The 39 Week Challenge.

Week 3—5: Headaches and Cravings

The goal; does Kakashi have it in him to get Sakura anything she desires, even if he has to go to risky lengths? And can he please keep the noise down?

xXx

"Ugh, can you please keep it down?" moaned Sakura with earnest in her voice; because it had been the fifth time she had asked Kakashi to keep his shenanigans quiescent. When silence ensued and she breathed a sigh of relief, that subtle, taunting noise reached her ears once more. "Kakashi, please!"

"Sakura, you're being unreasonable," said the Copy nin with a book in his hand, flipping the page over, only to have Sakura whine yet again at the 'noise.' "I'm just flipping pages. It's not like I'm ripping a chainsaw to life,"

"I know, but it sounds like it!"

Kakashi sighed, defeated, and folded Icha Icha Paradise and placed it on the coffee table. "There, better?"

"Oh, much! I can finally hear my own thoughts again."

"Now you're just being theatrical,"

Ever since Sakura was deemed pregnant merely two weeks ago, the sickness had been plaguing her still every morning and early evening. Though the ferocity had died down since, other things he'd noted were also started to bloom.

For one, her constant migraines were dreadful and he always knew about it. It couldn't even be snowing lightly outside and she'd groan in frustration to the 'racket' outside. Not to mention, his favourite and only pastime, reading, seemed to be off-limits too since the page-turning was deafening her poor ears. Attempting to relocate his reading resulted in a pout and a neediness of his presence in mere minutes.

He struggled to remain supportive and helped her when she was getting sick and put away his printed lover when she desperately needed some peace. He thought he was getting better every day, but something else had wheedled to the now laundry list of symptoms that Sakura was garnering.

Cravings.

It started maybe mid-last week, when she and Kakashi were both taking a leisurely stroll out in the cool Konoha market, and one of the vendors who had been smitten with Sakura a while back after saving him from the Influenza, offered her free salmon from his stall to compensate for her kindness.

At first she had politely refused the gift, but then he saw the wheels turning in her head, and how her nose subtly turned upright at the intoxicating smell of the freshly fried fish. Like a possessed woman, she bundled as many salmon into her arms—as well as Kakashi's—and hauled at least thirty back to her tiny apartment.

Kakashi thought it was reasonable, since winter was coming and gathering as much fish as she could before it became too cold to import was wise. But it hadn't been that at all; she took immediately to the kitchen and put the burner up as far as it would go, and started shredding and gutting some of the uncooked fish and placing them in a pan drowning in garlic butter and herbs.

When she was depositing her fifth, Kakashi thought it wise to interfere. "Um, Sakura… don't you think that's a bit much for you to eat all by yourself?" Secretly he hoped that maybe she'd share with him— the aromas inside the tiny apartment were absolutely divine with fresh salmon, chopped chives, tomatoes, and garlic butter.

"Yeah, what of it?" she snapped back, throwing the remainder of the guts in the compost and masterfully frying up the salmon to almost perfection. "I'm hungry, so sue me."

So, thinking nothing of it once more, he took residence on her lavender couch and waited patiently for another ten minutes, when she entered with a steaming plate of delectable fish. Casually, she pushed up against him and placed her large plate in front of her, slightly leaning into him. He draped an arm around her and deftly went to pluck a small piece of fish, when a hand smacked him mid-snatch.

"Ah, hey! What was that for?" Kakashi pouted, nursing his wounded hand. She hadn't bothered to reign in some of her chakra with that slap.

"It's my fish," she said simply, forking a rather juicy piece and stuffing it in her mouth. "I bought it."

"But you always share with me…"

"Well, not now. I'm ravenous!"

So he watched in misery as she polished the rest of the food off in merely fifteen minutes, her appetite satiated and her belly a bit round from the consumption.

That had been then. Now, he knew to expect the unexpected, and look underneath the underneath; in even more of a literal sense, now that his partner was pregnant.

"Kakashi,"

Her sickeningly sweet voice sent chills up his spine—he knew what that meant. He pushed himself off the sofa and snatched up his wallet. "What do you want, Sakura?"

"Um, I don't know."

Then why did you ask for something? Kakashi thought, but refused to give away his mild perturbation. "Well?" he prompted.

"I think… I think… I think I want anchovies. Yeah, those! With… lemon pie, and… no, that's it."

Kakashi, for the sport of it, took out a piece of paper and scribbled down her list. "You know, this is getting to be a bit of a pain."

"But you're the guy! It's your job and honour to ensure that the woman baring your child is comfortable and satisfied."

"Seems like I'm not getting paid enough,"

Sakura sent him a scathing look. Kakashi smartly shut his mouth.

"So anchovies and lemon pie, you sure that's it?"

"Yeah," she nestled back into her afghan blanket on the couch and fell into a tiny nap. Taking the chance, Kakashi slipped out of the house and headed towards the supermarket, where he knew he could find those items easily enough. She might prefer home-made lemon pie, but he just wanted to keep her as happy as possible and as fast as possible so when she went back to sleep again he could continue reading.

He made it there five minutes later, locating the pie easily enough, but the anchovies seemed to be elusive. He found the nearest employee and asked him where to find it, and was sadly informed that they had been cleaned out earlier this morning. Sighing, Kakashi thanked the lad and headed to the markets instead.

He went to each and every fresh fish stall and asked for the desired anchovies, but no one had them in stock any longer. A buyer came along and cleaned them out earlier that morning. Saying no more, he left and went to the last place he ever thought to look for anchovies—Konoha's underground black market.

He'd only been there once before, and that was when he was a part of Anbu and he was infiltrating their organization upon possession of illegal drugs. Now, as he wandered through the thick mob of gruff looking people with the scent of unhygienic bodies wafting through his nostrils, he wondered if this was really all worth it.

Terror ceased him as he thought of what she would do to him should he not fulfill her needs. Somewhere between punting him as far as she could kick over the Fire border and ramming his skull into and through the apartment building passed through his mind. He shied away from the thought, knowing that the outcome would not be pleasant for him.

And there it was! The stall that illegally imported goods such as dolphin tales and elephant tusks and hopefully one measly can of anchovies. He ran to the vendor and threw down a couple of yen, and although the great Copy ninja knew that this was way too much, it was a small price to pay for one minute of uninterrupted reading time.

"Anchovies," he said, and as the vendor scuttled back warily to the back of his stall, a familiar voice caught his ears.

"Kakashi! My rival! How wonderful to see you of all people here!"

Kakashi sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. "Not now, Gai—I'm on a very important mission."

The Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha strode up beside his friend/rival and peered over his shoulder where Kakashi's hand still rested on the money. "Planning on buying something foreign?" teased the taijutsu trainer.

"Something like that," Kakashi quickly retrieved the can of anchovies and tossed the money in the vendor's general direction, trying to evade Gai but the man was stubborn, dogging his every step.

"I didn't think that anchovies were foreign—why didn't you go to the supermarket for them?"

"Someone bought them out," he ground out.

"The street markets?"

"Sold out,"

Gai pursed his lips in thought. "Such a strange coincidence that the one object of your desire happens to be gone at such a crucial time, especially when it's riding on a secret mission."

When Kakashi was about to vanish from sight, suddenly his precious anchovies were no longer there; they were in the hands of Maito Gai.

"Gai, what d'you think you're—"

"I heard of this top-secret mission, Kakashi, and I challenge you to a duel! Let's see who gets to fulfill this almighty task and take home the prize money!"

Kakashi's eye twitched. "You bought all the anchovies?" He took his radial blood pressure and deemed that he wasn't about to pass out.

"Of course! I overheard The Beautiful Youthful and Sweet Sakura-chan giving you specific orders to get this item, and I must know what fortunes await when she receives it!"

Kakashi smartly avoided a Flying Lotus kick to the head and tried to snatch the canister away, but the green spandex-clad ninja was not having it today.

When had he had a chance to overhear their conversation, anyways? Kakashi focused more on the now, trying to swipe the canister back. "Gai, I'm serious, if I don't get that back to her I'm dead."

"Oh, so there is a top-secret mission! Well, according to the shinobi law I must defeat you in order to inherit this!"

Kakashi avoided yet another kick to the face and tried in vain to take down his adversary without seriously harming him. It wasn't Gai's fault that he sort of had a hero complex, or that he just was clueless about Sakura's pregnancy as most of Konoha was. He couldn't exactly tell him about it now; it would jeopardize the whole mission.

Kakashi was punted to the wooden fence. He wiped off the trail of blood from his nose and lifted his hitai-ate from his forehead. The Sharingan spun wildly.

"Oh, it's on, bitch."

Two hours later.

"Sakura?"

A soft voice roused her from sleep. The first thing she noticed that it was pitch black outside; the second thing she noticed was how frazzled and beaten Kakashi appeared before her.

"Kakashi! What happened to you?"

Warily, he slumped on the cushion next to her and wordlessly removed the small canister of anchovies. "The pie's in the fridge," he sighed.

Sakura hugged Kakashi to her and gently began removing the blood splatters on his face and his jonin jacket, wincing when she noticed a sizeable bruise on his left shoulder blade and many across his abdomen. "I think you may have broken your collarbone. Gods, Kakashi, it looks like you just fought off an army!"

"Something like that," he seethed when she extracted the under-shirt from him. "I got your anchovies, at least. I had to go through a lot to get them; can you believe that they were sold out everywhere?"

Sakura nibbled on her bottom lip, a gesture she did when she was nervous. "What's wrong?" he queried, bringing her close and ignoring the sharp pain through his shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing. But…" she looked sheepishly the other way.

"But what?"

"Um, I don't know how to tell you this, uh…"

"You're not expecting again are you?"

Sakura gaped. "No! I just… don't want the anchovies anymore. You see… you've been gone a long time, and, well, the craving for them isn't there any longer. Good thing, right? Now I won't get prematurely fat from all the food I've been eating lately. Kakashi, you okay? You kind of look pale. Hey, look at me! Kakashi—"

Silently, the great Copy ninja of Konoha fled the living room and closed the door behind him to the master bedroom. Some five minutes later, Sakura swore she heard crying.

xXx

A/N: Poor Kakashi. Please review out of concern for his misery and maybe he'll feel better :)