After Kakashi relayed his new found mission to the girl in the bed, she paused for a few minutes in silence to take in all in. Knowing full well that her facial expression undoubtedly resembling a deer caught in the head lights but she didn't care.
"Uh…what?" She finally choked out rather dumbly as the concept of thought didn't really register with her mouth.
"Did you…hear me or is it that you just don't understand?" Kakashi replied cautiously knowing full well that if he pissed the girl off than it would be like all out war with an unbeatable force.
"What do you mean?" She tried again, hoping that this time around she knew what was coming from her mouth.
"Tsunade requested it. She believes it's best to have someone… around…in case you need anything for the next couple of…days. Or weeks." 'Yes that's it Kakashi, put the blame on Tsunade...great thinking man' Inner Kakashi patted himself on the back.
"Around?" Her voice instantly darkened as she regained her senses, mainly the ego on. "You mean a babysitter?" She hissed with venom that he hadn't seen since Ino called her forehead girl in front a guy which Sakura had been currently hitting on. Oh she was pissed then.
Kakashi glanced over to Genma who was staring right back at him, thinking the exact same thing.
'Shit…she's angry.'
"Not quite a baby sitting, a helper is the better word." Kakashi hoped the play on words would fizzle the built up pressure from the pink haired girl.
"Bullshit!" She cried. Kakashi was never a lucky man. "She doesn't think I can handle this! That I'm just lost puppy! Well let me tell you something! I'm not going to let this beat me and I'm going to get through this on my own, you hear me!" She cried with an angry shake of her fist to anyone who was currently watching her.
"She's only doing this because she cares, Sakura." 'Yes keep the blame on her sensei with the awesome strength!' Inner Kakashi warned.
"If she really cared about me or knew me at all, then she wouldn't send a babysitting for me but let me fight this on my own!" Sakura huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Come on Sakura..." Genma tried to reason with the fuming pink haired girl, despite Kakashi's jesters to shut up. "Don't you think it would be nice to have someone around to help you through this time? At least it's Kakashi, your friend and not a complete stranger."
"Genma…" Sakura replied through gritted teeth. "You picked now of all times to go all reasonable on me!"
The brown haired jounin just sighed with a slump of his shoulders.
"I'm so sick of this!" She cried. "I'm so sick of all of this! It's been three days and I haven't even been outside! I'm sick of lying in this god damn bed!" She furiously whipped back the covers and slid her bare legs off the mattress to the floor and stood for the first time. Genma and Kakashi watched on in sadness and worry as she wavered a little with lack of use of her legs.
"I'm so sick of medication that does no use at all!" She reached to the needle that was in her arm and yanked it out. "I'm so sick of tests after tests that determine what I already know I have! I'm sick of wearing this damn dress-" She reached to the helm to rip off her clothes and immediately paused. Remembering that there was two men in her room who where probably watching her with eyes bulging from their heads. "Maybe not so much..." She replied and let the dress go.
"But most of all I'm sick of no one believing in me." She whispered and proceeded to the door, her hands out into the darkness to judge where she was. Shrugging off the hands that came out to stop her, and ignoring the 'Sakura, waits' and 'you're not up to its'' as she finally hit the doorframe and felt around for the knob before whipping the door open and walking out into the hallway.
Immediately she collided with a body and with a very un-lady like 'umph', she toppled over to the floor.
"I'm so very sorry young lady," Came a soft elderly man's voice from the darkness.
"That's ok." She whispered and pushed herself up.
"Sakura are you alright?" Genma's voice came with a gently touch to her forearm, which she immediately shrugged off, hot tears stinging her eyes and threatening to fall.
'Don't start crying now, not after you're speech of being strong!' Inner Sakura shouted.
"I'm fine, leave me alone…" She once again reached her hands out and felt her way down the hospital hallway.
"You should go after her," Genma replied to Kakashi who nodded in agreement.
"Do me a favor and tell Tsunade of where the mission stands…or tumbles horribly to its death whatever the current situation is at this moment." He sighed and after stuffing his hands into his pockets, walked after her.
It was so noisy. So much that she had to be in the town now, although everything else was the same. She didn't remember it being so loud and rushed when she had her eye sight, but maybe that fact that she had her hearing not seeing gave everything more volume.
She was still feeling around for anything that she might accidentally bump into, and every once and a while she would hit something or someone. She was apologize quickly and be on her way, before they began wise to the fact that she was a ninja without sight. They would only laugh, or worse try to help her. She wanted neither.
Tailing the pink haired girl at a safe distance, Kakashi was invisible to the women who didn't know he was there. Yet even though she couldn't see him, he was constantly watching her. He didn't really know where she was going and doubted that she knew where she wanted to go. She was so damn stubborn.
Kakashi suspected that she feared he was following her, or Genma was, and that's why she was in such a rush to get away. And why she was constantly bumping into people or poles on her way. He had enough faith in her to know that she could easily find her way around if she would just calm down and focus her other senses to her favor.
But then again, this was Sakura we were talking about.
Suddenly she stopped in her tracks, which just happened to be in the middle of the busy part of town, and as the people walked around her she was unaware of the dirty looks she received.
"Raman." She whispered to herself. Finding that disgusting smell of such foods strongly in the air, and she normal wouldn't move towards the smell, but where there was Raman there was Naruto.
Following her nose she directed herself where she could only guess to be the way towards the shop.
He saw his target pause mid street and Kakashi did the same. Watching curiously as she lifted her head slightly as if to sniff the air, before turning towards to Raman Hut.
'There you go' Kakashi grinned with pride.
She felt around hoping to touch the flap and entrance into the hut, and smiled with happiness as she finally made contact.
"Naruto?" She called out as she stepped through into small opening, accidentally bumping her knee to one of the chairs. She winced and tried to shake it off.
"Naruto's not here, young lady." She heard the cook reply. Her face fell.
'Damn it.' She sighed and turned to leave, thinking that maybe she would try his house….If she could find it, doubting that it smelt terribly like Raman.
"But…" She paused when he spoke up again. "I do expect him in…3…2…1"
"Raman!" Came the voice of none other then Konoha's number one noisy ninja himself. Bursting through the entrance in perfect timing with the cooks' prediction. Before she could be happy to see him, Sakura could only sweet drop with slight embarrassment at how good of friendly terms he was with the cook. She knew he loved the food, but never quite knew how much he lived his life around it.
"Sakura?" She heard him inquire.
"Naruto…" She sighed with relief. "I'm so happy to see-…happy to hear from you." She corrected herself.
"Are you out of the hospital already? It's only been three days." Naruto replied.
"I checked myself out…" She blushed as she subconsciously pulled down the continually rising hem of her flimsy hospital gown.
"I see." He had a smile in his voice. "And the first place you came to was Raman? I thought you hated the stuff." He placed a hand on her shoulder and helped her find her way to a chair.
"I loath the crap, but I knew you'd be here soon or later." She nodded when she sat comfortably on the chair.
"You wanted to talk with me? About what? Raman, please!" Naruto added to the cook.
"What the hell else would you want?" The cook retorted and turned to make his order.
"Um…I want to whisper it…so…" She said in a hushed tone, and once Naruto's eye came into her close proximity, she whispered. "Do you see Kakashi following me?"
"Hmm Kakashi?" He asked.
"Shhh! Shut up!" She chided, wincing at the volume of his voice in fear that Kakashi would hear.
He took a second to glance around the street, finding civilian, after civilian after…Suddenly the silver haired Jounin popped into view, and Naruto reserved a solute in hello from the man who stood across the street.
"Yeah, he's just standing across the road. Kakashi-Sensei, come join us!" The loud mouth screamed over the noise of the town.
"What no!" Sakura cried in mortification. "Can't you see I'm trying to get away from him you monkey!" She hissed. "Stay where you are!" She screamed over to the man she was avoiding.
Naruto saw the man rest a hand to his ear. "He didn't hear you." The blonde replied.
"I said-" She started to scream, but immediately stopped. "Oh never mind. It's not like that man listens to me any way." She sighed.
"Why are you running away from Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto inquired, and giggled like a little girl when the food was finally placed in front of him. Wasting no time, he stuck his face into the bowl.
"Because he's babying me." She huffed.
"Mhdjbafkuefaf." She heard, but didn't understand in the slightest.
"What the hell are you saying? Get your face out of the food when you're talking to me!" She cried.
"Babying you how?" He mumbled with pieces of stray noodles.
"He's been assigned a mission to watch over me." Sakura replied. "And I'm pissed off!"
"Why? If it's his mission then he has to do it." Naruto concluded.
"I get that, it's just why the mission was assigned in the first damn place that I'm ticked about. I mean no one trusts me enough to let me deal with this on my own. I'm a chuunin and I'm strong enough to find my way around and go on with my life."
"We know that…" He replied briefly before sticking his head back inside the food for another gorge.
"Then why can't anyone just let me be?" She whispered.
"Cause we care about you, Baka. Haven't you figured that out yet? For such a brain you can be really dumb." Naruto laughed.
"'Because we care about you…' he says... 'Because I'm worried about you' he says. Why the hell does everybody like me so much?" She sighed.
"I don't know." He shrugged, receiving a playful smack on the hand. "Seriously though, even if it is his mission, Kakashi still does this because he wants to. He just wants to help you out, you know."
"Yeah…" She whispered. "But I don't want to be another burden to him. After all this time of seeing each other as more then sensei and student, but as friends, I can't go back to having him feel like he has to protect me."
"Is that the real reason you're mad?" Naruto mumbled with his mouth full. "You don't want to be a pain to him?"
"I got to go, Naruto. It was nice talking to you. Take it easy on the Raman ok?" She smiled and slide from the chair and exited the
shop.
Naruto took to his food again only to be interrupted by Kakashi moments later.
"You know huh?" The copy ninja sighed.
"Yup. And boy she's mad…but you know Sakura. She always has a deeper meaning to her madness."
"Don't I know it. I'll see you around, Naruto." He replied and after a pat on the back, left to follow her again.
"Sakura?" Came an all too familiar voice from the noise and darkness.
The pink haired women stopped and listened to see if what she head had just been a trick of hearing, but soon enough another "Sakura, hey!" came.
"Ino?" She asked as a pair of thin arms wrapped around her body and drew her into a set of not so humble breasts. "Ino?" She mumbled.
"Oh Sakura, I'm so sorry about what happened! I can't believe it's true! I'm so sorry for not being able to come see you in the hospital, I was on a mission! I wanted to bring you things and see if that Shikamaru was a lying sack of shit or not! But-"
"Ino! I can't breathe!" Sakura screamed into her friend boobs.
"Oh, sorry!" She replied and released her from what was surely meant to be her death. Immediately the pink haired women gasped for breathes of air which a bright red blush for what the surrounding people might think to see two women in such a posision.
"Hey wait…" Ino said and looked over top of her friends gasping breathes to see none other then the copy ninja standing a good distance back watching the whole scene.
"Sakura?" She whispered in question and she gave the copy ninja a confused look.
"What?" She replied in huge gasps of air.
"Are you aware that a major hotty is following you?" She grinned with girlish glee.
Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes at her blonde friend's personality towards men. In particular Kakashi, a man who Ino had not shied back on verbally expressing her attraction for on more then one occasion.
"It's just Kakashi." Sakura replied with a raise of her eyebrow.
"Oh Sakura! I didn't know you were such a tease! Or do you just like it when he's behind you?" Ino inquired.
"INO!" Sakura shrieked in horror.
He followed her around for what seemed like an hour or so as she felt her away forward past shop after shop and people after people. Now he had no doubt in his mind that she had no idea where she was going, and was probably lost beyond her comprehension, due to the fact that they were now in the middle of a park outside Asuma's residence. Sakura surely wasn't visiting him due to the fact that they had only been introduced once previously by none other then the copy-nin himself.
He was guessing that she was trying to find her apartment or maybe Ino's place but unfortunately neither were anywhere near the direction she was headed. But Kakashi wouldn't tell her that in fear of…well, her anger and inevitable thrashing he was soon endure….but mostly because it would embarrass her immensely to have her independence shot down.
"Kakashi." He finally heard her call to him after the silence which had fallen between the silver haired man and the pink haired girl since that incident at the hospital.
She paused allowing the follower to catch up from the safe distance he was behind, until he came to stand right beside her. From this closeness he could see she was cold and goose bumps graced her skin with the chill in the air. It was almost November after all. No time to be walking around in a paper thin hospital gown at ten o'clock at night without a jacket.
"Yes?" He asked.
"…Where am I?" She whispered and sharply turned her head to hide the blush that broke every rule she had set for herself in being strong and independent.
The copy ninja blinked and turned his head to gaze up at the stars. He knew it.
"You're in the park." He replied, turning back to her. And seeing her swallow a lump in her throat and her blank eyes darting around to nothing in particular as if to see what he said was true,…no. That wasn't it. She knew he was looking at her. He could tell that face anywhere. She was trying desperately not to cry.
She knelt down on the ground and felt around on the floor, feeling the cold whisks of grass. It was true.
"So I am." She breathed and stood up to her full height again.
"Would you like me to walk you home? I could use to the company." Kakashi suggested.
"…Alright." She sighed, and turned to head back in the direction she came from, followed closely by Kakashi.
"You know, I'm extremely hot right now. Would you mind holding my vest for me?" He reached out and grabbed her hand to place the vest he was stripped off his body in her grasp.
She knew exactly what he was doing. Making it sound like it was doing him a favor when really it was meant to help her out. But…if they both made it seem like they were helping the other, then no one's ego would be hurt. Especially hers.
"Sure." She replied and slipped his her hand from his and pulled the vest (which was two sizes too big for her shoulder and chest) over her cold body. His fresh body heat from when he had worn the vest previously immediately warmed her body. It smelt of him too.
"Here you are…" She lifted her head at the sound of his voice. They had been walking for ten minutes without either saying a single word to the other, and she could only believe that he had been leading her in the right direction to her apartment.
"Okay." She whispered.
"Okay." He replied and moved to walk away. Her breath quickened as she heard footsteps leading further away.
"Kakashi, wait!" She suddenly cried, as if he had made in all the way down the street instead of where he really stood just a few feet away. But he stopped, none the less and turned to her in question.
"Yes?" He asked.
"Would you…I mean I'd like it..." She stuttered. Who knew it was so damn hard to ask someone to-"Do you want to come up?" She finally pushed out of her.
Kakashi raised a single eyebrow. Wasn't she pissed off at him just a few hours ago?
"I don't think I should." He was playing hard to get. He knew it, and she knew it.
"What about you're mission?" She inquired with a 'are you seriously playing of who wants to piss of the pink haired more' tone.
"What about it?" He inquired with a playful tone to his words. He wanted things to be back to normal when they played these games on missions or whenever they had a spare moment in their busy schedule.
"Hatake Kakashi get up to my apartment, now!" She ordered with a hushed tone, pointing behind her to where she was sure the building stood.
He grinned; disappointed that she would miss it.
"Alright alright, if you want me that bad. How can I disappoint my lovely little cherry blossom when she longs for me so?" He chuckled and walked back to where she stood waiting.
"Not so loud, my neighbors will think I'm bringing home a male prostitute or something!" She laughed for the first time in a while. Glad that the silver haired man could always make her smile.
"Oh really?" He inquired. "In that case." He grinned mischievously and before she could tell what was happening, he had taken her in his arms and dipped her into a romantic position. "Come on my sexy pussy-cat, lets have our bodies pressed together and chained to wall while you whip me with the equipment that I bought for you you're last birthday." He replied in a deep voice, deeper then usual, and louder then she would have liked it to be.
"Hey! Not so loud, you idiot!" She smacked in chest where her head was pressed again. "Now they're going to think I'm a fetish queen!" She hissed, with a laugh that Kakashi had even said such a thing.
"Well aren't you?" He thought. Only to receive another smack to the chest, this one not so gentle.
"I most certainly am not!" She expressed her outrage with a hushed tone, and pushed herself from the hold he had on her.
"That's unfortunate because I think that's hot." He said in a playful seductive tone as he lead in and whispered in her ear. "Very hot."
"I'm sure you do, you pervert. I'm telling you Icha Icha Paradise is bad for you're already very unstable pervert-a-holic." She felt around for the door into her building.
"Is that even a word?" He chuckled and reached for the handle before she could and pulled open the door and ushered her in out of the cold.
"It is now." She laughed.
New chappy!
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