A/N: I've taken out the lyrics of Disney's"Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from this, so it's no longer a song-fic, but if you would be so kind as to listen to that song while you read, you'll get the right feeling. Thank you.

Kakashi sighed as his own bed welcomed him back from a month's absence. In the time he had been in charge of team seven, he'd had the time and opportunity to become properly acquainted with this piece of furniture. Now that he was back on normal, active duty with missions that took weeks and months he found that he was truly able to appreciate his own mattress over the bed of leaves and clover he often had while travelling on missions.

It had been a difficult mission, top secret, and not without risk. He'd gotten everybody on his team out mostly unharmed though, and that was the important thing. That it had almost cost his own life was insignificant. He had sent the fastest of them ahead with the information, with the other two following close behind to make sure there weren't any roadblocks, while he'd stayed behind to delay and kill as many as possible.

He'd taken a kunai strike to each thigh, the enemy hoping to slow him down, but they were just scratches really, the destruction of his pants the most annoying thing about those hits. A shuriken had scraped its way across his right collarbone, exposing it. That one was already nasty, and he had been careful of it even if he still had most of the use of that arm, it hurt like hellfire to use it. Then there was the hit he'd taken to the ribs. One of them had trapped his legs for long enough for another to land a very solid punch to his torso. One or two ribs might have cracked at that point, and he'd decided it was time to stop messing around, get rid of them and get the hell out himself.

He may have overused his sharingan a bit…

Yes, his bed was a welcome comfort, not to mention a lot more comfortable than the beds at the hospital were. If he were at the hospital, he'd have to put up with nurses trying to pull his mask down while they gave him a sponge bath, loud people in the hallways, and beeping machines and monitors all through the night keeping him awake. Not that he wanted to sleep there anyway, he always had nightmares when he had to sleep in the hospital.

Of course, not going to the hospital had the down side of his pain continuing, but that wasn't anything he hadn't dealt with before. He knew enough field medicine to be able to take care of himself long enough to make sure he survived. He just wouldn't be doing much else for a while.

There was a pounding on his door, then a frustrated swearing before a shower of sakura blossoms swirled up in the door of his bedroom. He didn't need to look to know who his surprised guest was, the blossoms were something of a give-away, of course, he still looked over. Since she had turned 18 and really filled out, he could never get enough of looking at Sakura.

She was scowling.

"Tsunade started training Naruto for the position of Hokage, officially, while you were away. She claims that the preparation is necessary, or he will run the village into the ground. I don't disagree, but it's also so that she can halve her own workload. He reads it all, out loud half the time, and she signs it. Shizune is taking missions again. Sasuke's body was found, along with Itachi's, about three days after you left. Now you're back, and the only person on your team with an injury that required more than a little antiseptic spray or a bandaid."

"So, how have you been, Sakura?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly when she had finished her discourse.

"Peachy. I'm to be your personal medic from now on. Any mission you're assigned to, so am I. The Gondaime would like you to stop coming home held together by little more than your own stubborn attitude. I look forward to working with you," Sakura said, finally approaching the bed and getting on with the task she had come here to do in the first place: healing Hatake Kakashi.

However harsh her tone may have been, Sakura's touch was still gentle, and her healing chakra felt warm, welcoming and comforting, even more so than his bed. This was officially another reason for him to avoid the hospital. The best med-nin and one of his favourite people personally attending to his injuries with the greatest of care and a gentle touch he knew she didn't give out as freely as her expertise in healing.

Kami but he loved this woman.

~oOo~

This was her first mission with Kakashi for a long time, and it was nearly over, they just had to get home now. Kakashi had ordered them to clear out, promising to catch up to them. Sakura had only gone with the other two members of the team for long enough to explain why she would not be following his order, but they still would be. Certain they would be fine, she had doubled back and gone to Kakashi's aid, taking out an enemy ninja along the way with a well aimed kunai to the back of his neck. That fool never even knew she was behind him.

Stopping a moment to observe from her position hidden in the foliage, Sakura frowned as she saw kunai flying at Kakashi from several directions, while he was preoccupied with the opponent in front of him. Forming a few hand-signs, Sakura put a shadow clone behind Kakashi to take those blows for him, while she whipped out a shuriken and sent it into the chest of the nearest ninja who had been throwing kunai and Kakashi.

Kakashi felt the poof of something appearing behind him, and then another of it disappearing again, followed by the sound of kunai falling harmlessly to the ground. He wanted to spare a moment to find out what had just happened, and how, but he still had the guy in front of him to deal with, as well as a few fresh kunai scrapes.

The ninja was heavy-set, but seemed to be a genjutsu user, and slow with his movements otherwise. Mostly he just looked intimidating. As long as Kakashi didn't get trapped in a genjutsu, he would be fine. Of course, the other challenge would be to strike him hard enough that the weapon got passed his defensive layers of fat and actually did something more than just cause him pain.

The chidori would do that. Mind made up, Kakashi exposed the sharingan and formed the seals. A little extreme perhaps, but it would get the job done quickly. He plunged the ball of lighting into the genjutsu user's chest, ripping the man apart.

More kunai and shuriken flew down at him, which he sidestepped, throwing a couple of his own in the direction they had come from. These weren't particularly dangerous ninja, just very numerous, and numbers were sometimes enough to overcome legendary skill, particularly if the attack was co-ordinated enough. Kakashi left his sharingan exposed as he searched for the enemy in the trees. Picking out three, he cast a genjutsu of his own while he checked his supply of weapons. Unfortunately, he failed to notice the kunai flying towards him as he did so.

Sakura was systematically moving silently from one tree to the next, removing any ninja found there as quickly as she could, keeping an eye on Kakashi as she did so. He was the reason she was there after all. She saw him throw a couple of kunai in the direction of a tree a few over from her, before casting a genjutsu in the direction of some more trees she hadn't gotten to yet.

She spotted another ninja and moved in, but wasn't quick enough to kill him before he threw that kunai at the distracted Kakashi. Down to her chakra reserved exclusively for healing, Sakura jumped down from her position and ran for Kakashi. She did not use that chakra for fighting, but she would prefer to not need to heal all the same.

He turned abruptly at the sound of someone landing and running toward him. "Sakura!" Kakashi exclaimed, surprised, just as the kunai hit his back at about waist height. Better than it hitting his stomach at least, which it would have done if he hadn't turned.

"Come on," she said, hauling him over her shoulder in a fireman's lift before she took off into the trees once more.

"You're damn lucky I didn't listen to you Kakashi," she informed him as they set down for the night in an inn. She was paying, for now. She'd be reimbursed for mission expenses when she got back to the village.

"This isn't anything big," he answered, lying on his stomach on the futon while Sakura tended his injuries.

"By good luck rather than good management on your part," Sakura said sharply, withdrawing her hand from the wound. "You're lucky it missed your kidney, and everything else important."

"Thank you Sakura," Kakashi said, smiling gratefully beneath his mask. "You're so good to me," he added, reaching up to cup her cheek tenderly.

The pink haired kunoichi blushed to match her hair. He loved it when she did that, it made him want to peel off her clothes and see how much of her skin could be made to match her hair.

~oOo~

"Hey Kakashi?" Sakura called softly. He'd walked her home after they gave their mission report to Tsunade and Naruto – who were getting disturbingly good at working in tandem – and had just waved to Sakura before he turned to continue down the street, without so much as a 'see you later'.

"Yes?" he asked over his shoulder, stopped short for the moment.

"Could you come in for a moment?" she asked, holding the door open for him.

Kakashi shrugged and returned to her doorstep. "Is something the matter?"

Sakura shook her head, just ushering him inside. Closing her front door, she headed for the kitchen and made tea for them, setting it down on the kitchen table once it was ready.

"Kakashi, do you recall the way I used to be over Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

He nodded.

"Well, I don't feel that way about you."

"I never thought you did. Beautiful young women aren't usually in the habit of falling for their ex-sensei," he said, keeping up the cool façade even though her blunt words hurt like the kunai in his back had hurt the other day. Sitting at the kitchen table, he cradled his cup of tea in his hands for a moment before drinking it through his mask.

"You misunderstand. What I felt for Sasuke was an obsession, stalker-like and unhealthy. That was not love," Sakura said. She took a scalding draught of her tea before rising from the table again and moving around to stand as close to Kakashi as she could. "I am fairly sure, however, that what I feel for you," she continued. "Is love. The proper, healthy kind."

Kakashi reached up to cup Sakura's cheek in his hand.

"You've grown up so much Sakura," he said, admiration tingeing his voice. "Thank you for telling me this, it makes me feel better about having been in love with you for the past few years."

Sakura smiled and leant in to kiss his masked lips, before pulling up short.

"Years?" she asked.

Kakashi nodded seriously.

"We wasted a lot of time then," she said.

He smiled, and pulled down his mask to claim her lips, rather than letting their first kiss have that barrier between them.