Affinity

Pairing: Kakashi x Sakura

Summary: Unrelated oneshots centered around the dynamic relationship between the lazy, laid back, porn-reading Copy-nin and an emotional pink-haired med-nin that can destroy mountains with her dainty fists.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. NARUTO and all its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

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Chapter 1: Maturity

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Life of a shinobi is often times hard, sometimes lonely, but mostly exhausting. Definitely exhausting. The legendary Copy-nin can feel it from the tips of his ever buoyant silver hair to the tips of the sandals covering his feet. He is tired. After having used every shinobi trick, jutsu, and even his Sharingan (that was no more), he feels lucky to not have succumbed to overexertion. But like all good shinobi, Hatake Kakashi brutally shrugs off the fatigue and instead focuses on Sakura's figure racing towards the area where the large explosion of chakra came from. Focusing on her petal hair and lithe frame, he follows. He tries to ignore the pain of worry that runs through him at the thought of what they might find.

Don't make me bury anymore of my teammates, please.

Kakashi didn't beg often, but there were exceptions. This was one of them.

His heart constricts when he hears her sharp intake of breath, but can't discern whether or not if it was from happiness or grief. Not a nanosecond later, however, she darts forward almost frantically. From his perch, he can see tears collect at the corners of her eyes, but is comforted at the stubbornness of her set chin. Her face was tinged with worry and heartache, but her actions – as she came to kneel between the two young men – held the precision of a medic that knew what they needed to do.

Charcoal eyes gazed at his three students and felt a wave of crushing relief to see them all alive…even if not whole.

The grime and blood covering and surrounding them was worrisome. It was pure luck that they hadn't died from blood loss. A soft, green light entered the clearing as Sakura focused on her blonde teammate.

"S-Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered happily. His blue gaze became worried, "I'm so –"

"Shut up and let me heal you," she cut him off abruptly, voice rough. It came apparent that she had enough of excuses, of the constant fighting, blood, and death. Her tone was vastly low-key compared to her past furious shrieks, but it served to make Naruto's mouth snap shut impressively fast.

Kakashi tensed when she eventually moved to Sasuke's damaged arm. His eyes narrowed. Sasuke had always taken advantage of Sakura's feelings, taking it as an opening to strike. What difference would this make?

The air was tense as the minutes slowly passed. An eyebrow rose in mild curiosity when seeing Sasuke's features shift into something resembling unease…and guilt? Dare he hope? Sasuke's lips parted. Thanks to the echo quality of the place, Kakashi was able to hear him. His shoulders sagged in relief.

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

That's an understatement of the century.

If he was honest, a part of him almost wanted Sakura to say, "You had your chances." They had begged, pleaded, cried, fought, and bled for him and multiple times he had ignored them in order to fulfill his selfish wants. There were plenty of things that still angered Kakashi that his ex-protégé had done. However, at the same time, he wanted Sakura to accept his apology so that they can all move forward together, as a team. This was the moment where everything can finally be put to ease after nearly four years of discord and pain.

He just hoped she didn't let everything that she had worked hard for disappear in order to be the next Uchiha Matriarch. He had felt – through personal intuition and close observation – that her feelings for the Uchiha have changed. She cared deeply for him and always would; he was her first love. However, after years of rejection and heartache, he could tell that they had shifted to something that wasn't romantic.

But love and delusion mixed together can be a powerful, terrible thing. And from the past, Sakura hadn't done well in rising above it to see reason.

If it reverted back to the old Team 7 days, Kakashi didn't think he could handle the disappointment.

He had quite liked this new Sakura who stood up for herself, fought hard, and made a name for herself.

His ears perked up slightly when hearing her hiccup. Her voice trembled from the tears, "About time, you jerk."

He waited for the other shoe to drop. He waited for Sakura to jump at Sasuke and lay her head on his chest, sobbing, "Sasuke-kun!" or something else that was equally melodramatic. Or even confess again that she loved him.

She did neither. Instead, she turned and looked to him and smiled through her tears.

"Kaka-sensei," she called out. "Get down here!"

Warmth squeezed his battle-worn heart. Smiling, he swiftly made his way to them.

It wasn't long before she forcefully sat him down – without chakra. He tried to ignore the feeling of emasculation that brought him. (He comforted himself with the fact that he pretty much had little chakra left…and that he didn't have Sakura's Byakugō no Jutsu.)

"Let me look at you." Her tone brooked no argument and he didn't really have any to give.

He sighed through his mask in relief at the calming sensation of Sakura's chakra smoothing its way efficiently through his system, checking for internal bleeding. He took a moment to admire the professional, analytical hardness of her jade eyes as she focused on her task. The peaceful smile that curled her lips wasn't too bad either.

"Nothing fatal," she murmured in relief. "However, your chakra levels are dangerously low and you're on the verge of dehydration. The moment we make it back to everyone else, I'm ordering bed rest for you."

"Mah," Kakashi sighed in acknowledgment. Rubbing his nose absentmindedly, his eyes squeezed into his trademark smile. "Does this count as a yearly physical, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura huffed in amusement, ignoring Naruto's and Sasuke's curious gaze. "I don't think so, but nice try, sensei."

Kakashi stiffened in surprise, letting out a small "oof!" when she suddenly tackled him the moment her green chakra disappeared from her hands. He slowly relaxed and returned the hug, squeezing her gently. He couldn't help the smile when she sighed happily into his chest.

"My boys," she whispered. "Now if Yamato-taichō and Sai were here, this moment would be perfect."

"What!?" Naruto whined. "We don't need that pale-face bastard! We don't even need this one either!" He jerked his head angrily in Sasuke's general direction, causing the Uchiha to narrow his eyes in irritation.

"What was that about 'not leaving me alone in the darkness,' dobe?"

Naruto did the mature thing and blew him a raspberry, loud and obnoxious. Sasuke practically hissed when he felt spittle hit his cheek.

"Why you little -!"

"Bring it on, teme! I don't know about you, but I'm ready for another round!"

Kakashi began to sweat bullets when feeling Sakura's fingers clutch angrily into his jōnin flak jacket. Hurt them, not me, please. Kakashi always did have a sense of preservation.

"It's a good thing I held back on you then, baka." Sasuke shifted his battered body gently to get onto his elbows at the same time Naruto moved.

However, to their surprise, they didn't get far.

Kakashi really wished he had a camera on him as he stared at the scene before him.

Upon releasing Kakashi, Sakura had swung around on her knees to return to her spot between the quarreling pair. She placed a single, and slightly glowing, finger on their sternum. Her brows twitched in irritation as their insults turned essentially to whining as they struggled. Due to their injuries gained from several fights (Madara, Kaguya, each other), chakra exhaustion, and blood loss, they were practically harmless. The little ounce of chakra she split between them was more for insurance than necessity.

One could never know with these two. They had always defied the laws of chakra.

"Sakura-chan, come on," Naruto struggled fruitlessly beneath her one glowing finger pressed gently against his chest. It was like having a heavy boulder sitting on it. "You heard him, he's asking for it!"

Sasuke gritted his teeth as he too struggled against her, "Step aside, Sakura! The idiot wants to die."

"You two are so annoying," she grumbled, cheeks puffed out and eyebrow twitching. "Even almost on the verge of death, you guys can't stop fighting. Can you?"

Unbeknownst to them, Kakashi smiled fondly at the three.

His students. They had all matured so much over these few short years. He couldn't be prouder of them. He was surprised to find himself looking forward to what the future had in store for him and his team.

Humming under his breath, he undid the clasps of his front pocket and took out Icha Icha. It was a good day, everything considering.

Not so much KakaSaku in this chapter, but there's always promise for the others. I liked this.

In my mind, something similar to this should have happened after the final confrontation.

I never agreed with Kishimoto's epilogue (I'm sorry to you canon-shippers, but I felt that it was a little too pandering; like he was basically saying, "Never mind! I don't want my characters to mature and evolve. Go NaruHina and SasuSaku forever! Go fans!" - BLEUGH!), so as you readers can guess from this first chapter, the following ones are not - in any way - going to follow it or even lead to it. This story will be a collection of (random) oneshots centering around Kakashi and Sakura, some friendship, but mostly romantic.

So people who do not like this pairing, I respect your opinion. In return, I ask that you respect mine and leave if this is not your cup of tea.

I don't particularly like Sasuke and I think a lot of it stems from the fact that he never learned to trust and rely on Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi. He treated them like they were a burden when they had practically become his second family. And I'm sorry, the brooding, angst-filled avenger characterization gets tiring after awhile. I also hated his treatment of Sakura. Yeah, sure he and Naruto fight a lot, but they're boys. Its what they do. But I'm sorry, I think Kishimoto is wrong in thinking that a girl just falls deeper in love when a guy puts her into a genjutsu that makes her experience him literally piercing her heart. How screwed up is that? - With THAT said, I do think that Sasuke could actually be an okay guy (you know...once he gets his head out of his butt), so I was honestly surprised when my fingers continued typing and there was more Team 7 interaction than I anticipated...and I oddly found that I enjoyed it. I definitely thought it wouldn't be as easy as it was.

Sorry for the rant! (I usually don't write obscenely long author notes.)

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and got the warm fuzzies like I did while writing it. I wouldn't mind prompt-ideas if there is something that you guys would like to see happen. :)

Please tell me what you think. I accept constructive criticism. ;)

-Miss Artemis