Sakura stood in the kitchen staring at the batch of cupcakes she had tried to make when she heard the door unlock and open. She bent back to spot a sliver of silver hair appear in the frame, and a familiar slouching shinobi followed. "Kakashi," she called, her mouth twisting in a confused frown. "Tell me what I did wrong. They're all.. shrunken and hard."
However, she noticed Kakashi's attention weren't on her poorly baked goods. He held a box in his hands as he walked in. "Tell me you didn't buy that many novels," she mumbled under her breath as she left her cupcakes for another conversation and strolled into the living room where he currently stood, his eyes intent on the box.
"Yo," he said when he finally looked up, a cheerful expression on his face. He strode forward and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Look at what I bought, Sakura."
His thick fingers peeled back the box flaps and he pulled out something cased in styrofoam inside. Chunks of styrofoam fell to the floor and in his hands was a strange black box, which he turned over to show her.
"What is that?"
Kakashi seemed giddy. "It's called a 'console.'" His hand disappeared into the box and came out with a bunch of wires and a device about as big as her hand attached to one of the wires, which looked like nonsense to Sakura. "It's for playing games. 'Video games.'" He approached their television, squatted, and started poking around.
Her eyebrows furrowed. "Just don't electrocute yourself trying to figure it out," she said before turning to resume her task of solving her cupcake problem. But before she could, she heard an "Aha!" from Kakashi and the sound of upbeat music coming from the TV. He plopped down on the floor in front of the TV and turned his head to smile at her through his mask.
"Sakura, come play 'Ninja Adventures' with me," he pleaded.
"'Ninja Adventures?'" She walked back over to him and looked at the screen. A little 8-bit ninja in black was hopping from roof top to roof top as Kakashi waggled a stick back and forth on the controller. Suddenly another ninja, this time in red, appeared, and Kakashi started pushing buttons frantically trying to fight his opponent.
"I think it does more the harder you press the buttons," he said.
Sakura grinned and sat down on his lap, and he pulled a second controller up and handed it to her. She looked at the controls quizzically and started pressing random buttons, and to her surprise, a blue ninja appeared on screen, and started moving in response to her actions. "Look, that's you!" Kakashi exclaimed, excitedly bouncing around her on the screen.
He rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his lanky arms around her before they set off on a team mission in the jungle. For the next hour, there was a lot of clacking of the controller buttons as she and Kakashi set off on story mode. Once or twice of them would throw their arms up in the air as they succeeded in ninja objectives, and though the game was nothing like real life ninja adventures, it was pretty fun.
Then the screen prompted a player battle between the two. Sakura stared for a moment. "Wait, what now?"
Kakashi tilted his head. "Are we supposed to fight each other?" he asked. Then a wicked grin tugged at his lips. "I think we both know who will win this one."
Sakura laughed it off, but inner-Sakura readily accepted the challenge. The two started throwing virtual attacks at each other, dodging and jumping back and forth. It appeared that Kakashi would win the round for a few minutes, and he was smug and ready to brag about his victory. Then Sakura tilted the controller in her hands and started furiously punching buttons and Kakashi watched, with shock, as Sakura pulled off a one-hit K.O. on his little virtual ninja.
"I WON!" She shouted, turning to grin at Kakashi. "In your face!"
He grumbled, chalking it up to beginner's luck. Round two started, and he was certain that this time, he would emerge as the victor.
Two minutes later Kakashi's jaw was on the floor and Sakura punched his ninja to oblivion. She squealed and threw her arms in the air, proud to own bragging rights over winning two matches with Kakashi. "ROUND THREE!"
Kakashi laughed nervously and then planted his lips on the back of her neck, wondering if he was really going to turn to this to get her away from the game (and save his dignity). One of his hands rested on her flat stomach, pulling her closer to him. "Let's do something else, for now…" he whispered in her ear, nibbling on her earlobe.
He was even more surprised when with one swift hand Sakura pushed him back. "No way! I'm going to kick your ass," she said, grinning at his obvious attempt to distract her. "Now come on!"
Kakashi stared at her and then sighed.
He'd made a monster.
