Shit! Shit! Shit! Of all the things that could have gone wrong today, this had to be it. Not only was the shower slowly turning frigid from her using too much hot water but she had managed to leave her towel and clothes on the hook outside. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem if she was at home. But no. Her boiler has broken down and she had had to resort to public showers.
There were two options for her here. One, call for someone to pass her the towel which would have been embarrassing and she was pretty sure she was the only one in the shower section of the bath house at the moment so she would have to shout really loud. Or two, she could just nip out and quickly nab her towel without anyone seeing her, nip back in no problem then get changed. Plan two was clearly the option to go for.
Without another thought she darted from behind the shower curtain and reached across the corridor to grab her stuff but just as her fingers brushed the fabric, her feet began to slip from beneath her on the wet and slippy floor tiles and before she knew it, she was in an untidy heap on the cool, hard bath-house floor. Feeling slightly dazed, it took her a moment to get her bearings but when she did, the first thing she saw in front of her was a very shocked, and very bare man with nothing but a towel around his trim waist. His one visible, uncovered eye was staring at her with an expression somewhere in between startled and curious. It took a moment for her current predicament to sink in but the moment she did, she leapt off the floor and grabbed the towel to cover her modesty.
"Kakashi! What are you doing her you pervert? This is the lady's bath-house." She knew he was pervy, what with reading Icha Icha and all, but this was too far, almost as bad as Jiraiya.
"Sakura. I could say the same to you as I am pretty sure the sign on the way in said 'men's bath-house'". An amused twinkle appeared in his eye that made Sakura want to gut him with her Kunai. Shame she had left her pouch at home. Sakura could have sworn this was the ladies bath-house but then again, she couldn't actually remember looking at the sign on the way in.
"I…I… No. This is the ladies, I swear on Naruto's life." She stuttered, while reaching for her clothes on the hook.
"Well Naruto had better sleep with one eye open as I swear on his life that this is the men's" Kakashi replied with that annoying amused crinkle still playing in the corner of his eye.
"There is one sure way to find out." Said Sakura as she stalked out of the bath-house still wearing nothing but a skimpy towel. Kakashi followed behind her with a smug look on the small proportion of his face that showed. He even had a nice view. Looking at Sakura's scantily covered expanse of thigh reminded him of the view he had been treated to earlier. In fact, he was pretty sure that anything she did from now on would remind him of that scene. The picture of her lithe kunoichi body splayed out on the bath-house floor had been permanently burned into his retinas. Was he a pervert? Yes he was.
An angry stomp drew him away from his less than squeaky clean thoughts. Above Sakura was a sign that said, quite clearly, "Men's Bath-House". One look at her face told him that this was not the right moment to mention "I told you so".
"Mention this to no-one" she growled before angrily stomping over to the adjacent door reading "Ladies".
Kakashi chucked at his former student before returning to the men's to take his shower which now might have to be rather cold. Not even Naruto could ruin his mood now.
Inside the almost identical bath-house next door, Sakura was fuming. Of all the people to see her naked and flat on her face in a very un-ninja like way, it had to be her ex-sensei Kakashi. Any-one else she could beat to a pulp but with Kakashi, all she did was just lie there like a damned helpless civilian. Sakura sulked as she pulled her clothes back on, she obviously needed to train more if she could slip over like that. Yes, that was a good solution.
"Hey! Billboard-brow," came a shout from down the corridor and the blonde figure of Ino Yamanaka came down the corridor with her towel and various bottles of beautifying concoctions "What's beating you up?"
"Leave me alone Pig," was Sakura's reply as she turned away to hide the flaming red blush on her face. The last thing she needed as for Ino to know about her embarrassment, she would never let her forget it and forgetting was definitely what that memory needed.
"I think there is something you are not telling me," Ino dumped her stuff next to Sakura's on the bench "and you are going to spill. Right Now." The blush deepened on Sakura's face if that was even possible clearly giving her away. She settled onto the bench and huffed. This was going to be a long morning.
After a short and then more detailed (after Ino requested) description of events. Sakura huffed and then leant her head against the wall. The silence that followed was just even more embarrassing. What would Ino think of her now? She did not make a habit of displaying herself to her sensei in bath-houses but when you put it like that, it did sound very, very bad. After a few seconds Sakura reopened her eyes and then widened them slightly more in surprise. Standing in front of her was a rather flushed looking Ino with stars dancing in her eyes.
"You saw Kakashi-sensei wearing just a towel?" she squealed, jumping around Sakura so fast it made her brain swim. "You lucky girl. Did you see under his mask as well? Is he as handsome as everyone says?"
"No I did not see under his mask!" Growled Sakura "And I hardly think that it the most important matter at hand. He saw me naked, like, with no clothes on and he is my sensei. That is so many kinds of wrong" Sakura put her head in her hands.
"It is only wrong if you enjoyed it," cackled Ino. Seeing the expression on Sakura's face, she knew she had uncovered the truth, "Ha ha! I knew it! So… how far did you get?"
"No no no," protested Sakura "you've got the wrong idea Ino! Nothing happed. Plus, teacher/student thing remember. Never gonna happen"
"Oh…" Ino's tone deflated once this fact had sunk into her head. She sat on the bench next to Sakura and furrowed her brow in thought. "There must be a way to solve this crisis of passion"
That was it! Sakura face-palmed. Ino was almost as bad as Gai and Lee as far as obsessing about passion went. They just meant it in slightly different contexts... If she wasn't careful, genjutsu's of sunsets would appear behind her as she exclaimed loudly about the wonders of passionate sex. Every little thing was blown out of proportion and in no time, everyone knew about it. If this was anything like what happened to Tenten when she told her about the eventual hook up of her and Lee then everyone will be asking her about her due date and handing over presents "for the baby". She was not looking forward to this. Just at that moment, Tenten herself came out one of the shower stalls.
"Did I hear you two right? Sakura and Kakashi are hooking up? Good on you girl, you've got to tell us what is under that mask!"
"NO!" yelled Sakura silencing her two wittering friends "for the third bloody time, he is my sensei!"
"No he isn't" said Tenten chirpily, oblivious as to the yelling that had just occurred.
"What do you mean no he isn't" Was this girl serious? Sakura was on her last tread, these two may be her friends but boy did they drive her mad.
"Technically he is your ex-sensei as you train under Tsunade now"
This is just great thought Sakura as the two friends discussed between them how they were going to plant hidden cameras in Sakura's room so they could have a chance at seeing under Kakashi's mask. Thinking of Kakashi… no, no don't think of Kakashi. Too late. Her mind had already brought up pictured of her towel-clad ex-sensei making her cheeks pink. Ninja's had to be fit but there was something about Kakashi with his lean physique that was just so damn – NO! She would not think about her sensei in that way, that would be falling as low as Ino who had a hopeless crush on her sensei Asuma even if he had got married last year to Kurenai who was now expecting a baby.
Before she could stop it, inner Sakura had none too politely reminded her that "Kakashi is your ex-sensei now girl, you just gotta get him on tap. I bet that mask really spices things up in the bedroom" Sakura's cheeks darkened yet another shade before she could push away her dirty thoughts.
This had to be just about the worst day of her life so far and it wasn't even half past ten.