The kiss was over too soon.

Kakashi-sensei sat up again, one long finger pressed to his lips.

Sakura just lie on the bed, watching the gray ceiling, listening to the splatter of raindrops. She used this silence (this perfect silence, charged with electricity, and something more) to think. She found this nearly impossible, though. Her mind was jumping from thought to thought, her lips tingling, her eyes clenched shut.

"Sakura-chan?" Kakashi-sensei was speaking in a quiet voice. Sakura could feel the warmth of his seated self against the left side of her body.

She opened her eyes and sat up. She was extremely aware of the fact that their bodies were right next to each other, touching, in contact… Sakura didn't know what to think. She turned to her sensei, saw his calm and expectant expression, the finger on his lips… Saw him leaning in towards her again.

His eyes shut, one arm reaching around her and pushing her up against the wall that the bed was set by. His lips were not an inch from hers when Sakura started thinking clearly again (albeit how hard it was with him so close.)

She slapped him.

He pulled back from her, eyes open now, and full of surprise. Sakura jumped off the bed, arms crossed, face a mask of confusion and disbelief and amazement –though she tried to keep that to herself.

"Sakura-chan…" He began to speak, eyes looking amiable and hopeful.

"Shut up." Sakura glared into those innocent, mismatched eyes determinedly. "What the hell was that?" The blue-clad man stood up, arms bent at the elbows, palms up in a gesture of defeat and surrender.

"Sorry, couldn't help it."

"Is that all you have to say…? Why did you do that?"

Kakashi paused. Sakura could that maybe he was trying to think of an answer that would calm her down.

"I –I was –I was blown away by how much you've grown over the years, how old you've gotten. {AN: wtf??? I just realized how much that sounds like what Dumbledore says to Harry in the halfblood prince… O.o} The beauty you've acquired, the –erm –body… You've acquired… It just caught me by surprise, all at once." The man held out a hand as a peace offering. "Won't happen again, all right?"

Sakura bit her lip. Kakashi-sensei was acting so… Strange. She didn't understand half his rambled excuse, but it did sound apologetic, and he had apologized, so… Sakura put her hand in his.

Kakashi pulled her hard against him by that hand. He leaned down and put his lips to her forehead. "One of the first things I taught you. A good shinobi sees through deception." He moved his lips across her face, kissing her nose and flushed cheeks. "I'm disappointed in you." Now the soft fabric of his mask brushed her lips. "If I'm still your sensei, then you're still my student." His hands moved to cradle her face, pulling it closer to his. "And I expect better behavior next class, Sakura-chan."

He kissed her, and it was strange –the fabric between their lips really bothered Sakura. She had a sudden urge to pull down his mask, to kiss his true lips… What was she thinking? What was Kakashi-sensei thinking? Sakura pulled back violently.

"I don't know what you're thinking, but –but –don't come near me anymore, you – you pervert!" Sakura felt tears beading in her eyes, so she turned away, ran to the door, ignoring her sensei's cry of "Sakura!"

"Sakura! Come back!" His voice was cut off with a thud as she slammed the door to Room Five.

The tears in Sakura's eyes disappeared completely as her thinking became clearer.

What the hell. Maybe Kakashi-sensei had just been reading Icha Icha Paradise, and was subconsciously trying to create a situation in his life that was similar to something in the latest volume? Sakura gave herself a mental slap. She was trying to think of a complicated justification for something so infinitely simple.

Kakashi liked her. He liked her enough that he wanted to kiss her, and from the kisses he had given her… He probably liked her enough to do more than kiss. But when had this started? Had he always been harboring a secret passion for the little, pink-haired girl in Squad Seven? Or was it like he had said, he had just realized that she was a young woman now, and been caught in the moment? Sakura knew these questions could only be answered by Kakashi-sensei himself, and she had no plan to talk to him anytime soon.

Sakura turned a corner onto a pleasant, tree-lined street. She walked up the stairs to her family's duplex, and was just about to open the door when she heard a screaming voice in her head –a voice that had only whispered until now. Sakura. Why did you run? You wanted to stay. Sakura, don't torture yourself like this. Give in to your feelings –that fabric against your lips was the most amazing sensation you ever felt, right? Sakura, Sakura, for the smartest girl shinobi, you sure are an idiot.

She found herself dropping to the floor of her porch, head in hands. What had she done? She'd been wishing for her sensei to notice her again, she'd been wishing for him to notice her, but had she been wishing for this as well?

Sakura couldn't even begin to answer this. Her head said no way –that it was sick and twisted and illegal, but her heart –and body –said otherwise. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips still tingling from the encounter.

The rain still beat upon her head, dripping from strands of dark, rosy pink. Her entire outfit was soaked through, raindrops beading on her shoulders and bare legs. How was she supposed to know that it would rain today? It wasn't hardly fall yet at all, just the end of August. And it was raining, drops of ice cold.

Maybe this freak storm was a sign of some sort. Maybe whoever controlled fate, whoever decided what your life was going to be like –maybe they were trying to tell Sakura that a freak accident of her own was going to happen.

But was the kiss even accidental? Kakashi-sensei seemed like he had been giving this thought for a very long time. Or –maybe he had decided so seriously that this was what he wanted that he sounded like that.

No.

This was wrong.

How much of an age gap did they have? She was fifteen; he was twenty-eight, so… Thirteen years. It was messed up and stupid and gross –and her sensei could even be arrested... And she didn't want this. She did not want this, there was no way she could reciprocate her teacher's new feelings.

She spent a long time like that, thinking in agitated circles.

She felt a tap on her shoulder. Sakura looked up and saw Shikamaru standing there, as half bored, half concerned expression on his face.

"You all right, Sakura?" He had his hands in his pants pockets; his hair was in his trademark spiked ponytail. "Tsunade-sama wants you."

Sakura stood, wiping the tears from her eyes, and put on her best "happy when not" face.

"I'm fine. Thanks for worrying, but I'm definitely fine." Sakura patted him on the back, with a hearty smile. "I'm just jolly, absolutely great."

"No you're not." Shikamaru started walking down the street towards the hokage's office. "C'mon, you can tell me on the way."

Sakura jumped up and followed him, already feeling refreshed by the face of an old friend who most definitely had no romantic interest in her at all. But she definitely wasn't going to tell him about Kakashi-sensei. Shikamaru, out of all the Konoha shinobi, was probably the one who would understand the least.

"Nothing, just girl stuff." Sakura dropped her façade of happiness, but refused to tell further details of the story as Shikamaru and her made their way to Tsunade's office.

They both stood in front of her paperwork laden desk, dripping wet. The blonde, chesty woman scowled at them both.

"Sure took you two long enough." She leaned forward, leaning towards Sakura with a paper in her hand. "I've got a mission for you two." Shikamaru frowned.

"Just us two?" He leaned over and peered at the paper Sakura was now holding.

Sakura was in shock. She looked at the paper again, willing it to be different. Willing for the Team Members section to change, for one little name to fade back into white.

Team Members:

Shikamaru Nara

Sakura Haruno

Team Captain:

Kakashi Hatake