Disclaimer: I do NOT own the manga or the anime Naruto.

I'm only going to write this once—because if you read beyond this chapter, I'm assuming that you've read this one and to repeat myself is a waste of time.

Chapter 1

Sakura hummed softly to herself as she set the table.

It was April 17 and the day was just lovely. The soft spring breeze rustled the leaves on the trees and the sound of children laughing drifted in through the open window. She just returned from the market and began preparations for dinner. The 21-year-old jounin wouldn't have minded the presence of her long-time friend and one-time crush Sasuke at the moment.

The Uchiha would know the right placement for the Western style tableware she bought better than she did.

Sakura wouldn't have minded Naruto's presence either. The blonde was a better cook than her and seemed to always know the exact moment to take food off the burner before it became overcooked. She'd even welcome the other jounins' banter and the inevitable argument the two would get into. But they were on a recon mission with Hinata for the daimyou of Fire Country and weren't scheduled to be back until tomorrow morning. The rosette-haired woman caught herself before she could wring her hands together.

She was nervous. She was excited about tonight, but nervous nonetheless.

She shook her head and walked to her bathroom for a quick shower while the sauce for the dish she was making was simmering. As she rubbed lotion onto her body after the shower, she thought about the man she was going through all this trouble for and smiled.

It had taken almost a year and countless strategies—both of a romantic and seductive nature—from Ino, Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke. But in the end, Sakura accomplished her goal.

Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Nin of Konoha, was now hers.

Sakura slowly slid into the silk dress she bought for tonight and grinned. She glanced over at a picture Naruto had taken of the couple on their first official date and the grin became an outright laugh.

It wasn't the usual portrait of a couple strolling through the streets during a festival.

Sakura's hands were fisted in the other's dark green vest and her legs were wrapped around the waist of her silver-haired companion. Kakashi's posture was as sloppy as ever and his hands were buried in the pockets of his baggy pants. The man barely supported her with his arms as she clung to him. Both of their heads were turned to the camera—Sakura's shoulder-length hair was forever frozen in a strange swirl around her head since Naruto took the photo right after he called out their names to get their attention—and they were frowning. Well, Sakurawas frowning. Kakashi's features were hidden as they always were behind his black mask, but there was a glint in his visible eye that promised to inflict pain on someone.

She smoothed the silk down her legs and picked up the framed picture.

Sakura remembered how she finally conned her former sensei into taking her to the celebration festival of Orochimaru's death. He'd tried to convince her to go with Sasuke, but she countered with the statement that she didn't care for him in "that way" any longer. She also mentioned the fact that the Uchiha didn't want to be reminded of his former master in any shape or form—even one as innocent as a festival.

Since Naruto was dating Hinata—and had been for the past two years—the blonde wasn't a suitable escort for Sakura. All of the other ninja from the Rookie 9 and Team Gai were either out on missions or already paired off. In Shikamaru's not-so-envied case, he had the (dis)pleasure of being the center of attention of two stubborn and aggressive blonde-haired, blue-eyed kunoichi.

It had only taken an oblique reference to accepting Genma's proposal to prod the Copy Nin the last little inch into offering her his escort services for the afternoon.

FLASHBACK

The afternoon had started out alright. They went to the picnic and listened to Tsunade's speech about "village unity and the brave shinobi who fought and died for that unity" with the other shinobi who fought with them during the war with Sound. The two Leaf nin then separated from the group to wander among the stalls set up along the busy streets.

"Kakashi," Sakura said, breaking into her date's thoughts. "What do you want to do? There's a booth set up for games on the next block."

Kakashi turned a dull black eye to his companion and shrugged. "If you want to," he said. "But it's a bit forced, don't you think? Setting up a games booth when half of the contestants are ninja. They'll probably be able to hit the targets without even trying."

Sakura frowned. She never thought of it that way. "That's not the point of it Kakashi," she said. "It's the spirit of it all."

Kakashi looked down at the woman. "If you want to, then fine," he repeated. "I'll win you a bear."

"I can win my own bear," she said confidently. She was about to turn toward the booth when she caught Kakashi's eye glance over the progress of one of the scantily clad village women advertising for one of the village bars. Her back stiffened and a red haze ghosted over her vision as that lone eye traveled back to her in question.

"I thought we were going to the gaming booth?" Kakashi asked, puzzled by her hesitation.

Sakura's unconscious fantasy of a romantic afternoon together melted away with the realization that Kakashi still thought of her as a child. Even after the war and getting Sasuke back, even after she showed him and the other jounin that she was stronger, smarter, and able to fight on the same level as them, he still thought of her as nothing but little Haruno Sakura.

Kakashi blinked in surprise when the rosette-haired young woman responded to his question by jumping up and clinging to his waist with her strong legs. He leaned back to stare into her eyes and placed his hands in his pockets. People were staring, but none wanted to interfere with two of Konoha's most recognizable and most dangerous ninja.

"I thought you wanted a bear," Kakashi murmured.

"What I want," Sakura growled. "Is for you to stop treating me like a kid and start treating me like a woman, dammit."

With that, the girl swooped down and kissed the man on the lips—mask and all.

Kakashi stiffened, but kept his hands in his pockets. It wasn't until the woman clinging to him licked his lips that he began to participate in the kiss. Sakura felt the moistness of his tongue through the cloth and let out a soft moan. The fabric wasn't cotton like she and Ino thought. Kakashi's mask was pure silk, which made the kiss all that more erotic.

Kakashi stood there as Sakura clung to him. They kissed lazily for what seemed like hours, with him occasionally nipping at her plump lips, when a familiar and obnoxious voice interrupted them.

"Oi! Kakashi! Sakura! Look over here!" Naruto shouted.

The two pulled away from each other and whipped their heads around to shout at their blonde ex-teammate.

CLICK

"That's gonna be a keeper!" Naruto shouted, bringing the camera back down from his eyes. "Ja ne!"

END FLASHBACK

Sakura turned off the stove and carefully tipped the saucepan onto the serving dish she received from her parents when she moved into her own apartment. It was only that night at dinner that Kakashi reluctantly admitted that he only treated her as a child because he felt perverted for thinking of her as an adult. He'd told the pink-haired woman that he could handle her as a child, he could handle her as a ninja, but as a woman…Kakashi didn't know exactly what to do.

Sakura had laughed at that and told the Copy Nin—in terms he could understand and with a blush that showed her shock over her boldness—what he could do to "handle" her.

Kakashi had simply grinned and finally put his hands on her. All over her.

After that, they'd become a couple and now Sakura invited him over for a special dinner. She slid the broiled saury onto the sauce and placed the serving dish onto the table. She opened a bottle of white wine and let it breathe on the counter as she sat down.

Sakura had nonchalantly invited him over for an early dinner at 6 o'clock. It was now 7:30. Knowing her chronically late lover for almost ten years, the woman purposefully told him an earlier dinnertime than she truly meant. She knew that he probably would be late by about two hours and didn't mind in the least.

The food was done, her clothes and make-up were perfect, soft music came through the speakers she had in her apartment—everything was ready. There was nothing more to do than wait.

And wait.

And wait…

Kakashi woke up to find that the sun had already set. The silver-haired man sat up from his lounging position and quickly picked up his copy of Icha Icha Tactics. Placing the book into the pocket of his vest, he stood up and worked the kinks out of his sore neck.

He usually wasn't so tired, but Tsunade—for reasons unknown—gave him the job of teaching the first year students at the Academy today. Iruka, in a rare moment of weakness, succumbed to the flu bug that was going around. Tsunade probably wanted someone to jerk around and chose Kakashi to fill in for the sick man. Kakashi felt a newfound respect for the kind-hearted Iruka. Teaching a genin team was tough, but, compared to teaching a class full of wanna-be ninjas without killing one of the little buggers, it was easier than a D-rank mission.

It was no wonder that Iruka managed to blow past the jounin exams in one go as soon as he decided to finally take them. Watching those kids must've built up the man's chakra reserves to the point that nothing fazed him.

A niggling sense of something caused Kakashi to scratch the back of his head. He never carried any of the watches that Sakura or any of the others bought for him when he wasn't out of the village, so he wasn't sure what time it was. He cocked his head to the side when he heard the chimes ring the hour.

10 o'clock…I guess reading after working out wasn't that good an idea, Kakashi thought to himself.

The niggling sense that something was wrong turned into an irritating itch on his shoulder blades. His stomach gurgled in hunger and Kakashi finally realized what was wrong.

He was supposed to have dinner at Sakura's apartment this afternoon at 6. He was well aware that she only told him that time so that when he did show up the food would still be warm. His lover understood him, that's for sure. She never ordered their food until an hour after their proposed meeting time.

Thank Kami he had a woman who knew him so well.

That realization was followed by the fact that instead of the usual hour, Kakashi was now two hours late for dinner.

Shit.

Sakura sighed and tried to keep her temper down. She knew that Kakashi was prone to chronic tardiness. It was practically a bigger legend in their village than the defeat of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. But this was, beyond doubt, the worst night for him to practice that particular idiosyncrasy of his.

The dinner she painstakingly made was now under a trio of paper towels. She didn't own any platter covers and the paper was now slowly soaking up the sauce for the fish. The music she had playing had long since stopped. The wine—now missing a glass of its contents—was re-corked and sat in her refrigerator. Her lipstick was gone from her nervous biting of her bottom lip and the occasional sip of wine she allowed herself as she waited.

For the first thirty minutes, she was excited. If she told him 6, then he usually showed up at 8. But as the hands on her clock moved from 8 to 8:30 and from 8:30 to 9, her excitement faded. She began to worry that he was hurt or was suddenly called on a mission that took him away from home.

She even phoned Iruka and asked him if he sent Kakashi on a mission. The man replied in the negative in between sneezes. Iruka calmly reminded her that she specifically called in the one favor the teacher owed her to ensure that her lover remained in the village this night. Sakura was forced to agree with her old sensei and hung up the phone.

Now, two hours later, she moved from worry to rage.

Sakura looked up as the door to her apartment opened silently to reveal a disheveled, leaf covered, and dirty Hatake Kakashi. Her anger faded at his appearance and she practically flew into her lover's arms.

"What happened?" she asked. "Are you hurt? Were you ambushed? I thought you didn't have any tough missions today!"

Kakashi dipped his head to kiss her on the forehead and hugged her to his body. "Nothing bad happened," he said. "I just got roped into teaching at the Academy today."

Sakura backed away and brought Kakashi to the dining table. "But the Academy lets out at 4," she said. "What have you been doing since then?"

"I had to grade papers for an hour and then I decided to train," he answered. "I sort of fell asleep after that. Iruka must have Naruto's stamina if he deals with those monsters every day."

Kakashi let out an appreciative sniff at the food on the table. He took a piece of fish and placed it on his plate along with a spoonful of rice. He looked for a pair of chopsticks and found a Western style spoon and fork instead. He noticed that the tableware was all new and swallowed his food before commenting on it.

"Why do you have new dishes?" he asked.

Sakura sat down across from him and gave him a small smile. Placing some food on her own plate, she shrugged. "I wanted to do something different tonight," she said. "Something special."

"That explains the food," he said. Kakashi gestured to his plate and added a little soy sauce. "No offense to the restaurant, but the fish is a bit overcooked."

"I cooked the fish, Kakashi."

The woman across from him stilled at the statement and Kakashi suddenly felt the air around them become heavy with repressed anger. He realized his mistake and did what any man would do in this situation.

"It's really good too!" he said, his exposed eye turning into the upside-down U that indicated his smile. "It's just a little overcooked. You know how I like my food a little rare."

"You like your steaks a little rare," she replied. "Not your fish."

Why, Kami, did he have to have a woman who knew him so well?

Kakashi gulped as Sakura lowered her head. The top portion of her face was hidden in shadow, but he could see the scowl that covered the lower. He tried to think of a way to get out of the mess he put himself in and decided to complement her on something else—something not edible.

"Ah…you look good," he said, trying to find something sure to distract her. "That's a new dress right?"

"Yes."

The monosyllabic answer made a small bead of sweat form under Kakashi's hitai-ate. It was never a good thing when Sakura became as talkative as Sasuke when she was angry. It only made the impending explosion ten times worse than when she shouted like Naruto.

"New dress…new dishes…and you wanted tonight to be special. Sakura-chan," Kakashi drawled. "Are you trying to seduce me? Because if you are, you don't need to work this hard." In his nervousness over her mood, he reverted back to his fail-safe persona: slightly perverted jounin.

Sakura's hands fisted on the table and she glared at Kakashi with jade green eyes. "Seduce you?" she asked softly. "Seduce you? I wanted tonight to be romantic. If we ended up making love tonight, then that would've been wonderful. But I wanted it to be special. Not the usual, 'eat, talk, screw' deal you were so used to before we started going out. I know it's not too much to ask. You've been over for dinner before, but you were only an hour late. I expected you to be an hour late. What I didn't expect is for you to be two hours late tonight!"

Kakashi, never one to tolerate feminine outbursts, placed his own hands on either side of his plate and stared at Sakura. His voice became neutral and his body took on a deceptively relaxed pose.

"You're in a strange mood, Sakura. It's never been just 'eat, talk, screw' with you. I don't even know where you got that idea. I've apologized for being late and I made a little mistake in criticizing your cooking but—"

"No you didn't!" Sakura cried, interrupting his sentence. "You didn't say one word of apology since you came through the door. You didn't even give me one of your lame excuses for being late! Tonight I wanted—"

"Tonight, tonight," it was Kakashi's turn to interrupt. "You keep talking about tonight. What's so special about tonight that you have to pick a fight with me?"

"What's so special about tonight?" Sakura repeated breathlessly. She knew that she had to keep her temper down. She had to keep her temper, but she couldn't do that with the cause of her anger sitting three feet away from her. Her bangs shadowed her face as she leaned forward and pointed imperiously to the door.

"Get…out."

Kakashi's eye widened. This wasn't like Sakura. Like any couple, they've had fights before. They always included shouting and threats from the rosette-haired woman in front of him. There were the occasional tears from her and usually a few new bruises for him. For her to just order him from her sight meant that something was different this time.

"Sakura…" he began, trying to find out what was wrong. He stiffened in instinctive male fear as he heard her small sniffle and saw a tear trail down her chin and drop onto her new plate.

"Just…get…OUT…"

Kakashi wanted to stay, but her voice urged him to go. He hadn't heard her use that tone of voice since she came back from seeing Sasuke for the first time in two years when they were fifteen. The jounin slid back from the table and wordlessly left using his teleportation jutsu. If she wanted him gone, then he'd go.

Sakura remained seated for the longest time after the smoke from the jutsu dissipated. Her hand went to the box on the table and her tears came even faster. Kakashi hadn't even noticed the black velvet box. Another reminder of what the Copy Nin didn't notice came to her and Sakura couldn't hold back her sobs any longer.

"He didn't remember," she cried into the silence. "He didn't remember…"

A/N:

Okay, for those of you who are wondering…no I did not give up on my other fanfic.

A little troll came to me with this idea and decided to pinch my ears with her French manicured fingernails until I started writing about it. (Thanks a lot, cuz)

I won't update this one as often as my other fanfic—since that one is my first one and I usually don't like starting another fic until the first is finished. (Again, that troll is breathing down my neck for this story.)

Maybe it'll be updated once a week. (If you're lucky.) It is summer after all and I've got nothing but time.