Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters contained therein, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto who is kind enough to let fans write fiction. I make no profit from this nor do I intend to.

A/N: Happy White Day!

Unbeta'd. I think this is something I cut from Simple Things very early on. I might have been saving it to be posted once ST was complete as part of a collection of scraps that didn't make it into ST. Maybe. I've since gone in added to it significantly and changed the direction so it no longer fits neatly into the world of ST, possibly that's for the best.

Just a Cold

Leisurely she made her way to his apartment, feeling just a little bit silly. He had been behaving himself so well that she wasn't particularly concerned. Since a recent near fatal incident with poison he had started coming to her of his own volition when he needed help. Though, just because he hadn't stopped by upon returning to the village after a mission, it didn't mean he did not need some sort of medical assistance; rather he most likely just didn't need immediate assistance. But, because neither she nor anyone else she had spoken to had seen him since he had returned to the village from his last mission, she had decided to stop by his apartment on her way home from the hospital – just to make sure.

Upon reaching his door she knocked as per usual – though by now she had a key and could enter any time she liked. After breaking down his door one too many times he had been forced by his apartment manager to ensure that the pink haired medic could enter without causing any major property damage. After a few moments of silence she tried again feeling a bit of the old panic return and clutch at her stomach. When she received no response to her second knock she hesitated for only a moment longer before pulling out her key to unlock and open his door.

Now that she was actually inside his living space, Sakura could sense his presence but, only just barely. Quickly she made her way through the living area and into his kitchen, the likeliest place for him to be if he was just ignoring her. Not finding him there she paused, feeling very unsure of herself. She could tell he was home, but if he wasn't in the living room or kitchen there were only two places left for him to be and she wasn't too sure she wanted to interrupt him in either – especially if he was fully healthy, in no need of her services and not alone. A real fear of hers since she'd recently learned that Kakashi had a far more active love life than she'd ever guessed. In fact, unbeknownst to her, he was considered ridiculously popular by many of the local ladies. Sakura wasn't certain if he'd taken a break while leading their team or if he's just been that adept at hiding it from them or what since she'd never once suspected. Regardless, she wanted nothing to do with interrupting him if he happened to be entertaining a lady friend.

Steeling herself she cautiously made her way down the hall, calling his name. "Kakashi? Are you here?" Briefly she paused by the bathroom, the door was open and the room empty, before continuing on down the hall to his bedroom. Again she hesitated, lingering outside the closed bedroom door, feeling very much unsure of herself. In the past, when she'd had to break in to treat him after a mission, he'd always left his bedroom door open. The fact that it was now closed was mildly troubling. She could hear nothing and sense no one aside from her former sensei in the room – but, that didn't necessarily amount to much when shinobi were involved.

Sakura continued to lurk outside his bedroom door. The kunoichi could tell he was inside, but really didn't want to interrupt anything. Despite her best efforts to avoid hearing about her former sensei's love life, she'd still managed to hear more than enough to make her pause before entering his bedroom without first ascertaining that he didn't have company. However, as the seconds ticked by, she began to feel more uneasy. What if he did indeed need her services? Fear of him actually needing her finally overrode her concern of possibly barging in on him at an unfortunate time. Cautiously she knocked – hoping he would understand if she was interrupting something. Upon receiving no response she tried again a little louder. "Kakashi? Are you there?"

Again, he failed to respond to her careful knock and inquiry. Gathering her courage she slowly opened the door with her eyes trained on the floor in front of her. "Kakashi? No one has seen you for a couple days… and, um, I knew you were back so… I-I was starting to worry…"

After waiting a moment for a possibly angry response, and receiving none, she stepped into his room with her gaze still trained to the floor. Her eyes widened when she realized that from what she could see of the floor it was a total mess, very much unlike his usual neatness. The green eyed woman was unable to hide her gasp of surprise as she slowly raised her eyes from the clothing covered floor. Sakura found him in his bed – shirtless at the very least, from what she could see anyway, and to her total shock maskless, though one of his hands was splayed across the lower portion of his face effectively hiding it from her curious gaze. He was, to all appearances, fast asleep.

Slowly her presence seemed to register with him as he gradually roused himself from his slumber. Feeling torn she turned from him to give her former sensei his privacy.

"Sakura?" he called hoarsely. "What're you doing here?" confusion clearly present in his voice. He'd not heard her enter his apartment, never mind his room. Then again, in his current state, he was surprised that he'd managed to sense her presence at all.

She heard his sheets rustle as he shifted himself, presumably into a more decent and or comfortable position. And, of course, she figured it would go without saying, as he donned his trademark mask.

As embarrassed as she was, she still felt annoyed enough to scold him about his holing up in his apartment while sick instead of seeking help. "Kakashi! You absolutely ridiculous man! You're clearly sick! Why didn't you stop by or, at the very least, send for me?!" She felt sorely tempted to turn and smack the man upside his head for his idiocy, but respected his privacy more and kept herself from turning to face the stubborn shinobi.

"It's just a cold Sakura," he croaked, faintly surprised that she had averted her eyes from him after spending so many years trying to sneak a peek. He was torn for a moment over whether or not he wanted to don his mask or failing that, something else handy to cover his face. Stiffly Kakashi shifted himself again, trying to remember what he had done with his mask. His memories of the past few days were hazy to say the least – he couldn't even remember if he'd eaten anything. If he had, his mask might not even be in his bedroom.

Of course, she would happen to stop by when he was down to his last mask too. In his line of work he had a tendency to go through more shirts with attached masks than he could ever seem to manage to keep up with. Maybe he should have listened when Guy suggested he start buying in bulk. Or, at the very least, keep a few spare masks (amputated from unsalvageable shirts) stashed around his apartment for situations just like this one.

Suddenly realizing that his mind had wandered in his weakened state he determinedly made more of an effort to focus on the issue at hand. After another few moments of searching the area immediately around his bed and trying to force his brain into action or at the very least into retrieving some sort of memory of what he'd done with his mask, he gave up. Being entirely focused on his mask, or rather lack thereof, the thought that he could at the very least don a shirt didn't particularly register in his less than clear minded state. "You can turn around if you like Sakura," some of the raspiness smoothing out of his voice as he spoke. Though it was still clear by his voice alone that he was definitely under the weather.

She turned back around to face him and her eyes widened. He was still shirtless but now sitting up in the bed, with the sheets pooled around his hips, leaving her to silently question if he was wearing any clothing at all, because, most surprising of all, he was also without his mask. "K-Ka-Kakashi… your mask…"

He chuckled at her response, his mind starting to finally function again, though having to pause and cough before he could continue. "It's long past time that I showed you my face. Guess I just didn't want to spoil the fun of it…" he shrugged, noticing that the action momentarily drew Sakura's eyes away from his face to watch the gesture play out over his bare shoulders and chest. Hastily, he had to suppress a chuckle at her reaction, somewhat surprised by her momentary distraction.

Sakura felt her cheeks heat as she realized what she'd done and shook her head slightly to clear the stray inappropriate thought brought to the surface by the silver haired man's simple gesture before returning her gaze to her former sensei's face unabashedly. It was quite honestly and unexpectedly, a regular, normal face. Nothing, she thought, to warrant the amount of attention his face was given by the gossiping women in the public baths. Though, now without any obstructions blocking his face from view, he suddenly looked quite young, much closer to his actual age than he usually did while wearing his mask.

After a few moments he smiled at her blatant staring, clearly amused with her reaction, and she felt her heart skip a beat. Hastily Sakura revised her opinion. His smile seemed to transform his face entirely into something she thought of as quite handsome. She no longer had to wonder about her former sensei's apparently legendary love life – she could see how he could be devastating amongst the ladies with a smile like that attached to the rest of him. Kakashi was nothing if not an elite jonin in peak physical condition if the eyeful she was currently getting was of any indication of the rest of him. And, she hated to admit it, she knew very well that he could be nothing less as she had had to treat wounds on the lower half of him in the past as well. She'd just never had the opportunity to so much of him all at once before. Unable to prevent her reaction, she felt her cheeks heat a little more, and he laughed for a moment at her slight embarrassment before having to stop to cough.

Finally Sakura was able to pull herself together to ask the one question she couldn't quite figure. "Why?"

Kakashi chuckled again at her bewilderment, pleased that the action didn't immediately trigger another cough and that his mind was finally working properly, more or less. "Well now that you've seen my face I don't have to worry about keeping it covered when you're around…" he paused as if in thought, a mischievous glint entering his eye. "You can even feed me when I'm not feeling too well… Like, now, for instance?" he asked hopefully, not exactly expecting her to comply with his whimsical request but figuring it was worth a try. After all, he genuinely could not remember the last time he'd eaten or if he even had food in the apartment. His memories of returning to the village were hazy at best and he couldn't say one way or the other if he'd even stopped at the store before crashing at his apartment.

She stared at him dumbfounded for a few moments before recovering from his cheek. The medic realized that he might be unintentionally offering up an opportunity the likes of which she'd never see again. Sakura crossed her arms across her chest, keeping a calculating smile to herself. "If and only if you promise to be a cooperative patient for once… you'll have to do everything I ask, without question or protest. And, you're sick for as long as I say you are – no weaseling out early this time." She raised an eyebrow in challenge. She couldn't imagine her former sensei agreeing to such stipulations. He was nothing if not a textbook case of the most troublesome sort of patient – the ever unwilling one.

Silently he frowned and wondered what she could possibly mean. After a moment's thought, his brain still contained lingering shreds of fog, he decided it probably didn't matter and he shrugged again, absently noticing that the gesture seemed to have almost as much impact as the first time he'd used it. "Sounds good to me…" he paused in thought for a moment before hastily adding, "I'll cooperate with any medical requests you may make of me," he stipulated, in case she was thinking that she'd get him to so something ridiculous in public to get back at him for some slight, either real or imagined. He was sure if he thought about it long enough he could come up with any number of things he'd done to annoy the pink haired woman in the past couple months alone. He'd been finding it far too tempting to tease her at every given opportunity. An issue he was trying not to examine too closely.

Her eyes widened in disbelief – she'd not expected him to agree, or to use such a gesture while shirtless again. At the very least, she'd expected some sort of resistance from the stubborn older man. And, on second thought, considering the way he'd been behaving, she shouldn't be so surprised that he'd choose to tease her if the opportunity presented itself. Still, it was fairly surprising for him to agree. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion though she was unable to find fault with his response.

He grinned at her reaction and decided to push his luck. "So, what's for lunch then?" he asked, belatedly remembering that she was a decent cook and this might work out better for him than he'd first thought.

Getting over her initial shock, Sakura allowed the smile she'd been hiding to slowly spread across her face. Kakashi involuntarily flinched knowing that particular smile.

He allowed his smile, which he was fairly certain had been the cinching factor in getting the medic to agree to his unusual request, to slide from his face, only to be replaced with a slight puzzled frown.

"Slow down there Kakashi, first things first. I'd like to examine you to make sure that all you have is a cold." Her grin widened, "And, then there is a little matter of catching you up on all of the tests and inoculations that you've been putting off…" She paused for a moment to frown thoughtfully at her former sensei. "Hmm, I'm sure there are probably some other things that you've avoided too – a man of your age, and of course, profession, should be having regular check-ups. I wonder just how many of those you've ducked out on over the past few years?" She chuckled as she could imagine a few that he'd most likely thought he'd managed to avoid. The medic watched as his eyes widened in surprise which slowly turned to horror as she spoke, his reaction alone validating her guess. "When we're through here this afternoon I'll have to go pull your file to see what you've missed." Sakura paused again to wave a finger at him warningly before continuing, "And, remember, you're sick as long as I say you are. This will conveniently be as long as it takes for you to recover from your cold and, get caught up on all your missed medical visits."

He sat for a moment in shock. He could think of quite a few medical appointments, tests, inoculations, etc. he'd managed to avoid over the years and was not pleased at the thought that he'd just been cornered into cooperating. Never mind the fact that there were a few that he'd definitely rather were not administered by his, admittedly attractive, former student. Those just had 'bad idea' and 'can't end well' written all over them.

"Now, now, Sakura…" he started, his eyes still wide, though now in panic rather than horror. "Don't you think that there might be a few things that…" he trailed off uncertain how to complete the thought without insulting the pink haired woman's medical expertise. Or, let on that he didn't think he could handle her handling him in the somewhat intimate manner necessary for some of those missed medical appointments.

There was a reason he'd skipped out on some of those appointments. The majority of them had been scheduled with Sakura and he'd thought it best to avoid a potentially problematic situation if his self-control were to slip while in the middle of an exam. Sakura had, after all, grown into a very desirable woman – something he'd been forced to acknowledge a few months previous when she returned from an undercover mission still wearing her undercover persona. Only the swift actions of his lecherous companion at the time had prevented him from making an embarrassing mistake – Genma had acted faster than Kakashi. And, therefore, he had been the one to make the discovery when she knocked him into the closest wall to show her non-appreciation of his opening line. Though, it's likely that the line itself wasn't what had elicited a physical response from the kunoichi, it was probably the physical aspect of the interaction to which she had objected so strongly. An amateur mistake, one Kakashi would never have made… quickly he had to shove those thoughts from his mind to focus on the crisis at hand.

Catching on to what Kakashi was likely thinking, though not necessarily the correct reasoning behind it, Sakura laughed and decided to put him out of his misery. "Don't worry Kakashi, I'll not be asking you to turn your head and cough unless you'll not promise to do the same for one of the doctors on staff at the hospital once you're feeling well." She paused as if in thought, "Well, I suppose, unless you want me to?" she couldn't help but add, certain that he wanted nothing of the kind.

Surprised with himself, Kakahsi felt a faint flush rise to his cheeks, which he hurriedly tried to control. Hastily he shook his head, trying not to let Sakura's sudden playfulness plant any ideas in his fertile Icha Icha addicted mind.

Sakura laughed at what she imagined he was thinking. "So, are you going to let me do a scan now?" she asked, hoping to defuse the whole situation and get things back on track, slightly unsure as to how she'd let things go so far in the first place. Absently, she had to chalk it up to the fact that Kakashi's usual behavior combined with his distracting maskless state.

The older man only sighed, as he resigned himself to the situation, he should have known that he'd not get off so easily. And, if he were to be honest, she had not made an unreasonable request, rather she'd agreed to his. He slowly exhaled and nodded his assent, he knew defeat when he felt it and he knew that her little power play had really only been in his own best interest.

At his nod, Sakura approached him slowly, suddenly hesitant, causing Kakashi to wonder for a moment. Abruptly, he realized what may be giving her a moment's pause. He found it incredibly amusing considering how she had just been toying with him. Clearly, she'd been bluffing about at least some of it after all. A larger part of him had to breathe a sigh of relief – he figured things would probably be best if they were able to maintain the status quo. Though, he hated to admit it, then again, maybe not… she certainly seemed open to his teasing, leaving the very real possibility that she might be open to more than just teasing.

Barely able to keep himself from laughing he grinned at her. "I promise Sakura, I am wearing pants."

The medic felt her cheeks, which had only just finally cooled down; once again turn crimson at his comment. Observing this, he gave in to his urge to vent his amusement, the laugh cutting off after a moment as it trigged a coughing fit.

When he was able to get his coughing under control he continued. "What, now that you've seen my face you think you've seen more than enough of me? Not ready to see any more?" he bantered knowing it would only embarrass her further and, he was honestly unable to stop himself from teasing the younger woman – she was making it too much fun for him to want to stop. Especially since she'd done the same to him only minutes before.

"Ha ha ha, very funny Kakashi. Don't you think I've had enough surprises today?" she asked flatly, showing how unamused she was with his statement, the blush still refusing to disperse from her face. And, kicking herself for realizing that Kakashi had managed to stealthily call her bluff in regard to some of the more intimate exams he would likely require and her ability to be properly medically detached to perform them herself.

He quirked an eyebrow mischievously and her heart skipped another beat as she wondered what he could be planning. He'd been especially playful with her for the past few months and at this point she couldn't put anything past him. Sakura hesitated again for a moment but managed to pull herself together before gingerly laying her hand across his forehead. Hastily she pulled it away as though he had burned her.

"You're hot Kakashi!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Aw, come now Sakura, you always suspected I was hot, didn't you?" he felt his grin widen as her cheeks turned an even brighter shade of red – entertaining him to no end. Decision made, she'd opened this particular door all on her own, far be it for him not to walk on through – might as well see where it took him. She was, after all, a very attractive kunoichi and hadn't been his student for years.

"You know that's not what I meant!" the embarrassed kunoichi exclaimed with faint annoyance, realizing on some level that her relationship with her former sensei had just changed on some fundamental level and she was uncertain how she should feel about it.

He pouted, which had a devastating effect on her with his newly revealed features. "What, you don't think I'm attractive? I'm hurt." Try as he might, he couldn't quite keep the note of amusement from his voice.

It was all almost too much for her. "Kakashi…" she growled with a note of warning in her voice – her cheeks still blazing.

"Okay, okay I'll stop now," he held his hands up in defeat – still silently laughing to himself. Getting caught up on all his missed medical appointments, tests and vaccinations or not, he was going to enjoy this.

She eyed him for a moment, trying to judge if he really truly was done teasing her, before finally laying her hand on his forehead again, this time not pulling away upon feeling his almost dangerously high fever.

"Oh geeze Kakashi," the concerned medic groaned after a few minutes of concentration spent scanning the older man, "You've definitely got one nasty cold." She envisioned having to invest far more time and effort into getting her former sensei healthy again than she'd initially thought and, she was uncertain how she felt about it considering how he'd been behaving. If she weren't careful, she could almost think that he was flirting with her. "How are you awake and teasing me?"

He shrugged and smiled, still enjoying his medic's response to both the expression and the gesture. If she was going to keep reacting as she was now, being sick was suddenly something he was going to enjoy far more than he'd ever thought possible. Unable to prevent it, he smirked, "Proper motivation, I guess."