I do not own Naruto and I am NOT the manager of the lovely community Wishful Thinking.

This fanfiction is dedicated to the Wishful Thinking community that is managed by liltle. The theme and title do not belong to me, I just wrote this for the community because I liked the theme and love the pairing even more.

Ino had a crush on him over the years, way before Sasuke entered the picture. She has recently decided in her sixteenth year that it was all wishful thinking, but Kakashi's recent actions aren't adding up and Ino's going to get to the bottom of it. KakaIno

Wishful Thinking

Chapter 4: "He Could Have Just Told Me!"

Ino reached up and pulled the curtain aside. Whatever had been plaguing her mind was immediately forgotten when she looked into Kakashi's red and black eyes. He was leaning against the wall with his feet up on the sides of the tub. The showerhead had been turned to spray water straight down, so he wouldn't get wet. His mask and clothes were still in place.

Ino continued to stare at the older man and said what first came to mind. "Damn your mask is still on!"

Kakashi's expression remained the same. "What are you doing following me around town, breaking into my apartment, and trying to see me naked in the shower?"

The loud blond female's face turned completely red. She hastily tried to defend herself from his accusations. "I didn't think that you'd be naked…"

He cut her off with a sarcastic remark, "And I suppose everyone showers with their clothes on. It must help them become clean and not hinder it, right?"

"Don't talk down to me!" Ino yelled. She growled at him in anger, "First off, I didn't break into your home, the door was unlocked. Second, I was following you around town because every time you saw me you disappeared, so I couldn't ask you like a normal person why you were acting so strange. And third, I am not a pervert like you," she poked him in the chest as she finished her rant, "I wanted to see your face with your mask off and I wasn't thinking about wanting to see you naked!"

Kakashi grabbed her hand and jumped out of the shower. Ino struggled to back away from his body and to pull her hand away from his. She gasped as he pushed her up against one of the small bathroom walls.

"That's too bad. From what I heard you wouldn't mind seeing me naked." The silver haired man whispered into Ino's ear. She blushed again.

"Y-you heard the confession I-I made to Sakura?"

He didn't answer her. Instead the mysterious man pulled away from the blue eyed blond to turn off the running water. As his back was turned to her he said, "I did. Is that a problem?"

Ino was completely confused. Why can't he just get it over with and tell me that I'm too young, too naïve, and so stupid? What is Kakashi trying to do by avoiding his eventual rejection of me? Maybe he is waiting for me to poor my heart out, so then he can turn me down…Well screw that! I'm not going to crawl and beg for him to love me!

She pulled herself up and glared at Kakashi's back as he walked out of the bathroom into the other room of his apartment. "Hey! Stop right there and look at me!"

"And if I don't?" Was Kakashi's casual comment; it was like their whole conversation was already over.

"I might have liked you since I was little, but I'm not the same child I was then. I tried to cover it up and fall for someone else and I made an ass of myself when I did it. I never expected you to find out about my feelings for you and I can't say that I'm not glad that you finally know, but there is no way in hell that you're going to drag this out or pretend it never happened! Tell me right here and now whether you could possibly feel the same way or not, so at least I know how I'm supposed to deal with my feelings for you."

Ino breathed in deeply. All of her fears came back tenfold and she found herself wishing that she never opened her big mouth in the first place.

"Ah, I see."

Kakashi's lack of an answer fueled her fears, so she chose the answer that she figured he would eventually say anyway. "I'm sorry to disturb you, goodbye."

XXX

"He could have just told me!" Ino exclaimed as she sat with her best friend, Sakura outside of the dango shop. The two were eating the treat as the blond explained what had happened with Kakashi.

The pink haired girl shook her head. "He really didn't give you a straight answer? So you don't know whether or not Kakashi likes you, right? You left before he could tell you 'no', therefore you can't just give up!"

"I didn't tell you the rest of the story, Sakura! Be patient for once, forehead!" Ino ignored her best friend's retort as she finished her story.

Ino's hand touched the door when she felt the older man invading her space once again. His hand rested on the door, which prevented her from opening it. She whipped around to face Kakashi and yell at him again, despite the tears that had already escaped her eyes and were sliding down her face, but she found she couldn't speak.

He had pulled down his mask, so Ino could see his face. She moved her mouth, though she couldn't form words or sounds. Kakashi leaned down to kiss her on the mouth. It was just a simple peck at first, but it quickly turned into something more that felt like everything that Ino had ever thought it would be kissing her longtime crush. She pulled away to look into his eyes.

"Why are you kissing me?"

"Because your father approves of a relationship between us," Kakashi's eyes were as unreadable as always as he walked back into his small kitchen like nothing important just transpired between the two.

"Hey, you look at me again and answer all of my questions!" Ino ordered as she ran after her new boyfriend.

Sakura tilted her head. "I'm so confused! Why did Kakashi kiss you and why did your dad approve?"

Ino shrugged. "I asked Kakashi that too and for awhile he wouldn't tell me anything but I eventually annoyed him so much that he finally confessed that he went to my dad to tell him that I had a crush on him and my dad told him that maybe he should try a relationship with me before rejecting the idea just because of age or anything else. After all, my mom is ten years younger than my dad. And I guess the kiss was because he was trying to see if he could have any feelings for me as I do for him."

"So he does have feelings for you too?" The pink haired girl asked as she tried to get all of the facts straight.

"I think so." Ino answered as she finished her dango. "Kakashi isn't the type to talk about his feelings all the time or be completely closed off about it. I think I can assume he likes me back until he stops showing it, although I wish he didn't want me to find the 'meaning beneath his actions' or whatever it is he rants on about."

Sakura waited a second before asking the one question that had her more curious then the story the blond girl had told her.

"Was Kakashi hot underneath the mask?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ino teased.

"Come on, Ino-pig! Tell me! Unless, that is, you're lying about the whole thing…"

"I'm not lying forehead girl! He looks okay, I mean, Sasuke is hotter, but Kakashi's mask looks better on because it adds to the mystery then it does when it's off." Ino closed her eyes happily as she swung her legs back and forth. Both girls jumped as they heard a male voice behind them.

"I'll keep that in mind." Kakashi stated as the two females squeaked and turned to face him.

"Kakashi-sensei, it's not nice to listen in to other people's conversations!" Sakura lectured.

Ino poked him in the chest. "You jerk! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Kakashi snatched Ino's hand. He brought his other hand up to his face as the wind picked up and the blond girl's hair blocked the sight of Kakashi's face from Sakura's view. The pink haired girl heard the sound of a kiss, but didn't see anything as the breeze died down and Kakashi's mask was once again back in place.

Sakura blurted the first thing that came to mind when she saw the intensely happy expression on her best friend's face. "You mean it wasn't a lie?"

"I told you I wasn't lying!" Ino shouted. The pink haired girl was surprised at the loud blonde's mood swing from happy to mad.

"Wow, what's next? Is Sasuke going to suddenly claim he's gay?" Sakura watched as Ino grabbed Kakashi's hand. The shock eventually wore off and she smiled and wished them all the best, because who knows what might grow and bloom from wishful thinking…

The End

Whoo! This is now complete! Sorry for procrastinating the last chapter, but I wanted more reviews. Oh well. Be sure to check my profile and homepage link as well as message me if you want to talk and beg for more things or updates. I'm going to try to update all of my other stories as well as focus once again on If I Could I Would Not Love You. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this short fanfic, even though some of you wished it were longer. But now I have another idea for a KakaIno fanfic…Urg! It will have to wait though!