DESERTED

Chapter 4

"Things That Shouldn't Be Thought Of"

Sakura didn't think it was a dream. It was all too real to her. The nightmare was real enough to make her rock and shake in her restless sleep.

"Sasuke?" Sakura had tears in her eyes as she ran closer to her deceased husband. He turned and saw her, opening his arms for her to run into him.

"Sakura!" he gasped, being surprised to see his wife. But then... his face went pale.

"Sasuke-kun?" asked the pastel-haired girl. Her face showed worry. Her jade pools went wide with shock. Terror rippled throughout her petite body. Her dead Sasuke's knees hit the rough dirt and blood trickled from his lips, down his chin, to the place on his flak jacket where his heart was. Someone...

"No! Sakura shouted through her blurred vision. Angrily she thrashed toward him, but her legs just wouldn't budge. Somebody had stabbed the Uchiha from behind. Who Sakura saw standing behind his body made her wish she were blind. It...It was herself.

And when she looked down to see her own hands, they were painted in blood. His blood. The 'Sakura' standing behind Sasuke chuckled darkly and lifted her head to reveal her wicked grin.

Sakura screamed.

"Sasuke!" she shouted in horror. Her shriek of terror sliced through the peaceful night like a kunai digging deeply into rough flesh. She sat up, shaking and panting hard. Unknown to Sakura, somebody had heard her scream. A certain...neighbor. She began to cry as she put her head on her knees and held herself there.

Her front door swung open and a tall, muscular figure darted into her home. It was dark, and all Sakura could see was his midnight outline. He was holding what appeared to be shaped like a katana. The shape of said figures hair gave his identity away. "K-Kakashi?" the widow asked, her voice hoarse.

"Sakura. Are you alright? I heard you scream and" he was cut short.

"Light." she said. Kakashi was familiar with the outlay of Sakura's entire house, so he automatically flicked the switch that he knew was at his right. Then that's when Kakashi saw her face. She was...blushing.

Like a madman, Sakura's cheeks were warm and a pretty shade of rosy pink. The silver haired Jounin was clad only in a pair of navy sweats rolled up to his calves like most all of his pants were. Kakashi glanced around the room before putting his weapons away and running a hand through his tall spikes. "...Do tell." he softly smiled, plopping down on her bed next to her.

"Well...I saw Sasuke. And, I ran up to him but stopped short when he suddenly turned a ghostly pale shade. Then he dropped to his knees and blood trickled from the corners of his mouth. Somebody...had stabbed him in the back. And it scared me to see...myself." she trailed off.

Kakashi wiped away a few astray tears on the girl's face and embraced her in his arms. His chin settled on her shoulder and he whispered, "I see. But don't worry Sakura, he knows you would never. I'm here, so calm down." He tried to calm her.

Feeling much safer, Sakura put her hands over Kakashi's arm and relaxed ever so slightly in his hold. She was always thankful for her teacher, and at this moment she thanked Kami a million times. Her beloved Kaka-sensei was always there for her. Late sometimes…but still there when she or Naruto or even Sasuke had needed him.

The elder Jounin figured she still wasn't entirely satisfied, so he made her lye down. His hands rubbed circles on her back. "Relax. Try and go to sleep. Don't worry, I won't leave." Kakashi smiled. (author's POV- ahah! NOT from under his mask. Haha. Yes. Kaka's face is naked. ;D yay! )

Sakura yawned in that instant and slowly, she smiled and her jade pools watched Kakashi before finally closing completely. She snuggled into his warm figure and by the rise and fall of the kunoichi's chest, she was out cold.

"I guess there's no point in staying up." The male said to himself before laying his own heavy head of silver silk down on Sakura's pillow. Willingly, he let sleep consume him…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE- SMASH!

"Damned alarm." Sakura rubbed her eyes and looked down at the now ruined alarm clock.

"We've really got to cut back on smashing your new alarm clocks." Inner Saku said.

"Tch- really? I didn't notice." Sakura sweat-dropped and picked up the pieces of silver plastic, dumping them into her garbage can with the past few mornings' trash of what used to be alarm clocks.

When she turned around, Kakashi was still hidden under the confines of Sakura's summer comforter. The only visible part of her best friend was his hair. The long, silky spikes sticking out from the top of her comforter.

Sakura silently padded over to her bed side and sat on the edge, brushing her pale fingers through his soft locks. "…Kakashi?" –no answer. "Kakashi, you've got to get up. I leave with ANBU today. So if you would like to say goodbye, you'd better get up."

Again the man gave no answer but a relaxed, sleep-driven sigh. Sakura sat on him "…Hatake Kakashi?" she became a bit louder.

"Mmm…blah." He mumbled out.

Sakura smirked to herself. She pounced and landed right on him. Kakashi yelped…(or grunted, or whatever it is that men do when they get the wind knocked out of them. An "oof." I guess.)

"I'm up, I'm up dammit!" his voice was muffled from inside his shell of warm cotton. The bubblegum haired beauty got off of the older man and moved toward the threshold between her bedroom and her small bathroom. Her cocky walk made it obvious that she was grinning wild with victory and triumph.

"Good. I'm getting a shower, I'll let the water run so you can get one after." She said.

A head of gigantic silver spikes arose from Sakura's bed. ( rawr. ) Kakashi sat up and yawned, stretching his arms up and then scratching the back of his scalp. After, he made that annoying lip smacking noise that people make when they first wake up. ( Yeah- you do it, don't you; weirdo. )

"I'm going back to my place first to get some fresh linens, I'll be right back!" he called to the bathing woman.

With a grunt of breath, the man poked his feet out from the sheets, tensing when he placed them on the icy dogwood flooring of Sakura's bedroom.

As nonchalantly as possible, Kakashi walked next door. Some of the older women his age whistled and winked at him. He did have an amazing body for being his age of 36. But then again, it's not every day that you see a half naked Hatake Kakashi walking into his house at 6:15 am either.

"Well damn Hatake! Since when did you start getting free shows from Haruno over there?" exclaimed a rather obnoxious Jiraiya.

"Kakashi turned, glaring daggers into the damned pervert, "Shut it. You know Sakura would never do something like that. If you must barge into our business it was that Sakura screamed last night, due to her nightmares about Sasuke. I heard it and rushed over. So was rigid with horror so I made her relax and she fell asleep on me. So I laid my head down and went to sleep, instead of making her wake." He explained in a tone more on the harsh side. It seemed as if Kakashi was losing his patience with Jiraiya.

The Sharingan user walked up his front steps and looked the Sannin dead in the eye one more time. "Unlike you, we're not low and we won't do anything for sex." He then entered his own home with a calm click .

The sweat pants clad ninja then wiped his face with his gloved hand. He realized he was shaking slightly and he had become a bit sweatier because of the previous event. Adrenaline and charka were quickly pumping through his veins as he wondered why he had so carelessly gotten so worked up over a girl like Sakura. She was his best friend for Kami's sake!

Kakashi simply let the argument slip his mind. However, he let the jade eyed goddess linger in his thoughts a bit longer than usual. Grabbing his day clothes, the Jounin slipped back out the door and over to Sakura's house.

She had been in her room changing when he came bounding into her apartment, he'd guessed. With a shrug of his muscular shoulders, he traveled around the corner to her bathroom where the free hot shower awaited him.

He smiled when he walked in, closing the door behind him. The entire room was a bit foggy due to the water running for so long, and the whole room smelled of lavender. Kakashi smiled at this, and began to strip himself of the night clothes. He stepped into the water and grabbed for the white soap.

…None too soon, Kakashi staggered into the small kitchen of Sakura's apartment. He glanced around to find the chestnut cabinets, the limestone countertops, the stainless steel appliances. Then finally he'd found the color of his desire. Pink. This color of which was Sakura's short hair. Her bangs boxed around her face perfectly.

He smiled at her, only to find her entranced by even more of his bare skin. The kunoichi blinked a few times, as to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Holy shit, Hatake Kakashi was standing in Haruno Sakura's kitchen with nothing more than his battle-scarred damp skin, and yet another pair of ninja sweats. Yes, she had seen him like this about 20 minutes ago, but not wet...

She blushed, giving him a long, lingering glance over.

He smirked, knowing a certain area of which the woman was blushing at. ( And for all of you perverts out there.. no it's not his dick. xD haha. )

His perfect abs were five feet away from her! The scar trailing down over the left side of his chest, over his pectoral, and down in what seemed to be as if the weapon this was caused by had been twisted as it injured him.

"Damn girl. We've got our work cut out for us don't we?" Sakura's inner blurted out.

"Mmhm. Damn right we do. That scar just makes him all the more alluring and attractive."

"Yummmmm. Not to mention the rugged yet sexy appeal he has."

"Yeah, I know. But… but he's my best friend! I can't think like that about him!"

"Sakura… are you done drooling at me?" Kakashi chuckled aloud. He strode over to the counter and pulled a mug from the open cabinet. Pouring himself a cup of freshly brewed de-cafinated coffee, he sat down across from Sakura. She was trying positively desperately to avoid looking at him.

"You know, you're going to get both of us in trouble if you keep walking from your house to mine like that right? People are going to think way more than they should about our friendship." Sakura emphasized the last word purposely.

"Your point is?" he lazily asked, grinning at her like the damned dog he was.

Sakura suddenly stiffened at his choice of words. 'Is he suggesting something? Would he even care if people assumed we were sleeping together? Oh Kami if that's not what he really meant then don't tell me what he meant to say!" Sakura prayed.

"Cha, well it isn't my fault that you flaunt around my house and outside my house in nothing but pants and messy hair. People are going to assume we're sleeping together or something!" Sakura scolded him.

"I'll say it again, and your point i-" he was cut off.

"Shit!" I'm going to be late! Get dressed you buffoon!" Sakura scowled. Tripping over her own two feet, she hastily ran over to her black sandals and stuffed her feet into them, following up by clasping her metallic back leg guards on.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'm going, I'm going." Laughed the elder. It amused him to see her beginning to pick up his old habits. Once in her bedroom, he finished his outfit of the day with his calf wrappings, his navy tunic, and his flak jacket. Then came his headband and mask, pulling the matching cloth up to his nose and tying the forehead protector over his left eye. Lastly, he slipped on his sandals and headed for the door.

Just as they left, Sakura rushed back to her bedroom and grabbed the small grass colored box from her desk. It was tied together with a nice forest green and grey bow.

"Hah… almost forgot Shikamaru's present! Today is his twenty-second birthday you know." She awkwardly smiled.


Latest revamped better-than-my-TERRIBLE-Freshman-in-highschool writing. Haha.
Now it should be nice Talented-Freshmen-in College-English-Student! Fuck yeah Seaking! whoo! :D
anyway; R & R. Enjoy.
loves; Ra(wr). :3