Author Notes; Thanks again to ShipperTrish for being such a great beta! I hope that you all enjoy it and please review and let me know what you think!

Chapter 4

Sakura woke up an hour before her alarm was set to go off. She could not fall back to sleep despite her best attempts and how exhausted she was. Her muscles screamed as she crawled out of bed. She didn't bother to tell Kakashi that the two months that he was away on a mission, that she sort of didn't train…at all. He would find some way to make her suffer for her laziness. She considered herself lucky...she was only sore.

She examined herself in the mirror as she waited for her bath water to warm. She was covered in scratches and bruises. Her chakra was too drained to heal them last night and despite her pathetic appearance, she decided to allow them to heal naturally. Maybe she could get a free pity dinner out of Kakashi.

The warm water felt like heaven as she submerged herself. Sometimes the best medicine is the simplest of things. She soaked for 20 minutes before deciding it was time to get ready for the day and reluctantly got out of the tub. As she was drying herself off, Sakura heard a noise come from her kitchen. She wrapped herself with her towel and grabbed a kunai. She kept pairs hidden in various locations in her apartment for safety purposes. She made her way down the hallway. She was in a dangerous state of mind. For all she knew, it could be a ninja that had come to claim her life, or maybe a stupid civilian burglar who picked the wrong apartment.

She threw her kunai and heard a cry of surprise, followed by a loud crash. She jumped into the doorway of the kitchen to see a small boy lying on top of her table or what was left of it. He had managed to destroy it while dodging the kunai. Standing nearby was a girl the same age as him and her eyes were filled with tears. A second boy with ghostly white eyes was standing close to her in a fighting stance.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?!"

The three looked at one another and turned towards Sakura. They then turned to run out the window they entered, but in a flash, Sakura was in front of it. Grabbing the boy who had destroyed her table, she held him up with one hand while holding her towel in place with the other.

"Let me go you ugly bitch!" The boy cried and tried to kick her.

Sakura's face turned red and held him up higher. "Unless you want your friend to die, I suggest you start explaining yourselves!

"PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM!" The girl cried.

Sakura looked down at the raven-haired girl. Although she was in tears a moment ago, she looked like she was ready to fight and die for her friend.

"Who are you?!"

The other boy stepped forward. "Sorry, we're…looking for Kakashi."

Sakura sighed and dropped the boy. "Are you his students?" She asked, getting a little annoyed.

The three nodded and Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose. "And why are you here?"

"Naruto said he might be here." The girl said sheepishly.

"No, he isn't here." She mumbled. "And you could have used the door." She growled.

"We were afraid that if we used the door that he might escape when he realized we found him."

Sakura looked down at the students. The boy who had destroyed her table was short, had long brown hair, and wore goggles on his head like Naruto did when he was younger. His shirt was a loud red with short black pants. The other boy was from the Hyuuga clan. He had short black hair and a bandage over his head, most likely to cover the mark of his servitude to the main branch. His outfit was very similar to Neji's. The girl had a light green tank top and black pants. She had very long hair that was braided.

Sakura sighed. They had been Kakashi's students for almost a year and this was the first time she had meet them. They were the only team he had ever accepted besides Team 7.

"I'm going to get dress." She said softly. "Then we're going to talk."

Sakura pointed towards the couch. "If you're not here when I get back, I will hunt you down and kill you." She said making a fist at them. The three students quickly took a seat as Sakura left to go get dressed.

The three waited nervously until Sakura returned.

Sakura knelt in front of them and gave a faint smile to ease their tension. "What are your names?"

"I am Hyuuga Takai and these are my teammates, Ishikawa Botan," he said pointing towards the boy beside him, "and Hiroshima Kiyoko." He said signaling towards the girl.

"And why are you looking for Kakashi?"

"We have been waiting for two hours!" Kiyoko yelled and stood up with her fist in the air.

Sakura glanced down at her watch. Kakashi had them up pretty early just to leave them there, but he had done the same to her as well.

"Kakashi will appear when he is ready and there is nothing you can do about it."

"Well, aren't you his girlfriend?" Botan asked. "Couldn't you talk to him?"

Sakura felt her eye twitch and to calm herself she forced herself to laugh. "Kakashi-sensei is not my boyfriend." She said clearly so that the three Genin would understand her. "He's a good friend and he has his reasons for being late."

The three Genin frowned "What should we do?"

Sakura sighed; "Get used to it."

The three Genin frowned. "How are we supposed to get any good if he just ignores us?" Takai asked, looking suddenly depressed.

Sakura felt uncomfortable. She didn't know how to comfort the three Genin and she was going to kill Kakashi later for putting her in this situation.

"Could you train us?"

Sakura shook her head. "You're lucky to get Hatake Kakashi as your sensei despite having to wait for him…"

"We're the weakest of our generation!" Botan said and stood up. "He only passed us so he could be lazy!"

Sakura stood up to her full height. "I suggest you leave now." She said, staring down at the young Genin. "Kakashi is an honorable man and I won't allow anyone to slander him in front of me."

Botan's eyes widened and he looked at his teammates. They all left quickly using the door this time. Sakura exhaled loudly as she watched them run off. She had to get to work before she was late. She would have to worry about this later.

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"WHAT-THE-HELL-IS-THIS!" Her voice echoed down the hallway, booming loudly into every room. Sakura stared in disbelief at her office that now resembled an over-stuffed flower and candy shop. Every flat surface of her office had a vase with long-stemmed pink flowers and stuffed in-between were boxes of candies.

She grabbed the first vase in sight and took the card off of it.

'Dinner my place…."

Sakura threw the note down and grabbed a second note. Reading softly to herself, she crumbled it in her hands and looked around the office presuming that the rest were the same.

"Aren't you miss popular?" A fourth year intern said as she stopped into her office. Sakura glanced at Nori and sighed.

"For all the wrong reasons." Sakura felt her stomach tighten. She knew nothing good would come from her little outburst, but this was ridiculous. "How am I supposed to get any work done?"

Nori shrugged, looking down at her own charts. "Do my rounds and I'll make sure all this stuff is out of her in an hour."

Sakura glanced down at the young intern's charts. It had been a long time since she had done "rounds." It would really be a waste of her time and talent, but she would get out of doing her actual work for an hour and it could be refreshing.

"Deal." Sakura said, grabbing the charts from Nori. "And I don't care what you do with them." Sakura said as Nori opened her mouth to speak. Nori closed her mouth and nodded as Sakura walked away with her charts.

Most of her patients were civilians with minor injuries. So far she had healed a sprained ankle, a rash in an embarrassing place, and a poor little girl who stepped on a nail.

Sakura knocked on the door before entering the last patient's room. She didn't know how her nurses and interns managed to take so long with this amount of work when it only took her an hour. She would most definitely bring it up in the next meeting.

"Matsudo Jen, I am Haruno Sakura and I will be treating you today." She said as she walked through the door to be greeted by a gorgeous smile. Sakura returned the gesture.

"It says here that you're having pain in your left side?"

Jen nodded and again smiled. Sakura blushed softly. She didn't know that civilians could look like him. He had short brown hair that laid flat on his head, giant brown eyes, and tan skin that made his teeth seem all the more white. And when he smiled at her like that, it made her stomach fill with butterflies. By his expression, he knew it.

"I'm lucky to have such a beautiful nurse to treat me." He said and rubbed the back of his head nervously. The little action reminded her of Kakashi and she blushed slightly. She didn't correct him when he called her a nurse and smiled softly, genuinely thankful for the compliment even if he was a bit cliché.

"Can you remove your shirt?"

Jen made a movement to do so, but stopped as the pain became too much, his face distorted in pain. Sakura signaled for him to stop and walked to him to undress him herself. Sakura believed in being professional at work, so she didn't react upon seeing Jen without his shirt.

His ribs were bandaged and she took her time taking them off. Other than a bruised side, his stomach was perfect. She lived in a world where being in shape was of the utmost importance and she had seen quite a few nice abs in her lifetime, but she was always impressed when civilians took the effort to be in shape.

She touched his side softly, pouring chakra into it to dull the pain. "I don't think they're broken." She whispered.

"You're a healer?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes."

"You have ninja training?"

"You can say that." She replied. Looking up at him, she couldn't tell if he thought that a good thing or not.

"They're just bruised." She said, standing up to full height. "I suggest you take it easy for a couple of days until they heal. I can prescribe you some painkillers if you'd like."

Jen smiled and nodded. "Does your husband care that you work such long hours?"

Sakura smiled, knowing that he was fishing to determine if she was single or not. "I'm not married and there is no boyfriend." Sakura was surprised that she shared that information. Normally, when a patient hit on her, she would claim that she was married.

Jen smiled. "Do you think we can get a drink sometime?"

Sakura smiled and blushed slightly. "Sorry, it wouldn't be professional of me to accept."

Jen nodded. "I can respect that…What time do you get off?"

"What? Why?"

"So I can ask you when you're off duty."

Sakura laughed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I get off at 5…but doesn't mean you'll be getting a different answer." She said coolly. Jen nodded and stood up slowly with his shirt in his hand. Sakura handed him a prescription so that he could get some pain medicine. She didn't intend to go out with him. She learned a long time ago that civilians and ninjas rarely mix well, but for some reason, she couldn't say no either.

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Sakura walked into her office glad to see that the flowers were gone, but Nori had left a large neat pile of the greeting cards on her desk. She sighed heavily and picked the cards up and shoved them deeply into her top drawer determined never to look at them again.

"Had fun?" Nori asked looking a bit tired. Sakura smiled and nodded

"Might have a date tonight." She said without thought.

Nori laughed. "All those damn flowers and candies and you decide to go out with a patient?"

Sakura shrugged. "I didn't say yes."

Nori leaned against the door. "And you didn't say no either?"

Sakura nodded. "It doesn't impress me to buy me useless things." She said and sat on the edge of her desk. "I made a mistake at my birthday party and I'll just have to deal with this for a few weeks. Soon people will get the idea."

"Why don't you just get it over with unless you're waiting to get married?"

Sakura shook her head. "Only old fashioned clan members make you do that…It's just that I think I'll probably regret it if I just 'get it over and done with'."

Nori nodded. "You should date an older man then."

Sakura sighed. "Why is that?"

"Because they know what they're doing."

Sakura laughed, thinking briefly of Kakashi and shook her head of the thought. "Why, so they can know how inexperienced I am?"

Nori smiled and handed Sakura a pile of files. Sakura looked gloomily at them and waved Nori away as she walked to her desk determined to get some "real" work done.

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Sakura rubbed the back of her neck and stretched cat-like. For the past two hours she had been filing papers. She glanced at the clock. It was getting close to lunchtime and a well deserved break. Sakura didn't turn when she heard the tap on her window. She didn't need to see to know who it was. There was only one man she knew who didn't use doors like a normal person.

"Are you hungry?" She asked.

Kakashi opened the window and slid into her office. Sakura sighed softly. The last thing she needed was more gossip and any one of her nurses could come strolling in and think the worst.

"I was in the neighborhood." He said rubbing the back of his head

"Avoiding your students again?" She asked as she finished up.

Kakashi was a bit surprised by her question and shook his head. "I wouldn't do a thing like that."

Sakura laughed as Kakashi acted innocent as usual. "I can't believe you haven't gone to find them yet."

"I know where they are." He teased

Sakura sighed. "They broke my table." She mumbled.

"Hm?"

"Your students broke into my home looking for you and broke my table…One of them called me ugly, too."

Kakashi smiled and tilted his head. They were quite an impatient bunch, but he was a bit surprised that they went to Sakura's apartment.

"You want to get some lunch?" Kakashi asked.

"Your treat?"

Kakashi nodded although Sakura knew she would probably end up with the bill anyway.

"Okay but we're finding your students afterwards."

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For several minutes, the two stared at one another as if they were having a childish staring contest. Only when the waitress bought their lunch did the two look away. The food looked delicious and Sakura's stomach growled loudly as she took in the aroma. She clapped her hands together, praying briefly, before quickly shoving the first bite into her mouth.

She glanced up and saw that Kakashi's food was left untouched. She knew him well enough to know that he didn't eat in public and would get it to go after she finished hers. She didn't know why he bothered going to restaurants. She sighed loudly and placed her elbows on the table looking up at him.

"Tell me why I'm here again?"

Kakashi glanced up from his book, then looked down at the food.

"You know, I could have eaten at the hospital. Why am I here eating with you?"

Kakashi lowered his book. "I imagine because you enjoy my company so much."

Sakura rolled her eyes and went back to her food, only to be distracted by the giggling waitresses. Sakura glanced over Kakashi's shoulder to see their waitress with two others giggling over Kakashi. This was a typical reaction she noticed whenever they were in public and sometimes it got right down annoying.

Sakura sighed. "This is why I hate going out with you."

Kakashi tilted his head looking towards the waitresses and turned back towards Sakura. "Jealous?"

Sakura growled. "Of course not!"

Kakashi chuckled to himself. "If you wanted some attention, all you need to do is ask." He said raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Sakura grinned and placed her hand on top of Kakashi's. Kakashi looked down at her small hand and smiled at the gesture until Sakura squeezed.

Kakashi tried to pull back, but was unable to retrieve his hand. Sakura's inner self laughed evilly. She didn't care about the attention she was getting. Seeing Kakashi squirm around like a little girl was well worth it.

Sakura released his hand and laughed loudly as Kakashi nursed his wounded hand. She didn't break any bones, but his hand would be sore for a few days. The waitresses who were ogling Kakashi a moment ago stared at him like he was a crazy man.

Sakura finished her lunch as Kakashi stared at her angrily, although he deserved it. After Sakura was finished, he got a box for himself and stood up. "Let's go." Sakura said and began to walk towards the training grounds where he had left his poor students waiting.

Sakura stuck her hands into her pockets as they walked. "Sorry I embarrassed you back there."

Kakashi glanced down at her like he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Who knows? Maybe you could have begged one of those girls to go home with you."

Kakashi pulled out his book. "I don't need to beg."

Sakura laughed. "If they got to know you, then you would."

Kakashi chuckled. "That's why I keep up the mystery persona."

Sakura snickered and playfully pushed him. "You should have seen my office this morning."

"Hm."

"Filled with roses and candies."

"Hm." He continued glancing over his book

Sakura sighed. "They were all pink, too. Just because I have pink hair doesn't mean I love the color. Men here have no originality."

"You'll be surprised when it comes to sex."

Sakura blushed and hated herself for doing so.

"How so?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, men will come up with very unique ways to get women into bed. Impressive really."

"I haven't seen anything I haven't seen before." She said with a long sigh. "I make good money, so buying me stuff isn't impressive."

"It should be about the gesture." Kakashi said and turned his gaze to his book.

"Well, I can hardly imagine that there wasn't a hidden agenda behind those gifts."

Kakashi chuckled. "You're the one who wants to lose…"

"Don't say it." Sakura warned him and Kakashi decided it was best not to test her, especially since his hand was still sore.

Three small Genin jumped up as Kakashi and Sakura approached the training ground, all three of them screaming out "YOU'RE LATE!"

Sakura smiled, remembering how often Kakashi had kept her waiting, but Kakashi was a bit overdoing it today.

"Sorry, sorry. I bumped into Sakura here and she needed advice in her love life."

Sakura glared at him as the three Genin looked at Sakura and smiled. "Sorry about your table." Botan said sheepishly and kicked the ground beneath him. "And that I called you ugly…because you're…well you're not ugly."

"Botan wants to marry Sensei's girlfriend!" Kiyoko yelled and laughed loudly at her own joke. Takai didn't laugh, but smiled as Botan turned a bright shade of red. Sakura stared at Kakashi and blushed slightly.

"I'm going back to work." She said with a laugh. The weekend was rough and today didn't seem to be getting any better.

"See you tonight." Kakashi yelled behind her. Sakura turned and saw his students making kissing faces at her and she frowned.

"Actually I forgot to tell you that I'll have to cancel tonight."

"Oh?"

Sakura smiled. "I got a date tonight." She said matter-of-factly. Sakura grinned, knowing that Kakashi's attempt to embarrass her had only backfired, although now she had to actually say yes to her date…If he shows up and asks her again.

"Have fun." Kakashi said and waved goodbye. Kakashi hated how his stare lingered even when she was out of sight and hated that he felt jealous when it was not his place.