DISCLAIMER: I WISH I OWNED NARUTO!

Kakashi Hatake had a soft spot for his sole female student. Usually one would think that either Naruto or Sasuke was his favorite student, but they'd be wrong. Truthfully, Sakura had been his favorite since the start of their 'tradition'. Sakura's parents had been killed during the ill-fated Chuunin Exams, leaving her orphaned. She had been dealing with her loss and Kakashi had found her crying on Father's Day, because her father had always taken her out for dinner for father-daughter bonding. As the (possibly remaining) sole adult male figure in her life he had offered to take her out to dinner. Since then, it had become a tradition that he buy her dinner on Father's Day (Tsunade had taken over Mother's Day which had led to a few rumors that had absolutely no basis).

Kakashi had grown to look forward to those dinners, since Tsunade made sure to schedule missions around the date. It was a nice time to catch up.

Just the two of them…alone (in a totally platonic/father-daughter way of course).

He had spent four months deciding on the perfect restaurant and made the reservations five months in advance, he had been looking forward to it since the day after the previous year's Father's Day. Nothing was going to spoil it. Not even if he had to listen to Sakura talk about (again) that medical ninja from Kumo that she'd encountered when she delivered a scroll to the Raikage from Tsunade with whom she'd struck up a pen-pal relationship with. She had mentioned him a couple times during their last Father's Day dinner.

The dinner was ruined. The food was excellent, Sakura loved it, all of his friends (and hers) avoided the restaurant; there were no invasions…

Instead a visitor from 'out of town' stopped by their table, the Raikage having sent him to deliver a scroll to Tsunade and he had asked for suggestions on where to eat. Naturally, of the entire list of where to eat he had selected the restaurant where Kakakshi and Sakura were eating.

Sakura had caught sight of him and called him over to say hello, introducing him to Kakashi (who reminded himself that he was an advisor to the Raikage and therefore it would cause political problems if he decided to kill him in the restaurant…much better to assassinate him on his way back to Kumo and pin it on Sound or missing nins). Kakashi ended up seething as he plotted the death of the 'annoyance' while he and Sakura waited for their food (since he had taken advantage of the time to converse with Sakura on recent medical breakthroughs while he waited for a table to be available, joining them temporarily as he ignored Kakashi's evil eye).

He comforted himself by reminding himself that it was just a one time thing. The male was from KUMO! It was highly unlikely that he would be in Konoha the next year. Who knew? Maybe one of Ino's blind dates for Sakura would end up winning the pinkette's heart (which wouldn't be too bad, because Kakashi could threaten them without politics coming into play).

He ended up paying for the meal (consisting of his and Sakura's food since the 'annoyance' had left to his own table shortly before their food arrived) with a cheerful manner.

The next year Gai ended up breaking into Kakashi's apartment, having also been ditched by his own female student Tenten (who had been invited to eat dinner at the Hyuuga Mansion by her fiancé Neji). Kakashi had been 'ditched' because that stupid Kumo shinobi (why wasn't he dead yet?) had stopped by Konoha to visit Sakura and take her out on a date since he was in the area. They had started dating a little under a year ago (Kakashi hoped they would break up soon, he had taken up a collection of voodoo dolls representing the hopefully temporary boyfriend).

Kakashi was not even mollified when an apologetic Sakura had suggested they reschedule for the next day.

He and Gai ended up getting really drunk.

…maybe next year…

The next year was also a failure. Sakura was in Kumo being introduced to her fiancé's PARENTS!

Kakashi got loudly drunk. And after the wedding he mourned the end of the Father's Day dinners.

Five years later Tsunade received a request from the Raikage that she restrain her shinobi and keep Kakashi Hatake from attempting to assassinate his advisor…and to not kidnap his advisor's wife and daughter on Father's Day.

Kakashi was determined not to fail with his 'granddaughter'. And if she had to fall in love, he'd rather that she marry a Konoha nin so that he could enjoy Father's Day dinners with her!

(She ended up falling in love with and marrying a Mist nin but that's another story.)