Sakura rushed through the tree branches, watching her target as he darted below her. His hair blew wildly in the wind, and it was difficult for her to see his expression. It had been a good two minutes as she just watched him run, but now it was time to unmask her chakra.

She grinned as he immediately stopped and looked up into the tree tops.

"Sakura?" He asked unbelievingly, not seeing anyone above him in the shadows, but sensing her chakra.

She leapt down from the branch she was standing on, to land directly in front of him, her nose only an inch from his masked one.

"You're home?" He asked, surprised. She'd been gone for five years, out on a medical mission, gathering different remedies from other countries ever since her sixteenth birthday.

"No. I have to get back to the Rock Country by tomorrow night. I won't be home to stay until another two years pass." She explained.

"You've gotten... taller." He said, at a loss for words.

Now twenty-one, Sakura was about five foot, six inches tall, and her hair was long again, but pulled back into a ponytail, with her bangs parted to the side. Her hairstyle wasn't the only thing different about her, he noticed. She had grown into a woman. She had the voice of a woman, soft and smooth; and the shape of a woman, with all the curves that came with it. She'd been beautiful at fifteen, and he'd been silently taken by her beauty then too, but now... Without thinking first, he noticed that she wore a red, formfitting tank-top with a pair of black cargo pants that hung loosely on her hips, leaving a sliver of pale skin showing, along with a thin red strap across her hip. At the next thought coming into his mind, he looked back up to meet her emerald eyes.

"You look just as handsome as ever." She said, smirking playfully. It may have been five years, but she wasn't lying. He looked exactly the same. Now if he would take off that mask of his, she could truly make an assumption. But that wasn't going to happen...

"Were you going to stalk me all night?" He teased back.

"No. Just until you noticed." She smirked. "I'll buy you a drink if you come to the pub with me." She'd scouted out Naruto and Sasuke and told them to meet her in the pub at nine. It was now nine-fifteen. They had explained to her that Kakashi never went out for drinks with them anymore, he was always on missions, or sleeping. She resolved to get them all back together.

"No. I'll pay."

"Okay, if you insist." She grinned. She was counting on that anyway, although she knew it was Sasuke who would end up paying for them all in the end anyway.

Jumping to the nearest branch, She looked down at him with a sparkle in her eye. She truly had missed Konoha, there was no place like it. "C'mon! Or are you too old?"

He jumped up beside her, and darted away, saying over his shoulder,

"How about, you're too young?"

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, and followed after him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Come on! You've shown all of us..." Naruto urged.

"What!" Sakura gasped. They hadn't even gotten their drinks yet, and she was hit with this news.

"Well," Kakashi sighed "You both earned it. If I remember correctly, you came extremely close to getting it off, so I figured that you deserved it. She has not. Besides, it would ruin all my fun."

"That's not fair! I haven't been here!"

"You'll live." He said after nodding at the waitress as she set their drinks down.

"You suck." She growled as she took a sip.

"I still can't believe you won't drink sake." Naruto shook his head as he eyed the glass of tea she was drinking.

"I don't want a hangover tomorrow." She shrugged. Suddenly, much to the two males' surprise, she lept up from the table and ran towards the door with a squeal. Another high-pitched squeal was heard as the two women collided, hugging and crying.

Sasuke emerged from behind them and sat down wordlessly.

"Does she know?" Naruto asked, looking at the two women coming towards them.

"I don't know. If not, she will soon." Sasuke shrugged as he ordered a sake.

Kakashi sighed. He hadn't counted on having to put up with Ino and Sakura fighting over Sasuke.

However, much to his suprise, as she sat down she grinned and said a "Congratulations!" to Sasuke. He only nodded and smirked at Ino.

Ino grinned widely as Sakura examined the ring on her finger.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the morning hours approached, they all began to disperse.

Sakura begged the copy-nin to walk her home, and he complied, much to Sakura's plesure. He'd been silent all night.

"Kaka-sensei?"

"Yeah?"

"Why won't you show me your face too?"

Kakashi paused at her sickeningly sweet tone. Perhapse it was just for the fun of pissing her off. Or maybe because he was worried about what she would think. Sakura, a beautiful woman, probably pictured his face to be something totally different than what it was, and somehow, he didn't want to disappoint her. Maybe it was unfair.

"Why do you want to see it so badly?"

"Well, I have always wanted to. The fact that you showed the guys your face is part of it too."

"Well, they earned it."

She paused. Perhapse she was thinking of a plan, but he'd be ready for anything.

"You know what?" She sighed, "Forget it."

"What? Just like that?"

They walked in silence for a moment, her face directed at her feet, until she turned around to face him, so suddenly that he hadn't even expected it. She stood infront of him, glaring with tears in her eyes.

"You know... even as a child I admired you... While Sasuke and Naruto were gone, you were a confident, and I was thankful for that, and we became friends. And when we went looking for Sasuke, I knew that we were going to get him back, because you were there. I don't know when, but sometime on that mission, you became more to me than a friend. I didn't realize this until I was seperated from Konoha. And now, I come back, and you don't even want to talk to me. I figured that was because maybe something had happened, but I asked Naruto, and he said nothing did..." She paused. The light from the street light reflected on the tear stains on her face, making her seem to glow faintly.

Kakashi took a step towards her, and then paused, dead in his tracks as her words registered.

"Dammit! I haven't cried for four years, and now that's all gone to waste. I know I'm the pitiful, emotional one. I know I'm weak. I wasn't expecting anything to happen! I just wanted to know that you're still, at least my friend, but you deny me even that." She paused for a second, looking him in the eye. "Don't think, for even a moment that this is about that damned mask. I could care less about it now. I just want to know what I did..."

Kakashi was speechless, for the first time in a long time.

"Well? What is i-" She was inturrupted as he appeared before her, pulling her into his arms.

"I'm sorry... " He said into her hair.

Sakura sniffled, "But.. why?"

Kakashi stepped back, to look her full in the face. Gently, he took her hand, and guided it towards his face, laying it along his cheek as he leaned into it. "I wanted to keep myself from..." He paused, and he knew she got the point because her fingers were playing along the edge of his mask. Without another word, his mask was down, and his lips covered hers. Heat seemed to spill throughout her body from that one point of contact, similar to water, filling all of the empty crevices of her heart. Warm hands crawled across her hips, pausing in the small of her back.

As their contact was broken, her delicate fingertips slid across the now bare surface of his smooth cheek, and then across to touch her own lips softly. "From doing that."

"Do.. you regret it?"

Eh? I tried... REVIEW! PLEASE!