Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Beautiful Distracion

Chapter One

The smell of blood and death was a smell one just didn't forget. It was the scent you smelled after jerking awake from the nightmare of watching your friend die in front you, or when you go visit the memorial stone and remember all those you have failed one way or another. It was the scent that stayed with you for the rest of your life.

So when Kakashi was on the battle field fighting against the enemy in the fourth great Shinobi War the smell didn't bother him as much as it did when he fought in his first war; although the same couldn't be said for his ex-female student.

She had complained on countless of nights how she could still smell the scent of blood on her hair despite how much she washed it in the nearby river. And there were times Kakashi had wanted to tell her that no matter how many times she washed her hair, she would always smell blood because the scent was not 'stuck in her hair' as she had once put it, but engraved in her brain and over the years the smell would lighten up, but it wouldn't go away, it would never go away.

But Kakashi had bit his tongue. Kakashi had kept in mind that Sakura was born in time of peace and all the sights, sounds and smells of war, things that Kakashi had considered 'normal' when he was growing up, were new to the pink haired Kunoichi.

But Sakura's determination and abilities could have fooled anyone, who did not know her, to believe otherwise. Though she complained about her hair -a lot- that was the only thing she ever complained about.

She had not once complained about being sleep deprived or that the rations tasted bland or other meaningless -and some not so meaningless- things like some of the other Shinobis did. This had made Kakashi very proud. She had come far from the annoying, kiss-ass 12 year old little girl that complained about everything, and she had developed into one of Konaha finest kunoichi with medical skills that compared even to Tsunade's. Yes, Sakura was not a little girl anymore.

Kakashi had first noticed that she was not a child the day Naruto had returned back from training with Jiraiya, and they successfully had taken the bells away from him, but he did not start seeing her as a woman until the first time Kakashi saw her fight in this war.

The blood that had stained her porcelain face had made her look older, and the look on her face as she punched a man so hard in the chest that it retracted into itself was a look Kakashi had never seen before, even when they were together on missions.

The way she moved was anything but graceful, but it had still captured his attention. The first thought that came to Kakashi's mind as he watched her fight was that she never looked more beautiful.

He quickly shook his head and mentally slapped himself. What was he thinking? This was Sakura, his ex-student, his teammate, and now his subordinate. Beautiful wasn't usually a word that popped into his head when describing Sakura. Determined, ambitious, strong, kind-hearted, caring, healing, emotional; were few of the words that he would use to describe Sakura, but beautiful?

He later convinced himself that it was her skills, which had increased a great deal since the last time he saw her fight (which had been three months prior to the war starting), that had captured his attention. But no matter what reason or feeble excuse he told himself he was always enticed with her, whether she was fighting or not.

And now several months later, Kakashi was once again watching her as she fought. She jumped in the air to dodge a barrage of shuriken. Her hair whipped around her face as she flew through the air and landed just a couple a feet away. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Sakura raced to the man that had just thrown the shuriken. In a blink of an eye, she was in front of him, kunai in hand. This was something that Sakura would have not been able to do a couple of months ago, if not for Kakashi who had trained her after she had asked him.

She slit the man's throat. Kakashi watched as specks of blood landed on her porcelain skin. Despite the countless hours of training and fighting out in the sun, she never tanned. How Kakashi wished he could be one of those specks just to touch her soft cheek. Kakashi's wandering thought about other places he would also like to caress were interrupted, when he felt a sharp pain and heard a crack.

He flew through the air, and it wasn't until he hit a tree a few feet away, that he realized that he had been attacked. Kakashi attempted to stand, but the minute he moved he found that it was difficult to breathe, actually he couldn't breathe at all. He tried and tried, but he could not breathe. He felt the air go through his nose, but for some reason his lungs were not inflating. And for the first time in a long while, Kakashi actually felt panicky. A couple of seconds after his attempt of getting up, his vision blurred and the last thing Kakashi saw before he passed out was a flash a pink as he heard his name being called out by a familiar voice.

A/N: First of all I would like to give thanks to 7 Ace for being my beta for this chap.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review. ;)