Chapter 2 – The Step Overtaken.
The morning came and still Kakashi did not find an answer to his disturbed feelings.
All night he had dreamed about both Sakura and Iruka, and images came popping up, showing Sasuke and Naruto at the moment he found out about their secret.
He shakes his head, cursing himself for getting confused about one little confession.
But then again, it didn't stay with just that confession; he DID kiss him after all. What is he supposed to do now? Should he tell Sakura about it? She would probably take it entirely the wrong way, she had been in love with Sasuke before after all, and he ended up with Naruto, a definite male. Surely, he would never do the same, but still, Sakura might not see it that way. There's no way he will tell her, he will not hurt her like that.
As if it were meant for his thoughts to be disturbed, there's a knock on the door.
"Kakashi-sensei, its morning!" a sweet girl's voice sounds through the door.
Sakura-chan! Kakashi jumps out of bed and runs towards the door, his heart pounding, he sure hopes he won't be saying anything weird today.
He opens the door and Sakura walks inside, she gives Kakashi a quick kiss on his cheek and smiles at his appearance. "Sensei, its ten o'clock in the morning and you're still not dressed." She says, trying to sound strict, but her voice shows a hint of amusement.
Kakashi looks down his own body; indeed, he's still only wearing a boxer short. Suddenly feeling really aware of his body, he decides to put on some clothes. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, I didn't know you were coming." He says as an excuse.
Sakura looks disappointed. "But surely you remember we were supposed to be hanging out together today?" she wonders.
Kakashi thinks back, past his memories of Iruka, past the time he was walking down the street, back to Sakura's house and a certain promise he had made back then.
Yes, he did promise to see her today. He mentally smacks himself because of his forgetfulness and makes up his mind to only be thinking about Sakura, at least for now, the rest of his problems can be solved at a later time.
"I remember now… I'm sorry." He whispers, stroking Sakura's cheek.
Sakura gives him a calculating look. "Why are you apologising this much?" she asks, knowing that guys usually have something to hide in a case like that.
Kakashi feels the need to mentally smack him self once more and understands that he'll have to act differently from his current behaviour.
He walks up to Sakura. "Nothing to worry about, really, just felt the need to apologise for forgetting about you for a second…" he answers her question and he kisses her, hard, so that she won't be able to reply.
Sakura makes a strange noise and for a second she tries to break free from his grip, but after a while, she sags into his arms and kisses him back.
'This feels right.'
Kakashi deepens the kiss, letting his tongue explore the young girl's mouth, Sakura happily obliging.
'It really does feel right.'
He pulls Sakura closer, feeling her body against his; it stirs something inside his pants.
'See, it's all good.'
He breaks away from the kiss in need of air, his heart pounding fast, and blushing bright red.
"Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura whispers in a soft voice, looking at her sensei with some amazement. One moment they were having a conversation, the next moment they were kissing as if their lives depended on it.
Kakashi smiles at her. "I really wanted to do that…" he whispers, his voice sounding somewhat weird.
Sakura smirks, seeing his current looks, there's a lot more he would probably like to do.
The thought scares her a little, she never even thought about that possibility yet, except with Sasuke of course and the circumstances would be completely different.
"Is something the matter?" Kakashi asks, seeing a sudden look of doubt on her face, he walks over to her and puts a hand on her shoulder; she quickly pulls away from him.
She stares at the ground. "Nothing's the matter, really." She says, trying to sound normal.
Kakashi stares at her, not buying a word of what she's saying, he puts a finger under Sakura's chin and lifts her face up to make her look into his eye.
He notices her eyes wandering down his body, checking out a certain spot on it and he suddenly feels very uncomfortable. She actually noticed him getting slightly aroused because of that kiss, and now she's probably afraid he wants to take things up a step.
His mind shows images of them doing such things for a second, but he quickly shoves the thoughts away. "Sakura, I don't think it's the time for those things just yet." He says with a gentle smile. Sakura smiles back at him, seemingly relieved.
"Your body seems to suggest otherwise." She jokes, nodding towards his still half-hard member. Kakashi shrug's his shoulders. "Ignore my body and its stupidity, male bodies only think of one thing, its mind can do various other things as well." He says, cocking an eyebrow.
This makes Sakura laugh. "Alright then, maybe I should just ignore it." She says, knowing that ignoring Kakashi's body is rather difficult, no matter how much she tells herself she is not yet ready for the sex thing, her eyes keep being drawn to Kakashi as he finishes getting dressed.
He really does look great, muscled, fair skin… would it be soft if she touched his body? Would the muscles make it feel hard? And man, what a cute butt does the guy have…
She notices she's blushing and she quickly looks the other way.
Kakashi finished dressing himself and walks back to Sakura, sitting down beside her on his bed. "So… any ideas for today?" he asks, knowing he has none.
Sakura shakes her head. "Hardly any, I know I've got some things I need to do, but in order for that, we need to go outside…" she says, looking a little sad.
Why do things have to be so difficult?
"Well… we can't stay inside forever; we would die from lack of sunshine…" Kakashi says, yet another joke, maybe he's finally getting back to his original self.
Sakura smiles again. "Well then, I need to go grocery shopping for my mother." She says.
Kakashi puts his mask on, glad that his grimace went unnoticed because of it.
Grocery shopping, something he rather much hates, ah well, he thinks, maybe it's more fun when Sakura's around. "Let's go." He says, opening the door for Sakura.
Once they walk through Konoha together, they notice that not many people are having attention for them, seems like students and teachers walking together doesn't raise that much suspicion. But then again, Gai and Lee do it all the time, so people must be quite used to it by now. Kakashi thinks, seeing an image of those two whenever they are together. He shivers, no way he would ever get used to that.
Grocery shopping went faster than expected, seems like Sakura isn't quite the type to linger around in stores all too much. At least, not in stores like these.
Kakashi's silently grateful for it, as they deliver the bough items to Sakura's mother, she smiles at him again. "Well, that's it for the shopping, thanks so much for helping me out there, Kakashi-sensei." She says happily and after that, she makes a quick stop for the toilet, in which Kakashi is drawn into the kitchen by Sakura's mother. "Thank you so much for taking care of my girl, Kakashi-san." She says, bowing slightly.
Kakashi strokes the back of his head with his hand as he starts feeling a bit uneasy. "No problem at all, Haruno-san, it's the least I could do seeing the circumstances." He says formally.
Sakura's mother shakes her head. "I don't know…" she says, drifting off into thoughts.
This makes Kakashi even more insecure. What would she be thinking of?
"Kakashi-san, I would like to ask you a question and I would like you to be honest about it." She says in a demanding way.
Kakashi swallows hard, feeling like running away. "Of course, what is it?" he asks, trying to keep his voice under control.
"Do you like my daughter? Or rather… does she like you back?" her mother then asks, her voice sounding calm and casual.
Kakashi seems to think about that question for a moment, it can be meant in many ways. "Well, I suppose that if we didn't like each other in some way, we wouldn't be hanging out together this often, so if that's your question, I think your daughter is a really kind girl." He decides to say, being pretty sure that this is not what she meant.
And indeed, Sakura's mother shakes her head. "It's not entirely what I mean actually." She admits. "I mean it more like… do you two have feelings for each other that go further than just friendship?"
Kakashi feels like he's about to choke on his mask, but manages to sound like he's just shocked because of the question. "What?" he asks.
Sakura's mother turns her back on him. "If that's the case, I would like to know… it's not like I would stop it. You're being good to her; you're there for her and… I know my little girl, if she likes someone, she can't stop talking about him, she always did so with Sasuke and now she's doing the same with you. Please be honest with me, I will not disagree on it." She whispers, sounding like it's an immensely difficult thing to say.
Kakashi feels like he's being cornered, but at that moment, Sakura comes waltzing into the kitchen. "So here you are." She says happily, walking up to Kakashi and grabbing his arm.
Kakashi gives her a startled look and Sakura winks at him. "I thought we should be going soon, you promised me to go to your place and watch that new romantic movie with me." She says, lying every word of it as she makes it up.
"You two are watching romantic movies together?" Sakura's mother asks, turning around to face the two again.
Sakura nods, pushing herself closer to Kakashi, hugging his arm even more.
It seems that this in enough of an answer to Sakura's mother, she nods and smiles.
"I won't forgive you if you hurt her, you know." She says, pointing a spoon at Kakashi's throat. "No funny stuff."
Kakashi looks at the spoon, thinking it looks a lot more dangerous than it normally does.
"Yes ma'am, I'll keep her safe." He says, sounding like he's talking to an army commander.
Sakura's mother nods and sends them off.
As soon as they are out on the streets again, Kakashi wonders if he really did promise to watch a romantic movie with her, but before he can ask, Sakura starts talking: "Well, one obstacle away, we won't have to keep secrets for her anymore." She says with a smile, she looks up at Kakashi, seeing his slightly confused eye. "I overheard you talking." She explains.
Kakashi nods. "I figured as much. Come on, I want to give you a little present for your courage." He says, his eye closing into a smile.
Sakura blushes and nods.
They enter the Yamanaka Flower shop and Kakashi asks for a single white rose.
Ino, who's standing behind the counter, stares at Sakura, who can't hide her blush.
"Kyaaah! I can't believe it!!" Ino shouts, jumping over the counter and patting Sakura on her shoulder. "Nice going girl! You and Kakashi!" she says happily.
Both Sakura and Kakashi look highly uncomfortable, if they had known Ino would be here today, they would never have come to this shop.
Ino seems to understand what's going on and she nods. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. I do understand the difficulty of the situation." She says seriously.
Kakashi nods, looking immensely relieved.
By the time they finally leave the centre of Konoha, the sun is starting to set.
"I think I should be going home now." Sakura whispers, smiling sadly at Kakashi.
Kakashi nods, feeling the urge to ask her to stay over at his place tonight, but somehow he thinks she won't appreciate that just yet, so he lets her take her leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow during our mission." He says with a warm voice, pulling her behind a building and hugging her tightly. Sakura nods and hugs back; she quickly kisses him on his mask-concealed face and runs off, leaving Kakashi behind in the alley.
He walks home, humming softly.
As soon as he has reached his front door, he finds someone standing there.
"Yo, Kakashi-san." The man says.
"Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here?" Kakashi asks, feeling fear deep in his heart.
Iruka pushes his body away from the door. "Just wanted to talk to you." He says casually, waiting for Kakashi to invite him in.
Kakashi nods and lets him enter his house.
"What did you want to talk about?" he asks, knowing it already in his heart, this is going to be one hell of a conversation.
He sits down on the bed and waits for Iruka to start talking.
Iruka closes the door behind him and shakes his head. "I just want to talk about what happened yesterday. You turned me down, and then you suddenly kiss me and run away… what am I supposed to think of that?" he asks, walking up to Kakashi to sit beside him.
Kakashi shakes his head. "It means that I don't know." He admits, thinking of Sakura, how he feels when he's around her, how he feels now he's around Iruka.
Iruka sighs. "I see…" he whispers, he looks sad.
Kakashi looks at him; he hates it when Iruka looks sad. It feels like he can't control his own actions as he bows his head towards him, taking off his mask and kissing the guy, passionately on his mouth.
Iruka lets out a surprised yelp, but is quick to return the kiss, leaning towards Kakashi with his whole body, craving for more.
As soon as they both break away from the kiss, Iruka is quick to look down at the rest of his face, but he should not have hurried, Kakashi is not even making an attempt to put his mask back on.
'So beautiful…' Iruka thinks, staring at the man's mouth, the lips that just kissed him.
His heart is racing now he can finally look at Kakashi's full face.
He makes up his mind and kisses those lips again, not wanting to lose the touch.
This time it's Kakashi who is surprised, not because of the kiss, he had expected that, but because he suddenly finds his back in contact with the mattress. Iruka had pushed him over so that he is now lying on top of him.
Kakashi can feel the man's body heat, the friction as the body moves against him. Some rather hard object that is pushing against his thigh, stimulating his own, not yet fully erect member. It makes him nervous; he can't do this, not now, not yet! His mind works at top speed, what should he do? But before his mind has made up an answer, his body has pushed Iruka off him.
Iruka looks at him with that hurt look in his eyes again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." He whispers.
Kakashi shakes his head. "It's okay, I did encourage you a lot there…" he admits, putting an arm around Iruka and pulling him back down on the bed again, just laying there, in each other's arms, this will give Kakashi enough time to get to understand his feelings a bit better.