Disclaimers: I don't own Naruto in any way shape or form. If I did, Kakashi would be mine.

A.N. – I hope you enjoy! Thanks to my beta Platti

Chapter 3: Inside View

"Where the hell have you been?" The question was asked with such venom that Sakura froze for a moment.

'This is the start of it, don't freeze up now,' Sakura thought to herself as she desperately tried to remember that she didn't want to live in fear. She didn't want to let something such as fear interfere with her life. The girl would not allow it to control her.

Not knowing how her father would react, if he would be abusive and lash out or play mind games, Sakura decided she should remain calm.

"Our client lied to us about the nature of our mission. It was actually an A-ranked mission and took longer than we thought it would. We just got back from it," Sakura answered in a surprisingly calm voice.

"Oh really? I suppose it didn't occur to you that you should have informed me and your mother immediately?" Her father raged as he stood up and got in her face.

Sakura knew she'd get in trouble for it but she glared at him as annoyance set in. Her tone was reflective of her aggravation.

"I'm a ninja now; I won't always be able to inform you of changes to the mission plan, where I am, what we're doing, or when I'll be home. It's just not realistic or feasible."

"I don't care if you're a ninja. I'm your father and I demand to know where you are and if you don't like it tough shit. If you aren't able to tell me where you are all the time and are incapable of keeping us informed, then you can quit. You're still a minor and if I don't approve then you can't do it."

Her father's face was smug as he crossed his arms over his chest. He loved pissing her off and upsetting her by taking away the things Sakura loved. He was best summed up as a control freak and practically got off at being such an ass.

Sakura was shaking. She was so pissed and frustrated that she couldn't help the tears that slipped past her eyes. It pissed her off even more that she was crying but she was so angry that she couldn't hold it in.

'There's no way he can take it away. The third would notice something was wrong if I quit and would interfere. I think Kakashi-sensei would interfere though I'm not really sure. Grr. He makes me so angry, the fucking smug ass bastard. I wish he'd fucking die. I wish I was a match for him but the best I can do is yelling back and stand my ground,' Sakura thought to herself.

Knowing it'd most likely cause her more trouble, but not caring because the point needed to be made, she talked back in an attempt to put her father in some place.

"It's too late to interfere and stop me from being a ninja," Sakura said coolly.

"Really? Want to test that out? I think you should miss training and anything related for a couple weeks so you can reflect on who the adult is and who makes the decisions around here."

"NO!" Sakura's voice was loud, angry and dripping with hate as she yelled her response to the conniving bastard.

"Excuse me? Would you like to make it 4 weeks?"

"My team will look for me and want to know why I'm not there."

"Guess they'll have to deal."

"It'll be considered abandonment of duty and possible treason."

"That'll be your problem to deal with, not mine."

Her father sounded malicious with a smug smile during that comment.

Sakura glared harder and smirked herself before responding.

"You're wrong; they'll blame you when I tell them what happened. They'll accuse you of treason and let me go."

The look on her father's face was a look of shock that quickly turned to outrage.

Before Sakura could register his actions, her father raised his hand and smacked her.

The smack stung but thankfully it wasn't too hard, though if it had she would have been able to claim abuse and possibly gotten him in trouble. Sakura had no doubt in her mind that her father knew for such reasons to not leave proof.

"Go to your room, we'll finish this in the morning."

Sakura really wanted to argue but at the same time she was so angry and tired that she'd rather deal with the issue in the morning. Being rested would make it easier for her to think straight and make even better arguments, allowing her to hopefully outsmart him.

**

At the moment Sakura was currently sitting in her room, on top of her neatly made bed.

She had been slightly tired when she woke up but she couldn't sleep any later with her father pounding on her door. Apparently he felt she should be up early just for him to keep her from meeting her team.

Sakura had tried to argue with him but it had been futile. He didn't give an inch and her mother, who always avoided confrontation, was of no help. Eventually Sakura gave up and had resigned herself to her bedroom.

The pink haired girl released a long sigh.

'I'm sure Kakashi-sensei or even Naruto will come looking for me. Everyone on the team knows that I am never late and it isn't my style to skip out either. I hope Kakashi-sensei can talk to my father and make him see some light.'

Sakura groaned to herself.

'Great. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei can help me; especially with as serious as he takes being a ninja but this still sucks. It'll be embarrassing needing him to help me with my father and the hard time he's giving me. I hope he doesn't see me a weak. Luckily there isn't much of a bruise from the slap last night so I hope he doesn't notice.'

**

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, Sakura isn't normally late and she's not irresponsible enough to miss a meeting," Sasuke replied to Naruto's question.

Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke and took in the sight before him with a frown.

Naruto was looking apprehensive and Sasuke was frowning with a look of concentration on his face.

Sakura was…

Kakashi blinked and looked around to see where his only female student was.

Turning back to the two boys he asked them "Where is Sakura?"

"We don't know. You are several hours late and we haven't seen her all morning. We were hoping you might know," Naruto answered.

Kakashi's gaze hardened and he stiffened slightly.

'Judging by her reaction last night to Naruto's question and her lack of showing up it might be safe to guess things didn't go well. Is she not here because of her own reason? Would her parents actually stop her from showing up?'

Kakashi released a sigh.

'I'll have to look into it after we report to the Hokage. We're late enough as it is and it'd possibly make matters worse if Sasuke and Naruto are with me. I hope it's something simple, I really don't need this and don't want to have to possibly interfere in anyone's home life.'

"Okay, first we'll report the mission to the Hokage. Then you two are to go train either with each other or by yourselves. I'll go to see what the situation is with Sakura afterwards. Maybe she forgot to set her alarm and was exhausted," Kakashi said while hoping he was easing the tension.

With that they went and gave the mission report before the boys left to train and Kakashi looked for his lost student.

The Third Hokage had expressed concern over the matter as well but trusted Kakashi to resolve it.

**

Sakura looked miserable. She was stewing in her own thoughts, furthering her uncomfortable and dejected feelings with the current situation.

'Kakashi-sensei said he'd talk to them if need be but he can't if he doesn't know he needs to. What if he's angry at me for not trying harder to get past dad or for not sneaking out? Will he tell me I'm no longer worthy of being on the team and kick me off it? Will he tell Naruto and Sasuke? Will they all hate me or laugh at me?'

The more Sakura thought to herself, the more withdrawn she was and more depressed she felt. She really wanted to cry but knew it wouldn't help and she'd just feel even weaker and more useless.

So absorbed in her thoughts, the girl didn't notice an arrival in her room until the man spoke.

**

Kakashi had thought about knocking on the door but decided to see if he could find Sakura and avoid her parents if possible. He really loathed the thought of dealing with them and wasn't going to do so if it was unnecessary.

He saw her from her balcony and noticed the look on her face.

'She looks miserable,' Kakashi thought to himself.

At that moment he was angry.

'I need to find out what's wrong. They are my students and soldiers now. If it's something she's feeling or upset about that'll probably be easy to fix, even if it's not my favorite thing in the world. However, if someone else is interfering and getting between her and her team and ninja duties…'

The thought trailed off as Kakashi felt a wave of possession or protectiveness. Just because he didn't let people in didn't mean he wasn't protective of what was his. This included his village, his friends, colleagues, books, and now included his students as well.

Making his choice, he entered her room and went to stand in front of where she sat on her bed.

"What's wrong Sakura?" His tone was gentle. He knew it's what was required when dealing with her or any upset girl.

She started and looked up at him with bright green eyes that were so close to letting tears escape.

"Sensei!"

That was the only warning he had. She launched at him and hugged him.

He let her and even wrapped both arms around her for a few moments. After that he lifted her, set her on her bed and tucked her hair behind her ears.

As he wiped away her tears, he made calming sounds while telling her it was okay and that everything would be fine.

Once she was calmed down enough he voiced the question to the reason behind his visit.

"Why didn't you show up for our debriefing?"

Sakura stiffened and flinched slightly before starting in on her explanation. She told him about her father's reaction the night before, the whole fight, everything said, and the blow up that they had this morning. Her father had went so far as to threaten to put bars over the door to the balcony and take off her bedroom door if he found out she snuck out from her room.

Pissed.

Kakashi couldn't believe what he was hearing

'Oh, that fucking bastard, I'm going to rip him a new one.'

Other thoughts were going through his mind and his expression had hardened, until he notice Sakura scoot back.

'So it's like that. He's the reason she's different from what's been told, I'd bet money on it.'

Kakashi let go a long and calming sigh.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan. Leave it up to me, I'll be sure to straighten this out. I'm glad you told me, though I wish I'd known sooner. That's not really your fault though."

With that Kakashi did something very uncharacteristic for him, it was driven by his need and desire to comfort the girl and let her know he'd never harm her.

He leaned over and gave her a masked kiss on her forehead before heading down to confront her father.

'Yup, he's officially on my shit list and I'm PISSED!'

* *

So there's another chapter. Sorry it wasn't out sooner. The next chapter… Yeah, Kakashi is pissed. He was territorial with Iruka in the anime about them being his little soldiers so I imagine he'd beyond angry about stuff like this.

I hope you enjoy. Please review.

PS- just as I was finishing editing this some things have come up that will make my life hectic for awhile. Therefore while I am not abandoning this story it might take me longer than I want to get the chapters written and posted. I apologize, but unfortunately life sucks.