Sugar

"Stupid Hokage... fucking assignment... loyalty my ass..." Sato grumbled as she packed her bag for the trip, throwing a couple nice dresses and heels along with some makeup and hair products into a scroll right next to her senbon and kunai. Next was a box of jewelry for nice occasions and a fair collection of poisons just to be safe, the new one that Hiromi-sama had given her in the mix. Lastly, she threw in a couple poison lip-glosses for good measure.

Then it was off to the gate to meet her... oh how the word stuck in her throat and burned as it made it's way to her tongue... teammate. Long ago she swore off teammates, knowing it was much safer for everyone if she just did her work on her own. The Hokage was never too keen on this but he could go suck a fat one for all the poison master cared, but she would never say that aloud or express it in any way, that's simply not how a loyal ninja of Konoha behaved. Her mind was a free zone, however.

"Odd to see you here at the gate, Sato-chan." Kotetsu said as Sato made her way to him, papers in hand. "Don't you usually just have clearance to leave?"

She slammed the papers down in front of him in irritation then forced a smile to her face for his sake. "Things have changed for this mission. My partner should be on his way hopefully."

Izumo gave the girl a strange look. "Partner? Since when have you had a partner?"

"Ask Hokage-sama." She grumbled then sighed, completely deflated from all this irritation.

The pair laughed at the girl in front of them. "Poor Sato-chan, it'll probably be good for you even if you don't like it." Kotetsu said first, soon followed by his partner, "A ninja has to be flexible, Sato-san."

A twinkle shown in Sato's eye as something came to mind and she took on a seductive gaze as she leaned over the counter, pressing her breasts up in the process. "Oh you know how flexible I can be, don't you Izumo-kun? How could you doubt me?"

The chunin gate guard blushed at the suggestive nature of her tone. "But I- you- we never..."

Kotetsu laughed and slapped his partner on the back to break him from his trance. "Go easy on him, Sato-chan."

Sato's eyes returned to normal and she smiled brightly. "I've missed you boys." She then leaned far over the counter and planted a kiss on each man's cheek before sweeping up her paperwork and fluttering off with a wave. "Later boys!"

Neither one could have guessed it would happen, it's an odd occurrence even in the ninja villages. But somehow the timing was just right to land Kakashi's shunshin right in Sato's path. They collided and then ended up in a heap in the dirt, the poison master's leg slung over her partner's chest while her chest pressed into his neck and against his chin.

Sato scrambled off of him and bowed low, keeping her head down. "My apologies Kakashi-san, I didn't see you."

Kakashi watched the girl as he rose to his feet and brushed off his pants a little. In that moment he was quite thankful for his mask wearing habit in that it was covering the red that was tinting his cheeks. "No need Sato-san, it was only an accident, no harm done." How was it that this woman could affect him when he had dealt with situations that were much more... intimate? If he let his thoughts linger on how she felt on top of him the situation would get a lot harder to deal with so he forced himself to abandon the thought and focus on the mission, a much safer topic. "Shall we leave?"

Sato rose from her bow and looked at him confused until a glimmer of realization shone in her eyes. "Oh, oh yes! I almost forgot why it was we were here." She laughed, trying to ease her own embarrassment. "We should be on our way then."

Their first night was spent in a hotel, as was Sato's insistence. Kakashi only questioned it for the fact that most ninja didn't venture into town while traveling unless completely necessary, but Sato's argument was strong. She told him where they would be staying and took off, he simply didn't have the mental energy to argue with her. Plus there was no real harm in a nice soft bed for the night if that was what the lady desired, though Kakashi was sure he wouldn't be able to sleep comfortably either way so it was nothing to him.

Sato bounded over to him in a strangely graceful manner, Kakashi wasn't sure how, and waved a key up in front of him. "Half price, beat that Mr. Mask."

He smiled slightly, knowing he could with a free tree outside but it wouldn't matter anyway, her amusement was enough for him.

They made their way to the room indicated on the key, Sato unlocked it and pushed the door open to reveal a relatively small but quaint room with two beds, a full bathroom, small table, and large windows that were covered by thick drapes. It was a tight fit with everything, but there was plenty of space for the two ninja who had surely experienced worse.

"I'm going to take a shower," Sato said as she set her bag down on the bed closest to the window and started to rummage through it. "Running like that makes me sweaty and gross."

Kakashi listened to the shutting of the bathroom door and the water begin to run, set a few traps by the windows and door to the room, and finally decided it was safe enough to relax a little with his book, laying on the other bed with his arm behind his head and his book over his face. Almost a half hour had passed when the bathroom door opened again to reveal a freshly showered Sato, wet hair and all. She donned a thigh length black robe that clashed nicely again her pale skin, her dipping hair pinned up loosely so that strands still hung against her back.

Sato rose an eyebrow at her masked partner. "What?"

Kakashi then realized that he had been staring and turned his attention back to the pages of his book. "Nothing. How's the shower?"

The pink haired woman tilted her head to the side slightly and smirked for a fraction of a moment, noticing what his eye was telling that his mouth wouldn't say for a time he had been looking at her. "Refreshing." She then moved slowly to sit on the edge of his bed, crossing one leg over the other and allowing her robe to reveal the top of her thigh. "Have you read up on the details of the mission?"

"Yes, it seems you'll be doing all the real work," he said without looking up at her. "I'm just a face here."

"You're the main attraction, Kakashi-san." Sato said with a little laugh, leaning a fraction closer to the man. "I'm just your attractive young date."

"Mhmm." That was all the copy-nin could allow himself to say, knowing if he tried to give any other response it would bite him in the rear end by the conclusion of this mission at least if not the night.

Sato nibbled slightly on her lip, keeping keen focus on the man that simply refused to look at her or even acknowledge her. It was odd for her, on the missions she had been forced to have a partner she would always be fighting them off and end up having to threaten them with her lipgloss, promising them that she would always have it on and they would never know. It wasn't something she enjoyed dealing with, but it was what she had grown accustom to so a flip in the situation was a bit of a turn for her mind. Kakashi was certainly an interesting man, but that didn't change her situation and long time decision to keep men out of her life. Still... something pulled her closer to him... the look in his eye when he would let her look, the way he spoke, the simple movement of his body, it all made her want to be closer to him against her better judgment.

She licked her lips, clean, harmless, safe. Sometimes it helped to know that nothing lingered on them even after the harsh cleaning she did of her mouth and surrounding areas just to be on the safe side every night. She brought her hands up to her face discreetly, smelling them to make sure no poison material was there either. A sigh almost escaped her lips, she was completely safe. The kunoichi leaned in closer to her teammate, her hand resting on the bed by his hip.

Kakashi could feel every move she made, he knew what she was doing and wasn't quite sure when he planned to stop her. Because of course he was going to stop her, but when? She wasn't touching him, they were safe there. Her clothes were still on, relatively, so that was alright. She hadn't mentioned anything... outside the mission guidelines. Kakashi took a moment to congratulate himself on the wording of that thought, the other options not being as safe as that was. How much closer would he let her get? How much closer... did he want her? It was a dangerous thought to begin with, and the copy-nin wasn't sure how long he wanted to entertain it. Somehow it lingered in his mind and he found it hard to keep his eyes focused on the book in his hands instead of wandering to the woman sitting at his feet.

"You're being rather quiet, Kakashi-san." The words left her mouth in a much softer tone than she had intended, but she decided that was the loudest she was able to speak at this point. "Is there something you'd like to talk about? The mission, perhaps? How we plan to go about this? I mean, we've never worked together before, it might be a good idea to have some set... rules."

For kage's sake, he could control his eyes, his hands, mostly his mind, and pretty much every other part of his body, but Kakashi's darn nose just wouldn't let up. He had smelled her the moment she came out of the bathroom and the closer she got the stronger the smell became. It wasn't just soap or perfume that he smelled, like most thought and put all their efforts into, it was her actual bodily scent that was different for every person. Sato's was rich and strong, only slightly tainted by chemicals which proved she took great care to rid her body of anything that might linger on her, a true poison master by all accounts that he was familiar with. With every breath through his nose, he felt his resolve and control weakening, and it wasn't even because a half naked woman was slowly invading his personal space, though that didn't help the situation either. His strong nose had become a good tool in his ninja tool belt, but right now he cursed the canine like strength of it.

Delicate fingers gently gripped the top of his book and started to push it down so he was forced to look at the woman next to him. He knew he couldn't hide anything from her when she looked in his one visible eye, that was all she needed to dive right into his thoughts and emotions without any effort at all. So he gave up fighting, he let her take his book from his hand, let her move in closer so her hip pressed into his, let her lean over him until her chest brushed against his just slightly.

It wasn't until her hand moved up to his face that he was able to stop her, taking the small fingers in his. "Normal protocol... that should be plenty of rules, yes? Sato-san...?"

Sato stared into that one eye fiercely, taking in everything it gave her, then finally forced herself to respond to the man beneath her. "Yes, that should be fine."

The look he gave her was familiar, she'd seen it from him before but also from someone that existed only in her past now. It was a strong stare, one that not many could ignore once noticed. As memories filled her mind, Sato decided it was best to let go of these strange desires and actions so as not to dig up a past she wasn't prepared to face. She looked away and started to move from his side, but when she tried to pull away from him, he gripped her hand tighter and made her attention return to his face and that stare.

"What are you doing, Kakashi-san?"

His eye wouldn't leave her and his hand never loosened. "I... don't know..." Then his other hand moved of it's own free will and found itself on her pale yet reddened cheek; blushing from the heat of the shower she just came from, he decided as the safest explanation.

"You're not... making sense..." Sato said weakly, helplessly allowing him to pull her in closer to him and thwarting all her efforts to distance herself from a situation she was losing control of.

"I know." Kakashi whispered, closing his eye reflexively for what he knew was coming.

"Please... please stop."

The quiver in Sato's voice made Kakashi open his eye quickly to find that the woman above him had started tearing up. Terrified that he had done something seriously wrong, the masked man quickly released her hand and face, resulting in her quick jump back onto the bed she had claimed. He wasn't sure what he should do, thinking that comforting her was out of the question simply because he wasn't about to get within a few feet of her after what had happened.

Sato's shoulders shook slightly and she rubbed at her eyes as she realized what she had done. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... you just... your eye it..."

Kakashi stood and turned his back to her, not wanting to face the emotions that the woman in front of him was having trouble controlling. "Don't worry about it, I'm just going to go do a perimeter check." Then he started to make his way to the door even though he knew it was completely pointless to do a perimeter check in a situation like this but it was his only option out right now.

"Kakasht, wait!" Sato reached for his arm but he was quicker than her, taking a hold of her wrist before she came close to touching him.

"I said don't worry about it, we don't need to talk about it." His tone was empty and professional, much worse than his usual stoic tone of voice.

"But we do," Sato argued, regaining her strength and confidence in herself. "You don't know what just happened."

"I don't need an explanation."

Sato stood and pulled her wrist out of his grip, though it didn't take much effort as he let go on the first indication that she wanted released. She walked around him to stand in front of him and looked up at his face. "Maybe not, but I need you to listen."

Kakashi couldn't deny her no matter how much he wanted to walk right past her and out that door, so he nodded slightly and sat on the edge on his bed. Sato relaxed a little and sat on the edge of her bed so she was facing him.

"If I know you like I think I do I'm sure you've done your research on me and know what it is that I can do," she began, fiddling with the tie of her robe. "Your eyes, or eye, tell me all kinds of things that you have no control over. I'm used to this with people and I use it to my advantage, it's been this way my entire life."

"I'm aware of this." Kakashi said, staring at the floor. "What did you read from me that gave you such a fright then?"

The poison master gave a large sigh and hung her head low. "Nothing definitive... exactly... it's just the look in your eye is the same as someone I used to know. Someone... who was in love with me."

The copy-nin chuckled, finding it was the only response that he could give.

Sato bit her lip hard and tried not to cry. "You don't... get it Kakashi..."

He finally focused his grey eye on her, irritated. "What? What do I not understand Sato?"

She couldn't stop herself from wringing her hands, stalling slightly before she had to let out the truth. "It's just... I... I killed him."

You hate me now, don't you? Sorry about that.

Still no reviews... :( But more faves and follows, so thank you for that. Though just this once, could you drop a little review? Just a tiny tiny one? Maybe?

Either way, I do apologize for not getting this out on the time schedule that I promised, my first week of college was a little overwhelming and actually I'm posting this 5 hours before my morning class... so yeah. Hope you're all good and enjoyed this chapter to some degree.

Until next time!