Back at One

Premise: 1 You're like a dream come true; 2 Just wanna be with you; 3 Girl it's plain to see that you're the only one for me; and 4 Repeat steps 1 through 3; 5 Make you fall in love with me, if ever I believe my work is done then I'll start back at one. KakaSaku

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters...

Chapter 2: Just Want to Be With You

"Sakura…"

"Yes Kakashi."

"You must be finished that by now."

"This is my third time through it."

Kakashi didn't quite know what to say to that. It definitely hadn't been the response that he had been expecting. "Aren't you getting tired of it? Surely on your third time through, the content must get predictable."

Sakura smiled up at him through the leaves for a second before reaching over and poking him in the arm. She then promptly proceeded in stuffing her nose back into the pages of the book, "Nope. Did you ever get tired of it back in our genin days?" she asked rhetorically.

"I had many books to cycle through," Kakashi replied as he leaned around the trunk of the tree on which the limbs they were sitting on. He snuck a glance at the pages of the book again just to reaffirm that the past few days hadn't all just been in his head and that his innocent little Sakura was actually reading what he thought she was.

Kakashi turned back around when Sakura flipped the page and came upon page 59. Nothing good came from that page and nothing good was coming from her light giggle either.

Both of them were facing in opposite directions while taking a break from their training and that was the only thing that allowed Kakashi to let his thoughts roam. Sakura had learned long ago how to read his emotions through just the one exposed eye. He had definitely been spending much too much time with her.

Sakura giggled again, this time the sound suddenly closer than before and Kakashi turned to see that her bright green eyes were looking directly into his one gray one. "Is that an offer from you to let me borrow your books Kakashi?" Sakura asked as she closed the orange cover in her hands.

"There was no such offer," Kakashi replied, "You can go buy your own copies if you wish to continue reading the series." He couldn't believe he had just said that. He didn't want her to read the rest of the series, he really, really didn't.

"They're sold out everywhere in Konoha," Sakura pouted cutely.

Kakashi coughed politely and looked away before asking, "Are you ready to get back on the field again?"

Sakura grinned, "Yep!" she replied before she jumped off the tree limb and landed on the forest floor. She tucked her little orange book in the back pocket of her weapons pouch. "Don't be a slow poke!"

"Take pity on an old man," Kakashi replied as he leapt off his branch and joined her on the ground.

Sakura merely laughed before shaking her head, "How many times do I have to remind you that you are not old?"

"It makes an old man happy to hear a beautiful, young lady say that he is youthful as well," Kakashi replied and Sakura laughed with his chuckle as they both began to walk towards the open training field. Meanwhile, Kakashi tried to wrap his mind around the fact that he had just used the word 'beautiful' for the first time in his life.

"You sound like Gai now!"

"I don't find that statement in anyway amusing."

"You were laughing…"

"At something absolutely different."

Sakura grinned at him and skipped to the other side of the training field. "Are you ready Kakashi?"

"You know you won't be so lucky as to land a hit again, right?"

"Yes, yes. It was a one time thing, yadda yadda. But now you know to take me seriously!" Sakura then leapt into the air and came back down on her former teacher fist first. The only thing that she could feel when she touched down where Kakashi had been standing moments before were the leaves playing around her, "Taking me seriously does not mean hiding Kakashi!" Sakura screamed.

Kakashi laughed from the shadows.

Ten minutes later Kakashi wasn't laughing anymore. In all actuality he was exasperated. If he had done her the courtesy of putting away his book while training why couldn't she? Now he knew what it felt like to be a genin on his team.

Sakura had pulled out the orange book only five minutes into the battle when she had some how deemed that he hadn't been worth her full efforts. Granted maybe he had been at fault for that assumption to come up, but the girl was being ridiculous nonetheless. He was the copy-nin Kakashi, not to be taken lightly in any situation. "I never should have let her land that hit on me…" Kakashi mumbled as he stalked through the trees. Sakura had disappeared from his view just moments before and now he was trying to locate her using his sharingan.

Going through a series of seals Kakashi reappeared right in front of his pink-haired protégé and was delighted by her surprised squeak. She reeled back quickly and sent the ground under him flying towards the sky with her foot. Kakashi reached forward quickly and his finger slightly nicked the pages of the accursed book before it was pulled out of his reach. He cursed inwardly as he flipped and landed back on his two feet. He had never thought there would come a day where he would hate the orange novel, but indeed the day had come.

"Kakashi! Are you trying to steal my book?" Sakura giggled as she span around and tried to land a kick to his torso. Kakashi maneuvered himself so that he would be able to fly over her leg and grab the book.

"You're attention shouldn't be diverted while fighting me Sakura. I'm not an opponent that should be taken lightly!"

That was how it had started, his mission to remove the girl's attention from the pages of that stupid novel and put it back where it really mattered, him. Kakashi froze as the train of thought hit him and then Sakura's actual hit came right after. "Damn it Kakashi!"

"Ugg…"

"Two hits in one week," Sakura muttered darkly, "Maybe you are getting old." She pulled at his black shirt forcefully before giving up and just ripping it open. He shifted slightly at the feel of her cold, small, soft hands and sweated due to the lack of a barrier between their exposed skin. "Stay still you stupid buffoon!" Now he had a handprint on his torso… that would be attractive later on. But was it just him or were her eyes roaming the planes of his abs more than an average medic's eyes would? He didn't want to dwell on the thought for too long, he liked the attention.

Kakashi couldn't help but smile despite the pain and the searing green light that was invading his vision. She was paying attention only to him again; the stupid novel had disappeared and lain forgotten into the bushes.

Sakura mumbled wearily as she made her way to the door. It was one of her days off from the hospital, missions and training and she just wanted to catch up on her sleep bingeing, she had been falling behind as of late due to a certain somebody, but she couldn't help but not be mad at him. It was nice finally being able to spend time with the man who had shaped her career and childhood. But right now she had other issues, like why someone was still incessantly knocking on her door.

"Naruto I swear if you just want to invite me out for ramen, I'm going to kill you!" Sakura screamed as she threw open her front door with a loud bang. She was glad that Shizune had bought her that door stopper several months ago, it had saved her lots of repair costs as of late.

"How about coffee instead?"

Sakura blinked wearily as she rubbed at her eyes, "Kakashi?"

"You really do look like you're in need of a good dose of coffee."

"What are you doing here at…" Sakura took a look behind her at the clock on the wall, "ten o'clock in the morning. God it's late…"

"Coffee?"

"Yah sure, just wait five minutes," Sakura murmured as she walked away from her front door. Sakura couldn't help but snort at how many times Kakashi had said coffee, it had almost seemed like he was nervous, but that was impossible. The man at her front door was the stoic Hatake Kakashi after all. But was it just her or was the silver haired man monopolizing all of her time these days? Oh well, she didn't really care; he was after all, pleasant company.

Changing and brushing her teeth quickly Sakura pulled on her nicest and cleanest civilian clothes, a short, white, pleated skirt and a red long sleeved, turtleneck top. Hopping out of her room she blearily looked at her front door, which was still standing ajar with a copy-nin still standing outside. "You could have come in you know…"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck, "A-ah, no point now. It looks like you're about ready."

"Uh huh…" Sakura mumbled as she stumbled to the front door and pulled on her comfiest non-ninja shoes and her black coat.

Kakashi backed away as she walked out of her apartment and locked the door behind her. Sakura continued to slowly go through the waking up process as they walked side by side towards the closest café down the block. "You uh… look really nice today."

"Thank you?" Sakura questioned as she looked up at the copy nin. He refused to look back at her and instead went along with his trademark head rub. "You uh… look like you do everyday… I guess."

"We're here," Kakashi muttered really quickly as he literally charged into the café. Sakura shook her head at her teammate wondering what was going through his head. She placed her jacket down on one of the many outdoor tables, claiming it, before going in to find her former sensei and pay for the poor man as well, cheap bastard that he always was.

"Kakashi?" Sakura squeaked in shock.

"Yes?"

"What is that?"

"It's a coffee Sakura-chan… I would've thought you would've known what a coffee was if you accepted my invitation."

"You do know that you are holding two right? You do know that you need to pay for both of those right?"

"Yes Sakura, I do happen to know how the market economic system works. Now take your coffee before it gets cold," Kakashi replied as he stuffed one of the two cups in his hands into hers. Sakura blinked wearily and turned slowly to watch Kakashi take a seat at their claimed table.

"Did he just…pay for me?" Sakura mumbled, "God I must be more out of it than I thought…"

"Sitting anytime soon?"

"Ah, coming…" Sakura stumbled and sat down in the chair that was across from Kakashi. She sipped her hot drink and blinked in shock when she recognized her favorite brew. She looked up at the man in front of her with wide eyes but he continued to look away from her while sipping his own coffee through his mask.

"We should get coffee together again sometime," Kakashi mumbled discreetly between his tentative sips.

Sakura increased her grip around her paper cup before nodding with a small smile tugging on her lips, "I'd like that."

"So then Naruto goes to Hinata-chan's house and charges through the front door to only be met face to face with Neji…"

"I can already tell that something bad is going to happen," Kakashi chuckled as he stuck a piece of barbeque pork on the grill. The aroma of dinner engulfed both of them but Kakashi allowed for the girl in front of him to stop speaking first, it was a courtesy he could give to her.

"Let me finish!" Sakura squealed as she leaned forward, her eyes sparkled in humor, "Okay so Naruto comes face to face with Neji and do you know what he does in his state of half delirium?"

"What does he do?"

"Naruto makes out with him instead, thinking that he was Hinata-chan!" Sakura bellowed and sat back while letting the laughs constrict and relax her chest. "All the while still thanking her um.. him for the cookies!" She shook with happiness as tears sprung to the edges of her eyes, "Oh man, Hanabi-chan even got a photo! You have got to see it."

"Remarkable, that our future Hokage can mistake his girlfriend for a different man."

"Mou Sakura-chan… you don't need to go around telling everyone that," a voice called from the front of the barbeque house.

Sakura looked up with a grin as she waved at her other two teammates, "Naruto, Sai! Come over here and sit with us!"

Naruto tore through the booths to get the seat beside Sakura and Sai sauntered up to the booth in his usual way. Kakashi nodded at the ink user before scooting over and letting the ex-root ANBU sit. "Sakura-chan, don't show Kakashi-sensei the picture…please?"

"How about the video instead?" Sakura grinned. There were ways to get around the boy's giant blue, puppy dog eyes.

"There's a video?" Naruto exclaimed as his face heated up. He had to admit that he was never going to let Tsunade inject morphine into his system ever again.

"Hanabi-chan is brilliant."

"Actually, Sai will you excuse me?" Kakashi muttered.

"Ah…" Sai nodded as he moved from his seat to let the silver-haired man out. Sakura and Naruto continued to banter as the copy-nin made his solo get away. By the time Sakura noticed his disappearance he was long gone.

"Neh, where did Kakashi go?"

"He just wanted to leave," Sai replied.

"Probably trying to skip out on the bill again, that cheap bastard," Naruto declared as he bit through a slice of beef. It was true, suddenly half of the portion of beef that had been on the table was missing.

"Oh…but I was having such a fun time talking with him…" Sakura mumbled as she hopelessly gazed around the restaurant, "Why would he leave?" She wouldn't club Naruto for the cheap bastard comment, she was confused on that angle herself today.

"Maybe he just wanted to be with you."

"Eh?"

Sai nodded and pulled out a blue book from his pocket with a large pink heart decorating the cover; Naruto groaned in exasperation as Sakura rose her eyebrow into her hairline. "This book says that when a man leaves abruptly upon the arrival of other people, mainly male, it means that he just wishes to spend time with the one person he was with before. He just wanted to be with you."

Sakura blushed slightly at the comment although she knew that half of what Sai usually had to say had no real pretenses, "Neh? Maybe…"

"That's gross Sai, why would Kakashi want to be with just with Sakura-chan? Ow! I didn't mean it like that Sakura-chan. What I meant was that he's all old and stuff and Sakura-chan would much rather be with us... I mean me!"

Naruto continued to mumble out in pain as a large bump grew on his first bump which was growing on his head. He threw Sakura a halfhearted glare at she stuck her tongue out at him playfully. They could never be mad at each other for any reason whatsoever. Resting her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands, Sakura giggled slightly as her eyes clouded in thought, "Maybe I just want to be with him too."

…

"Ew, Sakura-chan… Ow! I'll stop, I'll stop."

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