Chapter 4

-X-

After a relaxing shower and a cup of Yamato's jasmine tea, Sakura finally allowed her anger to ebb away as she looked at the plants that littered Yamato's flat.

"You sure have a liking for plants," she commented randomly. "Which one is your favorite?"

"I have three favorites," he answered smoothly. "The Japanese maples, the oaks and the cherries. But I can't have any of them here; they grow too tall."

"Nice picks, Yamato," she smiled. "I have a liking for the cherries myself, but mostly because of my name, you know."

"I think it suits you," he smirked when he noticed her faint blush. "More tea?"

"Thanks, but I think I'm heading to bed... good night, Yamato."

"Rest well, Sakura," he waved as she stood up from the garden chair he kept on the balcony. "I'll give you the codes for the wireless tomorrow if you need them."

"I appreciate your help," she smiled. "See you tomorrow."

As she disappeared through the balcony doors, he let out a deep sigh.

The doctor was incredibly beautiful; he had noticed it as soon as she raised her head when he offered her purse back after he knocked out the mugger. Her dark green eyes were her most striking feature, in his opinion, because they had the color of the rainforests after a rainy night.

Shaking his head, he lifted his eyes to the bank of stars. He had been alone for far too long, he concluded.

-X-

A nice yawn greeted Yamato's good morning, making him smile in amusement.

"Sorry," Sakura said sleepily with a smile of her own. "I think I overslept."

"It's okay," he said lightly. "It's only ten in the morning."

Sakura groaned and yawned again. "That bed sucks all my energy; it makes me want to laze around on it all day."

"A friend of mine used to say the same thing when he crashed over," Yamato commented, pouring a cup of coffee for her. "Although I personally think that he's just lazy by nature."

She let out a laugh. "I don't share that view of life, but after sleeping on that bed I can totally see why," she joked, plugging in her black tablet computer and arranging all the cables, creating her workstation on the dining table. Yamato's gray and green laptop was open across the table, a soft music filtered through its speakers.

"Here, there's sugar on the table," he said as he placed the mug on the table next to her computer. "These are the codes for the wireless connection," he added, pointing to a piece of paper. "I figured you could work better if you had access to the Internet."

She nodded as she sipped the steaming black substance and hummed to show her approval of its taste. "Yes, I need to check some things on the Medical Fed's site... thank you, Yamato, it's very thoughtful of you."

He just let out a little smile and sat in front of his computer, glancing from time to time to at the disheveled pink-haired medic that was holding the cup of coffee with two hands while her laptop started its system.

Soon, he saw how she slipped into work mode as she started to type. Her eyes were focused on the screen, a nice, soft golden glow from the window was lighting up her face, enhancing her focused beauty as he listened to her dancing fingers on her keyboard.

Suddenly, her eyes lifted from her laptop. "Is that Loreena McKennitt?"

Yamato smiled behind his coffee mug, pleased that she had recognized his choice of music. "Yes, she's one of my favorite musicians."

"I love her music as well," she noted, offering him a grin as she lowered her now awake emerald orbs to her work and resumed her fast typing.

After a long while, he stood up and retrieved her mug, refilling it as well as his with more coffee, giving him the chance to see her screen. A white sheet of the word processor was filled with sentences and long paragraphs, while most of her investigation was opened in several browser windows.

Being a lover of silences, he didn't dare to interrupt her concentration, but he had to notice how her lower lip was being sucked as she pondered over an idea, and how her eyebrow lifted to express her sudden understanding of the redaction she was making.

"Say, do you think it's wise to start a speech with a joke or with a something serious?"

Her question took him by surprise. "A joke is a good ice-breaker, but sometimes it's not wise to crack one in a room full of solemn people."

"Tell me about it," Sakura snorted. "Naruto made that mistake the first time Hinata invited him for tea at her house. Her father and her cousin weren't really pleased with his joke about drunkards."

Yamato laughed heartily. "It depends on the audience, yes... but glum things mostly call off the attention of most of the audience if you start with... I don't know, AIDS or the ozone layer," he concluded with a wince when she lifted both her eyebrows when she heard him.

"Then... okay, I think I got it," she smiled widely and threw him a wink. "Thanks for your input!"

"Don't mention it," he answered, watching her long, slender and very feminine fingers dancing over the keyboard in an inspirational frenzy.

Shaking his head to dispel a certain naughty thought about those fingers, he returned to his work, sending glances from time to time to the roseate-haired medic sitting across the table.

Little did he know, that she was stealing glances at him as well.

A while later, a frustrated groan from Sakura pulled Yamato out of his concentration.

"I swear to Kami, this is getting ridiculous," she muttered quite audibly. The biologist lifted a questioning brow as her eyes connected to his.

"What's wrong?" he asked lightly. She rolled her eyes and pointed to her screen.

"Sasuke keeps thinking that he can be my knight in shining armor," she confided with a sarcastic tone. "He sent me an email saying that he had reinforced the security in the Uchiha mansion for me to go and stay there."

"Ah, now the name rings a bell," he said. Sure enough, the Uchiha Corporation was the main technology company in the city. "If you want, you can humor him. I won't hold it against you."

To his surprise, Sakura sent an exasperated glare at him. "Hell no. I won't go there, Sasuke needs to understand that my relationship with his brother is over and I won't make the same mistake with him."

Now, Yamato had to admit he was curious. A little of his sentiment showed on his eyes, because Sakura shook her head in wry amusement.

"Back in college, Itachi and I started dating and I didn't even know he was Sasuke's older brother," she explained, leaning her head on her palm supported by her elbow on the table. "When I found out I freaked out because if his status as president of the Uchiha Corp, but it turned out that Itachi didn't mind being seen with a med-school student. We kept our liaison until I reached my final semester, but then Sasuke found out about us from his father and went berserk."

"Why?" Yamato asked. "You were dating his brother, not him."

"Apparently Sasuke had a thing for me, Itachi told me once but I thought he was just joking," she sighed. "Itachi and I broke up because we are from different worlds, and I wasn't about to accept being a housewife after graduating from med-school with honors. Surprisingly, he understood what I meant, and now he's a good friend of mine, despite of how Sasuke gets pissed every single time I say he called to check on me out of friendship."

"It seems to me that Sasuke is jealous," he said with a smile, watching how she rolled her eyes again and let out an annoyed laugh.

"The thing is that I had a crush on Sasuke when we were in high school, but he always blew me off, and when Itachi showed some interest in me, he went berserk because he thought I would wait for his arrogant ass to make up his mind," she elaborated, balancing her pencil between two fingers and making some movements with it as if it was a scalpel. "Itachi and Sasuke have had this rivalry going on since Itachi left the Uchiha Corp to join the Akatsuki Tech Board, and I sort of was dragged in the middle of it. I admit that I had fun with Itachi, but sometimes I just wanted... freedom, you know? I'm not made to be a socialite lady, I like to curse like a truck driver and stress over a patient and dig my hands into a person's body to fix them up."

Yamato laughed at her explanation, while she grinned widely.

"Certainly that sounds like a soap opera," he teased, earning a laugh and a tongue stuck out at him. "But I'm glad you could overcome that and be the person you are now. All the hardships we have to endure in life shape our character and make us better people."

"I agree, and even now Sasuke doesn't seem to take a hint," Sakura frowned, rereading the email. "Oh look, this is one of my graduation pictures," she added, sending the picture through their connection to his laptop.

If Yamato thought she was beautiful, watching her young self with that ecstatic aura that seemed to radiate from the digital picture was nothing short of breathtaking. Her black robe with a yellow lining told him that she had graduated Summa Cum Laude. She was standing next to a grinning Naruto and three smiling women, one brunette, one blonde and the last one was purple-haired.

"Tenten, Ino and Hinata," she said, pointing at each one of the ladies. Yamato blinked in surprise when he felt her standing next to him. He was so engrossed watching the picture that he hadn't perceived her standing and walking up to him. "Naruto was so happy for me that he couldn't leave me alone."

"I've seen this lady before," he commented, pointing at Ino. She snorted and sent him a sly glance.

"She's Shiranui Ino, Konoha's Secret's favorite cover model," she said with a smirk. "Her face is on the billboards all over Konoha. She's on her final trimester though, she's expecting Genma's baby soon."

"See, I knew I wasn't that lost," he shot back. "She did a commercial with a bunch of white lilies and a bonsai tree."

"Oh Kami, and how we teased her about that!" Sakura laughed. "It was a shampoo commercial, but when it was released I was pulling a twenty-four shift at the hospital and I couldn't see it... until Naruto and Sai brought it on Sai's computer. I haven't laughed like that in years. Poor Ino though, she took a grudge against those products and got Genma to terminate that contract. It was a good thing, because I diagnosed her pregnancy a week later and ordered to stop fooling with the TV commercials."

"Something like that happened to a friend of mine," he commented, as he shuffled through his own picture folder in his laptop. Opening a photo, he pointed at a brunette woman that was smiling triumphantly under the grime that covered her face and uniform. To her side, a younger Yamato and two other males were making peace signs to the camera. Behind them, a large hangar door showed part of an airplane's wing. "This is Rin, she was the medic of our squad. Obito and Hatake-sempai were the most close to her. We were doing maneuvers over the Grass Country's territory and suddenly, Obito's plane started to fall, seemingly without control. She screeched over the radio for Obito to make him react, but we got nothing as if he were unconscious. It turned out that he was merely playing a prank on her. When Rin found out, she cursed him into next century, and when we went back to the base she punched him and kissed him in front of everyone. They got married a year later."

"What a nice story..." she said with a smile, looking at the picture. "I didn't know you were a pilot, Yamato."

"I surfed through many branches of the forces, but yes, I got to be a pilot for a while."

"And here I thought you were a peaceful naturalist," she teased, winking at him and returning to her computer. "So there is more to you than meets the eye."

"I'm a military child, what can I tell you?" he said with a furtive smirk, enjoying how she blushed when their gazes connected once more.

-X-

They had spent the days working on their own tasks, listening to music and having pleasant conversation about their pasts, having wine with their takeout food and tea with their breakfasts. He showed her how to punch the bag he used to keep himself toned, and she laughed at herself when the bag knocked her flat on her ass. She had helped him with some programs on his laptop he didn't know how to use, and he chuckled when she showed him that it was better for him to forget about said programs, promptly getting a hold of the most suitable ones for his needs through the Internet.

They had been checked on by Shikamaru everyday, who had told them that the lab was running late with the tests results but everything was okay on that field. He listened to Sakura's frustrated rant, letting her vent her anger as an annoyed Shikamaru on the phone tried to reason with the irate doctor. She watched how he had taken over the situation, promising the Nara that they weren't expecting less from the Police, just a little hurry and a bit of understanding. This made her realize something, something she was too confused and apprehensive to ponder about and try to label it with its proper name.

It took a little while and a call to the Nara Detective but they got enough clearance for them to go out of the apartment a few days later on an evening. Yamato had invited Sakura to dinner in order to celebrate that his latest article got published. She had accepted graciously, saying something about feeling like a bird in a cage from the confinement they had placed upon themselves since their visit to the Police.

But when she opened the door of her bedroom to join him on the spacious living room, he promptly forgot that it was impolite to stare. She hadn't noticed, so engrossed she was with the magazine he had given to her when she demanded playfully to read his winning article.

Black slacks and a nice emerald-green sleeveless halter blouse that had an uneven hem, almost draping on Sakura's right hip. She completed her outfit with a black and light green shawl, pulled on her shoulders almost carelessly. She also had blow-dried her long hair, and the little make up she had put on her eyes and lips did nothing but accentuate her beauty.

Finally lifting her eyes from the magazine, Sakura smiled widely, trying not to blush. Yamato had a casual air around him, with black pants and a white long-sleeved shirt that was unbuttoned at his neck. His dark brown hair was as mussed as usual, but that fact added to his casual and laidback countenance a little bit of sexiness when he chose to throw a lazy smirk at the medic.

Sakura blushed a bit more, but she ignored it. "This article is amazing!" she exclaimed, trying to save face by lowering her eyes back to the magazine. "And you wrote this two days ago! I'm impressed, Yamato, I couldn't pull a thing like this on such a short notice!"

"Everything was here," he said lightly, pointing at his head. "I visited the Memorial Park and everything came to me when I saw the willows."

"I haven't been at that park in ages, but I remember the willow trees..." she mused out loud. He nodded, grabbing his coat and handing Sakura hers.

"It's a very romantic place, if you ask me."

As she busied herself by pulling her coat on, she missed the amused smirk that graced Yamato's features as he enjoyed the light blush that graced hers when he opened the door and offered her his arm.

Officer Asuma nodded at them when they stepped out of the building, following them as he took a drag of his cigarette. Sakura threw him a reproachful glance, ever the doctor, but Yamato was more preoccupied with his surroundings. Checking every corner as they walked down the streets of Konoha, he vowed to himself that nothing would ever happen to the medic if he had a say in it.

Placing his hand on the small of her back, he led her towards a close restaurant he knew.

The owner of the restaurant was a friend of Yamato's, judging from how fondly he saluted him. Bowing gallantly to Sakura, the man brought them to a reserved booth, all the while exchanging smiles and quick, witty jokes with Sakura's date.

Both males didn't notice when the pretty doctor turned red at the thought. A date. She was on a date, with a rather handsome scientist.

As her subconscious threw a party inside her head, she busied herself with taking off her strap sandals and taking a seat on the large cushion in front of the low table, trying to be as demure as possible with both her legs flexed to a side. Sending a prayer of thanks at her forethought to wear pants instead of a dress, she lifted her gaze to Yamato, who had sat in front of her while the owner of the place retreated with a chuckle.

She lifted an amused brow. "What was that all about?"

"Don't mind him," Yamato replied with a light smirk. "Dan keeps thinking that I'm an ascetic monk, and he got really surprised with your presence."

"Oh Kami," she gasped, laughing.

"Serves him right, in my opinion," he elaborated. "He'd been dating a beautiful woman as well but apparently he's too scared to commit himself to her."

"And how my presence serves him well?"

"Because he got to see he's not the only one dating a pretty doctor, as he liked to brag."

Sakura laughed heartily at his witty comeback, while enjoying how the low chuckles coming from Yamato lightened the air even more. Examining her surroundings, she was surprised to see that they had been seated in one of the most exclusive of tables. The Indian restaurant was rather reclusive, a handful of Western-like tables and four low Eastern-styled low tables with big cushions around them, creating the perfect set for those who wanted to experiment an out of the ordinary experience while having an exotic meal.

"And how did your friend get this restaurant? It seems so different than the traditional ones."

"Dan traveled with me across the continents," Yamato explained. "When we visited Sunagakure he fell in love with the style and the colors, so he brought a cook and a few helpers back to Konoha, opening this place. Although he doesn't know a thing about Suna Indian dishes, it seems that it was a big hit among the right people."

"I've never had Suna Indian food before," the medic confided in a whisper. "I hope I don't make a fool of myself."

"You have to be careful though, the Suna Indian curry is quite spicier than ours," the biologist pointed at his menu. "Do you like spicy foods?"

"Not really," she answered with a purse of her lips. "I can take it, but it's not my coup de grĂ¢ce."

"I've tried a lot of dishes, but the Chicken Tikka Masala is my favorite. It's not spicy, but not that mild either. I think that one needs to try everything at least once, for the sake of experiencing different things in life."

"I agree," she nodded as she perused the menu. "Sometimes I just want to grab a suitcase and fly to Wave to spend the week without worries. I love the beach as much as the next person, but the Wave Islands have something that makes them awesome; its mangrove forests are beautiful."

"So you've been in Wave?" Yamato asked, pleased by this new discovery of this pretty pink-haired woman, smiling when she nodded and grinned.

"My three girl friends and I escaped from the boys and the madness of college on a spring break and we had a blast," she relayed. "I got my internship in the Konoha General when I got back, but it served us to take a breather before plunging back to our respective works. Tenten got accepted in the work she had applied for, and Hinata took over the leadership of her clan's company, along with her cousin. As for Ino, she got back to modeling, meeting Genma in a photo shoot in Cloud... and like the storytellers say, the rest is history."

"I've never been in Wave before," Yamato said, "but I did get the opportunity to go to Stone. I saw the volcanoes quite closely, especially this one that was active... and erupted the next day we went there."

"Kami-sama!" she exclaimed, eyes wide with shock. "How did everything go? Did somebody get hurt?"

"Relax, Sakura, the volcano is located well away from the population. It's actually near the Rock Canyon, near the Stone border with Grass. But even back at the camp we could see the eruption in its whole glory. It's quite a fascinating sight."

"Whoa," she smiled, feeling that not only the volcanoes were the topic of conversation, especially when Yamato's dark brown eyes kept fixing themselves on her emerald orbs. She felt a light flutter on her stomach when he smiled at her after saying something amusing, adding a little more to the blush that dusted her cheeks every time he sent that smile at the doctor.

A little warning flashed at the back of her mind, but she didn't pay attention, so busy she was with the food, the company, and the talk.

-X-

The evening went without a hitch for them.

She had enjoyed herself immensely, sharing more stories with the naturalist, finding out that the man not only wasn't as sedate as he initially seemed, but also quite interesting and well-versed in the ways of the world. Sakura had seen a glimpse of that on their little chats back at his apartment, but the new location for their conversation seemed to open a new side of her gracious host, letting her see how much she had to know about him.

All in all, she had been right. There was more to Yamato that met the eye.

And that fascinated her, forgetting for a moment about the little warning that sounded in her head every single time he smiled at her, drowned by the sound of her own pounding heart.

They returned to the flat a little while after midnight, strolling casually after a well-spent evening where the wine and the fun had been quite endearing for both parties.

Sakura laughed quietly when her high-heeled sandal got stuck in the pavement, almost sending her to the ground if it wasn't for his quick reflexes. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Yamato leveled her back to her feet, finding that he really didn't want to free her from his embrace.

"Careful," he admonished lightly, lifting his eyes in alert when a car passed by the sidewalk. The pink-haired doctor noticed his reaction and smiled crookedly, finally feeling tipsy.

"I don't need to be careful if you're with me, Yamato," she whispered, training her eyes on his as she placed her hands on his coat-covered chest. "You went through so much trouble for me... and yet you're still protecting me. And I haven't thanked you enough."

"Your company was more than enough for me, Sakura," he said, not thinking that she really knew how much he meant those words. "I should thank you for this lovely evening."

They resumed their walking; his arm still perched around the beautiful medic's mid-back as she leaned closer to him, seeking his warmth as the night cooled. Yamato almost wished that the way back home was longer, so content he felt next to her.

"The night is so beautiful," she whispered. "How many stars do you think there are up there?"

"Too many to keep count," he answered lightly, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stargaze again without reminding about this little moment. "The stars are so many that not even all the leaves on all the trees in the world could match their numbers."

She laughed, feeling so content and safe at his side that she realized that the little flutter she was feeling in her stomach was actually called attraction. His smile seemed to do strange things within her, like her blood running wild in her veins and her heart beating more quickly than usual, her palms going numb with giddiness and also the way her blushes seemed to activate themselves whenever he looked directly at her eyes with those dark orbs of his.

Stepping inside the flat and not even bothering to turn on the lights, Yamato guided his guest through the spacious living area and the plant pots easily, arriving to her room in a matter of moments.

Sakura sighed deeply, raising her head to watch him. His form was dark under the moonlight that filtered through the large uncovered windows, allowing her to make out his smiling face and his deep, dark eyes.

"Thank you for everything, Yamato," she said in a murmur. "I had a really good time tonight."

"Me too," he replied smoothly, daring himself to step a little bit closer to her. "I really enjoyed myself. Thank you for accepting my invitation."

"Then you should write another article, and then we could do this again."

"Including this?" he asked quietly, lifting a hand and caressing her bare arm under the shawl. She shivered lightly and her emerald gaze seemed to darken when the air shifted to a more intimate atmosphere.

Sakura only could stare at his half-open eyes as he leaned over her, brushing ever so slowly, ever so softly, her lips with his.

Her eyes closed as his mouth opened briefly, taking her lower lip in a slow but sensual sweep that made her feel so lightheaded that all the tipsiness she was feeling thanks to the wine dissipated in a flash, leaving her rather sober but hazy with the sensation that his kiss was creating.

But something snapped within her, making her shoulders drop the shawl when her arms rose to wrap themselves around Yamato's neck, deepening the kiss.

The alarm bell that was pounding in her ears, but the kiss sent her senses into an overdrive she hadn't felt in so long that simply made her ignore everything but the biologist. Itachi had been passionate enough with her still innocent self, but there was something much darker within him that made her fear him on rare but certain occasions. But in that very moment, feeling Yamato's fingers tracing her back ever so slightly that not only goose bumps were raised in their wake, she forgot her past, she forgot her worries, focusing solely on him.

Yamato had no point of comparison when Sakura started to respond to his gentle nudging of lips. His liaisons were scarce and so sporadic that he couldn't recall when he had received such passionate response before. She was so delicious, the smooth skin of her back was quickly becoming addictive to his fingers and her mouth was triggering a heat he had forsaken a long while ago.

Allowing his senses to take over, he trailed a hand upwards to her nape, caressing her long hair as he went, his tongue teasing her own to come out to play while his other hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her tightly to his body.

Wanting more, he broke the kiss with a deep breath, to trail his lips on her chin and neck, taking in the natural scent of his beautiful doctor, a scent of spring, a scent of cherries that elicited a deep hum of approval from his throat.

She moaned lightly, receiving his lips on hers once more. The mood shifted slightly to a more passionate one, both of them kissing each other breathlessly, ardently, as her hands roamed on his strong back and his found the shorter side of her blouse hem, trailing her bare skin of her waist lightly.

Suddenly, Sakura broke the kiss with a gasp.

"Wait," she said, pressing her hands on his chest. "Wait..."

"What's wrong?" Yamato whispered in her ear, making her shiver with his husky tone. The alarm bell went off again, snapping her brain into activating her self-preservation sense.

"I'm sorry..." she murmured, backing away from him. "I... I can't..."

Taking quick refugee within the room, she closed the door firmly behind her, leaving a thoroughly baffled naturalist staring at the wooden barrier.

-X-

After taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he had walked to the windows in order to get a grip on the recent events. He had had Sakura between his arms, kissing him back with a passion he knew was authentic, but her sudden retreat left him really confused.

She had responded with all the signals of a clearly interested participant to the little flirting game they had started a few days ago when working together in the dining table, and he had thought that she had been ready to take things further into their comfortable intimacy, but she also had managed to thwart his mental processes by fleeing to her room leaving him with a frightened excuse.

Something must have happened for her to back away like she did, he thought. The question was what.

But apparently, the answer wasn't going to come anytime soon. The muffled sound of her sobbing was proof enough that she had ran away from him due to something else.

Yamato frowned, leaning on the wall next to her door.

-XxX-

AN: Hi there! I'm not dead, just overworked!
Regarding Dan's appearance, it was just for the sake of moar romance, and I bet you all know who's his pretty doctor!
Cheers and whistles! -winks!-