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It Had To Be You

Chp.1

He sat on the roof staring out over the town. His posture was relaxed, one hand supporting him the other arm settled on his raised knee. Who knows how long he had been there, watching the town slow down for the night in front of him? Even he didn't really know. Several times during his silent reverie, he had berated himself for wallowing in these damn feelings that would crop up during these periods of time when missions were lacking.

His mind had been flashing over past events; Obito, the Sasuke incident, his family (or lack there of) and whatever felt like racking his brain at the moment. He decided to stop wallowing and head for the bar. Maybe someone he knew would be there and help him get his mind onto other things. He stood, ran a hand through his silver hair and brushed himself off. He leapt off the roof to an adjoining one and began bounding from rooftop to rooftop, making his way to the usual spot.

Kakashi brushed the short curtain aside as he stepped inside the bar. It was a lot louder than he expected. Oh…it's Saturday, isn't it? The kids are gonna be here dancing… Hence the loud music. He stopped and had second thoughts about having a drink when he heard, "Oi! Kakashi! Over here!" He turned his head to see Asuma, Kurenai, Anko and Genma in a booth to his left. He lifted a hand in greeting as he sauntered his way over.

He could immediately tell that Genma swiftly on his way to being hammered. Asuma and Kurenai we more reserved when it came to partying.

Genma wrapped and arm around Kakashi's neck in a light choke hold, "So! I was thinkin' we should head over to those dancing beauties over there and work some magic, huh?"

Kakashi sighed and turned his head to look at the mass of young adults dancing together, "You're asking me to go over there and do what they're doing? " He laughed, "I thought you knew me."

Genma snorted, "God damn, you can be a buzz-kill sometimes."

Anko with a look of frustration, "I think I can fix that, Hehe." Kakashi raised and eye brow at her. She reached into her side pouch and pulled out a book with a familiar orange cover. Kakashi's eye widened and his jaw went slack.

"That's not even supposed to be out yet! How did you GET that?" he said with an uncommon amount of surprise and strain in his voice. He was looking and the long anticipated next volume of Icha Icha Special.

Anko smiled, "That's not what's really important is it? What's really important is how are YOU going to get it?"

Kakashi suddenly felt nervous, "Oh? And how am I going to get it?"

Anko's smile got a little more devious, "Beat me in a drinking contest."

Kakashi knew immediately what she was after. That was a bad habit of Anko's; trying to unravel the enigma that was Kakashi by using alcohol. Anko was definitely no lightweight when is came to drinking, even less so when it came to competition. If he was going to that lovely book in her hand, he was going to be really drunk at the end of the night. And only the five people sitting the booth knew what Kakashi was like when he got really drunk. He had left a few places trashed and more young women slightly traumatized.

Asuma, Kurenai and Genma had all stopped and were staring at the two high class ninja staring each other down next to them. They're thoughts were all along the same wavelength; Oh God, she's trying to get him drunk AGAIN.

Kakashi straightened in his seat and locked eyes with Anko, "Fine. I accept your challenge."

The three shook they're heads, Leave it his obsession with those books to give Anko her chance. Anko turned to face the bar, "Oi! Barkeep! We'll need a nice long row of vodka shots here, nice straight vodka!" She turned back to Kakashi "Okay, the rules are this, we slam them down at the same time and we keep going until someone forfeits, vomits or passes out. Who ever lasts longest wins and keeps the book, agreed?"

"Agreed."

She was really enjoying the night. This had been her first break in a long time and she was going to make sure she enjoyed it. Ino had been annoying her about letting lose and Sakura had finally given in. She was tired of being the wet blanket and here she was, in a bar, in a very short skirt, swaying her hips to music, not caring whose eyes locked onto her moving body.

Ino got her attention, "Look at you! Looks like I've got some competition." Ino winked at her.

Sakura smacked her lightly on the arm with a smile.

Kakashi stared at Anko and reached for the first shot. Anko followed suit, "Ready… START!" Kakashi downed the shot in one go. He slammed the shot glass down and noticed Anko was finished as welll. They grabbed and the next one and did the same. Kakshi didn't normally get drunk, but he really wanted that book. So he kept going.

2…3…4…5…

Kakashi's head began to swim ever so slightly. Damn this going fast. I really hope nothing goes wrong. He downed the next one. And the next. He looked at Anko. As far as he could tell she was doing just fine from the smile on her face. He frowned.

"Need to slow down, Hm?" Anko laughed.

"No. You?" She frowned, and they continued.

6…7…..7...6… wait what were we on?

Kakshi's head was more than swimming then. He could feel his muscles relaxing and he felt the drinks taking effect. He looked at Asuma and Kurenai. He saw that they had concerned looks on their faces. He found this… amusing. He snorted in laughter.

Asuma and Kurenai saw this and looked at each other. This could be bad. They nodded at each other. Asuma spoke up, "Hey guys, we're not especially interested in watching you two make fools out of yourselves, so were heading out." With that, the pair left the group to their own devices.

Sakura found the stairs that went down to the level with rest rooms. It was kind of dark, but she found her way to the right door. She had come down here to get away from the stifling heat of the dance floor, fix her make up and recover from the startling ass grope she had received a few moments before. She walked into a stall locked it, and sat down.

"Damn it… maybe I'm not made of for clubbing after all," she was still a little mad from the encounter. She was still really uncomfortable with guys touching her anywhere in the pelvis or chest region. Only invited guests, thank you very much! She sighed and looked at her clothes, Well, can't really blame the guy; I look like I was inviting it. I guess it was kind of dumb to think they would just look. GOD, why did I let Ino dress me like this? I don't look like me at all. She had decked the guy after she had hesitantly let him dance with her. He seemed nice. However, he then proceeded to grope her and say in her ear something that made her blush to an almost shade of purple.

She leaned back and sighed. I was just starting to have fun too.

A little later, Kakashi pulled the orange book from Anko's flaccid fingers and sniggered. She had passed out and Kakashi felt like he wasn't far from it himself. What was worse, though, was that his stomach was not happy with him. It had been along time since he had gotten this drunk. He stood and wobbled a little, steadying himself on the table, "Genma, make sure she gets home alright, 'kay?" He pulled out what looked like enough money to cover his share and threw it down on the table.

Kakashi slowly made his way to the door, but half way he felt the beginnings of what would surely be vomiting session. He changed course and moved through the bar towards the bathrooms as fast as his inebriated body would let him forcing his way through the crowd. He stumbled down the staisr and crashed through the first door he found. He dashed across he room to the stall and threw himself over the toilet, and pulled his mask down just as the vile stuff finally came up.

After his stomach was finally done purging itself, he sat slumped against the wall of the stall for a moment, "Uggh," Glad that's over. Some Kakashi the Great Copy Ninja I am, sitting on the floor of a dirty bar bathroom feeling sick.

He stood and made his way to the sink and washed his face off and rinsed his mouth out to get rid of the taste. He looked up at his reflection in the mirror in front of him.

Sakura had jumped when she heard the door to bathroom crash open. She heard the person run to a stall and start puking. Oh gross! I hate that sound! She sat there listening to the poor slob until it stopped. She was about to get up and offer to help them when she heard a decidedly male sounding, "Uggh." She froze. What's a guy doing in here? She heard him groan and walk towards the sinks. She heard him wash himself off, then… nothing. Why isn't he leaving? Not wanting to run into a guy on her way out of the girl's bathroom, especially a drunk guy, she waited for him to leave.

After a long drawn out silence, Sakura heard the guy say something to himself, "God damnit…" Wait… that voice sounds familiar. She thought for moment, then, very carefully and silently got down to the floor and looked under the wall of the stall to look at the man.

She could only see from his shoulders down, but he had his hands on either side of the sink leaning on it, and from what she could tell, he was just standing there. He was wearing a Shinobi uniform. Maybe I know him, she thought. Sakura craned her neck further to look at his head, too. She saw a full shock of silver hair. Kakashi-sensei? He was just standing there, staring straight ahead. What the hell?

Then she looked at his reflection. Sakura's eyes widened. Kakashi's mask was hanging around his neck… leaving his face completely uncovered. Holy crap!

Sakura took a couple moments to stare. He was good looking, but the scar and the mismatched eyes definitely added to the overall level of attractiveness, sort of the 'I-know-he-can-kill-me-so-he's-hot" sort of thing. For some reason though, she wasn't as excited about finally seeing his face as she thought she would be. However, she might have thought he looked even better if his face wasn't contorted into the angry grimace she saw now. He was giving his own reflection some sort of death glare. His brow was furrowed and his jaw clenched. Sakura had only seen this expression when he was facing down someone who had really done some evil and deserved to die.

Sakura decided to just wait for Kakashi to leave before coming out; he obviously didn't know she was there. She sat up on the toilet again and waited. She nearly jumped out of her skin a few moments later when she heard a loud crash and glass falling to floor. What the..? She scrambled to look at him again. The mirror over the sink was in pieces and tinkling to the floor. Then she heard dripping. She changed her focus and saw blood dripping to floor next to Kakashi. His hand… he punched out the mirror? His feet turned and she could see him walking to the door.

She panicked. He was hurt and her instincts took over. She wasn't even sure what she was going to say. She just burst through the door of the stall to stop him.

He jumped when someone jumped out at him from one of the stalls. He was about subdue them when he saw the pink hair. Sakura? She ran up to him and grabbed his hand. He was still very inebriated, but thankfully he had remembered to pull his mask up. Probably because his face almost felt strange without it. He looked down and saw his hand was mangled. Oh… the mirror. There was glass sticking out of his hand, and blood was dripping all over the place. He flinched as she tried to grab one of the shards; he pulled his hand away, "Don't worry 'bout it." He tried to walk away.

She grabbed him again, "Kakashi-sensei! It'll get infected if you don't do something!" She started to pull him to the door, "Here, I'll fix it for you." He followed behind her for a few moments, when they reached the stairs leading back up to the bar, he stopped.

"Where we goin'?"

"Um…" She thought for moment. He was obviously hammered, Sakura could smell it on him. She needed to make sure he got home alright, "Okay, we'll go to your place. That way you can just go to sleep after I patch you up."

Kakashi tried to think about this. Sakura…my hand…injured…SLEEP! Normally, Kakashi didn't like people coming over, but his brain was fuzzy and he was very tired. Sleep sounded good. He didn't want to walk, so he decided to use the transport jutsu.

He pulled on Sakura's hand and as her body bumped into his, she squeaked in surprise. He chuckled inwardly. Cute. They disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura had been slightly startled when she has been pulled into him, but when they reappeared outside Kakashi's apartment door; she realized why he had done it. Kakashi let go of her and started rummaging through his pockets. He found his keys, opened the door and walked in leaving the door open for her to follow.

Kakashi kicked his shoes off and went to flop down on his bed. He was lying there for a moment enjoying the softness of his blankets when Sakura came over and ruined it by pulling him upright, "Kakashi-sensei! You're getting blood everywhere!"

"Mm? Oh…"

"Here, hold your hand up here like this. Is there a first aid kit here?"

"Oh… um, yeah," He pointed to a closet on the other side of the room, "There."

"Okay, keep holding your hand up," Sakura moved to the closet and opened the sliding door. The closet was slightly disheveled, but she started rummaging through it anyway. Clothes, old volumes of Icha Icha, scrolls of various jutsus, an old pair of shoes, then she found it, "Ta-da!" She turned around and found Kakashi lying down again, "Kakashi!"

Kakashi grumbled, "What? The hand's still up." And indeed, it was. "Fine, just don't go sleep or I'll be forced to use violence on you." She climbed up onto the bed with him. He was vaguely aware of this, he took a moment to ponder the fact that he was alone with his female former student in his apartment on his bed. Hm. He pushed the thought away, "You'll have to keep me awake. I'm not sure how long I'm gonna last here."

What? "...How?"

"I dunno, talk to me."

She pinched the first piece of glass in the tweezers and pulled. His brow twitched but otherwise, he showed no response to the pain, so she kept picking the glass out from between his knuckles, "About what?"

"I dunno, you're smart."

"Well...okay. Um..." Everything I want to know about him seems to be on the taboo list. She poked him when his eye closed, "So, can I ask you about anything?"

"...Depends on what the anything is."

"Okay, well, how about your Genin team?" She said as she picked up the picture near the head of the bed.

He hesitated before answering, "...What 'bout them?"

"What were they like?" She pulled out the last piece of glass.

"They were annoying...at first. I got used to them. We worked well together in battle after a while. But..."

She continued to work on cleaning the cuts on his hand, "But?"

He shifted uncomfortably, "I messed up. It was ruined."

She looked at him. His head was turned away from her. She could see the tension that the subject was causing him so she decided not to pursue it; if he wanted to tell her, he would. So she asked, "So, what were they like? Your teammates, I mean."

He turned back to look at her. She was rubbing a cotton ball of antiseptic over a cut. He took a moment to absorb the sight. She looked... at home, like she was doing what she was supposed to. He thought that despite her volatile nature, she was always calming and nurturing when the situation called for it. He was glad that she had kept that trait over the years. However, he was also glad that she hadn't pushed him into that story, "Obito was... loud, kinda flaky. Rin...was smart, a medic, she acted like one – taking care of people all the time." Kinda like you...

She laughed softly, "Okay... Well, I'm almost done." She was wrapping bandages around the abused skin, "Still feeling sick?"

He shook his head, "Nah. Just… sleepy." He yawned beneath the mask and stretched a little.

"Oi, oi, no sleep yet," She said lightly while poking him again. She was enjoying the atmosphere between the two, relaxed and familiar. She was glad there wasn't much of awkwardness. It had been a while since she had actually talked to Kakashi, almost six months actually, and that had been because he had come in to the hospital injured after a particularly rough mission. He had stayed one night and then quickly checked out. He had always hated staying in the hospital. All the information she had been able to get out of him in the short time had been inconsequential small talk.

That's the way it had been for the past few years. After they had successfully retrieved Sasuke, Team Kakashi had been in a strange place. Sasuke had been under close ANBU watch for a few months, and then he had to deal with lots of restrictions on what kind of missions and other work he could do. Also, after having Yamato as team leader for so long, Kakashi had felt that he had sort of lost his place on the team. Adding on to that, Sakura had decided to work part time at the hospital, leaving little to no time for team missions. Team Kakashi was almost non-existent.

Sakura missed the camaraderie, the practical jokes, Kakashi reading his damn books, Naruto being way too loud at all hours of the night and so on. She was glad that she had a little piece of Team 7 with her now. This is nice; I really should make more of an effort to keep in contact with him. It's obvious he's not going to.

"Okay! All done," She closed the first aid kit. Kakashi lazily looked at her handiwork then closed his eyes. Sakura crawled off the bed and out the kit back where she found it. When she turned around she found Kakashi asleep and snoring lightly.

She sighed and went to the man, crawled up next to him and removed his forehead protector. She placed her hands on his forehead and channeled chakra to perform a technique she had learned to remedy hangovers. With Tsunade as her shishou, she had learned it early on if she wanted her teacher to be pleasant in the mornings.

Sakura then removed Kakashi's shoes, leg wraps, and kunai holster. She debated for a moment and then decided the he would probably appreciate it if she helped with the upper half too. She had dealt with drunks at the hospital before and knew that Kakashi was too out of it to object to anything right now. She grabbed him and pulled him up while she fumbled to pull his vest off. She divested him of it then grabbed his outer shirt while she leaned him against her self, his head resting on his shoulder. While she was removing it, she heard him mumble something.

"What was that?"

"…Said you smell good."

She blushed as she realized that they were now in more physical contact with each other than she they had ever been before, she was undressing him and they were on his bed. Holy crap…never thought I'd find myself in this situation. Why the hell is he smelling me?

She shook her head and rid herself of embarrassment, "Um…Thanks."

Kakashi was now in just his pants and the form fitting sleeveless shirt that continued upwards to become his mask. Sakura adjusted herself as she pulled back the covers of Kakashi's bed and laid him down. She moved off the bed and pulled the covers over him. She looked up to his masked face and perceived a content expression.

Then, she thought back to the way his face had been contorted in anger at his own reflection earlier. What about his own face could make him hate it that much? She traced a finger over his hand. Maybe he'll trust me enough to tell me someday…. She giggled. Hey, he may end up being my friend after this, that's a start.

Sakura looked at him for a couple moments more, and then bent forward over his head. "Goodnight Kakashi. Sweet dreams," She whispered then gave him a kiss on the forehead. She turned and left his apartment in search of a good night's rest.