tone still light and friendly but carrying an edge that said this fact was non-negotiable.

Sakura rolled her eyes in his general direction. “Fine! I didn’t wanna know anyway.”

“Good. Because I’m not telling.”

“Okay!”

“Okay.”

Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and noticed he was watching her as well. She could just make out the briefest flicker of laughter in his eye, which made her glance away before a giggle could break free from her throat. The process of glancing at him, noting that he was trying not to laugh and looking away before she caved in was repeated a few times before it became too much for her aching cheeks to take. Her laughter spluttered out of her so suddenly that she clapped her free hand to her mouth to stifle it. “Do you know how silly that just sounded?” she asked through her giggles.

“On a scale of one to ten… I’d give it a four,” Kakashi replied. “Now, if we’d both stuck our tongues out at the same time… Maybe a seven.” The slight crinkling near the corner of his eye told her he was definitely grinning under the mask. He tugged on her hand to pull her in against his side before releasing it in favor of settling his arm around her shoulders as naturally as if he’d been doing it for years. At first, Sakura was hesitant about looping her arm around his waist, but then it occurred to her that the pouch holding Icha Icha was also on his back… and so she slid her arm in place, her fingers tracing lightly along the area where his over shirt met his pants.

“What does it matter if you stick your tongue out? No one would see it,” she teased quickly, hoping he hadn’t noticed her hesitation from before. She glanced down as one of the dogs nudged her free hand expectantly, her smile widening in response to the hopeful look on Jubei’s face. She reached down and ruffled the longer fur on his head, his tail wagging so hard it forced the bulldog behind him to back up to avoid getting whipped across the face.

“Their loss then. My tongue’s my best feature.”

Sakura laughed and pinched Kakashi’s side just hard enough to earn a mild glare from him. “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard! There’s nothing attractive about a person’s tongue!”

For some reason, her reply seemed to amuse him to no end. She could feel more than hear his laughter vibrating through the arm she had around his waist. Sakura’s smile slipped a little as Kakashi shook his head and ran a hand across his eyes almost wearily. “Sakura, you say the cutest things.”

“Okay… thanks?” She had a feeling though that he was making fun of her, not paying her a compliment. But she didn’t know what was so funny about what she’d said. Tongues were… well, they weren’t exactly the first thing she looked at when checking a guy out. They were just really wet slabs of muscle that aided in digestion. Nothing attractive at all there, in her opinion at least. “I bet your smile’s your best feature,” she added, smiling shyly up at him when he glanced at her.

“Oh, and what makes you think that?” he asked back, his fingers pressing into her shoulder in a gentle sort of massage. Damn… did that feel good! Her shoulders were always aching these days, what with the incredibly difficult training Tsunade put her through constantly, and Ino gave really crappy massages. She felt awful for the patients who were assigned to her roommate for physical therapy.

Sakura shrugged and grinned at his questioning look. “Just a hunch, that’s all. I bet you have dimples, too.”

“That I can tell you I don’t have,” Kakashi replied quickly, as if the very idea of having dimples made him cringe.

“Then what do you have?” she pushed while subtly shifting her hand from his hip toward the pouch that was just within reaching distance. She wasn’t going to steal the book now or anything. All she wanted to do was see how far she could get before he noticed.

“Well,” he began slowly, acting as if he were about to impart some deep and meaningful knowledge onto her. “I have a nose. A mouth, too. And somewhere underneath this mask there are some cheeks, which are completely dimple free. Oh, and mustn’t forget the chin. But the very best thing is-,”

“-Not your tongue!” Sakura interrupted quickly before laughing as his head drooped in dismay that she’d caught onto him. “Your tongue is not your best feature!”

“There are some people who would argue that point with you.” A jolt ran through her when Kakashi lifted his hand from her shoulder to rub his knuckles gently along her jaw line. That fluttery feeling returned once again only this time it was warmer and moving down from her stomach, stirring up something she’d never felt before. It was almost like an ache in a way, except instead of hurting it felt good. Really good, actually. Better even than when he’d been massaging her shoulder.

Sakura had to swallow hard and take a shaky breath before she could say, “I don’t believe you.” Her eyes closed in embarrassment at the slight squeak to her voice. Lovely… just lovely. She pretended to cough lightly as if she’d had something tickling her throat while she’d been talking. Meanwhile, she edged her hand just the tiniest bit closer to the pouch that was just barely peeking out from underneath the pack on his back.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t go any further than that since the pouch holding the prize was completely lost under the bulk of the bigger pack. There was no way she could get it open she realized wryly, not without actually lifting the pack away to get to it. By the time she did that, Kakashi would be on to her and she’d be walking home to Konoha a jolly blue mess. Letting out a quiet sigh, Sakura smoothed her hand out against his side again and gave up on pushing it any further. At least she had some idea now of how far she could go without him noticing.

Kakashi shrugged indifferently and seemed oblivious to her cover up tactics as he began toying with the ends of her hair idly. Her fingers curled into the worn fabric of his shirt as he twisted a lock around one finger over and over again. Each twirl caused his fingertip to brush lightly along the spot right behind her ear, sending a shudder down her spine she couldn’t have suppressed if she’d tried. Damn it… “You don’t have to, but that’s what I’ve heard people say.”

Arching a disbelieving brow, Sakura demanded, “Prove it!” She was rather proud of the fact that her voice didn’t sound like she’d sucked down half a tank of helium this time. Maybe she could pass it off as a frog in her throat after all.

It confused her when Kakashi flinched as if her command was somehow painful to him. “Maybe some other time,” he muttered, but his voice sounded a little strained to her ears and he’d stopped playing with her hair. Sakura wondered why he was reacting so strangely to her requesting him to stick his tongue out and show her, but those thoughts were overshadowed by the disappointment that he’d stopped touching her. His hand was on her shoulder again but it had just about as much affect as if it were Naruto’s arm draped over her. Great, she’d scared him off somehow. Sakura sighed and dropped her gaze to her feet. It looked like she was back to square one in Operation Seduce Sensei.

The dogs were wandering around as they kept walking, Jubei running ahead of them only to turn and bark at the others. The other three stayed within reaching distance of Sakura and Kakashi and didn’t seem at all interested in their energetic comrade and his game. Eventually, Jubei came running back to them, circled their group once and took off running again before repeating the process over and over. Apparently, he’d created a brand new game to keep himself occupied with until the hike started.

Sakura was just starting to wonder when exactly they were going to stop walking and start hiking when Kakashi suddenly dropped his arm from her shoulders in order to take her hand. “Hope you don’t mind uphill climbing,” he said over his shoulder as he veered off the main road to the right… and directly toward what had to be the largest, steepest hill she’d ever seen in her life.

Sakura was still gaping at the mini mountain as she followed him down one side of the ditch and up the other, entering the thickly wooded forest that bordered either side of the road and covered every inch of their path. Once they were on the edge of the forest, Kakashi released her hand and kept on going, fully expecting that she would be right behind him. “Wait… This is where we’re hiking?” she asked incredulously, stopping dead in her tracks as she looked up the sloping side looming before her.

Kakashi paused with one foot planted on a fallen tree in preparation for stepping over it and glanced back at her inquiringly. “It’s only a little under three miles, Sakura.” His tone suggested that she should be able to do this no problem. Yeah… no problem except for the slippery leaves, hidden tree roots and no trail! What the hell was he thinking?! This wasn’t a date, this was a training session! Of course, it could be argued her paintball date was a training session as well. Crap… Now he probably thought she wasn’t into the normal, romantic sweep-a-girl-off-her-feet sort of dates. Greeeeeeat.

Shaking her head and ducking under a low hanging branch to follow him, she muttered, “Whatever’s at the end of this had better be beyond amazing.”

“It is, I promise. And if it isn’t… I’ll take you out somewhere nice when I get back from the mission, my treat. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Kakashi’s eyes creased happily as he finished stepping over the log and slung his pack off his shoulder. “Okay… Do you guys mind gathering around for a second?” All four dogs obediently circled around Kakashi, their eyes trained on him expectantly. Even Jubei was perfectly still and alert, which really said something for Kakashi’s training if the excitable dog sobered up at only a word from him.

The soft sound of a zipper being pulled had Sakura hurrying as best she could through the clinging branches and dead leaves to his side to see what he was pulling out. She pushed her way between the bulldog and the sleepy one until she was able to climb up and kneel on the log to peer over his shoulder curiously.

Kakashi was quick to turn his shoulder away, effectively shielding her from seeing what was in his hand. “Uh-uh. That’s cheating, Sakura,” he admonished playfully.

“Aw, c’mon!” she complained, tugging on his unyielding shoulder in an effort to get him to turn around again.

“Do you really want to see?”

She nodded eagerly, grinning as she leaned forward excitedly.

“I’ll show you, but you have to give me something in return.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the mischievous tilt to his eye. Oh, God… She could only imagine what kind of perverted thing he was thinking about! “What?” she asked slowly.

“I get to call you Cherry-chan for the rest of the day.”

“Hell, no!” Sakura shouted, shoving his shoulder hard enough to rock him forward a bit. It wasn’t what she’d been expecting him to ask, but it was still bad enough in her opinion.

“Why does that name bother you so much?” he asked while still making certain she couldn’t see what was in his hands.

Wrinkling her nose, Sakura tugged on a strand of her pink hair and said, “Because of this. I’ve heard every sort of cherry nickname in existence because of my name and hair color. It’s soooo unoriginal and overused by now.”

Kakashi nodded and shrugged his concession of her point. “That makes sense, I suppose. Okay, then what will you do for a hint to our date?”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at the question, but Kakashi’s face gave away nothing to suggest he was anything but innocent about asking what she would do. That didn’t mean he wasn’t acting on perverted instinct or anything though. Still, he was providing a perfect opportunity for her to kill two birds with one stone. She could use this as an excuse to kiss him and build further on seducing him… And she could use it as an excuse to kiss him again to get it out of her system. The only way to stop the butterflies from happening was to kiss him enough times that it became old news. It was like throwing a kunai, so to speak. The more she did it, the more easy it became.

Smiling, she leaned toward him and let her gaze drop to his jaw line flirtatiously. “How about a kiss?” she suggested, catching her lower lip between her teeth as her stomach jerked at the very idea. That reaction only reconfirmed this was the right thing to do. The sooner she got over this feeling of being sick but not sick the better.

Kakashi blinked slowly, as if he were having trouble processing what she’d just said. Sakura remained waiting as his heavy lidded gaze briefly slid down to where she was still chewing on her lower lip before returning to meet her eyes. There was something to his dark grey eye that made her breath catch somewhere in her chest and her heart skip a sharp beat. She could feel heat rising in her cheeks as he leaned just a little closer to her, enough so that his shoulder was brushing along her collar bone and she could almost feel his breath through the cotton covering the lower half of his face.

“No deal,” he murmured, his low voice sending a shiver down her spine and momentarily deafening her to his response.

Blinking slowly and unable to tear her eyes from the area of cotton that had moved with his words, Sakura cleared her throat and asked, “What? Why not?” Was he saying he hadn’t liked kissing her the other night? A flicker of outrage began stirring within her, but it was being held back by the fact that his mouth was now definitely close enough to hers that she could feel his breath tickling against her lips and chin. It occurred to her that he was teasing her right then, purposely withholding what she was after to get a rise out of her. Instead of irritating her though it made her feel… anxious? No, that wasn’t quite right. It was more like her lips were itching and relief was just a scant few centimeters away.

“Because I’ll be getting that anyway, regardless of whether you see the clue or not. So… no deal.”

Sakura nearly fell over when he stood up with a soft laugh and purposely turned his back on her. Scowling at his shoulders as he crouched down to allow the dogs to circle him and see what he was holding, she called out sullenly, “Your loss. It would have been one helluva kiss.”

“I look forward to you giving it to me later,” he replied, oblivious to the narrow eyed glare boring holes in his back. The dogs began crowding in around him, shoving each other aside in order to get close enough to sniff whatever he had for them. Sakura stood up on the log to try and peer through the furry mass as well, but it was useless. There were simply too many dogs swarming around and Kakashi’s shoulders were curved to prevent her from peeking. Short of being able to see through his back, there was no way she was going to see it.

Sighing, Sakura dropped back down to straddle the fallen tree, her lips twisting irritably as the dogs began circling away from Kakashi. The Copy Nin stood after the bulldog finally moved away to join its comrades, carefully covering his surprise up before performing a quick fire seal with his hands. The item flared briefly before fizzing out with a soft poof of smoke and flaking ash. As soon as it was destroyed, Kakashi wiped his hands clean of the remaining ash and settled his pack to his shoulders again. “Do you all have it?” he asked, glancing around the circle of dogs surrounding him.

A chorus of ‘yeps’ and ‘got its’ came from the dogs, who were all watching Kakashi intently. All the eyes trained on the white haired man were glittering with barely restrained excitement, their muscles tensed and bodies poised for sudden action. They were waiting for him to give the signal, Sakura realized, and their anticipation was even starting to make her shift anxiously.

Kakashi hooked his thumbs behind the straps of his pack and shifted his weight to one foot as he continued surveying the eagerly awaiting dogs calmly, as if the intensity their tension was causing in the air didn’t affect him in the least. Sakura couldn’t see much of his expression from where she was sitting since the profile with the Sharingan was facing her, but she could almost imagine that he had that same look in his open eye that he always got when they were on missions; impersonal, aloof and completely business like. At that moment, this wasn’t a date at all. This was strictly training and a part of her really resented that.

“Scatter!”

The dogs were gone so fast that the breeze created in their passing whipped through Sakura’s hair like a windstorm. She yelped in surprise and very nearly would have fallen backward off the tree trunk were it not for a strong hand clamping on her shoulder to prevent that from happening. Sakura only had time to give a surprised glance up at Kakashi before he was moving away from her at a brisk pace. “We better get going now if we expect to get there before they do,” he called over his shoulder.

Still reeling from the speed of the ninken, Sakura scurried, tripped and flailed her way through the trees to catch up with Kakashi, who was moving as if the very trees were parting just for him. He made avoiding hidden pits and tangled roots look so easy she couldn’t help feeling a little jealous at the unfairness of it all. “Wait a second! What’s going on? Why do we need to get there before they do? Kakashi-sensei, answer me!”

Without slowing a bit, Kakashi replied, “What’s going on is that we’re racing Pakkun and the others to our date location.”

“But they’re so much faster than us!” she shouted. Was he insane? There was no way they could catch up to that kind of speed!

“True… but they don’t know where the location is. While they may have the speed factor over us, I know where the chase ends. And we won’t have to work our way through traps and false trails either.”

Huffing as she finally managed to make it up alongside him, Sakura grabbed his arm and forced him to stop and face her. “Then why do we have to beat them there? If we’re all gonna end up in the same place, what’s the point in rushing?” He’d said they were hiking. He’d never said anything about a wild sprint through the wilderness!

Kakashi regarded her with a level, tolerant look, almost as if he were dealing with a small child and not someone who was an adult… almost. “Because, Sakura, if we don’t not only will we have to give them all belly rubs but they’ll also win the date I had planned for you as well.”

Sakura’s eyes widened at his words as she shook her head vigorously. “Oh, hell no! They are not stealing my date!” she snarled fiercely. There was no way in hell she was letting a group of dogs go on a date that was promised to her, even if the date felt more like a training exercise than a romantic outing! She took off in front of him once again, all but throwing herself through the obstacles that came with hiking through a dense forest. “Which way?”

“Straight ahead for about a quarter of a mile,” Kakashi answered from beside her, easily matching the quick pace set by her much shorter legs.

“You are such an incredible jerk, Hatake Kakashi,” she continued to rant as she shoved aside errant branches and stomped through piles of dead leaves. “And who the hell do you think you are, roping me into belly rubbing duty? They’re your dogs, not mine!”

“Well, there are four dogs and one me. I figured if we both did it we’d be done in record time,” he replied without a trace of remorse in his voice.

Sakura rolled her eyes heavenward and almost wished for a stray bolt of lightning to strike at just that moment. Knowing her luck, however, that lightning bolt would probably hit her instead of him. Wouldn’t that just be a lovely addition to her day? “Again, not my dogs so not my problem! I can’t believe you gambled on my date… which you’re still refusing to tell me about!”

“Think about it like this; if we don’t get there before the ninken find it, at least you won’t know what you’re missing out on.”

“I hate you.”

“That’s fine, now move faster.”

Seething and gritting her teeth to keep from really letting him have it, Sakura began moving at a slow jog through the trees. A rush of wind from where Kakashi had been caused her to look up into the trees just in time to catch his dark figure flying ahead through the tree branches. Apparently, she wasn’t moving fast enough for him. So much for the hiking portion of the date, too! Shaking her head, Sakura followed his example and channeled enough chakra into her feet to launch her into the tree tops as well, moving quickly to follow the trail of lightly bouncing branches in his wake. This really sucked! As if hiking wasn’t bad enough, now she was racing with a pack of dogs to keep them from getting her date! She honestly didn’t care what was at the end of the ‘hike’, he still owed her a nice, normal date when he got back!


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


He had to admit… he hadn’t expected her to go along with all this. Granted, Sakura was probably irritated with him and would more than likely insist he take her out to a nice restaurant or something when he returned, but he was rather surprised at how agreeable she was. Kakashi glanced over his shoulder and arched a brow when he noticed she’d caught up to him rather quickly. Yes… She’d certainly gotten much faster under Tsunade’s tutelage. A pleased smile crossed his lips as he returned his attention to the trees in front of him. Now then… Time to test just how much faster she’d gotten.

With a sudden kick, Kakashi used the thicker portion of the tree he had just landed on to push off and into the air. Branches fell away as he was suddenly air born, the feeling of being surrounded by nothing exhilarating as a rush of adrenaline pounded through his veins. Of course, the sensation of practically hanging in midair only lasted for a matter of seconds before gravity inevitably pulled him back down again. Kakashi caught the branch of the next tree and swung himself back into the air, twisting midway through to change his path into a zigzagging pattern designed to dislodge someone from following. He had no intention of losing Sakura in the forest or anything. He was just genuinely curious as to how well she actually could keep up.

He glanced over his shoulder once again when the sounds of shouted threats came from the girl behind him. Sakura looked about ready to launch a kunai at his skull, which was equal parts disturbing and amusing. She was falling back a bit but she still managed to keep him in sight and follow each sudden swerve and turn he threw at her. She actually looked rather… well… impressive as she moved from tree to tree in his wake. The way her lean legs worked and strained to maintain her speed, the slight scrunching of concentration between her eyes, the play of sunlight off her toned-

“Oh, shit,” he muttered as he missed his next step and very nearly plummeted out of the tree completely. Fortunately, he managed to grab the branch he’d slipped off of and swung himself upward again, turning what would have been an embarrassing disaster into a smooth, seemingly planned maneuver. If she noticed, she was keeping it to herself, though he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Blackmail in the hands of a girl like Haruno Sakura was a very, very bad thing. Still… It would serve him right for getting distracted by her, ah… impressive physique.

A flicker of movement to the right caught his attention and the flash of tawny colored fur weaving between the trees told him that at least one of the dogs (besides Pakkun, of course) hadn’t been knocked off the trail yet. Considering he’d literally spent his entire afternoon the day before smothering the stretch of forest with as many false trails and jutsu traps as he could think of, it was rewarding that some the hounds were on the correct trail. Or else they’d simply hung back and followed him, which was equally clever though not the purpose of the exercise. However… If the hounds beat them to the date location, he had a feeling Sakura would do a lot more than just blackmail him.

So, seeing as his own speed was hampered by the fact that he didn’t want to get too far ahead of her, Kakashi did the only thing he could to ensure they would win the race; he cheated. And no, it didn’t bother him one bit to win through deception. Anyone who complained cheating wasn’t fair had obviously never been in a fight to survive before. Cheating was completely within the rules of combat and was, in fact, encouraged for ninja in particular. When done correctly, cheating was an incredibly useful tool.

And he’d had years to perfect the technique.

The next branch he came to was where he put the plan into motion. He landed on the narrow limb and redirected a little extra chakra to his feet to stop his forward momentum completely, allowing him to almost literally pivot on a ryo around the main trunk. As he slipped behind the thicker portion of the tree, Kakashi worked a quick Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, followed immediately by a jutsu to disguise his scent. As soon as his clone appeared on the branch he’d been standing on, he motioned sharply for it to keep moving forward. His clone winked and took of through the trees just as the dog tracking him (it looked like Yaku from where he was perched) circled back after discovering he wasn’t still running. Yep, he’d been right. It was Yaku who’d decided to be lazy, no surprise there. That dog was in for it when this was over with.

As soon as Yaku picked up the faint scent of his clone flying through the trees he took off running after it, completely unaware that it was going to continue running straight until he either caught it or Kakashi released the jutsu. Kakashi grinned and shook his head. That should teach Yaku for being lazy! Now, all he had to do was wait for Sakura to catch up to finalize the plan and then it was off to their date.

He didn’t have to wait long for her and she wasn’t exactly trying to keep her voice down, which allowed him to hear some pretty interesting (and physically impossible) suggestions about what he could do to himself. As soon as he heard her sandal connect with the tree branch on the other side of the trunk, Kakashi reached around and snagged his arm around her waist, dragging her around the side of the tree. Her breath exploded from her in a startled ‘oof’ before he quickly clamped a hand on her mouth.

“Wuph da ‘ell?!” she so eloquently yelled into his palm while trying to twist her way free from him.

“Shh,” he cautioned against her ear. He couldn’t help grinning as her body switched from fight mode to stiff-with-shock in the space of a heartbeat. Sensing that she wasn’t about to pummel him into a fleshy spatter, Kakashi loosened the arm he had wrapped tightly around her waist and removed his hand from her mouth. “Make a clone.”

“What?” she hissed back, turning just enough to give him a bewildered glance over her shoulder.

“We’re being followed. Make the clone.”

Shaking her head and letting out a frustrated sigh, Sakura formed the necessary seals to create a Kage Bunshin clone. As soon as it appeared with a small pop in front of them, Sakura muttered, “Now what, sensei?”

Ignoring the mocking use of his title, Kakashi motioned to the clone waiting for its orders and said, “My clone’s just up ahead. Mind following him for a bit?”

Clone Sakura giggled and gave her creator a very coy, mischievous look. “My pleasure,” she said, her tone suggesting that her response was more meaningful than it implied. Sakura groaned and covered her face with her hands, but not quick enough to hide the raging blush on her cheeks.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out why the girl was redder than red. Obviously, she’d been enjoying her view from behind very much and her clone had just outed her on it. Hmm… It seemed little Sakura was a bit more perverted than she wanted to let on. How very interesting. And flattering as well. Kakashi added his ass to the list of things she liked while fighting the urge to chuckle. Apparently, he’d done a poor job of keeping it back because her elbow suddenly ground into his ribs hard enough to make him wince. Damn… He wasn’t sure if she was actually stronger than she had been or of she just had insanely sharp elbows, but it didn’t change the fact that he had yet another bruise to add to his collection.

“Just… get outta here already!” the embarrassed girl ground out to her giggling clone. Clone Sakura winked, though it was unclear if it was at her creator or Kakashi, and took off after his clone once again. A few seconds later and a streak of white went zipping across the ground in her wake, barely even disturbing the leaves it was bounding over. Ah… That would be Jubei. It figured he’d be the one tailing Sakura, seeing as they’d had a lovely bonding session not too long ago.

As soon as both the clone and the dog were out of sight, Kakashi kept his arm around her waist and pulled her with him when he leaned back against the trunk. Her back was still incredibly tense where it was pressing against his chest, either from his proximity or her clone practically calling her out on staring at his ass. He pretended he didn’t notice as he rubbed his free hand up and down her arm soothingly, instead focusing for sounds that the dogs had caught on to the ploy. Even though they really had to get moving, Kakashi knew she was quickly losing her patience with him. A break would at least give her a chance to cool down, even if it did put them at a greater disadvantage.

“You said this was a date,” Sakura muttered accusingly, not bothering to turn and face him.

“Actually, if you wanted to get technical about the phrasing, I asked if you wanted to do something,” he replied, grunting as her elbow shot backward and connected with his lungs once again. “However,” he continued as he rubbed the newly tender spot soothingly. “There is a date involved.”

“Yeah, one I have to compete with your dogs for!”

“You honestly believed that?” he asked with a short, amused laugh. The look she shot over her shoulder told him that yes, she had believed him when he’d said that. Kakashi knew it was going to get him into to trouble, but he couldn’t help it. His laughter escaped from him in silent shudders that were impossible for her not to feel, seeing as she was leaning back against him. And he continued laughing even when she turned and landed a hard swat to his shoulder.

“You mean to tell me this entire time you were joking about that?!” she yelled, shoving away from him so that she could pace back and forth across the branch, moving as if it wasn’t at most only four inches wide. Even though she was beyond angry with him and he was still terribly amused that she’d thought he’d been serious about racing the ninken for the date, he had to admire the fact that her chakra control was as flawless as ever. She was only a chuunin but she made the walk along a narrow branch look effortless. He knew quite a few jounin who would kill for that kind of ease.

“You mean to tell me you think I’d stoop so low as to make you race the hounds for a date?” he returned, purposely using her exact phrasing and chuckling when her shoulders scrunched up in annoyance. She really was too cute for her own good at times.

“Then why the hell did you make me sprint across the damned forest like that?” Sakura seethed, marching back over with her hands curled into tight, shaking fists.

Instead of taking her posture as the potential threat that it was, Kakashi reached out and took a hold of her wrist to pull her back to him again. She stubbornly planted her feet against the branch and turned away with an obstinate pout on her face. Fine, she wanted to play difficult? He could work with that. Keeping his grip on her wrist, Kakashi solved the problem of proximity by going to her rather forcing her to come to him. Sometimes, the most effective means to defeating an enemy was to counteract with an equal and opposite attack. It made sense then that his best weapon against Haruno Sakura’s temper was… gentleness.

He heard her breath catch as he leaned down and brushed his lips across the top of her head lightly, the movement causing her chest to rise sharply against his front. Slowly, he let his free hand stroke down her arm, using her shirt sleeves to his benefit by letting it tease along her skin. He continued rubbing her arm, moving slowly from her wrist to her shoulder and back again until the tension between her shoulder blades eased up and she began to lean into him a little.

Hesitantly, Sakura brought her hands to his waist. When he made no move to stop her, she pressed her hands more firmly into his sides and circled her arms around him as far as the pack would allow. Kakashi smiled against her hair, satisfied that she wasn’t going to beat the ever loving shit out of him any longer. Tentatively, he allowed his hands to drop to her hips and circle around until his fingertips were running along the waistband of her pants, right near the base of her spine. When a shudder ran down her back at the touch, Kakashi pressed his fingers in a little more surely before massaging upward. The movement brought her fully against him, the impact of which made her fingers tighten in the fabric of his shirt and her breath hitch.

Shivering little gasps of air puffed out against his chest, accompanied by a soft groan that made him freeze with his hands splayed across the middle of her back. She’d sounded damned near sensual right then, as if he were touching other areas than her back. If it were anyone but Sakura, he would have been surprised at how responsive they were to such a simple touch. However… this was Sakura, his very innocent ex-student who he was fairly certain had never even kissed a man before the other night. For the first time since he’d agreed to play her game, he was beginning to doubt if this was the right approach. More than likely he’d already taken her first kiss. What if it were to come to…

Kakashi bit the insides of his cheeks sharply, stopping that line of thought from continuing any further. It wouldn’t come to that. There was no need for it after all, seeing as it wouldn’t be necessary to sleep with her to seduce her. He’d done it before and on much tougher targets than the girl clinging to his shirt. So… he would stick to flirting and maybe a little foreplay but nothing else, no matter what his sex drive tried to tell him.

And right then, it was trying to tell him her shampoo would smell better on his sheets. Clearing his throat lightly as he moved his hands to her shoulders, Kakashi set her back from him and very firmly told his libido to shut the hell up. “We should get moving now before it gets any later in the day,” he said cheerfully as he let go of her completely in favor of resettling the pack on his back.

“That sounded a little like you’re trying to change the subject,” she said with a breathy, almost nervous sounding, laugh.

“That’s exactly what it is. You’re a little… distracting.”

The blush that flooded across her face said the compliment had definitely hit home, as was intended. She glanced down at the forest floor below almost shyly, her fingers toying with her hair like she couldn’t quite keep her hands still. “In a bad way?” she asked anxiously.

Kakashi pinned a sardonic look on her and didn’t bother dignifying her question with an answer. She was fishing now and he wasn’t the type to cater to that sort of thing, even if it would put him one step closer to his goal.

Sakura grinned back at him and shrugged. “I’ll take that as a no, not in a bad way. Don’t think I’m gonna just forgive you because of one compliment though!”

Kakashi smiled at her quip and reached out to ruffle her hair, which earned him an annoyed gasp as she hastily sought to correct the damage. “Of course not. That’s why chocolate was invented.”

Sakura shook her head at him but her smile said that, despite her words, he was completely forgiven for the crime of being misunderstood. “And dinner out when you get back. Your treat,” she amended, her fingers still combing out the tangles he’d so painstakingly rumpled through her hair.

“Wasn’t that the deal anyway if you didn’t enjoy your surprise date?”

“No, I mean in addition to this ridiculous date of yours,” Sakura replied, giving a sharp poke of her finger to his stomach. “And I don’t mean out to Ichiraku Ramen either. Somewhere nice so I can wear that dress, got it?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he muttered dismally, knowing he was probably stuck with taking her out somewhere fairly pricey and hating what it was going to do to his wallet. He knew taking her to Kuroppoi had been a bad idea. It was never a good thing to spoil a woman with champagne taste, and now he’d be paying for that oversight (literally) for the entire time he was dating her. Well, it was a good thing he was on such excellent terms with his landlady. He was more than likely going to be short on the rent next month.

Sakura laughed as she folded her hands behind her back and assumed the wide-eyed, I’m-so-cute-and-innocent look that meant she was up to absolutely no good. It was the same look she’d tried to pull on him as his student whenever he’d assigned extra push ups or laps to their training. And, just as before, he wasn’t going to cave into it… but it was a damned hard thing to do. Short of nailing a guy in the balls, the absolute lowest thing a girl could pull was that look and Haruno Sakura had it perfected to an art form. Unfortunately for her… so did Pakkun. That little pug was the entire reason he’d become immune to the look, but that sadly hadn’t happened until after he’d gotten into the habit of sleeping on the sofa.

“You know… if you really, really wanted to make it up to me you could-“she began in an incredibly sweet, playful voice.

“What don’t you understand about ‘not a chance’?” he asked back, folding his arms unyieldingly across his chest.

Sakura rolled her eyes and settled her hands on her hips stubbornly. “You don’t even know what I was going to ask!”

“Oh, so you weren’t about to ask me to spill on the date?”

She shook her head, eyes gleaming impishly as she grinned. “I was gonna say, if you really wanna make it up to me, you could just kiss me.”

Kakashi blinked slowly at her request. Once again, she was angling for a kiss from him and once again he was thrown back to square one. He’d been fairly certain earlier when she’d placed her arm around his waist she’d been trying to get to the pouch on his belt for Icha Icha, but then she’d tried to bribe him with a kiss… Yes, it was definitely time to meet up with Pakkun and the others to get their take on the situation.

“No,” he answered, grinning at the shocked look on her face. Without waiting for her to reply, he sprung off the tree branch and to the forest floor. A small spray of dead leaves puffed up around him from the impact, only to be repeated when Sakura landed right beside him. He’d only jumped down so that he could better feel out the dogs’ chakra, but if she really wanted to continue on foot…

“Why not?” she persisted as she followed him through the twisting maze of trees. “Didn’t you like it the first time?”

“I did, but that has nothing to do with the here and now.” Kakashi squatted down and used a variation on the Doton Tsuiga no Jutsu to track down the dogs. This version acted as a sort of reverse summoning only instead of actually taking him to the ninken, it traced their chakra signatures with his own. The technique was actually a combination of the Doton Tsuiga and a common tracking jutsu that most ANBU operatives had in their arsenal. The only difference was that the Doton Tsuiga variation actually used part of the ninken’s chakra to fuel it, thus keeping his own levels relatively in tact.

As soon as the last seal was used, he worked one hand beneath the decaying leaves until it reached the cool, moist soil beneath. He could feel the energy tingling in his palm, almost like he’d just run his hand over a small electrical current. Some people said the sensation of pulling chakra was an uncomfortable one. Personally, he liked the little rush of adrenaline that always accompanied it. He heard Sakura’s quick gasp as he released the small bit of chakra into the ground before he focused solely on where it was actually going.

He frowned when he noticed two of the signatures had gotten twisted up in a series of jutsu traps and false trails. Neither of them were near the location yet and upon further investigating he learned it was Yaku and Jubei who were wandering around. Normally Kakashi would have traced the chakra trail until he came to the actual dog, but it wasn’t necessary to follow this time around. Eventually, all of the dogs would be in the same location anyway.

The reason he was even using the jutsu was to test the dogs and see if they’d been successful in masking their own chakra. So far… there was going to be a lot of work when he got back. Only Pakkun had been successful in covering his trail completely, though Bull had done a pretty good job of it about half way through the forest. Sighing, Kakashi released his hold on the jutsu and stood up, wiping the dirt from his hand on his pants.

No sooner had he released the jutsu than Sakura was back to questioning him again, clearly having waited so as not to interrupt his concentration. “Then why not, Kakashi-sensei?” she demanded as she followed after him once again.

Kakashi sighed and glanced at her from the corner of his eye as she trudged along beside him, a pout curving her lips as she pulled out that damned puppy face again. She was a seriously sick girl… “First, I refuse to kiss you if you keep referring to me as your sensei,” he began, falling right back into the conversation as if they’d never stopped. “Second, this date isn’t over yet.”

“What does that have to do with the here and now?” Sakura asked, using his own words to mock him.

“Ever here of saving the best for last?”

She snorted disdainfully and stepped carefully over the twisted root that rose from underneath the leaves. “You certainly have a high opinion of how well you kiss.”

Chuckling, Kakashi reached between them for her hand and said, “Apparently you do as well, seeing as you’ve been angling for a kiss all afternoon.”

“I have not!” she spat back.

“Sure, sure. Do you have an oral fetish or something?”

“Eww, don’t say things like that! It sounds gross!”

Well, that was definitely a matter of opinion, but he wasn’t about to enlighten her on that. “So… Are you mad at me again?” If she was, this would probably make a record for him. And if he weren’t such a masochistic bastard, it would have bothered him more.

Sakura’s nose wrinkled but she never lifted her gaze from the maze of roots and underbrush in front of her. “No, but I still don’t see why you don’t wanna kiss me,” she muttered.

Kakashi flashed a happy grin over his shoulder. “Then consider this a lesson in the rewards of patience.”

Sighing in resignation, Sakura said, “Fine, whatever. Will it be without the mask at least?”

“Probably not.”

“When can I have one without the mask?”

“When you admit you have an oral fetish,” he answered with a grin at the flush of red that started spreading down her cheeks.

“That’s never gonna happen!”

“Then there’s your answer.”

Growling in frustration, Sakura stomped her way into the lead once more though this time she kept a hold on his hand as she plowed through the forest. “I changed my mind. I don’t think you have a nice smile at all.”

“Okay.” She was going to have to do a lot more than that to ruffle his feathers.

“I bet you’ve got really nasty teeth.”

“You mentioned that rumor was going around.”

“And nostril hair long enough to braid!”

“Now that would be rather interesting to see.” He grinned at the agitated sound that came from her, all the while more than happy to simply let her drag him along after her.

“Will you at least tell me why you wear the mask?” Sakura begged, pausing as she crossed over yet another fallen tree to look around. “And which way are we going?”

“Start heading east from here, and why do you think I wear a mask?” he replied.

Nodding and turning in the direction he’d indicated, Sakura said thoughtfully, “Well… I don’t buy the whole thing about you being so blindingly handsome that people are dazzled by it. What I think is that it’s so you can do undercover missions, right? You wear a mask all the time so that when it’s necessary for you to blend in, all you have to do is take it off and you look like everyone else.”

“That’s a pretty good theory, Sakura. One small problem though.”

“And what’s that?”

“How many people do you know with my hair color?”

“Well… there’s Jiraiya-sama. Oh, and the Elders. And there’s also that little old lady who owns the tea shop on-,”

“Sakura… they’re all old.”

Feigning shocked innocence, Sakura covered her mouth with her hand and gasped, “Why, so they are! Huh…”

Kakashi flinched and rubbed his free hand across his eyes wearily. Talk about hitting below the belt! “I’m not old,” he mumbled.

“Yes, of course you’re not.” Though the words were reassuring, the way she said them certainly wasn’t.

He pinched the bridge of his nose as a headache began to make itself known and silently cursed the inheritance of non-pigmented hair. He’d heard all the old jokes in the book since he was a kid, but that didn’t mean he took them very well. It was getting especially hard to take some of the ‘old man’ jokes now that he was thirty. And, damn her, she knew that very well. “I’d suggest you stop while you’re ahead… Cherry-chan.”

Sakura’s head whipped around at the use of the despised nickname, her green eyes narrowing coolly. After a moment where he simply stared right back at her, the meaning of his response finally sank in and she smiled bashfully and said, “Okay, point taken.”

“Good. Start bearing a little more north now.”

“Toward those crooked looking trees over there?”

Kakashi nodded as she looked back to confirm that the twisted trees were indeed in the right direction. Neither of them said another word as they pushed up the increasingly sharp slope of the hill. As they approached the group of trees she’d mentioned and finally made it to the top, Kakashi took the lead from her and quickened the pace as they started moving down the other side. Sakura gave him a confused look but didn’t question the change. She simply tightened her hand around his and contented herself with following him for the last leg of their hike.

They were almost to the location now and he could just make out the sound of water up ahead. Truthfully, he was a little eager to see what Sakura would make of the date. He normally didn’t put forth the kind of effort that went into arranging this sort of thing but if it was a choice between doing the work or opening his wallet… Well, there wasn’t really a choice. Besides, this was the exact same thing Asuma had done once for Kurenai and it was all the dark haired woman had talked about for almost a solid month. With that sort of endorsement, how could he not use it for Sakura?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Now she knew why he’d wanted to sprint through the trees; it was to avoid the uphill climb she’d been dreading from the start of their ‘date’. Sakura’s legs were throbbing by the time they crested the hill and Kakashi took the lead from her. The trees were thinner on top of the hill, which allowed for the heat of the day to hit her full force. Sweat beaded across her skin as she followed him carefully down the craggy slope once again. Whereas the first side had been covered with thick trees and forest undergrowth, this side looked like an explosion had ripped through nature and left the hill scarred and tricky to navigate.

Thankfully, the forest resumed once again once they reach the bottom and Sakura’s spirits lifted when she heard what sounded like… water. It was that sound that renewed her energy somewhat and gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, Kakashi had found a nice little pond for them to picnic at. That actually would be very sweet of him. She could just see a nice blanket laid out with fresh fruits and-

“Here we are!” Kakashi said cheerfully, dropping her hand in order to walk over to where the four dogs were stretched out under a tree. “So… what do you think?”

What she thought was that it didn’t look like there was a picnic waiting for her. Sakura scanned the small area critically, sucking on the insides of her cheeks as she settled her hands on her hips. The area was actually a small clearing made from a half circular stand of trees, their overlapping limbs serving to canopy the place and keep the sun from turning it into a miniature sauna. All four dogs were currently sprawled underneath the trees, enjoying a nice nap in the shade. Jubei had picked his head up at the sound of Kakashi’s voice and had wagged his tail half-heartedly when he saw her, but now he was back to sleeping like the rest of his comrades. She wasn’t too surprised to see he and the others were there before them. They were, after all, much faster.

A pond wasn’t too far back from the trees, the grass fading gradually into dusty dirt that became mud where it mixed with the water’s edge. The forest continued on the other side of the pond, leaving the water open to the sun’s rays and looking invitingly comfortable. It was hard to tell from where she stood just how deep it went but there were flat spaces of rock dotting across the surface that looked like they’d be good for lounging around on. Still, she’d seen places similar to this before. There was nothing special about it, or at least nothing that warranted the trouble she’d had to endure getting there. Yes, she knew she should have been okay with whatever he’d planned because she was supposed to be seducing him. But she dared anyone to hike almost three miles with Hatake Kakashi and come out of it feeling peachy keen.

She froze when she noticed two sets of legs sticking out from around the side of a large tree. Wait… there were other people here? He’d said he’d invited others, but she’d thought he’d meant the dogs… Unless this was another couple here for a picnic as well and they’d just happened to choose the same spot?

“Oops, forgot about those two,” Kakashi said, walking directly over to the pair and nudging one of the legs with his foot. “Thanks for the help, but do you mind clearing out now?”

“Oh, sorry,” a man replied, sounding unusually like Kakashi… Oh, the clones! She’d forgotten all about sending her clone out into the forest!

Sakura hurried over to the tree as well and came to a skidding halt when she saw her clone sitting between the legs of Kakashi’s clone and looking entirely too happy to be there. Her clone giggled and waved at her before twisting around enough to kiss the other clone’s masked cheek. Sakura’s cheeks lit up at that and, if she wasn’t mistaken, so did the clone Kakashi’s. “Hi! It’s about time you got here. We were just about to-,”

She didn’t wait to here what exactly their clones were about to do. Sakura released the jutsu and promptly afterward her clone disappeared with a small popping sound. The clone Kakashi sighed wistfully as he looked at the empty space in front of him. “What a shame. We were just making some progress, too.”

Kakashi was quick to clamp a hand on Sakura’s shoulder as she began to stomp forward. Progress?! With her clone?! She didn’t care if it wasn’t really them, she was still gonna punch the guy for even thinking about it! Unfortunately, Kakashi let go of the jutsu before she could even begin to channel chakra into her fists and his clone was spared the ass kicking it so deserved. “Well… that was interesting, don’t you think?” he commented cheerfully as he released her shoulder and wandered back into the clearing area.

She was about to tell him off for his perverted clone laying a hand on her when the memories of what exactly had happened came flittering threw her mind. Lots of trees and areas of the forest she hadn’t seen. A really amazing view of Kakashi’s ass… Argh, stupid clone! She wasn’t supposed to notice things like that! And then… the conversation came up.

“So, when do you think they’ll get here?” her clone had asked.

“Soon, I guess. Want to sleep together?”

Her clone spluttered wordlessly for a few seconds before Kakashi’s ruffled her hair and said, “I meant take a nap. We’ve done what we’re supposed to do, so why not just relax for a bit?”

“Oh. Well, when you say it like that… sure, why not? You better be a good snuggler though.”

“That happens to be one of my specialties.”

Laughing, her clone grabbed his hand and tugged him over to the tree. “Okay, Snuggle Expert, show me what you’ve got!”

And that was it. Sakura sighed in relief that nothing more had happened. Granted, it was still not good her clone had been sitting in his lap and all but it could have been a lot worse she supposed. A little smile touched her lips as Kakashi came over and held his hand out for her pack. “Does your clone’s specialty apply to you as well?” she teased as she handed the pack over.

Kakashi laughed lightly and said, “No, that’s strictly Clone Me’s area. That Kage Bunshin has provided many an escape route in the past.”

She blinked in confusion as he walked away with her pack. Escape route? Just who did he have to escape from where it would require snuggling to do so? Shaking her head, she decided it was probably one of those things she really didn’t want to know about and let it drop. “So… what happens now?” she asked, curious as to what the plan was.

“Well, now you should go relax a bit while I finish setting up,” he answered, dropping her pack alongside his underneath one of the trees and squatting down to open it. “Then, once everything’s done here… you’ll see.”

Shooting him a wary look, Sakura began wandering around the clearing idly. She tried to pretend disinterest as he started pulling things out from the packs but she couldn’t help being incredibly curious as to what he was doing. So far, the only items she recognized were a couple of scrolls, some rolled up wire and what looked almost like a good amount of whitish-silver fabric. There were random packets as well that she assumed contained food and a large container holding some sort of dark red liquid.

“That’s not alcohol is it?” she called over to him, frowning as he paused to glance at the drink as if trying to remember what exactly it was. Oh, God… It would be just like him to forget!

“Afraid I’m trying to get you drunk so I can take advantage of you?” he called back.

“Ha, ha. Seriously, what is it?” She really hoped it wasn’t alcohol. The one time she’d dared to take a sip from Tsunade’s sake had been enough to convince her she didn’t like alcohol at all, no matter how many times Ino assured her it wasn’t all bad.

Instead of answering her, Kakashi held the bottle out and said, “Knock yourself out.”

Sakura walked back over to him and took the bottle cautiously, holding his amused gaze steadily as she examined the contents. It was cool to the touch and was too thin to be wine. Was it some kind of juice concoction? Aware that he was watching her intently, Sakura twisted the lid off the container and sniffed the contents. Blinking in surprise, she drew back and asked, “Raspberry tea?”

“That is what you like, isn’t it?”

“No… I mean, yes,” she stammered as she screwed the lid in place and handed it back to him. “How… How did you know?” She was pretty certain she’d never mentioned it to him before. It wasn’t like her preferred tea came up in idle conversation or anything. And there was only one teashop in all of Konoha that sold raspberry tea; her favorite place, Yasashige Hana.

“I seem to recall seeing you at a teashop quite a bit leading up to the chuunin exams,” Kakashi explained as he set the tea aside and continued pulling out more items from the packs. “The woman who runs it is very nice. She knew exactly which pink haired girl with a volatile temper I was talking about and informed me that you always got raspberry tea with two sugars and vanilla mochi. Which, by the way, is in one of these pouches here if you want some.”

Stunned to the point of not really caring what he’d just said concerning her temper, Sakura crouched down next to him and began rummaging through the smaller packs. As she searched, it became obvious he had planned a picnic of sorts. There were chopsticks, napkins, disposable plates, what looked like seasoning packets of some sort and food in various stages of preparation. While the fact that he’d planned something like this made her inner self squeal excitedly, all she really wanted was the promised mochi. He’d been right about that pastry being long gone by the time they finished!

Letting out a triumphant cry as she finally spotted the familiar teahouse stamp adorning a plain white box, Sakura all but ripped the packet apart to get to her mochi. She completely ignored the amazed quirk to his brow as she bit one of the little cakes in half and moaned appreciatively. “Sooo good,” she spoke around the delicious confection. No one made vanilla mochi like they did at Yasashige Hana!

She was already half way through her second one before she even considered offering any to Kakashi. Smiling guiltily, she finished swallowing and held the small tray out to him. “Sorry, would you like one?”

“Ah, that’s okay. I’ll pass,” he replied good-humoredly.

“Don’t you like mochi?”

He shrugged as he stood up and gave their little clearing a close scrutiny. “Yes, but those are for you. Think of it as a substitute for chocolate, if you will.”

Laughing, Sakura sat down on the ground and happily dove into the remaining cakes. “If you keep having to apologize to me, I’m gonna be fat before the year is out!”

“You’re the one who said sweets were my ticket out of the doghouse.”

Still giggling as he moved into the tree line again and began gathering some dry branches, Sakura quickly covered the remaining three mochi with her hand when a wet, black nose began sniffing curiously. Jubei immediately withdrew his nose when she hid her prize but there was a pleading gleam to his black eyes that was really pushing her sympathy button. Even though she knew it probably wasn’t a good idea… She really couldn’t resist the look on his face.

Checking to make sure none of the other dogs were watching (as well as Kakashi), Sakura broke off a little piece from one of the buns and surreptitiously slipped it to the waiting dog. “That’s all you’re getting okay?” she whispered, hoping no one else heard her.

Licking his muzzle eagerly, Jubei took the offered bit quickly and swallowed it before anyone else could notice. Once it was done, he nudged her shoulder with his head thankfully, his tail wagging at an incredible speed. “You’re th’ best, Sakura-chan!” Then, without further ado, he went sprinting for the pond. He took a flying leap into the air and went crashing through the surface with an enormous splash that woke the other three dogs with a start. Pakkun and the floppy eared dog looked at the pond to ascertain the source of the noise before dropping their heads back down without a care. The bulldog, however, went trotting over to the waters edge and began wading out into the lake to meet Jubei.

Sakura laughed as Jubei surfaced from the pond with the black tuft of fur clinging to his head, looking almost like a really bad come-over. As soon as his much larger comrade reached him, he barked and began swimming away quickly. The bulldog went splashing after him, his larger body sending mini tsunamis racing for the shore. They continued to play in the water, wrestling and occasionally playing king-of-the-hill on the flat rocks. It looked like they were having a lot of fun. Sighing as she returned the last remaining mochi to their container for later, Sakura called over to Kakashi, “Do you want some help with anything?”

Kakashi dropped the wood he’d been carrying in a sandy spot a few feet away and began arranging it to start a fire. “Nope, I’ve got it. You’re supposed to be relaxing anyway.”

Grinning, Sakura jumped to her feet and bent over to roll her pants up above her knees while kicking off her sandals. “Okay, then I guess I’ll just go wading a bit!” She caught the wave Kakashi sent over his shoulder as she jogged down to the edge of the pond. There was no reason why the dogs could have fun in the water and she couldn’t.

Tentatively, she dipped toes into the water to test the temperature. It was cool but it wasn’t uncomfortable, especially with how warm the day had become. Sakura waded into the water until it just covered the bottoms of her knees and sighed happily. The slightly icy water felt amazing on her aching calves and she leaned forward to place her hands on her knees, stretching the muscles in her back and thighs thoroughly.

Standing upright again, Sakura stretched her arms over her head and murmured happily. She could hear Kakashi moving around behind her, the acrid scent of burning wood letting her know he had the fire going. In front of her, the dogs were splashing around merrily. She was really surprised at how agile the bulldog was, especially considering his size. Jubei still ran circles around him though, using chakra to keep above the surface of the water as he sprinted from one side of the pond to the other. Sprays of water kicked up behind him as he went, hitting the bulldog across the face in the process.

Finally, as if deciding he’d had enough of Jubei’s games, the bulldog swam over to one of the flat rocks and flopped down, his dripping fur quickly soaking the stone underneath him to a darker shade of grey. Heaving out a heavy breath, the bulldog promptly closed his eyes and went back to sleep, ignoring the disgruntled barking from his energetic counterpart. Sakura couldn’t help smiling as Jubei continued barking for a few minutes, as if by making enough noise he could convince the bulldog to get up and play again.

Finally, when it became obvious the larger dog wasn’t moving, Jubei trotted across the water and flopped onto the stone next to him. “Sakura-chan, come out an’ enjoy the sun,” the white dog called.

At first, she was about to decline due to the fact that both dogs were wet and there were very few smells as bad as a wet dog. But then the sun came out from behind a cloud and hit her full on, still nice and warm even though it was edging back a bit into early evening. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes, savoring the delicious warmth on her skin. It was perfect weather for taking a nap in and it wasn’t like she saw much of the sun these days, not unless Tsunade felt like taking the lessons outside. Which, considering that six out of seven days in the week her mentor was hung over, was a very rare thing indeed.

Sparing a look back to make sure Kakashi still didn’t need any help, Sakura lifted one bare foot out of the water and channeled enough chakra into it so that when she touched it to the pond’s surface it didn’t sink in. She repeated the same thing with her other foot until she was able to walk across the water as easily as if it were solid ground. She walked over to the rock that the two dogs were sprawled on and smiled. “You both don’t mind?”

“We don’t mind at all,” Jubei replied enthusiastically.

“Plenty a’ room for you,” the bulldog added as he settled his head back down with a heavy puff of breath.

Sakura stepped up onto the rock and took a spot that wouldn’t crowd either of the dogs, though there really wasn’t any need to worry about that. The rock was plenty big enough. She sat down and peeled off her shirt to use as a pillow before stretching out and closing her eyes. The heat from the sun took immediate affect, making her feel languid and almost as relaxed as a really good massage would. This was nice. Kakashi still had some making up to do for dragging her along on a training session, but the sun was definitely giving him a hand with that. Sighing, she settled herself comfortably and allowed the sun to lull her into a nice, tranquil state.

She didn’t really know how long she’d been stretched out on that rock or that the sun had done its job and put her to sleep, but she woke with a start later when she heard Kakashi’s amused voice say from somewhere above her, “Comfortable, are we?”

Cracking one eye open and giving him a disappointed pout, Sakura mumbled, “Yes, very.” Her frown deepened when she realized her stomach was entirely too warm to be natural and lifted her head enough to check for sunburn. Thankfully, there wasn’t. All she saw was a white head with an unruly thatch of black on top. Smiling sleepily, Sakura ran her hand down the side of Jubei’s neck gently, giggling when the dog twitched in his sleep. “Jubei really likes me, doesn’t he?”

Kakashi crouched down where he was standing on the water and patted the white dog’s hip affectionately. “Apparently. Then again, he’s a pretty good judge of character.”

Sakura beamed at the hidden compliment and sat up completely, disturbing Jubei into opening his eyes and rolling them up toward her sleepily before resettling his head on her lap. “Do the other dogs have names?”

Nodding, he pointed to the bulldog and said, “That’s Bull and the other guy on shore is Yaku. The other four were apparently too busy doing God knows what to come out today, so you’ll have to meet them at a later time.”

“And they all have names, too?” She didn’t know why the idea that any of the dogs besides Pakkun had names surprised her. Maybe it was because she’d just assumed Kakashi was too lazy to go and name eight dogs.

“Of course. It’d hurt their feelings if just these four had names.”

Sakura nodded and shrugged. He had a point, she supposed. If she were a dog and all her friends had names except for her, she’d be a little upset. Unless the name was something stupid or unoriginal. Speaking of which… “Isn’t Bull a little uncreative for a bulldog?” The dog in question lifted his heavy head and snorted in exasperation as he shoved to his feet. Without a word (but with a lot of grumbling), Bull walked back across the water to join the other two dogs on the bank.

Kakashi watched the dog saunter off before pinning her with a doleful look. “You try naming eight dogs and see how creative you get.”

Laughing at his sour tone, Sakura nudged Jubei with her thigh and said, “Wanna go see what Kakashi-sensei’s been working on this whole time?”

Jubei lifted his head and opened his mouth in a wide yawn before carefully pushing to his feet and shaking out his fur. “If you wanna. I don’t mind just stayin’ here with ya though.”

“Too bad, dog. Sakura-chan’s with me tonight, not you,” Kakashi remarked as he stood to his full height again. Jubei let out a raspy sort of sound that Sakura assumed was laughter before taking a running leap into the pond. A large splash accompanied his belly flop into the water, the result of which was a small geyser that erupted all over Kakashi’s legs.

She barely managed to stifle a giggle as her former teacher looked down at his wet pants and commented with false humor, “Thanks, Jubei. Very nice.” The white dog was already on the other side though and shaking the moisture from his fur. Sighing as he tucked his hands into damp pants pockets, Kakashi said to her, “If you’re hungry, food’s ready.”

Sakura rose and twisted her neck about to ease the small cramp that had begun to form between her shoulder blades from sleeping on a rock. She inhaled deeply and all but moaned as the smell of cooking food hit her nose, prompting her stomach to growl eagerly. “Oooh… That smells so good! I didn’t know you could cook, Kakashi.”

He shrugged and his eyes crinkled cheerfully. “Only for my favorite ex-student.”

“Yeah, right.” She bent to scoop up her shirt and throw it back on before walking out onto the water eagerly, her steps quickening when she caught sight of… A small fold out table? Where had that come from? And was that a hammock as well? Just what in the hell had he been up to while she was asleep? She glanced at him when he fell into step beside her and even though he wasn’t looking at her she had the feeling he was waiting for reaction.

Sakura gasped and came to an abrupt halt when she finally got a good look at the set up and realized exactly what was going on. The table was smaller than a Go board and was set with standard issue camping utensils. Food was already served onto the plates and was steaming in the glow of the setting sun. A humming sound drew Sakura’s attention to the area behind the hammock (which was thankfully made of cloth and not netting) where a portable generator was set up and attached to what looked suspiciously like the old movie projector from the Academy. In fact, upon closer inspection, she noticed it was the very same projector. She could still see the angry Iruka-sensei stick figure Naruto had drawn on it during their first year there.

Looking directly across from the projector, she saw the length of whitish-silver material from earlier was now stretched out between two trees, making an impromptu movie screen. Laughing in disbelief and covering her mouth with both hands, Sakura breathed, “We’re having a dinner and movie date.”

“Or a variation on it,” Kakashi replied, coming up slightly behind her and rubbing his hand along the middle of her back. “Disappointed?”

She shook her head quickly and murmured, “Not at all. You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” Not since Rock Lee had stayed up all night to make her favorite cake from scratch for her birthday had a guy done anything this sweet and thoughtful and… Sakura shook her head and sighed dismally. It was a shame this wasn’t for real. She could really get used to this sort of thing.

“Actually, no. This is a first for me, but I know someone who did try it and it got rave reviews.”

Sakura sat on the hammock like it was a couch, giggling as it swayed awkwardly under her weight. He’d taken her shorter legs into consideration and fixed it low enough so that her feet could easily touch the ground and she could reach the table! “You even live up to your name when it comes to dates, huh?”

Chuckling, Kakashi sat next to her and immediately the hammock tried to pitch her toward him. She shifted back as best she could, but there was only so much a girl could do when sitting in a hammock. “Any good move is worth copying, and this seemed like a pretty good move.”

“It’s better than good. It’s amazing. I’ve never heard of anyone doing this before. How did you get the projector here?”

“Ah, that. That was also part of the reason why I was late. I had to swing by the Academy and… borrow it.”

She arched a brow at the noticeable pause during the last part. “Borrow it as in you asked Iruka-sensei if it was okay, or borrow it as in you stole it?”

“Borrow as in they don’t know it’s missing yet, and hopefully never will,” he elaborated as he leaned forward and poured some raspberry tea into two of the disposable cups. “Here, you’re probably thirsty after being out in the sun all afternoon.”

Sakura knew he was only changing the subject yet again, but she wasn’t going to call him on it. The date had definitely earned him quite a bit of leniency for some of his quirks, even though she could probably guarantee the hammock was going to make things awkward at some point in the evening. She took the cup from him and sipped her tea with a happy moan, her eyes closing as the fruity flavor filled her mouth. He’d even gone and put sugar in it for her. Raspberry tea was actually pretty sour without a little sugar to it, but she liked the contrast between the two different flavors. She was glad now that she hadn’t given in to the desire to tell him off and go back home after that trick he’d pulled about the dogs getting her date. The only reason she hadn’t at the time was because she had a mission to see through and storming off again would definitely hurt any chances of succeeding.

She opened her eyes in time to catch him drinking his own tea through his mask. “Are you serious? You even drink with that thing on?” she demanded incredulously, twisting around on the hammock to face him.

Kakashi shrugged indifferently and relaxed back further. “Added filtration never hurt anyone.”

“Don’t you get lint bits in your mouth?”

“Extra fiber. How’s the tea for you?”

Sakura took another sip and licked her lips while humming appreciatively for the taste. “It’s perfect. So, what did you make us?” She leaned forward and stretched her arm out to pick up the plate closest to her, all while precariously holding her tea between her thighs to keep it from spilling. She grinned when Kakashi used his much longer legs to level out the hammock and allow her to get her food. Sakura quickly sat back with a sigh and looked curiously at the warm plate on her lap. She couldn’t wait to tell Ino about this date. Pig was going to be so sick with envy!

“Nothing fancy. I cook so I don’t starve to death, not because I have a real talent for it. It’s just your average rice, vegetables and dried fish product,” Kakashi replied casually as he leaned forward to snatch the remaining plate.

The mention of dried fish made her pause with her first bite midway to her mouth. That sounded a little foreboding… But he was watching her expectantly so she really had no choice but to go through with it. He’d gone through a lot of trouble preparing this for her and it would be rude to refuse just because ‘dried fish product’ made her stomach whimper in fear. Taking a deep breath and preparing herself for possible gagging, Sakura popped the bit into her mouth and chewed. And swallowed. And had to admit it wasn’t as bad as she had been expecting. Like he’d said, it wasn’t anything super amazing but it was definitely eatable.

“Not bad?” he asked as he stirred his food around idly.

Sakura shook her head and took another bite. “Nope, not bad. Definitely better than my cooking,” she said, swinging around again so that she was facing front. “I make really good desserts though.”

“Really? Like what?”

She shrugged and moved her food around her plate a little to break up a chunk of what she suspected was the dried fish product. “Mostly cookies, but Ino says my K.O. Brownies are awesome.”

“Your K.O. Brownies.” She could hear the amusement in his voice, which prompted her to smile down at her plate.

“Knock Out Brownies. Ino calls them that because they’re so good. They’re chocolate brownies with walnuts and cherries and have a really yummy chocolate frosting. Ino likes to warm them up and dump ice cream on top, but I think they’re sweet enough on their own. But they’re not nearly as good as my hot chocolate cookies.”

“Is that so?”

Sakura nodded excitedly, her smile widening when Pakkun came up on her other side and jumped into the small space between her hip and the corner, which gave a little to conform to his small body. Balancing her plate carefully on her lap, she used her newly freed hand to scratch the little pug’s ears. Pakkun grunted and shifted until he was on his back with his stomach exposed and waiting for the scratching to continue. Laughing and obliging the silent command, Sakura continued saying, “Hinata says they’re like a cup of really good hot chocolate but in cookie form. It’s your basic double chocolate cookie recipe except with marshmallows and a bit of cinnamon for that winter taste. If you’d like, I’ll make them for you some time.”

“Considering I’m damned near drooling just listening to you talk about them, yes I’d like it very much.” Kakashi leaned forward once more and deposited his plate back on the table with a contented sigh.

Sakura’s laughter died almost as soon as it came when she realized that the plate, his plate, was completely empty. Which meant… “Hey, you had your mask down!” she accused, brandishing her chopsticks at him like a kunai.

Kakashi’s eyes creased happily as he slouched back into the fabric sling and rubbed a hand over his stomach in a display of satisfaction. “That really hit the spot, didn’t it? Of course, those hot chocolate cookies you mentioned probably taste better than that… still, it wasn’t bad for camp food.”

She couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t… How in the hell did she miss him taking his mask off?! He was sitting right next to her, there was just enough light in the sky to see clearly by and she’d still missed it! After all this time of trying to catch a peek of his face, of having to deal with Ino laughing at her because her first kiss had been with a piece of freakin’ cotton, and she’d gotten so damned wrapped up in those stupid cookies that she’d missed it completely! Covering her eyes with one hand and groaning at her own idiocy, Sakura flopped back into the hammock and shook her head.

Unbeknownst to her, Pakkun, who had rolled back over as soon as the belly scratching had ended, glanced at Kakashi. Kakashi winked at the dog, who in turn gave the equivalent of a smirk before jumping down from the hammock and sauntering off to see what exactly Yaku had found to sniff at. He’d done his part in providing a distraction while Kakashi ate and he’d gotten a decent scratching out of the deal, too. So far, he was having a fantastic night.

As soon as the pug was gone, Kakashi asked, “Something wrong, Sakura?”

Sakura peeked a glare at him through her fingers. He sound way too amiably for her tastes, the bastard. He knew exactly what was wrong! Damn it, knowing him he’d probably planned this from the very start. Get her talking about something he couldn’t have cared less about, quickly scarf down his dinner and then make fun of her because she’d been soooo wrapped up in her dumb hobby to notice he’d had his freakin’ mask down! She was so pathetic at times.

“No, nothing,” she groaned heavily. “Just a headache.”

“Ah. Well, that’s relieving. For a moment I thought the dried fish wasn’t sitting well with you.”

Something wasn’t sitting well with her, and it wasn’t some dried fish product. Taking in a slow, deep breath and releasing it slowly to regain some measure of calm, Sakura opened her eyes to stare down at her plate miserably and finished eating without another word. This sucked! How was she supposed to get those stupid books when she couldn’t even get a look at his face while he was sitting next to her with his mask down? She didn’t care if Tsunade said she had faith in her, at that moment she didn’t have faith in herself.

The hammock lurched under her as Kakashi stood up, prompting her to glance over at him curiously. “Kakashi?” Sakura deposited the empty plate on the table and twisted around in her seat as he went over to the projector.

“I think it’s dark enough for the movie now, don’t you?” Sakura bit her lower lip to keep from giggling as he began poking about at the projector, clearly trying to figure out how exactly it worked. It took him a second and a couple muttered ‘damns’ but in relatively short time a bright beam of light shot out from it and onto the makeshift screen.

All of Sakura’s ill feelings fell away as she prepared herself for whatever movie he’d chosen. The numbers began ticking off on the screen as Kakashi reclaimed his spot next to her, shooting Jubei a mild glare when the dog ventured forward for that very same reason. Ducking his head sheepishly, the white dog slinked off to the other side of Sakura and lay down at her feet.

Sakura rubbed her bare foot along Jubei’s side lightly and when the dog looked up at her she smiled back, prompting him to place a wet lick up her bare calf. She giggled, which in turn made Kakashi glance at her curiously then down at the dog with a questioning lift to one brow. As if not to be out done by his own dog, Kakashi dropped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her up against his side.

She grinned at the mini ‘competition’ for her attention and snuggled herself in against Kakashi’s warm shoulder. Maybe she wasn’t doing so badly with this whole seduction thing after all if he was getting possessive of her with his dog. Sighing contentedly, Sakura smiled and turned her attention back to the screen just as the opening credits began to start.

The movie was an old black and white one, the picture quality fuzzy and very grainy due to the fact that it wasn’t a real projector screen they were watching it on, but Sakura couldn’t have cared less about that. The only thing wrong was… “Hey, what happened to the sound?”

“Oh.”

Sakura turned so that she was facing him, propping her elbow on his shoulder to give him a wry look. “Lemme guess. While you were stealing the projector-,”

“-It’s hardly stealing if it’s a teacher using Academy property,” he protested mildly.

“-You forgot to steal the speakers to go along with it,” she concluded as if he hadn’t interrupted her.

Kakashi had the good grace to look sheepish about the oversight. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

“That’s the only way of looking at it!”

She froze when he pressed a finger to her lips to silence her, his eye gleaming mischievously in the grey and white glow of the screen. “You’re not thinking beyond the obvious, Sakura. The other option is… We make it up.”

Sakura grabbed his hand roughly and pulled his finger away from her lips, a slight flush warming her cheeks from the contact. “Make what up?”

Kakashi nodded toward the movie that was now playing as if it should have been perfectly obvious. “The dialogue, of course.”

“You mean, invent the story as it goes along?”

“Why not? At least we can guarantee the ending will be good.”

Her gaze slid to the screen thoughtfully while she ran his suggestion over in her head. So far, the two she was assuming were the main characters were having what appeared to be a very dramatic conversation. The woman kept touching her collarbone and looking tragic while the man lit a cigarette and leaned against the wall with a cocky smirk to his face. A silly grin crossed her cheeks as she glanced once more at Kakashi. Actually… this could be pretty entertaining.

Gasping dramatically, she said in a theatrically breathy voice, “I can’t believe you would ever suggest such a thing! The nerve of you to think someone of my delicacy would actually wander the wilderness with someone like you!”

Kakashi’s eyebrows rose incredulously as he turned slowly toward her when she started giggling. “So, that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” he murmured, his eye narrowing at the challenge. Turning back to the screen, Kakashi waited until the woman finished saying her lines before adlibbing his part in. “Sorry to tell you this, darling, but there’s nothing delicate about you at all.”

“Excuse me, are you blind? Look at my perfectly manicured nails that I keep fluttering about! And my expertly styled hair.”

“The hours it takes you to get ready in the morning has nothing to do with your lack of delicacy. And why are you choosing now of all times to argue about this? I thought you were a bit more… agreeable.”

Sakura’s jaw dropped in silent indignation at the sort of ‘agreeable’ he was referring to. While blown dramatically out of proportion (she hoped), the referencing to their sort-of-relationship wasn’t at all subtle. Was that really why he’d agreed to a date with her, because he thought she’d sleep with him? If so… she was gonna punch his perverted ass all the way to Wave Country! “So, that’s all this is then?” she questioned, staying in character while probing the issue a little deeper. “Another conquest for you?”

“Conquest? You? Not a chance of that. You’re far too mulish to- ouch! Was that a kunai or your elbow?” Kakashi rubbed his side where she’d elbowed him and even though she couldn’t see it she knew he was frowning. She wasn’t the least bit sympathetic though. Hinting a girl was easy was one thing, but flat out calling her a mule was just plain insulting! Strong-willed, confident… hell, even stubborn was a better phrase that ‘mulish’!

“Don’t be such a baby, it wasn’t that hard!” Sakura admonished, even as she rubbed her hand soothingly across the area as well. When their hands accidentally brushed, she realized what she was doing and promptly felt the heat burning her cheeks. She was practically rubbing her hand across Kakashi’s chest. Oh… crap! She quickly stopped what she was doing and returned her hand to her lap, sparing a glance at him out of the corner of her eye to see if he noticed. He was watching the movie again, his open eye drooped as usual and giving away nothing as far as whether or not he’d even noticed her misstep.

“You missed your part,” he commented after a long and awkward (at least to her) silence. He shifted lower in the sling, stretching his legs out over the top of Yaku and under the table. Apparently, it wasn’t as comfortable as he’d thought because he changed positions again shortly after, causing her to frown and lift her head off his shoulder to allow for the movement. Was he sitting on a nest of ants or something? Never in the two and a half years that she’d known him had she ever seen him fidget this much, not even that one time where Tsunade had literally sent an ANBU squad to march him in for his physical.

“Huh?” she asked as his arm pulled her back in place once he was settled again.

“Your part. She’s been talking for a full- Nn… damn it!”

Sakura nearly fell face first into his lap when he suddenly released her, forcing her to catch herself quickly on the less than supportive edges of their seating to keep from doing just that. A wince flinched at the corners of Kakashi’s eyes as he lifted his hips up and undid his belt. For a panicked second, she thought he was about to take his pants down but when all he did was drop the belt and pouch on the table, she let out a sigh of relief. It was just the belt. Thank God!

“Sorry, but Icha Icha Paradise was digging a hole in my back,” Kakashi explained with a relieved sigh as he resumed his slouched back position next to her.

It was now Sakura’s turn to squirm a little as she tried to find a comfortable spot that fit with his new position. Damn it and she’d been so cozy before, too! Stupid belt. Stupid Icha Icha for… Wait. Icha Icha Paradise was sitting on the table. It wasn’t on him any longer. Icha Icha was… Holy, CRAP! She might have a chance to get it! All she had to do was wait until he wasn’t looking, work a quick Henge no jutsu on some random object to make it look like the book, replace it before he noticed and she’d have half her work done in only three dates! It was perfectly doable…

If she could distract him from noticing, that is. As it stood, there was only one thing she could think of that would work for the situation; she’d have to try and get him to kiss her and she’d have to follow through with that promise of ‘one helluva kiss’ to make it distracting enough for him to miss her swiping his book. Oh, and she’d have to somehow keep from getting distracted herself long enough to form the seals for the Henge without him noticing. Sakura’s mouth went dry and her stomach churned nervously. Yeah… No pressure at all. Sure.

The problem now was how to go about it? Should she gradually move in for it? Should she go for his cheek just to get his attention? Or would it be better to just grab him by his shirt front and do it, like she’d done the other night? No… None of those sounded good. Maybe a combination of ideas would work though. Like, if she were to kiss his cheek while using his shirt to turn him toward her. Actually, that sound really good; forward but not aggressively so. She could do that. Or, rather, she would keep telling herself that until it became true. Sakura took a few even breaths to calm herself before she began to move in for the kill.

“Okay, where did we leave off?” Kakashi drawled just as she was getting ready to push herself up and kiss his cheek. And, just like that, her resolve crumpled and the mood was lost. Sakura’s shoulder slumped and she just barely suppressed a frustrated groan from leaking out. He had to have the absolute worst timing out of anyone she knew! “Oh, right. You said something about him being crazy and I said-,”

“-Something that’s being stricken from the record,” she replied quickly as she hugged her arms around herself defensively. She’d rather not relive the 'agreeable' comment again, even if it wasn’t being explicitly directed at her.

Kakashi let it slide, mercifully enough, and instead nodded and said, “It looks like they’ve moved on from the conversation. Let’s see… Oh, look! Apparently she’s threatening to jump off the bridge now and he’s trying to talk her out of it.

Frowning, Sakura lifted her head from his shoulder and demanded, “Just what the hell kind of movie did you get anyway?” People threatening to jump off of bridges wasn’t exactly a good date topic!

“The only movie I could find at the rental shop that worked with a projector.”

Oh. Fair enough, she supposed. Projector films were in rather limited supply. Sakura sniffed haughtily and tilted her chin upward with an air of superiority. “Well, for your information she’s not about to jump off the bridge.”

“Oh?”

“Nope. She’s gonna sprout magical wings and fly off into the black and white sunset in a trail of glitter and flower petals, spreading love and happiness in her wake.” She broke out into a grin when his hand paused in its light caress on her shoulder.

“… That sounds a bit sadistic.”

She couldn’t keep her laughter back any longer at the dry comment, though it was anyone’s guess whether he was joking or not. She pointed at the actor on the screen who was now on his knees and crying as the woman disappeared over the side of the bridge. “He thinks so too, from the looks of it.”

Kakashi nodded sagely and feigned a sympathetic sigh. “I think he’s crying because all the glitter and flower petals have robbed him of his masculinity.”

“Providing he had any to begin with. Personally, I think he looks a bit too femmy.”

Flinching, he purposely pressed himself as far as he could into the pliable side of the sling to put some distance between them, as if expecting another elbow jab at any second. “I remember when you were a nice, sweet little girl who would never grin while suggesting a guy was a bit effeminate.”

Her grin widened even further at the comment as she purposely reclaimed the inch or so he’d moved away. “Tsunade-shishou says that men have only two faults; everything they say and everything they do.”

“You do know that Tsunade’s probably basing this theory off of her dealings with Jiraiya, right?”

Shrugging, Sakura smiled sweetly at him and said lightly, “Oh, I don’t know… I think she might be onto something there.”

“It’s a biased opinion using information that falls so far outside of the norm that to call it ‘abnormal’ would be downplaying it horribly. Remember that when listening to Tsunade’s rants concerning men.” With that, he pushed up from the hammock, being mindful of where he was stepping to avoid crushing a tail or foot in the process.

Sakura laughed and sat up as well when he began to head for the trees. “Where are you going?” she asked.

He motioned vaguely toward the forest and said, “The tea went right through me. Be right back.” He disappeared into the lengthening shadows of the trees, leaving her blushing over his response. This was one of the things she hadn’t liked about being the only girl on an all guy team; bathroom breaks in the wilderness. It was just so embarrassing to think that any of them were out there with their…

Sakura’s eyes widened as she realized one very important thing she was missing; Kakashi wasn’t there… but Icha Icha Paradise was! He’d left his book right there on the table! She glanced around nervously, half expecting to see a familiar silhouette in the shadows or one of the dogs watching her intently. Nothing. No Kakashi shaped shadow and no canine eyes peering at her under the pretense of sleep. Moving as quickly as she dared, Sakura reached across the table for the pouch. This was it, the moment she’d been waiting for. All she had to do was…

She stopped herself just short of touching it, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. The conversation she’d had with her friends at the start of this came flooding back, most especially one very good point that Tenten had made; Kakashi wouldn’t put his most valued possession in an easy to steal spot unless he was certain it wouldn’t be stolen. Taking that into consideration, as well as all of her experience in dealing with Kakashi in the past, it made sense that the pouch would have some sort of trap placed on it. Like something to turn her blue or sleeping gas or maybe an exploding tag. That meant if she tried to take the book now and ended up triggering some sort of trap then he’d be onto her and Tsunade would be scheduling her for midnights. Sakura began pulling her hand away quickly.

“It’s okay. You can take it, Sakura-chan.”

Sakura’s eyes widened as she whipped around to look at Jubei’s happy face. The white dog had his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth and his tail was wagging just the slightest bit. “What?” she asked.

Jubei stretched his front legs out and crawled a few inches closer to her on his belly. “You wanna read Kakashi’s book, right?” he replied, keeping his voice down. “So, I was just tellin’ ya that I don’t smell any traps or anything so it’s okay for ya to read it.”

Shaking her head quickly while folding her hands in her lap, Sakura said, “I-I wasn’t trying to-,”

“Yeah, you were,” Pakkun interrupted, cracking one eye open to peer at her lazily. Sakura gasped and nearly fell off the hammock in shock. “I kinda thought something was weird when he first said you two were dating. You’re trying to swipe Kakashi’s books.”

“No! I’m not doing anything like that!”

The pug pinned her with a how-stupid-do-I-look expression before picking his head up to give a wide yawn. Meanwhile the other two dogs, Yaku and Bull, had also opened their eyes and were watching her intently. She didn’t think they would do anything to hurt her… but she could tell they weren’t going to let her just take the book either.

“He’s not gonna like this at all,” Yaku drawled lazily. Bull grumbled an agreement behind him.

“Nope,” Pakkun added almost mournfully. “Remember what happened the last time?”

Jubei whimpered and swiped a paw across his nose as if to cover his eyes. “But Sakura-chan’s really nice! Kakashi wouldn’t do that ta her… would he?” The silence that met his question made the white dog whine again and caused Sakura to gulp.

“W-What happened the last time?” she choked out as her heart began to pound.

The four dogs exchanged looks before Bull rumbled, “That’s what happened. Nobody heard a thing.”

Oh, dear God! Horror flooded over Sakura as all sorts of truly terrible images flashed through her head, all of them involving the many ways Kakashi probably knew of to make someone disappear. She didn’t think he’d kill a person over Icha Icha Paradise, but he was good enough at what he did that it wouldn’t be necessary to kill them to make them vanish. She’d heard rumors about a new technique he’d accomplished, one that could suck a person into empty space… No, Kakashi wouldn’t do that to her. More than likely, he’d just find new and creative ways to make her life a living hell. That didn’t make it any less terrifying though.

Swallowing hard, Sakura leaned down toward the dogs and whispered, “Please don’t say anything.” It wasn’t until after the words had left her mouth that she realized how stupid it was. These were Kakashi’s dogs. Of course they weren’t going to-

“Okay,” Pakkun agreed, causing her jaw to drop in shock. “But you’ve gotta give the four of us some quality rub downs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night. And if we happen to bring the others along… them, too.”

This was not happening. This was sooo not happening! She was not being blackmailed by a freakin’ dog! Sakura huffed out an irritated breath as she scowled at the small dog sitting next to her. The look in Pakkun’s round eyes said it all; she either agreed to the terms or Kakashi was going to make tormenting her his new favorite hobby. Rolling her eyes and flopping back against the couch, she muttered, “Fine, it’s a deal. Come over around seven and I’ll do it.”

A smirk curved through the wrinkles on Pakkun’s face as he settled back down and closed his eyes. “We didn’t see a thing, did we?” Yaku and Bull shook their heads before promptly laying back down as if nothing had happened.

Jubei snickered and dropped his head to the ground as well. “Nope, nothin’. Hey, Sakura-chan?”

“What?” she grumbled.

“Kakashi’s comin’ back now so don’t steal the book, okay?”

Normally, she would have thanked the dog for the heads up… But she wasn’t feeling very thankful at the moment. At least this confirmed one thing though; she was definitely a cat person. This portion of the evening was also getting edited out when she gave Ino the recap. She’d never hear the end of it if Pig found out she’d been blackmailed into belly rubs by Kakashi’s dogs!


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So far everything was going mostly according to plan, excluding the whole speakers thing of course. Everything was set in place to determine once and for all whether she was after his books or not. If she tried anything, Pakkun and the others would stop that from happening. In the off chance that she did manage to get one over on the dogs, she wouldn’t have the real thing. The book inside that pouch was actually Ino’s book with a Henge no Jutsu slapped on it to make it look like Icha Icha Paradise. There was more than one reason why he’d wanted to borrow the book, though the incredibly smutty summary on the cover had been intriguing enough. How the publishers had allowed for something that graphic in a summary on an unrestricted book was mind boggling.

Normally, Kakashi would have stuck around to watch the show himself… but he hadn’t been kidding about needing to take a piss. That raspberry stuff, though admittedly not so bad, definitely didn’t stick around long in the system. So, trusting that the dogs had his back and that Icha Icha Paradise was safe, Kakashi found a nice, heavily shaded area of the forest and took care of things.

He really hoped everything would get sorted out tonight. It wasn’t that he minded going out with Sakura. On the contrary, she was a fairly pleasant girl to be around when she wasn’t storming off into the wilderness. But this whole unknown factor as to her motives was beginning to wear very thin on his patience. He was fairly certain Sakura wasn’t a good enough actress to be purposely giving him the run-around. Then again… maybe she was. He found it equally hard to believe she was causing all this uncertainty just by dumb luck.

Had Tsunade really changed her so much that he couldn’t read her inside and out? A bothering thought, for sure. There had been a time where he could have told her every thought that was going through her head and it would have been correct. Of course, back then she’d also been a kid with only three things on her mind; Uchiha Sasuke, the latest diet and beauty products. It was amazing what over two years of intensive training with one of the greatest ninja in the world could do to a girl. Perhaps part of that training included trying to seduce former teachers.

Kakashi let out a scoffing sound under his breath as he retied the drawstring to his pants once again. Tsunade wouldn’t do something like that. He would in a heartbeat if he thought it’d do a student of his any good, but Tsunade… There were some lines even she wouldn’t cross, and sending her prized apprentice out to seduce him was one of them. Not without a good reason at least and he didn’t see any reason why Tsunade could possible want either of the things Sakura was after. Besides that, Tsunade would have sent someone with more experience after him, like Anko. God… terrifying thought, that.

Carefully picking his way through the darkened trees, Kakashi walked back to the gentle glow of the movie projector. He’d have a talk with Pakkun later to see what the general consensus was. Ideally, he would have preferred all of the ninken to be present, especially since Jubei’s opinion was now biased, but he’d just have to make do with what he had. As soon as he came close enough to get Sakura’s attention, he shoved all of the more serious thoughts aside and smiled as she moved over to let him have room on the hammock. It could have been a trick of the poor light, but he could have sworn a flash of guilt had moved across her face. But she was smiling at him now and it really had been too quick to notice.

“Geeze, Kakashi-sensei, you were gone for almost ten minutes! I was about to ask one of the dogs to go find you,” she complained as he lifted his arm so that she could curl up against his side. The way she tucked her knees in against his hip and snuggled into his shoulder was actually rather charming. Almost kittenish, really, and not terribly uncomfortable for him either. Typically, it was awkward striking just the right angle for him to enjoy having his arm around a date, but Sakura was petite enough that this wasn’t an issue.

“Sorry. Had I known you’d miss me so much I would have sped things up a bit,” he replied, grinning when she rolled her eyes at him.

“Yeah, I missed you like I’d miss a rash,” she retorted. “You missed a lot of the movie, though.”

“Then fill me in quickly.” Not that he particularly cared. It was far too melodramatic for his tastes. Their made up version was loads more entertaining.

Her smile widened as she said with all the authority of someone who knows it all, “Well, apparently his girlfriend came back from the dead to haunt him. And it was a very convincing apparition as well.”

“Really?”

She nodded quickly, her eyes sparking with mischief. “I just barely saw the wires holding her up as she floated in front of him.”

Considering the screen quality was fuzzy at best, those had to be incredibly thick wires. Kakashi tapped his lips and pretended to ponder her response earnestly. “I thought you said she had magical wings,” he remarked.

Sakura snorted disdainfully and said, “It would have been soooo much better with magical wings instead of super thick wire. Anyway, so from what I gathered her ghost came back because he found love again and now she’s feeling jealous.”

“Does she know she’s dead?” Now he was sort of glad he’d forgotten to borrow the speakers as well. “And if she loved him so much, why did she jump to begin with?”

He felt her shrug against his side as she muttered, “Beats me. But she’s just started messing with his current girlfriend’s head by moving stuff and slamming doors and basically stalking her. You know, typical ghost-type stuff. You’re not allowed to pick the movie again, by the way. This one sucked.”

Kakashi pinched her arm just enough to make her jump and repeated slowly, “It was the only movie they had that would work with the projector.” He’d have to ask Asuma what film it was he and Kurenai had seen and where they’d found it. Of course, they were probably too busy doing other things to really pay attention to the movie but it was still good to know for possible future use.

Sakura surprised him no end when she suddenly turned and, placing one hand on his chest for balance, pressed a kiss to his cheek. When she drew back, her cheeks were a new shade of red he hadn't seen before, bringing the grand total up to eleven so far. “It’s okay. The date was still fun regardless. You’re right, you know.”

“About…?”

“That I’d like it in the end. Although… if you ever trick me into thinking I’ve gotta race your dogs for a date again-,”

Kakashi grinned and hugged her to him briefly. “You’ll reach down my throat and turn me inside out, right?” He wasn’t going to correct her on the fact that it had technically been a misunderstanding and not deliberate deceit.

“Something like that, yeah,” she laughed. They both fell silent as they watched the ‘tragic’ conclusion to the movie start to unfold. The ghost, after having apparently driven the new woman to suicide, was now trying to get her lover to do the same thing by holding a knife in front of him. Actually, it was a wire (and was it ever thick) that was dangling the knife in order for it to look like the ghost was. The man’s eyes were wide in what was supposed to be sheer panic as the knife kept swaying closer and closer.

He glanced at Sakura as she stiffened next to him, her knuckles pressed to her mouth and her eyes rounded. After all the mockery and comments made about the movie and now she was actually concerned for one of the characters? Kakashi couldn’t help smiling at that. Sakura really was a hopeless romantic at heart. He truly hoped what he was doing wouldn’t change that for her. Even though he was teaching her a valuable lesson, he didn’t want her to become jaded by love. She was far too young for that.

When the screen suddenly went dark and ‘the end’ flashed across it in wispy letters, Sakura yelped, “What the… That’s it? That’s the end? But we don’t even know if he killed himself or not!”

“I think that was the point, Sakura. The writers wanted you to decide whether he lived or died,” Kakashi said, leaning backward in the hammock in order to turn the projector off. Instantly darkness flooded over them, one that the thin light from the waning moon did little to help break up. He could just barely make out her profile next to him, the dogs and the table becoming slightly darker shades against the shadows of the forest. Hiking back was going to be an interesting affair, that was for sure. Still any ninja worth their mettle should be able to handle it.

“I still think the writers were just too lazy to make an ending,” she continued to rant.

“Maybe you should write them an angry letter then,” he suggested blandly as he stood up and made his way over to the dull glow of embers that had once been a fire and began poking them to life again.

He heard Sakura shift around on the hammock behind him, followed only seconds later by her muttering, “Maybe I will.” Kakashi rubbed his eyes wearily and shook his head. He pitied whatever poor production company he’d just turned her loose on.

Once the fire was going again, he went back over to their spot to survey the mess. Tucking his hands in his pockets and peering down at where she was now stretched out along the hammock, he asked, “Well, shall we start cleaning up?”

Sakura’s mouth curved into a pout but she didn’t bother opening her eyes. “Can’t we just stay here tonight?”

Kakashi arched a brow at her and glanced again at the mess. He really didn’t feel like cleaning up as it was, and she did look pretty tired. Still… “Have you ever slept in a hammock before?” She shook her head the barest amount. “Well, I’m telling you now it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world.”

“It’s pretty comfy to me. C’mon, Kakashi-sensei, let’s just stay here tonight!”

Sighing heavily, Kakashi shook his head before dropping down in the small space near her legs, being mindful that Pakkun was still there and probably wouldn’t like being sat on. “You’re going to regret this in the morning.”

Sakura smiled sleepily and made room for him as he stretched out next to her. “No, I won’t because I’ve now got a pillow,” she replied as she twisted onto her side and cushioned her head on his chest. She yelped when he pinched her arm in retaliation, for which she exacted revenge by slapping his stomach lightly. “Pillows aren’t supposed to pinch the people sleeping on them.”

“And people aren’t meant to be used as pillows,” he observed as he rubbed her back soothingly. “Hopefully, all the walking tomorrow will work out any back kinks from this.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re leaving tomorrow.” She at least sounded a little repentant now for choosing to camp out in a hammock all night.

Kakashi nodded and closed his other eye while letting one leg dangle over the side of their makeshift bed. “Hey, Sakura?”

“Mm?”

“Make sure Tsunade takes it easy on Izumo until Kotetsu gets back, alright?”

He felt her nod against his chest before she sucked in a yawn. “Kakashi-sen- Oops. I mean, Kakashi, wanna hear something cool?” she asked drowsily.

Smirking at her near slip, he humored her and said, “Sure, what?”

Sakura tapped a finger to his chest and mumbled, “I can hear your heart beating. For a while, Naruto and I were pretty sure you were heartless.”

Kakashi laughed softly at the comment and combed his fingers through her hair. “Well, you’ll just have to tell him otherwise the next time you see him.”

He could sense the change in her mood more than he could see it and kicked himself mentally for pointing out their teammate was still absent. “Do you think he’s gonna come back?” she whispered, her voice sounding dangerously close to tears.

“There’s no doubt Naruto will be back, Sakura. This is his home. Everyone comes back home at some point.” He wasn’t just saying that to make her feel better either. It was the truth. Alive or dead, Konoha always made sure their people came home.

“Think he’s changed much?”

“About as much as you have with Tsunade, I would imagine.”

Sakura groaned and buried her face into his shirt. “God… He’s gonna come back just like Jiraiya-sama.”

Kakashi smiled against the top of her head and replied, “Yes, but you’re missing the most important part, Sakura.”

“Which is?”

“He’s coming back. And if he does return as a miniature Jiraiya… You’ll have every right to act like a miniature Tsunade and beat the shit out of him.”

Sakura hummed sleepily, which he took to mean she was laughing. “That sounds lovely,” she murmured before sighing as she lifted her head. Kakashi knew it was coming this time and leaned downward to meet her partially. Sakura gave him a light kiss before resettling herself against his side. “Sorry it’s not the one helluva kiss I promised you.”

“Oh, I don’t know. It seemed about right to me. But, if you insist on correcting it to your standards feel free to do so.”

Sakura made a dissenting sound in her throat and slurred hazily, “S’okay. Maybe in the morning.”

“That sounds even better.” Kakashi continued running his hand up and down her back gently as he listened to her breathing fall into a slow, steady rhythm. The hand that had been clutching his shirt loosened until just her fingertips were hooked under the fabric. Sighing, he made himself as comfortable as he could considering his back was going to be a hellish mess in the morning and tried to get some sleep.