Hello there readers! this is my first lengthy fanfic (on this site) as I plan to make this story multi-chapter depending on feedback. Feel free to review as I am open to critiques and suggestions. I also edited so some grammar errors may have fallen through but I pride myself on making fics grammatically correct so just let me know if you catch any mistakes.

This is a KAKASAKU fic so if you don't approve don't read. Also rated M for the moment just in case as I foresee some violence and language and probably sexual content so young eyes beware.

Also I do not own Naruto (though if I did there would be some changes to the ending)

Chapter One

So it Starts

When Sakura was 12 years old and a fresh-out-of-the-academy-genin she was spirited and full of endless hope for what lay ahead. In her 12 year old mind that meant marrying the dashing Sasuke and continuing the Uchiha line. Now 9 years, one war, and many trials later those very thoughts makes her cringe. Some days when she lets her mind wander in the few quiet moments she gets in a day, her thoughts go there and she is overcome with the need to punch her 12 year old self… well all the way up to 16 she still wanted that ridiculous future but she tries not to dwell on that.

Now a Jonin of 21 and a well-respected medic nin in all the 5 great nations, Sakura takes great steps to avoid any mention of her teenage attitude and crush. Too bad her ex-sensei and rambunctious best friend and teammate love to bring it up at the most inconvenient moments; like this exact moment. The date she just so happens to be on with a talented medic from Suna that both her ex sensei and teammate just happen to walk by and just happen to feel the need to say hello; not like she saw them a few hours earlier for morning training; cue eye roll.

"And so Sakura pretty much begs that bastard to stay and he still leaves" Naruto loudly states between mouthfuls of food. "I mean can you believe that?"He takes another bite "What an ass."

Her date looks incredibly uncomfortable and is having a hard time trying to avoid the food flinging from Naruto's mouth. Sakura sighs; she is already done with her meal and regretting agreeing to this date immensely. All she can think is: Why? Why me? Why am I cursed to have these two idiots in my life? Letting out another long sigh she knew she wouldn't have it any other way… but still this was getting to painful.

Escaping her reprieve to take another survey of her ruined date she looks over from Naruto, who is filling in her very uncomfortable date all about her unrequited love of her teen years through large mouthfuls of food, to rest her eyes on her former sensei and current team captain, Kakashi. Who was also done eating and seemingly very engrossed in his orange book.

Shocker thought Sakura, nothing has changed there.

When Naruto and Kakashi had first invited themselves to sit down and ruin her date, Kakashi had taken the orange book out. Her date trying to make it less awkward had kindly asked about the book Kakashi was reading…. In the end it only became unbearably so.

So here sat Sakura wishing very much to sink into her chair and be anywhere else but at this train wreck of a date looking at her former sensei for help that she knew she would never get. As if finally acknowledging Sakura's silent looks and pleas for help Kakashi lowered his well-read orange book. Sakura was shocked, could he be helping? Could he actually be ending this atrocity of a date freeing her from this torture?

Putting his book down Kakashi looked over to Naruto flailing his arms around and talking loudly with his mouth full to a distraught looking young man, even he with his ability to openly read porn in public and seemingly handle any situation with nothing but stoicism was having a hard time concentrating on his favorite part of one of his favorite books. It also was not helping that his female ex-student was shooting him glares from across the table to remedy the situation.

So with a sigh and a snap of his orange book he decided to throw the young traumatized woman a bone. As he went to say something to Naruto along the lines of Now Naruto you know it is impolite to eat with your mouth open but at the last moment he looked over to see relief wash over Sakura's face and he could not resist the temptation of teasing her.

Turning to the young gentleman from Suna and interrupting one of Naruto's embarrassing stories, Kakashi cleared his throat and in the best authoritative voice he reserved from their genin days he spoke, " You know Naruto that isn't even the first time our sweet Sakura lost her footing and fell into a river while trying to peak at Sasuke. You forgot on the way to the land of waves when we spent the night at an Osen."

Out of the corner of his eye Kakashi could see Sakura's petrified face distorted between a mixture of extreme embarrassment and extreme rage and he couldn't help but think that she looked quite cute.

She was going to murder him, she was going to track him down and torture him slowly to understand the sort of pain he was putting her through and then she would start to heal him giving him a false sense of hope before plunging the kunai into his heart.

Damn him! Damn him! And damn her for thinking he would save her. Kakashi Hatake was a bastard and she should not have trusted him to save her from this dire situation.

Sakura had had enough it was time to end this. Interrupting another embarrassing tale Kakashi's suggestion had spurred, she stood from the table and not waiting for any of the 3 men to acknowledge this Sakura announced, "Well this has been very…." Painful? Agonizing? Tortuous? She settled for "long and I really must be going as I have a mission to prepare for and a few check-ups to complete before I leave."

Turning to the young man of Suna she said "Tumo-san thank you for the invite out tonight it was nice catching up and I hope your journey back to Suna is well." Then looking between the other two she spoke in a stern voice laced with malice "I will see you both at the gate tomorrow 7am and I expect that when we return some well needed manners will have to be relearned." she cracked her knuckles to further display her point before making her hasty exit.

Soon after the quick exit of their fired up teammate the young man from Suna kindly excused himself from Naruto and Kakashi. After his fast retreat from the restaurant Naruto let out a long sigh.

"I think that went well." Naruto stated as he fiddled with the napkin in front of him. "Though Sakura is going to murder us when we get back."

"Hm." Was Kakashi's only response as he had already opened the lovely pages of his Icha Icha again. Naruto looked up to confirm this while simultaneously bringing his hands up to his face to scratch his whiskered cheeks.

"Man this mission is going to kill me." He said while scratching at his cheek.

"Now Naruto the mission tomorrow though A ranked should be manageable between the 5 of us." Kakashi said flipping a page of his book.

"No not that one. I have no doubt you, me, Sakura, Sai, and Yamato can handle a couple of rouges." Naruto had stopped scratching his cheek and set his hands back to fiddle with the napkin. "I mean the one Sasuke gave me before he left."

Kakashi looked up from his smutty page to look at Naruto's overly pensive face; clearing his throat he brought his left hand up to scratch the back of his head.

"Now Naruto you and I both know that that is not a REAL mission just a favor asked before he left over 3 years ago. I must say you have taken what he has asked to such an extreme."

"But Kakashi-sensei you helped too!" Kakashi could not deny this, that over the years his love of teasing Sakura did in fact help with the favor the Uchiha had asked but that was purely coincidental.

After the 4th great shinobi war Sasuke had come back to the Leaf for about a year to serve some form of punishment and also restore trust. During that time he was very restless and found the Leaf and its council suffocating. After much whining on Naruto's part the Hokage Tsunade-sama had agreed to allow Sasuke to travel on the conditions he stay out of trouble, check in, and eventually return every 4 years at least.

Upon hearing this Sasuke packed and left the next day but not without making Naruto promise to this insane mission that he is currently on. That is to make sure Sakura is single when he returns and does not become serious with anyone else.

To Kakashi it seems that not only is the young Uchiha still full of himself as ever but also came to realize that a woman such as Sakura does not come around often and would be soon snatched away from him. Kakashi could already see the evolution of Sakura's love for Sasuke; from her childish crush to deep running love to a tenderness that would make her drop everything to help him as she has in the past to finally an appreciation but distant sort of love. One would say that she loved Sasuke now as she loves Naruto; brotherly. That year when he was in the leaf cemented it for Sakura and it was not that hard for the ever perceptive copy-nin to pick up on these slight shift.

Too bad for Sakura that the Uchiha was planning to finally claim her and with Naruto's help scared the many men off over the years with neither of them realizing that her love for Sasuke had changed from her early teen infatuation. Some would argue that Kakashi knowing all of this should step in and intervene but he just enjoyed teasing his whole team and it allowed endless entertainment and that is how this current situation arose; with Kakashi helping with the Uchiha's wishes.

Though that is not to say that Sakura has never dated since Sasuke's departure; just most of them didn't last with Naruto on the case.

"Well I should get going to pack for our mission tomorrow and" Naruto turned to look at the still absorbed copy-nin to point his finger at him. "Don't you dare be late! No getting lost on the road of life or helping any old ladies or children" he finished with a huff

"Mou Mou Naruto all the little old ladies will be crying tomorrow with only you to blame" Kakashi said while quickly closing his book and placing it in his back pocket. "Well see you." Before poofing from the spot he sat leaving Naruto with the bill.

When Sakura finally got to her apartment across town in the residential area for ninjas and a few civilians she was so frustrated and wound up that she almost broke her door off its hinges. As she entered she let her bags drop to the ground.

After that terrible dinner Sakura had gone to the hospital to finish up her last minute research and check into a few patients' recovery all in hopes that throwing herself into work would be distracting enough that she could cool down but now she realized how futile it was.

Sakura had since becoming a Jonin at 18 been predominantly a field medic as she knew she would eventually retire to the hospital once she had gotten older. When she wasn't out with team Kakashi or any other mission she was on the emergency rotation for the hospital where she was on call for all intensive care patients and emergency surgeries. She also taught if she had extra time or was taking a week break from missions. She like it this way; always on the move not just stuck in the hospital.

Sakura had no patients assigned to her but she liked to check in on the ones she helped or operated on and had the clearance to take any case. Sakura commends a lot of respect in the hospital and was being set up to take over when Tsunde finally left the reigns to Naruto. Currently even as the head field medic she shared the role as head medic with Shizune and enjoyed the amount of freedom sharing the title gave her.

Last night a team of anbu were admitted barely alive and after hours of surgery Shizune and herself got them out of danger but there was still a chance to lose them. Sakura had checked on them after morning practice with Kakashi, Naruto, Sai, and Yamato and they all were stable. While there she ran into Tumo-san; the medic nin from Suna she has known for a few years. He asked her out and since she had just ended her relationship with her civilian boyfriend Sakura saw no harm in a date with someone as passionate about all the same things.

Too bad that it was ruined by those two… and now she was furious again; she had been able to repress her anger over the dinner when she went back to the hospital. Now that she was home it had come back 10 fold. Sakura left her bags and huffed over to make tea; she needed something to help her relax.

"Stupid men" she said while heating up water. Sakura knew what Naruto was doing; it did not take a genius to realize what the Jinchuriki host was up to. It was right after Sasuke left and when she had started dating Kiba did she notice the blatant and tactless sabotage. This sabotage had been happening since then; through the 4 or 5 relationships that Sakura was able to barely keep between her work schedule and expectations; not to mention the many dates Naruto happened to crash.

Kakashi was a wild card in this plight to ruin Sakura's love life; she knew he did not actually care and was in fact enjoying teasing her but still she wished he would at least help her occasionally. Sakura hated the way Naruto was being; she would always love him just not everything he did. Naruto owed nothing to Sasuke and she was not just going to sit around and wait for him like some love sick preteen.

Why couldn't Naruto get that through his thick skull? Sakura was not some object to put on a shelf that was pulled down when needed; she was a strong independent kunoichi and she was allowed to pursue who ever she wanted.

"Ugh." Sakura grunted as she riled herself up while making tea. "those stupid, stupid jerks." Tumo was a nice man and interesting, they could have at least let her see where it was going, it could have turned into a nice evening and nothing else. Now all the Suna medics would think she was crazy and would no longer think she was respectable. Stupid Naruto, stupid Kakashi didn't they understand how hard it was to have a decent reputation and get respect as a woman was.

Serving herself tea, Sakura headed to her table to go over a few files before packing her bag for tomorrow and going to bed.

"Those boys are going to pay when we get back… going to be painful." She muttered to herself shuffling through documents.

At that moment in time both Naruto and Kakashi were packing their bags for tomorrow in their separate abodes and both were simultaneously overcome with a feeling of dread.

TBC

So that was the end of chapter one. I wrote this in a insomniac frenzy and edited when I was a bit over caffeinated alas I think there could be more editing as I am always overly critical of my writing. I am experimenting with different writing styles and as of right now this is what I am going with but if I believe the story can be conveyed through a better voice then I will change it up.

I plan to update often (as much as I can). Goals are a chapter every 2 weeks or a week but most likely i will binge write a few chapters and release them all at once then take a little break.

Again Reviews Welcomed