Just Maybe - She likes him, he likes her, but they don't know their feelings are mutual. Maybe, just maybe everything will work out. If not at least they'll always have tonight.

Written in 28 – 08 - 2006

Chapter I

The sound of the alarm clock echoed trough the house. After almost two minutes of hearing the hellish sound, the sleeping pink-haired girl finally got up to shut the alarm. It used to be near the bed, but after lots of money spent on new alarm clocks every single day, she finally decided to put it at the other end of the room. That way she wouldn't just smash it and turn back to sleep. After moving from her parents' house to her new apartment she had to be extra careful not to let that happen. Now that she lived alone she had no one to wake her up before she was late. It was bad enough having one team member with that bad habit.

Running her fingers trough her now waist-length pink locks, 19 years old Haruno Sakura headed towards the bathroom cursing loudly after almost tripping in something that lied on the floor. She promised herself that she would never again stay up late helping her sensei Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, doing paperwork. The jounin young girl was still the Hokage's apprentice, but due to her frequent missions with Team 7 the two women didn't see each other often other than during mission briefings or reports, so Sakura would go see her sensei with the excuse of helping her with paperwork. But those little reunions always ended up with both of them drinking too much Sake, talking and gambling. The next day Sakura always said she would never do the same again, but she always did. She hated the bad habits she picked from her sensei but she loved the older lady like a mother and couldn't keep away from her.

Taking a quick shower the pink-haired kunoichi headed for the bridge to meet her team. Sure, Kakashi-sensei was always late, but that was one bad habit she refused to pick up. The thought of Team 7 brought a smile to her face. Many things had changed during the last few years.

Hatake Kakashi was the same old, forever late, porn reading shinobi. Seriously the guy never changes!

After giggling at the thought of the copy ninja she was a bit saddened to remember the other team members.

Uzumaki Naruto was waiting for his ANBU exam results. No doubt he would pass with flying colors thus leaving Team 7 another member short. He was one step closer to fulfill his dream of becoming the next Hokage. Also, his love life was going pretty well since he had proposed to Hyuuga Hinata just the week before. Of course, the shy girl accepted immediately (and yes, she fainted soon after).

As for Sakura, she was now a jounin medic-nin (the second best in Konohagakure, surpassed only by the Sannin herself) working in the hospital when she wasn't on missions. Although she is not in ANBU she often goes in ANBU missions as a medic-nin. Truthfully she could easily join the elite group, but she always said she's happy just healing people and spending time with her team.

Which leads to the last team member: Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke was killed during the war against Sound. In the end, he never got the revenge he so desperately craved for because he died at the hands of the one who once had been his best friend before getting the chance of fighting his arch-enemy, brother and only remaining family member: Uchiha Itachi. During the final battle between Konohagakure and Otogakure, Tsunade and Jiraiya's forces combined destroyed Orochimaru leaving Team 7 to deal with the Uchiha prodigy. Kakashi was very tired after defeating Kabuto and Sakura was drained from healing her comrades and also from some fighting of her own so, in the end, Sasuke easily knocked Kakashi out, leaving Sakura to take care of the copy ninja while Naruto fought Sasuke. Sakura could never forget the moment Naruto's final attack Rasengan took away the life of the one she loved. In her arms, her sensei was also fighting for his life. In a suicidal attempt to save him Sakura almost lost her life giving him all of her Chakra.

Fortunately, Naruto managed to get both of them to the hospital in time.

Continuing her path to the bridge where she would meet her team Sakura couldn't help the sad look that crossed her face. Thinking about the young prodigy always made her sad. Not that she still had feelings for him, far from that. In fact, the young kunoichi had started to develop feelings for her ex-sensei Hatake Kakashi. During the fight against Sasuke, having Kakashi almost losing his life in her arms made her realize that she liked him more than was appropriated. She knew it could never be. The perverted ninja would always see her as the 12 years old love sick girl who would follow the Uchiha survivor everywhere.

Not wanting to go trough with the pain of loving someone who would never love her back again, the girl tried to go out with other boys and even had a one-year relationship with Konohagakure's other prodigy: Hyuuga Neji. Who would have thought? After all the times she healed him in the hospital and the time she spent with him when he kept an eye on Hinata and Naruto on their dates (the couple invited Sakura to join them so Neji wouldn't be alone and also to distract him from his over-protectiveness), the coffee-haired boy and the young blossom started going out. They even lived together for a few months before breaking up. Sakura liked Neji a lot, she really did, but she could never forget the copy ninja. Neji knew of this, of course, but tried his best to make her love him. When he figured that it would never happen they broke up and he ended up going on a diplomatic mission to Sunagakure. Now he spent most of his time there working with the KazeKage, Sabaku no Gaara.

She missed Neji. She thought about visiting him, maybe even drag Shikamaru with her. He would surely like to see his girlfriend Temari. In fact, they both would do anything to escape hearing a very pregnant Ino talking about or, mostly, complaining about her patient husband Chouji. Even Lee, as sweet and loving as he was, couldn't stand to hear her for more than a couple of minutes, but to his distress, his girlfriend TenTen would always drag him with her every time she visited her friend.

Life was good in Konohagakure. Everyone had someone. Everyone except her… The one she loved the most didn't even look at her as a woman, but rather as a child.

Sakura's thoughts were interrupted when she arrived at the bridge and found Naruto already waiting. Pushing her thoughts aside she smiled and greeted him hoping he hadn't noticed her depressed looks.

"Ohayo Naruto."

"Ohayo… mou Sakura-chan what's with the sad face?"

'Crap, he noticed.' Inner Sakura thought.

"Dunno what you're talking about…"

"Okay… I'll pretend I believe you. You know you can always talk to me, ne?"

"I know, thanks Naruto. It's nothing really, I was just thinking. So… did you set the date for your marriage or are you still thinking?"

And like that the two of them spent three hours talking and waiting for their ever late sensei who, as usual, appeared with his familiar "poof".

"Yo."

" YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura and Naruto shouted. Some things really never change…

"Well you see, I was coming to meet you guys when a beautiful mermaid appeared and asked me to help her return to the sea. I am a gentleman who can't resist a damsel in distress so I helped her, but when I got there her father was pissed and thought-…"

"Oh please spare us sensei! Your excuses are getting worse every day!" Sakura said while everyone sweat dropped anime style.

"Okay guys, let's get serious. No mission today so we're gonna do what we always do for training."

"Translation: while Sakura-chan and I work our asses out training, you go read that perverted book of yours and giggle like a little school girl."

"I do not giggle! Oh boy, you guys were way cuter when you were younger. Good old days when you respected me and believed in me…" Sigh.

"We never believed in you sensei, that's why Naruto and I always called you a liar."

Though you couldn't really tell because of the mask they knew their sensei was smiling, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck with his right hand.

"Well, I guess so… now go to work."

Just like that he "poofed" to a nearby tree leaving Sakura and Naruto to their usual routine.

"You're going down Kitsune."

It was always like that. Sakura said she would win but in the end, neither of them did. Sakura didn't have as much stamina as Naruto and Naruto always held back for Sakura. Also, Sakura had to save Chakra to heal their wounds.

A few hours and a lot of bruises later it was time for lunch. And where did they go? Why that's right: McDonald's! Wait, that's not it…my bad. Scratch that, ahem, I meant Ichiraku. As if Naruto would eat anything that was not labeled as Ramen…

Kakashi ate in the blink of an eye and resumed his reading. After Sakura finished eating she watched Naruto while he ate his eleventh bowl. While waiting for his twelfth he started talking about all the things Team 7 had done to see their sensei's face. When Naruto resumed his lunch Sakura turned to talk to Kakashi who seemed slightly interested in their talk.

"It was really funny sensei! You should have seen Sasuke-kun's face when Naruto tried to convince him to help us and said you probably had fish lips!"

That made Kakashi almost drop his book and stare wide-eyed at Naruto who laughed soundly between bites.

"That's right Sakura-chan! But that wasn't enough so I said that your mask could also hide your horse teeth!"

Naruto and Sakura were laughing hysterically especially because Kakashi dropped his beloved book with shock. He quickly recomposed himself and picked it up, calmly stating that he had neither. Naruto kept saying he did and the Sharingan user kept saying he didn't. Sakura rubbed her temples softly with her fingertips. The discussion was starting to get on her nerves and it didn't help the fact that she was still suffering the effects of her hangover. She didn't know what possessed her to do what she did next. Maybe it was the alcohol of the previous night still affecting her judgment or perhaps it was just the explosion of years of bottling up her feelings. Deciding to shut them up she sat on the table facing Kakashi who just sat there facing her in complete shock. That was why he didn't react when she put one hand behind his neck and brought his face inches away from her own. Even Naruto was speechless.

"S-s-sakura, what are you doing?" Was all the older man could say.

"Just relax sensei, I'm not gonna take your precious mask off! I'm just gonna check who is right, you or Naruto, without you having to show us your deepest secret."

Kakashi had no idea what she meant by that and completely stiffened when he felt her fingertips gently touching his covered lips. At this point, Naruto was choking and rolling on the floor laughing, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the feeling that lingered with her touch.

"Nope, no fish lips at all. Now sensei could you please be so kind as to open your mouth so I could check your teeth?"

The copy ninja obliged never taking his gaze away from her emerald orbs that shone with lust and longing, even if she tried to hide cover it up.

"Nope, no horse teeth at all."

After a couple more moments of feeling his face trough the mask, she got up and went to check on Naruto, not so gently kicking him on the side.

"Yo Naruto, you still alive?" Naruto could only laugh. "Good! Well, Kaka-sensei seems to have a completely normal face. Now finish eating and shut the hell up."

She got back to her seat while Naruto calmed himself. Their perverted sensei was already reading his oh so familiar book. At least it looked that way, but in truth, he was just using it to hide his confusion. Neither of his companions seemed to notice the occasional glances towards a certain pink haired girl.