Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters contained therein, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto who is kind enough to let fans write fiction. I make no profit from this nor do I intend to.
A/N: This is a refugee from the KakaSaku Fanfiction Archive that somehow didn't get reposted to Ff.n. Like all the rest, it was most likely written sometime during 2008 or 2009. Many thanks to my two wonderful betas, La Moonlight Lily and WitchesRayne! I appreciate all your help! Especially with KakaSaku month just around the corner!
In the Dog House
With an almost inaudible sigh, he slid into the partially occupied booth and signaled the server to bring his usual.
"Kakashi? What are you doing here on a Friday night?" the senbon-wielding man already seated at the booth asked with a knowing smirk. "Isn't Friday 'date night' for you and your little medic?"
The silver-haired jonin chose to ignore his friend and immerse himself in the pages of one of his trusty little orange books instead, occasionally taking lightning fast sips of his sake.
"Well, looks like there's some trouble in paradise…" Genma chuckled. "Bound to happen eventually, I suppose." He shot Kakashi a calculating glance. "I never could figure out what she saw in you anyway…" He was interrupted by the arrival of another of their occasional drinking companions.
"Kakashi! What the hell did you do?!" the younger blond-haired man exclaimed as he seated himself at the booth, their server following with his usual drink. "Sakura's pissed."
Genma laughed. "Oh, so it's worse than I had thought! She's thrown you out, hasn't she?"
Sighing, Kakashi carefully marked his page and replaced his trusty little orange book. "I honestly have no idea why Sakura's so upset."
Naruto and Genma exchanged glances and laughed as another usual drinking buddy slipped into the booth.
"What's so funny?" the dark-haired dango-addicted woman asked as she slid a little closer than necessary to Genma.
"Kakashi's in the dog house," Genma explained, trying discretely to edge away from the occasionally frightening Anko.
She laughed. "Ah, yes. Pinky was well and truly ticked when I saw her at the baths… didn't think she would actually toss your ass out though, Kakashi. My condolences." Anko signaled to their server for her usual drink, still grinning at the Copy Ninja's predicament. "Probably about time though. A young thing like her is wasted on the likes of you. Should be with someone her own age." She grinned, knowing that they knew she wasn't entirely serious in her opinion.
Kakashi glared at her, knowing she was mostly kidding, but still annoyed with her anyway.
"So what did he do?" Naruto asked eagerly, ignoring Anko's less than tactful opinion on Kakashi's relationship with Sakura, and hoping the kunoichi may have an insight into the pink-haired medic's mind.
Anko shook her head. "Ask him." She pointed at the almost imperceptibly frustrated man, trying hard not to laugh again. She knew very well that he hadn't the slightest clue what he had done wrong and she wasn't about to tell him, at least not quite so quickly.
The silver-haired man shook his head at the unwanted attention. "I really have no idea…" He narrowed his eye and shifted his attention to the dark-haired woman. "But you seem to know."
She grinned smugly. "'Course I do. Not only was your kunoichi mad as hell, but she was quite vocal about it too."
"Aw man Kakashi, you must have done something really bad this time! If she was talking about it at the baths…" Naruto eyed his former sensei speculatively. "Did you bleed all over her new carpeting again?"
Anko choked on her drink as she tried to laugh and swallow at the same time, knowing Naruto was about as far from the truth as he could get.
Glaring at the dark-haired woman, Kakashi shook his head in a negative. "No, she had me pull up all the carpeting and replace it with hardwood the last time I made that mistake…"
Genma grinned. "I know, it's got to be the dogs! Did you let your ninken in the apartment the last time she went away?"
The silver-haired man thought for a moment, "Just Pakkun, and he's allowed…"
"What about an anniversary or special date?" Genma tried, doing his best to ignore the smug woman sitting next to him. "Women have tons of those…"
Kakashi scratched his head. "Don't think so. She's usually pretty good about dropping some hints before the fact..."
Anko snorted, unable to keep herself from laughing. "Not even close."
The three stumped shinobi glared at her in hopes that she may tell them. After a few minutes, they gave it up for lost and went back to their drinking.
After a couple of moments, Naruto spoke up, "Just how long has she been mad at you anyway?"
"Not long… Though she could have been secretly fuming for all I know…" He shot Anko a questioning glance. "When did you run into Sakura again?"
She sighed. "This afternoon at the baths…"
Kakashi scratched his head. "This afternoon, eh?" He paused in thought and Anko clamped her mouth shut, annoyed with herself for giving him a clue. "I helped Kurenai this morning with a couple chores around her apartment, things that can be hard to do alone or with a little one around…"
"Oooo, maybe Sakura's jealous?" Naruto suggested, though with a frown as she had never expressed any concern about Kakashi and Kurenai's friendship before. Plus, it sounded as though Kakashi had a legitimate and understandable reason for helping the red-eyed woman that morning. "Can't see why she would be though…"
Kakashi shook his head. "She knows we're just old friends. Besides, Sakura would be angry if I didn't lend a hand when necessary."
"Ah, you must have been neglecting things that need doing around Sakura's apartment," Genma added sagely. "Did you do things for Kurenai that Sakura has been asking you to do for her?"
"Hmm. No, don't think so. Changed some hard to reach light bulbs, opened a couple vents and changed the filters… I did that for Sakura a couple weeks ago." He chuckled. "We actually broke Kurenai's bed trying to get one of her air-conditioning vents open. The stupid thing was rusted shut with all this humidity lately."
Naruto laughed. "You broke Kurenai's bed?"
Kakashi shrugged. "It was an accident of course and I promised to help pay to replace it. We thought it was funny."
Genma shook his head. "That has to be it. Sakura's jealous that you're buying Kurenai a new bed! It'll be expensive, but I know you have the money. Just buy Sakura a new bed too and you should be out of the dog house in no time!"
He sighed. "I offered to buy her a new one too, bigger, better, more comfortable – whatever she wanted… no go. Actually, it only seemed to make her angrier."
The three men exchanged looks before falling into a glum silence as they slowly downed their alcohol. Neither Naruto nor Genma could think of any other explanations for Sakura's apparent anger nor did they have any brilliant solutions as to how to get Kakashi back into the apartment, and Kakashi himself still couldn't come up with any other reasons she might be angry with him. They continued to drink in silence as none of them particularly felt like talking – the alcohol making them more depressed about the situation than they should be.
After several silent rounds, the dark-haired kunoichi began to get a little edgy. It wasn't fun when they weren't making absurd guesses, and she had just spotted someone she was fairly certain had been trying to avoid her enter the pub. Deciding that it was time for her to take her leave from the three alcohol depressed shinobi, she sighed. Unable to help herself, she leaned across the table and murmured none too quietly to the frustrated and annoyed silver-haired jonin.
"Kakashi, just do yourself a favor, okay? Make sure that the next time you break a woman's bed, Sakura's the one in it with you. The ladies at the bath were quick to dismiss your air vent excuse and had their own rather explicit theories of how you two could break a bed." With a roar of laughter at his flummoxed expression, she exited the booth, making a beeline for the new jonin she was interested in seated on the other side of the pub.
Genma was the first of the three to recover and signaled their server knowing drinks were in order. "Well, I'll be damned. That little pink-haired firecracker of yours actually was jealous…"